"Do you proxy your trucks models?" Topic

I know gamers like to stay accurate with regard to the actual models. I build most of my WWII vehicles from paper model kits. However, I am finding that there is a relative dearth of appropriate truck models for the North African campaign. So proxying is my solution. Instead of a 15 CWT Morris or Bedford, it is likely going to be a 3/4 ton Ford from Paper Tiger Armaments.

This got me to thinking. Do you proxy something as mundane as trucks in your games or do you try to accurately represent them as well?

Not so much proxy as steal.
It was a lot easier to keep captured trucks going in the field than captured tanks. And they were always useful. I read more than once about generals getting upset when enemy trucks got shot up.

So, on the Russian front I would blissfully use Opel, Zis and Lend Lease trucks in a Russian army.

Anything green moves my British, Soviet or Spanish Republicans about, anything grey moves Axis or Spanish fascists. I'm not too fussy about it.

If you can fix an Opel you can fix a Ford.

My soldiers travel in anything they can beg from the 20mm motor pool. All is fair game on the warren tabletop. Plus training for the drivers to read the Italian, British, German, South African, Indian vehicle maintenance handbooks during the long trips and boring evening campfires.

Just have to return clean (no blood), without too many holes, and fueled up before return at the rental agency (motor pool). Minor bodywork dents ok if proven cause on stubborn defenders.

Sometimes.

Since I refuse to pay more that $2 USD for soft skins, most of trucks are Hotwheels or Matchbox die cast. Definitely proxies.

I've been thinking about it.

Of course, the models cost as much as a tank…..

I follow brutonboy's system.

A truck is a truck is a truck, as far as I'm concerned.

I once bought a proper Milicast British radio truck, and then kitbashed a load of spare parts and plastic card to make something quite like it. Few would ever know or notice.

I have several TLOs (Truck like Objects)

For twenty years my troops and their supplies moved in a collection of the Airfix bendy US truck. When used by the Western Allies the bonnet star was painted white, the Soviets got the star painted red and the Axis had it painted over with the base colour a sort of dirty brown. Every so often I had to scrape of the layers of paint on the star because it got so thick I doubt the drivers could have seen over it.

Fatman

Well I suppose I am the odd one here as yes I try to field the appropriate truck as well as other prime movers. Of course trucks seem to be the last thing that gets purchased for my 28 mm forces and the selection has expanded so I will finally be able to field the British equivalents for North Africa. However I have made use with lots of Bren carriers for my British forces. My Americans are well served by jeeps and duce and half vehicles as well as the M3 Halftrack.

I proxy tanks all the time with no qualms. So yeah, my trucks are "generic" by country…

Well I suppose I am the odd one here as yes I try to field the appropriate truck as well as other prime movers.

I come down on this side of the issue.

However …

Not so much proxy as steal.
It was a lot easier to keep captured trucks going in the field than captured tanks. And they were always useful.

I also share this perspective, depending on the force in question.

So by way of example …

This is the motorpool for my Romanian force. Now I am at a different scale (6mm), so I have different options available to me (for example "Paper models?! What devilry is this 'paper models' you speak of!"), but the principal is all I am trying to illustrate.

Romania in WW2 got its trucks from multiple sources. Pre-war the French were a key supplier, and to a lesser extent also the Italians. During the war much of their vehicle supply came through the Germans, whether as German-manufactured vehicles or German-captured war-booty vehicles. So my Romanian motorpool has a mix of French-made, Italian-made, German-made, and even one Polish-made vehicle.

If I need more I can always add Russian vehicles. In particular the Russian-made GAZ trucks were often used by the Romanians, as their Malaxa factory was licensed to produce spare parts for Ford Model-AA trucks, and the GAZ truck line was derived from the Model-AA truck.

So not quite "generic" or "proxy", but on the other hand not shying away from "substitutions where appropriate (or justifiable)".

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

I've used 6mm trucks to mark which of my 15mm troops are mounted/being towed. I also don't buy limbers for my ACW or Napoleonic

I try to keep each side with different trucks and theatres, however on occasion there is some crossover.

I only have one WW2 theatre as it is, Normandy.

I try to keep as ideal as possible … the reality would be much more mixed than in my armies probably (as there was much recycling of captured vehicles when it came to trucks) but it looks good to have the right ones ..

Phil

I try to use the proper gear. If it's not available I do my best to come close.

I generally give each side their own trucks (exceptions being WW1 and SCW), however I am not overly precious about specific types though and my Germans have an awful lot of grey trucks and not many yellow ones.

Since I only game "Bolt Action!" currently, that doesn't require too many soft-skins, especially if you make your infantry walk! Therefore, and slowly, I have been trying to aquire the correct trucks and "staff cars." The problem is that in 28mm, the "lesser" belligerant states' armies are not well-served! That's improving, but at the rate the various competitive companies are going, I'll be 90 before they release Tatra or Praga trucks and cars!

For 20mm I tend to buy cheap resin trucks from Frontline Studebakers painted green work for Russians or Americans and occasionally British

I try to be 'in the ballpark', using trucks of the right nationality, not using Lend-lease until later war etc, I also like to use captured trucks too……..the Germans 'cornered' that with their mixed Rollbahn convoys of French,Russian,British and home produced trucks!

I generally use generic trucks but try to keep them marked for the appropriate nationality. I have 4 generic older trucks painted in civilian colors that I use if I don't have appropriate ones.

Thomalley – what a cute idea. We don't do limbers either save for Horse artillery.

Heretics! One limber and team per battery is sufficient to mark the status while saving table top space (I use one model cannon to represent a section of two guns)

Trucks, yes I do try whenever possible to get the correct models for army and period: kfz70 personnel carriers for the Germans Bedford 15cwt's for the eighth army (Oxford die cast, GAZ AA and Zis for Barbarossa Russians and the Pegasus Studebaker s6 for the GI's and late war Soviets.

The options are mostly limited to expensive die casts and fiendishly complicated kits though (I don't like lumps of
resin) so I was somewhat disappointed when the new PSC offering turned out to be another 3 ton cargo truck – I'd sell one of my children for a fast build French or Italian vehicle from them, not to mention the Horch or Steyr light personnel cars…………

My Germans have repossessed Italian, Fench and Hungarian trucks, but I also buy Frontline trucks, cheap, cheerful and on the table in 10 minutes

– I'd sell one of my children for a fast build French or Italian vehicle from them, not to mention the Horch or Steyr light personnel cars…………

+100

I paint 15 mm and I try to get the appropriate trucks for my armies.

Most people including myself are unhappy at paying the same amount for a truck as a tank but when it comes down to it you are either a historical gamer or just a gamer . Unless the truck model is not made I personally would be reluctant to field a proxy as it would undermine my credibility as a history buff.

You have credibilty?…that must be nice :-)

I use 6mm, so no.

Historicly…

The Italian Fiat light, medium and Heavy trucks were also license made in Poland (Polaski Fiat) and France (SIMCA). As most French vehicles wound up in German service after July 1940 (And possibly change owners again. Hungary, Romania etc also used Italian and French vehicles in large numbers.

Then you have the various Fords and General Motors (Opal, Bedford, etc) trucks being produced everywhere.

Then you get into captured transport that has been cleaned, fixed and repainted.

So, yes, proxy away.

As bruntonboy says, a general rule of thumb…
Dark green, UK, USSR and possibly US
Grey or dark Yellow, Its German
Light Green, Minor Nation.
More Mud covered than anything else, Thaw or Autumn in Russia.
Sandy/Dusty, North Africa!

My WW2 Germans have Pak 97/38's, Schneider 105s and when not horse drawn, have mostly captured and repainted transport.

I use Corgi Cameo for my trucks, AEC cab over for Matador and Morris trucks for German / Russian. some of the Morris have tanker or sacks in the back that can be removed as troop carriers.

I pick them up cheap as job Lots of eBay. I currently have 5 matador and 8 morris.
Oh and 2 cheap diecast M3 type halftracks that are 1/76 scale but with BIG driver windows.

Correct model whenever available for me.

A truck for all seasons (and armies) – the Ford series – my blog post on the topic :)

link

I also liberally use the other trucks from my collection as everyone used captured trucks. I have a picture of the 6th Suth African armoured standing proudly by their big German Haltrack prime movers :)

BTW, I use Zil 157s as the proxy for Diamond T prime movers, as when I built my US & Commonwealth armies there were no Diamond T kits – I still await a Truck Geek to pull me up on it :)

I do 1/32. Feel my pain.

Anything goes.

I try to use the right thing although my Germans have vehicles from Germany, Italy, France, Poland and Hungary

Soviets have a mix of Soviet and US Lend Lease

Allies are pretty much as per the book. The Britannia US GMC is a steal at £6.50 GBP and now Andy is a free man I have planted the seed for some variants

I mostly game the Desert, so there's just a single pool of transport vehicles that everyone shares.

My Weird War 2 Germans (Eureka scifi Germans for the infantry) actually have both 3-ton trucks and halftracks.

My Americans currently only have LCVPs, no trucks for them.

My Soviet Engineer-Sapper battalion doesn't have trucks yet, it will probably be a mix of German, Russian, and Lend-Lease trucks.

While doing research for our next release we realized that the Russians and Germans proxied their transport too.

:-D

Seriously, they used whatever they could get their hands on. And the German penchant for multiple versions and continuous improvement meant that a single class of vehicle would be filled by multiple vehicle models/types.

In fact, the German vehicle role classification system has lead many gamers and manufacturers to mistake the role designation for specific vehicle models! For example, even officially a Kfz 70 could be a Krupp, a Horch, or a Steyr.

And if during the retreat from France a German unit needed to haul its field guns it didn't wait for the official vehicle to show up from a replacement depot. It used what it could, which might include a local farmer's horses!

The western allies had the luxury of being more particular as to which vehicle model served a given role, especially the Americans.

For our next release we will include specific model designations where appropriate. In other cases, we're including generic designations (e.g. "medium truck") with recommended models.

There was a time before ebay / internet shopping / cheap die-casts when you just couldn't get an Opel Blitz anywhere for love nor money.

Ended up making an "Ersatz" blitz from an old Airfix Austin K6.

20 years old more or less. It's been repainted a couple of times and is a veteran of quite a few games.