Crete 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! Part 1: the FJ artillery

 

Since I got my first Airfix German paratroopers I´m trying to make the battle for Crete, May 1941. What was necessary in  RF terms was some guidance, which was finally provided by the excellent booklet Crete-The Airborne assault, by our masters Colin and Richard to whom I wish a happy new year.

(pause/space for a humble bow... it takes some seconds... sorry)

Ok, its done! The book is concentrated on the initial landings of 20th May leaving some future space for the actions of the German mountain troops, the true winners of Crete. Even so, a very well organized guide is provided and you can work on all essentials of the battle. I took the oportunity to scratchbuild the last few missing models for the other recent RF! booklet Carentan also with the German FJ as an essential part. 

In the last two pictures you can see L to R, three Pak36 37mm (all for Crete), a 75mm IG (also for Crete), a Püppchen 88mm (for Carentan), and three 75mm LG40 (two for Crete and one for Carentan). All of them are scratchbuilt and copied from other existing models (as an example  there is the excellent Zvezda 75mm IG that served to copy the 75mm IG in the center). The new Carentan booklet introduced something that I also like to do which is a final list of the necessary total amount of different models necessary for a campaign or set of games. 

The models  are mostly made of plastic card or other plastics (the blue barrels of the Pak36 are made of broom sticks, for instance). The wheels are sometimes 3d printed or taken from the spare box. 

The crews came from the two boxes of fallschimjägers from Airfix and Revell. The kneeling and standing figures had their MP40 replaced by a shell or are somehow manning the gun. The Airfix injured figure had his arm replaced by another Milliput arm with binoculars. 

Some figures also got rifles and MP40 hanging from their backs.

The last four guns were made after the batch shown in the first picture. The 75mm Geb.G 36 mountain gun was made from all available small parts from plastic Pak 75mm wheels, an old Lorraine Schlepper gun shield cut to shape, a resin gun and the usual plastic card.  

The 75mm mountain gun already crewed. 

The 150mm rocket projectiles Do Gerat was used in limited quantities and was not successful. I could not find pictures of this model but it probably must have looked something like this, taking into consideration other similar models available in the web. The crate of the model is wood and the bipod come from a derelict aircraft model of some sort. The injured Airfix figure got a Roco arm. 

 

The 105mm mortar was a scaled up 81mm mortar. This one is made in EverGreen tubing with an Atlantic base. 

This 3d printed model is probably wrong as the 20mm gun used by the German FJ in Crete was a different model with rounded shields and slimmer legs. I´ll try to get rid of the shield so it can look better. Even so its something close with the same caliber. 

Next: more Crete 1941

Impetus rules, Mohacs 1526 in 20mm (Part 2), The Ottoman army

In this second part of the Mohacs battle of 1526 you can see the Ottoman army. Models are Zvezda, Italeri, Lucky Toys and StreletsR. As usual there are plenty of conversions, specially on the Sipahis. This project is still halfway but all types of Ottoman soldiers are already here.

Impetus rules, Mohacs 1526 in 20mm (Part 1), The Hungarian army

One of the pleasures I have is to visit battlefields and then to model the figures, terrain and material for it aiming at wargaming the campaign. This Mohacs battle is another of these cases. I´m making these two armies (next is the Ottoman) for some years by now, using mostly conversions from Zvezda, Miniart, RedBox and Caesar copies. I also used some of Takács Krisztián excellent figures and hopefully will continue to do so in the future as this kind of army is never finished.

Rapid Fire! Dieppe 1942 in 20mm (part 6) - The Dieppe casino

 

With 14 people in the house in the last week I managed to sneak out in true Commando style for some period of time and build this model. The Dieppe casino was one of the many beach obstacles the Germans had at the main beach of Dieppe in order to hamper any allied landing. During the landings of August 1942 it was used as shelter for some Canadians and was thus destroyed after the failed Jubilee operation for the Germans to have a clear line of fire for an eventual second landing. 

This was another venture I was wanting to make since my teenage days but only when I got my hands on the excellent After the battle- Dieppe through the lens and Channel ports- Operation Jubilee books I really had enough reliable information for all this, from my Calgary tank regiment (already made) up to this one. 

This model became 60cm X 30cm. 

The casino was built in Moorish style, opening its doors in 1886,  and it became an imposing feature of the beach and an attraction for tourists during the French Belle Époque. 

Between 1926 and 1942 it gained this Art Déco style, with added galleries,  favoured by the 1936 first paid holidays in history which attracted even more bathers to its beach.

Then the Germans did this and it was in this conditions that the Canadians faced it. It got plenty of its structures changed and simplified and some AT bunkers in its extremities were added. All three last pictures are taken from the castle grounds, a typical photo shoot place at Dieppe. 

My interpretation of the building is a simplified one. The building was five floors tall and I only made three; the U-shaped galleries at the rear next to the gardens were heavily reduced as well as the overall size of the compound in what I hope to be true RF! style. 

The material used was my trusted BlueBoard 4cm sheets. Card was used for all openings, wood for the pipes on the left side roof and broom sticks for the railings. 

The tips of the casino were strenghtened with a 37mm gun (left) and a 47mm gun (right), both in bunkers. In fact the 37mm guns was placed more to the front and leaning on the sea wall. 

The rear part of the casino got shelled before the landing and had its western gallerie destroyed. I used pieces of BlueBoard and some pebbles to represent it. 

Some wooden beams were used to represent some tubing on the western roof (ventilation? water?). 

Just to break the structure some resin bundles of boxes and barrels were placed on the third floor. Its a bit the Call of Duty style but gives some detail to the model. 

The camouflage painting colors of the casino is not easy to understand and, in desperation and against my true beliefs, I asked Chat GPT what would it be and  green over sand showed up. The Osprey book shows it brown over sand and frankly the contrast looks more green over sand in the period pictures as AI said. 

The building´s front part is the most famous with its two oblique towers. The Germans look to have taken out most of the glass from the windows in order to avoid injuries on the defenders while being attacked. 

Some defensive weapons were made for the casino: the 20mm AA is 3d printed and both the 37mm and 47mm guns were scratchbuilt in EverGreen plastic card with some 3d printed wheels in both of them. The 37mm gun was made from memory and its shield became a bit too large. For not to try play the smart guy again I used a ShellHole scencics 47mm gun as a template and this one became nicer. The crews are Simon´s Soldiers and FtF. 

 An MG34 from FtF and a repainted Altaya Opel Blitz were added. The bases of the guns in particular had to have smaller sizes from the ones I already had due to the bunker openings. Besides the AT guns, there was a 20mm AA gun somewhere in the compound that I imagine to be on the roof and most probably some HMGs also. 

                                       

The guns when in the bunkers can be barely seen but the tips of their barrels add some drama to the action. 

These are the  three buildings for the Dieppe project made up to now. Their size has to do with its relative size with the gates being the smaller of the three and the casino, by far, the larger. 

In this picture you can see all three building and their relative position: the gates in the middle; the castle at the top and the casino galleries at the middle right. 

  

As I was probably a failed croupier in a previous life I like casinos. To the left you can see my approach to the Riva Bella/ Ouistreham casino of Sword fame made years ago.

Next: some YouTube shooting.  

Rapid Fire! Russian houses and Orthodox church in 20mm

 

All these houses and church were made from those cheap Christmas houses sold in decoration shops. Frankly, I hate Christmas. And this has to do with our toys. When I was a kid, probably from 8 years old on, I would grab the money my family gave me for Christmas, after waiting for some two days for toy shops in Coimbra´s Adelino Veiga Street to re-open after the "balance" of countability - something the computers finished with - and would bring a good bag of them with me. The problem was seeing other kids of my age looking at the window´s shop without being able to buy anything. Since then Christmas is for me the symbol of unfairness and injustice. If it wasn´t for my kids, my wife and my mother that love this season I would skip it totally, going as far as possible to a place were there isn´t Christmas. Another problem was that I would bite my nails year after year for those two days of balance to be over, knowing that I would see those kids again or others like them, knowing I wouldn´t do anything to change the situation. 

 

I was trying to make a Russian church for a long time together with a few Russian houses as I have only one windmill for the Eastern Front. 

Fortunately there are plenty examples in the web of rural Russian churches and I chose one with a lovely green roof as a starting point. 

This one was made by gluing two of those cheap one euro houses together (the same I used for the Dieppe castle). 

Then a table tennis ball, a cut to shape cross from my kid´s lego Bionicle (this time, offered) and a piece of BlueBoard for the plinth made the rest. 

The houses are pre-made of the type with a turn-on light inside. They looked reasonably eastern and they are a start for my Russian houses. Frankly they didn´t come as good as I expected as I should have exaggerated on the wooden look as I did later with the church. 

The rear and side doors were huge but that was reduced by gluing some flap doors. 

The chimneys are small pieces of BlueBoard. All windows got a piece of card from the interior and painted black. 

Next: The Dieppe casino

Rapid Fire! Dieppe 1942 in 20mm (part 5) - The Dieppe gates

 

The mid XIX century rebuilt Dieppe gates with the famous tourelles were one of the seven entrances to Dieppe. When the Canadians landed, this was the aproximate sight they could see. 

Due to the tourelles the building stands out in the Boulevard de Verdun, the main avenue facing the sea. 

The construction material look like being the same of the castle, that is flint and sandstone. 

This is the aproximate view from within the city. 

There are some steps on this side and more floors than the ones modelled. 

The model was made in heavy duty card with Lego type conical roofs at the towers, the same used at the castle. The rear roof windows are made from pieces of BlueBoard. 

Kermit the Frog? 

The circular towers are made from spent paperboard centers of toilet rolls as I had no more large plastic tubing which was all used in the castle towers. 

This famous picture shows the three buildings I want for Dieppe specifically: the towers (centre left), the castle (top centre) and the Casino (right).  

The building was heavily shrunk and only three floors (instead of the original four) can still be seen at the front facing the see. Even so the gate and windows are enough for 20mm figures. 

Next: the Dieppe casino, probably, or some houses for the eastern Front. 

Bir Hakeim in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules

Another old project of mine got concluded or at least its presentable. Still missing are some vehicle hidings, a pair of 75mm guns, and Koenig's staff car together with Miss Susan Travers. This was another project with plenty of scratch building and some guessing as the Bir Hakeim compound is not easy to understand in all its details.

Rapid Fire! Dieppe 1942 in 20mm (part 4) - The Dieppe castle

 

The Dieppe castle is a dominating feature on the battlefield looking east from the top of the cliffs at Western Headland. Its made of flint and sandstone and its reconstruction dates the XIV century. While impressive you can pass well without it as the nearest heavy German defences were placed below the castle in some nearby houses, but it also housed the fire control  of several artillery batteries, hence the reason for this model ( Stab II./ Gren.Rgt. 935 and Stab H.K.A.R 1252 artillery). There were also some MG nests in the openings of the near tower. 

I left plenty of structures out of the model like the bastion facing the beach and the round wall with ramp leading to the main entrance, together with the Ruffin barracks. This was an obvious compromise as the structure is too big to be placed in a normal table. 

The side facing the beach. 

And the original one. Again, the old part of the castle was considerably reduced in the number of adjacent structures. 

This is the side you most see when looking for Dieppe castle in the web. 

This old picture of the same side is precious as shows the old look of the castle and not the pristine one of today as it houses a museum. 

The side of the bridge. 

The real one. In order to shrink the castle some of its parts ended up in a different position. 

The castle was made from Christmas wood houses together with PVC water pipes and even some pieces of toilet paper support. The large number of windows was covered with cardboard.  

This is a simple sketch made as I was gluing each part to another. 

This kind of cheap Christmas houses can be found a bit everywhere and they were the base for this model. 

At one euro each and after using some 6 or 7 of these you have a reasonable cheap model.  

The conic roofs were made from some 50 years old kind of lego parts from a castle. Some arches of the same set were also used for the bridge. 

Next: the Dieppe gates ( I also plan the casino but need more information on it)  or more Angolans for Cuito Cuanavale.