The IR Graf Von Matchbox for Rapid Fire! in 20mm

I wanted to do this for a long time. I already have plenty of early and late German WW2 infantry but none for the mid-war, that is German figures in full field gray uniform and tall boots.  They are necessary for some of the projects on the way, Crete (were they will be Gebirgsjäger, the same uniform with a different patch on the shoulder); Greece and the Balkans; Dieppe and the first two years of Barbarossa. The rifle+MP40 figures and the battalion command figures are all Matchbox in this regiment. For the future I may add a second regiment made mostly of Esci (IR Graf Von Esci) figures and a third of Airfix copies (IR Graf Von AirfixCopies :). 

The full regiment of three infantry battalions. 

Each battalion has rifle and command stands made of Matchbox old but lovely figures, Esci 50mm mortar and LMGs; AB copies MMGs, and Zvezda 81mm mortar.

Each of the Zvezda 81mm stands has a Matchbox figure. The 50mm mortar is made of EverGreen plastic and the figures are Esci conversions. 

The engineer company is made from a box of Zvezda and Esci figures. The Zvezda box brings a sprue of game pieces including the barbed wire which is here being cut by the figure to the right. 

These Zvezda small sets are meant for the command of three different regiments and can be used in any of the theaters of the war. 

The AB resin copies were ordered from Aliexpress. Back in 2016 I remember this being criticized as piracy but today I hope that AB has received some sort of compensation or reached a deal. The figures themselves are quite good and it looks they didn´t lost much in relation to the originals. 

Besides the 50mm mortar only the Radioman had a scratchbuilt radio...

...and some plastic pieces for the absent bipod of the Esci LMGs. 

Next: the beggining of the Slovak fast division for Lipovec 1941. 

Crete 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules: the German paratroopers

This is another old wish, being able to have a consistent force of German Fallschirmjäger for the beggining of the war. Masters Colin and Richard released sometime ago the great supplement Crete- the Airborne assault with all the information you need for the beggining of the battle, namely the arrival of the Sturm Regiment and many of the 7th Flieger division units. Later, hopefully, we can see this extended to include the Gebirgsjäger actions, which were the true victors of the battle. This group started decades ago with the Italeri Ju-52s, a sole Frontline Wargaming DFS 230 and more recently the Preiser Pioneers. In the last few months I managed to build all the rest, with the inspiration on the book: all artillery and support weapons were scratchbuilt in Evergreen plastics (the 50/81/105mm mortars, IG75mm, PAK 36s, Do Gerat rocket launcher, 75mm Geb. G 36 and the MMGs 34. The exceptions to this were the 20mm Flak gun (3d MiniGeneral), the BMW combo(Fujimi) and the Kettenkraftrad (S-models). All figures manning the support weapons and the artillery are all converted from the Airfix and Revell Fallschimjägers. All figures in the "rifle" companies suffered no conversion. The funniest thing to do was to copy in wood and BlueFoam the Frontline wargaming DFS 230, producing like this three more gliders. An excellent article on the tricky FJ artillery for Crete can be found at: https://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/2011/0

Crete 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! Part 6: The Kettenkrads, side-cars and the last containers

This is the last post for the Germans as I´m leaving Crete for now but will come back for the Tavronitis river bed, Greek infantry and other details. The Kettenkrads are S-models from China via Aliexpress that arrived with the houses at the end of the post and the side-cars are very old Fujimi. The containers are the last 14 necessary for the biggest scenario which totals 23. 

The Kettenkrad were used to pull the 75mmGeb.G 36 as you can see in this picture. 

The guns, and probably the tractors, were also camouflaged (mud or paint?). 

These two will go for the Carentan booklet scenarios. The beautiful cart is a resin 3d print that comes with the kit. 

All FJ for the Carentan scenarios are made too. 

These are for Crete and you also need one of each.

In fact only the BMW is necessary for the scenarios in the Crete booklet but a Kettenkrad is a nice addition for the artillery. 

The crews are conversions from Airfix and Revell, some with GreenStuff legs and reattached plastic feet. 

I always tend to place some Hulk kind of arms in the figures... 

The Fujimi side-car figures got Airfix heads. 

After taking the previous pictures I noticed the blue scarfs were missing but now they are done. 

I found the last Revell container after a lot of search in many boxes. I had 5 boxes of Revell FJ with a total of 10 containers so this last one had to be somewhere. The other containers are scratchbuilt and copied from the Revell in terms of size but closed as it makes its build much easier. 

The containers are made from pieces of wood from a Chinese shop, both cylindrical and cuboid shaped. The pegs are small pieces of broomstick plastic. 

The wooden 3d printed houses are two beauties of between 6 to 8 euros. The bigger house can go to Northern europe while the smallest is another addition to my Russian village. The painting is made mostly with diluted acrylics and drybrush so the nice printed detail can be seen. 

They can be open and that roof is crying to be used by Frost men at Arnhem...

These are incredible nice 1/72 models and very cheap. I only had a Dutch bridge from this Fisherman brand and I´ll surely add more to my different periods.

Next: Mid-war German infantry  

Crete 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! Part 5: The JU-52s and the FJ companies

When I was a kid, close to some 50 years ago, there was a beautiful silver Tante Ju ( Junkers Ju-52) in my town at Portugal dos Pequenitos, a kind of playground with small Portuguese houses and monuments, which is still today one of Coimbra´s main attractions, after the University. The Ju-52 could be visited, we would sit and run in its interior and my devious mind already knew, probably from Readers Digest WW2 books, that these were used to assault Europe, and particularly, Crete. So when exiting the plane I would become a German Fallschirmjäger and jump... to the first step of the ladder that would take me to the ground safely. 

This was one of the last existing Junkers Ju-52 in the world as there are only some 20 survivors, mostly in museums. It was taken from Portugal dos Pequenitos (replaced by a Fiat G-91) in the 90´s, then taken to Norway for repairs and now sits at Alverca Aviation Museum, close to Sintra/Lisbon. Its also a testimony of Salazar´s alliegance to the Nazi regime as this Ju-52 belonged to a batch of 10 aircraft bought in 1937 from Germany. Even so, its history, and an important piece of it. 

Our masters Colin and Richard ordered us to have two of them for the action at Crete 1941. They are Italeri models built decades ago and carefully painted and weathered as I was doing in those days. Next to them there are 14 FJ companies, all figures necessary to the Prison Valley scenario, which is the one were more German paratroopers are necessary, allowing you also to make all other three scenarios. 

The companies are made from Airfix and Revell figures mixed in allowing for some 15 poses to be in this large group. 

Next: FJ containers and Kettenkrad

Crete 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! Part 4: the gliders, artillery and support weapons already painted

 

In the last few days I´ve been painting my scratchbuilt artillery, support weapons and DFS 230 gliders. I tried to get the most common FJ uniforms painted avoiding camouflaged items for speeding the process.

Which of them is the Frontline Wargaming resin glider?...Hmmm...Damn, I was expecting some mistakes and a bit more drama but that lady in the 2nd row immediatley gave the correct answer.... Its the one on the bottom right corner...

The painted plywood and Blue Board gliders got a layer of PVA so they can be spray primed. The camouflage is the one of Blitzkrieg namely the attack on Eben-Emael. The camouflage used on Crete was very bare virtually without markings and with a lighter color on the upper wings. At least, some people say it based on period pictures. But frankly it may be just a trick of the eye due to the mediterranean light. 

The Do Gerat 150mm rocket launcher. The quest for pictures of this specific weapon gave no results so this one was based on other models of different calibre.

The 75mm IG. The Airfix figures give reasonable artillery crew (If you are not too peaky, of course). 

The 75mm Geb.G 36. 

The 20mm AA gun. Still not sure if this Flak.38 was the model used at Crete. The shield was taken out, which is a messy enterprise as the gun is 3d PLA, but like this its closer to other models of the 20mm Flak gun, just in case. 

The 75mm LG40. 

This Puppchen 88mm gun and this other 75mm LG40 are for the Carentan book. 

The 37mm PAK 36. 

The PzBuchse 39. The heavier 41 version seems not to have been used at Crete, at least I could not find any evidence of that. Of course I would love to be wrong so I could make a few of them.

The MMG 34. Again the Revell and Airfix figures got new positions, legs and plenty of cuts in order to fit the guns. 

The 105mm mortar. The wouded FJ (top) is particularly handy as it can be used to carry ammunition and/or to be placed with a pair of binoculars. 

I´m not sure of the real size and shape of the thing so a bit scaled up 81mm mortar will do the trick. 

The 81mm mortars. 

The 50mm mortars. 

The FO (I think this is my shortest comment ever). 

The containers both for the small and support weapons. 

The command groups with a few Matchbox officers. 

Next: The FJ companies and the JU 52s. If mail arrives in time I´ll add a couple of Kettenkrad. 

Crete 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! Part 3: the DFS 230 gliders and the Fallschirmjäger companies

 

You need four DFS 230 for the first scenario of the RF! booklet Crete- the airborne assault, related to the most western German attack, around Maleme airfield and Tavronitis bridge. As each of this gliders carried 9 men (excluding the pilot) you have four companies of 8 men in average per glider. The DFS 230 on the back is a very old resin Frontline Wargaming model that served as a template for the other three, made from BlueBoard, card and plywood. None of them equals the other :) 

One of the three got a MG15 behind the cabin. The figure is the laying down FJ from Revell manning a MG34. The MG got a second ammunition drum in order to look like a MG15, a common Luftwaffe weapon. The ugly black blob of burned plastic is the ammunition bag for the spent cartridges. 

Some pieces of Evergreen rod was used as wing supports and rear landing gear. They are thicker than it should as these models will not have a base. They are intended to be used on the dry Tavronitis river bed and the roofs of Eben-Emael, two very different landing places, so not placing any base looks better. Under the plywood wings a layer of card was added and glued with hot glue for extra thickness. 

The gliders became much smaller than the true ones, as Tim Wade of Frontline Wargaming did with his DFS 230. Even so the Frontline models captures its the generic shape and an DFS 230 glider can be easily rocognizable there. The smaller size, keeping the cockpit normal size, has the same impact as most of RF structures and houses, allowing for them to fit in most of the places on the table like the Tavronites river bed. 

The original wing span is much bigger than in all these models. The scratchbuilt models became on the fatty side as they are (atempted) copies of the Frontline model. As you can see in this diagram the true glider was much more elegant and slim. 

The airborne companies are a mix of Revell and Airfix. The number of companies is 14 which is the maximum number in all scenarios, namely the Prison Valley action. Do not use the laying down Airfix figure (or Esci if you have them) with the FG42 as it entered in service only in 1942. The ones in the photo with the FG42 were replaced by Revell figures firing the MG34. 

Next: the painting of all these last 3 posts starts