20mm Rapid Fire! 7th Armoured Division in Normandy - 1st tank regiment

My 22nd armoured brigade was hanging around with its models put together for  some 1 or 2 years by now. The models were already built, primed and there was just some few more models to built for a total of 39 vehicles. 

The first regiment to be painted was the 1st tank regiment with its red markings and 51 as brigade number (oldest regiment).

Most of the Cromwell are Armourfast, with one Revell and one Altaya.

 

The crew models are mostly Britannia heads in plastic bodies.

The M-3 Stuart are Matchbox (L) and a turretless Frontline Wargaming(R) with plastic Rocco and Frontline Wargaming  resin crews and MG.

All company vehicles have Hessian Tape as camouflage. This was made with cheap repair putty modelled while drying up to this shape.

Fireflies are Armourfast too, simple vehicles but rendering nicely  this famous and effective tank.

The Hessian Tape/putty on gun barrels have to be applied carefully and in small parts. A normal X-acto models the crevices and simulates the tape.

This crew member has a metal Britannia head and his body is modelled in putty. Making crew members like this you can place them in the exact place you want. This one is saying: " Let me out before I     

shit my pants" to which the rest of the crew reply "Please do it!!"

Pineapple miniatures 1/35th scale Portuguese artillery and 3rdCaçadores, Bussaco 1810

This is the 3rd batch of 1/35th scale miniatures ready to be sold at the Bussaco Military Museum. All models are A Call to Arms slightly modified at the shoulder nests to look like Portuguese.

20mm Rapid Fire! Panzer III Auf G/H additions to the DAK

Latest additions to the Afrika Korps, namely some PSC Pz III aufG.

They are marked as for the 21PD. My 15PD is virtually finished and now its time for the other half of the DAK panzer divisions.

 

The kits from PSC are a joy to build and also pretty accurate. I only placed an antennae, stowage, some sand bags at the front, extra tracks for protection and - unfortunately but for the sake of history- a nazi flag at the rear.

 

When printing flags I prefer a low quality print as the colours will tone down and will suit better the smaller scale.

 

 

Rapid Fire! 1/72nd scale 21st PD Panzer-pionier Bataillon 220

And now, only now, 21st PD for Normandy is done. The pioneers are Valiant and a few Revell with Valiant heads.

The pics were taken in BleuVille somewhere near Caen...he,he... 

 

 

These are the Retrokit Somua MCG S307(f) (available by Milan Vins of Czech republic).

 Convoy Citroen with SHQ bridges, ESCI and SHQ crew.

Skytrex Laffly with a driver with Airfix body (the one in the SDKFZ 7) and Valiant head. The command stand is Valiant.

 

Mine searcher with Revell body and Valiant head.

 

Friend's gift part 3 - Rapid Fire! More DAK vehicles revamped

These are the latest vehicles Jorge Faria gave me and the ones that will fit the Afrika Korps. Once again they were repainted, details and crew added  and some of them heavily transformed.

From back to front:
Sdkfz 251's, Sdkfz 69´s, Sdkdz 222´s, Sdkfz 250´s, Kubelwagens, BMW R-75 and Kettenkrad.

The 251/7 was altered with some valiant crew and stowage besides basing and a new paint job.

Jorge Faria gave me two 250´s. One of them was the 250/9 with a turreted 20mm gun, the same as in the 222´s. That turret went to an Airfix 222 (left)  you can see in the first photo, which allow for that kit to have an open turret.

 That one became the above obscure 75mm IG SP of which no photo is available, at least up to the moment, authorities say. The gun was made in Evergreen rod and tubing, following a Britannia model I have. Plastic crew, antennae, etc were also added.

The other one was armed with a French 25mm AT gun made in Evergreen. This one was easier as there is some photographic evidence of the vehicle.

The palm trees are an hommage to PC who was very sad and could not sleep for some days after seeing  last post with a completely bare landscape.

Friend's gift part 2 - Rapid Fire! DAK vehicles revamped

These are the first few vehicles from Jorge Faria collection given to me a few weeks ago.

They were repainted with diluted colours over mostly original Panzer Grey. Like this you can duplicate the real painting of german mid-war AFV´s that were initially painted Panzer Grey and then other colours were applied.

Card bases and details were added. These details include stowage, jerrycans, antennae and crew.

For now a few PzII, PzIII, PzIV, StugIIIC, a PzI Cmdo, Sdkfz 231, Sdkfz 11 and a Opel Blitz can be added to the DAK. The main idea is to make the 3 main divisions: 15PD; 21PD and 90Light division, as well as Ramcke brigade, mainly around El Alamein but with the possibiltity of wargaming all the desert campaigns.

Most of the heavier vehicles are already made, with many PzIII still missing. The main fault up to the moment are the infantry battalions of which I could only make 3.

Sdkfz 231 and PzI Cmdo with lots of small details added and conversions. If you slice a piece of Evergreen rod in oblique direction you can have a nice support for antennae as you can see in the Sdkfz 231. The PzI crewman is a ESCI figure with Valiant head. The crewman in the 8 wheeled vehicle is one of the drivers of the ESCI King Tiger. They were glued to the top of the vehicles and hatches were made out of Evergreen.

The Stug III C. I replaced the very thin short 75mm gun with one from the Airfix PzIV. You need only one in RF! terms as only a handfull of them were used in the desert. This one is a Nitto/Fujimi kit with a crewman from ESCI.

Pineapple Miniatures 1/35th scale 21st Portuguese line infantry, Buçaco1810

2nd batch ready. These A Call to Arms Belgium figures are some of their first and not as good as some of their latest releases or Hat figures. But they are easy to paint and make good Portuguese infantry if you don't get too demanding.