Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - British reinforcements from Minigeneral and a few other bits

The British prepare another counter-attack close to the village of L'Infanterie-N'Arrive-Pas. Unfortunately for the Allies in this campaign this 'village' happened too many times.

The Minigeneral model of the A13 MkII is a beauty. Finally I can soon finish my 1st AD thanks to the printers of Pedro Pato. Still 13 to go but I hope to have them finished in the next few months. After these still some 15 MKVI light tanks are still missing.

All essential details are present in the Minigeneral model. I just added the usual antenna, crewman and some stowage.

For the crew you just need to glue some new hatches made of plastic. The model also needs some time to clean from the printing fibres but after some 5 minutes its ready to prime. The crewmen are resin copies of the PSC figures.

The 18 pdr gun was still numerous in the BEF. I used a conversion from Emhar WW1 model with crew and Morris tow from Airfix.

Some artillery men are extras from the 3 inch mortar crew from Zvezda.  

For the WW2 Version of the 18 pdr you need to place the wheels axle a bit down from the original place. I used some old Atlantic soft plastic wheels I had around for maybe 40 years (is it possible? I'm that old?...).

The crew received anti-gas mask bags made from two component paste.

 Each of the Airfix Morris C8 had a crewman from Esci with new arms. Also the mud guards of the trailer were carved out for the 18 pdr version and its top desguised with stowage.

The Scout Carriers are (left) BPM and (right) an Airfix conversion. The 3 inch mortar is Zvezda.

The Airfix Carrier (here on the left) is an easy conversion from the original Universal Carrier. You just need to carve the left side panel and replace it with two boxes. To this one I added some front lights, a Bren LMG and an antenna. All crew are Esci with new arms in both carriers.

Next: wether some WW2 desert Italians or French 1940.



Rapid Fire! Operation Barbarossa in 20mm - Converted T-34 model 1940

Don't know what to do with the excess of T-34 you have?

Need T-34 for the very beginning of the war?

Want to know if Sporting CP will win the Portuguese cup?

We here at jpwargaming place have all those answers! And you don't even need to pay a single Euro as they are asking at Wikipedia...

I already have around 50 built and painted T-34 for the mid-war centered around several Corps for the Kursk campaign. Around half are have the hexagonal turret from late 1942 but others are the 1941 and 1942 models that were still around in 1943. From this last group I had a few in excess given to me by JMM and JF who in the last few years turned to strange scales and sizes like 28mm, 15mm and 10mm and even stranger rule sets like Battlegroup. Pfff... who does that after wargaming in 20mm and trying Rapid Fire? No one! At least that I know of.

The good thing of their choice was that a large number of models fell into in my hands and quite useful they are!

The idea was to convert six of the T-34 model 1941 into the 1940 model with the distinctive L11 76,2mm gun. This in fact is the main change, plus adding another periscope in the turret and rearranging tools and boxes in the hull.
This can be done by carving the old F-34 gun into the shape of the L11 and drilling a new hole for the
gun tube. The rest is to glue two new headlights to the front, new periscopes on the turret and gluing new tool boxes in the sides of the  hull. Don't forget that no extra petrol drums were carried in this early version.

Before painting they look like this. I used four Matchbox and two Esci models for these conversions.

 

Of course one of the main atractions of this early version is the possibility of using the early Soviet tank camouflage consisting in this case of 4BO (green), 6K (Brown) and 7K (light Khaki).

 

One of the Esci models became the unit commander's tank. I used the Esci figure but modelled new arms in GreenStuff for them to adjust correctly to its position.

 

The seventh model is a standard 1941 T-34 from Nitto/Fujimi. The mantlet is too small to try the conversion and the model was just repainted. In fact less than half of the 900+ T-34 fleet that the Germans found from the second day of the invasion was the 1940 model, the rest being the 1941 model with this distinctive and more famous F-34 gun

 

 

Next: Most probably more BEF 1940 stuff.

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - FCM 36s and AMR-35s directly from the printers of MiniGeneral.

In a place called Carrefour-de-la-Belle-Maison (please don't look for it) the French try another counter attack in June 1940 with the remnants of its two battalions of FCM 36 and several GRDI AMR-35. All this happen in June obviously because of the presence of a late SAu 40 in the top left corner freshly arrived from the factory...

All models are 3d prints from the new Portuguese brand MiniGeneral by Sirocco. The FCM 36 is a beauty with only four parts. I added the usual figure in a few of them and some chains both in front and back as usual with this tanks. 

The painting of this lot is inspired in the Trackstory No 7. The figure is Lancer.

                                   
The French flag was seen in these tanks in the rear door/commander's seat.

In other tanks the figure is a GreenStuff copy of the Skytrex French tank commander.

Same for the AMR 35 seen here in three of the variants. Small additons are the vertical antennae and open hatches. In fact the one to the left doesn't need it as it is a command variant and has its own separate hatch.

The line up of the AMR 35 family: From left to right, AMR 35 ADF-1 Squadron Co; AMR 35 Platoon Co; AMR 35 with 7,5mm MG AVIS-1 turret; AMR 35 with 13mm MG AVIS-2 turret and AMR 35 ZT2 with 25mm AT gun.

You can see clearly the rivets on this AMR 35 which means that these 3d prints are getting better and better.

The ADF version received the old Matchbox crew man with new arms from PSC. The antenna is a separate part in this model.

Finally the SAu 40. Also four pieces with all detail and proportions inside. Since the news of its usage in combat (by at least one SAu 40) we have the perfect excuse to have it!

Next: Soviet T-34 1940.

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - British 1st Tank Brigade A11's and some French support

Somewhere close to Arras the Brits and the French finally managed some sort of coordination for the attack of the Frankforce. All A11 here are MiniGeneral, the new Portuguese brand of 3d prints and the Renault TN6C2 are Atlas Die-casts.

The A11 from MiniGeneral is a beauty with only four parts, turret, main body and tracks. I only added a commander and hatches to three of them and an antenna. The model has all the important details engraved in a tough and durable plastic.

Later I also added the unit square, with the '4' for the 4th Royal Tank Regiment and the '5' for the 7th RTR. In this batch of MiniGeneral models I used a softer primer than the grainy GW one I used on the Char D-2's and the painting became much smoother. Still some printing lines are visible but only if you get very close to the model.

The 4th RTR has the Chinese eyes from WWI heritage. When the Chinese labour force was building the Mark tanks in 1916 they painted eyes on them so they could "see". The 4th RTR kept that practice when embarking to France.

Well, quite a Chinese related post this one as not only the A11 had Chinese eyes but also these Atlas buses came from there. They started their life as civilian TN6 and had to have a complete repaint in French Army Green after priming.

I added some usual hand painted symbols I took from the internet but left the buses with no camouflage. There are images of camouflaged TN4's but could not find any for these bigger ones.

These buses were used to carry all infantry but they will be attached to my 4th DCR as their Chasseurs had to rely on these ones for transport.

I packed the rear of the two buses with a total of 12 Matchbox fıgures in the same position. They were placed in slightly different positions for more animation.

Next: More MiniGeneral or the promised T-34 1940 (conversions from Matchbox and Esci).