Rapid Fire! Western Desert 1940-43 in 20mm - Reinforcements for Operation Compass

 

A group of tanks and portees arrive at Der-el-boris-on-the-run where a solo battery of the 68th Medium Regiment Royal Artillery, part of the 4th Indian Division, is keeping the Italians at bay. 

The valiant defenders are made of 6'' howitzers from MiniGeneral 3d prints and converted Airfix figures.

The A13 MkI are S-Models and have the symbols of the 7th AD. Only 65 of these were made and most were lost in France. I couldn´t find much information on this precise model in service with the 7th AD in the desert but I´m trusting the information on the fist RF guide on the NA campaign. I also found some information of these tanks in Cyprus so not really sure if 10 of them (2 tank models) were used by this division in the desert. 

These 2pdr portees are more of a way to use the leftovers of a previous order than anything else. Even so the 2pdr portees are an absolute must for desert early war.  After Brexit getting the nice ones from Britannia/ Grubby models became more difficult so I scratch built this group. 

I caught the generic shape of the Chevrolets WA/WB by using three more the Chinese group of 10 models that came in a pack from Aliexpress with the two first being used for the Italian Fiat Autocannone shown around April. 

The guns used are MiniGeneral 3d prints after two good coats of varnish in order to deal with the nasty printing lines. The crew are a mix of AB, Revell and Airfix. 

They became a fit of the fatty side but are close to the original. 

Now a bit on how the whole group was made. The 6'' Howitzers are originally WW1 models. I used some 3d rubber wheels thickened with Milliput for the approximate size.  

You can recognize the artillerymen as the old Chinese copies of the excellent Airfix 8th Army figures. The arms were taken out and replaced with GreenStuff ones some of them carrying with a 6'' grenade. 

The S-Models A13 MkI had a few extras you can see here: a converted head from Valiant, stowage, smoke dischargers, antenna, etc. 

The portees had to have the original (Dodge?) truck reduced to almost half of the length and heavily cut a bit everywhere. Then the miraculous Evergreen plastic card and Milliput did the rest. 

A few extras for a more desert look and they were done. An important detail was to cut the height of the original wheels making them look as if slightly sunk in sand. This detail is important as the original wheels make the trucks too tall for this effect. 

Next: maybe a video on Mortain Germans, Kursk Soviets or British in the desert. 

Rapid Fire! Western Desert 1940-43 in 20mm - The beggining of the 4th Indian Infantry Division

 

Many years ago I found some 20 boxes of Esci Muslim Warriors in a supermarket at 50cts each. I already had a few of those with some Portuguese Discoveries, Sudan and Foreign Legion in mind. With such large group two more ideas came up along the time: Turkish Sipahis for Mohacs 1526 and WW2 4th Indian Infantry in the Western Desert. Recently this last one was cooled down when StreletsR showed up with two boxes of WW2 Indian Infantry, one with support weapons and another with rifles and SMGs, making life much easier. In fact in the 70s/80s Atlantic also made a box of those but I could never find any, and when Atlantic moved to Lebanon around 1982 the factory was lost to the chaos of the Israeli invasion. Then the recent war came -again- and I tried to get my hands on the maximum models from StreletsR (Ukraine), Zvezda (Russia) and such. In terms of Strelets Indians I only could find one box of support weapons at Martola and that was it. So the old project of Esci conversions was back. 

This battalion looks too big because it has enough figures and weapons for both the infantry and Motor battalions. 

A rifle company. The figures are made of Esci British Desert infantry bodies with Esci Muslim heads (only the ones with turban were used, obviously). 

The parts were glued with soft plastic glue. Also a few of even older Airfix were also mixed in. 

The 2'' mortar was scratchbuilt and the boys AT rifle is MiniGeneral after cutting out the original Bren from the Esci Figure. 

StreletsR figures were used for the other support weapons and command groups. 

The first dedicated vehicles for the 4th Indian ID are these two Indian Carriers with Hat and StreletsR crew. 

The models are MiniGeneral 3d prints, which are nice and simple models. The Jerrycans are also 3d prints from the Spanish brand Modelismo Y Maquetas. 

Don´t forget to apply two coats of clear varnish in spray before priming. Most of the boring printing lines won't be boring anymore. 

These two Marmon Herrington armoured cars just caught the varnish spray cloud for its pesky printing lines to go. These are very useful reconnaissance vehicles for early desert war. Obviously the painting inspiration came from the nice photo on the first NA supplement of Rapid Fire!

Plenty of details were added as the models came a bit bare. A nice extra touch are the unditching metal planks which can be easily made by touching slightly with the tip of a soldering iron on a piece of EverGreen plastic card.

Other details are made of GreenStuff or Milliput, 3d Jerrycans and broom stick antennas. 

While the other figure is PSC, this one started as an armless Fujimi tank commander. With a bit of GreenStuff both for arms and headphones he is back to business. 

Next: Maybe a video on the German Panzer divisions for Mortain, or one on the Desert British or more Russo-Ukraine war. 

Able Archer/ RFR rules (?) - Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 in 20mm (part 7) - The new Russian Tsirpan-S-1 arrives to the battlefront

At the moment Armory is the only brand producing the Pantsir-S-1 and soon Zvezda will release its own. After spending 100 euros in two Armory Pantsirs I decided enough is enough as the risk of the model´s price being intercepted by the controlling part of the family (wife). So I made my own Pantsir (named Tsirpan this time...) from a toy truck, finishing with three models of this type, enough for three BTGs. The other three hopefully will have either Strelas, Tunguskas, Buk or modernized Shilkas, depending on what I can find at reasonable prices. 

The model became a bit rustic as there is nothing better than a true model coming out from a nice box but, at the same time, these kind of projects gives me enormous pleasure to make. 

Now discover which is the true Pantsir and which is the Tsirpan?... Sure! You just found it due to the different 'Z', right?? Now seriously: the Armory model to the left was used as a direct matrix to make the toy one on the right. All measurements were carefully taken but even so some errors were made mostly because the cabin, from were everything started, was not an exact replica of the Armory cabin but just something with the general layout. In the end good news to my wife: the Armory model is 50 Euros (P&P included) and the Tsirpan came out at 2,5 euros! 

The general dimensions, specially the maximum length, were respected and this my main approach. From there everything derives and one or two millimeters difference is not very important as it is not noticeable on the wargames table.   

I only had five tires from the spare box that could be used in this model so I cast another four which became slightly... well, not a master piece, to say the least. 

This is the original toy truck I found in a Chinese shop. The cabin had a relatively resemblance to the Kamaz cabin of the Pantsir and about the same dimensions. 

To begin with, the cabin had to be broken at the front bottom and slightly bent as well as the mudguards. 

 

The toy chassis were also used. It was connected to the cabin with a piece of hard styrene. This was a problem as the chassis became a bit taller than it should. 

The wheels are mostly hidden in this model and were crudely attached to the body with a glue gun and super glue. 

Blocks of blue board were glued to the chassis and then covered with a mix of paint and PVA glue. This layer was insufficient as I noticed later when the primer diluted a bit of the styrene. The weapons station was crudely made as most of the detail will be covered by the 30mm guns and missiles.  

The majority of the details were made in EverGreen, bits of GreenStuff, paper clips and broom bristles. 

Of course most of the details are over simplified but the generic looks was captured. This one looks a bit like a polythene Airfix Tiger from the 60s when compared with the Dragon one ...

The steps are too thick and rear holders are made of paper clips all for the sake of modelling endurance. 

Next: a return to WW2 and the Western Desert. 

Able Archer/ RFR rules (?) - Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 in 20mm (part 6) - Ukrainian T-64 BVs and the first battalion of infantry

The rest of the T-64BV tank battalion is done together with a few more BMP and the first infantry battalion.

Together with another T-64BV made before this battalion is 10 tanks with one command tank and three companies of three tanks each. This is a problem as the Ukrainian tank battalions are larger than its Russian counterpart (40 vs 30, with Ukrainian tank companies with 13 tanks instead of the Russian 10 tank companies) but not this big, so 8 models would be better to represent the Ukrainian tank battalion. As usual with the 1/5 ration dividing 40 per 3 companies is impossible. Well, for now it stays like this...

All T-64BVs are Minigeneral 3d prints with metal tank commanders from Spanish Xan Miniatures. 

Two Diecast Fabbri BMP-1 were added with Ukrainian 2022 camouflage, ideal for Picasso admirers like me. Only the log and antenna were added. 

The Ukrainian infantry was fun to do. The base are Esci and Revell modern US but with the M-16 turned into a AK-74 by replacing the charger with a curved piece of styrene and cutting in 1mm the tip of the rifle and cutting completely the handler. Also some helmets got Goggles made from GreenStuff. 

The full battalion with some Orion figures in the command and support companies. 

A company of Ukrainian infantry with a Javelin ATGM (L) and a CETME Ameli, very similiar to the original M-60 the LMG firer has (R). Several figures had extra RPG on their back as you can see on the third stand. The Javelin was converted from the original Dragon M-47 by simply leaving aside the bipod. The future units will have the more numerous NLAW and those will have a different head which will be also converted from Esci and Revell figures. 

The support company (minus AGS-17 grenade launcher) with a Manpad (Orion Chechen figure as firer and an Esci figure); 120mm mortar (Orion Russians) and sniper (Orion Russian also). 

Command company with mostly Esci conversions and an Orion officer. The main Ukrainian camouflaged uniform are very tricky to paint due to the geometrical shapes. Like this I made something close consisting of  base of Vallejo Khaki (with a bit of white) followed by diluted Olive Green and finally Olive Green mixed with white. The last two were applied with a very old brush for extra "splash" effect. Still didn`t decide which colour - blue or yellow - should I use as arm band. 

Next:  A return to WW2, probably the Western desert or Ukrainian Mig-29 and Sukhoi Su-27 or even the Russian VDV.

Able Archer/ RFR rules (?) - Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 in 20mm (part 5) - Ukrainian vehicles for the mechanized infantry

 The Ukrainian infantry got reinforcements in the form of the BTR-4 Buchephalus and BMP-2. All vehicles are MiniGeneral 3d prints. In the current war most of them are equipped with the Bar Armor system. I´ll try my luck with Pedro Pato, the MiniGeneral warlord, to see if he can print something like that. 

The BTR-4 is a good way to practice the digital camouflage in usage in the Ukrainian armed forces. The most common scheme I´ve seen is this green based with sand and light green geometrical shapes. 

Another possible camouflage is this one with sand areas and black lining in the previous Russian style. 

The BTR-4 of MiniGeneral has the Shturm turret module which is the more common. Other modules are the Grom, the Shkval (seen on top of Georgian BMP-1s in the 2008 war) and the Bau 23x2. 

The only addition to the model was the the antenna. As usual I used two coats of clear varnish to limit the printing lines before priming (maybe a third would have been better...). 

Finally, two BMP-2s  with digital camouflage joined the ZSU. Antenna, rear logs and camouflage netting were added. 

Next: More Ukrainian armor and infantry as I need to balance it with the Russian forces. Also Ukrainian aircraft on the cue with a few MIG-29 and SU-27.