RFR/ Able Archer- The Ukrainian Mechanized Brigade of the 2022/23 Russia...

In this one you can see a good part of the heavy ground weapons of the Ukrainian Mech Bgde in three periods: - the initial ex-Soviet and indigenous Ukrainian equipment; - the big lot of equipment from eastern NATO countries used in the Kharkiv/Kherson offensives - the latest batch of western NATO type of equipment used in the 2023 summer offensive. I forgot to mention the three BMP-1U Shkval converted from Fabbri die-casts. Go to the blog to see more information on how these were made and also more some technical information.

Able Archer/ RFR rules (?) - Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 in 20mm (part 14) - The Russian BREM-K recovery vehicles

The BREM-K is the standard Russian recovery vehicle for towing the wheeled series of the BTR-80 and similar or lighter vehicles. It's a relatively numerous vehicle in the nowadays war in Ukraine and you can find plenty of  images in the web and full articles about it. 

I had a number of BTR-80 leftovers after building a number of regular BTR-80 and converting others to the BTR-82A variant. This BREM-K didn't look too difficult to convert besides being a normal company of the basic version. 

Due to a number of added details and absence of its heavier guns this version of the BTR-80 becomes quite different from the basic one. 

The figure is another Orion soft plastic figure. 

The basic materials for these conversions were:

- 3d printed replacement wheels

- plastic card tubing and plate

- metal parts from HO trains

- WW2 Tiger front wheels from Hasegawa.

Many parts are over simplified but after painting the result is OK. 

The winch became a bit too thick but at least is unbreakable :). 

 

The front needs a coulter-stop for fixing the machine on the ground when working. 

For extra strength some of the supports of the winch in the turret are metal parts.  

Next: a video on the nowadays Ukrainian army. 

Anglo-Zulu War 1879 in 20mm - The British army at Isandlwana (part 2 and final)

 

Just a few more stands made recently to finish the British army at Isandlwana. You can see them "in action" on the last video. 

These two blurred figures represent the 50 or something Natal Mounted Police. I already had the Natal Carbineers made in the same way and these just add some more colour.  

These two figures were converted from the Esci standard bearer that you can see to the right. The arms were bent with a lighter and two rifles were glued to the arms new positions. Also some spikes were drilled into the helmet as typical with the NMP. 

The Rocket battery was still missing as well as its "limber", the Esci Alpine´s donkey with a Revell Confederate figure as its driver. 

Again two of the figures were heavily converted with the exception of Major Russell. 

The Hale Rocket system was made from pieces of plastic cut and glued until it looked OK. 

Just in order to have and officer in their striking blue jacket I made one last stand of Natal Native Horse. All figures are converted Confederates from Revell and A Call to Arms.

The 3rd and last NNC company was made from the original Esci Zulus with added plastic card shields. Only the officer is - again - a Confederate Esci figure. 

I also finished some more 200 Zulus figures, many in plastic card shields and central spines made of pieces of broom sticks. This kind of shields are also the ones on the previous NCC figures. 

Next: BREM-K vehicles for the Russians in Ukraine. 

The battle of Isandlwana 1879 in 20mm

In this video you have both the Zulu and British armies at the battle of Isandlwana. Everything is plastic with mostly Esci and a few A Call To Arms and Revell conversions. The Esci Zulus don´t have enough shields on the box so plenty of them were made from Evergreen plastic card. Some corrections: I mention the release of the Esci colonial sets at the end of the 80ies when in fact they were released in 1984 (thanks PSR) and I call ´regiments´ to the six stands of British infantry when I wanted to call them companies, obviously (five from the Ist battalion/24th foot and one from the 2nd).

28mm Warlord WW2 Soviet infantry

Last week, and after 7 years of patient waiting,  I painted a box of 40 Warlord WW2 Soviet infantry for my friend JMM. All figures became different from one another as both the sprues of bodies and weapons easily allows for it. 

The figures are very good, even if time consuming at assembling due to separate weapons that sometimes are tricky to glue to the arms. Here one of the officers became an NKVD officer, a kind of psychologist,  specialist at persuasion. 

Only two figures got converted. One of the laying down bodies became a radio/telephone operator with extra radio and telephone made out of EverGreen plastic. The other other is the obvious Vassily Zaitzev with a cape made of tissue paper. 

 The Soviet standard uniform (L) was painted with Vallejo Russin uniform while the Telogreika was painted with Vallejo Grey Brown. I painted them as I paint my 20mm figures: black spray as primer; followed by the main colors; then, main colors with 50% white all mixed. The helmets get a bit of metal color mixed with dark green as somehow they become more lively. 

Airfix nostalgia batch from the 50´s built and painted

 

Some two years ago I found a batch of eight very old bagged Airfix models from the 50´s and 60´s for sale in our local flea market in Coimbra. They looked OK, for the exception of the card which contained the instructions of the kit, completely ruined. No parts missing and a group that could be useful for a number of wargames scenarios. Besides I could revisit models like the Lysander or the Gladiator that I had decades ago and that got ruined on their own or eaten by my dear Breque, an Epagneul Breton that loved to chew plastic. Probably he simply loved everything I did, and my scent was probably in the painted models. 

They were like this. At the beginning the seller wanted 75 euro each but in the end I took the lot for 90 euros after explaining him that the instructions were not understandable, with paper that got so moldy that self destroyed while touching. Of course this is BS as you can find the instructions easily in the Web. Only the Comet Racer was put aside as it has no purpose in wargaming. All these models took some 20 minutes each to build, with closed cockpits and a flow of super glue in all joints in order to harden the construction. All decals were mostly ruined and markings had to be hand painted. 

I already have a number of these Fiat G.50 bis for my desert Italians so this one was converted for the SCW Nationalists, and the G.50 Freccia version. For that the rotor of the changed and a piece of heated plastic covered the open cockpit. I just followed the nice cover of the AML kit for the painting scheme. 

When I opened the Gladiator bag I could see the very old Airfix way of having a pilot. I think this one must be from around 1957, so 11 years older than me! The pilot convinced me that the Gladiator I had in the past must have been the Matchbox one. 

I used this standard camouflage as it fit the two squadrons present in France 1940 before being replaced by Hurricanes, and the ones present in Crete. 

In the end it became 'Joe' Fraser aircraft of No 112 Squadron at Crete, 1941. 

The Westland Lysander became one from the No 13 Army Cooperation Squadron in France 1939/40.

The only part missing (slipped from the holes in the bag) from the entire lot was the right wheel of the Lysander. I had to built on from scratch in plastic card, GreenStuff and a new small wheel copying the left one. 

I already have several of these both in plastic and die-cast but this P-47D is always a nice addition. 

I like a scruffy finish to the under parts of the aircrafts. Yes, that is the hand of your beloved author but the left one that is only used to hold stuff and not the one that really makes all this magic!

A Grumman Gosling for the RN joined the ranks. Its something virtually useless for wargaming but its cute. The colors are not the right ones as I copied some printed painted instructions. 

The Australian Boomerang is my first and ready to fight the Japanese. Here it shows the colors of  a sample at Mildura in 1943. 

Finally, an Iranian F-5 fighter jet joins two die-casts in the shelves in my struggle to balance my Iraqi air force that counts some 30+ machines.  

Next: a video of the Ukrainian army in 2022/23 or the Iraqi 3rd Saladin AD. 

Hastings 1066 - The Saxon Lithsmen in 20mm for Impetus rules

The Saxon line at Hastings had Nordic mercenary -Lithsman- also. I imagine them with Viking looks which favours the beginning of a Viking army for the previous battle, Stamford Bridge and many others. 

I gave them a Nordic look with plenty of axes and blond hair. All figures with the Gjermundbu helmet were concentrated in these stands as this helmet is typically Nordic and a trademark of Viking equipment. Some of the figures got a spear instead of a sword as Revell (and before Elastolin, which are copied in the Revell box) exaggerated the number of swords. 

Like this the Saxon army grew to 15 stands and 5 more Fyrd stands will make it complete. 

Next: My latest batch  of Airfix models from the 50's or a video on the Iraqi 3rd Saladin Armored Division in 1991. 

The French tank projects for 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules

If the French had held the Germans (if also the British, the Belgians and the Dutch did the same) maybe, just maybe, a future French tank column might have looked like this one. In fact this group is made of disparate vehicles with no relation to any French 1941 unit, just a group of vehicle projects that never saw its integration in the French army (that excludes the Lafflys W15T). 

This is one of the possible futuristic organisations of the French army 1941 (eventually late 1940), in this case an armored division as thought by the Commander Ayme. The picture is taken from the GBM magazine ('what else?' as George Clooney would say). 

The FCM F1 would have been one of the biggest tanks of the conflict with 120 tons but only a wooden mockup was built. It was designed to pierce the Siegfried line while replacing the aging Char 2C. The model is a MiniGeneral PLA 3d print, like all others in this group, which had to take two coats of varnish before the primer to see most of its printing lines relatively disguised. The camouflage of the lot is based on the latest scheme applied to French vehicles around may 1940. 

Another possible painting scheme is to copy the Char 2C layout as can be seen in this TNT magazine proposal. 

Another camouflage also from TNT, which is the same I used in my two Char 2C. 

The Laffly W15T was already serving in the French army as the tow for the 25mm and 47mm AT guns and the 25mm AA gun. 

A famous picture of the Laffly W15T with LMG mount and making its usual business of towing the 25mm CA39 AA gun. 

The additions to the models were the metal and soft plastic drivers and the LMG from Caesar on a support as seen on the B/W picture. 

No, this is not the famous Panhard EBR of post-war fame but its predecessor, the AM40P that already had an oscillating turret and bullet proof tyres. 

The ARL V9 was the SPG for the DCR as it had parts of the Char B1bis. Only two were made but ended its short career hidden in a tunnel in Morocco.  

The AMX 38 was meant to replacing the D2. Also only two different prototypes were built but not put into production. The figures are (left) Irregular Miniatures and (right) CP models.  All models in the group have antennas which would have been a priority for sure for French tank warfare in late 1940/1941. I chose a buff color for the numbers on this group but this has no historical base.

Next: the Saxon Lithsman at Hastings 1066.

Soviet ZTZ-5 Tractors in German service in 20mm size for Rapid Fire! rules

 

For many years already I wanted to build a second "winter" Volksgrenadier division as two are necessary for the actions of the 5th Panzer army around St.Vith in late 1944 (18. and 62. VGD). They were small units compared to the German infantry division and not very difficult to build. The 105mm artillery was generally pulled by RSO but I had these six 3d resin prints ZTZ-5 offered by my friend Mário Laranja sitting in a box that can replace the RSO (well sort of..). In fact the RSO came after the Germans found the ZTZ-5 from the beginning of Barbarossa. The main difference was the larger track set and different wheels on the RSO. 

Frankly I couldn't find any evidence of the usage of the ZTZ-5 by the VGD in the Ardennes offensive just a similarity between the Russian original and the German copy. For sure, camouflaged like these in white, they can be used in the winter of 1943 and 1944 at the eastern front. 

Mário´s model is a beauty of detail. The tri-color camouflage was first applied and then some white was splashed on for a winterized look. The snow is simply fine sand mixed with acrylic white and a bit of wood glue, everything applied with brush. 

Different stowage also offered by Mário was spread all over together with my own stowage and gauze camouflage nets. 

Next: 'What If ' French for 1941.