The 1939 Polish army in 20mm and for Rapid Fire! rules

Still on the Hastings battlefield, it´s time to show you my Polish army for the 1939 campaign. This one was possible when Hat industries released its infantry and artillery and FirstToFight started the job of producing in a very comprehensive way the vehicles and artillery of the Blitzkrieg period. There is also the help of 3D prints and the usual scratchbuilding, particularly the Smialy armored train. Lastly, the Polish air force is also covered as you can find in plastic virtually everything Poland had in 1939.

AOE (Age Of Eagles rules) The infantry regiments of the Russo-German Legion in 28mm at Waterloo 1815

The Russo-German Legion is one of those Prussian units that breaks the "dull Prussian army all-clad-in- dark-blue" myth. Together whith blue infantry and Landwehr, white Berg infantry, black Freikorps, grey reservists and green skirmishers this is another unit that adds color to the Prussian army of 1815. The uniforms were Russian (paid by England) and the personnel were mostly German as the previous Belgian, Dutch and other POW from the Russian 1812 campaign were already dismissed. In this shape, without colors that only arrived in late 1815, the two regiments - 30 and 31- can block Grouchy at the Wavre under Thielmann's command. 

The hard plastic figures used were mostly Hat Prussians with a few Perry in the marching IR No30. 

Once again the Perry can be placed along the Hat miniatures and form very reasonably looking stands. The shako should be the Russian Kiwer but the Prussian with the oil cloth cover making a front peak is a close thing. The Prussian uniform of these days was also heavily influenced by the Russian one which makes Prussian figures a good model for the Russo-German regiments. 

There were no more drums from the command box so I converted some hornists with new arms and drums from Victrix and Perry. 

The Perry figure maching close to the right in the front rank had his head switched to a Hat one and the result is reasonable. 

Next: most probably a return to Poland 1939. 

Rapid Fire! Spanish Civil War armies in 20mm

Still far from finished - this one is one of those that will never be finished - you can see here a few models that are enough for some battallion sized RF games on the SCW theme. Together wilth my usual conversions based on Revell, Airfix, Esci and Zvezda there are plenty of proper Irregular Miniatures and some BUM figures. Tanks, artillery and armored cars came from FtF, Minairons, Panzer Garage, Irregular Miniatures and Pegasus. The aircraft are Special Hobby, KP, Azur, Valom, Super Model, Italeri, SMER, Heller and Airfix.

Rapid Fire! rules in 20mm - The Germans manning the WNs at Omaha

 

For some time I wanted to have some "proper" Germans for the Normandy beaches. By "proper" I mean late uniform and equipment, without camouflage smocks or helmets and, specially, without any grass on the bases. The period photos of the troops manning D-Day WN´s show them in pretty standard uniform and equipment. 

With the authorisation of Masters Colin and Richard you can see the number of figures needed for the biggest scenario of D-Day, Omaha beach, of course, belonging to both 352 and 716. Infantry Divisions. A total of 60 figures small arms equipped, 5 figures with PzFaust and 12 MMGs. As I have 7 pairs of the latter from Britannia (with surcoats but very nice figures) and 5 more were added. Some of the MMGs are inside bunkers with no figures, like the ones in WN 71 and73, but maybe one day I´ll change those pieces of terrain so I can place the models inside of it. 

All figures are 1st type Valiant figures. For the MMG´s I used the figure manning the HMG but used the MG42 of the standing figure that fits nicely into this figure armpit . All the figures got some extra height to reach the level of my model trenches. 

The No 2 is the Valiant radio figure (with headphones cut out)  and, with some Extra Tech photo-etched ammo, it became a decent ammo provider. The stands were also cut at the front so the MMG can poke from the trench. 

Many of the riflemen got new arms and weapons from the Valiant Normandy set and they fit very well. 

By using different arms  from both sets you can get a lot of different figures. 

The Pzfausts got the same treatment and they also have a rifle for double usage. 

I will use the reinforcements from my other German infantry battalions as they eventually got a bit more time for some camouflage and the grass on the base will not look strange. The WN you see on the previous pictures is WN 72 with the famous 88mm and 50mm PAK guns on the western part of the beach. The Sentry model is a great piece of resin (which I copied here in styrofoam), unfortunately the distance between both casemates is too small (in fact it was some 150 meters) and Sentry used a small wall to connect both casemates when there should be a trench. I did the same with my copy as you don´t have too much space to portray accurately the German WN´s and the whole Omaha beach, that is over 7 km long. 

I made a few changes in my WN 72 based on the excellent work of Michael Akkerman. This guy is probably the leading expert on Omaha and also a talented painter. You can find his work on the Web, and particularly on the fabulous WW2 TV YouTube channel. 

Like this I painted  a bit more accurately the broken fence on the hotel next to the R667 casemate...

... and placed some stones and grass around the 50mm casemate. 

Related to 352.ID you can add a  Lorraine OP to the PzJäger Abt. of the division. This diagram came in an extensive 40 pages article on the PzJäger Abt. 352 in No38 of the excellent Normandie 1944 French magazine. So one more unit were you can have these funny vehicles instead of only the 21.PD. artillery.

In the top picture you can see one of the two in the top right corner. 

Next: a video on the Polish 1939 army, on Omaha or on the SCW.