Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 7) - New trenches and one more AA truck for the Fusiliers Marins

 

A few more company trenches, 75mm emplacements and mortar/MG pits were finished in the last few days. Also added is the famous 13,2mm DAT gun on truck. 

The total made was 2X company trenches; 4x 75mm emplacements and 4x mortar/MG pits. Now I need to place everything together on the table and see exactly what is still missing for Bir Hakeim. While on holidays I took some books and magazines on Crete 1941 and that particular bug started to bite. The way I made the Bir Hakeim complex made me happy as it can be easily adapted to Crete, other NA scenarios or even Italy. In fact as they are simple things they can go everywhere as when you dig trenches you take out all foliage which make these ones fit for almost all theaters. The drop-on solution avoids the building of more complex terrain models which, if over detailed, will be only used in a specific scenario, with the problems of storage coming next. 

The 75mm emplacements have to be like this as the Free French wanted them to have 360 degrees rotation. Note the absence of sand bags. In fact most of the trenches for this project have sand bags while the ones on Bir Hakeim can hardly be seen in most of the period photographs. This is another compromise in order to allow its usage in other scenarios. 

These L-shaped company trenches are different from the T-shaped I made previously. They look quite Vauban style and thus clearly more French :) 

The mortar/MG pits are made for my 4cm poker disks. Besides the heavy weapons the battalion CO stand can also be fitted inside. 

The Fusiliers Marins at Bir Hakeim were in charge of the AA defences and had a number of truck mounted SP guns. This is my second version of the thing, this time with a  quad 13,2mm DAT gun...

... and based on this famous photo. 

The figures are heavily converted Airfix and Atlantic copies. 

Once again the cheap plastic truck is a bit too big but with a 1,5cm cut at the back it becomes reasonable sized for the big and complex gun. 

The gun is made totally from scratch with the help of a great Britmodeller article from their website. Also, if you want to avoid all this work, 3D print Shapeways makes this gun in 1/72nd scale. 

The figure manning the gun is the old wounded Atlantic British figure being carried at the back of his closest friend. Apparently it recovered from his wounds, joined the FFL and is now defending Bir Hakeim! 

The 3d one at the Britmodeller website (is it the same at Shapeways?) that I really can´t rival. 

Next: the 3rd battalion for my US PIR; Little Big Horn; King Porus army (yes, Don McHugh has something to do with this); photos of Bodrum castle; Plancenoit church in 1815 or Crete 1941. Let´s see what comes next.