Rapid Fire! in 20mm, Vercors 1944 (part 1) - First few Maquis and FFI cars

Recently, Richard Baber posted his FFI on his great blog Baber on Wargames. These lovely painted figures, together with a nice Citroën sparked an old wish of mine, the Vercors battle of the summer of 1944, which placed 4.000 Maquisards against 10.000 Germans supported by the Luftwaffe. Vercors was one of my first readings while a young teenager a few years after  our 25th of April Carnation Revolution, as these heroic acts of defiance were very common on those days literature. I don´t remember what book it was or even if I still have it but those pages got stuck on my mind.  

This battle came after the Normandy landings when thousands of young Frenchmen came to the Vercors mountains, a triangular shaped plateau close to Grenoble, Southern France. Not being able to join the Normandy or much of the Northern France Maquis, more than 3.000 young resistants prefered to join the Vercors also avoiding the STO (Service du Travail Obligatoire) in Germany were a few hundred Maquisards lived there since 1942. The plan was called Projet Montagnard and predicted the arrival of 4000 Allied paratroopers and heavy weapons to the plateau, something that never materialized and doomed the Vercors Maquis. 

My planned models are:

For the Maquis- 

- Build 6x battalion sized units of Maquisards including some Senegalese that also took refuge at the Vercors (only 2x battalions - the ones shown here - are done, more on the way mostly from LesArméesOubliés).

- Some "heavy"weapons, 1x M2 Browning, 1 Bazooka, 1x 25mm Hotchkiss AA gun (the Hotchkiss is the only missing).

For the Germans - 

- 30x paratroopers; 4x DFS 230 gliders; 1x battalions of Grenadiers (9.PD) and 2x battalions of infantry (157. Reserve ID); 4x Ost Battalions; 2x Focke Wulf  FW 190 fighter aircraft  (all these are done).

- 1x Gotha Go242; 2x 105mm GebH40; 15x Feldgendarmen; 4x Gebirgsjäger battalions (still to be done). 

The Vercors Plateau is also on my mind or at least a way to raise ground with the Vercors shape, as building it in styrofoam is something very difficult to store. Even so some styrofoam escarpments, together with a raised cloth is the most probable way to show this difficult terrain. 

The figures are a mix of Irregular Miniatures, both from their French Resistance range and SCW (there were Spanish Republicans in the Vercors fleeing from Franco´s terror), Caesar and Esci. The Esci figures here still didn´t get their bonnets and are still wearing their Adrian helmets which will only stay for a few Gendarmes. 

Ladies first. They are all Irregular Miniatures with a sole Caesar figure with added bonnet. 

There were also in the middle of the Maquisards a number of Ex-Vichy Gendarmes and Groupes Mobiles de Reserve (GMR). 

Led by Lt. Vernom Hoppers there were 15 SOF US soldiers within the Vercors Maquis sent there to train the Maquisards and teach them how to operate US weapons like the M2 Browning and the Bazooka. The figures are Revell with GreenStuff soft caps. 

All figures got a French arm band and many got a GreenStuff bonnet. 

The Esci Bazooka stand got new heads with bonnets and the MMG stand is a mix of 3d printed gun, a Caesar, a Irregular Miniatures and a Revell figure. 

The command group came from Irregular Miniatures ranges including a  African/Cuban  officer with crossed arms and added bonnet. 

Finally two FFI cars, one Hotwheels 1932 Ford with new wheels and a Matchbox  1947 (ups!) Morris Minor. 

Next: More Vercors or one more Iraqi video. 

RFR/Able Archer - The army of Saddam Hussein in Kuwait 91 (part 2), the 5th Mechanized Division

One more division of the Iraqi III corps. This one, the 5th Mechanized Infantry Division Mohammed Ibn Al-Kasim, is another famous big unit of the Iraqi army with participations in the last three wars of the country, the Iran-Iraq War, the invasion of Kuwait and the US invasion of 2003. I became interested in this Division after the opening of the ground war in the 1991 Iraqi Khafji offensive were the 5th MID had a central role. It was equipped with different models of the T-55 series and APCs (in fact Chinese T-59 and K-63). Still a few heavy mortars are missing as well as some tractors for the artillery.

A second (Airfix) Avro Lancaster in 1/72 for Rapid Fire! rules

 

This is the last kit bought at the 2nd hand fair of Tomar to be built. Its also the second Avro Lancaster, after a Revell model. These two are intended for the bombing actions before Operation Goodwood, which is an old desire of mine after making two British Armored Divisions, a British (Churchill) Tank Brigade, the 21.PD, the 16.LFD, and the 503. Tiger Battalion. 

The build up is quite straightforward, with all interior left aside, and used the same style of painting of the Revell kit. The kit is from 1967, so older than me, and the decals and plastic were still perfect which is something more recent kits can´t say. 

Next: a Video on the Iraqi 5th Mechanized Division

RF! in 20mm - A little known armoured encounter somewhere in nowadays Pakistan, the battle of Al-Lie

 

A little known armoured battle of WW2 happened in Pakistan (some sources say it was Afghanistan) at a place called Al-Lie, between several units of armoured vehicles of Japan, Germany, Slovakia on one side and USA and USSR on the other:

- The Japanese got lost in the jungle looking for the body of Yamamoto and ended up a bit to the west;

- The Slovaks found the Eastern Front too dangerous and a task force derived a bit more to the south east looking for more peaceful areas;

-The Germans had to be in control of everything Axis;

- The Soviets, without radios on their tanks, got lost and now were too scared to return because of NKVD thinking they were deserters;

- The US simply had to be everywhere even if it was not their damn business!!

Two conclusions are known about Al-Lie battle, no one survived to tell the story and it didn´t happen. 

After this BS story what really made me making this bunch was the fact of having these models sitting for too long on the cue and all were WW2 bits for continuing a number of armies. 

The one waiting for longer, maybe 10 years, and already built (given by JF or JMM) was this Esci late KV-1 that will go the winterized Soviets. 

This Mig T-28 is one of the oldest model kits of this tank, dating from the mid 90s. I found it in one of the last model shops in Lisbon, the Casa Antunes. 

The model is a piece of hell to be built as it is made in resin and lots of photo-etched parts and thus made for standing in a shelf and not wargaming. But as I´m a shelf wargamer everything will be OK. 

Two more T-35 monster by S-Models. Only four to reach the 10 mark as ordered by Master Colin and Richard in its supplement for Russian units 41-42. In fact the 8th Mechanized Corps used them at Dubno, which is my target for Barbarossa. The last four will not have the aerials as they only existed in the command tank of the company. 

This "Long Tom" and HST is a second one to be built and is the consequence of an exchange made years ago between a full Altaya collection and some miniature racing cars. A Matchbox figure and a base was added, a quick glass paint and sand color drybrush and its ready to go. 

Some 10 days ago or so I received a nice parcel from a Spanish wargamer friend, JZ, which had plenty of very helpful bits and pieces. Among them there was this Horch 830 radio car of the early war period, probably by the extict BUM and copied from the Wespe model. The aerials were added and a few more details also. 

The aerials were added and a few more details also. Not sure about this arrangement but it looks nice to me. 

Also from JZ came all these that went for the Japanese. The Sumida Type 92 armored car is resin a copy of the Skytrex one I already have. I painted it with the same SNLF colors. The truck to the left pretends to be a Nissan 80 but it started as...

... a firemen truck. Here it already got some plastic side pannels to look more like a cargo truck...

...and here it got new wheels and a tarpaulin. 

These diecast pickups started like this but here you can already see the final arrangement with hot glue on the windshields, new wheels and cargo to disguise the strange stuff on the back.

Three more Praga trucks from FtF going to the Slovak Fast brigade. 

And three more Slovac LT-35 to conclude the armour of the same brigade.

Next: another video on the Iraqi 1991 army

RFR/Able Archer - The army of Saddam Hussein in Kuwait 91 (part 1), the 3rd Saladin Armored Division

This one is really heavy. Not only in the amount of armored vehicles but also because most of the vehicles are Skytrex metal, true shelf benders. This division was the most famous of the regular army (not counting the Iraqi Republican Guard) and fought several wars from 1973 up to 2003. Its armored and mechanized brigades fielded plenty T-72 and BMP-1 and the artillery was crammed with 2S1 and 2S3 systems, which, for those days were quite potent weapons. During Kuwait War the 3rd Saladin opened the ground war with the coalition with the attack on Khafji, together with other units of the Iraqi III corps. Most of the information for making this division was taken from the excellent article on Millitary Modelling Vol.30 No08 by Cookie Sewell.

Rapid Fire!/ Able Archer, The Gulf War in 20mm - The French made AMX -30 AuF1 of the Iraqi Republican Guard

 

These models come from the excellent Altaya range. I ended up with a total of 12 of them, with 6 going to the IRGC (Iraqi Republican Guard Corps) and the other 6 going to one of the Gulf War enemies, the Saudis. At the beggining the RF system was giving two pices of artillery per battery but recently I´ve noticed a decrease with just one model representing the whole battery. So like this you can have one or two battalions of artillery. 

The IRGC apparently got all of the 85 (some sources say around 70) of these artillery systems and they seemed to have mostly survived the Iran-Iraq war, 1991 and 2003 wars as rows of them were present at Camp Taji, Baghdad, after 2003. Probably they were at rear echelons in the 1991 ground battles (even if some show up abandoned/destroyed) and around 2003 they were missing spare parts and became immobilized. I painted the red triangle of the IRGC on both sides of the turret without being sure it was there. I saw modellers painting these but with the top white part painted grey. 

The good thing of having these together with BMP-1s and T-72s of the Saladin AD is to quickly put together an armored or mechanized RG divisions like the Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar, Medinah or the Tawakalma . 

Another possible type of markings is this one as seen on a Hammurabi AD vehicle, a photo I´ve found after finishing this lot.

The models were repainted Vallejo Iraqi sand as usual and changed with the addition of EverGreen plastic side skirts, stowage at the turret rack, antenna and a Soviet AA machine gun. 

Next: a big brawl of WW2 tanks between the Slovaks, Soviets, Japanese and even the Americans. 

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 14) - A few more Indians stands and some scenic figures with a big Thank You to Stuart Jarman

 

This is a very nice and useful group of Atlantic, Imex, Lucky Toys and Airfix figures that a fellow wargamer, Stuart Jarman,  sent me for free from the USA. There are still another group of them not shown as they were used to replace a number of broken Atlantic figures after a plastic drawer decided to learn how to fly. As the figures were quite brittle some 17 of them broke in some 10 stands and were replaced by very nice Imex figures offered by Stuart Jarman. I also kept aside the Apache Atlantic figures for the future.

The idea is to use as much as possible these figures to beef up whether my fighting stands of Sioux and Cheyenne for Little Big Horn or start some vignettes to give more color to the Indian camp. 

These became very handy as they are necessary for the Little big Horn squaw trail from were children and women escaped from the 7th US cavalry.  

Six more fighting stands were added. The Imex figures are particularly welcome as they have a very nice archer shooting its arrows. 

These two represent the  suicide boys (more or less some 24 sioux and Cheyenne that vowed to die in the battle if necessary) that were apparently vital in opening holes in the lines of the 5 companies of Custer. If the same had happened at Reno´s position maybe the outcome of that particular fight could have been different. 

Now a few vignettes. The idea is to give some life to the Little Big Horn big camp. These are Imex figures.

These canoes will be inside the river even if more probably in another scenario. 

These Atlantic horses can be used for the herds inside the camp or to go along with dismounted warriors. 

A peaceful meeting just because we need them. 

Next: more Iraqi artillery