Rapid Fire! Desert war 1940-43 in 20mm - Numbers for the British 8th Army

A British Task Force prepares the defence of the oasis of Ras-al-Boris. This time the force defending Ras-al-Boris is prepared against any kind of injury, virus or desease suffered by the British and some proper medical measures were taken as you can see by the Ambulance Jeep.

The M-7 Priest SPG Regiment got its 4th vehicle. Again an Altaya repainted model. 

The 25pdr and Morris tow is the 6th and last for the towed 25pdr Regiment. Altaya repainted and soft plastic crew. Only the seated crewman is a hard plastic figure from PSC.

This is the 3rd 6prd Portee so a full Motor battalion is complete but still far from the necessary eight for an Anti-tank Regiment. Again repainted Altaya with a soft plastic crew from Esci, Airfix and Matchbox.

This part will be longer while I will try to show how you can take advantage of the leftovers of the PSC box of M3A1 Light Tanks built for Ozereika.

I found on the web an award winning 1/35th scale M3 painted in this kind of blue and just copied it. 

All symbols were hand painted (that can easily be seen 😕).

At the moment a complete M3 Honey battalion of 10 models is done. 

As told in the previous a total of six models can be made from the PSC box, three of them directly from the sprues an another three with a few extra parts.The 30.cal Browning is made of 8 small parts stuck and drilled together. 

The driver's plate is easy to make. Not so much for the gun and I was lucky to have kept 3 mantlets from Hasegawa's M3 models. The gun itself is metal tubing with a cover of drilled plastic in its thicker part. 

The bottom part of the chassis is Styrofoam with a few plastic parts added. You can use superglue on the Styrofoam to glue whatever you want if you apply a generous coat of PVA glue before. 

But the funniest part of these builds was this small Matchbox Jeep converted to an ambulance. Two stretchers from Airfix were added as well as a scratch built intravenous infusion system. 

Next: whether the motorcycles of the QVR for the 1940 BEF, some soviet gliders and planes or the Naval infantry for Ozereika. 

Rapid Fire! 20mm, March 2015 DAK and 8th Army additions.

Last post material already painted.

The Krupp Protze and an extra Sdkfz 11 are always handy. I paint DAK vehicles with Tausept Ochre from GW. 

Sdkfz 251. The DAK symbol and its grey background are painted over the sand colour, the opposite way to reality.

The Italian 88's. I used GW Vomit Brown, a strange name but a nice colour for the Italians.

The Crusader II made from Frontline Wargaming hulls (from their AA Crusader I) and modified Airfix turrets. The Matchbox+Esci Pheasant is crewed by a "chinese" crew.  The colour for the British armour is Vallejo Yellow Ochre. 

I think the DAK colour is quite close. Both the Italian and British are not but as I already started these armies many dozen vehicles ago I will have to keep with these colours for the sake of uniformity. 

Now let's start with some more rare DAK vehicles like the most strange ones in Rommel's Kampfstaffel...

Rapid Fire! 20mm - WIP for the DAK and 8th Army

A few more models on the way. 

Playing with Matchbox Krupp Protze. 

The middle one has a Esci and Preiser crew with an Airfix driver. 

The 37mm PAK portee in an unconfirmed version for the DAK. Plenty were used in the Eastern Front so probably also in the desert. Up to  a few years most of the authors were denying the use of the Krupp 69 truck by the DAK until proved by photos. I hope the same happens to this PAK version.

Fujimi and Matchbox Sdkfz 251. 

The crew are from several plastic brands and also from metal Irregular Miniatures. 

Italian 88/55 AA/AT. 

Hasegawa 88mm with stripped mantlet as used by the Italians. 

The crew are mostly ESCI Italian mountain troops conversions. 

The 17pdr in the 25pdr carriage ( called "Pheasant"). Matchbox barrel and Esci carriage.

Most of the crew are cheap Chinese copies. But some are nice and big and make good conversions. 

Lastly two leftover turrets of the Airfix Crusader, originally the Mark III, turned into Mark II with the help of some Evergreen plastic tube and plate. 

They will be placed on two Frontline Miniatures Crusader AA with 40mm gun, a design that never saw action.