The "Panzer Grey" period of the German army for Rapid Fire! rules in...

Another plastic and resin force amassed through decades representing the Germans present at Poland, France and USSR up to February 1943. The brown camouflaged vehicles of the first few minutes give away to more grey as the video overcomes July 1940. As usual some mistakes are said (once "Barbarossa" is mentioned instead of "Blitzkrieg"). Also the forgotten brand of Renault ADH is ShellHole Scenics.

Rapid Fire! Western Desert 41-43 - 'Bill and his friends' (no, it's not Netflix)

 

With the Tobruk defences in the line of sight, an Arko 104 officer of the Heeres Küsten-Artillerie-Abteilung 533 - writing German makes me look much more cultivated under your eyes!!- directs the fire of the famous 'Bardia Bill' right into an Australian position. The second 'Bardia Bill' (first were Italian) was an ex French GPF 155mm gun in usage by the Germans that became famous together with "Salient Sue" for the shelling of the Tobruk perimeter.  

The gun is a MiniGeneral 3d print with soft and hard plastic crew. The ones born in the late 60s may recognize the bayonetting Airfix DAK figures now serving as artillerists ramming the shell into the  breech of the gun. 

The Mauser of the left figure was simply cut out and the figure was ready to hold the ram. The figure to the right required more work as the original figure is attacking with  the weapon above his head. So new arms were made from two component paste and due to the group having to be in place while the ram was glued, the figure got Popeye arms! Or at least its my excuse. 

The other two figures are the famous DAK Airfix officer and an Esci figure from the Nebelwerfer set in winter suit but that can become a passable Afrika Korps artillerist even if probably sweating more than it should. 

The tow for 'Bardia Bill' is a 3d printed Sdkfz 7 from BPM 3d. The limber was scratch built and generically copied from another one I have from Alby. No wheels with seven spikes in the left over boxes so I used the ones offered  in the Hat WW2 French artillery set of figures. Not exactly the same but at least they have seven spikes and speak French!

After painting the result is reasonable. The figure seating on the limber... Any guesses?... No?... Ok, its the Airfix Luftwaffe figure kneeling with a bomb in a upright position. The right leg was repositioned, the left arm replaced and a new field cap glued was to the original head. 

The idea came from some nice pictures Richard Baber found of the towing vehicle of the 15,5cm K418(f). Later I found another image and more information about Arko 104 and 'Bardia Bill' in the French magazine Batailles &Blindés Hors Série No26.

A third Bison II was added to the 90. Leichte Division this time from MiniGeneral 3d prints. I already have another two from BPM and those would be enough to represent the 12 ever made and used by the 90.LD but I just like the vehicle and if one model tank represents five in RF! terms it can also represent four specially because its Christmas. 

The crew figures are all conversions from Revell, Airfix and Esci. 

The model is quite detailed but a few more extras makes it more lively. 

Returning from Benito's Anniversary (see this blog two posts ago) I added this Altaya Macchi 202 Folgore...

... and this Macchi 205 Veltro fighters. The Veltro was a particularly good fighter and one of the few in the Axis arsenal that could put on a fight with the P51D Mustang. 

A big Thank You to Richard Baber as he stopped me from taking a Somua to Lybia to tow 'Bardia Bill'. 

Next: Normandy 44 a few more12th SS HJ soft skins. 

Rapid Fire!/ Able Archer, The Gulf War in 20mm - The Iraqi 5th Mechanized Division Mohammed Ibn Al-Kasim (Part 4) - Reconnaissance and Artillery

Both the Reconnaissance Battalion and the Artillery Regiment of the 5th Iraqi MD are still incomplete. The Recce battalion is still missing the BTR-50PU and the artillery has even bigger problem as main source indicates 2S1's as the SPG of the regiment. The problem is that such allocation of 2S1 SPG's is unlikely as Iraq received 50 of them and the 3rd Saladin AD seems to have collected all of them. Once again as both the 5th MD and the 3rd AD operated in the same area there may be a understandable mistake here. Nevertheless I keep without knowing which kind of SPG did this regiment had - if any. 

Regarding what is already in the shelves ready for a fight against the glass, the Recce Battalion has three of the BPM Panhard AML. I just added the optical range finder and some crew. 

May be one day I make a few of them for the Portuguese wars in Africa...

The artillery is the Soviet M-46 130mm. I used some parts of the Irregular Miniatures Really Useful Guns range and scratch built the rest with plastic card and tubing. The wheels are from a 1/43 scale rally car.  The figures are Skytrex WWII Americans turned into Middle Easterners. 

Finally the S-60 AA guns are in fact 37mm WWII Soviet guns (Irregular Miniatures again). The overall difference is some as the S-60 has a shield and is slightly bigger  but if one day I find them I'll send these 37mm to the infantry as Iraq had over 250 of them. 

The crew of this AA gun is the Airfix Bofors crew with new heads. 

Next: more 5th MD and its Artillery Corps support or the attached 20th Infantry Brigade.  

Rapid Fire!/Able Archer, The Gulf War in 20mm - The Iraqi 5th Mechanized Division Mohammed Ibn Al-Kasim (Part 2) - The 20th Mechanized Brigade

The 20th Iraqi Mechanized Brigade gathers around a wadi in southern Kuwait to support the attack on Khafji on the 29th January 1991.

The Armoured battalion of this brigade (the 10th Armoured Regiment) was built around the Hobby Master Die-cast excellent T-55. A very important detail is this model is its metal gun barrel which makes it long lasting. I only added a few crewmen and  repainted a few parts including the main symbol of this Regiment, the red bore evacuator. 

The only non-Hobby Master model in this regiment is this Ace T-55.

The command tank of the regiment is another Ace 'Enigma' T-55, this time with two Skytrex figures. These command tanks had no markings whatsoever which led to some confusion along the years. 

Now problems begin. I couldn't find any certainty about the APC's that the three mechanized battalions of the 20th Brigade had. One source says BMP-1, but I think this is due to the proximity of the 3rd Saladin AD. A picture shows a K-63 with a unit's rectangle that may have been from this brigade. To add to the confusion, the 5h MD had during the Iran-Iraq war plenty OT-64 Skot. So I like to think that each of the three battalions had one of these APC's as its main vehicle. 

So I placed in the 2nd Battalion the OT-64 from BPM, which is one of their best models, simple and with very few printing lines. One of them was converted to a command version. 

The other three are normal OT-64. Maybe even they were  never in the OB of the 5th MD as some sources say this division was fully tracked in its APC's but I like to think the opposite. 

The 1st Battalion is equipped with K-63. This time I had no patience  to build my own 'JP models' and used three S&S models. They are the same length as the Red Star and my copies but a bit wider. As S&S are more recent they probably made it closer to the real vehicle.  

The infantry are my usual Esci conversions with Modern Russian and Vietcong bodies and WWII US heads. 

The support weapons are a mixture of WWII US figures and Skytrex metals. The mortar crew includes a conversion of a Matchbox British paratrooper. 

Next: the 26th Armoured Brigade, 5th Iraqi MD. 

Rapid Fire! 6th Guards Tank Brigade in 20mm - (Part 3) 3rd Scots Guards

 

The 3rd Scots Guard advances to the departure line of Operation Bluecoat where they meet the batteries of Achilles TD that will provide protection against the Panzers...

 

This is the last of the brigade's battalion and its again a 1/76th scale unit: the Churchills are Frontline Wargaming and BPM and the Achilles are Britannia.

 

 

The command group has a Frontline Churchill MKVI and a a Frontline conversion with a 95mm gun.

 

 

The normal Frontline Churchills have the 6pdr gun and a few extras: Britannia figures, extra tracks from Churchills and Shermans, antennae, rear fuel drum and plenty of stowage.

 

 

These are the printed models from BPM. They are very similar to the Frontline models and also received the same extras. As they are the latest builds, have nets and some Hessian tape as camouflage.

 

 

Finally the Britannia Achilles. They also have some of the above extras and use some Airfix crews along the Britannia ones.

 

Next: the last four Churchill to the Coldstream Guards. They are 1/72nd scale PSC and will join the ESCI models of  that battalion.

 

  

Rapid Fire! '2008' Portuguese Army in 20mm (part 2) - 1st Mechanized Infantry Battalion of the Brigmec

Just finished the 1st Mechanized Infantry Battalion of the Portuguese Brigada Mecanizada (BrigMec). Due to the recent arrival of the Leopard A2A6 MBT the Portuguese infantry is looking for a solution that provides a modern IFV to go along the Leopard. But due to economic constrains the  workhorse of the Mechanized Infantry is still the US M-113 APC and its variants.

For RF! each infantry company has 9 figures and an M-113.

All M-113 models are 3d prints from Butlers Printed Models. I used a torso of an ESCI modern US figure and made the arms with GW GreenStuff for the Browning firer.

For Battalion support one M-106 with 107mm mortar and a M-150 with Tow-1 is added .

 The crew of the M-106 are again ESCI figures with new arms to fit their new misson.

 For the M-150 I added crew from the Preiser set of modern US tankmen as they use the tankers helmet and not the infantry helmet.

The blob of GreenStuff you see on top of each M-113 is the camouflage net.

The Command company is still waiting for their M-557 that BPM is kindly designing and two Land Rover 110 from Cararama have to do for the moment. Later on these two will pass to more administrative issues.  

Back to the figures you have in this company from L to R a stand with a LAW firer made of the old ESCI figure firing the M-47 Dragon. Still in the same stand is another ESCI figure from the German modern group with a new 'Fritz' US helmet. I converted a number of them as they are carrying true German G3 used by the Portuguese army. On the second stand you have another ESCI modern German carrying the MG42 (still in use here but the most common would have been the HK21) again with new head. The ammo bearer also has a nex box on its right hand and the rifle was placed on its back.  Other stands are a mixture of Revell US with ESCI US and ESCI NATO figures all having their M-16 rifles with cut-off  handlers to look like G3. On each left shoulder there is a small Portuguese flag sometimes not visible due to the camouflage pattern of the uniform.

I also repainted this Altaya M-548 for the SP artillery to be built.  I used again a ESCI figure with new arms and the Browning came from the Revell WWII US infantry set. The camouflage net was made of NOCH Birch leaves dipped on a thick coat of PVA glue that was painted after drying. I already used this trick for my latest batch of Churchill Tanks. 

Finally two F-16 from Altaya in true Portuguese colours were added. Here Altaya distributed all main aircraft used by the Portuguese airforce - F-16, A7 Corsair, Alphajet, etc in national colours.  Only the crew wasn't there before and they are made of GreenStuff, so no two alike.   

Next: probably the two missing companies of Leopard A2A6 for the BrigMec or maybe some M-109s or even a M-88 recovery vehicle I am inventing.

Rapid Fire! Russian Contemporary Wars in 20mm - Butler's Printed Models T-64BV

 

 A few more good models from BPM. These T-64BV easy to clean,  and quite detailed. I only added the antennae, some stowage, figures and the small basket for the discarded MG ammo cases. The only problem with these printings is generally around the tubes of the MG's always too large but on the other hand quite robust.

 

 

 

Due to the amount and time for printing these models become more expensive than most of other BPM models  (11.50 pounds) while a M113 APC is less than half price (5 pounds) probably due to its simplicity.

 

 

Next: The  British 6th Guards Tank Brigade in Normandy or some F-16 for the Portuguese Airforce.

 

Rapid Fire! Russian Contemporary Wars in 20mm - First few Butlers' Printed Models (BMP's fom BPM) and a few more repainted Fabbri tanks.

 

 I've showed you my first experience with printed models when my friend Mario Laranja printed for me 10 T-72B2 that I used for Georgian and Russian forces.

 

A few weeks ago I went to Butler's Printed Models (BPM) site to discover that these guys make a wide range of vehicles for WWI, WWII and modern periods. And nice they are. Not only the plastic is strong enough to cope with rough wargamers hands and their sons as the level of detail is very good. But you can judge on yourself by the picture of these BMP-2.

 

With only two pieces, hull and turret, you have all details necessary from headlights to Spandrel missile launcher. For now you can always find some lines from the printing process of nowadays printing machine. The next batch I ordered will have those lines covered - hopefully- with GW Liquid Green Stuff.

 

 

I took advantage of the primer cloud to paint the last three Fabbri tanks of my T-90 battalion.

 

 

Also one repainted 2S9 Nona from Fabbri already joined the VDV unit.