Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 6) 4th Japanese infantry battalion, an unwanted guest and HMGs

 

One more Japanese infantry battalion in order to start the 2nd infantry regiment. Nothing new here, with the usual Matchbox, Airfix and Esci hard plastic. 

The unwanted guest is obviously this Marmon Herrington with Italian 20mm Breda gun from the nice people of Asymmetric Wargames for the first desert Rapid Fire! supplement. The crew is an old Airfix with bonnet and a Xan Miniatures figure. 

I was out of 7,7mm Type 92 HMGs and I cranked up these ones from 3d printed US Brownings with cut out ammunition boxes, plastic card tripods and elevators. The result isn´t a great thing as I was lazy to make them totally from scratch. The only good thing about them is that they are big which is not the tendency of most manufactures who make the Jukis very small.  The two HMGs to the left are Hotchkiss (very close to the Type 3)  from Strelets as well as the 81mm mortar. The crews are mostly Atlantic conversions with the HMGs firing figures made from torsos with burned legs and GreenStuff arms.

Next: More Japanese  

The Mediterranean and N/A air battles in WW2 (British Vs Italians) for R...

The name is just an excuse to show its three parts: the British desert aircraft, the Regia Aeronautica (the original aim of the video but just too little) and a British Aircraft Carrier. The Aircraft Carrier is scratch built and the aircraft are from the usual brands plus Super Model for many of the Italian aircraft.

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 8) - The AA Bofors of the Fusiliers Marins and a few more emplacements

The Bir Hakeim series continues this time with the 40mm Bofors for the Fusiliers Marins and respective trucks and a few more different emplacements. 

The V shaped emplacements are slightly different from the previous ones due to the wooden cover being placed close to the curve instead at the corners. The straight trenches are just something different as I´m making also trenches that can be used in other scenarios. 

The the FFL Bofors were pulled by Chevrolet trucks and not by Morris CS8 4X2. These are cheap Chinese trucks bought at Ale-Hop with a part of the cargo bay cut out. The guns are Airfix. 

The idea was to get to this. 

The figures were challenging as I don´t have many more artillerymen left suitable for this task. So all are conversions with the French Fusiliers Marins bonnet. From left to right:

- the Airfix standing figure on the 6pdr set;

- the driver is a 1st edition Airfix DAK figure manning the 2,8cm Panzerbüchse;

- a Preiser civilian (I think from one of the train station sets) .... 

- the Airfix Australian carrying a box;

- another 1st edition Airfix DAK;

- a Revell figure from their WW2 Scottish set. 

Next: Barbed wire for Bir Hakeim or Plancenoit 1815. 

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 6) - The Morris CS8 w/25mm AT gun at Les Mamelles

 

A "Jock" column makes a reconnaissance mission around the Bir Hakeim perimeter on the night of 25th May, 1942. In order to get some inspiration for the fight they know its coming  the group stop at Les Mamelles (the breasts) with some of them remembering the delights of the Moulin Rouge while others get into dirty talking. 

The Airfix six-wheeled Morris is, unfortunately, only good to tow the Bofors 40mm AA gun. I searched other usages but found nothing. On the contrary the gun itself can be used by many armies which is something that I´ve been doing but with different tows (Poland 39 with CP2; FFL with Ford/Dodge, etc) . After making a few combinations of tow and Bofors gun for the British, the pile of Morris CDSW was good only for conversion to its older and smaller brother, the Morris CS8. 

There were 18 25mm AT guns with the Free French at Bir hakeim. I suppose most of them were of the naval type with a larger shield than the infantry version. I don´t know how many of them were of the naval type or on SP mode like these ones but like this the FFL gets some interesting and rather unique vehicles. 

All figures are converted Hat with one Matchbox figure. 

The Morris CDSW got all the rear part changed with only one set of wheels (glued at the middle of the two sets of the original model version) and the construction of a new and shorter cargo bed. 

The gun itself is made from two types of hard plastic. I only mesure the lenght of the guns and work from within until the majority of the details are there. 

All trucks got a French FM 24/29, in fact 3d printed Bren but a close one. 

The windshields are again pieces of EverGreen plastic. 

Les Mamelles were carved from thick 10cm blocks of BlueBoard.  Frankly I don´t know the correct shape of Les Mamelles around summer 1942 as I can´t find proper images on the Web, books, or magazines. When you google it three big water cisternes shows up and connected to Bir Hakeim: 

I think this has nothing to do with Bir Hakeim but even so gives a reasonable idea of the Arab cisternes of the region. 

"No one will take from us les Mamelles"

Next: a few weeks off and then in late August more Bir Hakeim and the last of the three battalions of the late1944 US PIR. 

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 4) - The Fusiliers Marins enter the fray.

 

The Fusiler Marins battalion at Bir Hakeim was manning the anti aircraft guns of the garrison. They had old 25mm and 13,2mm guns together with some 40mm Bofors. 

A photo of a 13,2mm gun on top of a truck manned by Fusiliers Marins inspired me to make this one. I looked for a proper truck and only had at hand these giant cheap Aliexpress one-piece trucks already used for some Italian and British SP guns. The problem was that the truck is too big and would dwarf the gun so two main changes were made: the truck was cut down in some 1,5cm lenght at the back and the gun became the bigger dual 25mm AA gun. 

The gun itself was made from a leftover double-barreled Esci 20mm Flakvierling part with all other parts being scratchbuilt in plastic card. 

After some crew and symbols it looks reasonable. 

The nasty cut at the back was disguised with electric glue and some 3d resin barrels and jerricans were also added in order to trick the eye to the humble origins of the truck. 

The crew had to be made of big figures so the bodies of the Hat British support weapons figures were coupled with Valiant heads of the 1st set. Some of these soldiers at least had British equipment at Bir Hakeim so these ones also have it which made things easier. 

The figures were heavily coverted like the one sitting and manning the gun as originally the figure is kneeling. Some small tufts of milliput were placed on top of the berets for that unique looks of the French Fusiliers Marins. 

A second P-40 joined the air battle above Bir Hakeim this time a repainted Altaya, originally a fighter at the service of the Chinese air force. 

The new trench is suitable for the emplacement of a 75mm gun in the round center and two other support guns or command stands at the corners. Again I wanted it to look Bir Hakeim but being able to be used in other Mediterranean campaigns. 

The fabulous Bir Hakeim collection of terrain and figures of Stephen Tunmore inspired me to make a wooden cover for the gun emplacement. I wonder were the FFL found the wood in the middle of the Lybian desert with the best option being that it was carried on the back of trucks from far away! 

I like to place some grey/dark brown wash on the sand before drybrushing the whole set with light sand as it gives some depth to these bare pieces of terrain. 

 

Some gauze on top of the wooden structure and its done. 

The aim of this was to place the 75mm gun inside and it looks the part. The cover was made tall enough for 25 pounders or even a 88mm gun.

On regard of terrain I found on the Web this lovely and rare picture of the Turkish fort, already in German hands were you can see the bent wall and the Roman cisternes on the top right corner. 

Next: Bir Hakeim company trenches or the US 3rd PIR.

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 2) - The infantry for the Free French 1st Brigade

Did you ever think why the Free French didn´t have any tanks at Bir Hakeim? I mean, the position was avoiding the encirclement of the full 8th army from the south and having no tanks looks strange. Well, I will tell you the story I found: 

In fact there was a M-3 Lee tank attached to the Free French. With its two guns and reasonable protection it woud have been a formidable opponent to the Axis armour at Bir Hakeim. The problem is that it was spotted by an old Italian Breda BA-65 on its way to the Italian Aviation Museum in Rome. It was still carrying some of its bombs and one fell just on top of the Lee blowing it to bits. Fortunately, the crew was out of the tanks as they had eaten a full meal of Couscous that somehow made them feel bad (some say it was the water...) and they were all behind a wadi discharging their intestinal content. 

Of course all this story is rubbish. I found last week the Altaya Lee and the Rare Plane Vacuform (older than me) at the nice Leirimodel exhibition in Leiria some 60km from Coimbra. After finishing them I decided to go to round two of my Free French making the necessary infantry. Round one can be seen here: http://jpwargamingplace.blogspot.com/search?q=tanake

My idea is to have the full Free French  for RF!  and all the defensive positions as I have already the Ariete Division and the DAK so there will be a few more posts on the subject. 

I was eager to get to the white kepis of the FFL as the two Strelets boxes - infantry and support weapons - makes them justice. The 13e demi-brigade had two battalions that can be seen here. A big thanks to Don McHugh for showing me the OB of the Free French for Rapid Fire!

Clearly taken in the fog-of-war this picture shows the support weapons box that gives you what you need for the entire two demi-brigades and still some figures that can be used elsewhere. 

The battaillon de marche No2, coming from nowadays Central African Republique, was made from converted Strelets leftovers and a few Airfix and Revell. The Strelets figures had its kepi peak taken out in order to look like the Chechia and the British helmets of the other figures were cut out until looking like a Chechia.

                    

The pith helmets of the Strelets figures went all to the BM2 as I saw pictures of this unit using this headgear. For the Bataillon du Pacifique I will use British figures already made as this battalion has many pictures with the Brodie helmet. 

The Command stand can be for Brigade or for any of the demi-brigades. The 75mm is Minigeneral coupled with some ugly printed wheels I had around as the originals were spoked. 

The Altaya Lee got extra stowage and the usual black wash followed by some sand drybrushing. Now I have 10 of these (Lee/Grant)in British desert camouflage and this is the number I wanted acording to my calculations for the maximum number of models in a British armoured division in a 1 to 5 ratio.  

This old Vacuform Rare Plane BA-65 got new wing MGs made of plastic and a carved bay where an Airfix gunner and MG was inserted as this model didn´t have this option that is far more interesting. This plastic is easily cut but becomes extremely light in the end. The model had already lost the windshield and only the fuselage support was left to be painted. 

Next: Bir Hakeim fortifications. 

Rapid Fire! Western Desert 1940-43 in 20mm - First New Zealand Battalion

Another battalion for the Western Desert and Crete parading this time in front of the captured Fort Capuzzo. And, again, an highly improbable one due this time to the lemon squeezer hats. Most probably the New Zealand infantry used always the Brodie helmet in action but modelling them with their cherished hat makes them distinguishable on the table and/or shelves.

For that I used plastic British from all sources with pinned heads from Airfix US WW1 infantry. Even if some are 1/72 and others are 1/76 they end up forming a realistic group . Well, not counting the hats, of course. StreletsR has a nice box of these guys if you prefer not to loose time converting them and piercing your fingers.

Here, (L to R) Matchbox, Esci and Airfix all living happily in the same stand. The Esci figure got a new head and also a new arm as the original is holding a pistol and something more administrative was necessary. 

Both mortars are scratchbuilt (the 3'' has a bipod from an airplane landing gear) with figures from all brands. The middle figure in the 2'' stand is the old Airfix holding a Bren. The ammunition magazine was carved out for the figure to look as if carrying an ordinary rifle. 

As an example this company is made of  figures from the Matchbox,  Esci and Airfix 8th army boxes and  Esci WW2 box. 

Next: Russian Tor systems to finish the BTGs AA groups. 

Rapid Fire! Western Desert 1940-43 in 20mm - Fort Capuzzo

Fort Capuzzo was an Italian large structure in the Lybian and Egyptian border built in the 20s to prevent the passage of the Sanussi tribesmen. In WW2 it changed hands several times as it was placed right in the middle of most of the more important offensives from both sides.This fort has been on my plans for some time. I never had the Airfix desert fort nor any nice resin fort and I wanted something with the proper gate of Fort Capuzzo. At the same time the building should be used in other periods of history (more on that later) as it should be something like 40cmX40cm. In fact it ended 40cmX33cm, large enough for a RF battalion to be placed inside. 

While looking for Lego Bionicles for my 6 years old boy in a Chinese shop I found these 1 euro tower & walls from the Christmas period. I brought four of them and Capuzzo started to have a shape, at least on my mind. 

With the help of the cheap 1 euro models and BlueBoard the construction was an easy affair. All windows were covered with hot glue gun  and the whole structure was glued to plywood. Soon I realized that the turrets should have been much shorter but it was too late. 

The gates of the turrets were turned inside and some makeshift inner doors are suddenly possible.

The way other periods of history are possible for this fort is by making the inscription "Ridotta Capuzzo - Amseat- "in a piece of clear plastic... 

... and take it out whenever is necessary. The plastic piece just need to sit in some L shaped pin. 

The most recognizable part of Capuzzo was its gate and some work was placed on it. Even so I skipped many details for this structure to be as generic as possible. 

BlueFoam was used in most structures as its a resistant and easy to work material. 

The blue foam was carved with brick shapes to go along with the plastic of the original tower & walls models.

When building something like that you have the choice of building it in a pristine pre-war looks or with  some sort of damage. 

I went for the second and with the help of some plastic breaking, small pebbles and a hot glue gun something already destroyed was achieved. 

The fort was in fact not a single structure but a big number of dwellings and separate buildings and walls. 

I kept as simple as possible thinking also about placing some extra buildings inside and outside of the fort. 

The true Fort Capuzzo from the sky. The towers were more detached from the walls than in my  model and the number of buildings was simply too much to replicate. In the end, a couple of extra desert buildings inside and outside will do the trick. 

Next: maybe some WW2 Mediterranean New Zealanders.