RFR/Able Archer - The Iraqi III Army Corps support

This is the last video for the ground troops of Saddam in Kuwait. There is artillery, reconnaissance and some navy for the famous southern Khafji landings. The usual brands are Cromwell, Skytrex, Irregular Miniatures, Altaya with the usual scratch building with help from many other brands.

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.

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. 

Not sure about this aerial 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.

The Japanese Infantry Division in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules

Most of these models were inside the cabinets with figures hidden in card boxes and glued to thin card for many years by now. Recently the Pacific bug bit me and this one had to come out, particularly after reading books and seeing films and videos about Guadalcanal. So I painted the last few boxes of Japanese infantry on the stash and mixed them with the old ones already made. For artillery I found Assymetric Wargames in Italy, which makes in 3d printed resin everything you may need for Japanese guns (including prime movers), together with the possibility of getting quickly the great Simon´s Soldiers figures. Regarding tanks and SPs I simply cleaned some dust out of them as they were made for a long time.

Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 2) The Japanese tanks

 

This group was initially planned for the whatever tank encounter of the Pacific from Khalkin Gol to  Saipan or even the last few Battles with the Soviets in 1945. In fact the tank duels in the Pacific, or even a large armored assault by the Japanese, was not a very common sight, specially compared with the Western theaters. In the meantime, Guadalcanal entered as a solid project, and upon reading on the issue, the two main Japanese tank assaults of this campaign (Tenaru and in one of the several actions on the Matanikau) only had between 6 to 10 tanks (Ha-Go and Chi-Ha models) each as the Japanese on the Island(s) were an infantry force with just a few tanks. 

So, besides Guadalcanal, this force allows for pretty much everything you need in terms of Japanese tank actions. 

This Type 89 Chi-Ro is a 3d PLA print from MiniGeneral. This is the type of early tanks used in relatively large numbers which makes a few more necessary.

This one is my most recent Japanese tank with all others made already years ago. As this Chi-Ro is an early version I changed it into a later version with a turret that can be opened and a metal crewman (CP models , I think). 

 

This Type 93 Kokusan by Skytrex was also an early reconnaissance vehicle and, up to now its the only one I have. Maybe Wargaming China can send me few of his Japanese unique and fabulous armored cars? After all that would strenghten the commercial relation between the two neighbors, Portugal and Australia. 

The early mediums Type 97 Chi-Ha with the smaller turret with short 37mm gun. The two to the left are Fujimi and the ones to the right are Airfix. The command version is the Type 97 Shi-Ki with a coaxial long 37mm from Frontline Wargaming.

The Type 97 Chi-Ha with the new turret housing a 47mm gun. The ones closer are Fujimi and the two on the left are Skytrex. On the back are two Altaya die-cast models. 

Again from Fujimi you have here two Type 1 Ho-Ni with 75mm gun and a Type 4 Ho-Ro with  15cm gun from Frontline Wargaming with Fujimi crew. 

The Type 95 Ha-Go is an essential both for Guadalcanal and Tarawa, the two Pacific settings I´m nowadays around. The Ha-go with crewman is Skytrex and the others are Frontline Wargaming. 

The tankette Type 97 Te-Ke and the Type 98 Ke-Ni (sucessor of the Ha-Go) are both Frontline Wargaming. 

The only Japanese artillery I have up to the moment are these two Emhar 75mm model 38 improved (in late war green and not  Artillery Brown as they were originally painted after seeing "Flags of Our Fathers" a late war story) towed by two Frontline Wargaming Isuzu. The crews are conversions from Fujimi and Airfix. 

Next: Whether a video on the Confederates at Gettysburg or the Japanese infantry of WW2. 

Able Archer/ RFR rules - Vietnam in 20mm (part 13) - Reinforcements for the 11th ACR and some more aircraft

 

Some 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) elements advance in the middle of My Blue province when they are surprised by a low flight of some friendly aircraft, that could well have been some Migs... Well, this event was not registred in the unit´s history and its presented here first hand. 

Each squadron of the 11th ACR had three rifle squads (one per troop) transported in M-113 A1. I read that even these ones could also have the ACAV version but the regiment will end up with nine of these so three of the more plain A1 version looks OK. I´m not sure about placing a simple shield in front of the 12,5mm gun but I still couldn´t find a photo of them like this, the ACAV version being the more common. All models are quick build S-Model.

The figures are left-to-right, Skytrex and Airfix modern fighter pilots which suit the US cavalry tank helmet pretty well. 

Each troop also had a M-106 mortar carrier. I used again the S-Model for this conversion using a M-106 from Esci as a template. Bits of different types of plastic were used and even the mortar base came from a Revell 7YW Austrian artillery wheel. 

The crew is Esci and the M-16 rifles were cut until looking like a 107mm mortar shell. Later, the rifle part/shells were smoothed with a bit of  thick acrylic paint. 

As the mortar base was very brittle (old Revell style) I placed a jerrycan covering the damaged part. 

The floor of the M-106 (light sand part) was also raised so the figures and mortar could sit correctly. 

The Cadillac V-100, mostly used by the Military Police, are very old Corgi Juniors toys. The size is around 20mm as I have a number of Saudi V-150 in 1/87th scale that are smaller. 

The resin figures are surplus from the 3d printed PBR boat and the metal figure is Skytrex. 

The Huey Gunship is Revell. 

The Mohawk is the old Hasegawa model. One of these slow moving aircraft managed to put down a Mig-17 with its rockets, something that was kept as a secret up to 2007, as the army didn´t want USAF to know about this feat and force the Army to disarm its Mohawk as putting down Migs was a USAF exclusive. 

This A-4 Skyhawk F is the old Frog in Israeli colors. All these three aircraft got new star and stripes decals from the decals left-over box and all other symbols were hand painted. This one looks particularly bad as the symbold are painted on top of the grey primer as its (just by chance) the same color and painting style of another Skyhawk C from Altaya that I showed you before. 

Next: Guadalcanal models or a video on Bodrum, Gettysburg or Tarawa. 

The French Infantry Corps 1915-18, Great War Spearhead rules in 20mm

This corps, as well most of my WWI miniatures, was built and painted decades ago. This forced the new ones to be painted in the same way as the previous ones, PVA primed and block painted, for the sake of consistency. This also allowed for a much quicker painting method and to bring reinforcements that turned divisions into Corps. Again most of the infantry and cavalry is plastic with plenty of conversions and tanks, artillery and airplanes are resin and metal.

The Soviet Tank Corps, Kursk 1943, for Rapid Fire rules and 20mm size

These large two units, two Russian 1943 Tank Corps, have been on the making for ... hmmm, decades by now. It includes plastic kits made almost 40 years ago and 3d resin prints with a few weeks. The vehicles are Frontline Wargaming, Britannia, Esci, Matchbox, Fujimi, Dragon, MiniGeneral 3d prints, resin 3d prints, Kooperativa, Armoufast, Atlantic (these last two includes some crazy conversions) and Altaya die-cast. The artillery is mostly Irregular Miniatures, Altaya and conversions. The infantry is a mix of all available plastic brands with a few Irregular Miniatures and Skytrex.

Rapid Fire! NW Europe 1944-45 in 20mm - German late heavy reconnaissance

In late 1944 a group of wheeled and tracked German vehicles leaves the protection of Reich-Gazprom forest and probes in the open... in danger of finishing its fuel...

I had this group half built/painted for years and finally they are done. 

These two were the first 234/4 I had. They are Matchbox Puma converted into the 234/4 by opening/carving out the turret support area and inserting a 75mm Pak gun from Airfix. The sides shoud have had a small castle around which I didn´t build and instead some two component paste was used in the form of foliage to disguise the missing parts. The gun was placed a bit too forward but more on that later.

I was thinking these would be enough has I had the idea that Germans never managed to gather many of them in the same division. In fact recently I found a list on the web with the reference of all known units to have had 234/4 (Feldgrau page The Sd.Kfz 234 thread, p.11) in which the maximum allotted to any of the units was 6 of them. But the list only mentions 42 of the 89 Sd.Kfz 234/4 built (no track of the other 47 yet)  so there is always the chance of other units being lucky to have had a larger number. 

So one day another 234/4 came to my hands and this time was the old Airfix model with the wrong mud guards. This time I did the opposite of the previous models and placed Matchbox mud guards in the Airfix body. The result was much better than the previous models as the gun is in the correct position and not too forward. Besides, crewed with Skytrex models it became a very reasonable model.

I was thinking that these three would be more than enough...

 

... until Altaya released a few years ago its magnificent die-cast model. So, with 4 models of the 234/4 I just wish one day to find a damn unit with had at least 20 of the real things!

Last month Super Mário Laranja sent me these two marvelous resin printed PzII Ausf, L "Luchs". This is one of the very few WWII German models I still didn´t have and are pretty useful as they can be used in the Eastern Front (4.PD) and Normandy (9.PD). 116.PD is another possibility as I read somewhere. But the two last PDs belonged to the LXVII Pz Korps in Normandy so there may be a confusion here and 116.PD had no Luchs. Well, this is the pleasure about reading about German Panzers in WW2 - you are never certain :) 

Next: maybe another video on another big unit. 

The DCRs for the 1940 campaign in 20mm and for Rapid Fire! wargames rules

3e DLM for the 1940 campaign in 20mm for Rapid Fire! wargames rules

5e DLC for the 1940 campaign in 20mm for Rapid Fire! wargames rules

This is the smallest of the French division types for the 1940 campaing. The 5e Division Légère de Cavalerie (5e DLC) tried to stop the Germans in the Ardennes and fougth them at Sedan and Abbeville. Its very interesting due to its old material and number of horses. The figures and vehicles are a mix of Simon Soldiers (pioneers and artillerymen); Hat, Esci,Caesar, EWM, Lancer and LesArméesOubliés (horsemen, Motorcyclists and Dragons Portés); Resin prints from Mário Laranja (AMR33, Unic P107BU and Simca Cinq); MiniGeneral PLA prints (75mm field guns and Lafflys), SHQ (SideCars and motorcyclists), Wespe (Renault ADH), Altaya (Panhard 178), Skytrex (H39) and plenty, plenty of my own conversions.

The Afrika Korps, Western Desert 1941-43, for Rapid Fire! rules

This is the DAK / Deutches Afrikakorps of the famous Rommel, or better the three more famous German Division sized units - 15PD, 21PD and 90LD of the Afrika Korps. Still not included is the great Italian "Ariete' armoured divison that together with many other German and Italian units made this famous corps.

Next: PzIIIs for Kursk.

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - French and Belgian counterattack!

At the crossroads of Just Fontaine a group of French Renault R35 with the longer 37mm gun are led by a sole AMC 35. Once again the " Corridor des Panzer" will be cut and the Germans sent back from were they should have never left!  But wait! Some Belgian aid is coming from the north in the form of all available AMC 35 of this army (well, they were only 10, so 2 in RF! terms). Whether French or Belgian they were all produced in Alentejo, Portugal, under MiniGeneral brand of 3D prints, with license from Renault, of course. 

These are my first R-39, one of the names of the R-35 with longer gun (the SA38). Some units of these infantry tanks were lucky and received one per platoon. As they were given to the Co of the platoon all models got a copy of the Skytrex tank commander. The model is very clean and the printing lines are almost invisible. Even so I use the PVA+Old Acrylic Paint to fill the areas were the lines can be more problematic.

The Belgian AMC-35 were the only decent tank of the Belgian arsenal. Even so the Belgian called it an Armoured car not to provoke Hitler, as if he needed to be provoked.  With a turret for two men, an a decent 47mm gun this tank was betrayed by mechnical problems and a thin 25mm armour plate at the front. 

Now for some plastic knowledge. Who recognize the converted Belgian tank commander, hem? 

- You sir, yes the one with the big belly and bottom bottle glasses ( in fact this remark fits most of us)...

- Hmmm, I think its a Matchbox German ...

- Wrong, sir! Now you sir. Yes, you with the salient teeth and bottom bottle glasses (obviously).

- Airfix German 1st edition?

-Wrong again. You, beautiful lady with the mini skirt and melon shaped boobies...

- I think its the Airfix Traffic policeman from the civilian set of 1961...

- Amazing, you won! And here is the proof, second from the left!Congratulations!!!

With the help of a bit of GreenStuff for the glasses and new shaped collar you get a nice Belgian tanker but you will loose a very rare policeman. 

And this is the AMC 35 of the brigadier-chef Poplimont of the Audigier squadron. This is  the last one I needed for this squadron as I already have two from Skytrex,  In spite of having its tank destroyed, Poplimont and its two other crewmen, Vernazza and Bouvier, managed to escape. They are some of the survivors of the massacre of the Audigier squadron on the 8th of june while valiantly attacking, without proper reconnaissance, the Germans at Mont-de-Soissons. 

Next: The Italian Trucks for the Normandy SS, finally. 

Rapid Fire! Normandy 1944 in 20mm - Wurframmen SP time

The Wurframmen of the 2nd PD and PzAbt 205 prepare to unleash a Rocket volley that will - finally, and at the 99th atempt- send the allies back to England from vere zei should never have come!

After showing you my prowesses in the German language lets get back to models!  

I already  have finished some six Esci Nebelwerfers and a few conversions of static Nebelwerfers for Omaha but these ones offer the possibility of having them on tracks. I had these two Skytrex Renault UE Wurframmen for many years and it was about time to be done with them. The Germans converted some 40 of them, 20 each of these two types, and the allies faced them in Normandy. 

Both types, rear and side Wurframmen, got a big Altaya base for aircraft as I wanted to portray them with crew around. These came from the Esci Nebelwerfer and so are particularly fit for the job. The uniforms are Heer while the wheeled Nebelwerfers crews I showed you in the Mortain series are in the SS garments of the 17th PzGrenDiv. 

The last one is the famous Stuka Zu Fuss in an all Esci stand, both vehicled and crew. coming from different boxes.  The Sdkfz 251 Stuka Zu Fuss in Normandy is a relatively recent finding and it was aparently used at least by the Pionner battalion 38 of the 2nd PD as a picture of a destroyed and abandoned one in Falaise shows. 

Sometimes I wonder how efective the German 43-45 vehicle camouflage was. I don't know if its the effect of my kind of ground painting but the German vehicles really blend, at least seen from above, one of the main aims of camouflage. 

Next: some WW2 aircraft, 12th SS transport or something else like a return to moderns.