Rapid Fire! 20mm, D-Day/ Normandy 44, Airfix S-7 Schnellboot

This 1975 model is a fine example of what drove thousands of modellers into our hobby: a very complete and detailed kit representing a famous weapon of WWII.

Not bad for such a 40 YO model. I read that some of details are not accurate but what the heck it looks great when finished!

Of course it has his drawbacks, namely if compared with the newer S-100 from Revell, like many flimsy parts that will self destroy if used, specially, for Wargaming.

But overall a great kit, well detailed, with some excellent crew models and it really looks like the real thing. 

The rigging is thin cord from a sewing kit.

Like many Airfix kits the underwater part is separate which allows the model to be portrayed in a wargames base. 

As always everything is paintbrush. The base is a piece of balsa wood textured with silycone.

I may have rusted it too much wanting to portray an old Schnellboot (model S-7) on D-Day times.

The crew is the native 5 crew from Airfix plus several Esci and Preiser crewmen painted as seamen. 

Pineapple Miniatures - first of the first - Brunswick Army, Quatre-Bras1815

How could I forget to take a picture of the 1st Pineapple of them all?

Of course! No one would think that Pineapple Miniature could reach the world wide prestige it holds now as number 1 product for sale at the Museu Militar do Buçaco! 

The first was a large box packed with 30 Brunswick miniatures - infantry, cavalry  and artillery - Esci transformed miniatures, including a figure of the Duke itself from Waterloo1815.

The flags are hand painted in paper. I remember using avıdly the excellent Osprey book on the subject for painting and scratch building my Brunswickers.

I found this rarity in Izmir, Turkey by puuuuure coincidence in OB house.

How was this possible? 😳

Pineapple Miniatures 1/35th scale - New figures for Portuguese flags,Buçaco1810

This is the second model you can change in the ACTA Belgian figures in order to have new Portuguese flag bearers.

 

To the right you have the original figure.

After a lot of X-Acto work you can take out the musket as you can see in the left figure. 

Then it's time to apply the heat of a lighter to bend the left arm into the desired position.

Finally use the drill (1,5mm)  to make holes in both hands. 

 

A thick broom thread heated also with a lighter, squashed at the end and cut to shape enters both hands and here you have a new figure.

These new ones will carry the military region flags (white, yellow or red field). 

As usual you can find the unique Pineapple Miniatures at the Buçaco Military Museum.

Rapid Fire! 20mm, D-Day/ Normandy 44, German strongpoint by Queen'sHussar.

This is the generic WN (Wiederstand Nest, something like "resistance point") from the late Queen's Hussar. 

This is a several kilo resin part with 3 separate parts for the bunker roofs and a 

metal ex-French FT-17 turret.

Originally I intended it for Omaha beach western strongpoint (WN72) but when this big diorama arrived I realised it was quite generic, and didn't fit the area RF! planned for it.

Even so It's a nice, heavy piece of resin, easy to paint and assemble.

Only some netting and barbed wire was added. Also a piece of cardboard was glued to the bottom part of the diorama to withstand some eventual rough usage.

The figures are Britannia. As Queen's Hussar and Britannia worked pretty close together the standing MG42 fit nicely the trenches.

With all these MG's around, there will be no Ranger left to save private Ryan...

Impetus rules, 20mm - Mohács 1526 - part 2, Household Sipahis in 20mm

Lucky toys Household Sipahis this time.

These Lucky Toys miniatures are just great: well detailed and a very good reconstitution of an Osprey plate of its Ottoman army book.

But only two figures for the cavalry in a box that mixes infantry and cavalry which is a solution that always creates few poses.

 

So all horses and figures were bent slightly into different positions with the help of hot water. 

 

The maces and swords of all cavalrymen were taken out, hands were drilled and a lance was placed.

Also some quivers were made out of Evergreen as only one of the poses had it.

The flags are the ones I made for my self and that you can print from some posts ago. 

Impetus rules, 20mm - Mohacs 1526- part 1, rebased miniatures in 20mm

After a conversation on the phone with my friend JF ( yes, the famous one from Brigada Tripeira and O brigadeiro, the most famous Wargaming sites north of the river Douro, being this one the most famous south of it) he  convinced me  to change my Mohacs 1526 miniatures from DBR to Impetus.

Impetus has some nice big bases that can take lots of figures (up to 14 heavy infantrymen, for instance) and the possibility of creating bases that can be true dioramas. 

Regarding the rules, well... JF say they are great and I believe him! 

Besides you can download the basic version for free from impetus site.

 

The Esci/Italeri Sipahis. 

And the Zvezda/ Miniart Hungarian noble cavalry.

Impetus looks very nice. You can have a nice looking Wargaming table, some very easy and fun mechanics (JF says so), a very supportive site and a lot of well written and investigated supplements.

Lorenzo Sartori, the Impetus and Dadi & Piombo boss is also an enthusiastic and helpful guy. You can contact him and always receive his support. 

6 pdr and 7.7cm FG found in Figueira da Foz

The beautiful beach city of Figueira da Foz kept hidden from my eyes two old artillery pieces, one from WWI and another from WWII.

They are located near the Monument to António Gonçalves Curado, the first  Portuguese soldier killed in WWI (no, don't feel ashamed by not knowing it, I also didn't till I read it on the monument).

This memorial is close to the Guarda Nacional Republicana  (Republican Guard) barracks  in Figueira da Foz.

It's a place visitors and tourists rarely go, and that's why after coming to this city hundreds of times I never bumped into it.

 

This is a Krupp 7.7-cm FK 16, similar to its  older brother FK 96 but with a longer barrel. 

The Germans made this caliber bigger than the French 75mm or Russian 76 so they could use their ammunition if captured but not the other way around.

The other one is a British 6 pdr. This finding would have been very useful when I scratchbuilt the airborne version for my WWII 1st airborne division. 

The sights are still in very good condition and all detail can still be seen.

Pineapple Miniatures 1/35th scale - Leal Legião Lusitana, British 52nd light infantry, French infantry - Buçaco1810

ACTA Leal Legião Lusitana made from the British light infantry box. The flags are the generic Dom João VI era flags. 

ACTA 52nd LI (avenge General Moore ...!).

Hat French coated infantry (Voltigeurs and Grenadiers). 

All this at the usual place, Museu Militar do Buçaco. 

DBR- Battle of Mohács 1526 (part 8) 20mm Hungarian household cavalry

Now for some Hungarian just out of the varnish spray.

Most of figures are Miniart Burgundians and French with some Zvezda French knights. 

Here is Ludwig II ahead of his household cavalry in that mad charge against the Ottoman center.

Take a good look at him cause he died some minutes later and may be the last time you see the young king.

In order to have balanced armies I'll make a group each time of Ottomans  and  Hungarians. 

The flags are colour photocopies of the ones I showed you in part 6.

Hungarian cavalry is great and easy to paint (as all Gendarme cavalry type) :

- black spraying

- apply some dry brush steel colour 

- and later aluminium colour. This will make the knights armatures shine and look cooler. 

The Zvezda horses are quite short in height and look a bit silly with its horsemen on top. That is strange for probably the best plastic small scale figure manufacturer ever.

On the contrary Miniart horses are tall and slim but all this mixed together makes a pleasant sight.

Truly speaking the ones I would like to have are the DDS XVI century knights but these suckers have vanished from the market as no shop seems to have them on stock. I think it was Suleyman...

Military Trakai (Lithuania), March 2014

Trakai castle is one of the most important places in Lithuanian history, a sort of Portuguese Guimarães. 

The area is incredibly beautiful and in this cold March the water of the surrounding lakes was frozen and could support the weight of a man in some places.

The eventual escape route for the king of Lithuania if necessary...

There are several maps of the battle of Zalgiris 1410 (Tannenberg) between the Lithuanians and the Teutonic Knights.

Here the Teutonic Knights were smashed and his Grandmaster Ulrich Von Jungingen was killed. 

Vytautas the great, the victor of Zalgiris and one of the most important figures of Lithuanian history.

Spanish influenced corselet. 

An influenced French armature.

A Lithuanian cavalry helmet of clearly (even more) eastern influence.

Lithuanian costume of the XV century.

The castle was destroyed as a retaliation for the 3rd Lithuanian attempt of taking Moscow (???). What today can be seen is a very well done reconstitution.

A late medieval bombard used mainly as a siege weapon.