The German 'Specials' at Market Garden for Rapid Fire! rules in 20mm

These German relatively rare vehicles and with different markings makes a funny addition to a late German force and were also a pleasure to collect. They came from a number of origins namely (better writing them due to my Portoenglish even if the video is an highly professional job with lots of hand movement): - Char B1 Flamethrower - Matchbox conversions - R35 w/ 47mm gun - ShellHole Scenics - Fire Truck - Hasegawa conversion - Dodge w/ trailer - Esci and Airfix - Jeep - Airfix - Panhard 178 - MiniGeneral - Humber MkIV - Matchbox - Renault AHN - S&S - Umbaus - Converted 1/64 die-casts - French 75/36 AA guns and IG37 - scratchbuilts - Pz III F and M - Armorfast and PSC - StuH 42 and Stug III C - Esci - Colorful trucks - Alle-Hop (But you can have them from Aliexpress and such) - Soviet 152mm guns - Irregular Miniatures - Sdkfz 251/21 - Hasegawa conversions - PzV Panthers - Esci and Matchbox - PzVI KingTigers - Esci and Altaya - Command car - 1/64 die-cast

The BR-20 bombers for Rapid Fire! Rules in 20mm size

 

Bombers from the 30s are one of my favorite themes in the history of WW2. I had these two Italeri Italian BR-20s for decades in the stash. Originally they were to be painted in Italian colors and fight in the desert or droping some bombs over England. But two other important users of the BR-20 were the Nationalist Spain and Japan. So, these two flew to these countries as I had no bomber for Franco and only one Betty for Japan. 

These kits are from the seventies but they withstood well the passage of time. These ones are from the 80s but look much more recent. My models had the German version on the cover and date from 1984. 

Around 1937 the Japanese bomber force was in desperate need for a modern bomber for its operations in China as their KI-21 Sally were taking too long to be produced. Knowing of its usage in the SCW, Japan bought 82  BR-20 from Italy. Like this they can be used in the war against China or in the first few months after Pearl Harbor against the Allies. 

The camouflage was the Italian one of the first 72 delivered (the second one of 10 was in the blotches camo you can see on the Spanish model). 

The big Hinomaru are provided in the decals and make the model quite striking. 

 

These should have been shown before the aircraft as they were made first. For a long time I wanted some bomber stands but all solutions didn´t seem right. So I glued two flutes using Araldite resin, as cyanoacrilate produces some vapor in the transparent plastic, and used two CDs as the ground base (heavily textured with small stones for balance) and the aircraft support base (painted sky blue). Like this the bombers are 35cm above the table in a relatively  stable base and fighters can be on top of one flute only at about 17cm height. 

The Spanish model was painted with green blotches using the same sand base as the Japanese version. 13 of them were delivered to Nationalist Spain. 

From period pictures this camouflage looks to have been very effective. Recently I saw a YouTube video on the shooting down of Yamamoto and apparently one of the strenghts of the US airforce in this action was the green painting of their P-38s which, coming from below and over the jungle, were undetected until the last second. 

All markings were hand painted. 

The markings are for an aircraft of squadriglia 230 whose symbol was was a stork catching a frog. 

Next: a video on the German 'specials' for Market Garden. 

The Arnhem/Oosterbeek houses for Rapid Fire! rules in 20mm size

This is a group of the most famous houses of the Arnhem/Oosterbeek battles in September 1944 between the British 1st Airborne and the defending/counter-attacking Germans. Most of them are scratchbuilt in heavy duty card and wood for the bases. The biggest help came from the Then and Now two big volumes on the battle were you can see many of these buildings in period photos but also from the two great RF! supplements on Market Garden. Movies like A Bridge too far and Theirs is the Glory made the rest. In the Netherlands there is a RF wargamer called Ludwig that also made this and much more covering the entire area. If you look for him in RF related articles you can find plenty of his tasty pictures. Obviously if you don´t want to scratchbuild these structures you can go resin or nowadays 3d prints were all this material is also available.

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. 

Great War Spearhead II - Gallipoli 1915 in 20mm (part 13): The New Zealand brigade

I´m almost 100% sure that Peter Jackson must have played in his younger years with the Airfix US WW1 infantry thinking they could give the New Zealand figures for Chunuk Bair and all the actions of the New Zealanders at Gallipoli in 1915. This is of course before he became very rich and being able to order his own thousands of Perry beauties in 54mm. 

Years ago I amassed a few boxes of Airfix US WW1 infantry thinking to cut off their heads, place some brodie helmets and sending them helping win the war in the Western Front. Then, almost 20 years ago, Hat and Imex made boxes filled with helmeted US infantry and the Airfixes quickly became obsolete. So these boxes were cornered in the stash and their prospects of a grim future were quite real eventually finishing in the hands of kids of about 10 or 12 who only know how to play with cell phones! My goodness, what a way to go!!

When I started this Gallipoli series I quickly found the Airfix US to be useful for the New Zealanders. In fact only the Wellington battalion had the Lemon Squeezer hat but I placed it in all four battalions as this hat became a symbol for Kiwi soldiers all along the 20th century. The hat depicts Mount Taranaki and has a khaki and red puggaree around it. The New Zealanders uniform was in fact a greener tone than this brown khaki (Vallejo English Uniform) but if you decide to use, say, the British figures as more New Zealanders in a skirmish game, you can have a more coherent looking large unit. In fact the same logic applies to the Australians as all these countries had full or partial bits of the British uniform making all Dominion units in the campaign interchangeable if the same khaki remains. 

Lieutenant Colonel George malone is one of the heroes of the campaign and the Co of the Wellington Battalion. He was also the introducer of the Lemon Squeezer hat in the Wellington battalion, which later was adopted in 1916 by the full 1st NZ infantry division. Strangely I could not find any picture of Malone with his hat of adoption at Gallipoli as he always shows in the British peaked cap. The figure used for him is the Airfix British officer with the sword heated and cut until a revolver shape was obtained and scabbard taken out. I didn't take out  the full head but only the hat due to the lovely moustache presented on this figure, ideal for George Malone. Then a Lemon Squeezer was super glued. Malone died at Chunuk Bair on the 8th of August after leading its battalion in an impressive dawn assault that conquered the position. Initially his orders were to attack in broad daylight with the rest of the brigade, which he refused only to prove himself right a few hours later.  

Even so there are a few pictures of him using the Lemon Squeezer as this one taken in Egypt while the Wellington battalion was training. Note the swords quickly discarded by the officers at the front. In my miniature he is leading the Brigade which simply was not true as he was battalion commander, the brigade Co being Brigadier General Francis Earl Johnston, someone of much inferior fame. In the fantastic Peter Jackson/Perry brothers diorama of the attack on Chunuk Bair, Johnston´s figure is seating with his hands on the head not knowing what to do. 

The Airfix box has no MMGs and only a few Chauchats in a strange bipod, useless for the Kiwis. 

I found four Airfix 8th Army Vickers tubes (only one had its tripod ) and quickly some plastic tripods were made in plastic and glued with Hot Glue and Super Glue. The operators are for the No 1 the figure firing the grenade launcher (useless here as the weapon was only introduced in 1916) and the No 2  is the one on hold with the rifle close to his body. No3 is the laying down figure with no changes. At the beginning I was thinking to cut the arms and replace them all with GreenStuff ones but an usual attack of laziness forced me to use the arms as they were just changing slightly its position with some heat. In the end the result is not that bad. 

The riflemen all got plastic bayonets and backpacks. The uniform was the Territorial model 1912 and, with all that red was considered 'extravagant' and replaced after the Gallipoli campaign. 

The US cartridge belt was not disguised and simply painted as part of the NZ/British 1908 webbing set. 

The backpacks were made from Milliput and glued with super glue. All these extra parts, backpacks and bayonets, stay nicely on the soft plastic if first super glued, then painted and finally varnished. 

Next: my own Fort Capuzzo in WW2. 

Rapid Fire! Western Desert 1940-43 in 20mm - The last two battalions of the British Brigade (no,no, different post from previous one)

 

After the Aussies left the table from their photo shoot the Brits came in, so even if they look alike these are two different posts. These are the two last battalions for the British Brigade for the Desert 1940/43. This Brigade is the only one I have fully with the Brodie helmet, with all other Commonwealth brigades, Hindu, Scottish and Australian using their most known headdress (turban, Balmoral and slouch hats). The New Zealand is at its beginnings and they will be WW2 British bodies with lemon squeezer hats from  Airfix US WW1 infantry. 

As I generally do I mixed figures from brands that are similar in size. Specially the helmets, when of different scales (1/72 or 1/76) make figures very different when placed side by side. Here, Revell, Airfix copies and Hat are all mixed to a good effect. 

The only Matchbox and Airfix 1st version figures came together in the 2 and 3-inch mortar stands. When put together in the same stand they look ok with helmets of the same size. 

The 2- inch mortar was scratch built and its No1 operator was the Matchbox figure firing the Bren gun. The same happened to the Boys AT rifle operator who now has a 3d printed one. 

The command groups mixes all possible brands of the same size. 

A few LMG figures in the rifle companies have scratchbuilt Lewis replacing their Bren. It just gives them a bit of "Beau Geste" looks, maybe still up to 1940, but I think the British Infantry had them already fully replaced by the Bren LMG. Even so there may be chance of them being used by the infantry in the desert as many Bren were lost at France in 1940 and something had to be used instead.

Next: The New Zealand Brigade at Gallipoli 1915

Rapid Fire! Western Desert 1940-43 in 20mm - The last battalion of the Australian Brigade

Being lately around Gallipoli, and looking the figures with bush hats still to be made, I decided to make the last battalion of Australians for North Africa/Crete. 

Once more I wanted some bulky Aussies and so the Airfix Chinese copies and the Revell figures were used together with some 8th army figures of the same origin. Also a few more Hat and Revell Australians were added to the command and support stands. 

Also a Revell figure is manning the 2'' mortar together with Hat British on the Boys A/T rifle, a true Aussie from Airfix on the radio and an Esci Colonial British gave his body to an Australian head. 

The 2'' mortar and ammo container were made as usual from pieces of plastic card. 

The arm of the Hat Bren LMG figure was changed in order to hold a 3d printed Boys A/T rifle. I placed the laying down figures in a blob of glue gun for my mixture of sand and cat litter not to sink the miniatures. 

The other support stands came from a mix of Esci, Revell and Hat. 

The typical infantry companies had a number of head swaps. The Revell figures are bigger than the Airfix but they go well with the Chinese copies. 

Next: The two last battalions of the British WW2 desert infantry or the Gallipoli New Zealanders,  

Great War Spearhead II - Gallipoli 1915 in 20mm (part 12): Turkish reinforcements for all arms

In this group photo you see two of the three available boxes from Hat (cavalry and artillery) and a Made In Macau vintage staff car. The artillery box is an amazing offer as it contains artillery (105mm FH 98/09 models with crew), snipers, HMGs (MG08), bomb boys, officers and cavalry. 

The snipers were placed in the usual 4cm poker disks. In order to disguise the sheen of the barrel I painted the rifles sand in order to imitate the cloth in which many sniper rifles are covered with.  

Colonel Mustafa Kemal, CO of the 19th Infantry Division, and later of the whole Turkish army at Gallipoli, came from one of the extras in the cavalry box. In fact the Hat cavalry box gives 15 figures and 12 horses and it's easy to use other horses for the extras. Kemal used both horse and car to move around Gallipoli. Yes, there are two blue dots for the eyes but they are barely visible. 

A Vauxhall Prince Henry 1914 from a lot of eight I bought in our local flea market became the Staff car of the army. 

The figures came from the artillery box and include a German advisor. The driver is converted from the crawling Japanese from Atlantic. As the knife is on the mouth it became a very typical Turkish moustache of those days. 

The diecast used is quite close to the one used by Colonel Mustafa Kamal (later, president of Turkye, more known as Atatürk - father of Turks) at Gallipoli during 1915.  

The Bomb Boys  are an interesting addition inspired probably in a famous Osprey plate. These kids served replacing their fathers and here all have the rank of sergeant. 

The Artillerymen are using the old white uniform that could still be seen at Gallipoli. 

The 08s have a third figure from the rangefinder figure on the artillery box (bottom row) and from the laying down Esci British Colonial figure (top row). 

The cavalry is a straight out the box simple painting with two extra horses from Italeri. 

Next: The New Zealand Brigade at Gallipoli or more Desert WW2.