Rapid Fire! 20mm Normandy 1944 - Tiger battalions

After showing you the Tunisian Tigers, it's time for the Normandy Tigers.

There were three of these battalions in Normandy, two from the SS and one from the Heer. The one you can see here mixes the Tiger II, of which only the 503 Sch.Pz.Abt. had one company (later two), and the Tiger I, in the two other companies (the Tiger I was the mainstay of the other two SS battalions, 101 and 102).

Here they are at a rear area in the Normandy bocage.

                             

Once again the inspiring RF! images in their books are responsible for this layout.

                             

A Tiger I (Dragon) is towed by a Famo (Altaya) with Preiser crew. In reality only two Famo could pull one of these tanks. 

                               

This BergeTiger did not exist in Normandy (only three of these tigers were produced) but this is a Tiger unit so where else should I place it? The crew is an unknown metal and two Esci figures.

                               

These BergePanthers are the recovery vehicles of the Tiger Abteilungen, alongside the Famo. This one is Altaya with a Esci crewman.

One of the most dreaded sight of the allied tank crewmen... The Tiger I´s are Hasegawa; old Airfix soft plastic (heavily transformed, including new mantlets) and Fujimi.

                           

The Tiger II company: the one to the left is a 1/72nd scale Altaya; the two to the right are Fujimi 1/76th scale.

                            

The same Altaya Tiger II you can see in the previous photo after some repainting in order to make it more similar to the Fujimi´s.

                            

German bailed out tank crewmen. These are once again based in the Esci soft plastic british infantry as I did to the british baling out crews. After extensive X-acto action, an Airfix Afrika korps cap was added. They can be bailing out or coming from the Munich beer festival, you choose.

                             

A metal Britannia crewman watches the skies looking for Jabos.

The foliage is a mix of several brands for HO trains. I aplied it both in tank and stand.
This Tiger I is a chinese made kit, from a manufacturer also responsible for the BergeTiger. Anyone remembers the manufacturer´s name?  

Rapid Fire! 20mm Tunisia 1943 - More German AFV's

Well, the poll for the brand and scale of the latest Pineapple Miniatures is over as all offers are already sent for many parts of the world, as you can see in those numerous post comments.

Coming back to normal life, a few more German AFV'S for Tunisia.

The Pz III N that accompanied the Tiger I. Repainted Altaya model. 

Sdkfz 233 from Altaya.

The crew is Esci and Atlantic.

38 (t) with 7,5 cm from Esci.

The two crew men that comes with the kit are some 30 years old but still fit very well alongside the more recent ones.

Stug III F/8 from Esci with Hasegawa crewman. Only one model is necessary as only three were given to 10th PD.

Look, a new Pineapple breed is born ...

 

The one who guesses 

1. brands (there are three)

2. scale ...

...gets one PAINTED for  free!!!

If you look closely there are some hints to help you...

   And here they are at the Buçaco  Museum itself. From this perspective you have more hints to help you find the solutions. 

  And you better rush as the miniatures to offer are only a few hundred. Now to the many who asked (as you can see in Comments): someone who answers correctly will have to come here at this basement to collect his miniature.

Rapid Fire! 20mm Tunisia 1943 - Tiger tanks

The biggest problem about modelling Tunisian German Tigers are their colours and camouflage.

Both Concord, Steel Masters and Squadron Signal books have their own theories and colour plates. From olive green to yellow desert everything is possible but nothing certain.

Some colour photos from old Life magazines showed that at least some Tigers were painted in a dull green/brown. I will avoid the Ral reference but the references to Ral 7008/8020 and 8000 are only more confusing.

Then some light was placed on the subject when one of the few remaining Tiger tanks in the world - the Bovington  Tiger - suffered extensive works that made it operational. 

After lots of money and time being spent by their dedicated personnel we can see a very careful study of colours and camouflage in the Bovington Tiger and, probably, the best up to the moment.  

These tanks are Altaya (back row and crew less) and Hasegawa ( front row). These last two were given to me by Jorge Faria.

The command tank number 100 is hypothetical as there is no reference to it.

The unit just needed a command tank.

Crew is PSC and Hasegawa.

Another figure from PSC, surplus from their PZ III.

Tigers in Tunisia had the Feifel air cleaner assembly which was discarded in later version of the Tiger I.

The markings of the Tigers in Tunisia included the turret numbers, larger and red (some say green/brown tank colour) and white for the 501st Battalion and smaller and red for the ones of 504th Battalion. When the 501st was included in the inner organisation of the 10th PD their turret markings started by 7 and 8, references of their new companies.

I used GW paints, Steel Legion Drab for the base and Catachan Green for the camouflage. Not totally pleased with it but at least they don't get mixed easily with other desert material.

28mm AOE Waterloo 1815 - Simmer division

This is the last infantry division missing from the total of nine used by the French at Waterloo.

Simmer (19th) infantry division was used against the Prussians on the right flank.

Most of the figures are Perry Miniatures.

Simmer figure is a metal Irregular Miniatures with plastic arm and head from Perry.

The command stands have a metal Irregular Miniatures officer and a drummer and flag bearer from Hat.

The charging markers officer (Irregular) have Victrix coats glued to their backs. The coats  were taken from the Imperial Grenadiers box. Irregular Miniatures portrayed a light infantry officer as you can see by the cuffs but I didn´t change it as there was some indivuduality in officer´s uniform and probable transfers from unit to unit.

The still missing units of my Waterloo French army are the  2 Imperial cavalry divisions; 4 Chasseurs à Cheval cavalry brigades and most of the artillery.

AOE 28mm 92nd Highlanders, Waterloo 1815

Last unit to be added to my Waterloo allied army. All miniatures are Victrix Miniatures.

The skirmishers are not for AOE rules as this set of rules is brigade level. Nonetheless they may suit any regimental level set of rules or a future homemade one.

Lucky enough the flags for the  92nd Foot are inside the Victrix Highlanders centre company box.

I only used this box for the whole unit as the arms of flank companies came from the  box of British regulars, which contain plenty of them.