Rapid Fire! Market Garden in 20mm - Oddities and such (part 11) - More German wheels and guns for the new RF book

 

This week's finished items for OMG: On top, a Renault AHN will be used to complete Graebner's unit, on the left, a few more 20mm Flak 38, this time towed by Steyer heavy cars and on the right several 120mm mortars to equip both Heer and FJ. 

The Renault AHN is S&S and the figures came from both Valiant German boxes. Unfortunately only one of these Renaults was on the bridge on the 18th September 1944 and thus no more than one can be modelled. 

The uniforms were painted with a mixture of SS and Heer uniforms due to the volunteers that crewed this vehicle and other Ford and Opel LKW and PKW of Graebner's column. 

The MG42 firer originally had a MG15 but the beauties of hard modelling allows you to interchange many parts. The oil drums are clay cast pieces kindly sent to me by Reprimo Wargaming. 

Maybe I will build another truck with oil drums based on the trucks of the previous post (they are a reasonable match for the Fords used by the Germans) in order to have one that represents the eight or so Opel and Ford LKWs that tried to cross the bridge. They are fun to make and the variety of poses provided by Valiant is an appetizer for this extra model. The grassy base will be an eternal problem as the Arnhem bridge had very little of it...

A very different story with these Flak 38. The guns are Minigeneral and most of the crew figures are Revell engineers with new arms. The Sd.Ah.52 tailers are old Esci that came with the 20mm FlakVierling. They were leftovers as I used the gun tubes for something else. New wheels and mudguards had to be added. 

Some cases of 20mm ammo were placed on the new arms of the Revell figures as well as a new pair of binoculars in one of them. 

The stand gets a bit to long with gun and trailer but I think it results in an different and lively piece. 

Two Steyers to pull the Flak 38s from  Raventhorpe RTR range were built straight from the box, that is, painted! Only some foliage made of  two component paste was added. 

Also some badly needed 120mm mortars with Heer crew joined the German shelves. I already have some for the SS and LW infantry but none for the Heer. The crews are Valiant and a few more mortar shells were made of two component paste and placed in rifle armed figures. The shell cases were made of 3mm thick styrene. 

I tried to stick the models into my usual 4cm poker bases but some new 6cm bases had to be cut due to the size of the Valiant figures, true servers of the Nazi doctrine of racial superiority!! Even if big, they are lovely figures that allows a huge variety of poses and conversions. 

Finally one stand of FJ 120mm mortar was made with the Valiant weapon and converted Esci German paratroopers. 

Next: maybe a dive into France 1940 or more OMG. A return to Zululand is also in the horizon...