The Slovak Fast Brigade at Lipovec 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! - Part 6: The vz.37 anti tank guns and the Engineer Company

The vz.37 was the standard 37mm gun used by the Slovaks. In the Fast Brigade they existed in the infantry battalion, the tank battalion and in the Mixed Reconnaissance Force making a total of eight models (close to forty in real numbers).

 

I was a bit lazy and made four of them as they don´t have tank opposition in the Soviet side at least in our Blue Book scenario. For that I used the Hat surplus wheels of the IG75 and all the rest was made in plastic card. The figures were the usual WWI Ottomans with Airfix paratrooper´s heads.

 

A good thing about most of these figures is that they have the same type of harness as these ones in particular were manning the 08 MMGs. 

The gun became close to the original maybe a bit longer than it should specially in the tube. 

Three of the crewmen are laying down with a range finder. I´m not sure if this device was proper to these small anti-tank guns but I´m now short of artillerymen. 

As I also run out of ESCI Italians some Airfix figures were used for the Engineer Company. I found nothing on the appearence of these guys apart from the brown colar patches and so I followed the trend of Simon´s Soldiers French engineers with backpacks and shovels for these too. 

The only different figure is the flamethrower who is made from an ESCI Afrika Korps torso as these guys here in this picture with an overall suit and no puttees. 

One more unit finished. Now still a few things to be done:

- Some staff cars (x3) and a motorcycle.  

- The last few Skoda (x3) and Praga trucks (x6) and the LT-35 tanks (x2).

- The AA guns (x2) and the mountain gun (x1). 

Next: more Slovaks 

The Slovak Fast Brigade at Lipovec 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! - Part 5: The vz.30 100mm artillery guns

 

These ones were a true challenge. After looking at the excellent Brushes and Bayonets blog

http://brushesandbayonets.blogspot.com/2019/12/fow-slovak-artillery-10cm-vz30-battery.html

that makes its fantastic stuff in 15mm, I decided to use the Hat industries box of Ottoman WWI artillery with four excellent 10.5cm field howitzer and plenty of figures that can easily be adapted to Slovak needs. I already made a box of these for my Gallipoli Turks and they are extremely useful as the basis for a number of armies and guns and that includes the artillerymen. 

The figures got British paratroopers heads from the old Airfix set. Another good source of Slovak helmets is the ESCI British paratrooper set as the helmets become bigger and with the correct shape. The only thing you need to to is to cut some camouflage cloth strips and use several layers of paint to eliminate the helmet´s net. You can see one of them kneeling in the top right corner. The figure holding the range finder (below the figure with ESCI head) was originally lazily laying down and was heated with a lighter and placed in a standing position. 

Here can be seen the most important changes on the guns: the shield, including the seat on the right side; the longer barrel and the cradle. The range finder figure is on the more distant vz.30 gun. 

The shield was made from plastic card and bent to shape in hot water (followed by cold water). A number of details are necessary on the shield as some vertical bars along the elevation opening, the vision port and the elevation blockade on top of the shield. 

The cradle is simply a block of polystyrene. The spade box was glued as if stuck on the ground already. 

Some ammunition boxes were added in the end and all was set. 

As you can see the Esci Paratrooper´s head (kneeling to the rear) works better than the Airfix head. The holes in the rubber wheels were simply painted as they looked too tricky to carve. 

A photo of the real thing. Not the easiest gun to scratchbuild as you can see. 

Next: More Slovaks, namely some AA and AT guns and also the engineers. If mail arrives in time there will be extra LT-35 tanks and Praga trucks. 

The Slovak Fast Brigade at Lipovec 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! - Part 4: second group of trucks and cyclists

 

The Skoda 6ST6-L (they could have given these things an easier name) were used to pull the vz.35 105mm guns but you can find them carrying infantry in period photos. You can solve this issue by ordering Wespe models from Romania which are excellent but these three would have been close to 100 euros PP included. After a blog conversation with Neil Patterson I went to convert three Opel Blitz from the stash and the result is reasonable. Maybe the fourth one necessary will be Wespe as I´m curious about the true size of this truck in 20mm size. 

Masters ordered us to have two companies of cyclists for the Lipovec scenarios and these had to be somehow converted as there are no Slovak cyclists anywhere for sale. Even Masters converted some Raventhorpe Germans for that effect. These will have the basis of the Hat German cyclists and were duplicated in resin. 

This is the drawing of the Skoda truck. The main changes in relation to the Opel Blitz are the cooling entries on the engine part, the six wheels for a tandem rear axle, the boxes on the chassis and the tilt size and shape. 

Here you can see the main transformations still before the increase of the tilt. The similarities between the two trucks are evident. 

The windshields were covered with plastic card as Airfix doesn´t provide clear plastic parts. 

The undercarriage became a bit messy (or Ronaldo if you prefer) as I used hot glue to level the wheels). 

A layer of Milliput was applied a few millimeters below the tilt to make it bigger than the Airfix one. The cargo bed on the Skoda is also smaller than the one on the Opel Blitz so everything goes well in terms of general dimensions. 

The cyclists are Hat Germans with ESCI Japanese heads. 

The cyclists were duplicated with BlueStuff and Araldite two component resin. 

Most of heads became a blob of indistinguishable shape and were replaced with heads from the British paratroopers Airfix set. Milliput was used to correct arms and hands as many were not printed in resin. Finally a piece of plastic was drilled on the rifle socket as these ones were taken out in order to duplicate the parts more easily. 

In the end you can have a merry bunch of Slovak cyclists were no two are alike. 

Next: More Slovaks as this is a challenging group. 

The Slovak Fast Brigade at Lipovec 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! - Part 3: first trucks and artillery (105mm vz.35)

 

While at the IWM I noticed the similarities between the Soviet 122mm M38 howitzer on the second floor and the hard to find Slovak gun 105mm vz.35 from which  two models are necessary for the Lipovec scenario. The last one clearly influenced the design of the Soviet gun as the vz.35 was one of the most modern guns in the world in that category in the 30s and influenced plenty of designs even up to the Cold War period. So two Zvezda copies of the 122mm M38 were hurriedly ordered from AliExpress as they became the basis for the Slovak guns. 

Most of the parts of the vz.35 gun barrel came from the Zvezda copy but the longer tube was taken from pieces of sprue. The gun tube of the vz.35 was particularly thick and it looks like a much larger calibre. The split trails are Russian 152mm Irregular Miniatures parts from the storage boxes and the wheels are Airfix from the Scammel model. I tried to get closer as much as possible to the real thing and thus a lot of small parts from different plastics were added a bit everywhere. 

If a gun can be elegant, this one is for sure. 

Broom bristles were added as the measuring rods and the ground anchors. 

The final result is quite nice with the addition of crew which helps to obscure the small faults and attracts attention :)  

This other picture helped to make the details on the right side of the gun. In fact, even if this gun was not very common, the Germans took plenty of pictures of that you can find them in the web, particularly the ones that went to the Atlantic Wall. 

This picture was taken before adding the last detail to the inner part of the shield and cutting the shield a bit more on all four sides. 

Far from perfect but looks the part. 

The crew came from Hat US WW1 bodies with Japanese and Marine heads. For the Slovaks you need M1 type of helmets but as flat as possible at the base. I got plenty of inspiration from a very good blog called 

http://brushesandbayonets.blogspot.com/

were you can find everything I´m also on the way of making for the Slovaks. 

Some ammunition boxes added and all was set. 

Two FtF Praga RV trucks were added and they will go to the infantry or smaller artillery tows as the vz.35 was towed by the larger Skoda 6ST6-L that I have no idea were to get. 

Next: depends on the mail, but more Slovaks or a return to AWI. 

Yuzhnaya Ozereika landings 1943 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules

This Landings at Ozereika project started 5 years ago and is now completed. Most of the models are scratchbuilt, like the case of all boats, but the infantry, tanks, artillery and aircraft are from the usual plastic brands. This is a very heroic action of the Soviet naval infantry which cost them dearly without results, exceptuating fixing many Axis reserves which allowed the "Little Land" diversion to become a sucess that is still celebrated in Russia as one of the biggest Soviet exploits of WW2.

If you want to see the eight part construction of this project go to https://jpwargamingplace.blogspot.com/ and write "ozereika" on the search bar. I also advise everyone to visit the amazing site https://www.o5m6.de/redarmy/index.php were you can have great information on many aspects of WW2 including most of the material that was used at Ozereika.

Rapid Fire! Eastern Front in 20mm - The South Ozereika landings (part 8); the German Gebirgsjäger company and MMG

 

This Ozereika landings have a very interesting bunch of different uints on both sides making a colorful table: you will field Soviet naval infantry with US tanks and jeeps against Romanians, German artillery and Gebirgsjäger. Particularly colorful are these Gebirgsjäger, with their light green parkas, and blue trousers. Initially I had the idea that the Gebirgsjägers were pretty close to standard infantry and in fact they are as they also used the helmet and field gtrey uniforms. The good thing about this ones is that the battle ocurred in February in the middle of a freezing cold and most probably these mountain troops wore, on top of the field grey uniform and field cap, a green parka and woolen blue trousers, something I´m trying to represent here. The painted glasses on the field cap finishes the thing. I decided to go this way after seeing a nice reconstruction of an original uniform in this YouTube clip: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oDStItpanM

The figures are decades old Airfix copies of the DAK set. They are bigger then the originals and made in a nice sturdy plastic. All figures got a big Milliput backpack typical of these units made. The DAK Airfix figures make very reasonable mountain troops as the positions are much more dynamic than the original Airfix mountain troops which are also a bit small in typical Airfix style and with few positions. 

All stands got one or two bycicles from Hat German cyclists as this was their mount at Ozereika. 

The MMG stand was the most interesting to make as the Gebirgsjäger tripod was apparently able to lower considerably the height of the gun and thus could be fired from a lying down position. I used small pieces of EverGreen rod and plate in order to replicate that. The base is the LMG firing figure of the Airfix DAK set. The No2 is a mix of the previous legs with the body of the classic Airfix German No2, finally with shaved helmet and glued cap. 

This is the Gebirgslafette 34 MMG tripod which looks that could be lowered considerably more then the infantry one. It also looks to me that the infantry model could somehow end up in the same position but I could only find one model for the infantry being fired from a lying down position and that is the small Zvezda set. 

Next: The Ozereika video (damn, Oscars already passed...). 

Rapid Fire! Eastern Front in 20mm - The South Ozereika landings (part 7); the last bits for the Soviet Shock Force

 

This post concludes the missing equipment for the Soviet Naval Infantry shock force that attacked by sea the Germans and Romanians at Ozereika beach in February 1943. There are three DB pr.165 that carried the artillery (45mm AT and 76,2mm IG) and the towing Jeeps (US made Willys jeeps). 

As usual I used the Pegasus figures to make crews for all these weapons and machines. Included here is a AA Maxim gun mounted on a tripod (left). 

The guns were all scratchbuilt. The 45mm AT guns were made from old Pak 36s that used to be on the top of some Sdkfz 251 until I found many years ago that they were not there in the 1939/40 campaigns. As the Soviet and German are very similar the Pak 36 makes a very reasonable 45mm gun. My only doubt is if the Soviet marines didn´t use the long barreled  M42 model at Ozereika which makes these ones a bit out of date. 

The wheels are 3D printed and the 76,2mm IG came from an assortment of plastics which includes the usual plastic broom bristles. 

The guns and crews in action. 

These kind of models are heavily influenced by the range of Really Useful Guns by Irregular Miniatures which used EverGreen plastics as matrix for many parts.

 The Pegasus figures have several parts and are small kits on its own. As they have detached arms they suit artillery crews very well since you only need to make news arms from Milliput and place some shells in some of them. 

The Maxim AA gun must have been somthing like this as apparently only had one tube. 

The base of the tripod is from FtF as well as the gun. You only need to make a longer support for the gun and some ammunition and box. This tripod is the Finnish M/21 design which I think some may have got through to the Red Army. 

The Willys jeeps are 4D models from China, sturdy and very accurate models. I didn´t use the trailer in the kits as I think they were not used in this action (were they even sent in the Lend and Lease program?). 

The small landing craft were possible to make thanks to the excellent

https://www.o5m6.de/redarmy/db.php 

article in the Engines of the Red Army site which has very good drawings and period photos of this small boat. I made it a bit shorter as I did with the rest of the fleet. 

This boat could be used for a variety of usages but at ozereika it was used with wooden ramps in order to land jeeps and light artillery. 

The DB pr.165 boats were made from carved to shape blue board, pieces of wood, EverGreen and card. 

The drivers are cut down Pegasus figures.

All these boats,including the Bolinder, a Destroyer, the MO-4s, in a total of 10 different boats, are out of the scope of the article in the blue book. Our Masters start the Ozereika scenario with the naval brigade and support already landed, and with discounted casualties in the process. I will change a bit this and start the action with the full Soviet order of battle including all ships. This will force me to built a 3rd Naval infantry battalion in the future, which will be an obvious pleasure. Besides if the Soviets don´t have a third Naval Infantry battalion they will stand little chances against the defenders heavily armed with artillery, as it happened historically. 

Next: the German Gebirsjäger at Ozereika 1943.