The Slovak Fast Brigade at Lipovec 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! - Part 2: first tanks and last aircraft

 

The Slovak Fast Brigade had a battalion of tanks (Lt-35, Lt-38 and Lt-40s) and, besides the Avia-534 fighters, also a reconnaissance group of Letov S-328. Still to finish the tank battalion I need three more Lt-35.

All tanks here are First To Fight and the aircraft is KP. 

While the Lt-35s and Lt-38s were built straight from the box these tow Lt-40, a command version sharing almost the same chassis of the Lt-38, that demanded a lot of changes, particularly in the turret and front glassis. 

The shape of the turret had to be altered with lots of plastic and Milliput. 

The commander´s cuppola was also made from plastic pieces. 

The MGs were relocated, some resin jerrycans glued on the turret (in order to desguise some pretty bad scratchbuilding) and two Russian tank crewmen from Xan Miniatures painted as Slovaks were added. 

If you want to avoid all this trouble  and a much more correct model you can have the Attack LT-40. The problem is the price: the Attack models are almost 20 euros while these FtF models are 8.50 euros.

The two necessary LT-38 are done. 

And two of the five LT-35 are also done. 

This Letov S-328 is in fact a Letov S-16 (painted as a S-328), an older and out of service reconnaissance of the Czech airforce. My Letov S-328 went to the Polish 1939 airforce desguised as a Lublin. Yes, I know, I´ve made a big mess :) 

Next: Maybe some Slovak artillery or trucks, Romanians for Yuzhnaye Ozereika or maybe a return to the AWI. 

A wargaming trip to London

Wargaming trip my a### !!! Obviously I had to endure with Regent street, Buckingham palace, Lego Store, Horizon 22, Big Ben, Buckingham palace and that sort of things due to family demands. Well, in the end these were not that bad as London is such a fantastic city.

 Let´start with the bad news. I found two places I wanted to visit, closed for good. First I walked a lot to get to Dark Sphere and found it closed. It was one of the last few wargames shops opened in London and that must have shut its doors very recently. The other one was nice bookstore nearby, Ian Allan Bookstore, turned into an hairdresser or something like that, both not far from the Imperial War Museum. This is the state of the art of wargaming and related items sellers.  

Bad news are over, as the weather and the city were both fantastic. The Imperial War Museum is a very nice place for information on both world wars and some more recent conflicts. I took interest only in stuff that wasn´t modelled by me somehow or on details for future projects. 

Its the case of these four French WW1 small figurines representing (L to R) Chasseur Alpin, 1916 (with the new bleu horizon trousers);  a Zouave (mostly linked with Algeria), a Senegalese tirailleur, 1916 and a Spahi cavalryman. 

The Sherman present had an interesting piece of equipment attached to the turret which looks like a camouflage net but with Hessian tape attached. It will be these colors I´ll use if I take on any more late British tanks again. 

A Japanese Oka, a German V-2 are at the main hall together with a Spitfire and a Harrier. I have all these as models in 1/72 which is always funny to see. 

A Romanian infantryman in WW2, an army from which I have nothing and need some for the Ozereika landings. I always found interesting the usage of the same helmet both by the Dutch and the Romanians but had no idea that the Dutch sold up to 1942, which means even during occupation, this helmet to the Romanian army. I have the Hat Romanians that instead of puttees have the gaiters which is a good thing for modelling purposes as you can use a wide range of WW1 and WW2 type of uniforms (belted jacket and puttees) with Romanian/Dutch helmets, both from Hat or Zvezda. 

Maybe I´ll use this simple summer approach for my future Japanese infantry as plenty of them are necessary. I was thinking about a more colorful uniform in two tones but I think I´ll stick to this one. 

My Tarawa project can only be completed with the Marines 2nd Division. It will be based on the Revell figures and seeing the uniform makes it more desirable. 

The camouflaged uniform used by many 2nd Division Marines, almost for the first time in the war. I think I will leave it aside as I have to paint plenty of them and that would be time consuming. The helmet needs to be camouflaged though. 

Looking at this 122mm M-38 Soviet howitzer made some light on how to make the Slovak 105mm vz.35. I was wandering as how to do it but after looking at this one we can conclude that the similarities are obvious and probably the Slovak gun - the most modern 105mm gun of its age(1937) - must have influenced the design of the Soviet one, one year later. Thus while on England I ordered from Aliexpress two cheap Russian guns like this one, copies from Zvezda, and after arrival, obviously, they will have their barrels increased and with a few more changes they will look like the Slovak gun I show you below (photo from the Web). 

... and everything thanks to the Imperial War Museum. 

The famous Reichtag fallen nazi eagle. Still in the position where it should always have been. 

The RAF Museum is quite nice but I was in a rush to go to Hannants from where I took a few of plastics, as I´m afraid to carry metal and we were only with back packs and metal is not very friendly to border police. 

 

The original colors of RAF aviation for the 1939-41 period, namely on this Hurricane, can be clearly seen and I will place it at a missing Blenheim.

The Victoria & Albert Museum is also an attraction point for modellers and wargamers as it portrays a nice collection, among others, of samurai costumes. These ones showed me the way into darker armour that will make painting easier (the problem of samurai armies) as I can use my black primer as the first color.  

Some more ideas. 

Getting back to easy black. 

The view of the HMS Belfast from Horizon 22. Not that I´m thinking about making it... but we never know as it participated in the D-Day landings. Damn! Wish it didn´t!!

This was the kind of weather we caught at London during carnival´s week. I didn´t go inside the Belfast as I´m not a navy guy and only use these things if they bomb the coast. Rain looks to be back while I write these lines as London returns to normality :) 

Next: aircraft and tanks for the Slovaks 1941

Crete 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! Part 7: The Greek infantry

 

Masters Colin and Richard ordered us to have around two incomplete battalions of Greek infantry for two of the actions in the Crete booklet. Greeks are fun to make as they had pretty much WW1 designed uniforms - in fact much like the rest of the world - with many similarities with, for instance, the Italian uniform. The equipment included a home made helmet that for many years was thought to be Italian but in fact was produced in Greece. Another interesting particularity of the Greeks equipment was still the usage of the WW1 British helmet. All these can easily be converted from plastics. 

The base of this force is the Airfix WW2 Italian infantry box together with some help from StreletsR, Revell, Esci, and some Airfix Japanese. 

The British helmets came from WW2 Airfix and Esci. The ones from Airfix fit very well on the Italian torsos as I suspect they were made by the same sculptor. Most of the poses of the Italian Airfix figures are great as they hide the cartridge holders which were more separate in the Greek equipment. 

Some radios are mandatory. I´m not sure if the Greeks carried them like this but at least its a possibility. 

The marching Airfix Japanese enters the group well as its the same size with similar looks. 

The machine guns were more tricky. One of the Strelets Italian boxes provides an MMG that looks like the Schwarzlose still used by the Greeks. The foggy figure to the left is a WW2 Airfix British torso on top of Italian legs.  The binoculars figure is a German WW1 Revell with a British helmet. 

The LMGs were taken from Esci Alpini and glued to the Airfix figure (after cutting its rifle). 

Next: a few day off and then lets see what is coming from there or what is on the mail while arriving. 

Rapid Fire! NW Europe 44/45 - 101st US Airborne - 1st artillery battalion finished

 

The Airfix US paratroopers were outclassed by the Esci and Revell already many years ago. That is really a pity as they are excellent sculpts and very realistic. The problem with this set is having a bit too small figures compared to the other two rivals. 

Like that they are joining the artillery as they are very easy conversions. Most of the figures got something like a 75mm shell and some Milliput hands after cutting out Garands and Thompsons. 

The guns are Waterloo1815. 

To the left there is a 3d resin print. This Waterloo1815 is quite generous with three guns and 12 excellent artillerymen but they will end up in another project. 

Next. Greek infantry at Crete or more Slovaks

The Slovak Fast Brigade at Lipovec 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! - Part 1: Infantry, A/C and aircraft

 

I read the Blue book so many times that recently I had to place tape on many pages. Recently Masters Colin and Richard released the Blue book in digital format, so the tape problem is solved for newcomers! One of the many atractions of the book is the battle of Lipovec, 22nd July 1941 (never heard about it before the book) were I noticed the beautiful camouflage of the Slovak tanks and the blue stripe on the helmets. Probably if these two characteristics were absent I would turn the page to look for a different scenario. Another interesting fact is the Slovak organization of this Fast Brigade with a well balanced force of infantry, tanks and artillery (maybe a little scarce on infantry), including a small airforce and even bykes. 

Finding the vehicles was not a hard task as many of the trucks and cars are not easy to find, and many years ago only Raventhorpe, Fujimi and Esci had some of them. Then one day Esci was gone and the funniest tank of them all, the LT-35, became too hard to get and this brigade was forgotten. Recently the excellent First to Fight came into play and this project came to life again and this brand will be my main source of Slovak vehicles. The artillery is more problematic and I will scratchbuild most of them. If you look for 3D prints you can find also many of these. 

The sole infantry battalion of the brigade is made mainly of Esci Italian Alpini figures, with the carved out feather, of course. 

The Slovak helmet is distinctive with a straight rim. The Italian helmet has a slight ondulation at the rim and this was disguised with several coats of blue color. The SMG was converted to the captured Soviet PPSH as the Slokaks had no SMG at this time. 

The Slovak color was a Greenish Khaki that I tried to reply. 

The reenactement groups are great sources of information as these guys tend to take it very seriously. 

The Italian Breda 30 have a side charger and this was moved to the top for it to look like the ZB vz.26.

The MMGs were mostly the old Schwarzlose vz.24 together with the more modern vz.37. The Revell WWI 08s are good enough to look as vz.24s. The crew is also Revell with a few Hat. The heads of the crew are Revell US marines. 

The mortar is Matchbox with Hat crew and Revell Marines heads. 

The command stand is a mix of StreletsR Italian officer, a Japanese Airfix marching figure and an Esci Alpini with radio and a carved out helmet in order to look like a soft cap. 

The Tatra OA vz.30 is First to fight and its a little beauty. I placed an FJ Airfix torso as a commander as the helmet looks a lot with the one from the Slovak tankers. 

This Avia 534 is KP, a very old and a bit rustic model with a difficult build. But, as usual, in the end gives a good model for your Slovak Fast Brigade. 

Next: Slovak artillery or some vehicles, depending on GLS.

The IR Graf Von Matchbox for Rapid Fire! in 20mm

I wanted to do this for a long time. I already have plenty of early and late German WW2 infantry but none for the mid-war, that is German figures in full field gray uniform and tall boots.  They are necessary for some of the projects on the way, Crete (were they will be Gebirgsjäger, the same uniform with a different patch on the shoulder); Greece and the Balkans; Dieppe and the first two years of Barbarossa. The rifle+MP40 figures and the battalion command figures are all Matchbox in this regiment. For the future I may add a second regiment made mostly of Esci (IR Graf Von Esci) figures and a third of Airfix copies (IR Graf Von AirfixCopies :). 

The full regiment of three infantry battalions. 

Each battalion has rifle and command stands made of Matchbox old but lovely figures, Esci 50mm mortar and LMGs; AB copies MMGs, and Zvezda 81mm mortar.

Each of the Zvezda 81mm stands has a Matchbox figure. The 50mm mortar is made of EverGreen plastic and the figures are Esci conversions. 

The engineer company is made from a box of Zvezda and Esci figures. The Zvezda box brings a sprue of game pieces including the barbed wire which is here being cut by the figure to the right. 

These Zvezda small sets are meant for the command of three different regiments and can be used in any of the theaters of the war. 

The AB resin copies were ordered from Aliexpress. Back in 2016 I remember this being criticized as piracy but today I hope that AB has received some sort of compensation or reached a deal. The figures themselves are quite good and it looks they didn´t lost much in relation to the originals. 

Besides the 50mm mortar only the Radioman had a scratchbuilt radio...

...and some plastic pieces for the absent bipod of the Esci LMGs. 

Next: the beggining of the Slovak fast division for Lipovec 1941.