Crete 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! Part 1: the FJ artillery

 

Since I got my first Airfix German paratroopers I´m trying to make the battle for Crete, May 1941. What was necessary in  RF terms was some guidance, which was finally provided by the excellent booklet Crete-The Airborne assault, by our masters Colin and Richard to whom I wish a happy new year.

(pause/space for a humble bow... it takes some seconds... sorry)

Ok, its done! The book is concentrated on the initial landings of 20th May leaving some future space for the actions of the German mountain troops, the true winners of Crete. Even so, a very well organized guide is provided and you can work on all essentials of the battle. I took the oportunity to scratchbuild the last few missing models for the other recent RF! booklet Carentan also with the German FJ as an essential part. 

In the last two pictures you can see L to R, three Pak36 37mm (all for Crete), a 75mm IG (also for Crete), a Püppchen 88mm (for Carentan), and three 75mm LG40 (two for Crete and one for Carentan). All of them are scratchbuilt and copied from other existing models (as an example  there is the excellent Zvezda 75mm IG that served to copy the 75mm IG in the center). The new Carentan booklet introduced something that I also like to do which is a final list of the necessary total amount of different models necessary for a campaign or set of games. 

The models  are mostly made of plastic card or other plastics (the blue barrels of the Pak36 are made of broom sticks, for instance). The wheels are sometimes 3d printed or taken from the spare box. 

The crews came from the two boxes of fallschimjägers from Airfix and Revell. The kneeling and standing figures had their MP40 replaced by a shell or are somehow manning the gun. The Airfix injured figure had his arm replaced by another Milliput arm with binoculars. 

Some figures also got rifles and MP40 hanging from their backs.

The last four guns were made after the batch shown in the first picture. The 75mm Geb.G 36 mountain gun was made from all available small parts from plastic Pak 75mm wheels, an old Lorraine Schlepper gun shield cut to shape, a resin gun and the usual plastic card.  

The 75mm mountain gun already crewed. 

The 150mm rocket projectiles Do Gerat was used in limited quantities and was not successful. I could not find pictures of this model but it probably must have looked something like this, taking into consideration other similar models available in the web. The crate of the model is wood and the bipod come from a derelict aircraft model of some sort. The injured Airfix figure got a Roco arm. 

 

The 105mm mortar was a scaled up 81mm mortar. This one is made in EverGreen tubing with an Atlantic base. 

This 3d printed model is probably wrong as the 20mm gun used by the German FJ in Crete was a different model with rounded shields and slimmer legs. I´ll try to get rid of the shield so it can look better. Even so its something close with the same caliber. 

Next: more Crete 1941