Crete 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! Part 2: the FJ support weapons

 

The second step for this German side of Crete 1941 was the necessary support weapons, containers and command stands for any of the four actions of the Crete booklet which summarizes the initial battles on the 20th May. I had nothing of these so everything was made from around 10 boxes of plastic figures I had in stock, 5 from Airfix and 5 from Revell. In fact only since Brexit I´m capable of diminishing my piles of stash as I feel forced to use them, which is something that is also giving me lots of pleasure. old These old boxes are quite incomplete as no support weapons are presented but both have  many figures that can be easily converted to other functions as I will try to show you. 

The containers are Revell and are the only things without any change. 

The 50mm mortar  (X4) Revell operator was originally firing a rifle and became a mortar crewman after cutting out the rifle and heating the arms. The 2nd operator is the famous Airfix prone grenade thrower without grenade this time as if reloading the mortar.

The same happened to the AT rifle (x4) crews that received british 3d printed Boys AT rifles cut to shape and with added bipod. 

Two of the AT rifles are leaning on a Cretan field wall and are Airfix conversions again. 

The officer stand (5X) has the famous Matchbox figures with a pair of new Milliput trousers taking advantage of Primark´s January sales. 

The mortars (x3) came from Matchbox, FtF and PSC and have heavily converted crews. The injured in the arm standing Airfix FJ can finally be useful for something as he is in charge of the weapon and using binoculars (after some X-acto cuts, of course) or with an entirely new arm. 

These are not in the family photo as they were made a few hours later and are the MMG stands (x5). Originally all guns are 3d printed MG42 and the barrel was slighly rounded in order to look like the MG34.

The tripod was made from Evergreen tubing and plate. The ammunition belt is cut from a piece of photo-etched "sprue". 

The FO stand in also not on the family photo and its useful for the mountain 75mm gun. The pointing figure had a tiny addition in the form of a pair of binoculars hanging from the chest. 

Next: the jagers and the DFS 230 gliders.