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. 

Rapid Fire! Eastern Front in 20mm - The South Ozereika landings (part 6); the Romanian force

 

The Romanians at our masters Blue book scenario on the Ozereika landings have a battalion of infantry; a company of engineers and a battery of artillery. 

The figures are all from the Hat Romanian infantry and that includes the artillerymen. Hat also has a box of artillerymen but I don´t have it and, instead, used the mortar crews from the infantry box. 

The Romanian artillery at Ozereika is for me a mistery. The Romanians had at least two  types of 75mm guns namely the French 1897 model and the Krupp 1904 model (not counting 76,2mm, 77mm guns and 75mm mountain guns). So I went for the Krupp version and made it from scratch. 

The officer was placed in a more "artillery" position by cutting the pistol and bending the arm. 

The gun/fun itself started with an old barrel of an Airfix 25 pdr, wheels from Hat and a number of plastic and metal parts all glued together, and that included some broom bristles. 

The shield was made from EverGreen cut and bent to an approximate shape. 

In the end it got close the Krupp gun. 

The radio is another mystery as I couldn´t find any information on Romanian radios so something generic was made and a prone figure firing its rifle was turned into a radio operator. 

When I glue prone figures or equipment parts that tend to be engulfed with the sand/cat litter mix I do the following:

- the parts are fixed with electric glue that will lift it a few millimeters from the base,

- in order to strenghten the electric glue I use cheap super glue to fix the parts permanently, 

- your favorite type of ground texture can be then applied without covering the prone figures or equipment. 

The Hat Romanian infantry box has no 81mm so a FtF German mortar was used. This will look strange as the 60mm mortar from the box is much thicker than this one (not counting the 60mm mortar shell in the left figure that will never be able to enter this 81mm barrel :). 

Next: the last Soviet Naval infantry equipment for Ozereika

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, the funny street markets (never could find any models!) 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