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 (in WWI German style, as infantry) 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 (x3).
- The AA guns (x2) and the mountain gun (x1).
Next: more Slovaks
Excellent work as always Joao.
ReplyDeleteNeil
Thanks mate. Next vehicles, besides FtF, will be some 3d resin prints from Poland that look to be very nice.
ReplyDeleteClever scratch-builds and conversions, and it is good to see the less well known WW2 forces being represented so comprehensively. Do you use wire to reinforce the head-swaps on your figures, or just rely on the adhesive for a strong connection - and if so, which type of glue do you find works best on these soft plastic figures? (Also I hope you can find a use for your many now headless British paratroopers!)
ReplyDeleteThanks mate. What I do for head swaps is to drill a hole both in the torso and head and place a bit of thin broom stick and stuck everything with cyanocrilate as I found many years ago that wire tend to react with the cyanocrilate and break the soft plastic. I don´t know if it happens with nowadays superglue but I got used to the thin broom stick and I never had a single head coming out.
ReplyDeleteThank you, that is very helpful.
DeleteBy the way, the headless British paratroopers will become Argentinians for the Falklands.
DeleteI am really enjoying following this series. Your ability to conjure up so many unusual pieces of artillery from all kinds of bits and bobs is especially impressive!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave. The main idea is to build the general stucture of the thing as simple as possible. Then you can add more detail until you can foresee the effect of black shading and drybrushing on the final result.
ReplyDelete