16. Luftwaffe Field Division in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules, Normandy 1944

This Division was one of the companions of the more famous 21.PD in the summer of 1944. Some nice uniforms and plenty of horse drawn artillery makes this one a different and challenging unit to build.

If you want to see more on this check the tag '16 LF FD' and you can see 12 posts on the building of this unit.

Rapid Fire! 20mm - 16. Luftwaffe Field Division, Normandy 44, part 12 (and last) : Fusiliers/Recce of the division

This is the 12th and last part of the construction of the 16. Luftwaffe Field Division and you can see the cyclists from the fusilier/reconnaissance company.

They are the obvious HAT figures, some in Zeltbahn, other in camouflage smock and other with the Fliegerbluse making all the models from the box usable.

Hope you have enjoyed this series - I was getting a little sick of it lately - and now lets move again to Tunisia (the one in my brain).

Rapid Fire! 20mm - 16. Luftwaffe Field Division, Normandy 44, part 11:pioneers and supporting 1053 artillery PaK abteilung

This is the Pioneer battalion of 16. LwFD. It's made mainly of Revell figures from their Pioneer box and ESCI, some Airfix hard plastic (the guy with the map from their Sdkfz 222/Kubelwagen set) and some metal from SHQ like the radio man who started life as an SS A/T crewman. The main idea was to place something to do with engineering/pioneering in every stand so they could be easily recognizable.
 

Some of the figures were transformed to carry some metal barbed wire I had hanging around since finishing the defences of my Omaha beach. The flamethrowers are ESCI.
 

Another group built and painted at the same time was 1053 PaK abt. that supported this Luftwaffe division. Simple and cheap Airfix models from the Opel Blitz set with PSC figures. I will use the original Airfix crew as OP for SS batteries.
 

The PSC figures come from the PaK 38/50mm gun set. Each box has 24 figures for 4 guns so you can save half of them to other projects.

 

Rapid Fire! 20mm - 16. Luftwaffe Field Division, Normandy 44, part 10: Jäger battalions finished!!!

Yes, yes my friends, I know this is getting kind of dull and repetitive but...
Finally!! My sixth Jäger battalion is complete and that means all three regiments of infantry for the 16.Lw FD!!!

Again the same mix of soft and hard plastics, using PSC, Esci, Revell, Chinese Airfix and Atlantic.

I also built some more 120mm mortar stands from PSC and these recruits will join the first 3 battalion which had none of these weapons up to now

 

 

The Forward Observers are PSC figures from the PAK38 box. PSC offers 6 per gun which is too much for Rapid Fire! rules so you can use the extra figures as FO or radios for the command stands.

 

Next, as SRD predicted, Revell pioneers and Hat bicyclists for the last two units of the division. Ah, and these guys had the company of Artillerie- PaK Abteilung 1053, a unit from the Heer,  so may be I start with these last ones in order to get back to field grey uniforms.

 



Rapid Fire! 20mm - 16. Luftwaffe Field Division, Normandy 44, part 9: only one Jäger battalion to finish!

After a somewhat long night I managed to finish the 5th Jäger battalion. Only spray varnish is missing.

Rapid Fire! 20mm - 16. Luftwaffe Field Division, Normandy 44, part 8: 4th Jäger battalion.

Nothing specially new on this post, just to show you some different long smocks for the Luftwaffe infantry.

 

 

Again a mixture of every soft plastic brand and a few hard plastic from PSC.

 

 

The tall Atlantic figures goes well with the equally tall Revell infantry. With a little bit of practice the  smocks become quite reasonable and make the Wehrmacht miniatures look like Luftwaffe's.

 



Many of the Jägers had the long boots from the beginning of the war probably because they didn't march that much while planes were still available and while they were still dreaming of becoming airmen...
This figure is from Esci and maybe 30 years after manufacturing this box of German soldiers is still hard to beat along with most of the range.

The command stand is an Esci figüre while the radioman is one of the hard plastic Airfix 75mm PAK crewman with added backpack and radio.

The support weapons are PSC from their heavy weapons  and PAK 38 A/T gun boxes. No long smocks here as most of the figures are kneeling and the detail is very crisp and could be ruined by the Liquid GreenStuff.

Still missing:

- 2 Jägers battalions
- 1 Fusilier/recce battalion  on bikes
- 1 Pioneer battalion.

Rapid Fire! 20mm - 16. Luftwaffe Field Division, Normandy 44, part 7: FLAK batteries and regimental guns.

The 16.LwFD seemed not to have 88's (maybe because close by was the III Flak corps with dozens of them) and the 20mm AA gun looked to be their only security against the allied aircraft. Along the AA unit I also made the 75mm and 150 IG guns to be placed one to each Jäger regiment (gun company).

The 20mm guns are Zvezda and the Opel Blitz is Airfix. The 20mm is a fabulous piece by Zvezda. The Opel is a kit from the 70's and it couldn't be as accurate as say the more recent Esci or Pegasus. Even so when the two are combined it turns into a nice piece.

The figures are the original Airfix driver and the Zvezda artillerymen with the addition of a fourth from other hard plastic brands like Preiser or Esci.

The Zvezda 75 IG and crew got the company of a third model from PSC.

The ACE 150 IG is a small nightmare to built with very little pieces to put together and many hours spent. But in the end it portrays nicely this weapon. The crew is SHQ, converted Revell pioneers and PSC.

Now for the last three battalions of Jägers.

Rapid Fire! 20mm - 16. Luftwaffe Field Division, Normandy 44, part 6:122mm batteries.

The 7th,8th and 9th batteries of the Artillerie Regiment 16 was composed of captured 122mm model 1938 Russian howitzers.

The ones I'm showing you  are just some brilliant little pieces made by Zvezda of Russia and sold in their smallest individual packs for Art of Tactic game. The detail is impressive and the very little pieces really fit to each other with no glue.

Even so superglue on all parts is advisable for a better bond.
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Some of the figures are the original  Russian crew (really manning the gun) transformed into Germans by removing the bulky side part of the trousers with a X-Acto knife, cutting the head and placing a German one from Preiser and gluing a gas mask container on the back. The Y straps are just paint. The alongated Russian uniform also suits the Luftwaffe smock.

Other come from Esci, both soft and hard plastic.

And others are the Revell German artilleryman, which stay nicely here as the other 76,2mm guns of the regiment also have these figures giving a sense of unity to the whole regiment. The SHQ figures are also present.

With the last post on limber tows and this one the artillery regiment is finito.

Let's start the 20mm AA guns and their Opel mounts, if not with something else...

Rapid Fire! 20mm - 16. Luftwaffe Field Division, Normandy 44, part 5: Russian limbers painted, Marders and Opel Blitz buses.

Russian limbers already painted and parading for inspection from Feld General Von Zomzing.

 

The limbers got out pretty well in my opinion. The reading guy keeps on testing Gestapo nerves...

 

 

My imaginary Feld General Von Zomzing is a Luftwaffe metal figure from an undetermined brand. The other officer is an Airfix conversion and the driver is an Atlantic figüre. The staff car is Frontline Wargaming.

 

 

The Marder's M are a true probability for the SPG company of the 16.LwFD instead of the Stug III. So I drybrushed and based two from Altaya I was hoping to place somewhere and here they are serving the ex-airmen. The crew are plastic conversions on Esci and Fujimi bodies.

 

The Opel Blitz Buses are (L) Britannia and (R) SHQ and are a quite probable means of transport for the jägers. Both of them are very easy to build and paint as they have 5 pieces each total.

 

 

 

Next: the 122mm howitzer battalion.

 

Rapid Fire! 20mm - 16. Luftwaffe Field Division, Normandy 44, part 4: Russian limbers for the field artillery

The 16.Luftwaffe batteries used captured Russian guns whose limbers are necessary in plenty and don't exist in the main stream plastic brands. So I scratch build  all the 16. Luftwaffe limbers. It's not a very difficult task if you keep it simple and I could use finally the extra stock of Revell German horses I had, besides being fun and cheap. 

If you google 'Russian limbers WWII' plenty of images of this model will show up, mainly the 1942 model,  and you are done with references. Specially follow the images of 1/35th scale models. 

The idea was to use my beloved Evergreen material to produce the carriage of the limber and to use extra wheels from the Airfix 88's carriages, Atlantic, and others I had around of undetermined origin. 

The curved rail was made in wire. Metal was also used for the wheel's axis.

All you need is to C.U.D.I.G ( cut, open, drill, invent and glue).

The holes in my fingers come from the electric drill 'cuding' other holes in the carriage for the curved rail, so be careful with this devilish device. 

Reading, Hmmm? A very dangerous activity in nazi Germany...He will end up in the Russian front and not reading Pravda...

The rest of the model are Revell horses and horsemen from the artillery set. The seated soldiers are Preiser and Revell.  You also need to glue a pick and a shovel respectively on the right and left sides of the carriage. The perpendicular bars are sewing needles bought in a Chinese shop for a few cents after running out of the equivalent Evergreen item.

With 10 limbers, 40 horses were necessary and all will be used for the batteries of 76,2mm and 122mm.  

Next you will see these ones painted, that is of course if I don't start something worse. 

Keep tuned. 

Rapid Fire! 20mm - 16. Luftwaffe Field Division, Normandy 44, part 3: The 2nd and 3rd battalions with those loooonger camouflage smocks already painted.

Here they are. The Liquid GreenStuff of GW turned out quite well on the soft plastic figures in order to produce longer smocks.

You can enlarge the pictures if you want as I didn't make this post directly from the phone but used the PC.

The Blue on the Luftwaffe uniform is Vallejo 816. The base of the smock is Vallejo 119 and the camouflage effects are achieved with diluted Vallejo 086 (green)  and GW  Mournfang Brown (yes, I agree, why does GW can't find normal decent names for their paint range?...). The right side Esci figure got an Evergreen radio on his back.

 

The longer smock was equally applied on Esci, Airfix copies (as they are bigger), Atlantic or Revell.

A small Luftwaffe wing was painted on the right upper part of the smock and on the left side of the helmet.

 

If carefully placed together the plastic minis go quite well with the five SHQ figures you can see in the bottom part of the Picture.

 

 

I built and painted two more Russian76,2 Zis from the Italeri double box. The crew is a mixture of SHQ and soft plastic figures with an old Esci hard plastic long range finder figure (the guy standing on the left).

 

The lot together living happily in the Normandy country side. Before operation Charnwood that is...

 

 

Rapid Fire! 20mm - 16. Luftwaffe Field Division, Normandy 44, part 2: A way to make those loooonger camouflage smocks.

After some head scratching on how to make the Luftwaffe longer smock on ordinary plastic 20mm figures I finally got to this way:

GW Liquid Greenstuff was applied in thick quantities with a brush ( as it tends to shrink) on the lower part of the infantry coat. An opening was then carved when dry for this coat not to look like the grenadiers or SS smock. 

Two more battalions are ready to be painted. 16.Lw FD is quite Vorwaerts!!!.

Rapid Fire! 20mm - 16. Luftwaffe Field Division, Normandy 44, part 1.

One more German division on the way: this time I'm doing one of the partner division of the 21st PD in the Caen area, the 16.Lw FD.  

What strikes me about this unit is the blue uniforms with long camouflage smocks which makes them probably  the most colourful unit in Normandy. 

  

Here is the first battalion. They are mostly SHQ metal with a few Airfix and Esci plastics. The Pak 75/97 on the left corner is SHQ.

SHQ is one of the few brands to produce Luftwaffe infantry. The next battalions will have also a few SHQ but will be mostly made of plastic and I will ignore the 2mm less length of the camouflage smock or maybe I try a solution with thin strips of paper card... Let's see. 

Zis 76,2mm from Irregular Miniatures manned by Revell artillery men from their horse towed 105mm artillery set. 

Pak 50mm and crew from SHQ. 

Pak 75mm from Esci again with SHQ crew.

I'm not sure about 88's in the 16. Lw FD but just in case here goes a battery from Hasegawa. 

The Sturmgeschutze company is from Airfix and Altaya.

It's still missing: the 122mm Russian howitzers batteries; the 20mm AA guns; the 75 IG (all these will be Zvezda from their small boxes); 5 infantry battalions and one bycicle battalion. 

Horse tows for all the artillery will be challenging as I will scratchbuild all of them. 

So stay tuned on the best wargaming blog of the Travessa Moura e Sá.