Rapid Fire! Western Desert 1940-43 in 20mm - Ariete Division nearing completion

A number of Ariete units meet at Ras-el-Donnarumma oasis and prepares to defend it. This lot of models is one of the last for the Ariete armored division as this big unit is almost complete, only missing a few trucks and two artillery pieces. The models are Ace, StreletsR, MiniGeneral 3d prints and my own conversions and castings. 

Lets start with my own conversions. The decision of improvising - again - came after checking the Mirliton website. They have everything you need for WW2 Italian figures with beautiful detail and reasonably priced at around 1 euro per figure. The exception being the motorcyclists with each costing almost 10 euros, and two companies are necessary for the Bersaglieri regiment! Some quick maths made realize I would have to spend almost 200 euros for the 16 motorcyclists plus P&P. 

So I grabbed the French motorcyclist I converted from Airfix and converted it again this time into a Bersaglieri. The trousers were carved in order to show the boots, a new Strelets head was pinned to the body and some details were added in the moto for it to look like a Moto Guzzi.

The first to come out made of GreenStuff in a BlueStuff mould. The right arm and the rifle or Breda LMG were added later. 

After moulding the arm and gluing a rifle on the back you have a reasonable Bersaglieri motociclisti. 

The handlebar was also added after casting for a better detail. 

After painting, these Bersaglieri motociclisti became quite close to the original and somehow unique.  

Master Colin mentions one side-car per company in its first Desert supplement (Feb/June 41). I looked a bit everywhere for pictures of  Bersaglieri side-cars and only miniature brands have them which is strange as Bersaglieri side-cars would have caught the photographers attention for sure. What the Bersaglieri of the compagnia moto had were motorcycles for one (monoposto, 28 of them) and two people (biposto, 44 of them) and here might be the cause of the side-car indication. 

The only side-car used in these two companies was again the French one, this time the matrix model directly as I have enough French side-cars already. 

These last 8 MiniGeneral M13-40 concludes the tank regiment which now counts 30 models.

The models have some nasty printing lines specially at the front and turret top which had to be covered with PVA+acrylic paint. Stowage, antennas, sand bags, scratch built MGs and foot steps and CP models from Mark Brown were added to the originals. 

Thin armor but very brave men!

Two Schneider-Ansaldo 105mm guns were also added together with a few FO and command stands. All models are StreletsR. Another group like this is still missing to complete the division. 

Lastly some badly needed Fiat 508 Coloniales from ACE joined the division not before many hours spent gluing tiny pieces and picking many others from the floor. The figures are again Retrokit/Mark Brown models from the Netherlands.

Next: maybe a video on the Ariete division or a few more models for the division if mail allows.  Or some more French 1940, lets see. 

The DCRs for the 1940 campaign in 20mm and for Rapid Fire! wargames rules

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - Battery of towed 155mm C for the DI

 

Close to Bois Perdus (who saw, or was forced to see, the Zelda series  knows were it is) a battery of French 155mm C deploys in order to deliver some devastating fire on the invading Boches.

 

 

The guns are ACE and the end result is quite nice. The worst part is what happens since you open the box until you finish building it with over 60 parts to glue for you to have a gun, some of them no bigger then 1mm. This ACE newer models are already designed in computer and far superior to the first type of short-run models but they keep on having zillions of tedious small parts which for wargamers are a true pita, to say the least.

 

 

 

The crew are WWI Revell conversions with GreenStuff arms. The ammunition  sockets camefrom the Ace models themselves.

 

 

The limbers are also conversions but using the trailer supplied by ACE.

 

 

The crew are GreenStuff copies of Hat and EWM figures with Italeri Napoleonic horses from their outstanding box of French high command. The limber box is Evergreen plastic card with leftover Hat  wheels from last post 4.5 QF guns. Some true cord was used as harness for the horses.

 

 

The lot prior to painting.

 

Next: Most probably more French stuff to the desperate fighting in June 1940.

 

Rapid Fire!/Able Archer, The Gulf War in 20mm - The Iraqi 5th Mechanized Division Mohammed Ibn Al-Kasim (Part 2) - The 20th Mechanized Brigade

The 20th Iraqi Mechanized Brigade gathers around a wadi in southern Kuwait to support the attack on Khafji on the 29th January 1991.

The Armoured battalion of this brigade (the 10th Armoured Regiment) was built around the Hobby Master Die-cast excellent T-55. A very important detail is this model is its metal gun barrel which makes it long lasting. I only added a few crewmen and  repainted a few parts including the main symbol of this Regiment, the red bore evacuator. 

The only non-Hobby Master model in this regiment is this Ace T-55.

The command tank of the regiment is another Ace 'Enigma' T-55, this time with two Skytrex figures. These command tanks had no markings whatsoever which led to some confusion along the years. 

Now problems begin. I couldn't find any certainty about the APC's that the three mechanized battalions of the 20th Brigade had. One source says BMP-1, but I think this is due to the proximity of the 3rd Saladin AD. A picture shows a K-63 with a unit's rectangle that may have been from this brigade. To add to the confusion, the 5h MD had during the Iran-Iraq war plenty OT-64 Skot. So I like to think that each of the three battalions had one of these APC's as its main vehicle. 

So I placed in the 2nd Battalion the OT-64 from BPM, which is one of their best models, simple and with very few printing lines. One of them was converted to a command version. 

The other three are normal OT-64. Maybe even they were  never in the OB of the 5th MD as some sources say this division was fully tracked in its APC's but I like to think the opposite. 

The 1st Battalion is equipped with K-63. This time I had no patience  to build my own 'JP models' and used three S&S models. They are the same length as the Red Star and my copies but a bit wider. As S&S are more recent they probably made it closer to the real vehicle.  

The infantry are my usual Esci conversions with Modern Russian and Vietcong bodies and WWII US heads. 

The support weapons are a mixture of WWII US figures and Skytrex metals. The mortar crew includes a conversion of a Matchbox British paratrooper. 

Next: the 26th Armoured Brigade, 5th Iraqi MD. 

Rapid Fire!/Able Archer, The Gulf War in 20mm - The Iraqi 5th Mechanized Division Mohammed Ibn Al-Kasim (Part 1) - The 15th Mechanized Brigade

Here the 5th Armoured Regiment (T-59 tanks) enter triumphantly the Saudi border city of Khafji on the night of 29th of January and passes under the famous city arch. The T-59 are Cromwell models and the command 'Enigma' tank is Ace. 

The 'Enigma' Ace model is not the easiest model, which is the usual with this brand, but the final result is quite good and the model is quite sturdy. 

The resin T-59 from Cromwell is very well done, easy to build and quite detailed. The figures are metal Skytrex. 

Up to now a total of 10 K-63 APC are the three Mechanized Battalions of the 15th Brigade. The ideal number is 12 though (4 in each battalion, 1 per company, plus a command version) so still two command K-63 (YW701) to go. The infantry are the usual Esci conversions with many Irregular Miniatures figures. 

Half of the K-63 are resin Red Star models with Skytrex metal HMG. The YW701  also got a DSKH 12,7mm from Skytrex. 

The other half are my own builds. I copied the Red Star measures and duplicated them in Evergreen plastic card. Its not complicated mainly because of the straight lines of the K-63. The HMG's are also scratch built. The top grill is made of some plastic pieces I had around and the hatches are two component paste.

The more difficult are the wheels. As you can see on the JP model (JP its me...) on the right I made the wheel with cut down cylinders from plastic tubing. Then I filled them with two component paste and finally an even small cylinder right in the middle. It was a repetitive procedure but it paid off in the end. On the left you have another Red Star model as comparison. 

Next: Iraqi 20th Mechanized Brigade, 5th Mechanized Division.