Bir Hakeim in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules

Another old project of mine got concluded or at least its presentable. Still missing are some vehicle hidings, a pair of 75mm guns, and Koenig's staff car together with Miss Susan Travers. This was another project with plenty of scratch building and some guessing as the Bir Hakeim compound is not easy to understand in all its details.

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 10) - The French anti-tank guns

 

The Free French at Bir hakeim had 30x 75mm guns (6x in RF! terms) in the anti-tank role with cut-out shields and truck tyres in order to make a lower and smaller silhouette. Together with those the French also had 7x 47mm and 18x 25mm anti tank guns. As I already placed 3x 25mm guns in SP mode on top of Morris trucks I just added one more. 

The  FtF 75mm guns had its shields cut like the one present at Les Invalides Army Museum. The 47mm and 25mm are 3d prints in resin by BPM. This brand evolved greatly from the days of the PLA plastic used initially. Unfortunately I just ordered these two hoping that its small weight and size would escape customs. To no avail. BPM dispatched the parcel in a couple of days but it took a month to reach Portugal and then customs made me pay more for it than for the original models. Brexit oblige...

The guns were crewed with old plastic figures from Airfix and Matchbox and some newer ones from StreletsR. Many of the figures had rifles and SMGs taken out and replaced with shells. 

A Chad-Ubangi crewed 75mm gun. I´m not sure about this but I´ve seen a greater number of gun crews with helmets in the period pictures maybe because the artillery spots attracted plenty of artillery fire. 

The extras from the FFL Strelets box of support weapons makes good artillerymen. 

The usage of shells in the old Airfix and figures can be seen in several figures with the 8th Army Vickers No1 (far right making a very good anti-tank crewman). 

The main problem with this batch is the usage of the original FtF wheels as I couldn´t find twelve equal truck tyres. 

This is the Matchbox 1941 Cadillac I found in a supermarket used for scale in a previous post on pine tree woods. It will become the command car of an Umbau column for Holland 1944. Most surely no Cadillac reached Holland after 1940 but even so this one must not be far away from other european classy cars of the period. This one belonged to my youngest and had to be painted and based in the night shift while he was sleeping. 

Next: an Angolan Brigade for Cuito Canavale or the last few walls of Bir Hakeim.

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 9) - The Roman well and some barbed wire

 

Not much is left from the French fortifications or even from the ground of Bir Hakeim which makes the work of reconstitution slow and difficult. Even so with some patience and time you get a reasonable collection of features from this famous battlefield.  The Roman well was a part of the Bir Hakeim complex and in fact the item that gave existence to Bir Hakeim. Unfortunately its a tricky one to find in images both in books or the Web. But after googling in French some more information comes and the Roman well can be found. 

This photo came from a pilgrimage made to Bir Hakeim in 1955. 

This is another one from the series of photos taken by the Germans after conquering Bir Hakeim were its proximity to the Turkish fort can be seen.

I made my own Roman well in styrofoam and bits of plastic and card. 

The model well is around 16cm long. As its something small you don´t need to reduce the model and you gain another unique structure.  

Some 2,40 meters of barbed wire was made from matches glued to 16 large ice cream sticks with metal barbed wire wrapped around it. It will be used to mark the extensive minefields around Bir Hakeim. Another issue solved is the barbed wire bases for my Omaha beach as I only had 9 bases of it. 

Next: the Plancenoit wall

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 8) - The AA Bofors of the Fusiliers Marins and a few more emplacements

The Bir Hakeim series continues this time with the 40mm Bofors for the Fusiliers Marins and respective trucks and a few more different emplacements. 

The V shaped emplacements are slightly different from the previous ones due to the wooden cover being placed close to the curve instead at the corners. The straight trenches are just something different as I´m making also trenches that can be used in other scenarios. 

The the FFL Bofors were pulled by Chevrolet trucks and not by Morris CS8 4X2. These are cheap Chinese trucks bought at Ale-Hop with a part of the cargo bay cut out. The guns are Airfix. 

The idea was to get to this. 

The figures were challenging as I don´t have many more artillerymen left suitable for this task. So all are conversions with the French Fusiliers Marins bonnet. From left to right:

- the Airfix standing figure on the 6pdr set;

- the driver is a 1st edition Airfix DAK figure manning the 2,8cm Panzerbüchse;

- a Preiser civilian (I think from one of the train station sets) .... 

- the Airfix Australian carrying a box;

- another 1st edition Airfix DAK;

- a Revell figure from their WW2 Scottish set. 

Next: Barbed wire for Bir Hakeim or Plancenoit 1815. 

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 7) - New trenches and one more AA truck for the Fusiliers Marins

 

A few more company trenches, 75mm emplacements and mortar/MG pits were finished in the last few days. Also added is the famous 13,2mm DAT gun on truck. 

The total made was 2X company trenches; 4x 75mm emplacements and 4x mortar/MG pits. Now I need to place everything together on the table and see exactly what is still missing for Bir Hakeim. While on holidays I took some books and magazines on Crete 1941 and that particular bug started to bite. The way I made the Bir Hakeim complex made me happy as it can be easily adapted to Crete, other NA scenarios or even Italy. In fact as they are simple things they can go everywhere as when you dig trenches you take out all foliage which make these ones fit for almost all theaters. The drop-on solution avoids the building of more complex terrain models which, if over detailed, will be only used in a specific scenario, with the problems of storage coming next. 

The 75mm emplacements have to be like this as the Free French wanted them to have 360 degrees rotation. Note the absence of sand bags. In fact most of the trenches for this project have sand bags while the ones on Bir Hakeim can hardly be seen in most of the period photographs. This is another compromise in order to allow its usage in other scenarios. 

These L-shaped company trenches are different from the T-shaped I made previously. They look quite Vauban style and thus clearly more French :) 

The mortar/MG pits are made for my 4cm poker disks. Besides the heavy weapons the battalion CO stand can also be fitted inside. 

The Fusiliers Marins at Bir Hakeim were in charge of the AA defences and had a number of truck mounted SP guns. This is my second version of the thing, this time with a  quad 13,2mm DAT gun...

... and based on this famous photo. 

The figures are heavily converted Airfix and Atlantic copies. 

Once again the cheap plastic truck is a bit too big but with a 1,5cm cut at the back it becomes reasonable sized for the big and complex gun. 

The gun is made totally from scratch with the help of a great Britmodeller article from their website. Also, if you want to avoid all this work, 3D print Shapeways makes this gun in 1/72nd scale. 

The figure manning the gun is the old wounded Atlantic British figure being carried at the back of his closest friend. Apparently it recovered from his wounds, joined the FFL and is now defending Bir Hakeim! 

The 3d one at the Britmodeller website (is it the same at Shapeways?) that I really can´t rival. 

Next: the 3rd battalion for my US PIR; Little Big Horn; King Porus army (yes, Don McHugh has something to do with this); photos of Bodrum castle; Plancenoit church in 1815 or Crete 1941. Let´s see what comes next.

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 6) - The Morris CS8 w/25mm AT gun at Les Mamelles

 

A "Jock" column makes a reconnaissance mission around the Bir Hakeim perimeter on the night of 25th May, 1942. In order to get some inspiration for the fight they know its coming  the group stop at Les Mamelles (the breasts) with some of them remembering the delights of the Moulin Rouge while others get into dirty talking. 

The Airfix six-wheeled Morris is, unfortunately, only good to tow the Bofors 40mm AA gun. I searched other usages but found nothing. On the contrary the gun itself can be used by many armies which is something that I´ve been doing but with different tows (Poland 39 with CP2; FFL with Ford/Dodge, etc) . After making a few combinations of tow and Bofors gun for the British, the pile of Morris CDSW was good only for conversion to its older and smaller brother, the Morris CS8. 

There were 18 25mm AT guns with the Free French at Bir hakeim. I suppose most of them were of the naval type with a larger shield than the infantry version. I don´t know how many of them were of the naval type or on SP mode like these ones but like this the FFL gets some interesting and rather unique vehicles. 

All figures are converted Hat with one Matchbox figure. 

The Morris CDSW got all the rear part changed with only one set of wheels (glued at the middle of the two sets of the original model version) and the construction of a new and shorter cargo bed. 

The gun itself is made from two types of hard plastic. I only mesure the lenght of the guns and work from within until the majority of the details are there. 

All trucks got a French FM 24/29, in fact 3d printed Bren but a close one. 

The windshields are again pieces of EverGreen plastic. 

Les Mamelles were carved from thick 10cm blocks of BlueBoard.  Frankly I don´t know the correct shape of Les Mamelles around summer 1942 as I can´t find proper images on the Web, books, or magazines. When you google it three big water cisternes shows up and connected to Bir Hakeim: 

I think this has nothing to do with Bir Hakeim but even so gives a reasonable idea of the Arab cisternes of the region. 

"No one will take from us les Mamelles"

Next: a few weeks off and then in late August more Bir Hakeim and the last of the three battalions of the late1944 US PIR. 

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 5) - Company trenches

 

Essential for any defensive position are company trenches. Once again they were made for Bir Hakeim but with an eye on other scenarios. In fact I can´t find many defensive positions in Bir Hakeim protected with sand bags as they probably could be targeted more easily due to their  recognisable shape. 

The idea is to make trenches with a rear dugout protected by some wooden plaks and enough space at least for eight figures (  four bases each 2,5cm X 3,5cm).  

Once again carved RoofMate was used glued to plywood. 

One of the trenches got a Vauban shape...

...while the other four are straight with the usual dugout. 

The small stones around the trench helps to shape the piece and also gives some weight helping not to deform it. 

Next: Les Mamelles of Bir Hakeim

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 4) - The Fusiliers Marins enter the fray.

 

The Fusiler Marins battalion at Bir Hakeim was manning the anti aircraft guns of the garrison. They had old 25mm and 13,2mm guns together with some 40mm Bofors. 

A photo of a 13,2mm gun on top of a truck manned by Fusiliers Marins inspired me to make this one. I looked for a proper truck and only had at hand these giant cheap Aliexpress one-piece trucks already used for some Italian and British SP guns. The problem was that the truck is too big and would dwarf the gun so two main changes were made: the truck was cut down in some 1,5cm lenght at the back and the gun became the bigger dual 25mm AA gun. 

The gun itself was made from a leftover double-barreled Esci 20mm Flakvierling part with all other parts being scratchbuilt in plastic card. 

After some crew and symbols it looks reasonable. 

The nasty cut at the back was disguised with electric glue and some 3d resin barrels and jerricans were also added in order to trick the eye to the humble origins of the truck. 

The crew had to be made of big figures so the bodies of the Hat British support weapons figures were coupled with Valiant heads of the 1st set. Some of these soldiers at least had British equipment at Bir Hakeim so these ones also have it which made things easier. 

The figures were heavily coverted like the one sitting and manning the gun as originally the figure is kneeling. Some small tufts of milliput were placed on top of the berets for that unique looks of the French Fusiliers Marins. 

A second P-40 joined the air battle above Bir Hakeim this time a repainted Altaya, originally a fighter at the service of the Chinese air force. 

The new trench is suitable for the emplacement of a 75mm gun in the round center and two other support guns or command stands at the corners. Again I wanted it to look Bir Hakeim but being able to be used in other Mediterranean campaigns. 

The fabulous Bir Hakeim collection of terrain and figures of Stephen Tunmore inspired me to make a wooden cover for the gun emplacement. I wonder were the FFL found the wood in the middle of the Lybian desert with the best option being that it was carried on the back of trucks from far away! 

I like to place some grey/dark brown wash on the sand before drybrushing the whole set with light sand as it gives some depth to these bare pieces of terrain. 

 

Some gauze on top of the wooden structure and its done. 

The aim of this was to place the 75mm gun inside and it looks the part. The cover was made tall enough for 25 pounders or even a 88mm gun.

On regard of terrain I found on the Web this lovely and rare picture of the Turkish fort, already in German hands were you can see the bent wall and the Roman cisternes on the top right corner. 

Next: Bir Hakeim company trenches or the US 3rd PIR.