Rapid Fire! in 20mm. Filling gaps in WW2 (part 7)

 

This batch of models plugs some holes in the OBs of several WW2 periods and armies. Retroaranda is a nice Spanish 3d on-line shop that I found while searching for the Vercors Gotha Go 242. They are still using PLA for their prints but dividing these kits into many parts which helps reducing lines and excess plastic. Besides, the kits arrive with all parts clean which makes them easy to build. There are also three kits from First to Fight, namely the funny little cutter KM12, a large 150mm sFH18 and the artillery crew. 

My Ariete division was very short of command vehicles and this lovely SPA Dovunque 35 radio vehicle comes in that sense. 

The kit has no exterior radio system and this one has to be scratch built. This  photo saved me from making too many mistakes on the roof of this radio vehicle. 

On the background of this photo you can see the two biggest inventions of the last decades,  cyanoacrylate and liquid plastic glue, far ahead from Covid19 vaccine and AI. What would be of us all without them? 

Some tracks, stairs and EverGreen plastics were used to improve the model. 

The Ford V3000 radio vehicle was built from 1941-on and will be helpful particularly for the Eastern Front. Only some stowage was added on the roof. The model also brings another antenna for the travelling position. 

This is another Japanese Type 89 Go. The other one I have is from MiniGeneral, made from a different file and slighly bigger. 

This artillery group - one 155mm sFH18  and a 105mm leFH16 -  is the one necessary for the bombardment of Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte, 13-15 June 1944 as part of the artillery of the 157th reserve infantry division. I already had several of these artillery pieces but in different colors and environments so a late war summer style group was necessary for the Vercors.

The artillery group who bombarded the Maquis position at St-Nizier made it from a distance of over 5 km and up to an height of over 1000 meters in relation to Grenoble. These stills are taken from the 2nd part of Le Maquis du Vercors- Juin 1944, La Bataille de St-Nizier. 

For the full video see 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTRyf8seItk

and don´t forget part 1 and 3. 

In this still from the 2nd part of series you can see the St-Nizier heights in relation to the Grenoble valley.

And this is  the today sports park from were the German artillery bombed the Maquis. 

In this other screenshot of the 2nd part of the YouTube Le Maquis du Vercors- Juin 1944, La Bataille de St-Nizier you can see the placement of this artillery group who bombarded the Maquis position at St-Nizier from a distance of over 5 km and up to an height of over 1000 meters in relation to Grenoble and this is the one I´m portraying in RF! terms.  

I don´t have any information on the usage of these Gebirgshaubitze 40 105mm howitzers by the 157 RID as the division had several battalions of Gebirgsjäger. Even so I built these two that can be used elsewhere. 

The crew is FtF with heads from Airfix Afrika korps. There is also one Simon Soldier figure (the one with Zeltbahn) and a Revell conversion that previously was arming a grenade and now is pulling the gun string. 

Other crew for the guns came from FtF and all of them can be used from the artillery box. The seated figures need to bend the legs with heat in order to fit the narrow places on the Feldkanone 16. 

There are some figures with 20/37mm shells for AA guns that were converted to carry the big 150mm shells. That is easy as the FtF plastic is quite easy to carve. 

First to Fight offers the MK12 in 3d printed resin. I don´t know if this one will ever be used in a wargame but the magazine that comes along with the model has some nice stories (recently they are already in english side by side with polish) that can be used as the basis of several wargames. The figures are Revell and Hat WW1 Germans as the Polish sailors had the WW1 Stahlhelm for land combat and even the armored body of the German Stormtroopers, not used here. 

Finally for something wrong. What I asked was one more LVT-A4 in order to have a pair of them to support the Marine landings in the late war period. The designer by seeing the "4" on the vehicle´s name thought that the turret of the M8 75mm HMC fitted the late LVT-4 when in fact the very different LVT-2 was its basis. The "4" just means the 4th way to place guns on the LVT-2 Amtrac. So I got something wrong that needed to be used somewhere. The idea for this conversion came from the following photo: 

One of the few different models from the LVT-4 basic was an ambulance model deprived from its guns and painted with (lots) of red crosses. The canvas cover in the model was made from hardened tissue paper with cyanoacrylate in order to cover the big hole of the turret. This photo sometimes looks a bit fake as the smaller red crosses look strange but I read that "Sphinx" shows in two forms around the Walcheren period, one armed and another - this one - already without its guns. Probably the same vehicle used in two different ways. 

Next: More Napoleonics 

Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 6) 4th Japanese infantry battalion, an unwanted guest and HMGs

 

One more Japanese infantry battalion in order to start the 2nd infantry regiment. Nothing new here, with the usual Matchbox, Airfix and Esci hard plastic. 

The unwanted guest is obviously this Marmon Herrington with Italian 20mm Breda gun from the nice people of Asymmetric Wargames for the first desert Rapid Fire! supplement. The crew is an old Airfix with bonnet and a Xan Miniatures figure. 

I was out of 7,7mm Type 92 HMGs and I cranked up these ones from 3d printed US Brownings with cut out ammunition boxes, plastic card tripods and elevators. The result isn´t a great thing as I was lazy to make them totally from scratch. The only good thing about them is that they are big which is not the tendency of most manufactures who make the Jukis very small.  The two HMGs to the left are Hotchkiss (very close to the Type 3)  from Strelets as well as the 81mm mortar. The crews are mostly Atlantic conversions with the HMGs firing figures made from torsos with burned legs and GreenStuff arms.

Next: More Japanese  

The Mediterranean and N/A air battles in WW2 (British Vs Italians) for R...

The name is just an excuse to show its three parts: the British desert aircraft, the Regia Aeronautica (the original aim of the video but just too little) and a British Aircraft Carrier. The Aircraft Carrier is scratch built and the aircraft are from the usual brands plus Super Model for many of the Italian aircraft.

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 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 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.