Rapid Fire! in 20mm. Filling gaps in WW2 (part 6)

This one is just to complete some Russian OB´s where these four types of vehicles and guns were in short supply or didn't exist. 

The M-72 motorcycle with side-car was one of the two more common motorcycle in the Red Army (the other one was the Lend-Lease Harley Davidson 42 WLA). The models are Zvezda.  Still need to apply some colour on the uniform insignia but not sure exactly which.

For Steve Shann´s book "Seelow Heights" you need a pair of Bren Carriers. The models are 3d PLA prints from Minigeneral and the figures are my own conversions from soft and hard plastic figures (Esci and Revell) with arms made of GreenStuff. 

Two missing straight from the box Zvezda 76,2mm Infantry Guns model 1927. Only the coated figure came from Italeri.

Another Minigeneral 3d print, a Lend-Lease  M17 MGMC based on the M5 half-track, again for Steve Shaan´s book. 

Next: last part of the video on the Germans at Mortain. 

Rapid Fire! in 20mm. Filling gaps in WW2 - part 5

No, not  a fan of Christmas. Of course we had the family reunions, the gifts for the younger and older ones and never ending food. Love to be with my people but frankly hate Christmas and I´m always dying for it to pass. One day if the Christmas message extends into the full year with visible results of world wide happiness and all kids have the one toy they want,  maybe I´ll start to like it.  

 Last few days after meetings allowed me to paint these amazing Sdkfz 10 designed by Mário Laranja and printed in resin. Also added were two die-cast German aircraft. 

One of them went to the Blitzkrieg/Barbarossa period to be coupled with a number of the from BPM. Once again one piece vehicles which are a pleasure to paint as they are crammed with detail. 

More fine detail to the rear. 

How hooks, tools, mirrors, etc are made in one piece is for me a mystery but the end result is something great. 

These four are joining the DAK. No specific unit so they can be used by several of them. Most of the figures are PSC heads on top of Milliput torsos. 

Another group was painted with late war colors and crewed with the excellent Simon Soldiers figures winter passengers. 

One more Luppa aircraft came out in 1/72 scale, this time a ME 110 NachtJäger. 

This one is an Altaya model that lived its last few years inside the transparent plastic, an Henschel HS 129. In both aircraft the usual and simple painting of the canopy interior makes it ready for action. 

Next: The 7th infantry battalion for the French 1940 DI/DIM. 

Rapid Fire! Operation Barbarossa and beyond in 20mm - One more clash at Dubno/Brody

 

The battle of Dubno/Brody, in nowadays Ukraine, was the biggest tank clash of history with over 4000 tanks battling each other in a triangle between the cities of Dubno, Lutsk and Brody. To represent it in RF! terms you would need 800+ tank models for this short period of summer 41 in the East. It also includes some models that for sure are not the wargamer´s favorites like PzIII short 50mm; T-26, BT-7, etc (not counting a football field to play it all). Even if sometimes I exaggerate I don´t intend to reach those numbers due to the danger of bankruptcy and expulsion from home. Even so I´m around one Soviet Mechanized corps ( a mix of the 8th and 15th) and one full Panzer division for this short period of time without brown camouflage and short guns on tanks (a generic PzIII G/H/J based one, capable also of other campaigns like the Balkans and Greece).  

Two more giant T-35 from S-models were added to the 68th Tank regiment. With four now in the inventory maybe I´ll build another two and settle the issue:  the proposed ten by Master Richard is just too much considering they arrived in very small groups and many broke down. Hmmm... but 10 is tempting!..

Eight more BT-7 were added making a total of 15 enough for 2/3 Tank battalions depending on the unit. All my BT-7 are Mário Laranja´s great 3d resin prints. This company got a camouflage of brown 6K as used by some tanks of the 4th Mechanized corps in Ukraine. 

Again some 4th Mechanized corps painting influence with just a white triangle for air recognition on top of the turret. 

The markings of these two BT-7 came from 39th Tank Division at the battle of Uman. 

This kind of camouflage was taken from the 24th Brigade of Light Tanks, Rostov-on-Don. This camouflage was quite common and I used it also on my BT-5 and consisted of the basic 4BO color with stripes of 6RP and 7K.

The figures on these batch of tanks is Xan Miniatures from Spain. Probably some of the best around. 

A few more Xan Miniatures with the padded helmet. 

Lastly a pair of Self-propelled AA MG 4M-GAZ-AAA (Uffff...) from Minigeneral PLA 3d prints with Revell converted crew with the help of GreenStuff. 

The built is very simple and the result is quite sturdy. The soft plastic figures were glued to several parts of the vehicles for them to have a firm grip. 

The printed plastic had two coats of clear varnish before priming for the printing lines to become insignificant. 

The last batch of Mário Laranja's PzIII H necessary for the (undetermined) 1941 Panzer Division with PSC crews. 

This company commander tank got a turret MG. I'm not sure if this system, the Fliegerbeschussgerät (my goodness, he even knows German...) was used of the late versions of the PZ III short 50mm as all my references are for the late versions of this tank. Even so it looks nice and makes a difference in the lot. 

Next: Probably a video on the French DCR of 1940 or the last few British tanks for the 1st British Armored Division of 1940.

Rapid Fire in 20mm! Filling gaps in WW2 - part 4

One more episode of this series that already became your favorite for sure. This time a few details and numbers for the allies, both British and Soviet. Also a few more German dead markers for my next game that will have plenty of infantry.

Super Mário offered me this Gaz AAA. It has the rear part with a big miss print so something else had to be done. 

In Shann´s Seelow Heights book the command version of the Gaz AAA shows up from several perspectives. Command vehicles are the typical vehicles for this series that is concentrating on small details, sometimes unnecessary ones. 

The only change is the big box at the rear made from plastic card and Milliput. 

The usual stowage and boxes were also added, specially on the roof top which also helped to disguise some flaws. 

In the end you get a reasonable Soviet command vehicle which would´t be difficult as the base resin print is a beauty. 

While looking to the stash I remembered mating the chassis of an early surplus MiniGeneral PLA print Polish 7tp with a Minairons leftover  T-26 turret in order to get one more complete T-26 for Barbarossa. The holes of the twin turrets were filed with hot glue and one of them was drilled for the turret to swirl around.

A few boxes and stowage were added and the model was built. 

This is an easy conversion as the Vickers 6 ton tank is the base for both the 7tp and the T-26 tanks

Another conversion of the week was this pair of M7 priests in British service. They have the wading system used on D-day and will be used in Don McHugh's latest RF scenario, Breakthrough to Lion-sur-Mer. The models are Matchbox and Fujimi but many parts were interchanged. The white superstructure was made from plastic card and the crew are the original figures with Valiant British heads. 

Both are 1/76th scale and even if slightly different ( the Fujimi model is the B1 version) the added superstructure helps to unify them. 

Can't say this picture is an original, right, Don? 

Two more fighters were added to the Barbarossa VVS, namely these die-cast Mig-3 from Luppa. I still didn´t have any of this important model which was one of the more numerous in the 1941 summer. 

Finally, a few more German casualty markers were added. The figure are hard plastic Hasegawa with added arms in GreenStuff. 

The poses themselves are initially Mg-42 and Mauser firers but as many have the face down they became reasonable casualty markers. 

The blood stains are pretty convincing as they come from a GW reference called 'Blood for the Blood God'... what else can you ask?...

Next: Carentan in 20mm. One of the best pieces of modelling I've seen in my life made by Super Mário and offered to me a few days ago.

Rapid Fire in 20mm! Filling gaps in WW2 - part 2

 

Now for some more Eastern Front/ Barbarossa and beyond goodies in the form of Mário Laranja resin 3d prints and one of the last Luppa aircrafts everything in 1/72nd scale. 

The Resin 3d print of the BT-7 is another marvel of detail. Some of them were printed with hatches open and crewed with Orion figures from their Modern Russian set. The horse-shoe aerial came from Fabbri T-26s as not all needed them. 

Also a DT machine gun made from scratch was pinned to the roof of the command vehicles. 

Getting ready to face the Germans at Dubno!

One of the PzIII H became a Befehlspanzer with the addition of the rear aerial railing and the repositioning of the vertical antennas. 

These ones looked to have carried many times a large wooden box held some how by the aerials. 

Also the small deflector in front of the turret was carved out as the originals. 

The gun was fake in the real one but I let the model with the original as the difference are almost non-existent. The figures on all PzIII H are PSC. 

A "Line" PzIII H. Well, these ones are also getting ready for Dubno!

The Die-cast Luppa IL-2 Sturmovik is a bit anachronistic for these 1941 tanks as it has the later two seats, while the Barbarossa period IL-2 had only one. 

Next: more gaps filled or some Epic ACW.