Rapid Fire! Blitzkrieg in 20mm - German inflatable boats for the Meuse

This was an old idea of mine since I started my French and German armies for 1940 campaigns. The Meuse crossing by the Germans always caught my imaginaton as it involved the 5e DCL and two French infantry divisions and even some counter attacks by French tank units. The Meuse crossings are also on my visit list for the future. The boats are resin Anyscale Models and the figures are converted soft plastics. There are also ten Revell rowers from five  boxes of Engineers. They just needed some cuts in the anorak as the original is the late war for them to look like the the feldbluse. 

These twelve boats are enough for three battalions, one per fusilier company and one for the support and command companies (quite crammed these last two). There should be more people inside the boats tahn the 6 I used as the period pictures shows sometimes 12 men inside. The Anyscale models German inflatable boats in 20mm size maybe should be a bit bigger but they capture the essential of the piece. 

I used old soft plastics for the figures, mostly Airfix, Esci, Revell Hat and Matchbox. This one is the charging Airfix German and was one of the most used figures for the right hand side of the rowers. The trick was always the same: the figures got cut by the waist; the portable gun was taken out and replaced by a piece of heated plastic broom stick; a rifle or SMG was glued to the back; the legs were made in Milliput; the bottom part of the jacket was also modelled in Milliput and the boots were glued to the trousers while the Milliput was still drying. 

This one is the Esci mortar figure with new legs and left arm. 

Now the same for the relatively useless Airfix DAK figure with a shovel. 

This one was also from the Airfix DAK figure. Its the one in shorts bayonetting the opponent , something that Rommel forbade (not bayonetting but using shorts :) 

The most used torso was the Esci grenade thrower with new arms and used in both sides of the boats. 

The Airfix MG34 gunner just got new legs and its old boots. 

In this one there is an Esci DAK torso hold a LMG, a Hat cyclist (rower) and a Matchbox figure. The two figures on the lower right corner are again Matchbox and Airfix. 

 Some of the boats have a LMG or a flamethrower lying on the floor. Virtuelly all figures neede new gas mask containers, shovel and bayonet, bread bag and canteens and these ones were taken from Preiser or cut from the original figures before the torso was glued to the legs. Nowadays you can also do all this using much more recent figures like Caesar and Pegasus but this is a way to use these old figures in a different, fun and useful fashion. 

Next: Italians for the Russian campaign of 1812. 

Rapid Fire! in 20mm, Vercors 1944 (part 2) - The 6e Chasseurs Alpins

 

The 6e Chasseurs Alpins was an old and famous unit that ended up in the French Vichy part after the 1940 campaign. A few of them - around 60 - joined the Vercors Maquis and became the core of one of the most famous units on that battle, being sent to all actions from Saint Nizier (13th to the 15th June) up to the 23rd July, the last day of battle. 

The majority of the 6e Chasseurs at the Vercors would not have been dressed like this but instead would have used the civilian clothes typical to the Maquis. In fact only some of the officers would have used this uniform, but the Chasseur uniform is too tempting to be left aside as it gives lots of color to the Maquis. Besides dressed like this they are a possibility for the May/June 1940 campaign and even Narvik were the 6e Chasseurs Alpins fought. 

The only non-Airfix figure is the German Esci figure firing with the MP40 that here received a radio on its back, something that didn´t happen at the Vercors as far as I know. 

The Vichy propaganda for the 6e Chasseurs Alpins. I only changed the boots for some white tall socks that I saw in some reenactors of the unit. 

The figures used are the Airfix Italians with added Milliput Chasseur beret. There is also a Japanese and a WWI US Airfix figures added for variety as the Airfix Italians, even if beautifully sculpted, don´t have many poses. The gun in many figures is the Beretta SMG but it looks close at this scale with the several supplied allied SMGs.

Next: More Maquisards, this time from LesArméesOubliés.

RF! in 20mm - A little known armoured encounter somewhere in nowadays Pakistan, the battle of Al-Lie

 

A little known armoured battle of WW2 happened in Pakistan (some sources say it was Afghanistan) at a place called Al-Lie, between several units of armoured vehicles of Japan, Germany, Slovakia on one side and USA and USSR on the other:

- The Japanese got lost in the jungle looking for the body of Yamamoto and ended up a bit to the west;

- The Slovaks found the Eastern Front too dangerous and a task force derived a bit more to the south east looking for more peaceful areas;

-The Germans had to be in control of everything Axis;

- The Soviets, without radios on their tanks, got lost and now were too scared to return because of NKVD thinking they were deserters;

- The US simply had to be everywhere even if it was not their damn business!!

Two conclusions are known about Al-Lie battle, no one survived to tell the story and it didn´t happen. 

After this BS story what really made me making this bunch was the fact of having these models sitting for too long on the cue and all were WW2 bits for continuing a number of armies. 

The one waiting for longer, maybe 10 years, and already built (given by JF or JMM) was this Esci late KV-1 that will go the winterized Soviets. 

This Mig T-28 is one of the oldest model kits of this tank, dating from the mid 90s. I found it in one of the last model shops in Lisbon, the Casa Antunes. 

The model is a piece of hell to be built as it is made in resin and lots of photo-etched parts and thus made for standing in a shelf and not wargaming. But as I´m a shelf wargamer everything will be OK. 

Two more T-35 monster by S-Models. Only four to reach the 10 mark as ordered by Master Colin and Richard in its supplement for Russian units 41-42. In fact the 8th Mechanized Corps used them at Dubno, which is my target for Barbarossa. The last four will not have the aerials as they only existed in the command tank of the company. 

This "Long Tom" and HST is a second one to be built and is the consequence of an exchange made years ago between a full Altaya collection and some miniature racing cars. A Matchbox figure and a base was added, a quick glass paint and sand color drybrush and its ready to go. 

Some 10 days ago or so I received a nice parcel from a Spanish wargamer friend, JZ, which had plenty of very helpful bits and pieces. Among them there was this Horch 830 radio car of the early war period, probably by the extict BUM and copied from the Wespe model. The aerials were added and a few more details also. 

Not sure about this aerial arrangement but it looks nice to me. 

Also from JZ came all these that went for the Japanese. The Sumida Type 92 armored car is resin a copy of the Skytrex one I already have. I painted it with the same SNLF colors. The truck to the left pretends to be a Nissan 80 but it started as...

... a firemen truck. Here it already got some plastic side pannels to look more like a cargo truck...

...and here it got new wheels and a tarpaulin. 

These diecast pickups started like this but here you can already see the final arrangement with hot glue on the windshields, new wheels and cargo to disguise the strange stuff on the back.

Three more Praga trucks from FtF going to the Slovak Fast brigade. 

And three more Slovac LT-35 to conclude the armour of the same brigade.

Next: another video on the Iraqi 1991 army

The Luftwaffe for Rapid Fire! rules and in 20mm size

This collection tried to get the basics of the German Luftwaffe for all WW2 periods. There are all major brands like Airfix (some from the 1957 originals) , Revell, Matchbox and several of the newer Altaya and Luppa die-casts. The darker Me262 is a Frog model from 1972 that I forgot to mention.

The French and British aircraft for the 1940 campaign, for Rapid Fire! r...

Another project made along many years including 30 Airfix, Heller, Smer, Azur and Altaya models to go along with my four French divisons (DCR, DLM, DLC and DI) and the BEF and the British 1st Armored division.

Rapid Fire! Blitzkrieg in 20mm - Additional German bycicle fusiliers, artillery and staff cars for the 18th ID and 7th PD

The bycicles convinced me to add all other things: The bycicle Fusiliers are necessary for the OB of the 18th ID together with Staff cars and artillery limbers mentioned in the RF! Blitzkrieg battlegroups for May 1940; the 20mm Flak gun is the last piece missing for the Flak battalion of the 7th PD that wreaked havoc in the ranks of the Matildas in the Arras action.

The Cadillac 1941 from Matchbox is the closest I could find to the Opel Admiral and this photo made me buy the two toys in a local supermarket. 

The wheels were replaced by some better ones from Airfix and Matchbox as the original ones are generally what spoils these kind of models. Some 3d resin extra jerrycans were placed copying the original photo as they also help to disguise the different front of the Cadillac in relation to the Opel. 

So together with some ACE staff cars already made I´m more or less done with these kind of vehicles for the Panzer Grey period. 

The Hat box of german cyclists was once again (after the Slovaks) used to make these German fusiliers using BlueStuff as the matrix and two component resin as the filler and lost details with Milliput. The original resin heads, turned into blobs and were replaced by Esci DAK heads. 

Together with the resin contraptions a few more dismounted cyclists were made using old Atlantic, Airfix and Esci figures. 

"- Hey Hans, is it us overthere on those bikes?

- Of course not Helmut! You are on too much Pervitin!"

After another moment of fine poetry lets have a look at limbers. There were still three Revell limbers around without horses, wheels or figures that must have been used somewhere else. I coupled the limbers with Napoleonic horses, wheels of unknown origin (some are 3d printed) and figures from FtF. The horses had to have some Milliput extras as they were demoted from the fancy line cavalry to the hardships of horse artillery. 

Limbers on the wargames table or even on a shelf, like mostly my case, are always a nice sight. The card bases were strenghtened with super glue. 

In the end you have some reasonable looking limbers to pull guns from the 75mm caliber to 150mm. The harness was heavily transformed and reduced in lenght as I didn´t want the huge final model that Revell offers even if its the correct one. 

One more Zvezda 20mm Flak 38 was added and this one will be closer to the 7th PD assets as it concludes its Flak battalion. The standing figure to the right is FtF. 

Next: More Slovaks or reinforcements for the 1944 British airborne division. 

Airfix nostalgia batch from the 50´s built and painted

 

Some two years ago I found a batch of eight very old bagged Airfix models from the 50´s and 60´s for sale in our local flea market in Coimbra. They looked OK, for the exception of the card which contained the instructions of the kit, completely ruined. No parts missing and a group that could be useful for a number of wargames scenarios. Besides I could revisit models like the Lysander or the Gladiator that I had decades ago and that got ruined on their own or eaten by my dear Breque, an Epagneul Breton that loved to chew plastic. Probably he simply loved everything I did, and my scent was probably in the painted models. 

They were like this. At the beginning the seller wanted 75 euro each but in the end I took the lot for 90 euros after explaining him that the instructions were not understandable, with paper that got so moldy that self destroyed while touching. Of course this is BS as you can find the instructions easily in the Web. Only the Comet Racer was put aside as it has no purpose in wargaming. All these models took some 20 minutes each to build, with closed cockpits and a flow of super glue in all joints in order to harden the construction. All decals were mostly ruined and markings had to be hand painted. 

I already have a number of these Fiat G.50 bis for my desert Italians so this one was converted for the SCW Nationalists, and the G.50 Freccia version. For that the rotor of the changed and a piece of heated plastic covered the open cockpit. I just followed the nice cover of the AML kit for the painting scheme. 

When I opened the Gladiator bag I could see the very old Airfix way of having a pilot. I think this one must be from around 1957, so 11 years older than me! The pilot convinced me that the Gladiator I had in the past must have been the Matchbox one. 

I used this standard camouflage as it fit the two squadrons present in France 1940 before being replaced by Hurricanes, and the ones present in Crete. 

In the end it became 'Joe' Fraser aircraft of No 112 Squadron at Crete, 1941. 

The Westland Lysander became one from the No 13 Army Cooperation Squadron in France 1939/40.

The only part missing (slipped from the holes in the bag) from the entire lot was the right wheel of the Lysander. I had to built on from scratch in plastic card, GreenStuff and a new small wheel copying the left one. 

I already have several of these both in plastic and die-cast but this P-47D is always a nice addition. 

I like a scruffy finish to the under parts of the aircrafts. Yes, that is the hand of your beloved author but the left one that is only used to hold stuff and not the one that really makes all this magic!

A Grumman Gosling for the RN joined the ranks. Its something virtually useless for wargaming but its cute. The colors are not the right ones as I copied some printed painted instructions. 

The Australian Boomerang is my first and ready to fight the Japanese. Here it shows the colors of  a sample at Mildura in 1943. 

Finally, an Iranian F-5 fighter jet joins two die-casts in the shelves in my struggle to balance my Iraqi air force that counts some 30+ machines.  

Next: a video of the Ukrainian army in 2022/23 or the Iraqi 3rd Saladin AD.