The Slovak Fast Brigade at Lipovec 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! - Part 7: The small cars, new unexpected airplanes and some artillery

 

Making the Slovak Fast Brigade is a funny project as you can´t find many types of vehicles or guns in one place something that forces to look everywhere from plastic, resin, scratch or 3d. In this post you can find a bit of all of them. 

These ones came from Poland (Martola Model Shop) from a 3d resin brand called EMP  which, among dozens of others, has (L to R) these Tatra T82 (instead of Tatra T27 as pointed in the RF! Blue book) with the  20mm oerlikon AA, the Tatra T-72  and the Tatra 57k. The models are true beauties with very easy to clean resin debris from the 3d printing process. The interior of the Tatra 82 is very complete but I prefer to close all windows with pieces of plastic card. I did the same on the other two vehicle´s windshields as they were very detailed but also fragile. The barrel of the 20mm Oerlikon broke  and had to be replaced by a drilled piece of plastic. 

These two, a Letov S-328 and an Avia-534 from KP were very kindly sent to me by the RF! expert Alan McCoubrey. These two are very handy, an extra Avia-534 is always good as the Fast brigade had around 36 of them (three squadrons). The Letov S-328 was also missing in my collection as the one I had was sent to Poland 1939 disguised and converted as a Polish  reconnaissance aircraft. The only change I made in these two was the markings that were hand painted and the two figures on the Letov which came from the Hasegawa Kawanishi H8K. 

The Tatra T82 was used as an AA mobile platform. Not sure it was used in this way in mid 1941 but there is visual confirmation of it around 1943 at least. The figures are Hat WW1 Ottomans with Esci British paratroopers heads which is (I realised that pretty late) the best  plastic heads for the Slovaks. 

This photo is from 1943 and it shows a 20mm AA gun on top of the Tatra T82 (caption says it)  and that is why our masters mention the 20mm AA being towed/carried on top of Tatra T27 and not T82...

The Tatra T-72 will go for the Mixed Reconnaissance Force HQ and the Tatra 57k will be carrying the observation team of the 11th Artillery Regiment.

One more FtF Praga RV was used to pull the 75mm mountain gun of the infantry battalion. This time I camouflaged the truck with the same colors used in the Slovak tanks as shown in Tank Power magazine No 471. 

The 75mm mountain gun was scratchbuilt from an Irregular Miniatures barrel and some Revell XVII century wheels.  The carriage came from an old Airfix 25pdr heated and twisted until in place. The shield and other small details were made in plastic card. 

The crew is again Hat Ottomans with Esci paratroopers heads. The netting on the helmets is no problem as its barely invisible after two coats of paint.  

Next: wether Vietnam or more Slovaks

Rapid Fire! Eastern Front in 20mm - The South Ozereika landings (part 6); the Romanian force

 

The Romanians at our masters Blue book scenario on the Ozereika landings have a battalion of infantry; a company of engineers and a battery of artillery. 

The figures are all from the Hat Romanian infantry and that includes the artillerymen. Hat also has a box of artillerymen but I don´t have it and, instead, used the mortar crews from the infantry box. 

The Romanian artillery at Ozereika is for me a mistery. The Romanians had at least two  types of 75mm guns namely the French 1897 model and the Krupp 1904 model (not counting 76,2mm, 77mm guns and 75mm mountain guns). So I went for the Krupp version and made it from scratch. 

The officer was placed in a more "artillery" position by cutting the pistol and bending the arm. 

The gun/fun itself started with an old barrel of an Airfix 25 pdr, wheels from Hat and a number of plastic and metal parts all glued together, and that included some broom bristles. 

The shield was made from EverGreen cut and bent to an approximate shape. 

In the end it got close the Krupp gun. 

The radio is another mystery as I couldn´t find any information on Romanian radios so something generic was made and a prone figure firing its rifle was turned into a radio operator. 

When I glue prone figures or equipment parts that tend to be engulfed with the sand/cat litter mix I do the following:

- the parts are fixed with electric glue that will lift it a few millimeters from the base,

- in order to strenghten the electric glue I use cheap super glue to fix the parts permanently, 

- your favorite type of ground texture can be then applied without covering the prone figures or equipment. 

The Hat Romanian infantry box has no 81mm so a FtF German mortar was used. This will look strange as the 60mm mortar from the box is much thicker than this one (not counting the 60mm mortar shell in the left figure that will never be able to enter this 81mm barrel :). 

Next: the last Soviet Naval infantry equipment for Ozereika

The Slovak Fast Brigade at Lipovec 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! - Part 2: first tanks and last aircraft

 

The Slovak Fast Brigade had a battalion of tanks (Lt-35, Lt-38 and Lt-40s) and, besides the Avia-534 fighters, also a reconnaissance group of Letov S-328. Still to finish the tank battalion I need three more Lt-35.

All tanks here are First To Fight and the aircraft is KP. 

While the Lt-35s and Lt-38s were built straight from the box these tow Lt-40, a command version sharing almost the same chassis of the Lt-38, that demanded a lot of changes, particularly in the turret and front glassis. 

The shape of the turret had to be altered with lots of plastic and Milliput. 

The commander´s cuppola was also made from plastic pieces. 

The MGs were relocated, some resin jerrycans glued on the turret (in order to desguise some pretty bad scratchbuilding) and two Russian tank crewmen from Xan Miniatures painted as Slovaks were added. 

If you want to avoid all this trouble  and a much more correct model you can have the Attack LT-40. The problem is the price: the Attack models are almost 20 euros while these FtF models are 8.50 euros.

The two necessary LT-38 are done. 

And two of the five LT-35 are also done. 

This Letov S-328 is in fact a Letov S-16 (painted as a S-328), an older and out of service reconnaissance aircraft of the Czech airforce. My Letov S-328 went to the Polish 1939 airforce desguised as a Lublin. Yes, I know, I´ve made a big mess :) 

Next: Maybe some Slovak artillery or trucks, Romanians for Yuzhnaye Ozereika or maybe a return to the AWI. 

Rapid Fire! Dieppe 1942 in 20mm (part 6) - The Dieppe casino

 

With 14 people in the house in the last week I managed to sneak out in true Commando style for some period of time and build this model. The Dieppe casino was one of the many beach obstacles the Germans had at the main beach of Dieppe in order to hamper any allied landing. During the landings of August 1942 it was used as shelter for some Canadians and was thus destroyed after the failed Jubilee operation for the Germans to have a clear line of fire for an eventual second landing. 

This was another venture I was wanting to make since my teenage days but only when I got my hands on the excellent After the battle- Dieppe through the lens and Channel ports- Operation Jubilee books I really had enough reliable information for all this, from my Calgary tank regiment (already made) up to this one. 

This model became 60cm X 30cm. 

The casino was built in Moorish style, opening its doors in 1886,  and it became an imposing feature of the beach and an attraction for tourists during the French Belle Époque. 

Between 1926 and 1942 it gained this Art Déco style, with added galleries,  favoured by the 1936 first paid holidays in history which attracted even more bathers to its beach.

Then the Germans did this and it was in this conditions that the Canadians faced it. It got plenty of its structures changed and simplified and some AT bunkers in its extremities were added. All three last pictures are taken from the castle grounds, a typical photo shoot place at Dieppe. 

My interpretation of the building is a simplified one. The building was five floors tall and I only made three; the U-shaped galleries at the rear next to the gardens were heavily reduced as well as the overall size of the compound in what I hope to be true RF! style. 

The material used was my trusted BlueBoard 4cm sheets. Card was used for all openings, wood for the pipes on the left side roof and broom sticks for the railings. 

The tips of the casino were strenghtened with a 37mm gun (left) and a 47mm gun (right), both in bunkers. In fact the 37mm guns was placed more to the front and leaning on the sea wall. 

The rear part of the casino got shelled before the landing and had its western gallerie destroyed. I used pieces of BlueBoard and some pebbles to represent it. 

Some wooden beams were used to represent some tubing on the western roof (ventilation? water?). 

Just to break the structure some resin bundles of boxes and barrels were placed on the third floor. Its a bit the Call of Duty style but gives some detail to the model. 

The camouflage painting colors of the casino is not easy to understand and, in desperation and against my true beliefs, I asked Chat GPT what would it be and  green over sand showed up. The Osprey book shows it brown over sand and frankly the contrast looks more green over sand in the period pictures as AI said. 

The building´s front part is the most famous with its two oblique towers. The Germans look to have taken out most of the glass from the windows in order to avoid injuries on the defenders while being attacked. 

Some defensive weapons were made for the casino: the 20mm AA is 3d printed and both the 37mm and 47mm guns were scratchbuilt in EverGreen plastic card with some 3d printed wheels in both of them. The 37mm gun was made from memory and its shield became a bit too large. For not to try play the smart guy again I used a ShellHole scencics 47mm gun as a template and this one became nicer. The crews are Simon´s Soldiers and FtF. 

 An MG34 from FtF and a repainted Altaya Opel Blitz were added. The bases of the guns in particular had to have smaller sizes from the ones I already had due to the bunker openings. Besides the AT guns, there was a 20mm AA gun somewhere in the compound that I imagine to be on the roof and most probably some HMGs also. 

                                       

The guns when in the bunkers can be barely seen but the tips of their barrels add some drama to the action. 

These are the  three buildings for the Dieppe project made up to now. Their size has to do with its relative size with the gates being the smaller of the three and the casino, by far, the larger. 

In this picture you can see all three building and their relative position: the gates in the middle; the castle at the top and the casino galleries at the middle right. 

  

As I was probably a failed croupier in a previous life I like casinos. To the left you can see my approach to the Riva Bella/ Ouistreham casino of Sword fame made years ago.

Next: some YouTube shooting.  

Rapid Fire! Spanish Civil War armies in 20mm

Still far from finished - this one is one of those that will never be finished - you can see here a few models that are enough for some battallion sized RF games on the SCW theme. Together wilth my usual conversions based on Revell, Airfix, Esci and Zvezda there are plenty of proper Irregular Miniatures and some BUM figures. Tanks, artillery and armored cars came from FtF, Minairons, Panzer Garage, Irregular Miniatures and Pegasus. The aircraft are Special Hobby, KP, Azur, Valom, Super Model, Italeri, SMER, Heller and Airfix.