Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 14) The 3rd US Marine battalion and one more Amtrac

 

Third USMC battalion and 1st Regiment finished together with one more LVT(A)1. Once again these figures are a compromise between the uniform, equipment and organization of the USMC battalion at Guadalcanal and the ones of the later Pacific war. The LVT(A)1 is also for later battles as it was used for the first time at Kwajalein, early 1944. The model is Altaya with added crew for the Brownings. 

The Revell US Marine is a great set. The figures are well designed with all small weapons that the USMC used: M3 SMG, Thompson, Garand, BAR and M1 rifles and even a flamethrower. The problem is heavier weapons as nothing comes inside the box. So they had to be made up once again. 

The Bazookas are Airfix and SHQ with converted Revell marines holding Hasegawa shells. 

The Brownings HMG 1917 are Revell and Matchbox, all with Evergreen sleeves and added water cooling device. The No2s are Atlantic and Matchbox. All No3s are Revell and SHQ. 

The Brownings 1919 have Hasegawa firers with SHQ guns and plastic tripods. On the left there is an Airfix firer with changed tripod. All No2s are Esci and Hasegawa. 

The 81mm mortar is scratchbuilt and has an SHQ, a converted  Revell and the old Matchbox officer, probably the most copied and used 20mm figure in the world. 

The 60mm mortars are again scratchbuilt and have Revell conversions (the one with the rifle raised above the head), another Matchbox conversion and a SHQ figure. 

This one became strange as the Airfix radio man  looks like the grandson of the officer. Even so I like to think of this officer as Chester Puller in order to balance things! The figure with Walkie Talkie is SHQ. 

Next: A return to Vercors

RFR/Able Archer - The Iraqi Airforce in 1/72nd scale

This one started to be built during the Gulf War itself as aircraft were some of the miniatures available to portray Iraqis. The vast majority are plastic model kits with a few more recent Die-cast.

Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 11) The first US Marine battalion

 

This first Marine battalion is set for late war Pacific, from Tarawa up to Iwo Jima. There is more heavy infantry weapons support is this battalion than in the ones at Guadalcanal. Up to May 1944 a RF! Marine battalion should have only one of these three 60mm mortars, two MMGs (no HMGs) and the 81mm mortar, everything allocated to the support company, while in late war these heavy weapons were integral of the rifle companies and thus in larger numbers. Also the Marines at Guadalcanal still didn´t receive the bazooka, even if this one was already used at Operation Torch, in Tunisia. 

A problem while doing the WW2 Marines is, at least in our 1/72nd scale, to use or not the camouflaged helmet, something that changes the appearence of the soldier and miniature. In fact the Marine´s camouflaged helmet was first introduced after Guadalcanal, at Tarawa, but was used on all other Island hoppings up to the end of the war. So I cheated Guadalcanal by a few months and painted the helmets in three color camouflage as it can be used for several years, from November 1943 up to march 1945, while the plain helmet is only useful for Guadalcanal Marines.

The figures in the rifle companies are mostly Revell with some Esci and hard plastic Hasegawa for variety. The intention of Revell with its Marines look to have been a bit like the 1st edition of Airfix Marines with most of the figures arriving at a beach, looking for cover or wading ashore.The Revell figures are quite well sculpted but the Revell plastic is very bad with figures breaking quite easily after some time of light and air exposure something that doesnt happen with Atlantic or Matchbox, for instance, which are much older. 

These are the extras that the three rifle companies have from may 1944 on. 

The three HMGs are late Brownings M2 turned into the 1917A1 model by inserting an Evergreen tube. The figures are Matchbox, Revell, Hasegawa and Airfix. 

The MMGs (M1919 Brownings) are Hasegawa (previous copies of the hard plastic Esci) and, to the rear, a sole Airfix that originally had the bipod, mostly used by the US paratroopers, here turned into a tripod. Two of the number 2 are Matchbox. 

The Battalion HQ company has two bazookas, a 81mm mortar and two flamethrowers. The last ones were used by the first time at Guadalcanal by the 2nd engineer batallion in January 1943.

The Bazookas No 2s were converted from Revell and Hasegawa while the firers are Airfix and hard plastic Esci. 

The 60mm mortars are from the 1st edition Valiant and are my first models from a set of over 200 sprues offered last month to me by master Colin. See? This is what you get for being loyal serf of your master and never escaping its dominium (or other sets of WW2 rules..).

The figures are a bit small as most are SHQ and Matchbox. 

The 81mm mortar is SHQ with a converted figure from Revell, the one wading ashore with its rifle above the head, an Esci and Matchbox figures. 

The Co group is Revell with a figure with the Hasegawa radio/telephone on its back. In fact the radioman should have a lighter rifle than the BAR but this Revell BAR is quite flimsy and looks like a small calibre rifle. 

Next: Asymmetric Wargames and Simon´s Soldiers Japanese artillery and crews. 

Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 4) Second Japanese infantry battalion (and this one is being observed)

 

The first battalion was calmly marching while this one is in action, something I like do with my units, that is dividing the figures by situations. Sometimes this get awkward as sometimes a marching battalion is called to charge, or vice-versa, but c´est la vie.

 The MMGs are Atlantic this time. The figures had to have their legs heated and bent in order to fit the 4cm base. 

Some scratchbuilding had to be done namely on the small radio on the advancing Airfix figure and on the Esci figure using its rifle as a club who became an ammunition carrier. 

This Hasegawa Curtiss Seagull was bought on a 2nd hand fair and its a useful and colorful thing for Guadalcanal as it continued to serve as observation aircarft even after the introduction of the Kingfisher. 

Next: some days off and then Japanese artillery, probably. 

Guadalcanal 1942 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules - (Part 1) The aircraft for Henderson Field

 

One of the main hotspots of the Guadalcanal campaign was Henderson Field. In fact the entire campaign (August 42- February 43) is tied to this spot as it started with the construction of a Japanese airfield (Lunga point/Runga point or just "RXI"), so close to Australia and the allied lines of communication, that the US decided to take it over and rename it Henderson Field, honoring a fallen pilot at Midway. 

I´m still very short of Pacific models but the stuff I have (excluding the Tarawa island, SNLF and US LVT´s) fit reasonably to these scenarios as at the shelves there is a Japanese Betty bomber (to bomb the airfield), some Japanese landing craft and the Hoisho aircraft carrier with a number of different Japanese bombers and fighters like Vals and Zeroes used in the attacks. 

Most of the Japanese offensives at the island were destined to take back  Henderson field ( Tenaru, Edson´s Ridge,Matanikau and the October Henderson Field battles) and the airfield with some of its aircraft parked makes a visually nice corner in any of the above mentioned tabletop battles. In fact, small groups of japanese infantry managed to enter the airfield during the battle of Edson´s Ridge. 

The "airfield" was initially a simple strip but in the middle of the battles the americans managed to add a paralel smaller strip for fighter´s usage, before enlarging it at the end of the campaign and later on.

For the Cactus airforce up no now I could find the presence of SBD Dauntless, Avengers and Wildcats at the airfield but others like the P-39 and P-40 were also there at a certain time. 

I already have a Dauntless and an Avenger in parked mode but want a few more so the models at this post had to be made. 

The two Dauntless are (flight mode) Hasegawa and (parked) Testors. In fact they depict in the decals the same exact plane of John Leppla and John Liska, famous for its action at the battle of Coral Sea. Even if these two exact planes were not at Guadalcanal they are famous machines and very close in time, and so are ready for the larger strip of Henderson Field. 

This Devastator was also not at Guadalcanal, as it was put to bomber/torpedo training after the losses at Midway. Even so, one more aircraft on board of the Bogue aircraft carrier. 

Next: The Union army at Gettysburg on video. 

Able Archer/ RFR rules - Vietnam in 20mm (part 13) - Reinforcements for the 11th ACR and some more aircraft

 

Some 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) elements advance in the middle of My Blue province when they are surprised by a low flight of some friendly aircraft, that could well have been some Migs... Well, this event was not registred in the unit´s history and its presented here first hand. 

Each squadron of the 11th ACR had three rifle squads (one per troop) transported in M-113 A1. I read that even these ones could also have the ACAV version but the regiment will end up with nine of these so three of the more plain A1 version looks OK. I´m not sure about placing a simple shield in front of the 12,5mm gun but I still couldn´t find a photo of them like this, the ACAV version being the more common. All models are quick build S-Model.

The figures are left-to-right, Skytrex and Airfix modern fighter pilots which suit the US cavalry tank helmet pretty well. 

Each troop also had a M-106 mortar carrier. I used again the S-Model for this conversion using a M-106 from Esci as a template. Bits of different types of plastic were used and even the mortar base came from a Revell 7YW Austrian artillery wheel. 

The crew is Esci and the M-16 rifles were cut until looking like a 107mm mortar shell. Later, the rifle part/shells were smoothed with a bit of  thick acrylic paint. 

As the mortar base was very brittle (old Revell style) I placed a jerrycan covering the damaged part. 

The floor of the M-106 (light sand part) was also raised so the figures and mortar could sit correctly. 

The Cadillac V-100, mostly used by the Military Police, are very old Corgi Juniors toys. The size is around 20mm as I have a number of Saudi V-150 in 1/87th scale that are smaller. 

The resin figures are surplus from the 3d printed PBR boat and the metal figure is Skytrex. 

The Huey Gunship is Revell. 

The Mohawk is the old Hasegawa model. One of these slow moving aircraft managed to put down a Mig-17 with its rockets, something that was kept as a secret up to 2007, as the army didn´t want USAF to know about this feat and force the Army to disarm its Mohawk as putting down Migs was a USAF exclusive. 

This A-4 Skyhawk F is the old Frog in Israeli colors. All these three aircraft got new star and stripes decals from the decals left-over box and all other symbols were hand painted. This one looks particularly bad as the symbold are painted on top of the grey primer as its (just by chance) the same color and painting style of another Skyhawk C from Altaya that I showed you before. 

Next: Guadalcanal models or a video on Bodrum, Gettysburg or Tarawa. 

Able Archer / RFR rules - Last haul from a 2nd hand fair

 

One of my biggest pleasures, exceptuating the ones were small people are made (or not), is to find old kits that remind me of my childhood. And I think this craze is increasing with the end of the  old style  model shops. So last month I had  news from one of my down town informers (can´t say his name), the one that sells my mother Corin Tellado books, that in Tomar, a city some 70 km from Coimbra (as a side note, Coimbra is still the capital of Portugal, as there is no document of any transfer of capital to Lisbon) a guy nicknamed Zé Manco (Joseph Lame, in english) was selling a large quantity of old plastic models at the 2nd hand fair of Tomar, on the first sunday of each month. So there I was looking for the guy on that day. Not easy as the fair is huge, but I saw a lame guy moving with some difficulty and I was sure to have found my target. 

Among plenty of others, I found these 5 old treasures in perfect conditions:

- The Lancaster will go along with the Revell one I showed a month or so ago just because two is much better than one

- The Sheridan will go to my 11th Black Horse Regiment in Vietnam

- The T-34/85 (had no idea that Polistil made 1/72nd models) with go to the NVA

- The Skyhawk will go also to the Vietnam

- The Seagull will go Guadalcanal as this campaign is starting to bite my brain.

Next month I´ll be there again at Tomar as Zé Manco still has a big box at home that he didn´t bring last time. 

Next: More Vietnam, mostly vehicles

The Japanese IJA and IJN aircraft in WW2 for Rapid Fire! rules and in 20...

The Japanese airforce of WW2 is an old pleasure of mine and, together with a Tarawa wargames table and a few Japanese tanks and US Amtracks, its the only few things I have for the Pacific. The models are Hasegawa, Fujimi (most of them from the good old days of cheap Japanese models), Airfix, Matchbox, Italeri and Altaya. If you want a detailed post on how I built the Ryujo Aircraft Carrier go to https://jpwargamingplace.blogspot.com

Able Archer/ RFR rules - Vietnam in 20mm (part 6) - Nguyen Van Bay´s mount and a new paddy field

 

Nguyen Van Bay goes on the hunt for one more US aircraft over his beloved Vietnamese rice fields. He even carries a "Kill Box" under him (eh, eh). 

The model is Hasegawa and portrays Nguyen Van Bay´s Mig-17. This Mig-17, even if outdated by US standards, was a headache for the USAF as is was quite manouverable and very dangerous in close combat due to the three cannons it had (the initial batches of F-4 Phantom didn´t have any). It had no air to air missiles and was subsonic, but somehow the Mig-17s seems to have shot down 77 US aircraft (VPAF claim, with US sources saying a bit less) in exchange for 100 Mig-17 shot down. Not bad for an aircraft from the 50s. 

Nguyen Van Bay shot seven/eight US aircraft (five, according to US sources). He seem to have been an extraordinary figures showing incredible skills while flying his Mig-17, and shooting down his enemies from a distance of only 100 meters (A-4, F-4, F-8 and F-105, at least). He was taken out of service quite quickly, the NV governament didn´t want to loose him as he was important also to teach and inspire other pilots. 

The table needs to look as Vietnamese as possible. New terrain was added as this extra paddy field made of the usual plywood and BlueBoard walls

I´m making some risky curves and angles on these paddy fields as I want to include forest patches or villages close to them. I already received plenty of bamboo sticks, the next piece of terrain to be built. 

Next: The NVA infantry and more terrain or a Luftwaffe's video. 

Able Archer/ RFR rules - Vietnam in 20mm (part 4) - US infantry, new tanks, terrain and a straffing Mig

 

A combined US/ARVN force is caught crossing the paddy fields by a low flying Mig-21. Fortunately, for the allies this Mig model has no auto-cannon, only the Atoll AA missiles, if not many mothers would have received the visit of the priest and officers all carried in a olive green car... sorry, this is the consequency of watching too many times Saving Private Ryan. 

This is a four company battalion (post 1967)  of US infantry from Esci. Still missing are the HMGs, the 107mm mortar and the recoiless rifles. 

The 81mm mortars came from StreletsR and the crew are all conversions from Esci. The M-60 stand has figures with new heads as the Esci set had plenty of helmetless figures maybe inspired on the movie Apocalipse Now.

This is the 2nd M48A3 converted from a M48A2c , following the Altaya one. In fact I still have another four in the stash but all need some level of conversion as they are Israeli or German versions, missing the 90mm gun and the funny little cupola. Another problem is the fact the chassis of the M48 is one of the most time consuming of the Esci range  so this group of six will be slow to build.

 The cupola came from a PzI extra turret by Minairons and luckily I have a number of them for the other missing M48s. The figure is Atlantic. 

These Hasegawa M24 Chaffee were mostly used by the ARVN as shown here. They are painted in a two-tone of green but the mud spray ruined most of it. The figures are again Atlantic and aircraft pilots. 

The Mig-21 PF is one of the main and best  models of the North Vietnamese fighter squadrons credited with many USAF aircraft, even if both sides present conflicting numbers. This model is Altaya and was minutes from being silver sprayed as many of them were but a last minute find of North Vietnamese Mig-21PF in this kind of four tone camouflage saved me from extra trouble. Like this only the markings were repainted. 

This rice field was made from a base of plywood and small walls of BlueBoard. The water part was painted with two coats of gloss varnish. The result is OK and this type of paddy field will be made in larger numbers as most of the Vietnam scenarios needs them. 

Next: The Vietnamese VC.