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.

The 1939 Polish army in 20mm and for Rapid Fire! rules

Still on the Hastings battlefield, it´s time to show you my Polish army for the 1939 campaign. This one was possible when Hat industries released its infantry and artillery and FirstToFight started the job of producing in a very comprehensive way the vehicles and artillery of the Blitzkrieg period. There is also the help of 3D prints and the usual scratchbuilding, particularly the Smialy armored train. Lastly, the Polish air force is also covered as you can find in plastic virtually everything Poland had in 1939.

Able Archer/ RFR rules (?) - Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 in 20mm (part 10) - Ukrainian APC's for the Kharkiv offensive

 

While on the Kherson offensive the Ukrainian vehicles have yellow painted squares on the northern Kharkiv offensive they showed up with very distinctive white crosses some so big that are wrapping the entire vehicle. All vehicles are repainted Die-cast Altaya models with the exception of VAB with a figure manning the Browning 12,7 HMG which is a Heller kit. 

The figure on the right side VAB APC is a Esci torso with Greenstuff ath The French VAB APC is not in fact made for much action but more for transport. The Ukrainian need for infantry protection and speed made them being used as IFVs with several already destroyed.

 

The very old BTR-60PB is still being used and was eventually used to saturate the battlefield with relatively soft targets, as seen recently in some videos where speed looks to be the rule,  making the aiming of the Russian defenders more difficult. 

Next: maybe a video on the Arnhem buildings. 

Rapid Fire! France1940 in 20mm - French Bombers!

Quickly built before the holidays, I managed to finish a few days ago these nice 1/72nd scale French bombers I had stashed for years. This one is a SMER (ex Heller) Leo 451. It was one of the best French machines of the war.

The only add-on to these planes were some machine gunners (cannon gunners on this case!). In order to speed building and painting I painted the glasses in a Rapid Fire!/Tintin style.

From AZUR comes this Maryland M 167. It has some pieces in resin which frankly are unnecessary and could have made the model much less expensive. Not sure but I think this model is an ex FROG and pretty old and thus the need for AZUR to add some resin parts to revamp it.

The bigger of the three is this Amiot 143 (SMER but also ex Heller). I used this colour scheme because most of them were painted in a quite ugly dark olive green. Used in numbers to attack German concentrations and bridges they were also shot down in numbers. 

Rapid Fire! 20mm, French aviation 1940, Aircraft up to the moment.

Before continuing the recent Russian Contemporary Wars series I was forced due to piles of dust and humidity to make new shelves and place glass on some of the cabins holding parts of my collection.  By doing so some cleaning became necessary and I took the opportunity to take pics of some planes. Let's start with  the French from 1940. 

It must have been a nightmare to supply parts to French military aviation in the late 30's and during the German invasion of may 1940 as there were an enormous amount of aircraft performing the same function. 

If you want to see the rest of my french Army for 1940 please open the label France 1940 and then lets get back to BleuVille. 

These Heller  Dewoitine D.520 were some of the most modern fighters in the world but not many reached the war zone.

The Bloch MB 152 was more numerous, but older and not as fast as the Dewoitine. To the left is a SMER model and the one to the right is an Altaya Die-cast.

Other fighters (to help the work of the maintenance crews...) were the American built Curtiss H-75A-1  and the wooden light fighter Caudron C.714. Not sure but I think both are Heller. 

The Morane-Saulnier 406 was the mainstay of the French Airforce shooting down between 190 and 270 German aircraft. Altaya Die-cast model. 

The Potez 630 was a heavy reconnaissance airplane and here once again the french produced a great number of different models with the same characteristics. Heller again.

Even some few Italian Caproni Ca.313 bomber/reconnaissance aircraft were bought. This plane is a Supermodel model (Supermodel is the brand...).

The old ANF Les Mureaux 113 was the most numerous reconnaissance aircraft of those days, again by Heller.

The  Bloch MB 174 (Heller) was one of the best and newer machines of the French air force and intended to replace the Breguet 693.

Another aircraft for observation and reconnaissance the Potez 63.11 (Heller).

I made some 30 of these stands. By using the Altaya plastic black stand you can glue a piece of acrylic and, on top of it, glue the tip of the Altaya stand. Drill a hole the same size on the under part of the plane and here you have a nice and convincing stand.

These older Breguet 693 by Heller ground attack aircraft, also used for reconnaissance.

The Potez 540 (SMER model) series was an old design that first saw service with the Spanish Republican Airforce, earning the reputation of the 'Flying Coffin'. When WWII hit the French they were only used for transport, mostly in the colonies.

I still have some 10 French aircraft models to build, some are only for numbers but others are new ones like the LEO 451 bomber. Hope to show you some of them soon.