Yuzhnaya Ozereika landings 1943 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules

This Landings at Ozereika project started 5 years ago and is now completed. Most of the models are scratchbuilt, like the case of all boats, but the infantry, tanks, artillery and aircraft are from the usual plastic brands. This is a very heroic action of the Soviet naval infantry which cost them dearly without results, exceptuating fixing many Axis reserves which allowed the "Little Land" diversion to become a sucess that is still celebrated in Russia as one of the biggest Soviet exploits of WW2.

If you want to see the eight part construction of this project go to https://jpwargamingplace.blogspot.com/ and write "ozereika" on the search bar. I also advise everyone to visit the amazing site https://www.o5m6.de/redarmy/index.php were you can have great information on many aspects of WW2 including most of the material that was used at Ozereika.

Able Archer/ RFR rules (?) - Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 in 20mm (part 9) - Ukrainian new and old material and some musicians

This post is a mixture of old material - the Zil-159 command truck and the Polish/Czech T-72 M1 - and new - the Polaris buggies with the Stugna-P ATGW. Also a few Wagner PMC figures joined the previous group on the modelling table for a few days. 

The Polish/Czech T-72 M1 have been very active on the Ukrainian counter-attacks on the Kherson and Kharkiv fronts. These two have the yellow squares used in the Kherson counter-offensives at least in one of the sectors. Close to them were seen some Portuguese M-113 and also the Dutch YPR-765. 

The models are Revell and Altaya Die-cast. Both had plenty of Kontakt explosive reactive armor (ERA) cassettes placed in the most likely areas to be hit for some extra protection. Each ERA block is made of two small rectangles of 1mm thick Evergreen plastic sheet glued together. The frontal ERA are Modelcollect leftover parts. The Ukrainians pay more attention to camouflage than the Russians so gauze was mixed with PVA glue to model some of it around the gun barrel, front and turret.  The tank commander is a Xan Miniatures figure. 

The Polaris Stugna-P armed buggies are used apparently by some SOF and they have been used for quick hit-and-run attacks. 

The models are Die-cast Matchbox models in 1/64th scale. A few days ago I was looking at a parked civilian one and they are really smaller in 1/72nd scale. The military version has some extra protections at the front but they are complicated to scratch built so gauze was used to disguise that part. Only a piece of extra armor can be seen in front of the driver. The Stugna-P ATGW is scratch built and the Esci crew got new arms made of GreenStuff. 

Some kind of command vehicle is necessary for the Ukrainian brigade so I used this old ICM Zil-157 for that purpose. The original idea was for it to be built once more to my Iraqis but there is at least one photo showing this old model in the current war.  

               

Only some resin 3d printed jerrycans and some gauze was added for it to look nicer. 

                                       

Mixed in this lot are some Russian Wagner PMC soldiers which have been used by the Russians as some of its best assault units together with the VDV. I´ve used different colors for the Wagner uniform than the greener Russians as I think Wagner doesn't use the Barmitsa or the Permyachka infantry equipment. 

The figures are easily found on Aliexpress and are made in 3d printed resin (no brand name though). The detail is simply amazing and they are sturdy and clearly designed for 1/72nd scale wargaming. They also end up being better for wargaming than the Alex Miniatures I´ve showed you a few post ago as they are far more resistant with the Alex Miniatures being better for dioramas. 

 Next: more Russo-Ukrainian war or maybe a return to ancients.

Rapid Fire! Eastern Front in 20mm - The South Ozereika landings (part 3)

The Glebobva night airdrop was a mission carried by a small group of 80 Soviet paratroopers in support of the Ozereika landings. Apparently they managed some sucess wiping out some German garrisons and five days later a few of them were part of the rescued. Master Richard places 10 paratroopers in the Russian OB which is right. Even if only 80 (6 figures) landed one of the four planes assigned to the mission couldn't find the landing site and returned home cutting the Desant force by 25%. So the 10 paratroopers are the initial force without any incident. 

My biggest doubt about this airdrop was which kind of aircraft launched the paratroopers as I couldn't find any information on the issue. There are two possibilities: The Lisunov 2 (Li-2), a licence produced DC-3 or the much bigger TB-3, famous for the first mass jumps in airborne history. I have both in stock (in fact its a DC-3 Dakota but they are the same) and decided to use the ICM TB-3. Besides by having a Tupolev TB-3 you gain a bomber for the Barbarossa period. 

Its a really big thing with a a wing span of over 55cm. Not only its not easy to place on the shelves as it is a really difficult model to assemble with over 300 parts. The green paint you see is an almost dry GW colour mixed with PVA in order to desguise the many faults during construction. As my patience is not what it used to be I wanted it assembled ASAP. So many interior parts were discarded as well as the engines interior. All flimsy and easily breakable structures were replaced by metal ones. 

The only addition are 5 of the 10 crew members that are visible, two pilots and three machine gunners. 

The camouflage was the typical A2 Green and Black used throughout the conflict and particularly common on bombers. 

A second doubt of mine was the exact uniform of the paratroopers. They used by then a Khaki jumping suit with an aviator leather helmet and that is for sure. But they also used a black printed camouflaged smock in the style of the scouts. Besides that Zvezda (hey, they are Russian) shows their own small box of paratroopers in a greenish jumping suit different in colour from, for instance, Osprey's book on Russian paratroopers. I followed the Zvezda box cover as the green uniform without printed black looks very nice. 

All figures are conversions from three diferent origins. The legs came from the Airfix Luftwaffe figures as they have no boots. The torsos are wether hard or soft plastic from Esci or Revell. The heads are mostly taken out from hard plastic aviators as I paint all cockpits blue and only use aviator's figures if they are in an open cockpit like the case of the TB-3.

Some of them kept the blue paratrooper's beret. One of the paratroopers became a radioman. 

Almost all figures got some extra equipment like bedrools and haversacks made in GreenStuff.

The small 50mm mortar came from the Pegasus Russian Naval Infantry. 

Next: Wether France 1940, USAF and RAF for D-Day, WW2 Italians or another part of the Ozereika landings. 

Rapid Fire! Blitzkrieg in 20mm - German Reconnaissance aircraft

First of all I apologise once again for the swastikas at the tails of these models which obviously are here only for historical accuracy.  These three are old kits I had inside the boxes for years. The common thing they have is that all are German reconnaissance planes suitable for early war. 

The Fieseler Storch is the old Airfix kit in a Heller box. The thing that surprised me was the size of the thing much bigger that what I was thinking.

The Heinkel He 70 is the ICM model. I bought it for the Condor Legion of SCW bad fame but  this aircraft was still present in the Polish campaign and so it went east. 

As with most of the stuff I build I replaced the flimsy MG17 and the antenna with metal parts for extra strenght. 

This Heinkel He 46 was waiting to be built for some 30 years or so and was also intended for the SCW. Its a vacform kit from the Spanish brand Vacukit. Last vacuum model I built I think was a Gotha WWI German bomber maybe some 20 years ago so lots of nostalgia in this one too. 

No crew in vacform kits so these ones are Airfix with another homemade MG17. The swastikas are also very old Verlinden 1/35th transfers. I used the smaller ones as they fit nicely the 1/72nd models.

Next: frankly I don't know.