The DCRs for the 1940 campaign in 20mm and for Rapid Fire! wargames rules

3e DLM for the 1940 campaign in 20mm for Rapid Fire! wargames rules

Rapid Fire! Normandy 44 in 20mm - Regimental command for the 21st Panzer Division

The Command Post of the PzGrenadier Reg.125 receives the visit of an officer from the Pz Regiment 22. The officer's driver is chatting with the radioman peeking from the Lorraine38L trailer only to discover that both were born in the same place, the village of Lothar Matthäus (not far from the City of Franz Beckenbauer, which is also the capital of Bavaria as you all know).

Four brands are here. The standing figures are Simon´s Soldiers, the peeking radioman is Airfix, the Lorraine and trailer are Lancer and the Citroën CV11 is a 3d resin print. 

The group is a shameless copy of Don McHugh's nice Schlepper 38L showed in the Rapid Fire! FB groups a few weeks ago. With this one I´m ready to make my first solo wargame in 10 years maybe, the fine scenario by the same Don McHugh, Von Oppeln Counter-Attack 6th June 1944, and free to download on the RF! official page. Now I just neded to find some courage to do it due to lack of habit. 

The Airfix figure comes from the Luftwaffe's set and its based on the figure carrying what looks to me as an axle bar. 

The figure is the second from the right and had its axle bar carved out and suffered an obliquous cut in the back to be as if looking from the opening of the trailer. 

The trailer had an antenna mount on the left side according to the pictures posted by Alan McCoubrey on the above FB page. 

The Citroën Traction Avant is one more faultless 3d resin print made in one single piece by my friend Mário Laranja. 

The command group is made of Simon´s Soldiers Panzer command set with very imaginative and detailed figures. 

Now for a bit of discussion. This picture and others from the same set of photographs are the ones used by Don McHugh and Alan McCoubrey to introduce to the RF! fans one more 21st PD  lovely vehicle. I also found the same picture in Normandie 1944 Hors-Série Number 6 "Les Panzers face au debarquement". Here is stated that the vehicle is an ammunition carrier and not a radio vehicle. The symbol that can be seen only means a tracked vehicle as far as I know. On a second picture posted by Alan McCoubrey on the RF! FB groups he shows a different angle in which in fact the small thin structures coming from the Lorraine really look like antennas and thus we have probably a radio vehicle. 

A big thank you to Don McHugh, Alan McCoubrey and Sally Gardner for the inspiration provided. With this article of mine they all found the path to fame for sure :)

Next: More Eastern Front around winter 42/43

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - French Heavy Artillery Battalion for the DLM

One more unit done with the latest builds. The only new things are one of the guns and the command stand. This post can be interesting as the new gun is made from scratch and copies one from StreletsR models I've shown you recently. I tried to order more from Hannants but the Schneider 105mm gun sold out quickly and waiting is not my favourite business.

Here is the copied gun with Hat wheels as the StreletsR that served as matrix. The Somua MCG 5 are Lancer resin models and they were also used to tow the Schneider 105mm 1913 as well as the Unic P107 that masters Colin and Richard indicates (time to bow... 1,2,3 times, done).

The command group is a mix of Hat and StreletsR figures.

Now lets see the new gun. I copied all sizes from the StreletsR model to the left. The material used was Plastic card and thick hard foam.

The gun shield was bent in hot water for its particulat shape.

What really unifies the two guns are the same wheels taken from the Hat WW2 French Artillery set. Of course not all guns can be reproduced as easily as this one but I hope this one can incentivate some of you to try the same approach.

Next: Poland 1939 again.

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - The last Lafflys S20 of the DLM (part 2)

The RDP of a DLM meets at Point Trianglaire not far from all other places I keep on mentioning, in fact, always the same yard!

As I told you in the last post these are the last 14 Lafflys for a full Regiment de Dragons Portés (RDP). Everything is Minigeneral or based on the Minigeneral Laffly S20 TL. I used the Green/Sand camouflage on one of the battalions as it was the oldest type. The Green/Brown camouflage was used already after 1939 and the vehicles produced during the war apparently left the factory in these colours.

This Laffly was converted into the PC version. I added an MT trailer to give both radio and telephone capabilities to the unit to which is attached. This trailer was converted from the Hasegawa GMC trailer.

Another PC conversion with older colours.

Rear view of the same vehicle.  

The converted AT 25mm Hotchkiss portees had some foliage on the gun's shield as it can be seen in wartime pictures. In my case it was also a way to desguise the wrong shape of the shield I scratch built.

The figures are Hat from the French artillery box. As these figures are Dragons Portés don't forget to add a blue collar outlined white.

The standard version of the Laffly S20 had a FM29 LMG added and a converted firer with torso from Hat and legs from Esci Italian Alpini as the ones I showed you a few posts ago.

Lastly I converted a Lancer Resin Somua MCG 4 as a Recovery vehicle. As this one is expected to tow damaged vehicles it has the blue/yellow triangle so typical of French towing vehicles.

The crane was scratch built in plastic and drilled into the resin. The towing cable is metal from an old neckless my mother gave to me to this purpose convinced that its not silver or gold. I hope it wasn't.

Next: probably a big assault on 1939 Polish forces, but still not sure or some 1940 French artillery.

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - Reinforcements for both allies.

 

In another traffic clogged crossroads right in the middle of the village of Carrefour Fou an allied mixed force of tanks and bicycle takes the oportunity for using the roads while the many refugees are having a picnic under the shades of the neighbouring woods...

 

 

 

One more Vickers MK VIc this time from Lancer Miniatures for the 1st Armoured Division. I only replaced the extra thin metal barrel with plastic and added a PSC crewman.

 

 

And four more A13 MK I from S-Models. The usual extras are the smoke dischargers, turret headlight and handlers, antenna and PSC figure. I finished 10 of the necessary 11 A13 MKI for 1st AD. Now the main problem will be to find an even bigger number of A13 MKII. Wait for a plastic version, or not wait for a plastic version that is the question...

 

No, its not the 1940 Tour de France (I just checked, it didn't exist in that year coming back again only in 1947) but the two squadrons from the 5eme DLC forced to ride bicycles.

 

The figures are EWM and quite nice they are. I was a bit afraid that the heads of EWM would be too big after seeing their website pictures but they fit quite well with most of the plastic figures, specially with the Hat cavalrymen. Figure, bicycle and weapon are all separate and the end result is quite good. I used GW Liquid GreenStuff to erase the detail of the putees and turn them into cavalry boots.

 

Finally four more H39 joined the ranks with a few others on the way. Again S-Models coming directly from China. The camouflage is the last one used. There were units in which roundels or big numbers were taken out as soon as the unit arrived to the combat zone but French markings are too beautiful to be left aside.  

 

Next: something around the same theme.

 

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - 11eme Cuirassiers 5th company and a few more bits

The 5th company of the 11eme Cuirassiers deploys close to the Meuse in a place called Mur de Pierre in an atempt to prevent the German advance. The 60mm mortar of the command company also joins and a very famous French tank, maybe the most famous, came all the way from Stonne to help with its tracks still dripping blood from crushed Germans...

 The Hotchkiss Mg's and crew are Lancer Miniatures and horse holders and MG carts Mle 1911 M.38 are scratch built items.  

The MG cart is built in Evergreen plastics, the MG is Irregular Miniatures, horses are Airfix British Napoleonics and the driver is Hat. The wheels are copies of Airfix 88mm gun wheels that as they are 1/76th scale fit closely this (pretentiously) 1/72nd model.

The 25mm AT gun is again Lancer Miniatures with Hat crew. The 1937 cart is also scratch built.

This cart has a Revell horse pulled by a Caesar figure with another one from Hat. The cart is Evergreen with the curved poles taken from surplus Matchbox Corvette parts.

The 60mm mortar and crew are Lancer Miniatures with horse holder from Caesar and horses from Hat. The boxes to transport the 60mm mortar and ammunition came from ESCI.

All my horses receive this treatment in order to stay firm in its bases. A blob of hot glue is placed vertically for the legs in the air for them to glue properly. Then if you mask the glue with static grass no one will notice what you did unless that anoying friend who always can notice if you changed socks.

Finally the famous Char B1bis Eure who destroyed 14 German Panzers in one sole action. Its a Lancer Miniature with a Skytrex Cpt Billote.

Next: More British and French tanks for 1940.

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - Reinforcements for the DI and DCR

 French reinforcements deploy in the road juncture of Vielle Église not far from Stonne and pretty close to Hannut. Well its just some 150km away from each other but doesn't look like that in the picture, right?.

They are Lancer Miniatures with the exception the three Citröen cars.  

These two Renault R-35 are going to the battalion of tanks of the  DI. I have two other from old Skytrex and, obviously, they are the same models with these two having resin hulls. I painted the turrets with a different camouflage from the hull as French tanks  were painted at factory and different parts of the tanks were also produced in different factories.

The camouflage is based on Militaria hors-serie No 98 Tonnerre sur la Ligne Weygand.

These three Citröen Traction Avant started as destroyed vehicles and parts of resin and plaster home-moulded barricades a friend of mine from Germany sent me years ago. The vehicles were half buried side ways in debris and had no right side wheels. So a tricky process of carving them out of the rubble started to give them a new living look.  

  

The camouflage was based on several pictures of L'Automobile sous l'uniforme book. Two of them will go to the artillery (red triangle on white field) and another to an infantry battalion command company (yellow rectangle on white field).

Here is the rebuilding process: new wheels had to be made from two component paste, also lights and bumpers were scratch built. A lot of resin and plaster had to be taken out from the undercarriage but the result became reasonable. In the end some sanding was necessary as well as the usage of static grass to conceal some faults.

The APX 47mm AT guns have Revell and Irregular Miniatures crew. The Revell minis were born as Chauchat firers and were transformed into artillerymen.

The same happenned to the 25mm AT guns crew. I left the UE Chenillettes plain green this time as something plain green in the French army of 1940 is something different for sure!

The changes on the figures were the carving out of the Chauchat and the making of some (big) hands made of two component paste. Then the smallest rounds of ammunition I had in the spare box were used for the 25mm gun crews and some a bit larger for the 47mm gun crews. Finally some rifles were glued on the back of all crew.

Finally I painted the two last Somua MCG5 for the towing of the 105mm Schneider artillery pieces of the DCR. Same camouflage as on the other one for the sake of unit uniformity.

Next: Most probably French cavalry for 1940

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - 16th Mechanized Chasseur Battalion (16éme BCP)

The 16éme BCP approaches Jolie Village on its way to Stonne in may 1940...

The 16éme BCP (Batalion de Chasseurs Portés) was the infantry unit of the 3rd DCR and had some particularities of its own. Apparently the motorcycle squadron didn't have motorcycles and the men were transported as the other two squadrons. Also the Lorraine 38L VBCP was not present in all three companies with some of the Chasseurs being transported in trucks (some say Citroen 23 other Lorraine 28). But as I had four Lorraine 38L I equipped all companies with them including the support company. As I still have no Latil M7 I used a Chenillette to tow the 25mm AT gun.

 The CO stand has a ER 17 Radio scratchbuilt in EverGreen plasticard. The 60mm mortar was made from a shortenned 81mm US mortar from Revell. The figures are from the new HAT set of French WWII artillery and the bugler is scratchbuilt. The Laffly V15 is Skytrex.

The  25mm and UE Chenillette tow are Lancer Miniatures and the figures are again HAT.

The rest of the support company has a HAT mortar stand (the mortar itself is again Revell US) and Revell French for the Hotchkiss MMG's. Here there is another problem: the 16eme BCP doesn't show up with their two MMG's (there should be eight in the real OOB) in the new RF! supplement for May 1940. But I placed them in this battalion not only because it must have existed in this unit but also because there were two LMG's per squad of 12 Chasseurs while the regular infantry only had one. So like this the unit gets more fire power as it should.

The Lorraine 38L VBCP is Lancer Miniatures.

Two of the four Lorraine 38L are in fact the 37 version that I was using for the support of the tank battalions. In RF! new book Richard and Colin ignored them and thus they were converted with styrofoam and plasticard into the carrier version.

One of the three Chasseur companies. All figures are based on the Airfix Chinese replicas of the WWI French set. I added GreenStuff goggles in all of them  carefully modelled on the helmets. The trousers and shirt are dark blue and capote is khaki according to this battalion´s regulation.

A few more conversions are the rifle grenade made fom a piece of Evergreen at the end of a rifle and the LMG Chatellerault 24/29 which is a chinese copy of the Bren LMG glued to a normal rifle firer.

Not necessarily  from the BCP I also painted the one-piece Somua MCG-5 from Lancer Miniatures. It can be used to tow artillery or used as a recovery vehicle for any unit.

Next: More French artillery for 1940.