Rapid Fire! in 20mm. Filling gaps in WW2 (part 7)

 

This batch of models plugs some holes in the OBs of several WW2 periods and armies. Retroaranda is a nice Spanish 3d on-line shop that I found while searching for the Vercors Gotha Go 242. They are still using PLA for their prints but dividing these kits into many parts which helps reducing lines and excess plastic. Besides, the kits arrive with all parts clean which makes them easy to build. There are also three kits from First to Fight, namely the funny little cutter KM12, a large 150mm sFH18 and the artillery crew. 

My Ariete division was very short of command vehicles and this lovely SPA Dovunque 35 radio vehicle comes in that sense. 

The kit has no exterior radio system and this one has to be scratch built. This  photo saved me from making too many mistakes on the roof of this radio vehicle. 

On the background of this photo you can see the two biggest inventions of the last decades,  cyanoacrylate and liquid plastic glue, far ahead from Covid19 vaccine and AI. What would be of us all without them? 

Some tracks, stairs and EverGreen plastics were used to improve the model. 

The Ford V3000 radio vehicle was built from 1941-on and will be helpful particularly for the Eastern Front. Only some stowage was added on the roof. The model also brings another antenna for the travelling position. 

This is another Japanese Type 89 Go. The other one I have is from MiniGeneral, made from a different file and slighly bigger. 

This artillery group - one 155mm sFH18  and a 105mm leFH16 -  is the one necessary for the bombardment of Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte, 13-15 June 1944 as part of the artillery of the 157th reserve infantry division. I already had several of these artillery pieces but in different colors and environments so a late war summer style group was necessary for the Vercors.

The artillery group who bombarded the Maquis position at St-Nizier made it from a distance of over 5 km and up to an height of over 1000 meters in relation to Grenoble. These stills are taken from the 2nd part of Le Maquis du Vercors- Juin 1944, La Bataille de St-Nizier. 

For the full video see 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTRyf8seItk

and don´t forget part 1 and 3. 

In this still from the 2nd part of series you can see the St-Nizier heights in relation to the Grenoble valley.

And this is  the today sports park from were the German artillery bombed the Maquis. 

In this other screenshot of the 2nd part of the YouTube Le Maquis du Vercors- Juin 1944, La Bataille de St-Nizier you can see the placement of this artillery group who bombarded the Maquis position at St-Nizier from a distance of over 5 km and up to an height of over 1000 meters in relation to Grenoble and this is the one I´m portraying in RF! terms.  

I don´t have any information on the usage of these Gebirgshaubitze 40 105mm howitzers by the 157 RID as the division had several battalions of Gebirgsjäger. Even so I built these two that can be used elsewhere. 

The crew is FtF with heads from Airfix Afrika korps. There is also one Simon Soldier figure (the one with Zeltbahn) and a Revell conversion that previously was arming a grenade and now is pulling the gun string. 

Other crew for the guns came from FtF and all of them can be used from the artillery box. The seated figures need to bend the legs with heat in order to fit the narrow places on the Feldkanone 16. 

There are some figures with 20/37mm shells for AA guns that were converted to carry the big 150mm shells. That is easy as the FtF plastic is quite easy to carve. 

First to Fight offers the MK12 in 3d printed resin. I don´t know if this one will ever be used in a wargame but the magazine that comes along with the model has some nice stories (recently they are already in english side by side with polish) that can be used as the basis of several wargames. The figures are Revell and Hat WW1 Germans as the Polish sailors had the WW1 Stahlhelm for land combat and even the armored body of the German Stormtroopers, not used here. 

Finally for something wrong. What I asked was one more LVT-A4 in order to have a pair of them to support the Marine landings in the late war period. The designer by seeing the "4" on the vehicle´s name thought that the turret of the M8 75mm HMC fitted the late LVT-4 when in fact the very different LVT-2 was its basis. The "4" just means the 4th way to place guns on the LVT-2 Amtrac. So I got something wrong that needed to be used somewhere. The idea for this conversion came from the following photo: 

One of the few different models from the LVT-4 basic was an ambulance model deprived from its guns and painted with (lots) of red crosses. The canvas cover in the model was made from hardened tissue paper with cyanoacrylate in order to cover the big hole of the turret. This photo sometimes looks a bit fake as the smaller red crosses look strange but I read that "Sphinx" shows in two forms around the Walcheren period, one armed and another - this one - already without its guns. Probably the same vehicle used in two different ways. 

Next: More Napoleonics 

The Slovak Fast Brigade at Barbarossa for Rapid Fire! rules in 20mm

This one is virtually complete with a few bridging equipment still to be done. My Slovak Fast Brigade was built around 15 FTF vehicles (in a total of 24), several 3d printed Slovak vehicles and converted infantry, cyclists and artillery. The gun in the cover is a 75mm mountain gun made from an Irregular Miniatures barrel and with other parts scratchbuilt and one I forgot to mention.

RF! in 20mm - A little known armoured encounter somewhere in nowadays Pakistan, the battle of Al-Lie

 

A little known armoured battle of WW2 happened in Pakistan (some sources say it was Afghanistan) at a place called Al-Lie, between several units of armoured vehicles of Japan, Germany, Slovakia on one side and USA and USSR on the other:

- The Japanese got lost in the jungle looking for the body of Yamamoto and ended up a bit to the west;

- The Slovaks found the Eastern Front too dangerous and a task force derived a bit more to the south east looking for more peaceful areas;

-The Germans had to be in control of everything Axis;

- The Soviets, without radios on their tanks, got lost and now were too scared to return because of NKVD thinking they were deserters;

- The US simply had to be everywhere even if it was not their damn business!!

Two conclusions are known about Al-Lie battle, no one survived to tell the story and it didn´t happen. 

After this BS story what really made me making this bunch was the fact of having these models sitting for too long on the cue and all were WW2 bits for continuing a number of armies. 

The one waiting for longer, maybe 10 years, and already built (given by JF or JMM) was this Esci late KV-1 that will go the winterized Soviets. 

This Mig T-28 is one of the oldest model kits of this tank, dating from the mid 90s. I found it in one of the last model shops in Lisbon, the Casa Antunes. 

The model is a piece of hell to be built as it is made in resin and lots of photo-etched parts and thus made for standing in a shelf and not wargaming. But as I´m a shelf wargamer everything will be OK. 

Two more T-35 monster by S-Models. Only four to reach the 10 mark as ordered by Master Colin and Richard in its supplement for Russian units 41-42. In fact the 8th Mechanized Corps used them at Dubno, which is my target for Barbarossa. The last four will not have the aerials as they only existed in the command tank of the company. 

This "Long Tom" and HST is a second one to be built and is the consequence of an exchange made years ago between a full Altaya collection and some miniature racing cars. A Matchbox figure and a base was added, a quick glass paint and sand color drybrush and its ready to go. 

Some 10 days ago or so I received a nice parcel from a Spanish wargamer friend, JZ, which had plenty of very helpful bits and pieces. Among them there was this Horch 830 radio car of the early war period, probably by the extict BUM and copied from the Wespe model. The aerials were added and a few more details also. 

Not sure about this aerial arrangement but it looks nice to me. 

Also from JZ came all these that went for the Japanese. The Sumida Type 92 armored car is resin a copy of the Skytrex one I already have. I painted it with the same SNLF colors. The truck to the left pretends to be a Nissan 80 but it started as...

... a firemen truck. Here it already got some plastic side pannels to look more like a cargo truck...

...and here it got new wheels and a tarpaulin. 

These diecast pickups started like this but here you can already see the final arrangement with hot glue on the windshields, new wheels and cargo to disguise the strange stuff on the back.

Three more Praga trucks from FtF going to the Slovak Fast brigade. 

And three more Slovac LT-35 to conclude the armour of the same brigade.

Next: another video on the Iraqi 1991 army

The Soviet VVS in WW2 for Rapid Fire! rules and in 20mm size

This group of Soviet aircraft covers the entire conflict from Barbarossa up to the Berlin offensive. The models are mostly plastics (Airfix, ICM, Italeri, Eastern Express, Gribovski, Revell and Encore) with many Die-Cast (Altaya and Luppa).

Next: the NVA infantry.

The Luftwaffe for Rapid Fire! rules and in 20mm size

This collection tried to get the basics of the German Luftwaffe for all WW2 periods. There are all major brands like Airfix (some from the 1957 originals) , Revell, Matchbox and several of the newer Altaya and Luppa die-casts. The darker Me262 is a Frog model from 1972 that I forgot to mention.

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! Blitzkrieg in 20mm - Additional German bycicle fusiliers, artillery and staff cars for the 18th ID and 7th PD

The bycicles convinced me to add all other things: The bycicle Fusiliers are necessary for the OB of the 18th ID together with Staff cars and artillery limbers mentioned in the RF! Blitzkrieg battlegroups for May 1940; the 20mm Flak gun is the last piece missing for the Flak battalion of the 7th PD that wreaked havoc in the ranks of the Matildas in the Arras action.

The Cadillac 1941 from Matchbox is the closest I could find to the Opel Admiral and this photo made me buy the two toys in a local supermarket. 

The wheels were replaced by some better ones from Airfix and Matchbox as the original ones are generally what spoils these kind of models. Some 3d resin extra jerrycans were placed copying the original photo as they also help to disguise the different front of the Cadillac in relation to the Opel. 

So together with some ACE staff cars already made I´m more or less done with these kind of vehicles for the Panzer Grey period. 

The Hat box of german cyclists was once again (after the Slovaks) used to make these German fusiliers using BlueStuff as the matrix and two component resin as the filler and lost details with Milliput. The original resin heads, turned into blobs and were replaced by Esci DAK heads. 

Together with the resin contraptions a few more dismounted cyclists were made using old Atlantic, Airfix and Esci figures. 

"- Hey Hans, is it us overthere on those bikes?

- Of course not Helmut! You are on too much Pervitin!"

After another moment of fine poetry lets have a look at limbers. There were still three Revell limbers around without horses, wheels or figures that must have been used somewhere else. I coupled the limbers with Napoleonic horses, wheels of unknown origin (some are 3d printed) and figures from FtF. The horses had to have some Milliput extras as they were demoted from the fancy line cavalry to the hardships of horse artillery. 

Limbers on the wargames table or even on a shelf, like mostly my case, are always a nice sight. The card bases were strenghtened with super glue. 

In the end you have some reasonable looking limbers to pull guns from the 75mm caliber to 150mm. The harness was heavily transformed and reduced in lenght as I didn´t want the huge final model that Revell offers even if its the correct one. 

One more Zvezda 20mm Flak 38 was added and this one will be closer to the 7th PD assets as it concludes its Flak battalion. The standing figure to the right is FtF. 

Next: More Slovaks or reinforcements for the 1944 British airborne division.