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. 

Rapid Fire! Poland 1939 in 20mm - Long awaited reinforcements for an endangered front

 

This post complements the last video were these latest Polish reinforcements can be seen. The Polish army of 1939 is a big temptation thanks to FirstToFight (FtF) models who is always teasing you with very beautiful and unexpected models almost on a monthly basis. 

The second battalion is done. Figures are the usual Hat. 

The bicycle platoon uses slightly converted Hat figures with Hat German bycicles. 

The 40mm AA Bofors is Airfix with FtF crew. 

A Tatra T-18 from MiniGeneral 3D is a now a close company to my made up Smialy armored train. 

These are the FtF cavalry limbers for the 37mm Bofors AT guns. 

These are the FtF Biedkas to carry the WZ30 machine guns. Whatever FTF produces they are always great kits filled with details (and sometimes some irritating small parts many of them photo-etched). 

The FtF 155mm 1917 gun was coupled with Hat figures and also with a scratch-built Bolinder -Munktell AK tractor 1939. Most of these guns were horse towed but some of them had these experimental tractors pulling them. At least you get something not as ecological but different for sure. 

Next: re-starting the Bir-Hakeim project. 

Rapid Fire! Blitzkrieg in 20mm -First batch of Polish armour

The oposition against the Germans from last post arrives. They may not have 30mm armour plating but they have incredible guts and much more beautiful camouflage!

All are Made in Poland First to Fight models.

A Fiat 621 with some Hat figures occupies its position (and in my collection at least they were really the First to Fight...).

I painted the vehicles as they were in real life: first the green colour, and then the camouflage sand and brown. The green was obtained by mixing around 80% Vallejo Russian Green with some Yellow.

A 7TP tank looks for targets. This tank was better than most of its opponents but there were too few of them.

Twin Turreted Vickers E join the defense of father land.

TK3 looks big here but was probably the smallest tank(ette) of WWII.

WZ-34 armoured car with an ESCI French officer from their WWII soft plastic box.

 

The ruined city is made of old and trustable Matchbox parts glued together and with lots of grit around. Everything was black primed and then other colours were added from dark to light.

The First to Fight vehicles are very good and easy to built models. For wargaming though they have some fragile parts namely the MG's and main guns. In most cases I replaced them with a slightly thicker and more bendable Evergreen part.