Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - 75mm gun towed Battalion

In 1940 the French Infantry divisions still relied in the famous - infamous for the Germans -  'soissante-quinze' (uau, he even speaks French, ladies are saying). The gun was still pulled by horses and the wheels LP were the ones of WWI. As Hat is taking an eternity to release its WWI/II artillery limber I used the Irregular Miniatures version.

The models are very nice. Irregular Miniatures uses always the same poses for the many other Useful Crew range but the distinction between the countries is well made. The French crew members are in shirt order and with their capote in Russian style, something not very common but Ok.

I took the oportunity to build the Alby Latil TAR for the 155mm GPF that you can see here

http://jpwargamingplace.blogspot.pt/2013/11/rapid-fire-20mm-french-army-1940-pt-5.html

and here

http://jpwargamingplace.blogspot.pt/2013/10/

These Alby kits are expensive and take a lot of time to arrive.  On the other hand they are some of the best around. Even their resin smells so good that you will want to chew it!!

Next: More French  or German stuff for 1940.

Rapid Fire! Blitzkrieg in 20mm - IBG Panzer III A

 

 

Early Panzers in plastic are rare. But aparently IBG will solve the issue with a collection of German tanks (and a nice magazine to go along) for Blitzkrieg. This is number one and IBG is clearly copying FtF fellow countrymen on having a fast built kit, very detailed and with a small magazine packed with information  Only after buying these three I read that only 10 PzIIIA were produced which makes one of them redundant for RF! Better more than less...

 

 

The model is very good, easy to build and with delicate parts on the FtF style and nothing to do with PSC. The only remark I would point out on this one is the size of the 37mm gun which looks a bit too small. No crew member as in FtF tanks ( the new Polish Krupp Protze has two...) so a tank commander from PSC was added.  

 

 

Next: More France 1940.   

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - A few more bits.

Just a few more AFV's I just finished for the French 1940. The UE carrier and trailer are Lancer Miniatures and simplicity in itself, The Hotchkiss 38 from S-Models are very easy to assemble even if they have some photo-etched parts and finally the W-15T-CC from Ace, a true nightmare to build with dozens of avoidable small parts in order to have in the end a relatively simple vehicle.

I made this H-38 a command vehicle with Skytrex figure and scratchbuilt antenna.

The other H-38 had the shorter 37mm gun and a differently painted turret as it happened so often with Franch tanks due to different manufacture and repair places.

The W-15T-CC has a crew with a driver from Skytrex and gunners from converted Matchbox French infantry that comes with the Char B1bis.

Ace could be more Wargamer-friendly and make simpler models... I think most of the brands still didn't understand that their biggest buyers are in fact wargamers.

The UE carrier has some extras on its trailer but the rest is as it came.

Next: Probably the new PzIII A from IBG.

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - A few more French and British motors, with some nudity.

Well, I hope to have caught your attention with the title. More on that a bit more ahead.

Not far from Bleuville, in fact in the same basement, a group of allied vehicles gathers in support of the next counter offensive... 

 The group is a mix bunch of Altaya and some die-cast  trucks I found in a toy shop.

The trucks are generic but look a bit close to the vast panoply of different Renault, Citroën, Ford and Latil trucks (close to half a million) that equipped the French army in 1940.

Wait... on the left truck... is there a naked women...!?!?

Exactly! The French had such a different array of camouflages that even some nudes were cleverly conceiled on them. Of course the markings belong to the artillery! Maybe this vehicle will become a good objective marker... 

 What? Me? A  pervert? What about this picture of the real thing? 

As you can see I`m just historically accurate. 

This picture is taken from the French book 'L'automobile sous l' uniforme' probably the best reference for soft skin vehicles of the French army in 1940 and with a reasonable quantity of information and pictures also about tanks.

I felt more comfortable about these models after reading this book as they are fair approaches to the many models available for the French many even requisitioned from the civilians. But not only the French got this treat.  The variety of BEF trucks was also so big (many Bedford models O, OY, MC and Morris) that these are surely close to some of them.  I'll use them for the artillery, train or even for some infantry if I can't find enough Bedfords 15 cwt trucks.

 

This was the original form of the trucks.

The main change was the replacement of the small wheels by some bigger and more 'military' chinese leftovers. Two of these were glued together to make one wheel. Then I glued some plastic canvas covers I had around and luckly they fit nicely.

Lastly the Altaya models. Only the left Char B1 bis is a repaint from the German version. The other Char B1bis was a 4 Euro buying from last weekend local 2nd hand market. It had no mantlet, antennae and central rail and all these parts had to be scratch built.  It received a light coat of black ink and some sand drybrushing as well as the Panhard on the right and they are ready to defend France.   

Next: More French 1940 stuff.

Rapid Fire! 6th Guards tank Brigade in 20mm - (Part 4) Missing Churchills for the Coldstream Guards

33 Churchills and 9 Achilles later I can consider this brigade completed. There are still missing 6 M3/M5Stuarts, two for each of the battalions but I have one dozen spread out on my two 1944 British armoured divisions and maybe I skip these ones as they can be used also in this brigade. Fortunately nowadays are great days for wargamers and two boxes of PSC will eventually solve the problem.

These last missing Churchills are the MkIV from PSC. They are sturdy and detailed models with the usual options. I added a few extras as camouflage net and Hessian tape as well as bedrolls and other stowage items.

I just couldn't resist the symbols of the 6th guards and I painted them only on the back of each tank as the front part is covered with extra protection tracks.   

 

Here you can see better my trick for both camouflage net and Hessian tape: The camouflage net is Noch birch leaves placed on a blob of wood glue and the Hessian tape are small rectangles of paper placed under the camouflage net.

Next: back to France 1940.

Rapid Fire! Ayatollah's army in 20mm - F-14 Tomcat

Another aircraft for the IRIAF this time an Altaya model F-14 Tomcat repainted with homemade pilots.

Next: France 1940. Stay tunned because includes nude scenes.  

Rapid Fire! 20mm D-Day, the British beaches (part 9) - Characters and small bits.

 

 

 

Here we have the famous beachmaster of Juno fame (Cpt Douglas Maud in reality) on the 1962 D-Day movie. His true dog was a German Shepard but as Pluskatt already had one the movie directors chose 'Winston' the Bulldog instead. Britannia figures including the LCA.

 

 

The happy mayor of Colleville-sur-mer running to meet the liberators with its bottle of champagne. Also a Britannia figure.

 

 

 

Josef 'Pips' Priller on board of its FW190 looking for his 100th victory over the British beaches (which he would achieve on the 15th June). Airfix model.

 

 

The supporting Centaur of the RM Commando. A Revell model with a scratchbuilt 95mm gun and Britannia commander.

 

 

Next: probably the return wether to Iran-Iraq war or France 1940.

 

 

Rapid Fire! 6th Guards Tank Brigade in 20mm - (Part 3) 3rd Scots Guards

 

The 3rd Scots Guard advances to the departure line of Operation Bluecoat where they meet the batteries of Achilles TD that will provide protection against the Panzers...

 

This is the last of the brigade's battalion and its again a 1/76th scale unit: the Churchills are Frontline Wargaming and BPM and the Achilles are Britannia.

 

 

The command group has a Frontline Churchill MKVI and a a Frontline conversion with a 95mm gun.

 

 

The normal Frontline Churchills have the 6pdr gun and a few extras: Britannia figures, extra tracks from Churchills and Shermans, antennae, rear fuel drum and plenty of stowage.

 

 

These are the printed models from BPM. They are very similar to the Frontline models and also received the same extras. As they are the latest builds, have nets and some Hessian tape as camouflage.

 

 

Finally the Britannia Achilles. They also have some of the above extras and use some Airfix crews along the Britannia ones.

 

Next: the last four Churchill to the Coldstream Guards. They are 1/72nd scale PSC and will join the ESCI models of  that battalion.

 

  

Rapid Fire! Ayatollah's army in 20mm - First Iranian tanks and aircrafts

My favourite wargames subjects are the ones I can remember from my youth. Among them are those I could see on the TV news while sitting at the table with my family and listening to my father explaning his version of events.

The Iran-Iraq war acompanied me through my teens and while it fascinated me at the beggining to the

end it clearly became on of those merciless games were gas was cowardly thrown, bad tactics used, no prisoners were taken and the death toll kept on increasing due to 'human wave tactics'.

Recently while reading the new books from the series Middle East@War (Helion publishing) many of these common places were put aside in my head. The Iranian used Infantry attacks due to the lack of armour, but they were many times sucessful even if the Pasdaran and Basiji suffered tremendously. The river and sea assaults by the Iranians are acts of tremendous bravery and their use of the American armour and aircraft from the seventies (up to today) is a proof of skillful engineering even without any support from the producers and without any software related to repair and logistics taken home by the US personnel when the Shah was overthrown (not counting the US satellites which poured information constantly to the Iraqi side in the case of any Iranian movement...).  

Another interesting aspect of the Iranian army  is the mix of the hundreds of British Chieftain and Scorpions, US M-47, M-48 and M-60, Soviet material still bought under the Shah and many other captured from the Iraqi army or bought during the war. Even WWII tanks were still active like Chafee's and M-36 TD's. In the air the famous F-14 - not even sold to Israel - was flying and shooting down dozens of opponents alongside  F-5's and Phantoms.

Finally another good reason to make an Iranian army of the 80's is to have another army to fight with my two Iraqi tank and mechanized divisions in 20mm and its air support.

A few M-60A1 from Esci painted with the closest light green I found to the Iranian AFV colour, Citadel Straken Green. As usual plenty of details were added namely a crewman with the typical M1 helmet and scarf made of GreenStuff.

The small Iranian roundel was constant and these M-60's also carry the symbol of the 12th Imam.

Up to now only one Chieftain, a repaint from Altaya.

Also repaints from Altaya are these two F-5 Tigers the equivalent of the Iraqi Mig-21.

The famous F-4 Phantom (also Altaya repaint). A few were recently seen targetting ISIS in Syria...

Closing this batch a AH-1J Cobra from Italeri. These excellent helicopters were credited with the destruction of hundreds of Iraqi targets with TOW ATGM.

Next: probably more of the same or close. Or maybe the last Churchill tanks for my 6th Tank Brigade.

Rapid Fire! 1/72nd scale British aircraft Gulf War 1991

 

 Now for the British aircraft in the Gulf. Not many up to now but the most important models are here:

  

 

The Tornado GR1 from Airfix.

 

 

The Tornado ADV (fighter version) also from Airfix.

 

 

The Jaguar GR1, a conversion from Hasegawa. 

 

 

And the big and beautifully ugly Blackburn Buccaneers. On the the left an Airfix model and on the right the Altaya die-cast version with home-made pilots.

 

 

Next: Probably more Gulf War aviation or the begginning of my Iranian 1980-88 army or some French WW2 trucks I'm making up.