Rapid Fire! Operation Barbarossa and beyond in 20mm - First group of winter camouflaged Russian vehicles

Passing on the road that connects Leningrad to the village of Andrey Arshavin, a reconnaissance unit composed of two Gaz Maxim encounters a T-34 battalion and directs them to a group of German Panzers that have been sighted nearby....

The Gaz AA Maxim was an uparmoured Gaz truck produced during the long siege of Leningrad. Around 100 were transformed. 

This group of "Winter" Russian vehicles is my first of the kind. I painted the vehicles first in Vallejo Russian Green (simulating the 4BO colour), then aplied diluted white and, after drying, passed some brush strokes of pure white paint in the middle part of many structures. 

Same treatment with the T-34/43s. The only difference was some rust orange applied on the engine and exhaust parts. 

The red slogans are very suited for the white painted Russian vehicles as they produce a nice contrast. 

The Gaz AA Maxim are resin 3d prints with leftover figures from the ZIS 3 Italeri box. 

The T-34s are old Esci kits built for years that finally saw some paint. The command vehicle has an antenna made of EverGreen tubing and a broom stick. 

This is the MIG book I use as the main source of  painting schemes of the Russian vehicles in WW2 besides offering a good text about the Soviet colors between 1927 and 1945. 

Next: more Seelow Heights, France 1940 or Epic ACW.

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! Attacker /Bogue class Escort Aircraft Carrier in 20mm

 

When I was a teenager I got somehow a Scenic Effects catalogue. Opening it made me dream about Monte Cassino, Tarawa and also a big 20mm USN Aircraft Carrier.  No credit card, no nothing, and ordering expensive stuff from the USA made me put aside that possibility. Years later I made my own Tarawa table but always thought about building an Aircraft Carrier. Or maybe two. 

With RF2 rules book I got another nice vision of a scratchbuilt British Aircraft Carrier with several pictures devoted to it.

In fact for the 20mm wargames size I think that no more than the smaller Escort Carriers can be built, otherwise you will need to leave your house if wanting to build a true big one in the line of the USN Entreprise or HMS Illustrious class.

 

But what really made me build this one was this Luppa Fairey Swordfish that came out two weeks ago. Its the only 1/72nd scale aircraft from the collection with fixed landing gear and so apt for the deck of an Aircraft Carrier. Quickly I added some crew and started my carrier project. 

Looking for more aircraft in the stash this Altaya Blackburn Skua was found and its another useful aircraft for a British Carrier at least up to 1942.

The model was built in wood, Blue Board and heavy duty 3mm card. The bridge was made roughly of pieces of Blue Board and its not a true Attacker Class bridge but more of a generical one in order to be used with other classes of Escort Carriers.  

Only a fraction of the AA fire power of these Carriers was placed in the model. These  20mm Oerlikons at the stern were scratchbuilt but more on that later. 

The other side of the bridge with some Airfix figures, a spotlight and some surplus doors taken from a converted Matchbox Corvette and made into a British destroyer a few years ago.  

Both sides of the ship have these double 40mm guns made from Atlantic parts and converted figures from the HAT WW1 US artillery set. The bays were the guns sit are made from spray covers. 

Details of the bow with anchor and more Oerlikon. The figures are Atlantic Conversions. 

The Hat and Atlantic converted Royal Navy figures and the Airfix ones. 

The bases are mostly Euro coins (well, plastic ones from the supermarkets). The Atlantic figures got new arms made of two component paste, the stucture and shield are Everegreen plastic card and tubing and the guns themselves were taken from the stash of Airfix LVT-4.  

And now a bit of magic...

Voilá! The Royal Navy flag can be replaced by another from the USN. There is a small transparent break in the middle of the pole (it should be just a thin rope, but it get sturdier like this) and the flags are glued to a piece of transparent protective brush tubing. The hand you can see is of your truly yours and was made 53 years ago by mom and dad. 

With USN flag...

... becomes a USN Bogue class Escort Aircraft Carrier. In fact I chose this class as the Bogue is the original one and made from transformed cargo ships. Some were sent to the RN and became the Attacker class. 

I´m finished with USN Oerlikons and so I used what I had around which were these 50. cal HMG´s from Britannia. 

Also new double 40mm guns were made due to different uniforms. These were made from Hat WW1 bodies and Britannia metal heads. 

The lifeboats are German Revell. 

This conversion was also made easy because I already had a few USN aircraft from Altaya with lowered landing gear. Left to right, a SBD Dauntless, Grumman F6F Hellcat and Grumman TBF Avenger. I also have all of these in flight mode and ready for action. 

The Britannia USN crew. 

The boat is 80cm X 20cm and it will rest  on top of a cabin as there is no more place for it inside any of them...

Now some construction clues. First, the bow shape was made from 3mm heavy duty card. 

The general shape was achieved with three internal divisions glued inside the boat and the whole piece was put together with the help of a hot glue gun. 

The main deck is made out of the wood I use for my vehicles and figure bases. Its a type of plywood covered in one of the sides with a white acrylic layer giving it extra strenght. 

The general appearence before priming with two squares of card to simulate the elevators that lead to the main hangar deck. 

The bridge looked better after carving than it looks now after painting. I covered it with PVA glue before appying acrylic spray but some got through and made a mess out of it. 

The sea level and waves was made with  the glue gun . 

Thinking I was making the right decision I plastered the bridge and contributed even more to the scary look you can see in the finished model. Unfortunately I only noticed after painting. 

The stern spotlights were made from PSC A9 surplus tank parts and the AA bays were taken secretly from my 3 YO toy boxes with the firm but useless opposition of my wife and the complete ignorance of the victim!

All this was made only from stuff I had laying around as confinement and the subsequent laziness didn´t let me go to any DIY store. 

This model is usable by the British and US both in the Mediterranean and Pacific is support of land operations even if my wargaming can be called ... erratic, at least, one in each 10 years being my average. 

In the future I also want to make another Escort Carrier this time a Japanese one. These have some fascinating camouflages and will be another more than probable joy to build. 

Next: More French 1940. 

Rapid Fire! Late War Eastern Front in 20mm - A few more Soviet vehicles moved by Steve Shann's " The Seelow Heights" wargames book

 

Under the attack of  a German artillery barrage, Russian tanks move to the front passing on the destroyed village of Sepp Maier while the artillery tows and ambulances look for shelter in the rearguard. 

The  'retreating' vehicles are 3d resin prints while the advancing tanks are AER and Fujimi.  

The 3d resin print Gaz ambulance is an amazing one piece model. The detail is all there and the friend who printed them for me just rescaled them to 1/72nd scale as they were originally made for his own collection of 28mm models. 

The white bonnets and red crosses adds some interest and they are my first ever Russian ambulances.

The white colour only became white on layer number 3 over the green base!

Look at the winch on the STZ-5 model! Again, a one piece model. How these things are done I have no idea.

Already painted the STZ-5 are really cute machines and I think they were the inspiration for the German RSO. I see them towing mostly the 76,2mm AA gun but they were used to pull a vast array of other weapons. 

The shell burst are Frontline Wargaming.

The AER T-34/85 have too large and long guns and were replaced by a piece of EverGreen tubing. 

Equipped with new guns they roll "Na Berlin!".

One more Fujimi model was added to the collection. Steve Shann mentions a total of 18x T-34/85 in one of his larger scenarios so now I`m only short by two models of this late T-34. 

His book is very good and packed with informations about one of the last big battles in Europe's History . I alreday have all Germans for any scenario but still miss those 2x T-34/85 and all the 6x  Sherman 76mm in Russian colours.  

The AER SU-100 is a straight from the box built. 

Next: A Royal Navy/USN escort carrier in 20mm