Rapid Fire! 20mm Gulf War - Saladin's Division (part 2): 2nd Tank Regiment of the 12th Tank Brigade

This Regiment is almost identical to the one showned previously. Four of the T-72s are Revell T-80's conversions, T-55 are also Skytrex and only the T-72 of the Regimental commander is an Altaya model.

The Altaya model had to be repainted and for this one I only added the Chinese electro-optical dazzler you can see on above the number '9' that identifies the Co of an Iraqi tank regiment.

The last of the conversions of the T-80 into a T-72: again the Chinese dazzler and all the add-ons I told you about in the last post. If you compare the Altaya model with the converted T-72 I think its worth the effort as they became pretty similar.

I used as tank commanders the nice ESCI soft plastic tank commander of the Warsaw Pact box. With bended arms they became nicely fit into the turret hatch. I also placed some Iraqi flags on the side skirts of some of the models for colour.

The venerable Skytrex T-55 painted many years ago when I still had all my hair...

Next: the last tank regiment of this brigade.

Rapid Fire! 20mm Gulf War - Saladin's Division (part 1): 1st Tank Regiment of the 12th Tank Brigade

This post start a very long series of probably over 20 post dedicated mostly to the 3rd Iraqi Armoured Division ('Saladin's' Division) but also to other units of the Iraqi III Corps during the war of 1990-91, like the 5th 'Mohammed al-Kasem' Mechanized Division. With little effort the same models can be used for most of the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88 and up to the 2003 Iraqi Freedom operation, that is, the US invasion of Iraq.

I chose this Iraqi Corps because its the one that participates in the Khafji battle and ends up fighting with the majority of the big allied units: 1st UK Armoured, 1st and 3rd US Armoured, etc.

Another resaon is the great article by Cookie Sewell on the Saladin's Division on Military Modelling magazine Vol.30 No.8. Along 10 pages you can find almost everything on how to model this division.

The Saladin's division was one of the best Divisions of the Iraqi Army, almost equal to the Republican Guard division, equipped with the best Iraq ground forces had: T-72 tanks, BMP-1's and 2S1 and 2S3's artillery systems.

I'll start with the 1st Armoured Regiment of 12th Armoured Brigade of the Saladin's division.

In spite of using the British term 'Regiment' the Iraqi tank units (in fact all branches of the armed forces) were mostly organized in the soviet style of three companies with a total of 35 tanks, thus 7 models for the Rapid Fire! set of rules.

The three Regiments of the 12th Brigade had 2/3 of T-72 tanks and 1/3 of older T-55.

Four of these T-72 are in fact conversions from the Revell's T-80 (first row, first picture). Many years ago the model of the T-72 was rare and, few months before the UN intervention started, there was the suspicion of the Russian T-80 have been sent to Iraq. Even the well informed French magazine Defense et Armement, included the T-80 as a potential weapon of the Iraqis. This led me to buy all Revell T-80s I could find. After finding it was false I had to do something with some 10 of them. So I converted them to T-72s.

I used my trusted EverGreen plasticard to build the 'V' shaped optical protection to the front; the engine grill on the back and plenty of parts in the turret: smoke dischargers; snorkel; fire extinguisher and searchlight. Also the side skirts suffered some changes as well as the drums placed at the rear. Like this they look like the T-72M or the 'Assad Babyl' T-72M1, built from knock-down kits supplied probably by Poland. The one on the second photo is an early version with gills instead of the rubber skirts.

The command tank of the Regiment is a Forces of Valour model. Impressive and expensive the model has some mistakes namely on the height which is too much.

Finally the T-55 was still present in the Division and would probably have been replaced if the Iraqis had more T-72s. All the T-55 of this Division are metal Skytrex. They are simple but nice renderings of the real tank.

Next: prepare your self for many posts like this one or change to another cable TV channel.

Rapid Fire! 20mm Gulf War - Some new Iraqi helicopters

The mighty French SA321 Super Frelon was also used by Iraq. Not much is known of its actions during Desert Storm, with one at least being destroyed. A few years before this aircraft got distinction in the famous Tanker War with Iran thanks to its Exocet missiles.

The model is a ready made Altaya with painted Iraqi symbols (and, pardonnez moi, erased French ones, of course...).

The other addition are the home-made pilots I told you about a few posts ago.

The other new member of the Iraqi Aircraft family is this Altaya Mil-Mi 4. I only applied the sand camouflage, corrected the under carriage blue colour to the Iraqi version and painted the Iraqi markings leaving the original Russian green colour to be shown. And two home made pilots, of course.

Middle East/Arab houses in 20mm (3)

Just a few more houses for Arab regions, again made quickly in card.

 

All entrances are just pieces of card glued to the walls which speeds up procedures a lot. Still plenty of places for miniatures on the roof tops.

 

 

 

The shop to the right had some tissue paper on the cover and some chairs and table from Faller (HO scale).

 

Rapid Fire! Russian Contemporary Wars in 1/72nd scale - Troposphere Relay Station vehicle for SS-25 Topol already painted

                              

The TRS vehicle is already painted. I used a camouflage close to its SS-25 partner, only using Russian Tan from MIG colours instead of Iraqi Sand from Vallejo.

 

 

Most of these vehicles I found pictured are not in fact camouflaged but camouflage also helps conceal some mistakes in the making of the model.

 

 

 

At the same time I built another ModelCollect T-72 this time a T-72B3M. This one has no camouflage to go along the Russian T-72's 3D prints I have  from Mario Laranja.

Rapid Fire! Russian Contemporary Wars in 1/72nd scale - Troposphere Relay Station vehicle for SS-25 Topol

I wanted something to go along my 4D Topol. Two different vehicles work together with the Topol: a Launch-Assisting Support vehicle and this Troposphere Relay Station vehicle. Both have the same vehicle as basis, the MAZ-543. So I used another 4D model from China, this time the radar vehicle of the S-300 system, as the basis of this conversion.

 

The parts of the original vehicle are in a distinctive grey while most of the scratch built parts are white plasticard.

 

 

The WWI buffs probably recognize the green Airfix wheels of the Mark 1 tank on the flat bed of the truck used here as the power wheels of the relay system.

 

 

As usual I prefered to replace the flimsy structure of the Relay Station with sturdy plasticard.

 

A few other parts were taken from the surplus parts of the Matchbox Flower Corvette, as the stairs and several boxes.

 

                             

 

 

The radar itself was taken from a plastic Chinese toy of a small truck with radar and then carved until the desired shape was reached.

 

 

 

 

Rapid Fire! Russian Contemporary Wars in 1/72nd scale - How to make your own figures for aircraft and some other additions.

In order to produce quick WWII planes and to reduce its stash I don't place any figures on them for a long time. Like this it's much quicker to have new aircraft as you only need to paint the exterior parts.

Somehow I started to do exactly the opposite for modern aircraft. The problem here is that many of the brands don't carry the pilots and this is specially true with the Die-cast models. Besides the surplus pilots you may have don't sit well in the cockpit forcing you to brake, heat or destroy them while trying.

So I made up this way in order to have the missing pilots:

1- Model the full body in cheap and fast drying two-part paste (the one you buy at supermarkets) as it dries quickly and allows you into next step;

2- Model the helmet in GreenStuff;

3- (This is really worthy of Hannibal Lecter's talent) carve off the face of a soft plastic figure and place it deep on the front of the helmet;

4- Model the helmet again, glasses or other details you may want to add and they are ready for painting.

 

As  a proof of the crime I exhibit evidence number one on the top right side.

 

 

As confidence grew  I made others without plastic faces. Soon I regreted it as the first ones with plastic faces are much better. Some of them are even better for Planet Of The Monkeys, as faces are really tricky to do correctly. Only the pilots of the F-16 got well as they have their faces completely covered.

 

 

Having found a reasonable way to make pilots I built a few more Altaya Helicopters. This Mil Mi-24 was repainted with Georgian colours with hand painted symbols and numbers.

 

 

Two more Hinds with added missile pylons.

 

                                 

 

And a Mil Mi-8 with no additions but the crew.

 

 

 

Next: Arab houses, Iraqi helicopters or Russian T-72's. At least its what I have closer to completion.

Rapid Fire! Russian Contemporary Wars in 1/72nd scale - Georgian retreat from South Ossetia...

In August 2008, the invasion of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Georgia ended with heavy casualties on the Georgian side. Here a group of Georgian light infantry retreats from South Ossetia under the watchful eye of the Russian victors.

This imaginary scene also has some imaginary models namely the T-64AK which was not present in this conflict. The Russian 58th Army only had T-72 and T-62 in its ranks but this T-64 came out of my modelling desk this week so it had vainly to be shown.

The Georgian Land Rovers are Cararama 1/72nd scale Die-Cast models. I had a box of six hanging around for years. Originally I was planning to use them as British in the Gulf War but they ended being smuggled to the Georgian Army.

The other three are hard top Land Rovers also used by the Georgians in this conflict that I will convert and paint later on. 

I made a number of changes: placed a pair of seated figures on the rear made out of bodies from ESCI US Modern infantry and GreenStuff legs; canvas cover made of Evergreen and GreenStuff and a plastic engine cooling exhaust pipe on the right side. 

The colours are NATO colours which showed the clear interest of Georgia entering this organisation. Fortunately, NATO recognized in time that the Saakashvili leardership was not trustable and declined the Georgian intentions. 

I also tried the tricky camouflage on the uniform of my first Georgian Infantry on these three 82mm mortar stands.

I used bodies and legs of different  ESCI US Infantry and mixed them. These figures are Ok for the modern Georgians as they use much of the NATO equipment given by the peaceful G.W. Bush always eager to wage war in every part of the planet. Included was the M4 rifle which looks like the M16 rifle and thats also why I used ESCI figures for the Georgian Infantry. 

When making the rifle companies I'll use some ESCI Warsaw Pact infantry as Georgians were still using plenty of AK-47.

The T-64AK is based on the standard 1972 model from ModelCollect with a scratch built big antennae as provided for the command tanks. So this model will force me to find another six to field a full battalion for Rapid Fire!

The colours are the MIG modern Russian colours again. The figure is an own cast of an Irregular Miniature figure.

The BMD was present in the Russo-Georgian War of 2008 in the Airborne units.

The Models are S-Models with the usual added crew, antennae and stowage. 

Next: more 2008 Russo-Georgian War for sure as there is a number of stuff on my table and on  the surrounding environment. 

Rapid Fire! 20mm - Gulf War 1991 - 82nd Airborne Division.

I know everybody was waiting for me to keep the promise of showing another chapter of one of the most important periods of wargaming: Georgia 2008 (its what I'm doing at the moment)! But instead my devious mind was left in the desert once more.

This time I'll show you some elements of the 82nd Airborne deployed in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield.

In fact, taking out the tanks, I use all three battalions to represent Mechanized infantry, Marines or Airborne troops as the uniform is basically the same as well as much of its equipment. Still some weapons are missing like the mortars and HMG's but in due time they will be added together with new battalions. 

All figures are ESCI and the Sheridans are Airfix.

The DBDU camouflaged uniform is relatively simple to paint in spite of looking complicated. I only placed one or two blotches of Red Brown in each arm or leg and the same with the Black/White dots. For that the last picture shows it better.

Some of the infantry have the Olive Drab bullet proof vest others have the camouflaged version. Don't forget that about 1/3rd to 1/4th of all army personnel are Afro-Americans and a darker skin tone is necessary in many figures.

The M551 Sheridan of Airfix needs an armoured protection to be built in plasticard around the HMG position in order to portray the correct version used in the Gulf. The searchlight is another addition showned here covered in canvas. The figure is an old Atlantic figüre.

The Dragon ATGM was the main anti tank weapon of those days for the US foot soldier and ESCI made it a bit small but still reasonable.

Next: Georgia 2008, I guarantee!!! I think...

Middle East/Arab Mosque in 20mm (2)

A Mosque is mandatory in all places in the Middle East. In fact their minarets is one of the main characteristics of the landscape and they can be recognized for miles.

The minaret on this one came out too large. It looks more with a lighthouse than with a minaret.  I only realised that after finishing gluing it to the building and base but then it was too late. At least its sturdy...well, we have to find some satisfaction on our own blunders, right?

Many Middle East construction have beautiful varandas and woodwork.

The base of the minaret is a yogurt cup.

The dome is a half of a christmas tree decoration ball.

Next: as you fly away from middle east you will go back to Georgia 2008 soon.