Fire&Fury ACW rules set - Gettysburg in 20mm, Buford's Cavalry Division (part 18)

When I was kid, maybe around 8, my parents bought me my first ever box of soldiers - Airfix Napoleonic French Infantry. Soon the British followed and from then on it never stopped.

In a world were Cowboys and Indians ruled the adventures of model toys I also found a few days later that the US had a Civil War when I found the Airfix Union and CSA little soldiers. They were just lovely, with beards and chunky looks. And finaly a real war in America, not those small Hollywood skirmishes between Indians and Cowboys with six guys per side. That's nothing! I started to read about the ACW in encyclopedias and such, and yes, that was a real war with big battles and lots of soldiers. Then Esci showed up with slimmer figures that also looked nice, Irregular Miniatures also released another good range and then Italeri. Imex, more recently StreletsR... 

In years, up to just a few months ago, I built, converted and painted a few thousand figures, enough to have all units that participated in the Battle of Gettysburg using the nice Fire and Fury Rule set (1 stand of 4 figures equals 200 men). Once again I never made one sole battle but have all units that participated, that is over 30 divisions and around 3000 figures. 

Of course a big boost came from the release of the 1993 Gettysburg movie, a great piece of encouragement for any wargamer.  

Well people and faithful followers get ready because this will be a lengthy series with around 30 posts. On the other hand as everything is painted and based it will be quick to show. 

This cavalry division is here defending Chambersburg pike from Hood's division, 1st of July, 1863. In this battle Gen. Buford only had two of its Brigades, Devin's and Gamble's Brigade, but they managed to slow down the Confederates until I Corps arrived. 

The figures are Revell, Italeri and Imex. Flags are prints from the web. 

Gen. Buford, originally an artillery figure from Italeri, was painted as close as possible to the character from the movie. 

Calef's battery is made of figures with short jackets as it was used by horse artillery. The limber is Irregular Miniatures. 

This division has three horse holders made from a Revell Confederate infantryman painted accordingly and three Italeri horses.

The dismounted cavalrymen are Imex and Italeri. Some of them have new heads with kepi as this headdress was more used by US cavalry than the slouch hat. Also some torsos were used in different legs in order to create more varied poses.

The Lutheran Seminary is a card board construction with its cupola made out from a Kinder Egg. 

As with all my buildings I glue the windows from the outside as a time saving measure. 

The fences are home made, like the one with a lighter base and the others are Irregular Miniatures. 

Next: Union Wadsworth Division (I Corps, Reynolds).

Rapid Fire! Russian Contemporary Wars in 20mm - Last two battalions of Georgian Infantry

These are the last two battalions for the Georgian Light Infantry Brigade of 2008. The unit is more or less complete. It has up to now:

-  Three battalions of infantry like the two in the picture plus the mortars that are already shown.

- Three BMP-1, three BMP-1U Shkval and three land Rover (last two groups in this big picture) as IFV and infantry transport. 

- One battalion of T-72 SIM tanks (6 models, maybe one missing for command).

- One battalion of MLRS (3 BM-21 models).

- Six Dana 152mm SPG's.

- One Humvee and three Digdoris  for reconnaissance. 

The infantry is the usual mix or Revell and Esci moderns with a few old metal Skytrex in the command stands. 

Next: ACW and for quite a long time as I will be posting the armies of Gettysburg for the Fire and Fury rules systems. 

Rapid Fire! Volkswagen for Volksgrenadiers

Well, a division is never finished apparently even if you say it is. On a visit to the local ToysR'us I found these two HotWheels 1/72nd scale Volkswagen GmbH. By reading the under part of the miniatures these HotWheels are ex-Mattel from 1989 just delivered in a new electric-tuning-crazy painting. The oval rear window is the main detail you need to have on your WW2 Volkswagen as the bigger rear window only showed up in 1950. 

The original wheels were replaced by these ones from the Airfix Hanomag+88mm and some plastic licence plates were added. After repainting, they look the part and now my Volksgrenadier division already has four of these cars with two more missing (total of six, one for each of the infantry battalions). 

Next: back to the Russo-Georgian War of 2008.

Rapid Fire! Late War Germans in 20mm - Luftwaffe fighter-bombers.

Late Luftwaffe is not something you see much on wargaming tables around 1944/45. May be its because of the perception that the Allies dominated the skies and it would be foolish to use German aircraft against ground troops. 

Lately this misconception has been fought back and some deeper analysis shows that the Bulge offensive was supported by around 2300 Luftwaffe aircraft. Also Operation Bodenplatte (1000 German aircraft) destroyed or crippled many more Allied aircraft than the US acknowledged for decades (around 600, while before the number 300 was the rule). 

All this German air activity was important in stopping Patton's III Army  from driving north and cutting and isolating the Bulge: In fact in the first week of 1945 the loss of those 600 Allied aircraft would deprive Patton from an important asset for its goal. On the other hand the Luftwaffe actions would allow the Germans, particularly the SS 6th Panzer Army, to fall back and fight one last offensive action in Hungary against the Soviets. 

The first picture shows the state of the art Luftwaffe fighter-bomber of 1944/45, the Me262 jet. The one to the left is the old FROG models and the other is the recent Altaya. 

The FROG model is a simple beauty and probably one of my oldest models, even if built and painted only last week. 

This one is the two-seater Me262 night fighter from Revell. 

Leaving jets for now here you have two Fw190D, the one in the left from Revell and the other Altaya. 

Two Fw190G, left is Altaya and right is Airfix (in fact its 'Pips' Priller Fw around the time of its famous D-Day straffing).

All three Me109G are Altaya. In all of these ten fighters I painted the canopy from the inside with light blue colour leaving the canopy frame as it was. This trick is very effective specially in the Altaya models. 

Next: quick return to Volksgrenadiers.

Rapid Fire! Conclusion of the 26th VGD in Bastogne - The Intriguing Feldersatz Battalion

Years ago I built a Volksgrenadier division according to its six battalion/ three Regiment structure and obviously obeying Herr Richard Marsh and his Battle of the Bulge supplement. You can see it here:

http://jpwargamingplace.blogspot.com/2013/02/rapid-fire-20mm-volksgrenadier-division.html

One of the intriguing points in the Bastogne siege is how the 26th VGD (Volksgrenadier Divisions had around 10.000 men) could have besieged a bigger and better quality unit like the 101st Airborne with 11.000 men during more than one week. If it is true that the 26th VGD was not alone, counting with other units of the 47th Panzer Korps, it is also true that the 101st was not alone as it counted with tank, Tank Destroyer, stragglers  and many artillery units. 

Eventually many other units participated in the siege on both sides, some just passing by, making countability more difficult. 

To increase problems many sources, including the CO of the Division, Gen. Heinz Kokott, place the 26th VGD at 17.000. But how can a VGD be 17.000 strong if its organized according to the 1944 OB for infantry with only two battalions per regiment, so less than 10.000 men?

After looking a bit everywhere, mainly in internet forums where other people placed the same question,  the solution seems to be that the 26th VGD had a big Feldersatz Battalion (FEB) of several thousand men, used as replacements for the numerous casualties expected in the Ardennes campaign, something that really happened. A bit like the assault companies of US infantry for D-Day, reinforced at 50% as they also expected a high volume of casualties. 

The difference between the 10.000 paper organization of a VGD and the real 26th VGD 17.000 men strong makes you build at least four new battalion sized forces that you can see in the big picture above: three infantry battalions and another one at the top, with the Hetzer tank dividing it, to reinforce the Pioneer and the Fusilier battalion of the Division.  

Most of the figures are old plastics from Airfix, Matchbox and Revell with a few newer PSC and some metal from SHQ and Irregular Miniatures. 

Some stands of Irregular Miniatures 80mm mortar and HMG. 

The PSC cleverly engineered solution for the HMG. 

The Pzfausts and Pzschreck of PSC. 

Some conversions also made are the support figure for the Esci Panzerschreck made out of two figures from Matchbox with the MP44 assault rifle from Armourfast. 

Airfix and Revell living together in harmony. The Airfix figure comes from the DAK box but with gloves new uniform and camouflage trousers becomes a nice Volksgrenadier. 

The Command stands have radios placed on the back of Esci and Airfix. The Officers are PSC, Esci, Matchbox, Fujimi (the greatcoated one) and SHQ. The lying down figures are Armoufast, Revell, Airfix and Matchbox. 

Esci and Revell for the snipers, Revell for the Pzfausts. The 80mm mortar stand has an Esci (surplus from the Nebelwerfer set) and Matchbox figures, the kneeling one again a conversion. 

For speed of painting I used the same grey colour for the gloves; webbing was all black, haversack and canvas gaiters were all khaki, etc. Also the camouflage schemes were generally the Field Grey jacket, the camouflaged or white smock and the same for trousers and helmets. 

Pioneer from Revell lead by an Italeri figure. 

This is my fifth Hetzer, a bit too much as only three are necessary for the Anti-tank battalion. The camouflage comes from Osprey campaign 145 about the Bastogne events. With one extra Hetzer it makes two companies and with this big FEB may be I start also another VGD as two are necessary for the St Vith actions. 

Next: have no idea. Better, too many ideas but don't know what to choose. 

Rapid Fire! Late War Germans in 20mm - 15cm towed field artillery.

A bit of heresy with this Roco Feldhaubitze 18 15cm battalion. They are not 20mm but 1/87th scale. These guys were on the stash for years and probably they will wargame (?) off table many meters to the rear so I decided to add them to my Late War Germans. 

                         

The model is nice and looks the part. The crew is also Roco made from several of their German sets as they never produced a dedicated set of German artillerymen. 

The 15cm shells came from cut down  1/72nd scale 88mm shells. My problem now is to find enough horses in 1/87th scale as I want this battalion to be towed thinking mostly of artillery support for a Infantry or Volksgrenadier division. 

Next: the Ersatz battalion of the 26th VGD.

Rapid Fire! Contemporary Russian wars in 20mm - Converted Georgian BMP-1U Shkval

During the '5 Days War', the Georgian Invasion of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in August 2008, the Georgian used 15 BMP-1U bought from Ukraine in one of its brigades. All were apparently lost, captured or destroyed. But apparently Georgia rebuild its force of Shkval as there are now some 30 in its army.  From pictures of captured vehicles they were plain green which is OK as like this I can also field them also as Ukrainian IFV's. 

The basis for the conversion is the Fabbri  BMP-1. The main changes to obtain the BMP-1U are in the turret as you will see. 

First I used the turret backwards after extracting the 73mm gun which will be also the basis for the new ZTM 30mm gun of the Shkval. Then details like hatches and vision slits were taken out with an X-Acto. Some bulbs of two component fast drying paste are glued on the turret which is the main station of all new stuff this version has to offer. 

15 minutes later the paste can be cut and sanded to shape and the first details can be added as the gun, telemeter and other details. 

Time for the ATMG launchers made of EverGreen plastic tube. 

The tip of the gun tube is increased and some thin EverGreen is placed on its sides to give the illusion of the rotating gun. 

Time for the increased side protection on the hull made of thick card applied with hot glue.  

Final details on the back, new hatches and smoke dischargers. 

Figure, headlights, vision slits and its ready to prime. 

After priming they always look much better!

This lot was painted together with some two Die-cast Toyota Hilux. In fact they are Chevrolet but some careful painting can make them very similar. 

Next: Concluding the 26th Volksgrenadier Division. 

Rapid Fire! Late War Germans in 20mm: 88mm guns of III Flak corps.

The III Flak corps of Gen.W.Pickert was a very important asset for the Germans while defending the  eastern part of the Normandy battleground against the British. Numbers like 450 allied planes and around 100 tanks and other AFV are credited as destroyed by some sources. One important action of this big unit was during operation Goodwood: from the high ground of Bourguébus ridge the heavy batteries of 88mm guns were instrumental in destroying many British tanks that had pierced the 21 PD lines.  

III Flak corps had around 100/130 88mm Flak guns (20 in RF! terms), both 36 and 41 models. The ones showned here are the older 36 Flak model.

I didn't want too much clean terrain on these stands as the III Flak Corps was attacked constantly by artillery and aircraft. A bit of burned and charred terrain looks the part a bit better. 

The big stand has two Hasegawa models. The figures are a mixture of Hasegawa and Airfix. 

The nets are made of gauze and the sand bags are old Esci from its terrain pack.

The smaller stands have Airfix 88mm guns with figures from all sources. 

The officer is a Chinese copy of the famous Airfix DAK German officer. The torso was bent with the flame of a lighter for him to look for enemies in the sky. 

The house ruins come from Matchbox models. 

Next: a return to Moderns or Germans 1945-46. 

Rapid Fire! Late war German in 20mm: SP Flak.

A group of Ostwind 37mm and sWS Flak 37mm look for targets to aim at. 

Another 37mm Flak SP this time on sWS chassis. 

The sWS Flak is a beautiful Altaya model, I would risk saying, one of their best. I only added a mix crew of Esci, Airfix and Skytrex and folded camouflage net. 

The Ostwinds are Hasegawa with Esci and Raventhorpe crew. The crewman looking for targets is an Esci figure that came with the set of German AT  Artillery. Originally he was laying down but placed in an upright position he fits nicely his new task. 

Next: elements of III Flak corps.