Rapid Fire! 20mm, French Army 1940, Pt4, 155mm LPF or the tales of a dog and it's influences on modelling

Some 20 years ago I had a beautiful Epagneul Breton called Breque.

I liked this dog so much that if he had lived today I would have made a blog just for him.

When he was growing, along with his teeth, I captured him chewing a row of newly painted Esci Churchill, Sherman and M-12 155mm howitzers.

I had prepared another breakthrough on my Normandy front, this time - stupid me -  on the floor of my basement. This Tiger tank... sorry, my dog destroyed a dozen or so allied plastic machines ( I should have changed the dog's name to Michael Wittman) and the only thing I could retrieve from the battlefield was a 155mm barrel of a M-12. 

Funny enough the German defenders were untouched which makes me believe that this dog was pro-Nazi.

I kept this barrel for years on the many storage boxes we all keep just wondering that one day it may be it's time...I didn't even know that this gun was the original GPF 155mm gun used by the French in both world wars. 

This is the surviving part from Breque's raid, gloss varnished as I used to do in those days. 

The carriage of the gun was made from two Irregular Miniatures metal wheels from their Useful Gun range, two thick Evergreen rods carved to shape and the central carriage part of a 5,5 inch Airfix gun. 

The gluing of the different materials - plastic, painted plastic, metal - became troublesome and hot glue had to be used in order to put together what was becoming a true mess...

After priming you can see more clearly the Evergreen details using plate, tube and rod of different sizes. 

The semi trailer is also based on a pair of Irregular Miniatures wheels.

Evergreen again in all small details. This material is an absolute must on modelling and it's also used on the making of the masters of many brands.

The gun and semi trailer are attached to a plastic base for its final form.

This is the third LPF in my collection: a French WWI, a German captured one and the subject of this post.

The WWI French is a beautiful Alby kit with Irregular Miniatures crew. This kit was the basis for all calculations on the other LPF building process.

This one is another scratch built effort this time based on a barrel extracted from a Rocco 1/87th scale M-40. It represents Sword beach "Daimler" battery. 

Both the gun and the crew have detachable stands.

Next: ...something else!

Lussonium Roman camp- Hungary 2013

The Lussonium Roman camp,  near Paks, Hungary, is a very rare and interesting place. There you can see a border military Roman camp (Tabor) facing the land of the Sarmatian tribesmen.

This camp could be the home of some 1000 men, about a quarter of a legion.

The Roman camp of Lussonium is on top a hill and at the entrance there is a reconstitution of wooden gates surrounded by a ditch 2 meter deep.  

At the end of the 500 metres long camp there are still some stone structures: latrines ( in which the legionnaires faced each other, and could place the conversation up to date...), barracks and administrative services.

To the south you can see the area occupied by the civil camp.

 

At the Lussonium museum you can see many roman artifacts from the Pannonia of the III and IV century D.C and also some nice dioramas of the Roman fort, this time with the most probable stone look.

From the hill where Lussonium camp stood you can see the barbarian lands of the Sarmatian tribes, a beautiful landscape enhanced by the autumn colours. 

 

Nearby passes the Danube, one of the most iconic and beautiful rivers of europe.

Rapid Fire! 20mm, French Army 1940, Pt 3 - Building Schneider 105mm guns

 

 The idea is to build a battalion of French medium artillery with the 1913 Schneider 105mm gun.

 

In order to build it from scratch you need some good reference books/internet images and articles; that box of parts you kept for years without never knowing exactly what to do with it; Evergreen tubing, rod and plate; pencil; X-Acto; plastic glue and superglue and one of those rainy weekends in which you only think LET´S DO IT... whatever it may be...

 

You also need to find the correct lenght of the gun (9 cm lenght) so you can work more freely inside it, without too many worries about this or that half milimeter,  something that the late Dave Howitt tought me.

According to Dave Howitt the most important thing on building a wargames piece was sturdiness and the enhancement of the main details, avoiding flimsy parts that will self destroy with use.

First you build the barrel out of Evergreen. One of the barrels was taken from the Airfix 5,5 inch gun after some shortening.

The carriage is also Evergreen and its the most difficult part of the gun. Be careful measuring this one.

 

The irregular shape of these parts is challenging, but if you do it carefully you can have a very reasonable Schneider carriage. Bend the carriage in the middle to produce its characteristic shape.

 

Glue the carriage to the barrel and you will have the gun in a skeleton shape.

 

Then start to add more details as the back cover of the carriage and filling the carriage with other thin stripes of evergreen until you feel satisfied. You can avoid this trouble if you have the correct length of Evergreen rod, which I didn't.

Its wheel time: I used a pair of Britannia metal and two of Emhar´s plastic from its 18pdr.

The gun shield was a true headache (the ones we like...) as this gun had a multitude of different shields varying from time and country. You need careful planning in this one too!

 

After assembling the two part shield dip the bottom part in very hot water and bend it to shape, as this kind of shield was slightly curved. Evergreen works well with hot water. Then quickly dip it again in cold water for final shape.

 

Add last details, specially at the back part of the gun.

 

Finally place two very thin stripes of Evergreen along the shield.

 

 

And here you have it: a cheap three gun battalion of 105mm Schneiders for the 1940 period.

 

Next: crew, painting... and who knows what else...

 

 

Rapid Fire! 20mm, French army 1940, Pt2 - Infantry

 

Now the French infantry for the 3rd DIM at the battle of Stonne 1940.

Once again the beautiful village of BleuVille in the background. More cheap repainted Chinese houses make this new neighbourhood. 

Somehow these kind of scale houses ceased to appear in their shops, which is a pity as they are useful wargaming pieces.

These 6 RF! Battalions of French infantry 1940 are made out of the Revell WWI French, Airfix WWI French, Esci WWII French, a few Japanese WWII from Airfix and many cheap Chinese copies of the Airfix box. 

  

The French infantry in 1940 had a very similar uniform to their fathers of 1918, so the WWI figures are ok for this campaign. 

Only some dedicated  figures like mortar crews and LMG's had to be converted. 

The mortar crew is the basic Esci mortar firer, with the bipod heated into the correct position. The other figures were also converted from the Revell box, by carving the rifle out and using GreenStuff for the mortar bombs.

 

The officers are mainly Chinese copies of Airfix models with their very charismatic kepi.

  

The LMG's are mostly WWI models with carved out  Lebels replaced with Bren to look like the Chatelleraux. The bipods are glued small pieces of plastic.

The Hotchkiss HMG are mostly Revell and all support figures were mounted on round plastic pieces.

These Chatelleraux LMG's from Revell are made from the original Chauchat with a small plastic box magazine added.

For the command companies some Japanese Airfix and copies with Esci heads were used to portray French infantry wearing the vareuse.

 

More "Chatelleraux's".

Still 3 battalions to finish the 3rd DIM. Maybe I'll use the more recent Caesar and Pegasus figures with the help of my last few Revell boxes. 

 

Next: Artillery 

 

 

 

Rapid Fire! 20mm, French army 1940, Pt1 - Armour

Back to BleuVille to show you my French armour for the 1940 campaign. The original idea is to build the main French units for the battle of Stonne (14-25 may 1940), like the 3e DCR and the 3e DIM. The German counterparts are on the way too.

First picture are four companies of RF! CharB1bis.

A good part of the information about this battle came from the French magazine Champs de Bataille- Second Guerre Mondialle- Thématique Numéro 7, where you can find a detailed account of the battle and some nice colour plates of the weapons used.

The three rear companies are Matchbox while the one in the front is Altaya. All four companies have different camouflage schemes, the one to the left sporting the all-grey of late tanks.

The Hotchkiss H-39 are four Skytrex and (to the right) a company of the new S-Models, probably the best H-39 around.

Some of the Somuas have Skytrex and other have Matchbox figures.

Not presente at Stonne, a battalion of Somua S35. The four to the left are Heller, the fifth is Altaya and the last two (right) are Skytrex.

The command Somua has two antennae and it's a Heller kit with a Skytrex figure.

Father and sons went for a walk in the French countryside: far end, one R-40 (Frontline Wargaming); two R-35 (Skytrex) and the FCM-2C by Exokit/Alby.

The FCM-2C was the biggest tank of WWII but didn't see much combat (only its own destruction, mainly by Stukas while descending, veeeeery slooooowly from their trains...).

This model  was ordered from a French shop already built and painted by a true unknown artist. I only exchanged the very thin copper antennae by fishing thread.

Old FT-17 from Matchbox  (not present at Stonne) and from that marvellous box in which you get a CharB1bis, a FT-17 and even a nice diorama that I used for the Arnhem ruins. The command FT-17 (right) is a Skytrex model.

Recce: Panhard 178 (Skytrex and Altaya) and AMR-35 (Skytrex).

BleuVille itself ows its name to the blue agriculture fields around (yes, smoking those things is bad for my brain...). Its life started in a Chinese shop as an all resin, cheap,  very crudely painted reading light.

After painting it becomes a 50 cm French village. Unfortunately it was an only son at that shop and never saw again any other I could buy.

Next: French infantry and artillery. 

Rapid fire! New WWII campaign revamped (with a challenge)

Following Will's Wargames Blog  inspiration lets rebase old figures and AFV's.

Of course something new has always to be made namely this German painted Altaya tank who suffered a new paint job.

Next picture is a hint, can someone guess which will be the new period/campaign of WWII?

Ok, ok this was easy. But what about the specific battle?  Any suggestions? Not very easy but a guy who knows REALLY about WWII will find the solution... 

This is how it is going to be:

A) if JMM finds it I will paint his DBA Indian army.

B) if PC guesses it  I will paint his late Romans.

C) if JF can do it I will build more 15mm terrain for his beloved WWII new set of rules ...

D) if anyone else guesses he will just be famous and may be he gets  a fantastic Pineapple Miniature....

Pineapple Miniatures - 1/32nd scale Portuguese and French cavalry

Pineapple is now riding 1/32nd scale horses. Portuguese cavalry are A Call to Arms Life Guards conversions. The helmet is not absolutely accurate even after some GreenStuff applied.

The French are again A Call to Arms. This  time straight out of the box Dragoons for the 26th regiment.

Also a few more 1/72nd scale boxes:

Also painted is another group of 30 individual 1/72nd scale miniatures, Scottish and French line infantry.

French line infantry, Buçaco 1810.

79th line (Scottish) infantry, Buçaco 1810.

All These can be found as usual at the Buçaco Military Museum.