Rapid Fire! 20mm - 4th DAK infantry battalion - El Alamein 1942

Last Afrika Korps infantry battalion. 

This DAK infantry comes from every possible plastic origin.

You can find the old and beautiful Airfix MG runner, the even older Airfix 28mm Pz B, Revell, Esci, Matchbox, 'chinese' Airfix, Hat (from the PAK 76,2mm set) and even some lovely if a little inaccurate Atlantic, all living happily in their barracks even close to their British foes which only in our devious minds are enemies.

The tripods for the heavy MG's and the bipod for the mortar are Evergreen and the barrels come from surplus tank MG's.

I'm two battalions of infantry and 8 AFV's short of presenting you my whole DAK. This will have both the full 15th and 21st Pz division and most of the assets of the 90th Leichte and Ariete divisions. 

The main thing that will be still missing are many of the soft skin vehicles a problem which I hope to solve with some boxes of Pegasus Opel Blitz and a parcel from Frontline Wargaming. Regarding Italian soft skins, particularly towing vehicles the problem will continue a little bit like in real life...

Rapid Fire! 20mm - Painted Sdkfz 223 conversion from Airfix Sdkfz 222

Here it is the scratchbuilt 223 after the usual GW Tausept Ochre painting. 

The accompanying Airfix Kubelwagen was built at the same time  as the  Sdkfz 223. It's a straight from the box model with just a small change in the rear passenger who has an Airfix body glued to Esci seated legs. 

Rapid Fire! 20mm - Sdkfz 223 conversion from Airfix Sdkfz 222

Tired of the wrong turret of Airfix Sdkfz 222?

Tired of not having the Sdkfz 223?

Tired of not seeing Sporting as national champion? 

If you are, follow me in the next few pictures and comments. 

The turret was discarded and replaced by a smaller one taken from an undentyfied part I found on the  spare box. I´m not sure but I think it belonged to a ring from a Panther turret.

The antennae was built in Evergreen and wire. The vertical tubing is far more thicker than the original but as a wargame piece that is necessary to avoid self destruction. 

Don't forget a figure (this one is from PSC), some extra Jerrycans and tarpaulins and all the few white and black extras a little bit all over, in order to have a convincing model:
-Triangular disks on the wheels.
- Hatches in the turret.
- Visors in the turret ring.
- MG 38.

Rapid Fire! 20mm - Pz Sfl II for Rommel's Kampfstaffel, El Alamein1942, part 3

Normal DAK painting on a special vehicle. I'm sure the measurements are not 100% correct but even so it was a great fun to scratchbuilt. 

'Hey is it a 20mm AA gun ? ... ' 'No! its the antennae...!

I'm sure Rommel feels much safer now with this powerful bodyguard! May be he even can try harder on  Hitler's assassination...

Rapid Fire! 20mm - Pz Sfl II for Rommel's Kampfstaffel, El Alamein 1942, part 2

Now for the complete model. 

The Pz Sfl II in the probably  best picture of this machine (from 5 or 6 available). There are no exact measures for this vehicle which gives some freedom of construction. You can also use the measurements for Hkp 902 chassis used on other more well known German AFV's. 

The model turned out like this. There is an extra road wheel taken from a surplus model and glued to this one in order to have a total of seven.

The jerrycans are home made and you can see how to manufacture them in this fantastic blog ( it's not me who say it it's the crowd out there !) from two posts ago. 

The crew are the PSC (many!) surplus models of the Marder II. 

The gun tube was taken from a broken  Esci 7,5cm PAK  with an Evergreen sleeve added. 

The usual GW GreenStuff was used for bedrolls.
 

The gun mantlet is a piece of carved hard styrofoam. 

Small details like shovels and such were taken out from an Esci Sdkfz 251 veteran of many battles cannibalised for parts.

Next: painting the Pz Sfl II. 

RapidFire! 20mm - Pz Sfl II for Rommel Kampfstaffel - El Alamein 1942,part 1.

In the next 3 articles I will show you my way to make the model of the Pz Sfl II in 20mm. I couldn't find any kit of this model in 1/72nd or 1/76th scale so only  scratchbuilding remained as the solution.

As there was only two built, one model is more than enough for the DAK and Rommel's Kampfstaffel.

I´ve been looking at the wheels and tracks of the very strange and big Atlantic Kettenkraftrad for many years, after using their quite a lot of their seated German soldiers and even some MG´s. As a compulsive buyer of these old kits I have several of them. One day I was expecting for these material to become useful.

 

The web presents some 1/35th kits of the real machine and also some scratchbuilding both in 1/35th and (apparently) 20mm but i'm not sure of the last one as the site was in Japanese which is not my best foreign langauge.

 

Write "Pz Sfl II" or "hkp 902 chassis" ( the base of the vehicle) in your search engine for lots of information.

 

Use some Evergreen and hard Styrofoam for the chassis. Glue or drill the parts. I did both for strengthening.

 

A plate of Evergreen is used as the top part of the chassis and modelled as you can see.

The top part of the chassis needs careful planning as it needs to house a number of features.

 

The turret need to pivot. This is the bottom part...

 

...and this one is the top part.

It starts to look like the real thing.

 

The shape of the turret is quite tricky. In order to avoid too many calculations I use flexible paper card for essays and only after the Evergreen card.

 

Next: The Pz Slf II detailed and assembled.

 

 

Rapid Fire! 20mm - A way to do Jerrycans

Jerrycans are one of the first things to end in our surplus boxes. 

They were used by the main contenders of WWII and virtually all modern wars and we never have enough of them, specially when you are into desert fighting. 

So I made up an easy and cheap way to do as many as I want. This is the result: 

Do like this: use a hard kind of styrofoam, the kind that comes in 3mm thick and about 60x120cm plates and that you can find in DIY. With a little luck your local supermarket can give you some of this material as some brands use it for advertisements.

Mark rectangles with the blunt part of your X-acto 7x4mm (approximately or the size you like) and then cut them. 

Cut a small top fraction to mark the handler. 

Use the blunt part of the X-Acto to make a hole for the handler. Press deep. 

Do the same for the characteristic X on the main surface. 

I also made an oblique cut at the petrol/water exit corner that you can see in the 1st picture. 

And here you have. Plenty jerrycans at no cost at all, only some time of course. 

Happy jerrycanning!!

Rapid Fire! 20mm, March 2015 DAK and 8th Army additions.

Last post material already painted.

The Krupp Protze and an extra Sdkfz 11 are always handy. I paint DAK vehicles with Tausept Ochre from GW. 

Sdkfz 251. The DAK symbol and its grey background are painted over the sand colour, the opposite way to reality.

The Italian 88's. I used GW Vomit Brown, a strange name but a nice colour for the Italians.

The Crusader II made from Frontline Wargaming hulls (from their AA Crusader I) and modified Airfix turrets. The Matchbox+Esci Pheasant is crewed by a "chinese" crew.  The colour for the British armour is Vallejo Yellow Ochre. 

I think the DAK colour is quite close. Both the Italian and British are not but as I already started these armies many dozen vehicles ago I will have to keep with these colours for the sake of uniformity. 

Now let's start with some more rare DAK vehicles like the most strange ones in Rommel's Kampfstaffel...

Rapid Fire! 20mm - WIP for the DAK and 8th Army

A few more models on the way. 

Playing with Matchbox Krupp Protze. 

The middle one has a Esci and Preiser crew with an Airfix driver. 

The 37mm PAK portee in an unconfirmed version for the DAK. Plenty were used in the Eastern Front so probably also in the desert. Up to  a few years most of the authors were denying the use of the Krupp 69 truck by the DAK until proved by photos. I hope the same happens to this PAK version.

Fujimi and Matchbox Sdkfz 251. 

The crew are from several plastic brands and also from metal Irregular Miniatures. 

Italian 88/55 AA/AT. 

Hasegawa 88mm with stripped mantlet as used by the Italians. 

The crew are mostly ESCI Italian mountain troops conversions. 

The 17pdr in the 25pdr carriage ( called "Pheasant"). Matchbox barrel and Esci carriage.

Most of the crew are cheap Chinese copies. But some are nice and big and make good conversions. 

Lastly two leftover turrets of the Airfix Crusader, originally the Mark III, turned into Mark II with the help of some Evergreen plastic tube and plate. 

They will be placed on two Frontline Miniatures Crusader AA with 40mm gun, a design that never saw action. 

AOE 28mm Waterloo - Hougoumont compound and La Haie Sainte

From the French lines you would have a certain difficulty trying to grasp the size and importance of  Hougoumont in the morning of the Waterloo battle, adding to that some poor reconnaissance and maps.

Now you can't see them but on those days the woods of Hougoumont hide the complex from French eyes which led Napoleon not to pay the attention it deserved with catastrophic consequences for his side. 

The model of Hougoumont is an old Draper model bought from Miniatures Wargames a few years ago and I think still available. 

I followed mainly this drawing from the Carnets de la Campagne Vol.1, dedicated to Hougoumont. 

But in order to portray the full Hougoumont complex you need an orchard with an hedgerow looking at the French side ...

 

... and a garden enclosed by a new outer brick wall and an inner masonry wall. 

The pigeon house doesn't come in the model so you need to build it. This one is from card. I also made some thatched roofs using old pieces of linen as on the model on the Waterloo cyclorama. 

The famous South Gate of Hougoumont. 

The model of the chateau is designed for 20mm but goes well with 28mm as the true Hougoumont in 28mm fills any decent table leaving no room for anything else. 

Let's move a bit to the east. 

La Haie Sainte is the Airfix model with a few additions. 

It's necessary a small orchard looking south and a pond inside the farm...

... and also a garden looking north.

And here you have two of the main "breakwaters" of Wellington.