Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - The 67e BCC fight in the Champagne region, June 1940

The 67e BCC maneuvers  to help facing the onslaught of the 8.PD at the small hamlet of Jean-Pierre- Papin (who doesn't remember this small hamlet from the 93-94 Champions League won by Milan?). You may keep on reading as all the rest is not based on nonsense. 

The D1 infantry tank, despite being made between 1931 and 1933, still could put on a fight against early German armour due to the tenacity of its crew and their  47mm SA 34 main gun of the second turret, the ST2 (the first one was the FT17 turret and the poorly balanced ST1). It was used by the Vichy forces against US troops and the D1s last fight was at Kasserine were one is told to have destroyed a PzIV. 

All miniatures are MiniGeneral 3d prints. Yes, I know, they don't look like 3d prints. No need this time for the PVA+ acrylic paint paste. With two coats of primer all printing lines were virtually gone and that is because Pedro Pato is making his stuff better and better. 

1st company. The battalion was made mostly from the I/508e BCC and still formed in Tunisia before embarking to face the Germans in June 1940. The numbers on the tanks were not following a logical sequence. 

2nd company. I applied the same camouflage in all tanks but there was also a second type in which the turret camouflage was applied all over the tank. 

3rd company. This company had big white letters in the turret related to the tank commander's name. 

This is the case of D1 number 1085 which displayed a big "O" of Oudet, killed in action at 22 years old. This picture troubled me a bit as I have a son close to this age and a son's friend that looks a lot like Oudet. 

The D1 "1085" of Sous- Lieutnant Paul Oudet. 

The commander of 67e BCC, Chef de Corps Albert Valleteau, was not using a D1 tank but I used the tank of Captain Lapiche, 1st company commander, to have a command tank in the unit.

The main change is the addition of a second usual commander's antenna on the leftside and the necessary withdrawal of the spade from its place. 

 

All tanks got two pices of metal chain in the frontal part and also in the unditching tail. Some also got some stowage but not exaggerated as French tanks didn´t seem to have carried much stuff on the outside. 

These D1, even if old and outdated, managed to destroy a number of Panzers and stoped the Germans at Souain (were ironically the 67e BCC will face the 67. PanzerBataillon),  Croix-en-Champagne, Suippes and other places in those tragic days of 11-13 June 1940 for the Champagne region and for all France. 

All information and painting schemes were taken from the amazing GBM magazine, numbers 124 to 126. 

Next: More France 1940 as I was stung again by the Ooh Là Là bug. Or maybe Germans in Normandy or even Italians in the Western Desert. 

Rapid Fire! Normandy 1944 in 20mm - The unarmoured Unic P107 of the 21st Panzer Division

Both 2nd battalions of 125th and 192nd PzGrenadier regiments meet at Carrefour-Courbé, not far from Caen under the protection of a self-propelled AA gun...

This group is intended to replace the mounts of the two Motorized battalions until now wrongly equipped with Frontline Wargaming Somuas. These ones on its turn will pull heavy weapons on the PzJager battalion or in the artillery battalions or be used as ammunition suppliers for several units of the 21st PD. 

The models are MiniGeneral 3d prints for the transport version of the P107 and Raventhorpe RTR for the AA version. 

The MiniGeneral P107 are detailed little pieces without any serious printing lines to be seen. I left side the front canvas cover supplied and finished them in the same way Don McHugh showed recently in a Fb post. 

The figures for the PzGrenadiers are from Caesar and the drivers and officers are mostly S&S. 

The P107 with a more Edvard Munch camouflage will go for the II/125th regiment. 

This will be the transport of the Grenadiers of the II/192nd regiment based on scheme I have in Batailles&Blindés magazine No39 related to everybody's favourite Panzer Division, the 21st. 

Now for my favourites, the ones that helped me solving the old question of medium mortars (8cm) for the German PzGrenadier companies. Since the 90s I have Alan Verwicht book on the 21st PD which mentions an annex of the Meldung for foreign weapons. He states that 64 X Gr.W. 8,14 of French making apparently can be found on that paper and they would be naturally distributed among the infantry (besides the Recce and Pioneer units) but this without absolute certainty. I remember reading this, making four stands of medium mortars - 1 per infantry battalion, later another for the Pioneers- and then forgetting the issue. The RF Normandy Battlegroups doesn't even mention them and Zetterling lists do the same and we may be tempted to exclude them but it would be very strange for the German infantry to exist without such weapon, the type responsible for the largest number of soldier's casualties in WW2. A few weeks ago when reading Martin Block information in the Axis Forum this author also places these mortars among the "subunits of the division". So it was time to have something to transport them and these unarmoured and covered Unic P107 are my way to do it. The model is the MiniGeneral model with a piece of RoofMate shaped and sanded in place as a cover for the cargo part.  By reading the same kind of threads its also possible that the German  8cm or the French 81,4mm (they could fire the same ammunition) was placed inside the SPW P107 of the two armoured battalions in the same style of the Sdkfz 251/2. 

Another Unic SPW 20mm AA was built alongside its infantry siblings. On the contrary of its metal version, this Raventhorpe RTR comes without trailer which was quickly built out of different types of styrene. 

The figures, with the exception of the driver which comes with the model, are plastics from different brands. You may recognize the pioneer from Revell without its spade, a DAK torso from Airfix aiming the gun and the famous DAK Airfix officer (Airfix Chinese copy) slightly bent with fire in order to look upwards. 

The crude trailer was disguised with plenty of stowage. The body was built from hard styrene foam so don't forget to cover it in PVA glue before priming. 

Now very few things are left to portray the 21st PD. Still missing are:

- 2x SPW Unic to carry the medium mortars in the Sdkfz 251/2 style. 

- 2x more SPW Unic with 20mm AA gun, like the one above. 

Unfortunatly, nothing else and unfortunately as this division  is for me the most interesting big unit of the entire NW campaign of 1944. 

Another nice aspect about modelling the 21st PD are its various vehicle camouflages making this unit something unique. 

The next captions were taken from the Magazine mentioned above and are a good guide for the 21st PD camouflages. 

The UE with rockets is an old idea. Don`t know really if its true and I would discount that one. 

 

Next: probably the D1 tanks for the 1940 French.

Rapid Fire! The beginning of the Panzerwaffe in 20mm - The NbFz A (or V if you prefer)

The Neubaufahrzeug A, with Rheinmetall turret, was a mild steel "Propaganda" tank that obviously could not have a real fight by WW2 standards. It spend a good part of its life at the German training ground of Putlos but, as always with these German less known weapons, a big number of speculations  (truths?) are easily available. In one of them, one of the two NbFz A made may have been sent to Norway to replace one destroyed by a British operated 25mm Hotchkiss AT gun (or were they Boys AT rifles?...I´m getting confused...). Another story places the mild steel versions in Berlin in 1945 when all available sticks and stones were used to its defence while other accounts say they were scrapped in 1942. Well, you have stories for all tastes like it happens with the three other more active brothers with Krupp turrets.  

 The fact is that this tank is one of the most elegant and powerfully looking (even if not) AFV's of WW2. The model is a MiniGeneral 3d print and ,as you can see, the printing lines are barely recognizable, showing that this technology and in particular this brand is getting better and better. The camouflage is one that the Germans used before the war with a lighter tone of the Panzer Grey (Vallejo Basalt grey here), a medium green and the more usual brown. 

The figure is the tanker from Fujimi with a GreenStuff large bonnet. The opening in the turret is the large round one but it could be open in two halves as there are photos of both of them being used in this NbFz. 

Next: more 21st PD in Normandy. 

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - More wheels and tracks for the German side

At the crossroads of Karl-Heinz-Rumenigge, still in German soil, a column of towing vehicle prepares to give a ride to its guns. Lurking in the woods the Neubaufahrzeug of Pz.Abt,zbv 40 prepares its engines to join the column. 

The Kfz 69 are FtF  and the Sdkfz 10 are BPM 3d prints. Both will pull the 37mm Pak, 20mm AA and 75mm IG of several units. The BPM models need some sort of paste in the areas were the printing lines are more visible. Besides the original BPM figures I added a few S&S figures in their relaxed poses to this lot. 

The FtF kits are little marvels of enginneering with lots of detail and very easy to put together. 

And what to say about this BPM model? One piece and its done. 

The S&S passengers are very nice. This one is looking at his wrist watch and holds a map or at least I think thats what he does. The driver is my usual plastic torso with GreenStuff arms.

The Neubaufahrzeug are Minigeneral 3d prints with Fujimi tankers with Greenstuffed bonnet. I painted them in plain Panzer grey as the rest of the lot hoping they can one day reach the plains of Ukraine in 1941. In fact the few Neubaufahrzeug B, after its usage in Norway 1940, were sent to Russia and lost there against BT-7s.

As can be seen here they almost participated in the French campaign but became disheartened at the sight of the Char B1bis and fled to Germany behind their 20mm armour plates... After all they were Propaganda tanks. 

Next: a few more models for the 21st PD in Normandy.

Rapid Fire! Market Garden in 20mm - Oddities and such (part 11) - More German wheels and guns for the new RF book

 

This week's finished items for OMG: On top, a Renault AHN will be used to complete Graebner's unit, on the left, a few more 20mm Flak 38, this time towed by Steyer heavy cars and on the right several 120mm mortars to equip both Heer and FJ. 

The Renault AHN is S&S and the figures came from both Valiant German boxes. Unfortunately only one of these Renaults was on the bridge on the 18th September 1944 and thus no more than one can be modelled. 

The uniforms were painted with a mixture of SS and Heer uniforms due to the volunteers that crewed this vehicle and other Ford and Opel LKW and PKW of Graebner's column. 

The MG42 firer originally had a MG15 but the beauties of hard modelling allows you to interchange many parts. The oil drums are clay cast pieces kindly sent to me by Reprimo Wargaming. 

Maybe I will build another truck with oil drums based on the trucks of the previous post (they are a reasonable match for the Fords used by the Germans) in order to have one that represents the eight or so Opel and Ford LKWs that tried to cross the bridge. They are fun to make and the variety of poses provided by Valiant is an appetizer for this extra model. The grassy base will be an eternal problem as the Arnhem bridge had very little of it...

A very different story with these Flak 38. The guns are Minigeneral and most of the crew figures are Revell engineers with new arms. The Sd.Ah.52 tailers are old Esci that came with the 20mm FlakVierling. They were leftovers as I used the gun tubes for something else. New wheels and mudguards had to be added. 

Some cases of 20mm ammo were placed on the new arms of the Revell figures as well as a new pair of binoculars in one of them. 

The stand gets a bit to long with gun and trailer but I think it results in an different and lively piece. 

Two Steyers to pull the Flak 38s from  Raventhorpe RTR range were built straight from the box, that is, painted! Only some foliage made of  two component paste was added. 

Also some badly needed 120mm mortars with Heer crew joined the German shelves. I already have some for the SS and LW infantry but none for the Heer. The crews are Valiant and a few more mortar shells were made of two component paste and placed in rifle armed figures. The shell cases were made of 3mm thick styrene. 

I tried to stick the models into my usual 4cm poker bases but some new 6cm bases had to be cut due to the size of the Valiant figures, true servers of the Nazi doctrine of racial superiority!! Even if big, they are lovely figures that allows a huge variety of poses and conversions. 

Finally one stand of FJ 120mm mortar was made with the Valiant weapon and converted Esci German paratroopers. 

Next: maybe a dive into France 1940 or more OMG. A return to Zululand is also in the horizon...

Rapid Fire! Market Garden in 20mm - Oddities and such (part 10) - A few Allied missing bits for the new RF book

This week a few more new models were added to the Allied side. The Armoured Cars and trailers came in recent parcels but the Jeeps were old models waiting to be built or repainted for years. The idea was to make the a Recce squadron for a British divisions at Garden and the first few Jeeps for the US 101st Airborne division. 

The AEC armoured car is a BPM 3d print as well as all trailers. The Staghound A/C is RTR Raventhorpe. The Jeeps are Airfix (the ones that comes with the LVT-4, grey colour), Fujimi (the green one with trailer) and Hasegawa (with the Browning MG). All models got plenty of extras as figures, stowage, jerrycans, windscreen covers, etc. 

The drivers are plastic Esci or Revell figures with arms from the spare box. 

 

These models were great fun to build. I used tissue paper for the windscreen covers and PVA to stick them. 

The MG armed Jeep got a Valiant Browning and the binoculars figure from Hasegawa bent with fire until it could man the MG. 

The final result gives a nice and different model. The helmets of the Hasegawa figures got the 1st aid kit for them to look like paratroopers. The US vehicles were painted GW Castellan Green. 

The RTR is easy to put together with only turret, gun and body as separate parts. The stowage is already modelled in its place so only a figure, an MG and a antenna were necessary as extras. 

The BPM AEC A/C was painted first with thick varnish before the grey primer and again this seems to cover most of the printing lines. Even so this technology is getting better and better and detail is also increasing. These British vehicles were painted Vallejo WW2 Russian Uniform. 

Next: more OMG or France 1940.