Pz I in 1/72 from Minairons Miniatures

Got one Pz I A from Minairons from Thomas of Learning by Doing. I've been interested in this company for a while, so this little gift was most welcome.
A box comes with three tanks, each comprising of 9 parts (and an alternate turret). This is obviously a fast-build and as such it is somewhat simplified, as you can see. With the kit is a sheet of decals – early German, Koumintang Chinese and Spanish Nationalist. The crosses on this one comes from my own stash. 

The kit went together easily, and I painted it, as usual, as an early war tank. Checking my references I norticed that many Pz I:s were without numbers on their turrets, and being lazy I skipped them on this one - I concentrated on fast in fast-build...

All in all a very useful kit. Strongly recommended if you’re interested in early war Pz I:s for your wargaming and isn’t bothered by it being a bit simplified.

An variant with a 20mm Breda anti-tank gun, used very sparingly in the Spanish Civil War. Four made, I think.

Book review – Italian Light Tanks 1919-45

Italian Light Tanks 1919-45, Filippo Cappellano and Pier Paolo Battistelli with illustrations by Richard Chasemore, Osprey New Vanguard 191, 48 pages, 2012

As we are playing the desert war, and especially early action with Italians, I have read up a bit on the equipment used. Finding something on Italian armour isn’t the easiest, so I was pleased when this title showed up.

So, let’s see what we get. The different chapters:

Historical Background – how it started and why

Early tanks and units – Fiat 3000 (an Italian version of the famous French FT 17), CV 29 and the first tank units

The CV 33 / L3 tank and derivatives – the well-known turret-less tankette, useful against tribesmen in Ethiopia but more or less worthless against someone with armour and AT-guns. Also flamethrower variants and others. A photo of a silly one-man MG-armed tank weighting 470 kilos – fantastic suicide vehicle.

The L 6/40 Tank, L 40 self-propelled gun and derivatives – a light tank with a turret-mounted 20mm quick-firing gun and a Semovente with a 47mm gun.

The interwar years- Ethiopia and the Spanish Civil War, the development of Italian armour

World War II – Experiences during the war, how they were used etc. Also a bit on their use in German hands.

Camouflage and markings

Surviving vehicles – very short on where you can find them today.

Specifications – for the L3/35, L 6/40 and Semovente L 40

Bibliography – understandably but unfortunately mostly Italian titles.

Index

Lots of very good pictures and some colour ones on surviving vehicles, a cut-away two page spread of an L3/35, four one-page plates of different vehicles, and two action plates, that I feel is a bit of a filler. Now, these two are rather good, so it is forgiven for this book…

I feel this is what I want from an Osprey. Good text, informative plates and photos and very little filler. So, I’m very happy with this book. I rate it a strong 4 out of 5. Recommended!

And welcome to new follower Chuck Cathcart, who don’t seem to have a blog of his own (correct me if I’m wrong)

2011 – The Books

2011 was a good year for books. I bought too many, as usual, and (surprise) I seem to have read even more. There are less unread books now actually than it was last year-end.

All in all I read more than 50 books this year, and here is a summary of the war-realted. 

Ospreys:

Men-at-arms 74 The Spanish Civil War 1936-39 – very short texts on the conflict, really bad maps, decent uniform plates. Rating 2,5.

Men-at-arms 139 German Airborne Troops 1939-45 – it is what it says, as with all Ospreys. I give this book a rating of 3,5.

Men-at-arms 234 German Combat Equipment 1939-45 – rating 3

Men-at-arms 309 The Italian invasion of Abyssinia 1935-36 – an interesting conflict. Rating 3.

Men-at-arms 326 The German Army 1939-45 (3) Eastern Front 1941-43 – rating 3

Men-at-arms 330 The German Army 1939-45 (4) Eastern Front 1943-45 – rating 3

Men-at-arms 336 The German Army 1939-45 (5) Western Front 1943-45 – rating 3

Warrior 38 Fallshirmjäger - German Paratrooper 1935-45 – quite a lot about life at camp and during education. Rather bad and few illustrations. Disappointing. Rating 2.

Fortress 20 British home defences 1940-45 – rating 3,5.

Elite 160 Word War II infantry tactics – tactics, equipment and national characteristics. Rating 2,5.

Raid 9 Rescuing Mussolini - Gran Sasso 1943 – informative about the glider-raid and the ground action. Critical of Skorzeny. Rating 4.

Other English Books (or books available in English (I might have read a version i Swedish))

Channel Islands Occupied, Richard Mayne, a short book about the only occupied part of UK. Rather uninformative. Rating 2.

Fallshirmjäger in Crete, Jean-Yves Nasse. Informative and interesting pictures. Rating 4

Warpaint - colours and markings of British army vehicles, Dick Taylor. Very interesting. Rating 4.

The Eastern Front 1914 – 1920, David Jordan. Interesting on a part of WWI I didn’t know much about, also the Russian Civil War. Rating 4.

Book in Swedish and probably unavailable in English

From SMB:

Hitlers hemliga vapen del1 (Hitler’s secret weapons, part 1) by Igor Witkowski. I think this is a translation of ”Die Warheit über die Wunderwaffe”. Anyway a very interesting book on technical development and with good work done in the archives. I highly recommend it. Rating 4,5.

Rommels krig i Afrika - Ökenrävar mot Ökenråttor (Rommel’s war in Africa – Desert Foxes against desert rats) Wolf Heckmann and a translation of ”Rommels Krieg in Afrika – ”Wüstenfüchse” gegen ”Wüstenratten””. Rather interesting and critical of Rommel. Rating 3,5.

Avgörande ögonblick under andra världskriget (Decisive moments of WWII) edited by Anders Franksson. Well written by several authors, but nothing new. Rating 3.

Other:

Striderna i Suomussalmi (The battles of Soumussalmi), HJ Siilasvuo. About the fighting in Soumussalmi and on the Raate-road during the Finnish Winter War. Written by the Finnish commander. Rating 3 (and if you want to wargame this, it’s a 5)

Krigsfångarna (Prisoners of War) Guido Knopp. A translation of ”Die Gefangenen) and I’m not sure if there is a english translation of this book yet. Anyway this is a very important, and horrifying, book about what happened to the millions of Germans that became POWs during and after WWII. Something of a must-read. Rating 4,5.

Adolf Hitler by Bengt Liljegren. I was sceptical, but a lot of my friends said this was the best biography of Adolf Hitler made. I haven’t read the others, but this is one very good biography, by an author who have taken the time to actually look into a lot of archives to find out some truth about the person Adolf Hitler. There doesn’t seem to be an English translation, bad for you! Excellent book! Rating 4,5.

Brödrabataljonen (The battalion of brothers) by Eino Hanski. It’s about the men from Ingermanland who fought in the Soviet Army, was made POW in Finland during the Continuation War, was recruited into the Finnish Army with a promise of Finnish citizenship after the war, and who finally was betrayed when the war was over for Finland. An important book. Rating 4.

Sista striden – Ilomants, augusti 1944 (The last battle – Ilomants, August 1944) by Erik Appel. About the last fights of the Finnish Continuation War in Ilomants. Hard to follow the descriptions and bad maps. Unfortunately a rating of 1,5.

Modelling

Aspects of Modelling – Scenery, John Hobden. How to build scenery, mainly for railways. Interesting and some good advice. Rating 3.

The Spanish Civil War

I went through some old pictures and found a couple that might be of interest. All comes from a business trip to Spain a year ago. I visited Seville and found a military museum. I can't seem to find the maps, but it was in the eastern part of town.

The building where the museum is situated

I'm interested in the Spanish civil war, and found some interesting exhibits

Russian 45mm L44

A German Pak 36 

A Maxim MG

A French Hotchkiss MG

And now for something completely different - a diorama of the conquest of Seville in 1248. Would be nice to use in a wargame.

A nice, if small, museum. Worth a visit if you're in Seville, are interested in Spanish military history and have an hour to spend. But all texts are in Spanish.

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I checked some more (was to late yesterday) and the museum is called Museo Militar and you will find it in Plaza de España.