Rapid Fire! NW Europe 44/45 - 101st US Airborne - 1st artillery battalion finished

 

The Airfix US paratroopers were outclassed by the Esci and Revell already many years ago. That is really a pity as they are excellent sculpts and very realistic. The problem with this set is having a bit too small figures compared to the other two rivals. 

Like that they are joining the artillery as they are very easy conversions. Most of the figures got something like a 75mm shell and some Milliput hands after cutting out Garands and Thompsons. 

The guns are Waterloo1815. 

To the left there is a 3d resin print. This Waterloo1815 is quite generous with three guns and 12 excellent artillerymen but they will end up in another project. 

Next. Greek infantry at Crete or more Slovaks

Rapid Fire! - Wargaming pine trees from Christmas decorations

 

For long I was trying to find pine trees in a good quantity, reasonable price and in good size for 12mm up to 25mm scale. The main goal was the Ardennes and for these trees to be used for Rapid Fire 20mm games, even if these ones can be useful a bit all over the world. 

Well, Santa was generous and at the local Action warehouse I found eleven of these bags, each with 10 trees (four small at around 5cm height; three medium sized around 8cm and three others around 11 cm). At 2 euros each you can have 110 trees total while spending around 20 euros. Not only they are cheap but they are reasonable depictions of miniature pine trees. All trees had an exaggerated sized piece of plastic to keep them standing but that could be solved with texture and flocking. 

Another place was visited for the bases, a very nice downtown Chinese shop specialized in handycraft. I brought all kind of round bases I could find and the trees got stuck with electric glue together with some pebbles of different size and shape. 

The bases were then textured and flocked with the same style as most of my basing. The 1/72 Matchbox car is from my youngest kid and is here just for scale. As I´m feeling attached to it this one will soon become a command car for a German Umbau column from the Market Garden period. 

Again for scale with  two Matchbox figures.

Bird´s view. 

All bases were made taking into account the accomodation of a varied number of Rapid Fire stands from my regular 3,5 X 2,5cm infantry stands to some larger AT gun stands. 

Next: More Ottoman Sipahi. 

Rapid Fire! NW Europe 44/45 - 101st US Airborne - 3rd battalion done and 501st PIR finished

These ones were black primed for some months and were quickly finished upon the arrival of the latest RFR The Road to Carentan booklet from Masters Colin and Richard. In this batch I added some cute resin prints offered by Pedro Pato of MiniGeneral 3d. The rank and file are the usual Revell and Esci figures as I´m out of SHQ minis. 

Three resin printed Cushman scooters are a beauty with all being different. One will go to each battalion for liaison purposes or, if not necessary, to look good on the table. 

The 3d resin Pack 75mm gun comes with three beautiful figures. 

The 3d resin 57mm AT gun comes with three other lovely  crew, again all different. Only one gun is missing to complete the Para AT battalion as this one is the fifth 57mm of this group. 

The Bazookas are Hasegawa and Revell (the closest one). The No2 are Revell with repositioned M1 carbines and Hasegawa Bazooka rounds. 

Again the Revell tripods of the 30. cals. were turned into bipods with added plastic stocks. 

Together with the OP stand the radio was added to the back of the Thompson armed figure. 

The 81mm mortar and main operator comes from Esci US infantry. With some extra GreenStuff on the uniform and equipment he could join the airborne. The 60mm mortar is made of pieces of plastic. 

Next: more aircraft for the US airborne. 

Rapid Fire! NW Europe 44/45 - 101st US Airborne - 2nd battalion done and some more air support and transport to go along

To go along the release of the new RF Market Garden supplement here comes  the 2nd battalion of the Screaming Eagles and some aircraft to celebrate. 

The second Battalion of the 501st PIR, 101st Airborne division is more of the same with Revell, Esci and SHQ and one lonely Airfix. 

For the command, mortars and bazooka stands I used a few more normal GI with new trousers pockets and changed helmets with the help of GW GreenStuff.

The three Browning stands had bipod changed MGs, something I made wrong in the previous battalion as pointed out by Alan McCoubrey. I used parts of the tripod to make the correct version of the 30 cal. A small Evergreen triangle was added as the MG wooden butt and glued to the firer's shoulder.

The 30 cal. stands are not easy to stay correctly inside the 4cm round bases so the boots and weapons that stayed out were brushed with a thick layer of gloss varnish for extra resistance before aplying the black primer coat. 

The figures are Esci but the guns are Revell as the original ones ended up somewhere in tanks or jeeps.

The bazooka teams used changed Esci GIs again. The loader is the Revell figure firing the M1 carbine and now is a bazooka loader with a Hasegawa rocket. 

The 81mm mortar stand is made of a SHQ figure and two Esci transformed GIs. The 60mm stand is the same and the tube itself is the old Airfix Stokes mortar cut in half with a new support (a left over of the 30 cal. Greta Thunberg will be happy with all this recycling).  

The command stands have one more officer recruited from the infantry (left, from the Revell infantry box with GreenStuff added details), a SHQ figure with a Thompson, and in the right stand the venerable and smaller radioman from Airfix paras in 1/76th scale. Well, no one is forced to be Revell-tall !

A company of US paratroopers from this new battalion based on Esci, Revell and SHQ figures. No not yet the "Easy company" of Spielberg's fame, for that you will have to wait for the 506th Regiment still many posts away.

This Revell DC-3 Dakota was painted years ago but only now is getting famous. I have another from Airfix, maybe some 40 years old, that will soon make company to this one. 

All markings were painted by hand as I wanted one for D-Day. Sugar Babe itself became a bit chunkier but I´m sure she will find pretenders in those guys who like "things bigger than the size of hand". 

The reason for the Airfix model is still not built has to do with not knowing which damn Green colour I used on the Revell model. To make things worse all I remember is using a mix of colours!

Number 2 of the Luppa collection already came out and its this nice Mustang P-51B, the correct version for ground attack in 1944. Unfortunately the bombers of this collection are 1/144 or 1/200 scale as I suspected.  So only a few more fighters will be acquired as at 10 euros the deal is not that good. 

Lastly, for a bit of nostalgia, I found these almost 40 years old photographs of my first solo wargame: defending Bastogne you can see some blue-grey clad (?) US paratroopers with a very old M-36 Jackson from Fujimi (what???). The card houses are long gone but the plastic ones are still alive. 

The first wave of probing attackers are Matchbox Pumas and Esci 250s with ghost infantry from an unknown origin. Coming along are those strange models from Atlantic: an oversized Kettenkraftrad towing a weird AA bathtub with wheels... I was thinking in those days everything was pretty accurate if made in a factory. No more pictures of this game unfortunatly as probably I got too excited for that.

Next: More Dieppe. 

Rapid Fire! NW Europe 44/45 - The M-18 Hellcats of the 705th TD Battalion

The 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion arrives at Bastogne on the 19th of December 1944. Already dug in are some of the units of the 101st Airborne which the TDs will help with its powerful 76,2mm antitank guns. This quick story sums up the reason why the Hellcats of the 705th TD Battalion are necessary for the defence of Bastogne. I remember Bastogne as one of my first solo wargames when I was still a teenager. 

Thanks to the quick builds nowadays available, three boxes of Armoufast M-18 Hellcat solves the issue of a full US TD battalion at least regarding the tanks themselves . 

But not everything are roses with Armourfast kits. They are well engineered models with all main parts but missing some equipment that I think could be easily engraved as PSC does. Here you can see a load of Jerrycans, different stowage, figures, antenna...

...headlights, mantlet covers, axes, hammers and Mg ammo box. All these details are easily made in different types of styrene and two component paste.

I paint nowadays all my US vehicles with Vallejo Cam. Olive Green (RLM80) from its Panzer Aces series. 

All markings were aplied by hand . 

Another example of the stowage necessary for a late US vehicle. 

- Hey Marl, what is that tough thing leaning against my butt...?

- Don't worry Steve, just my Colt 45...

Conclusion: Yes, the interior of these things was really crammed!

The figures are torsos from Matchbox and Revell chosen from the ones without netting on the helmets. The arms are all made in GreenStuff for them to sit in the intended place. 

The names on this Hellcat were taken from the tankdestroyer.net site namely from the pages dedicated to the 705th TDB. 

Next: another load of German vehicles for Market Garden.

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.