Rapid Fire! in 20mm. Filling gaps in WW2 (part 7)

 

This batch of models plugs some holes in the OBs of several WW2 periods and armies. Retroaranda is a nice Spanish 3d on-line shop that I found while searching for the Vercors Gotha Go 242. They are still using PLA for their prints but dividing these kits into many parts which helps reducing lines and excess plastic. Besides, the kits arrive with all parts clean which makes them easy to build. There are also three kits from First to Fight, namely the funny little cutter KM12, a large 150mm sFH18 and the artillery crew. 

My Ariete division was very short of command vehicles and this lovely SPA Dovunque 35 radio vehicle comes in that sense. 

The kit has no exterior radio system and this one has to be scratch built. This  photo saved me from making too many mistakes on the roof of this radio vehicle. 

On the background of this photo you can see the two biggest inventions of the last decades,  cyanoacrylate and liquid plastic glue, far ahead from Covid19 vaccine and AI. What would be of us all without them? 

Some tracks, stairs and EverGreen plastics were used to improve the model. 

The Ford V3000 radio vehicle was built from 1941-on and will be helpful particularly for the Eastern Front. Only some stowage was added on the roof. The model also brings another antenna for the travelling position. 

This is another Japanese Type 89 Go. The other one I have is from MiniGeneral, made from a different file and slighly bigger. 

This artillery group - one 155mm sFH18  and a 105mm leFH16 -  is the one necessary for the bombardment of Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte, 13-15 June 1944 as part of the artillery of the 157th reserve infantry division. I already had several of these artillery pieces but in different colors and environments so a late war summer style group was necessary for the Vercors.

The artillery group who bombarded the Maquis position at St-Nizier made it from a distance of over 5 km and up to an height of over 1000 meters in relation to Grenoble. These stills are taken from the 2nd part of Le Maquis du Vercors- Juin 1944, La Bataille de St-Nizier. 

For the full video see 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTRyf8seItk

and don´t forget part 1 and 3. 

In this still from the 2nd part of series you can see the St-Nizier heights in relation to the Grenoble valley.

And this is  the today sports park from were the German artillery bombed the Maquis. 

In this other screenshot of the 2nd part of the YouTube Le Maquis du Vercors- Juin 1944, La Bataille de St-Nizier you can see the placement of this artillery group who bombarded the Maquis position at St-Nizier from a distance of over 5 km and up to an height of over 1000 meters in relation to Grenoble and this is the one I´m portraying in RF! terms.  

I don´t have any information on the usage of these Gebirgshaubitze 40 105mm howitzers by the 157 RID as the division had several battalions of Gebirgsjäger. Even so I built these two that can be used elsewhere. 

The crew is FtF with heads from Airfix Afrika korps. There is also one Simon Soldier figure (the one with Zeltbahn) and a Revell conversion that previously was arming a grenade and now is pulling the gun string. 

Other crew for the guns came from FtF and all of them can be used from the artillery box. The seated figures need to bend the legs with heat in order to fit the narrow places on the Feldkanone 16. 

There are some figures with 20/37mm shells for AA guns that were converted to carry the big 150mm shells. That is easy as the FtF plastic is quite easy to carve. 

First to Fight offers the MK12 in 3d printed resin. I don´t know if this one will ever be used in a wargame but the magazine that comes along with the model has some nice stories (recently they are already in english side by side with polish) that can be used as the basis of several wargames. The figures are Revell and Hat WW1 Germans as the Polish sailors had the WW1 Stahlhelm for land combat and even the armored body of the German Stormtroopers, not used here. 

Finally for something wrong. What I asked was one more LVT-A4 in order to have a pair of them to support the Marine landings in the late war period. The designer by seeing the "4" on the vehicle´s name thought that the turret of the M8 75mm HMC fitted the late LVT-4 when in fact the very different LVT-2 was its basis. The "4" just means the 4th way to place guns on the LVT-2 Amtrac. So I got something wrong that needed to be used somewhere. The idea for this conversion came from the following photo: 

One of the few different models from the LVT-4 basic was an ambulance model deprived from its guns and painted with (lots) of red crosses. The canvas cover in the model was made from hardened tissue paper with cyanoacrylate in order to cover the big hole of the turret. This photo sometimes looks a bit fake as the smaller red crosses look strange but I read that "Sphinx" shows in two forms around the Walcheren period, one armed and another - this one - already without its guns. Probably the same vehicle used in two different ways. 

Next: More Napoleonics 

Rapid Fire! in 20mm, Vercors 1944 (part 4) - The Gotha Go 242s at Vassieux

 

On the 23-24 July 1944, three Gotha Go 242 landed on the Vercors plateau at Vassieux in support of the DFS 230 that had already landed. They could carry 20 fully armed men and support weapons, about the double capacity of the DFS 230. One of them brought a 20mm AA gun which reinforced Schäffer´s men. 

What has been puzzling me is the rest of the number "2" that you can see at the tail, while the "019" at the front is clearly seen at the only known photo of one of the Vassieux Gothas, present in the Osprey book on Vercors 1944. This photo also shows up in French videos on the subject and most probably in other publications.

I tried everything, all forms of AI , books and the rest of internet and nothing. There is a very dark and blurry shadow over the number (and probaly the Balkreuz) so its very difficult to decipher the rest of the numbers and letters. Like that the number "2" was left alone until one day someone can solve the mistery. Sometimes I think that I need to go to the Vercors Resistance museum for some clarifications. Maybe when I get retired... but will I remember I need that by then? :) 

The camouflage was made of Vallejo Russian Infantry Green and darkened medium blue giving very aproximate colors to the originals. These Gothas also got different types of camouflage, this one being one of the most usual. The B/W photo of the Vassieux Gotha shows some strange blotches at the front but they may be due to the poor quality of the photo.  

The model is a Retroaranda 3d printed PLA model from Spain. The models are quite nice as Retroaranda solves the problematic PLA plastic by dividing and cleaning around 30 parts, making this model very easy to put together and with no extra plastic around. The only problem is that, probably due to the cleaning process, you need a bit over 20 days for the parcel to arrive from a neighboring country. In the end you get a nice model 2/3 times cheaper that the one from Italeri or IBG. 

Next: a video on the USMC in WW2

Rapid Fire! in 20mm, Vercors 1944 (part 3) - More Maquisards and the strange truck of Valchevrière

A group of metal Les Armées Oubliés figures stands next to the famous (for me at least) "Truck of Valchevrière". This photo in taken in the northern part of Vercors not far from Grenoble days before the first German attack at Saint Nizier. 

This photo was one of the first I found on the Vercors actions and the truck became a mystery due to the strange  kind of canvas cover of the "truck of Valchevrière". In the SCW sometimes the trucks had their rear part raised so the infantrymen could shoot from the inside. Is this an influence of the handfull of Republican Spanish in the Maquis ranks? A second possibility is some kind of medic truck. A third one is something completely different that I can´t see! The model looks to me as a Dodge truck. The French army used a number of them and this one may be a left over, or eventually its a civilian one. The grille is different from other French trucks so the Dodge is a good possibility. 

With all this doubts this solution was cranked up: a SHQ Opel Blitz cabin was glued to a number of  wheels and other parts from all over the place in order to have something that looks slightly with the original. 

Pieces of Blueboard, plastic card and cloth were used in the rear part. 

The wheels are from an Airfix Scammel and the wooden back is from a cheap truck toy. 

The wood gas burner is taken from an Atlantic T-34 gasoline tank. 

The figures from Les Armées Oubliés are beautiful figures that capture very well the Vercors attitude. 

Next: a return to Ukraine

Rapid Fire! in 20mm, Vercors 1944 (part 2) - The 6e Chasseurs Alpins

 

The 6e Chasseurs Alpins was an old and famous unit that ended up in the French Vichy part after the 1940 campaign. A few of them - around 60 - joined the Vercors Maquis and became the core of one of the most famous units on that battle, being sent to all actions from Saint Nizier (13th to the 15th June) up to the 23rd July, the last day of battle. 

The majority of the 6e Chasseurs at the Vercors would not have been dressed like this but instead would have used the civilian clothes typical to the Maquis. In fact only some of the officers would have used this uniform, but the Chasseur uniform is too tempting to be left aside as it gives lots of color to the Maquis. Besides dressed like this they are a possibility for the May/June 1940 campaign and even Narvik were the 6e Chasseurs Alpins fought. 

The only non-Airfix figure is the German Esci figure firing with the MP40 that here received a radio on its back, something that didn´t happen at the Vercors as far as I know. 

The Vichy propaganda for the 6e Chasseurs Alpins. I only changed the boots for some white tall socks that I saw in some reenactors of the unit. 

The figures used are the Airfix Italians with added Milliput Chasseur beret. There is also a Japanese and a WWI US Airfix figures added for variety as the Airfix Italians, even if beautifully sculpted, don´t have many poses. The gun in many figures is the Beretta SMG but it looks close at this scale with the several supplied allied SMGs.

Next: More Maquisards, this time from LesArméesOubliés.

Rapid Fire! in 20mm, Vercors 1944 (part 1) - First few Maquis and FFI cars

Recently, Richard Baber posted his FFI on his great blog Baber on Wargames. These lovely painted figures, together with a nice Citroën sparked an old wish of mine, the Vercors battle of the summer of 1944, which placed 4.000 Maquisards against 10.000 Germans supported by the Luftwaffe. Vercors was one of my first readings while a young teenager a few years after  our 25th of April Carnation Revolution, as these heroic acts of defiance were very common on those days literature. I don´t remember what book it was or even if I still have it but those pages got stuck on my mind.  

This battle came after the Normandy landings when thousands of young Frenchmen came to the Vercors mountains, a triangular shaped plateau close to Grenoble, Southern France. Not being able to join the Normandy or much of the Northern France Maquis, more than 3.000 young resistants prefered to join the Vercors (also avoiding the STO- Service du Travail Obligatoire, in Germany) were a few hundred Maquisards lived there since 1942. The plan was called Projet Montagnard and predicted the arrival of 4000 Allied paratroopers and heavy weapons to the plateau, something that never materialized and eventually doomed the Vercors Maquis when the Germans came in force. 

My planned models are:

For the Maquis- 

- Build 6x battalion sized units of Maquisards including some Senegalese that also took refuge at the Vercors (only 2x battalions - the ones shown here - are done, more on the way mostly from LesArméesOubliés).

- Some "heavy"weapons, 1x M2 Browning, 1 Bazooka, 1x Hotchkiss MMG, 1x 25mm Hotchkiss AA gun (both Hotchkiss guns are the only missing and were used at Saint Nizier).

For the Germans - 

- 30x paratroopers; 4x DFS 230 gliders; 1x battalions of Grenadiers (9.PD) and 2x battalions of infantry (157. Reserve ID); 4x Ost Battalions; 2x Focke Wulf  FW 190 fighter aircraft  (all these are done).

- 1x Gotha Go242 glider; 2x 105mm GebH40; 15x Feldgendarmen; 4x Gebirgsjäger battalions (still to be done). 

The Vercors Plateau is also on my mind or at least a way to raise ground with the Vercors shape, as building it in styrofoam is something very difficult to store. Even so some styrofoam escarpments, together with a raised cloth is the most probable way to show this difficult terrain. 

The figures are a mix of Irregular Miniatures, both from their French Resistance range and SCW (there were Spanish Republicans in the Vercors fleeing from Franco´s terror), Caesar and Esci. The Esci figures here still didn´t get their bonnets and are still wearing their Adrian helmets which will only stay for a few Gendarmes. 

Ladies first. They are all Irregular Miniatures with a sole Caesar figure with added bonnet. 

There were also in the middle of the Maquisards a number of Ex-Vichy Gendarmes and Groupes Mobiles de Reserve (GMR). 

Led by Lt. Vernom Hoppers there were 15 SOF US soldiers within the Vercors Maquis sent there to train the Maquisards and teach them how to operate US weapons like the M2 Browning and the Bazooka. The figures are Revell with GreenStuff soft caps. 

All figures got a French arm band and many got a GreenStuff bonnet. 

The Esci Bazooka stand got new heads with bonnets and the MMG stand is a mix of 3d printed gun, a Caesar, a Irregular Miniatures and a Revell figure. 

The command group came from Irregular Miniatures ranges including a  African/Cuban  officer with crossed arms and added bonnet. 

Finally two FFI cars, one Hotwheels 1932 Ford with new wheels and a Matchbox  1947 (ups!) Morris Minor. 

Next: More Vercors or one more Iraqi video.