Eins, Zwei, Polizei!

A bit of progress tonight on the Police armour.

 L3/33 got iron pin MG's with a bit of plasticcard to complete the look. The original barrels are very flimsy and will not stand up to wargaming use. Also drilled out the left headlight and busted it.  The same goes with both fender that have been bent out of shape.

 I'm copying a picture of one in the Balkans, that has stowage on the back as well as a bucket....I have those in my stash somewhere, I need to find it so I can finish this one for paint. Also my bag with commanders...though to be honest, any guy with a helmet will do for this.

The 7Tp and the 35S739(f) both got iron barrels as well, and when I was wrecking the fender on the Somua the PE horn cover popped off and I heard it falling "somewhere".....so I just wrecked the fender some more. both are now ready for grey primer. After this just one Panzer 35 R to build and then this part of the force is done

30 day kit challenge! Day #2 - #5 progress

Right-O, this building business is keeping me off the computer a lot, so that is a good thing for starters. So here is my progress sofar.

The Day #1 Build - 52-K 85mm AA gun (22nd of May)

Now fully based up, I just need to make 4 simple wheel mounts and then she is ready (and can be added to the count)

The Day #2 Build - S-Models BMP-1 (23rd of May)

This is a salvage job from some second hand tanks that I bought. The turret had been raised by almost 10mm, the commanders hatch has been cut away, the lights are missing and the commanders head was actually a home sculpted bears head......jeah, odd, innit? Also the trackwork was broken. Most of this is fixed now, need to add some small details and redo the hatch. I have magnetised the BMP turret.

Paint scheme will be for the Taliban/Northern Alliance/Rebels/Raiders, so mostly weathered green and that is it. Turret will be useful when I make the Technical conversion with it or for use on other vehicles or fortified positions.

Day #3 Build - 2x FtF Polski Fiats (24th of May)

 Super useful and good looking medium truck. Not that hard to build, but you have to keep an eye on 2 things. The front axle mount, including the bumper, is really, really thin. I added extra blocks of plasticcard to strengthen it. Secondly, because it is so thin, if you use too much glue like I accidentally did, it practically melts the wheel nubs and the wheels just sag a lot. Use it sparingly (like I did on the 2nd model, much better)

 Number 2 in progress.

By itself, the cover doesn't sit well. Added 4 pieces of thin plasticcard to improve that so you can get more dual use out of it. One of these will be a civillian for Pulp and WW2 uses (and a bit after), the other is for the desert war. Really good kits, I can reccomend them a lot :) #1 is finished.

Day #4 Build - Airfix salvage job (25th of May)

I picked up a cheap Airfix Rescue Vehicle set at Militracks this week, and it was missing a few parts. And do I really need a fire extinguisgher vehicle? Nah...... In comes some trimming, a full front repair and using PSC donor parts, we now have a civillian beauty for Partisan Warfare of for Operation Sealion.

 Quite a bit of chopping and fitting of donor parts, but that should do it, FINISHED!

Rear end. Good as is.

Day #5 Build - Dapol Water Tower (26th of May)

Dropped in the mail this morning, brandnew. Made it a bit different and kept the space between the legs open so I can park stuff under it or whatever I can think of. It's quite big so will work quite well for 28mm too.

A little detailing is needed but essentially done.

Day #6 Build (27th of May). I've grabbed this one: 

....but other then cleaning parts, nothing yet sofar.

So, sofar 2 done, and the rest is waiting on finishing but I keep going at it. It's nice to be very motivated to get them built and ready for paint.

Militracks survived!

Very tired, plenty of pain in my legs and back, but I would not have missed it for the world.

I have a load of pictures and videos up on my FB page (That particular folder is open to everyone) >> Militracks 2017 and if you are ever in the country when this event happens, I can reccomend it. I've been trying to go there for years and everytime something got in the way.

Pro's:

• Running WW2 German vehicles, lot's
• You can actually get a ride on one (if you pay)
•  Free acces to the museum
• Large military equipment market
• Amazing amount of spare parts (albeit not always in great condition)

Con's

• A couple of extra seats would be nice, especially for people like me.
• Shows like this also attract some......hmm, sympathisers of the wrong kind. One chap passed me wearing an SS shirt underneath his camouflage jacket, and a White Power cap on his head. Another in line in front of me had a swastika tattooed on the back of his neck. A diverse crowd indeed.
• The stall advertising his wares as "dug up from around Stalingrad" with a lot of rusty stuff and quite a few helmets with damage from explosions. I've seen videos of how they excavate and what they do with the soldiers bones and anything they can't sell.
• The amazing amunt of tat for sale. Toy guns, normal standard ammo tins that cost maybe 5 euros at the local army dump are sold here (and bought!) for a tenner, and lot's of cheap ass repro's

Oh well. I got to see my favourite Stug in the world (and yes, I toutched it) and made a few pics of how she looked after being driven for a bit. I also donated some money for her upkeep and a got a nice mug for it.

 Booty shot!

 On the way out, we passed alongside the track and Stuggie was out for its last run of the day, and even I, with my crutch, could keep up with her. He sure is treating her gently.

There were a couple of kit sellers at the market area as well. A couple with new stuff, one that I wasn't sure if they were selling second hand stuff for new prices, and a seller who turned out to charge a fiver for each kit that I grabbed. So after a small chat we had an understanding (when we finally stopped talking German to each other when we both realised the other was Dutch as well), and I picked up this pile of kits for a bit les then a fiver per kit.

Yeah, I'm a bad boy, I should not have, but the M6 is going straight into my USA box, the BTR-152 in my TW:2K or Taliban box, the T-55 also in the TW:2K box, the M60A3....maybe also the TW:2K box, or the Israeli or Iranian box. Humber Mark II for my British 8th Army, 2 5.5 inch guns for my Normandy British, another Bofors gun that might become German, and the Emergency set I've been wanting for ages, for a desert Ambulance and the other truck to be converted into a (civvy) medium truck.Also some electricl towers and a bag of spare bits for them.

Next week I'm starting the 1 kit build or 10 figures cleaning per evening, and to get a headstart I grabbed 2 FtF Fiats 621 from the stash (a review on those later), closed up both cabins, and almost completely built 1.

The Fiat, being basiclally a Ford, is suitable for a lot of things and quite a few historical periods. It comes with a tarp, which sits a bit too loose for my liking, so I added some thing plasticcard slivers to keep it easier in place. Suspension is also a bit weak, but more about that in my review.

Need to sleep now, tired.

First to Fight - first stop for 20mm wargames interested in the German invasion of Poland 1939 (and some housecleaning)

First up, I'm having a good day, so I cleared the jumbled mess that was the front attic, broke down all of the larger boxes, tossed the broken ones in the recylcing bin and made sure what was left (and will be needed to ship stuff) was put away neatly(ish).

This morning you could not see the floor and it was stacked with boxes and filler material up to the roof. So yeah. I then labelled the first row of boxes with a numbered sticker so Kim can follow the progress more easily when she is up in the attic. That is the first part of my hobby chores down, so now I can grab crate 1, sort in sell/keep and trash, and continue. The plan is to do 1 crate a week minimum so it would be roughly half a year till I have checked and cleaned every single one, with a few to spare, but quite a few crates have very little or non hobby related content so I think I can progress faster then that. Well, best laid plans and all that, so caveat empor......

The now cleaned area will be used to put the stuff I want to take down to sell. (not all at once mind you, just grab this and that and keep listing stuff every night for a while. If I would try to drag a full crate down the stairs with my knee as it is, the next Blogpost you would read would be my obituary, and that would seriously piss me off :P

But this Blogpost is not about that. It's about First to Fight. A general overview and a order review sofar, plus some more samples..

Who are First to Fight? Well, they are a Polish company and they have a nice if wat unreadable website as the translator icon only seems to work for the shop part >> http://wrzesien1939.pl/

 They produce kits for the German invasion period, with period vehicles for the Polish and German forces (and maybe Soviet ones too eventually?) and recently they have released a card based wargame as well that you can use their models for. They have a steady release of roughly 1 new kit a month. Each kit is a well detailed fast build kit in the geste of S-Models (if you have ever bought those).

My most recent order was made on the 9th of January this year as I got a reminder on their FB page that the 3 box discount was about to end. I received a email from them that the order was being processed later that day. Making an order is rather simple, you can just click on the items you want and they put them in a cart (pretty standard stuff) and then fill in your details and pay with Paypal (again, pretty standard). For this particular discount you have to select the discount option in their shop, select how many times you want to use their 3 for 13.99 euro offer and then process the order. You can use the note-boxes to fill in the code and name of the articles that you want. Easy- peasy.

The email you receive will look like this.

I've ordered from them 2 times now. Both times you get this email, and within 2 weeks you receive your items in a sturdy box. You can checkup your order online if you make an account, but the last time I checked was 2 days ago and it was still listed as processing. It arrived yesterday :D

First to Fight doesn't just send you the kit. No, it sends a box with the model and a booklet detailing the vehicle in question and its use during the campaign.....sadly all in Polish. Very neat though.

In this case we are looking at the 4th kit in the series, so a early release.

Basic Panzer 1B sprue, SdKfz 256 parts sprue, a vial of glue (long evaporated as mine was empty other then  a strong plastic glue smell), a toothpick and a decalsheet with 6 white German crosses. Highly detailled yet fast build. Only 1 nit picking point (well, 2), side hatch is closed version only (but can be cut in 2 and opened if needed), and no functioning top hatch so you are going to have to do some cutting as well if you want a commander in the hatch. Which adds some time to the build but is nothing earth shattering now, is it? Also, making the uparmoured variant for the French campaign is just adding a thin sheet of plasticcard to the front (or don't bother).

Sofar, they make 2 Polish trucks, one being the Fiat 621, and they make 2 variants....or do they? Kit 011 has a painting on the front of a truck with a tarp cover, and kit 017 has a open back with a MG mount. But be assured, if you are ever in the shop and want this truck, both boxes have exact the same content.

No more glue and toothpick though :) No decals either, but this problem has been solved according to Braille Scale >> Link so at least you have options. I picked these up for parts, wrecks and captured vehicles so no real problem for me. But FYI :)

Next reason for the purchase is the FtF PaK 36. I have a chronic shortage of these as the Matchbox/Revell Protze with PaK 36 hardly ever props up on our sales groups and for some odd reason people keep insisting on collectors prices for that kit so I own a whopping 1 (one). FtF has solved that problem by releasing this one, two in a box, with crew.

Even with 4 sprues in a bag, it must feel lonely in that large box. You get 2 crew sprues and 2 gun sprues.

 Minor sinkmarks on the underside of the carriage....which you will never ever see, so no worries. Nicely detailed and thin shield, everything looks the part. To make a towed version cut off the legs and pin them in place or use another brand for it, whatever works for you.

Here's a comparison of the gunshield to other brands just in case you are interested

 The Matchbox is much smaller (as it should be, being 1/76 instead of 1/72, but I wasn't expecting such a big difference)  and has almost no detail.

PSC makes the 37mm for the 251, which was unavailable atm, so I grabbed the 47mm Russian which is basically the same thing (is it?) and it looks gooed enough for government work :) (Edit: of course, when I'm just about finished I spot the 37mm gunshield on the 251C. It is only a teensy bit smaller (yes, that's a measurement) then the Russian 47mm shield so no problem.)

The crew.......yeah, about that. I don't buy plastic kits for the figures. Never have, never will. Me and plstic figures never seem to get along, and this one is no exception. This is much softer and bendy plastic (not as bad as Revells Gay Gunners (their 105mm gun kit with horses) or HaT stuff though)
Well, they will go in the spares bin or I'll sell in a lot with my surplus PSC guncrews.

Next up is the 7TP tank. I picked this tank up, not for the Poles, but for police actions against Partisans in Eastern Europe.

 Finally a tank kit that fits comfortably in the box it is shipped in :D

Again, not too many parts. Again, no opening turet hatch but nothing that can't be sorted with some minor cutting work. Since I don't own any S-Models or Minairions T-26, I cannot compare the trackwork to those (everytime its Crisis they are either already sold out or sell out during the show), but I can compare them to parts of the UM kits.

UM in grey, First to Fight in green. The differences appear to be miniscule (good!). This means (to me anyway) that in theory I could use the basic chassis to build the UM AT-1's and not have to spend a lot of time putting together a very fiddly undercarriage, but I will do some more measuring before I'll get to that. Then again if I could have easier acces to S-Models T-26's that might be a better option.

Last but not least., the SdKfz 251A. I picked up 2 of these for use as Forward Headquarters vehicle for France and Afrika, maptable and all, maybe eventually a third for the same goal in 1945 as a batterd survivor. Not sure if I want to pick up a frame antenna for any of these, but we will see

A nicely filled box, and as a added bonus decals for the Poland campaign and several WH licenceplates. As was expected the frame and tracks are seperate as they also do a SdKfz 11 now who shares those basics.

Now, I want to use these with PSC offerings, so I grabbed a 251C kit and snipped off the most important pieces so you can compare them. It's not perfect though (in which I mean my comparison, not the kit, that is gorgeous)

Wheels are only slightly but visibly bigger, and the same goe for the trackunit.

The PSC kit overall is a bit beefier, the FtF one is only a tad smaller, but the difference is almost all in the hood as both fighting compartments are about the same size.

Does this matter? Well, how often will you mix a A with a C or D? The B started production in 1940 and is visually not that different from a A, mostly confined to the nose and removal of the vision slits on the sides of the fighting compartment, so with some minor cosmetic surgery they are just fine for wargames purposes. Unless you are a purist but I highly doubt you would be reading a wargamers Blog to begin with? The C starts mid 42 so you are fine mixing them from that period onwards, but if you stick to the A (or modded to the B) for a command or radio variant and use the C's for the grunts you won't bat an eye at them in the field. At the table I mean.

Right, that is it for today. I'm very pleased with First to Fight as a kit producing business, they make some very fine items that, albeit it focused on the Polish campaign, have plenty of use outside that campaign as some of these items lived long lives well into the war. Service is fast, quality is high, shipping is more then reasonable The magazines are a bit useless to non Polish speakers other then pretty photographs and the painted example, but hey :) Taking advantage of the sale meant I paid just under 6 euros per kit, or under 3 euro per gun plus crew. For a pennypincher like me that is great value.

The upcoming release is the 4CP  halftrack unit and should be out soon.

I'll go and enjoy the sunset now for a bit :) Till next time!

Orlick's Cockroach - Polish Forces - The kits

Right, let's carry on, shall we?

First to Fight TKS-MG and TKS-20mm cannon are meant for the scenario. While I was at it I also picked up a Heller Pzl Karas and a Mastercraft P-7a (yes, it says in Soviet hands, but I will show you why you can ignore that), these are not needed for the scenario but will come in handy if I ever decide to get a small Polish force and I'm more of a fun builder anyway.

First to Fight. New(ish) Polish brand, focusses purely on the Polish campaign and vehicles used by the Germans and the Polish (and maybe someday the Russians?). Clean little kits, well laid out on the sprue, slightly confusing webshop at times, in that changing it to English, it sometimes resets itself back to Polish mid browsing (and I don't read Polish) and when you do that, some things stay in Polish, but no biggie. Here is a top tip for you (you just need a little patience). I see these on Ebay being sold anywehere from 7 to 8 Pounds per box, somethimes cheaper, sometimes even more expensive. If you just want to build one to try it out, go right ahead. If you want to buy 6 or more boxes for your Polish or German army, be patient. On the website they cost 6 euros per box plus shipping (currently many vehicles are on sale at 5 euros per box) but on occasion, every couple of months or so, they have a sale in which you can select 3 kits for 14 euros. I picked up my first lot last year, and again last week. Processing the order can take some time but last time the order arrived in 2 weeks after the purchase was made. With shipping included, I ended up paying 5,60-5,75 euros per kit shipped from Poland to the Netherlands. I assume other countries will have different rates but you can see getting these straight from the source (if you are in Europe that is and you can avoid import taxes) is a much better deal then your online shop.

Anyway, why are they so nice? Let me show you.

It must feel lonely inside that huge box (it's a normal sized box, juts a tiny sprue).

It's a tiny sprue because a TKS is a bloody tiny tankette, of course. My Hyundai Atos is a tiny car, and that is bigger then this tankette.....

Anyway, it's a fastbuild kit. Left track, right track, hull, top, and a few little details like the exhaust and a shovel. A confusing bit is that my TKS-20mm kits both have a Polish sticker on it telling me it is the MG armed version. I'm guessing the only addition to a MG armed version if the even tinier sprue with a MG on it. Since I picked these 2 up at a bring and buy for 5 euros a piece I'm not totally sure so don't sue me, but I'm assuming a MG kit can also make a 20mm version, while the 20mm version of the kit does not come with a MG sprue? <confused> EDIT: TKS-20mm is only Sprue B, TKS-MG is Sprue A+B

It's just my box that has this issue....don't know why but hey, the contents check out so hey.

I will replace the plastic 20mm cannon with a brass barrel one from the 20mm quadflak set from RB models. It's not exactly the same and you need to trim it down a bit, but on the long run spending another 20-30 cents like this will make it live longer. maybe I'm just a brute, but long thin sticks of plasic never survive long here.

Building these will cost you about 1 euro per minute....so you are done in 5 minutes :) Sadly these don't come with opening hatches, but that is nothing a sharp scalpel and a few minutes of work can't fix. Other then that a great little kit and when sourced properly (for those not living in the wargaming Mekka called the UK) cheaper then resin offerings.

On to the air force.

The Blitzkrieg book lists 3 aircraft for the Polish. A Pzl P.11 Fighter, a Pzl 23 and a Pzl 23B.

The Pzl P.11 Fighter was augmented with older Pzl P.7's cause they didn't have much of a choice, they look quite a like and it was the only kit that popped up on the second hand group and it only cost me 3 euros. But Gunbird, I hear you say, that is the Soviet version?

Well spotted! Here, have a cookie :)

Mastercraft kits come in many, many versions of the same aircraft, and the same goes for this one.

9 out 0f 10 times it really doesn't matter what version of kit you buy, as they seem to all come with a full complement of decals for various versions (this is not always the case though!). In this case it comes with Polish, Russian, German (spare swastikas!) and Rumanian decals and they are nice within register. I've never had bad Mastercraft decals tbh, but I can't remember the last time I used them so I cannot give comments on that. So, if you find that the version you want isn't for sale but others are? Check the various websites for preview pics, and it too comes with a multiple of decals, go with the kit with the wrong box art. It doesn't have a pilot though, but I have plenty metal ones to use so I will insert one of them. It might never get on the table, but hey, it will be a fun build, plus I will have to be a bit ingenious with strengthening the landing gear just in case.

Next up is a oldie. I think this box is actually older then I am? Can't complain at 4 euros though.

The venerable Heller Karas. Nice solid box, not that flimsy stuff they have these days.

Some flash on the sprues, but it's very minor. Decals are faded, I can try and bleach them in the sun (just having a laugh here, I don't expect to see any proper sunlight till at least April-May) but I'm not having much hope they will actually will survice bathing and putting them on. Must have some in the spares box, just in case. I'll replace the plastic rear gunner with a metal one, and maybe the rear and bottom MG's with some wire just in case. It's a shame it does not come with any bombs. It would improve the kit immensly so I'm actively on the hunt for some WW1 German aircraft bombs to suit the bill (easy to find in 1/48, not at all easy to find in 1/72 or so it seems)

I did mention above that the book states a Pzl 23 and a Pzl 23B, but don't bother looking at that. The difference is purely in the engine and visually you won't see any difference, so it's good as it is.