jp wargaming place

This a wargaming place were you can see a growing collection of miniatures and terrain of many historical periods in 20mm (but also a few 10mm,15mm and 28mm) started when I was 10 yo. At the moment it has several tens of thousands of miniatures from foot figures to Destroyers. Occasionally there are some war movie critics and some travel to military sites. My family considers it the best wargaming site in the World even if it is the only one they know. More on @joaopeixoto5249 YouTube Channel.

Showing posts with label BEF. Show all posts

Wednesday, 12 August 2020

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - New wheels for the BEF

A group of wheeled vehicles from the BEF crosses the Bois de Matuidi in support of the next allied move against le Boche.

Recently I found this nice brand, Anyscale Models, in the web. They provide a wide range of resin pieces for wargaming from boats to vehicles. The models are simple but sturdy with just a few pieces and with some clever building solutions.

The two RASC companies for the 1st AD are now finished with these Bedford OY-3.

Two different canvas tilts are provided for extra variety.

Another vehicle for high command in the form of this Humber Heavy Utility Staff Car.

Finally these Bedford MWD 15-cwt. Three are necessary for a RF! regular British infantry battalion.

Next: Part four of Arnhem oddities.

Monday, 27 July 2020

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - Scammell SV1 for the British

Two Scammel SV1 are called to the disastrous battlefield of Huppy not far from the Village of Cantona, a funny little place in Northern France were a small community of English people from Leeds and Manchester still lives.

The Scammel SV1 was one of the main recovery vehicles used by the British in France 1940, together with the FWD R6T (AEC 860). A little bit more than 40 SV1 were built and many were lost in France. There are a few pictures of the SV1 in Europe in German hands but no Scammel SV2 which indicates that this last one was not sent to France (several were captured by the DAK in North Afrika though). That caused me a problem as I have the 1st Armoured Division close to an end and the 1st Army Tank Brigade finished and still no recovery vehicles for the RAOC. I dont know any model of the R6T and the 20mm size models of the Recovery Scammel that I know of are SV2s (Milicast and IBG). As I had two spare Airfix Scammel tank transporters I decided to make my usual conversions to get the BEF/1st Armoured Division Scammel SV1.

After looking for the scarce information on the web about this vehicle I was pleased to have a number of nice photos of the Scammel SV1 sent by other modellers and wargamers.

The crane is different from the one in the later SV2 and everything above the 2nd and 3rd set of wheels had to be made from scratch as well as some new details at the front.

When I arrived at this point I was quite happy with the result: The Airfix model is not the easiest build but in a few hours I managed to put together the two vehicles leaving behind the ramps of the original models. This is the problem of "a few hours" because disaster unfolded at this stage: My Elves (as Thompson ArmyBiscuits calls them) warned me that the rear part of the cabin of the Scammel Tank Transporter doesn't exist in the SV versions. F***** I thought (its not "Fuck", its "Foda-se", which is the same in Portuguese)! I needed a recovery vehicle to recover these two!

So no images of the process of converting a conversion (as they would be easily censored) but just the final product. The way to detach the third part of the cabin involved a soldering iron and lots of X-Acto cuts, broken parts and re-gluing. In the end the ugly scars were covered with stowage and they became reasonably accurate models .

The painting was my usual two tones of green and lots of doubts as the number 2 in the arm of service is just a supposition as well as the 10 for the bridge classification.

So now each one of them will go to the RAOC detachment of both 2nd and 3rd armoured brigades of the 1st Armoured Division. If I follow History they will have plenty of work to do!

A few parts of the interior are probably not correct. This is a tall vehicle and not easy to photograph in its cargo part. Besides most of the existing photos are the ones in German hands already with some parts changed.

A big Thank You to Sally Gardner, Ken Hanning and Richard Baber for all the precious information.

Next: still WW2 for sure.

Wednesday, 8 July 2020

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - Motorcycle sidecars for the BEF

The British GHQ ordered a strong reconnaissance patrol, consisting of a full Motorcycle Battalion and two squadrons of Mark VI light tanks, to check the German occupied twin villages of Marine-Le-Pen and Jean-Marie-Le-Pen which stargely fell into Nazi hands quiet easily. But please don´t get mistaken, the place that the British are passing by is the village of Fabien Barthez, still in British "hands"... if you enjoy football you will know what I mean.

I really tried to find information to make the 1QVR for the 1st Armoured Division. In the end, and mostly thanks to the Rapid Fire! FB groups, I arrived to the conclusion that the 1QVR didn't even carried ist Nortons to France and after arriving at Calais used, most probably, French trucks to move around. So these guys became - obviously- the 4th Northumberland Fusilier Motorcycle Battalion with Arras in the horizon.

The Motorcycles with sidecar are SHQ and the solo are Fujimi conversions. The Mark VI are MiniGeral 3d prints.

The SHQ Norton combos together with three solo motorcycles makes the three companies necessary for a full Motorcycle battalion. The SHQ models are pretty good and far better than their own French combos.

One of the combos got a Boys AT rifle. Not sure if the Norton combos carried one but these guys need some anti armour protection.

Half of them got a Bren LMG...

...and the leftovers had no Bren or Boys as issued to the motorcycle combo units. In all rear seated soldier I glued a plastic rifle for them not to look like they are on an excursion.

The solo motorcycles are originally Harley Davidsons from Fujimi. The original motorcycle was deprived of a number of details and received a new headlamp. The figure had its head cut off, replaced by an Airfix one and got a new backpack and rifle. The motorcyclists also got their British ammunition pouches and gas mask bag made of GreenStuff.

Finally the four Mark VI LT from MiniGeneral. The prints of MiniGeneral are getting better and better and Pedro Pato managed to clean much of the excess plastic mainly in the tracks of his models. Some annoying lines are still visible but you can erase them with 50% PVA glue +50% of your oldest and almost dried out acrylic paint aplied directly on those lines.

Next: 12th SS Panzer Italian transport; a Ferdinand Battalion fort Kursk or a visit to my very old Home-Made card soldiers.

Saturday, 29 February 2020

Rapid Fire! France in 20mm - 1st British Armoured Division headquarters

At Forêt-des-Jolies-Arbres stands a Guy Lizard ACV of the HQ of the 1st Armoured Division under the watchfull eye of a Cruiser MkIV of the 9th Lancers.

The ACV is a 3d print from MiniGeneral and all figures are conversions.

To the left you can see a glowing General Roger Evans discussing with one of his brigadiers about the recent failures.

The torsos of the figures are the venerable Matchbox British officers. They needed riding boots to look like BEF officers so Evans got new legs from an Airfix German and the other one got them from a metal Irregular Miniatures French figure.

The radioman was more complicated with lots of different pieces coming from many directions.

The torso is the Matchbox Monty with Esci Russian legs from the figure that rides their T-34 range. Arms and gas mask bag are made of GreenStuff. Here I made a mistake by placing a bereted figure. I found out that the beret was only generalised around 1941 (only tanks and recce troops used them by then) when the figure was already painted.

A quick plastic card table and a map and its done.

This was the original picture that provided inspiration for this stand.

The MiniGeneral Guy Lizard ACV got a pair of antennae and one of the external canvas roofs was open. I made the open canvas roof a bit simpler than it was really.

The Mark IV is one more MiniGeneral miniature. The RF 1st AD needs some 75 model tanks between light and cruiser tanks and still 18 are now missing.

Next: Janissaries for Mohacs, or a few Morris Quod for France 1940 or Punic Wars.

Tuesday, 6 March 2018

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - A few more French and British motors, with some nudity.

Well, I hope to have caught your attention with the title. More on that a bit more ahead.

Not far from Bleuville, in fact in the same basement, a group of allied vehicles gathers in support of the next counter offensive...

The group is a mix bunch of Altaya and some die-cast trucks I found in a toy shop.

The trucks are generic but look a bit close to the vast panoply of different Renault, Citroën, Ford and Latil trucks (close to half a million) that equipped the French army in 1940.

Wait... on the left truck... is there a naked women...!?!?

Exactly! The French had such a different array of camouflages that even some nudes were cleverly conceiled on them. Of course the markings belong to the artillery! Maybe this vehicle will become a good objective marker...

What? Me? A pervert? What about this picture of the real thing?

As you can see I`m just historically accurate.

This picture is taken from the French book 'L'automobile sous l' uniforme' probably the best reference for soft skin vehicles of the French army in 1940 and with a reasonable quantity of information and pictures also about tanks.

I felt more comfortable about these models after reading this book as they are fair approaches to the many models available for the French many even requisitioned from the civilians. But not only the French got this treat. The variety of BEF trucks was also so big (many Bedford models O, OY, MC and Morris) that these are surely close to some of them. I'll use them for the artillery, train or even for some infantry if I can't find enough Bedfords 15 cwt trucks.

This was the original form of the trucks.

The main change was the replacement of the small wheels by some bigger and more 'military' chinese leftovers. Two of these were glued together to make one wheel. Then I glued some plastic canvas covers I had around and luckly they fit nicely.

Lastly the Altaya models. Only the left Char B1 bis is a repaint from the German version. The other Char B1bis was a 4 Euro buying from last weekend local 2nd hand market. It had no mantlet, antennae and central rail and all these parts had to be scratch built. It received a light coat of black ink and some sand drybrushing as well as the Panhard on the right and they are ready to defend France.

Next: More French 1940 stuff.

Saturday, 22 April 2017

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - Vickers MKVIb Light Tanks for the BEF.

Please don't think I'm a complete lunatic. I'm just partially lunatic. The previous series on the US Armoured Division was no recent work. I had the models built for a long time, some probably decades. This time I just based them and took some pictures, that's all. So in the meantime I started to build and paint my 1st British Armoured Division for the 1940 French campaign, with the first post being showned some two days ago. And now here it comes the second.

Close to the French place of Route Tortueuse a group of Vickers MKVIb leaves the road in order to join the British 1st Armoured Division who is gathering close to the village of Merde Pour Le Pen.

Four of them (red fanions) will go to the 10th Hussars, the only regiment to have the MKVIb in the 2nd Armoured Brigade (all other Regiments being equipped with MKVIc) while the other six will be spread throughout the regiments of the 3rd Armoured Brigade.

The models are the excellent S-Models, two in a box, easy to put together if you exceptuate the PE parts which are really a PITA if beautifully designed.

I only added a crew figure from PSC, some limited stowage, as the campaign is recent, and an antennae with fanion (two for Regimental companies).

The only PE part I used was the elevator for the Mg's. I replaced both the door holder and the driver's mirror with thicker plastic parts.

Here you can see those changes to advantage. Those PE parts were really fiddly and would get destroyed I presume quite quickly without the need of the 37mm PAK intervention, so some Evergreen tube and plate made more secure parts. They may be uglier but they are strurdier.

Next: the A13's MKII.

Friday, 21 April 2017

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - First units for the BEF: HQ tanks and Anti-tank company for the 1st AD and a few Bren Carriers

I'll present you now the beggining of my 1st British Armoured Division that has been making me busy in the past few weeks.

The BEF for the short campaign in France in 1940 is a place were all WWII wargamers want to go. You can play with the tanks of the 'Tank Scandal', have tanks with multiple turrets and have plenty of markings on them: division markings, bridge weight markings, company markings, individual markings, markings, markings everywhere... for sure its different than Normandy! But for a Rapid firer! the imminent release of the new Blitzkrieg supplement also increases its interest.

All this talk wouldn't be possible without the favours of PSC, Zvezda, S-Models and even Airfix specially PSC with the realease of its fantastic A9 which opened the possibility for us of finally having British tank regiments for early war.

Until now I completed the guns of Anti-Tank company only missing two of the towing vehicles; several HQ companies of both Brigade and Regiment are also made as well as a few Carriers for the loaned infantry of the division.

A A10 of the 9th lancers, based on the A9 of PSC, drives down the road with the company of the Vickers Mk.VIc of the 2nd Armoured Brigade HQ. This one is Airfix with a PSC figüre.

I scratchbuilt the front part of the A10 on three A9 models. I used two-component paste, the one you buy at super-markets, to make the general shape of the new front part. You can start to use the X-Acto a few minutes later as this material dries very quickly. Then all details were made in Evergreen Plastics. I left the gun mantlet as for the A9 as Chamberlain and Ellis in their book on Allied armour states that there were 13 A10 ( the MkI model) with A9 turrets.

To the right you have the full Regimental HQ of the 10th Hussars with a A9 and a A10. On the road you have the A9's of the Regimental HQ of both 2nd RTR and 3rd RTR, the last one probably looking for the Calais road.

The 2 pounder A/T are Zvezda with the addition of a third crew member taken from the crew of the 6 pounder by PSC. Be careful about the helmets as the British seemed to have used them mostly without foliage.

The Morris tow was taken from an old and half broken Matchbox model. I just built a new Evergreen structure for the canvas cover which I made of toilet paper hardened wıth wood glue.

The final result for the Morris C8. Also for early brits you need a gas mask bag hanging in the chest easily made of GreenStuff, Milliput or similar.

The PSC Bren Carriers also had some changes. Two of them had Boys A/T rifles instead of Bren MG's, a new position for the Bren and the figures received new heads from ESCI because of the 'foliage problem' I mentioned before and the gas mask bags.

For the colours of the BEF vehicles, and after many trials, I settled on GW Loren Forest as the lighter green and Art Deco Black Green for the camouflage colour.

The view of the Stuka...

As main references I'm using H/C Tank Zone magazine no 11(the article 'La Charge du Rhinocéros'); Batailles No 72 ( article Abbeville 1940) and a very good help from Simon Ford on the organization of the 1st AD.

Next: plenty of incredible menacing...Vickers Light tanks!