Rubicon 2cm Flak Vierling 38
To create the Sd.Kfz. 7/1 variant, the Selbstfahrlafette 2-cm-Flakvierling 38 auf Fahrgestell Zugkraftwagen 8 t (self-propelled anti-aircraft half-track), I'd need flakvierling kit by Rubicon.
These kits are already planned in a way to be combined, so it can be build either as a weapon team of itself or optional mounted on the flatbed of the Sd.Kfz. 7.
The kit comes with a crew, of which I am not really fond, so these will be replaced with the proper crew from the Perry Miniatures as range, as this vehicle and AA-gun will be deployed with my Afrikakorps.
Urban planning, Afrikakorps motor pool and the weekend
The Rohan articles got a lot of feedback, and I am pretty amazed by the kits (the houses are great and I just ordered a second palisade kit), so that topic will be further continued / developed.
I have some generic terrain items in my collection, that can be used for almost everything, like boxes and crates. Along with the Renedra kits that I bought, I did a bit of scenes to see how they scale and work with eachother. I guess I have to paint those up fast and take some scenic pictures with Dino's Sword & Sorcery Frostgrave warband. But I'll go into detail on the kits that were used and how they fit in the separate posts.
SdKfz 7 for the Afrikakorps – but which variant?
Didn't we need a tow for the 8,8 cm FlaK? Here it is! The mighty Sd.Kfz. 7, or Sonder-Kraftfahrzeug 7 − Mittlerer Zugkraftwagen 8t (German for medium towing motor vehicle 8t) as the full name of this interesting vehicle was. So far, there are a couple of resin kits on the market, and then Rubicon came along with a plastic kit.
The Rubicon kit comes with a few variants incl., it can be build open or closed, so covers a tarpaulin for the back seats, or can be build with a flat bed to cover the Sd.Kfz. 7/1 and 7/2 variants, sporting different FlaK guns on the back.
8,8 cm FlaK 37 for the Afrikakorps
I already have an 8,8 FlaK, the kit by Warlord Games / Italeri, and the Blitzkrieg one, but as I wanted a mounted one, that could be towed, I looked into the Rubicon kit as well (and because my Afrikakorps almost exclusively uses Rubicon kits for vehicles).
Krupp Protze in the Spanish Civil War
Around early summer last year, I added another light vehicle (a T-26) to my Spanish Civil War (SCW) army. And I am always looking for further, small and/or light (armoured) vehicles to add to this project.
I knew about the heavy field car Krupp Protze being used by the Wehrmacht, mostly as Sd.Kfz. 70 or 69. As it was service since 1934 until the end of world war 2, it would fit into the time frame of the SCW. But when I found this picture in the spanish Bolt Action group on facebook, in service of the nationalist army during the spanish civil war (as Sd.Kfz. 69 towing a PaK 36), I thought it might be a good addition to that project.
And indeed, it would be a good fit for the Bolt Action project. I play the Nationalist as an early war army and the Krupp Protze is simply a heavy field car with a transport capacity of up to 6 and / or a tow for smaller guns. As it would be either a nice transport for a small veteran unit, or to tow a PaK 36 as it is shown in the picture. The civil war was even the first theatre of war, where the gun saw action. So "fluff-wise" we're absolutely safe here.
4th Advent Weekender
I hope you had a solid december so far and can enjoy the upcoming holidays! It's the 4th advent and we're pretty close to Christmas. So let's take a look on what's cooking this weekend.
The new Rohan Buildings seem to be very popular, thus the Stronghold bundle was sold out in no time. I managed to acquire a kit of the town house and the tower / wall segment, that I'll cover in the new year. I am really looking forward to this, as the multipart kit provides a lot of freedom towards your creative needs.
Tanks for the Spanish Civil War
I am currently consolidating my projects, among them Bolt Action. The problem in that case aren't the vehicles, but the amount of miniatures you quickly end up with. Especially with the plastic kits (and then adding sprues from the sales), 30 something paratroopers, and 30 something grenadiers, and 30 something ... you get the picture.
For that reason I decided to go with Winter Germans for late war, Afrikakorps for mid / special theme and have the Spanish Civil War as a early war German list. The Spanish Civil War is often described as a prelude to World War 2. Communist fought against Nationalists, supported by larger powers like the Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and the Soviet Union, who were testing their gear for an (possible) upcoming greater war.
The russian armory supplied the republican faction with tanks, among them the T-26 in several variants. Rubicon offers the kit with 10 variants, for those built between 1931 until 1939. But why is that interesting for me, with my Nationalist forces? Equipment, vehicles and tanks were captured by both sides, and T-26s were not a rare sight within Nationalist armies. And I got a soft spot for captured vehicles.
Some Perry Sprues and Bits
On the Sweetwater board (a German speaking online community with focus on historical wargaming), on irregular intervals a centralized order at the Perrys is organized.
Usually I'd suggest supporting your local dealer, but as the Perry blisters and individual sprues are more or less direct only (you can buy them at events like Crisis or Salute via Dave Thomas) this is a good way to save on shipping and even get a bit of a discount. Thanks to emigholz/Thorsten for organizing the whole bit. The last one was held before christmas, but as the Brexit (maybe) is right in front of us, we did a quick "last" one.
More vehicles for the Chindits and DAK
Added a few new vehicles to the motor pool of the world war 2 projects. The LVT is somewhat of an odd kit, that I really didn't know what to do with it at first, but when I read the Wikipedia article I got an idea. The British used the Landing Vehicle Tracked as well, but if you think about the Buffalo, most think about the use of it during the late war in the Netherlands or in the Pacific, but they were used quite broadly even in North Africa by the US Americans.
So, with this vehicle being used by the British, and being used in the South East Pacific, I thought that could be something for my Chindits. The LVT-1 were used by the British 14th Army in Burma, but the original to use them in an operation against the Japanese on the Burmese coast at the end of 1943 was cancelled and the LVT-1s weren't used in combat.
The derivative of the LVT-4 and LVT(A)-4 were used by the Royal Marines Amphibious in landings in Burma and Malaya. Therefore I went with the LVT-4 Water Buffalo kit.
Rubicon Models SdKfz 301a Opel Maultier with Box Body
Based upon the already available Opel Blitz Kit (RM280026), Rubicon published the Maultier variant that replaces the rear wheels with tracks. As with some of their other kits, like the SdKfz 25x, they cover further accessories. For the Blitz and Maultier there is the option to upgrade the cargo bed with the box body "Einheitskoffer".
After the first winter in 1941 on the Eastern Front, the German army high command realised that the trucks weren't capable of handling the weather and terrain conditions. The vehicles often got stuck in the mud and snow. A unit of the Waffen-SS build the tracks of a Bren Carrier under a truck to confront those conditions. After realising the benefits of this modification in 1942, Opel, Ford and Daimler added these variants to their truck production. Depending on by whom the LKW Gleiskette 2t was build, it was called SdKfz 3a (in case it was built by Opel), 3b (Ford V3000 S) or 3c (Daimler L4500). The variant was called Maultier (mule) and further variants were build upon the halftrack vehicles, like the Panzerwerfer or with a 2-cm Flak 38.
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