Zvezda 1/72 20mm Flak38 AA Gun - Part 3

Gun Crew Conversion
It's part of my slightly OCD-like propensity that I could not simply put up with the slight variation in size between the heads of my various Finnish AA crewmen, even when they were part of a completely different gun crew!

The Zvezda 1/72 figures, while beautifully sculpted (in my opinion), are a little on the larger side of the scale figure spectrum. Certainly, they are a smidgen larger than the usual Airfix/Revell/Ceasar plastic 1/72 figures that I have been using. So, as with my Bofors crew, I ended up feeling that I had to do a bit of corrective surgery.

Flak 38 crew, front row, left and middle figures.

In fact, one of the figures - the standing loader - ended up with his legs chopped off so I could reduce his height a little bit as well. But, the upshot of all this anality is that all my various AA crewmen look like they are in the same scale now...So, I feel better. :)

It's onto the priming now, but I will leave off painting until I assemble the last crew figures for my AA units - the Landsverk (SP AA gun) crewmen.

A feeling of trepidation ceased me at this point, as I suddenly realised that I will have to go through all this converting of figures again when I come to assemble my field artillery units. Oh, dear!

Zvezda 1/72 20mm Flak38 AA Gun - Part 2

I feel a little mean just posting this meagre piece up, but it does emphasise just how quick it is to build this kit...

Ta-da! And it was done. The little Zvezda Flak 38 went together in minutes, and there weren't any issues. Well, unless you count my inability to handle tiny parts without breaking them that is!

If I have any criticism (and this is sort of similar to my niggle about their Bofors model) it is that you cannot elevate or depress the gun, it's in a fixed position. Other than that though, a nice little kit with a reasonable amount of detail.

One thing, though, in future I may start priming intricate little kits like this on the sprue before I put them together. Priming the model now it's together will be a little challenging, with all its nooks and crannies.

Flak 38 in Transportation Mode
As with my Bofors AA gun, under the Rapid Fire war game rules, I should really make a version of this model to represent the gun in its transportation mode (towed configuration). As mentioned in the first part of this project journal, the Zvezda kit does not come with the wheeled carriage to represent it 'mobile', so I had to source this. Luckily, I already had this model as part of a separate purchase I had made...

The above photo shows the Altaya Flak 38 that came with their Steyr 1500 light truck, a happy coincidence (I bought the Steyr for use as a command vehicle). The model is a wee bit rough round the edges but should clean up well enough for my use.

One noticeable difference between the Altaya and my Zvezda Flak 38 is the inclusion of a gunners shield just in front of the reflector sight. This may be a because the Altaya model is based on a later variant of the AA gun, in any case, it's easy enough to remove.

Next: Modelling the crew and priming the guns.

'Finnish' Bofors - Part 3

Crewing the gun
Under the Rapid Fire game rules that I'm using as a guide for my Finnish army collection, the Bofors AA unit needs a crew of three. The Zvezda kit does come with figures, but the WW2 pattern British Army uniform is just too difficult to modify to make passable Finns, so I'm having to look elsewhere.

Finnish Bofors crew in 1941, mostly wearing German M40 helmets. Though, it
seems they were still in short supply as the foremost crewman needs a bigger size!

In order to modify myBofors gun - to look like the Finnish variant - I purchased a couple of boxes of Zvezda's Soviet M1939 37mm AA gun (which itself is a variation of the Bofors 25mm AA gun). This set comes with a couple of Soviet crew, which will be easier to convert into Finnish soldiers (I'll probably use one of the Pegasus Soviet infantry figures I have to create a third member of the crew).

One of the Soviet AA gun crew fitted with the arms from the British Bofors crew.

The good thing about the Zvezda gun crew figures is that they are multipart, with separate limbs (which makes it easier to pose them correctly on the gun model). So, I can swap around arms to make the Soviets fit the British Bofors properly. All I need then is some suitable heads, but I have a plan...

I am going to try out some of Ceaser Model's mid-WW2 German infantry as noggin-doners. The Finns use the German M40 coal-scuttle ('Stahlhelme') helmet as standard during the Continuation War, so I will have to do some brutal transplant surgery.

Figures with the new heads. Just trial fitting positions for the fitting of arms.

There was a slight difference in scale between the Zvezda and the Ceasar figures, the Ceasar heads being a bit small for the bodies I grafted them onto. But I'm hoping this will not be so noticeable as they are in a sitting pose...

Dr, Frankenstein would be proud! :)

Well, they are a bit of a hack job, but they will have to do. Now, onto the painting, though, I may wait a while until I'm ready to paint a batch of Finnish figures (I have a few drivers in the works).

Zvezda 1/72 20mm Flak38 AA Gun

Moving along quickly (for me), I'm now beginning the next kit for my Finnish anti-aircraft contingent. The Finns had a number of German 2cm Flugabwehrkanone (Flak) 38 light anti-aircraft guns, which they designated the '20 ItK/38 BSW'. The Rapid Fire war game rules specify that my Finnish HQ Company should be equipped with one of these guns, so I looked around for a suitable model.

Finnish 20 ItK/38 in action. Photo taken in Karvala September of 1941.
(SA-kuva photo archive, photo number 53274). 

Luckily for me, Zvezda do a lovely little simplified Flak 38 model (with crew) specially designed to suit wargaming purposes. And a very nice bonus was that this little kit only cost me £2.50 plus postage!

Now, unlike my Bofors AA gun kit, the Zvezda Flak 38 comes with a crew I can use unmodified. The figures included - in German infantry uniform - would pass very well for Finns once an appropriate paint job was applied. Phew, less work.

What's in the (little) box?
There are only two small sprues to this kit, with just 19 parts to this kit (including the two multipart figures)!

Aside from the plastic parts, there is also the usual paper instructions (a small two sided A5 sheet) and Zvezda's 'Art of Tactic' wargame card (which looks a bit complicated compared to 'Bolt Action', but I've not played AoT).

Like the Bofors kit I'm already working on, this Zvezda kit is made from a slightly softer plastic than the usual plastic injection kits.

Mobile Configuration Version?
Because I am building this model using war game rules as a guide, I have to include a second version of this unit in its mobile mode. Part of the real Flak 38's strengths was its manoeuvrability, with a special two-wheeled carriage designed to carry the gun to its position at which point the gun could be removed from its trolly and deployed on the ground.

A German Flak 38 in its mobile configuration (from which it could still be used).
Seine-et-Oise, France, August 1944. Source: Wikipedia

Now, the Zvezda kit does not come with the wheeled carriage, but, purely by chance, I had already solved this problem as I have a mobile Flak 38 which I got as part of a die-cast vehicle set...

My Deagostini Steyr 1500A/01 truck & 20mm Flak 38 combo. An eBay cheapy!

So, I just have to repaint the Deagostini model to match my Zvezda kit and Bob's your Uncle, static and mobile versions of the Flak 38. Albeit a little chunkier than the finely moulded Zvezda version.

Painting the Finnish Flak 38
For once, there isn't my usual puzzling over what the exact paint scheme of a piece of Finnish equipment was. I had already been informed in a post on the Axis History Forum that the Finn's guns were repainted in their Moss Green, but I also found a very nice colour photo of the gun over on the Jaegar Platoon site confirming that this was the case.

Hooray!

This looks like it should be a very quick project with no hassle at all. :)

'Finnish' Bofors - Part 2

Construction of the Zvezda 'British Bofors 40mm AA Gun' and its conversion into a faux-Finnish version was relatively painless (aside from a surprise appearance of the dreaded carpet monster).

You can easily tell the parts that I converted - so that the Bofors looked more like the Finnish version - as these parts are the ones in green plastic. This isn't a truly authentic conversion, just my superficial take on the 'continental' Bofors. In truth, I should perhaps have waited and seen if I could have sourced the proper version as made by 'First to Fight', but hey-ho.

Aside from the absence of the gun shield, the 'continental' Bofors had different wheels and a different means of attaching them to the static support and the side support arms were square tubes rather than the round British tubes. This is just from my inexpert observations, you'll need to do some proper research to understand what the exact variations are between all the different makes and variants (practically every nation involved in WW2 had their own version of this hugely popular gun).

Finnish Bofors 40 mm. This gun mounts the original reflector sights, and
lacks the armor found on British examples. Source: Wikipedia

Thoughts on the Zvezda Kit
I was surprised at just how many parts there were in this kit, it wasn't the simplified 'easy build' war game model I have come to expect from Zvezda's 'Art of Tactics' range. Some of the little parts were quite fiddly (and, frustratingly, I lost two of the support 'feet' to the carpet monster).

The most noticeable feature of the kit - from a modeller's point of view - is the plastic from which it is made. It isn't exactly 'hard' plastic, it's sort of halfway in feel between the normal hard injection moulded plastic and the 'soft' plastic of Airfix soldiers. It tends to fray a little more than usual when you file or sand it, and I found that trimming or shaving with a scalpel was a neater way of getting rid of flash and mould seams, etc.

The gun itself felt a little bendy, although it wasn't actually bent. It just felt like it would easily bend and I did consider replacing it with a Millicast brass barrel, but I decided not to as the whole reason I went for this Zvezda kit was to save money.

Simplified 'wire' sights.

Rivet counters will take issue over the simplified sights on the gun, which are not only the wrong type for the Finnish version but also 'filled in' as the delicate wire construction of the real British sights would be impossible to replicate in scale plastic form. Again, Millicast do make a brass upgrade set for the 1/76 Bofors if you are a real stickler.

My final niggle is that the gun doesn't rotate, but is fixed by pins in one of four 90 degree positions. I would much rather that Zvezda had made the kit with a peg and plug arrangement so the Bofors could have been rotated, particularly as this model is intended for war gaming.

The four position gun mount which corresponds to two pins in the base of the
gun itself. You can mount the gun looking forward, left, right or back.

Overall, I think this is a rather nice looking model, it builds well if you are willing to spend the time cleaning off mould seams. There are no fit problems and everything just slots into place nicely.

Quite satisfied (aside from qualms over historical accuracy, but this is my fault and not Zvezda's).

Zvezda British Bofors

I  decided that January would be 'Anti-Aircraft Month', but I'm only just getting round to making my first AA gun (so expect this project to creep into February)!

The model I had chosen to represent the Finn's '40 ItK/35-39 B Bofors' (Finnish designation for the imported Swedish Bofors) is Zvezda's 'British Mk. I/II'. I'll be honest, I bought this because it's cheap(ish) and simple, but good. I've been very impressed with all the other Zvezda models I have bought, detail and moulding is always crisp.

(I could get exactly the right 'Swedish' (style) version - minus gun-shield - if I really wanted and was willing to search one out, but the Zvezda version is readily available. An option might have been to go for the 'First to Fight' Polish Army Bofors 40mm, but they weren't available when I looked.)

Superb original colour photo of a Finnish Bofors unit on the outskirts of Nokia
township in April 1944. Source: SA KUVA

Anyhoo, I reckon, to make the gun 'Finnish' I need only remove the gun-shield, source some different wheels (easy as I have plenty spare Gaz/Zis wheels which look about right) and change the figures. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy!

So, let's begin by having a look at the instructions...

First thing I noticed is that, this isn't the usual Zvezda simplified wargaming model, there are actually quite a few parts to this kit. And, as usual, I take their claim that this is a 'snap together' kit with a pinch of salt.

My impressions that this model is a little more than an 'easy build' was further reinforced when I started to examine the sprues. For starters, there are four sprues containing some quite small and detailed parts...

The crew sprue! Four figures, but for the Rapid Fire game rules I only need
to model three crew. We shall cross that bridge when we come to it.

The kit comes with this base for modelling the deployed gun. Also, here we
have the 'British wheels', I will have to replace these for the Finnish variant.

The Bofors, plus gun-shield (won't need that) and a wee flag! :)

As I said, plenty of parts, which should build into quite a nice little model. And, because I am building this under the Rapid Fire game rules, I have two of these kits - one to represent a deployed AA gun and another in the transportation mode (I was thinking of building this and adding some sort of canvas cover, maybe).

Finnish AA crew pose on a 1937 Ford truck, with a medium AA gun  (possibly
a 76 ItK/29 B, Bofors) in tow. Note the canvas gun cover. Source: SA KUVA

I'm hoping this will be a 'quick build' which will be completed about the same time as I finish my Hunor Ford M39 truck project (as this will be the towing vehicle for this gun). Luckily, the HUnor kit is turning out to be such a start and stop build - due to all the problems with the kit - that I should have plenty of time to get the Bofors built and painted...In theory...

The two versions I will be building; transportation mode and deployed.

Stash additions for January 2017

January is 'Anti-Aircraft Month'! All my 'Finnish' project builds are flak related (either AA guns, their crews or towing vehicles). Above Zvesda kits were delivered today, a lovely BEF Bofors set, Soviet 37mm gun set and little Flak 38 set.

The Finns seem to have been reasonably well equipped when it came to AA guns and there is a wonderful reference source over at JaegerPlatoon.Net, including everything from light anti-aircraft machine guns all the way up to the heavy flak guns: www.jaegerplatoon.net/AAMG.htm

As usual, SA KUVA - the Finnish WW2 photo archive - is an excellent source
of reference photographs. Anti-Aircraft guns seemed to be a very popular subject
for propaganda purposes, so there is an abundance of really good material. If you
do a search for 'ilmatorjunta' - which I believe is Finnish for 'anti-aircraft', you
should come up trumps.

Like many other nations at the time, the mainstay of their AA inventory was the good old Bofors 40mm. Perhaps not surprising as Sweden is a near neighbour. The Finn's used the M/35 & M/39 Bofors, while very similar to the British Mk. I gun, the Finnish gun did not come equipped with a shield (so I will omit that component when I build the kit).

The Zvezda British Bofors set is actually very detailed and not what you would
term an 'easy build' (which many of their 'Art of Tactic' range are).

Actually, the reason I have also bought the Russian 37mm AA gun is so I can pinch it's crew and wheels! The Finnish Bofors has different wheels to its British counterpart, and the British gun crew are too different in their uniforms for me to convert, so the Russian AA crew will be substituted (probably with the addition of German helmets).

I have bought two of the Zvezda Bofors sets so that I can model the gun in both static and mobile modes.

As the war progressed and Finland swapped sides (!), they started to get more and more German equipment. Among this were a number of Flakvierling 38 (or Flak 38 for short) 2cm guns which the Finns designated as theItK/38.

The Zvesda Flak38 is a sweet little kit, with minimal parts but it looks terrific and I can use the German crew as is as they will pass for Finns when painted.

For the towed version (which, because I am using war game rules as my guidelines for this project, I will also need), I was lucky enough to pick up an example of this gun in its mobile configuration with a Deagostini Steyr 1500A/01 car I bought.

I bought this Steyr 1500A/Flak 38 set as I wanted the car to convert into a
Finnish Army command car. Handy.

So I just need to source a suitable Finnish vehicle as the tow (a light truck, like the Russian Gaz AA or Zis 5, which the Finns had in fairly large numbers).

1/72 Egyptian 122mm SPG Project - Part 3

Having examined the T-34/85 tank kit that will be used in this conversion, it's time to look at the main event! Central to this project is Black Dog's Egyptian SPG 122mm conversion set [cat. no. T72027]...

It's a small collection of supplementary parts which are intended for the Revell or Dragon 1/72 T-34/85 kits, but I don't think it's vitally important that just these makes of kit are used for the conversion (they just happen to be very good models of the WW2 Soviet medium tank).

The polyurethane components come jammed in a small plastic bag, something I never like (with good reason as it turns out)...

So let's see what we have. First of all, we have a set of post-war style 'starfish' T-34/85 road wheels (there are hints that these *may* have appeared very late WW2, but I haven't seen any photographs to prove this).

Patience is the key here, as all these wheels will require a varying degree of TLC. Flash is apparent on them all. I'm also a wee bit suspicious about the make-up of these wheels, as I *believe* the Starfish wheels were supposed to have a small hole in each of the raised 'spokes' [see 'Identifying variants of the T-34/85' Brett Green on Clubhyper.com].

Edit: Nothing is ever straight forward! Apparently, certain T-34/85s were retro-fitted with T-55 style 'Starfish' wheels. On this type of wheel the holes at the top of the raised 'spokes' are not so apparent (but it is still there). Also, the 1963 upgraded T-34/85 (designated T-34/85M) was fitted with these T-55 pattern wheels as standard. I have read that - and it's probably important to note - that these are T-55 *style* wheels, they are not actually T-55 wheels - as the two wheels are different diameters so not swappable. To further muddy the waters, I have seen photos of Egytian 122 SPG's with wartime T-34/85 'dish' style wheels...Go figure!

Next we have a couple of 'sprues' of hull furniture, and we see the problem with packing resin parts tightly in a plastic bag...

Nice boxes for the hull fenders, but - oh dear...

Drat! Not irreparable, but quite an annoying breakage.

The broken part I received was the delicate gun traveling lock. This component is fitted to the rear of the T-34/85's hull and is designed to hold the 122mm gun barrel securely in place for travelling (in 'travel mode' the Egyptian 122 SPG's turret is turned to the rear). Now it's not a hugely critical break, I can glue it back together OK - it's just annoying.

And so, we get to the mean feature...The turret...

Quite a slab of resin! Again, some rough edges which will have to be cleaned up, but generally very nice detail. One of the nice things is that you can just make out the shape of the original T-34/85 turret that has been absorbed into the design of this turret...

This highlighted area of the Egyptian turret conversion is the part of the original
T-34/85 turret onto which the sheet metal expansion has been constructed!

And finally, we have the 122mm howitzer itself. A Soviet 2A18 (D-30) artillery piece was used as the basis for the SPG conversion, this was originally a towed field piece which first went into service in 1963. It's probably worth noting that while this was an indirect fire gun it did have the ability to shoot AT ammunition and there were 'emergency' direct fire sights, but as desperate as the Egyptians were for armour during the Yom Kippur War it would have been a brave man (or a fool) who would have wanted to take one of these vehicles into the front line!

The resin gun of the kit is what it is, but - unfortunately - the very distinctive muzzle break is plagued by the same flash as some of the other parts of the kit. This flash is far harder to reach, though...

There are four parts to the gun kit, the barrel, two halves of the muzzle break and the recoil block (which sits atop the gun).

RB Models metal 1/72 D-30 122mm Howitzer
A solution to the so-so Black Dog 122mm gun is to buy a third-party metal model instead. I mean, if you've gone this far to make something a little out of the ordinary you might as well go all the way!

Now, isn't that much better?

Well, it's going to be a challenge, no doubt about it. But I want to step up a gear in my model making and this seems an interesting subject with which to do this.

Next: Checking the Black Dog turret against the Zvezda hull!

Altaya Steyr RSO/01 diecast model

The German prime mover and Pak40 diecast model set I ordered from eBay arrived today and I have to say that I am very pleased with it. Altaya may not be thought to be as good quality as Dragon when it comes to diecast collectors models, but for war gaming purposes its ideal.

I'm still working out my plan for repainting this vehicle as an example of one of the batch that was sold by Germany to Finland during WW2. But looking at it a couple of coats of Humbrol acrylic spray might suffice (with appropriate masking of course).

I've no information at all about markings or numbering of these tractors in Finnish use and I will be going with a generic Finnish light green finish. But the model is crying out for a tilt cover (tarp) to be made to go over the rear struts.

The accompanying Pak40 - which I needed to complete my 3 gun AT battery - will need some work to convert it from it's travelling arrangement into a firing position. I will have to saw or cut the gun 'legs' so that they open up and there is a annoying screw fixing post on the bottom of the gun which will have to be removed as well. It will need repainting mid-green to match my other two Finnish Pak40s.

I don't intend to buy any more of these, it was a one-off purchase because it represented a good deal as I happened to need both the truck and the gun. The other two heavy towing vehicles I need to go with my Soviet 122mm howitzers will be conversions of ICM's Zil-157 truck kit.

But I have to admit that this Steyr will make an impressive addition to my heavy artillery company!