aerials!

2 posts in quick succession? Well, reviewing my latest post upon publication (as I always do, to check for typos and such) a problem is slapping me straight in the face. The radios are barely distinguishable as radios – because they don’t have antennae. Doh!

This is pure oversight: I always put aerials on radios and radio vehicles – the models actually look better’ plus it helps identify the stands as command, staff, recce or whatever. Martin Goddard customarily puts a little starter ‘dimple’ on the models to guide your drill in, so you can ‘post fix’. Hands up: I forgot. Totally.

So I’ve had to go back. Checking my sources first, I can identify the radios Martin has modelled as Torn model E Bs. They have a whiplash type aerial on the left side of the front guy’s box (see pic) … and indeed, close inspection shows there is a tiny dimple where the drill should go. My drill was a bit big, though, so it wasn’t quite plain sailing (but I pressed on with what I had to hand).

(15mm modelling: Eeek … drilling a hole for the aerial turns out to be micro surgery)

Still, I’m just about there on all 3 models. My ‘go to’ for small aerials is brush bristle which tends to the right sort of thickness, is easy to cut and fit (and flexes more or less like the real thing in the case of accidents). Fortuitously for the photo exercise, the brush I snipped a few off had pink bristles which show up nicely for a ‘how to’ picture.

(next stage: fitting aerials made of bristles cut from a pink household brush)

As the material for these is virtually free, I tend to fit a longish mast, then trim it back after the glue has set.

I guess, including a coat of paint, going back and fixing this problem took half an hour or so. Photos and blogging the fix is the bigger job! That said, I think the fix illustrates my earlier point: I think these bases now look better – and look more like recce!

I was particularly pleased, mugging up on the radios, to find a photo of one being used by a team with a bicycle. Not the poses in my version, of course, but somehow ticking a box anyway.

(real life: Wehrmacht team with radio and bicycle)

(P.B.Eye-Candy: Wehrmacht team with radio and bicycle)

So, going back over the same job again doesn’t get the lead pile tackled but it did make me look up the details for the radio – so I have leant something in the process.

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198th ID: rounding out the division

As many regulars will know, my WWII collection is dual purposed … for tactical as well as operational wargames. The figures for 198 ID are ‘borrowed in’ from my PBI company, and just as there is a consequent ‘fill out’ in progress for all the impedimenta that goes with the Divisional Level formation (recorded here, as it joins the collection, under German Horsedrawn – for such most of it will be), there are also some components that need to be added to the basic blocks or that would be ‘nice to have’.

15mm figures by Peter Pig

So, in addition to an extra combat stand and support stand, I needed some recce for each of the regiments. I also decided (‘nice to have’) to add some boats to represent the river crossing and bridging capacities. Of course all divisions would have the facilities, but in game terms it is nice to have appropriate makers through which to channel the player’s attention (thinking forward; sending the boats to the right place; not leaving things behind etc.) …

Some Useful Boats

So, we saw the basic boat model on its trailer in the last update … added to this, now, is one in action – a Sturmboot 39 – and a couple of inflatables. These will come out at the sharp end … for most of the time the Division is moving around the theatre, the potential of these craft will simply be represented by the transit model, of course.

Also in the picture is a ‘downed Luftwaffe’ dinghy and a waterline Schwimmwagen which I already had (so this is now what I have got, as far as riverine assaults go)

The asault inflatables are by Quality Castings (with a couple of extra crew which are Peter Pig. The Sturmboot 39 is adapted by me from one of the resin boats from The Square (i.e. – and appropriately enough – it’s the same boat as the one on the trailer … I’ve just added a modicum of detail, given it a scratchbuilt outboard and a PP crew figure … and chopped it sufficient to have the right, ‘sturm’, attitude in the water).

P.B.Eye-Candy’s 15mm scale Leichtes Sturmboot 39

It has (seemingly always) an MG34 mounted in the bow and a very chracteristic motor (again, always the same power plant) which appears to be a Kovats type K4R4 … although highly simplified, I’ve tried to follow the basic shape and configuration in the scratchbuilt version.

The characteristic Kovats K4 R4: powerplant of the Sturmboot 39

As standard in my collection, the various watercraft are mounted on clear bases …

The scouts

Yesthatphil’s 15mm German recce stands

The recce stands with my PBI Aufkalrungsschwadron all use pretty fancy kit. Of course, 198 would have its fair share of motor vehicles, but that wasn’t the balance I wanted to strike. So I’ve made 3 new stands for this purpose … basic infantry going forward to scout without the luxury of armoured cars and half tracks. Consequently, I gave one a bicycle, one a motorbike, and one a horse.

Again denoting them as PBIs sent forward, I’ve given them the white wafenfarbe (uniform piping) of the infantry (rather than of specialist reconaissance unit).

(figures by Peter Pig, bicycle from model railway supplies)

Wehrmacht 198 ID scouting parties

Each of the bases is completed with a Peter Pig 2-man radio team in greatcoats (to which I’ve swapped a couple of heads for variety) …

The box of divisional assets and support ehelons is filling up.

Somewhere in Russia … Assault troops from 198 ID make an improvised river crossing prior to bridging operations

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German Horse-drawn Equipment (Part Two)

So this is the first set of pictures as the models begin to get painted and based, ready to fill out the rear echelon of the infantry division. This batch has a small limber, a heavy supply wagon, the Machinegun Flak cart and a boat.

The boat is intended as a generic marker – possibly marking assault boats, possibly bridging equipment, depending on the demands of the scenario. It is an upturned ‘The Square’ resin boat on some BPM 3D printed wheels.

The gun represents a divisional anti-tank unit, notionally equiped with a 50mm Pak 38.

(gun and limber by BattleFront, figures by Peter Pig, horses by Museum Miniatures)

This is modeled as my usual combination of the gun (BattleFront) on a metal shim with a ‘limbered’ base and a ‘deployed’ base, each of which has a magnabased patch for the gun.

The deployed gun (again, figures by Peter Pig)

1:100 scale/15mm models on P.B.Eye-Candy

Heavy Supply Wagon (Schwere Feldwagen Hf.2)

Wagon and Horses by Quality Castings, driver by Peter Pig

And finally, the little flak cart … (Maschinengewehrwagen 36)

Limber, wheels and weapons by Battlefront, cart scratchbuilt. horses by QRF and crew by Peter Pig

The vehicle typically is armed with MG34s, whereas I had MG42s in my spares – however, some pictures I have seen do suggest MG42s were used. I have simplified the gun sights.

Maschinengewehrwagen 36: details

So far, so good. Hopefully I can get a little shift on with the next batch.

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