GHQ Models Forums

Hi,
for ww2 wargaming every country should have the following things:
AA-Gun: Japan, France, Poland, Romania has no.
Truck: Poland has no.
Aircraft: France, Poland, Romania has no.
AT-Gun: Japan has no.
ArmoredCar: Japan has no.
One can certainly take miscellaneous material from other countries.(40mm Bofors with other tractor).
Nice to have: more cavalry, motorcycles(Bersaglieri without a motorcycle ???).

Manolo

For Manolo71's list of missing types, I am providing this outline of aircraft. In addition to France, Poland, and Romania, this includes Czechoslovakia and Japan army types.

Czechoslovakia: GHQ does not make any Czech models yet (except for some vehicles that were taken over by the Germans). If there had been resistance to the German annexation of the Sudetenland, these would have fought against the Germans. The Aero A.100 was a biplane light bomber/recon aircraft that was approaching the end of its useful life. The Aero A.304 was a twin-engined light bomber developed from a transport concept. The Avia B-534 [H&R] was a biplane fighter contemporary of the Gloster Gladiator, C.R.42 Falco, etc. My choice for a 1/285 scale Czech aircraft is the Avia B-534.

France: GHQ has not yet produced any 1/285 scale aircraft for the French, leaving the options wide open. None of the French fighters of this time (Bloch MB.150 [H&R], Dewoitine D.520 [H&R], or Morane-Saulnier MS.406 [H&R]) had a notable record in ground support. I believe this was due more to circumstances than lack of capability. Certainly, the 20 mm moteur cannon of the in-line types would have been effective against contemporary ground vehicles. For dive bomber types, the Loire-Nieuport LN.40 [H&R] were all delivered to the Navy. The French Army had more faith in fast level attack from low altitude, as provided by the Breguet Br.693 [H&R]. The most-built French aircraft of the time was the Potez 630 [H&R] series. In addition to light bomber and fighter versions, the Potez 63.11 was a highly-modified version for battle-front observation. Although I would like to see any of these aircraft modeled in 1/285 scale, my first choice would be the Potez 63.11. Although they were slaughtered by German forces, they were available in large numbers and did the best they could.

GHQ does not make any Japanese Army aircraft models for Microarmor. For fighters, the Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (Oscar) [H&R] is the early-war standard. The in-line engined Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien (Tony) [CinC, H&R] served in mid-war along with the twin-engine Ki-45 Toryu (Nick) [H&R]. Later, the Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) [H&R] and Kawasaki Ki 100 [H&R] entered service. For light attack aircraft, the Japanese Army had the Mitsubishi Ki-30 (Ann), Kawasaki Ki-32 (Mary) [H&R] , and Mitsubishi Ki-51 (Sonia) [H&R]. The Kawasaki Ki-48 (Lily) [H&R] was a twin-engine attack bomber. Any of these would be a good addition. Limiting my choices to only one, my favorite among these is the Ki-30 because of its important role in China, the Philippine Islands, and Indonesia early in the war.

Poland: Although they were overwhelmed by the first large-scale blitzkrieg, the Polish did no worse at the start than the Russians, French, etc. The standard Polish fighter was the PZL P.11 [H&R], a parasol-winged plane with fixed landing gear. The more-advanced PZL P.50 [H&R] was not yet in service. The PZL.23 Karaś [H&R] was a light bomber / army co-operation aircraft with fixed landing gear. The twin-engined bomber PZL.37 Łoś [H&R] was just entering service. My choice is the PZL.23 Karaś.

Romania: The aircraft industry in Romania was small but did produce at least one worthy design. GHQ should consider producing a model of the I.A.R.80 [H&R] to go along with the RA series vehicles and figures.

I will try to provide similar lists for AA guns, trucks, AT guns, and armored cars in the next few weeks - I am away from most of my hard-copy references during the holiday season.

Don S.

And the Poles had a license to build Fiat cars and trucks so a fiat 634n or 621 medium truck could do for both the Italian and polish catalogs, as could the fiat 508 car/ lt truck and the fiat 618/626n for a light truck.

I remember back when GHQ decided to release the microarmour WWII game, they made a similar list of 'every country oughta have at least one of these.....' and they did a pretty good job of making up models to fill that list. But our desire for models far exceeds GHQ's capacity to sculpt and produce them.


enjoy
redleif