FoW: Slovak Artillery - 10cm vz.14-19 battery

So, today we are going to take a look at one of the mainstays of the Slovak howitzer batteries. The Skoda 10cm vz.14-19 Houfnice [Howitzer]

Following the experiences of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905 a lot of development in the theory and usage of field artillery was developed. The results of all of this work were a number of different artillery pieces that would fulfill certain roles on the field of battle. Skoda was one of the companies that contributed prodigiously to these developments.

This artillery piece made its first appearance just before the start of the First World War and quickly entered into the establishment of a number of the European Central Powers inventories. Mass production was quickly established and soon this robust piece was affecting the ebb and flow of battle all across Europe.

Because of its technical specifications this artillery piece provided the Austro-Hungarian Army with one of the best artillery pieces in the world at the start of the war. She carried all of the attributes of a modern artillery piece such as a liquid recoil brake, back up counter with balancers, a carriage shield, an independently mounted drum sight and an horizontal wedge shaped lock. Initially they were equipped with a bronze alloy barrel although later in the war due to material shortages Skoda started to supply them with steel barrels which gave them further longevity as well.

These guns were manufactured right up until 1935 when production ceased and they did sterling service for the Czechoslovakian army.

Over 600 were produced for the Czechoslovakian army and after the Nazi's occupied the majority of Czech lands a mere 184 were left for the newly born Slovak state.

They did not figure greatly in the low intensity clashes with the invading Hungarians and their own invasion of Poland but they were available. Following the end of the Polish campaign on the 6th October 1939 the Slovak artillery was reorganised with the second and third artillery sections of each of the 1st and 3rd Regiments being equipped with the 10cm vz.14-19. Each Regiment had three sections of artillery with each section containing four batteries. There was also a spares section which had a single battery.

However with the departure of the Czech troops after the demobilisation following the Munich crisis in 1938, the thing that the Slovaks were really missing was experienced artillery operators. 

The only time on the Eastern Front where they saw serious usage was when the Security Division was deployed into the Ukraine in 1942 where two batteries of eight guns saw extensive use.

The real (and final) test for these weapons under Slovak usage came with the Slovak uprising against the Nazi's in 1944 in which they formed the core of the Slovak artillery as well as equipping the armoured train Hurban which fought around the areas of Cremosne and Hel'py.

These venerable pieces continued to soldier on under German hands until the very end of the war and when Czechoslovakia was reformed after the Treaty of Paris in 1946 some even found their way back into the Czech artillery park although they were very soon after retired in the interests of streamlining the military with Soviet equipment.

So, there we have it. A brief potted history of the use of these Kings of the Battlefield. 

Now its time to move onto the modelling of these beasts for the 15mm Slovak army for Flames of War that seemed to have taken over my life over the last year.

The first thing that you need to do is collect together the assets for what you will need to put these guns together.

Thankfully Battlefronts new Italian 100mm Howitzers are the perfect choice... because they are the actual guns (almost) that were used. They are also correct for the Polish Early War 100mm Howitzers as well by the way.

Where the wheels are concerned I scraped together some True North Miniatures (supported by Andy at Old Glory UK) wheels from their Polish artillery pieces as these were more accurate.

Lastly you need a pack of plastic sheet, rods and tubes and some thin 0.3mm brass rod as well.

The artillery piece gun trails are left unaltered from their original form and instead of the plastic wheels supplied with the models the metal True North Miniatures wheels are attached instead.

The 14/19 model artillery piece had a lengthened barrel which increased its muzzle velocity and range and so to do this you need to file the end of the existing barrel flat and add a 10mm length of 2mm diameter plastic tube.

The gun barrels and breeches can then be added to the gun trails as normal.

The next step is to do all of the work on the gun shields by preparing the pieces. The gun shield itself remains unaltered. You need two 3.5mm x 3.5mm plastic squares with one of the corners nipped off to act as the crew seats on the front of the shield. Two brass rod hand rails made by bending the 0.3mm brass rod down on either side of a pair of needle nose pliers and cutting the handle ends to length for the two handles mounted on the upper gun shield edges and same method used to create the foot stirrups for mounting below the seat. Finally you need two tiny rectangular pieces that will be used as the foot boards mounted onto the bottom of the stirrups.

The next step in constructing the gun shield is to glue the 3.5mm rectangular pieces of plastic into the positions on the gun shield as shown above taking care the line the seat up with the bottom of the wheel arch and with the nipped corner aligning with one of the plastic extrusions on the gun shield itself.

All gun shields should now be mounted on your guns into the correct positions... and as you can see the weapons are already starting to take shape. If you are just into producing product for the table top then this could be enough.

If you want to push that extra step though...

So... the foot stirrups. These should be about 3mm wide (just narrower than the actual seat widths) with about 2.5-3mm length up to the bend and then about 3mm more after the bend, with the bend being at about 110deg. 

File the ends of the brass just to be tidy!

The brass stirrups can now be glued to the undersides of the plastic seats that have already been attached to the gun shields. Glue them so that the angle on the stirrups comes up to the edge of the seat.

The final couple of steps are relatively simple.

Glue the miniscule footboards onto the bottom of the stirrups

Glue the handles onto the top inside edge of the wheel arches

Glue two small lengths of plastic (or brass) rod onto the inside corner of the seats on the gun shield for crew handles.

A look from below the gun so you can see where the brass rod stirrups are actually glued to.

Another view of the above showing again where exactly the stirrups are mounted and clearly showing the footboards attached as well.

So there we have it. Above is an example of a completely painted battery of these beauties! I will take you through the painting colour schemes and methodology that I employ as well. A bit complex but personally I love the results so I'm happy with what I've got :)

Before we go any further I should also point out that every single miniature in this battery was a Battlefront 15mm Romanian until I nipped off their heads and replaced them with Peter Pig heads to turn them into Slovaks. Either the ones with the Slovak Helmets that Martin sculpted for me or else the ones with the Soviet Pilotka Caps.

The first thing that I normally do when putting together a battery once the guns are built is actually to actually paint all of the crew that serve the guns and where my Slovaks are concerned this obviously took a bit of work so let me take you through it all!

So, where painting all of the infantry is concerned its a relatively simple affair. They are done the way that I do them to look good from about 5ft away. Scrutinise them from up close and all of the flaws in the painting will probably slap you in the face.

The first step is to prime, and as with most of my other historical stuff, I prime with a black etch primer. You can buy these from any hardware store but the 'etch' in the primer ensures an exceptionally strong substrate to the acrylic layers that will go over the top.

The lions share of the work done on WW2 miniatures is the main uniform and where the Slovaks are concerned after a somewhat lengthy research period I decided to ditch the colour photos from the past and go with the uniform colours that all of the re-enactors in Czechoslovakia are using at the moment. In my experience all of these re-enactment guys are anal about accuracy so I would trust their opinions a lot more than raggedy old photos.

My base coat was done with Vallejo's 887 Brown Violet for the deepest layers of the uniform. The first highlight, which presents the largest overall surface area that will be seen at the end was done with MIG's 113 Khaki Green No3 (Brit 1939-1942) with the final highlights along all of the raised edges being completed with MIG's 058 Light Green Khaki. This covers all of the cloth uniform and the puttees.

The helmet has a single coat of 50/50 mix of Vallejo's 897 Bronze Green and Vallejo's 887 Brown Violet with the blue helmet band having a basecoat of Vallejo's 925 Intense Blue, highlighted with a 50/50 mix of Vallejo's 925 Intense Blue and Vallejo's 943 Blue Grey. The little Slovak crosses are all hand painted with thinned down Vallejo's 820 Offwhite.

Everything else is relatively quick and simple after painting the uniform.

All of the Canvas bags and straps have a basecoat of Vallejo's 921 English Uniform applied with block highlights of AK Interactives 3072 M-44 Uniform Green Ochre Khaki whilst the leather belts and ammo pouches are basecoated in Vallejo's 045 Charred Brown and highlighted with Vallejo's 983 Flat Earth.

The boots are any matt black whilst the Gas Mask Tins are basecoated with Vallejo's 980 Black Green and highlighted with Lifecolor's UA224 Olive Drab Faded Type 2.

The rifle bodies are basecoated with Vallejo's 826 German Camo Medium Brown with the highlighted grain lines painted with Vallejo's 981 Orange Brown. All metal work is painted black firstly and highlighted with Molten Metals Steel. The rifle straps are basecoated with Vallejo's 880 Khaki Grey and highlighted with a 50/50 mix of Vallejo's 880 Khaki Grey and Vallejo's 819 Iraqi Sand.

Where the skin is concerned you can paint it how you please but personally I use one of AK Interactive's paint sets for 'Flesh and Skin Colours' and I've never looked back!

All of the bases are actually really simple. I buy all of my bases from Tony at East Riding Miniatures. Hes a bit of a legend and REALLY helpful. They are all laser cut MDF which allows for easy scoring of the base surface.

I then glue the miniatures to the scored surface and apply a thin layer of tile grout over the top. Once this is dry I glue a layer of one of my sand mixes over the top. Generally speaking I create my own mixes for base coverings as I REALLY don't like a lot of the crap you buy from the shops. Its generally speaking far too gaudy in colour or uniform in texture for my tastes.

I like the generally fine sand BUT I like to have lots of the little stones in there so I can create some colour contrasts with the dirt on the bases.

Once dry the whole base is given a basecoat of Vallejo's 826 German Camo Medium Brown and given a heavy drybrush of Vallejo's 814 Green Ochre.

All of the little stones on the bases are then given a basecoat of Vallejo's 995 German Grey and roughly highlighted (to create a jagged uneven texture) with any lighter grey of your choice but personally I go with Vallejo's 992 Neutral Grey.

The sides of the bases are now painted Matt Black. I never used to bother with this BUT I've really gotten into the clean precise look this lends to the bases. I love it now.

Now we come to the final stage of the bases which is the covering. The static flock that I use is my own mix. I go for something that approximates the dead and dry grass you find on the Steppes with perhaps a little more green in it than usual. This allows an overall base aesthetic that can be used the length of Europe in my opinion.

To provide the final textural boost to the bases though I use a variety of clumps. I had a LOT of problems finding ones that I felt were suitable but after a couple of years I came across a company called Tajima Miniatures whose self adhesive tufts are without a doubt the best I have ever found. I use there stuff by the bucket load now, in great variety. 

These all add to the final colour and texture of the bases of this army.

Now that the bases and the miniatures are all squared away the only thing left to do is sort the guns themselves out...

So the painting of the guns is where the real complexity begins. I should also point out by the way that I have opted not to apply mud and spattering weathering to these artillery pieces as I kind of really like the clean look of them. They do have plenty of knocks and rusty battered parts which adds to the scheme but that is where I have chosen to draw the line.

The main paint scheme of the guns is done by airbrush using my MIG Aircobra for the Priming and Basecoating and my Harder & Steenbeck for all of the shading and highlighting as my H&S has a 0.15 needle and provides a hell of a lot more control... but the MIG is SOOOOO easy to clean it just makes sense to use it where I can...

The Airbrushing steps are as follows:

i) The model is primed with a Matt Black Etch Primer

ii) The basecoat is Tamiya's XF-58's Olive Green

iii) The first highlight is LifeColors UA221 Khaki Olive Drab applied in a panel highlight fashion

iv) The second highlight is LifeColors UA224 Olive Drab Faded Type 2 applied as above but a bit lighter and gathered in along the edges and prominent areas

v) The third highlight is a 50/50 mix of LifeColors UA224 Olive Drab Faded Type 2 with LifeColor 01 White. This is applied sparingly just along the edges and prominent areas. 

So that's the airbrushing complete and don't be overly concerned if your third highlight was too heavy as the next step will, if done correctly will tone the whole contrasted effect down.

vi) Now we apply the Filter over the whole thing to unify the colour aesthetic and clip the contrast a little. I apply MIG's Filter 1506 Brown for Dark Green.

vii) Once dry wipe of any serious excess from where it may have pooled but otherwise leave it untouched.

viii) At this point I apply the first layer of Varnish. It doesnt matter which varnish you choose so long as it fixes the Filter layer as its an oil based layer.

Once the varnish is dry its time for the next layer which is where the real depth starts to come out.

ix) Over every detail laden part of the model apply a Wash. I use AK Interactives Wash 075 Wash for NATO Camouflage Vehicles. Don't be shy with this step. Slap it on aplenty! Then leave to dry for a while.

x) Once its dry use cotton buds (cue tips for you Yankees out there...) and use a gentle white spirit to wipe away the excess leaving great detail and shadowing around all of your detail areas and a general lowering of the overall chroma luminosity. Personally I use Winsor & Newtons Artists White Spirit as I had a bad experience with normal white spirit and have no wish to repeat the disaster!

xi) Once the whole piece is dry to the touch apply another layer of varnish to fix everything in place.

... once all of the actual painting steps proper have been squared away the last thing to do on the miniature is actually the rusted patches. For this just use an old kitchen sponge and dab on Vallejo's Panzer Aces 302 Dark Rust along the edges of the gun shield and other edges and spots across different patches of the model.

These Dark Rust elements then have the heaviest sections lined with Vallejo's Model Color 819 Iraqi Sand. These lines need to be very fine but also work well to work in as actual scratches into the overall paint scheme.

The very last thing that needs to be done with the painting is the wheel rims which are painted  with LifeColor's UA733 Tire Black and highlighted with Vallejo's Model Color 995 German Grey.

Varnish one final time with a super matt varnish and that as they say is that!

Remove from workspace and attach to the finished bases at your leisure!

Go have fun!