FoW: Slovak Anti Aircraft Artillery - 2cm VKPL vz.36 battery

Well hello once more ladies and gentlemen. I appear to have returned from my overseas travails... and actually find myself rather in need of a holiday to get over the holidaying! 

Still, fun was had by one and all and before I actually take the steps of moving into my new house I thought I may be able to squeeze in a couple of quick posts about the Slovaks.

So today we will take a dig around at the Slovakian army's light anti aircraft batteries which to be frank fulfilled the majority of the forward AA functions that the army needed. Not as impressive as the big boys BUT vital nonetheless.

One and all let me introduce you to the Slovakian 2cm vz.36 Kulomet batteries.

So, it may come as a surprise to some of you (although absolutely no surprise at all to the majority of you) that to uncover the history of the 2cm vz.36 we need to go back to the army of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

Czechoslovakia was one of the few countries in the world, thanks to Skoda, that was able to almost completely equip its artillery needs with pieces from domestic production. The only exception to this was the requirement for small-bore automatic weapons.

At the end of the First World War, German industrialist Becker constructed a small-bore automatic cannon which, although being designed for use by the air force achieved notable attention for its anti-tank abilities. However it missed its metaphorical window and only 200 were produced. 

The military command of the nascent Czechoslovakian army correctly recognised the potential of this weapon and by the end of 1919 had already placed an order for 47 pieces with ammunition. After prolonged studies however they were deemed to be short of their developmental potential and after a series of tests ended up being used solely for coastal defence along the Danube, finally being retired to resupply warehouses for potential future use.

The continued development of this weapon was continued by the Swiss company SEMAG (Seebach Maschinenbau AG) which purchased the production license. SEMAG later became a part of the engineering company Oerlikon which, after 1929, began manufacturing improved versions of these cannon under its own name. 

The Czechoslovakian army actively monitored the progress of interesting weapon types around the world. When the domestic development of automatic weapons, performed mainly in Zbojovka Brno, did not yield the expected and sought for results for a protracted period, they looked abroad.

Field tests of the Oerlikon 2cm fully confirmed the excellent features of these weapons and in July 1935 the Ministry of Defence ordered 128 pieces.

They were introduced into the rolls under the designation 2cm vz.36 Kulomet. The Ministry of Defence also bought a production license and began production almost immediately. Unfortunately the manufacturing plant had disproportionate demands placed upon it and finally the Czechoslovakians were able to only secure a license for the production of the ammunition which was entrusted to Brno Zbrojovka and Sellier Bellot. From Switzerland only basic ammunition orders were placed and both companies were able to complete more than 1,700,000 rounds of all types by March 1939.

The gun was conveniently transported on the back of a flat bed truck. Over short distances the weapon could be carried over short distances by being broken down into ten loads with a maximum weight of 49kg each.

The basic crew of each of these guns consisted of seven individuals. The gun commander, a firer, a loader, two assistants and two ammunition carriers. The unit also had two observers and a cyclist attached as well.

Through 1937 and 1938 Oerlikon received more orders for the cannons but following the Munich Agreement in 1938 the majority of the orders were cancelled largely unfulfilled.

In total by September 1938 the Czechoslovakian army had 227 of these guns in its inventory, which formed the backbone of the newly formed VKPL (velky kulomet proti letadlum - Heavy anti-aircraft machine gun) batteries. They were predominantly allocated to the newly formed fast divisions and to the border regiments.

When the Nazis finally occupied the rump of Czechoslovakia, after March 1939 they immediately appropriated all of the 2cm vz.36's that were within reach and used them throughout the Second World War. Of the total number of weapons that were originally in the Czechoslovakian army a mere 64 weapons were stationed within the newly born Slovak Republic, and again these also found use throughout the war with some even serving  during the Slovak Uprising in 1944.

Slovakia's anti aircraft regiment was AA Regiment 153 and by the end of 1939 all of the other light AA guns that Slovakia had available had been amalgamated into this regiment so that its organisation was as follows:

Battalion I: SpisskaNova Ves           1st and 2nd Heavy Batteries
                                                          3rd and 4th Light Batteries
Battalion II: Piestany                        5th and 6th Heavy Batteries
                                                          7th Light Battery
Battalion III: Bratislava                    8th and 9th Heavy Batteries
                                                          10th Light Battery
Battalion IV: Piestany                       11th and 12th Searchlight Batteries
Battalion V: Vejnory                         13th, 14th and 15th Searchlight Batteries

In 1940 AAAR 153 was changed into the Regiment of Anti Aircraft Artillery, with three Territorial Battalions (I, II & III) as well as additional army units.

Battalion I: Zilina                             1st and 2nd Heavy Batteries
                                                          3rd Light Battery
                                                          12th Searchlight Battery
Battalion II: Trencin                         5th and 6th Heavy Batteries
                                                          7th Light Battery
Battalion III: Bratislava                    8th and 9th Heavy Batteries
                                                          13th Light Battery
                                                          11th Searchlight Battery

The anti-aircraft units allocated to the army were the 4th Light Battery with 1st Division, the 14th Light Battery with 2nd Division and the 15th Light Battery with the Army Headquarters.

In July 1941 the regiment was reorganised yet again receiving assets from an abolished regiment. The new organisational structure had six battalions organised as follows:

Battalion I: SpisskaNova Ves           1st and 2nd Heavy Batteries
                                                          3rd Light Battery
                                                          1st Searchlight Battery
Battalion II: Piestany                        5th and 6th Heavy Batteries
Battalion III: Bratislava                    8th and 9th Heavy Batteries
                                                          10th Light Battery
                                                          11th Searchlight Battery
Battalion IV: Trencin-Zlatovce         3rd and 4th Heavy Batteries
Battalion V: Vejnory                         4th and 15th Light Batteries
Battalion VI: Hlohovec                     7th and 14th Light Batteries

On 22 March 1941 the Slovak army received its first Krupp 8.8cm vz38 anti aircraft guns which all went to 8th Heavy Battery along with twelve 2cm vz.30 anti aircraft guns for a single light battery.

At the beginning of Operation Barbarossa the 1st and 2nd Field Divisions took the 14th and 15th Light Batteries with them although when the Mobile Brigade was formed in late July 1941 the 15th Light Battery was assigned to it. When the Mobile Division was formed in August 1941 it retained the 15th Light Battery.

During the retreat from the Crimea in 1943 two of the 2cm vz.36's were handed over to the Germans whilst the remaining 16 were lost during the retreat. The equipment listed as being on the rolls of the Anti Aircraft Artillery Regiment in August 1943 included six batteries of 2cm vz.36's (and a further two German supplied 2cm vz.30 batteries). Three of these batteries were allocated to the Eastern Front, one to the Home Front and the remaining four put into the Operational Reserve.

By March 1944 the AAAR again carried thirty six 2cm vz.36's on its rolls.

... and this is where our investigation into the deployment of these weapons under the Slovak armed forces draws to a close. They did remain in use with the final 19 guns being withdrawn from service in 1951

...and so we move onto the modelling section

The miniatures for this battery came from numerous sources. Where the actual guns are concerned I bought Battlefront's FR540 20mm mle 1939 AA Gun which were the French license built Oerlikons. I ditched everything from the pack other than the actual guns and the gunner. Every other miniature in this battery was a Battlefront 15mm Romanian, either normal infantry or artillery  crew.

The guns that are on their carriages are a mixture of miniatures with the actual gun coming from the other two remaining guns in the FR540 pack, the carriage bodies coming from Battlefronts ISO501 Italian 20/65 gun pack with the wheels being provided from True North's Polish Caissons.

I nipped off the heads from each of the miniatures and replaced them with Peter Pig heads to turn them into Slovaks. Either the ones with the Slovak Helmets or else the ones with the Soviet Pilotka Caps.

The trucks and the staff car are ones that I sculpted and cast myself. A future post will be dedicated to the sculpting, modelling and painting of these vehicles so I wont spend too much time on them here.

As with my previous artillery posts the first thing that I do when putting a battery together, once the guns are completed is to paint all of the crew that serve them. This obviously took a bit of work so let me take you through it all step by step!

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, but from 5ft away I personally think they look tip top!

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. Essentially the etch is a minute amount of acid that eats into the outer layer of the material being sprayed on creating a microscopically uneven surface for the paint to bind to... and don't worry its well below the level that is visible to the naked eye!

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. Normally I would provide at least one highlight on a helmet BUT the combination of white Slovak crosses and the blue band provide enough contrasts for the eye in such a small place that a highlight becomes unnecessary.

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 Interactive's 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 two steps will, if done correctly, tone the whole contrasted effect down.

vi) The next step is to apply the colour swatches over the body of the gun that will provide the camouflage pattern. With the green camouflage base now finished off I add swatches of Vallejo's 914 Green Ochre and Vallejo's 826 German Camo Med. Brown to leave an equal balance of all three colours.

vii) 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.

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

ix) At this point I apply the first layer of Varnish. It doesn't matter which varnish you choose so long as it fixes the Filter layer to the miniature 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.

x) 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.

xi) Once its dry (or dry-ish) 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 stripping away four layers of paint and primer and have no wish to repeat the disaster!

xii) 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 spoked wheel rims on the carriages which are painted with a mix of LifeColor's UA733 Tire Black and Vallejo's Panzer Aces 302 Dark Rust.

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!

So, there we have it. A nice new battery of light anti-aircraft guns. Relatively simple to put together and not a bad looking bunch of bases to boot...

...oh yeah, and you get to field some trucks and a staff car as well! What more could a budding Slovak general officer demand!?!??!

Fix Bayonets!