FoW: Slovak Artillery - Skoda 10.5cm vz.35 battery

Today I would like to introduce you to what was the most cutting edge piece of artillery in the Slovakian arsenal at the start of the war. Designed purely for motor traction, and used almost exclusively by the elite mobile groups at the start of the conflict, this gun really stood the test of time... if only they had more of them eh?!?!?!?

Ladies and Gents; I give you the Skoda 10.5cm vz.35 Light Howitzer!!!!

The most modern of Slovakia's artillery pieces that they were able to field was the Skoda 10.5cm vz.35 heavy artillery piece... and as can be expected it was a piece that was inherited from the Czechoslovakian artillery park.

At the time of its creation this remarkable cannon was undoubtedly one of, if not THE best cannons in its weight category anywhere across the globe. The birth of this formidable weapon was, however, plagued with problems and it took almost ten years from the release of the requirement specifications from the Czechoslovakian Defence Ministry, to be realised.

This cannon had no competition at all when entered into the Czech equipment lists and was advanced enough before the way to influence the construction of medium artillery pieces well into the post war period. The cannon was officially entered into the Czechoslovakian equipment rolls as the 10.5cm hruby kanon vzor 1935 in December 1935.

This gun was designed solely for motor traction which was still unusual for the day and included a whole raft of advanced features.

The gun weighed in at just over 4 tonnes, had a muzzel velocity of 730m/sec, fired HE, Cannister and AT and was designed to be able to fire at the enemy over open sites as a part of its perceived anti tank role on the battlefield.

In 1937 Skoda delivered the first 36 completed to the army, and production continued unabated. 

In March 1939 the Wehrmacht took over the Czechoslovakian Armaments Technical Office in Pilsen appropriating 66 of the existing 107 pieces from the Czech army. Of the remaining weapons, 36 from this extant park remained in Slovakia and was introduced into the nascent Slovakian artillery regiments, whilst the Germans took a further delivery of another 36 pieces.

The Germans ended up with more than a hundred pieces of this weapon, serving primarily through the Battle of France and during the invasion of the Soviet Union, throughout the combat on the Eastern Front.

When the Slovaks first reorganised their artillery regiments in the Summer of 1939 the 10.5cm vz.35's were all allocated to Artillery Regiment 51 with its first battalion receiving four batteries of four guns each and the reserve battalion receiving a single battery of a further four guns.

The artillery reorganisations were complete by late 1940 with all of the 10.5cm vz.35's being allocated to Artillery Regiment 11, as the armys only completely motorised artillery regiment, with a wartime strength of 27 of the 10.5cm vz.35's, This strength obviously fluctuated and in March 1942 Artillery Regiment 11 had only one battery of three of these guns on its rolls although by March 1943 this number had climbed although still there were only 16 on the rolls, although the German 10.5cm leFH.18 had started to arrive.

When the Slovak Mobile Group crossed the Soviet border on 8 July 1941 it took with it only the first battalion of Artillery Regiment 11 augmented by a single battery of four of these guns.

On 12 July 1941 the first battalion was bumped up to the entirety of AR11 with its constituent three batteries of 10.5cm vz.35, a total of twelve guns.

At the beginning of August 1941 AR11 was reduced to one light battalion and one combined battalion only with a single battery of these guns, the rest being pulled back to Slovakia and into reserve.

The Mobile Division was formed at the end of August 1940 and once again AR11 took the field in full strength as it had been in the Mobile Brigade in the previous month.

Owing to the problems that the Slovak Fast Division was experiencing the artillery was again reorganised in June 1942 as a result of the decision to rearm with German artillery pieces taken in March. Of the 24 pieces which arrived, all but four were sent straight to the front where they supplanted all but one battery in the first battalion left with the 10.5cm vz.35's.

In the chaotic withdrawal from the Kerch into the Crimea in February 1943 the Fast Division lost almost all of its artillery but significantly did not lose a single 10.5cm vz.35, instead handing over the remaining five pieces to allied German and Romanian troops instead. 

Following the loss of all of the Security Divisions artillery pieces during the Soviet counterattack around Kharkov in 1942, the Slovak government made an attempt at re-equipping it and a small complement of two 10.5cm vz.35's found their way into the complement. By October 1943 however the Security Division had collapsing morale and had been reassigned as a Construction Division in Italy. 

When the Fast Division was rebuilt in the Crimea in April 1943 more artillery was again assigned to them with a total of only three batteries, the first being a half battery of two 10.5cm vz.35's only.

The personnel of Artillery Regiment 31 were eventually amalgamated with those of Artillery Regiment 11  with 1st battalion's 3rd battery only remaining equipped with the 10.5cm vz.35.

Following further retreats across the sandy terrain in October 1943 the artillery regiment lost all but two of its German guns in the soft sands to Soviet armoured attacks. No further examples of the 10.5cm vz.35's were allocated to the Slovak field army and their Slovakian front line adventure comes to an end here.

However the story of this weapon did not terminate here. The Slovaks were able to rebuild their forces following the 1943 disasters and a further 28 10.5cm vz.35's were allocated to the newly rebuilt AR11 with a further three being assigned to the Army Headquarters although none of these allocations made it to the front before the Uprising began.

During the Slovak uprising in 1944 the Slovak insurgents were known to have fielded a couple of batteries of this weapon around their defensive line Grun-Kosariska-Janosikovo-Panosina although all would have been lost to the Germans in their retreats and eventual collapse.

In other areas of use their could have been an extensive export market for this weapon but for the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1935 Yugoslavia and Lithuania had placed orders for 24 cannon. 20 had been produced before the Nazi's confiscated the order in 1940. Interest was also shown by the Dutch and the Soviet Union although both trade negotiations failed due to the outbreak of hostilities.

As a final hurrah, after the war ended and the Czechoslovakian state was reformed a number of these guns found their way back into service and continuing to serve well into the Fifties.

So there we have it. A short potted history of one of the best guns in Axis service throughout the Second World War... now lets see how we can put a battery of these together ourselves... as nobody makes them...

So these particular miniatures use Battlefronts, currently out of production, RO585 Romanian Schneider 105mm M36  guns. Two blisters of two guns for a complete battery.

The first step is the take the gun shields and completely file away any detail. The bottom end of the shield fork that sits over the barrel need to be rolled over a 10mm diameter pen to a 45 degree angle.

Once this is done an observation flap is constructed for the top right of the shield. This consists of a square of very thin plastic card measuring 3mm x 3mm. This has two 1mm lengths of plastic rod glued alongside the top and bottom of the right edge of the flap to replicate the hinges on the front face of the shield.

I also filed away a lot of the detail on each leg of the split trail as well as well as filing off the muzzle brake as the Skoda weapon had a smooth barrel with no muzzle brake apparent.

DO NOT GLUE THE WHEELS ON YET! This gun had some pretty advanced suspension technology applied to its construction.

Unfortunately I did not photograph the process that I went through when I constructed the suspension and chassis frame for this gun so I'll just try to talk you through it.

So in between each wheel and the chassis proper is the addition of a new spring suspension mechanism. I manufactured this around a 1mm diameter brass rod 13mm in length. This rod is bracketed above and below by a concave arc of plastic 1.5mm thick with each end of the arc having flat 'feet'. If you imagine the profile of a thick shallow clay bowl with Really thick walls this could be a good approximation. These sections each need to be 15mm long. The rod fits in the middle of these two which are put together feet to feet with the arc of each length creating an oval central hole with squared off ends (in which the rod sits).

These are left to dry for a while and are then glued horizontally between chassis and wheel.

 Once set in place they each have a small brass hook created out of thin brass rod and glued into the frontal edge to create the tow hooks.

Along the front edge of the chassis are now two parallel lengths of white metal. A thin plastic disc with a 3mm diameter is glued centrally bridging both lengths whilst two smaller discs the width of each horizontal length (1mm) are then glued one on either side of the central disc half way along each lower length of white metal.

...and there you have it! Your very own Skoda 10.5cm vz.35 artillery piece. The most advanced artillery piece in the Slovak arsenal...

Now go make three more!!!

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!