Painting guide, part 2: Officers 1923-36

Here is part two of my painting guides. You can find part 1 here and part 3 here.

Ådalen Miniatures is open for Business!

The moment is here! In partnership with HistoriFigs US we are now open for business!

Follow this link for ordering: http://adalen.historifigs.com/

I don't know what more to say right know, but Cheers! I'm celebrating, this is big movement for me.

When you order you can order a set of 15 (one of each) or one or more of the diferrent subsets.
AC is the command set.
AH is those with the tricorne hat.
AJ is those with helmets.
AM is those with the "modern" hat.

Who makes an armoured truck like this?

The Swedish army had, what they called, an armoured car. In reality it was more an truck with some armour. They used both Volvo and Chevrolet trucks as a base. They put on some armour and machine guns and they called it pbil m/31. This made is slow, its top speed was 60 km/h and it could only drive on roads.

They were built from 1931 to 1940. Because of this and that they were built on different trucks they were not all identical. The armament was two m/14-29 machine guns or one 37mm canon and a machine gun. The trucks were painted steel-grey. They were never many of them, from 1931 to 1937 12 were delivered and a further 7 until the start of ww2. The machine guns were later up-graded to the m/36.

The armoured trucks were given to the cavalry. There were three trucks in each platoon. In each platoon one had a canon and the others machine guns.

pbil m/31 with machine guns



pbil m/31, some with machine guns, some with 37mm guns

Later they were re-armed and got a nice paint job. But that is a different story.

Panting guide, part 1: Private

Because the Swedish army did not take part in any conflicts it is not so well known. Therefore I have made a painting guide for all that are interested. This is part 1. You can find part 2 here and part 3 here.

Helmets

I love helmets. It is actually one of the most important things I look for when I choose to start collecting a new army. A few years ago I started collecting an republican roman army just because I liked the helmets (thanks Aventine!)
So an improtant question for me is, did the Swedes have any good looking helmets? Yes, in a matter of fact they did have some good ones. Between 1916 and 1926 there were 4 different models, confusingly two of them are both called m/21.





fm/16

fm/16, with removeble comb

The first model was called fm/16 (fm = försöksmodell = test model). It had a wide brim and a comb. A few of the helmets had combs that could be removed.




m/21 (flat)

Svea Livgarde (?) soldier in old m/ä uniform and m/21 (flat) helmet

The next model is the m/21 (flat). The reason it was called flat was because the dome was flatter than the other m/21 helmet. The brim was different from the earlier test model, but still wide compared to later models.



m/21 (high)

M/21 (high) had a much smaller brim than the other m/21 helmet. It had a comb.

M/26 was very similar to the m/21 (high) but without a comb.

Next model was start being used in 1937, so I will not cover it here. The m/21 and m/26 was used until the end of ww2.

The Swedish Platoon from 1921-1937

Each platoon was made up of four squads. Each squad had 12 men, eleven with rifles and one with a light machine gun called kg mg/21. It was based on the american BAR 1918. In 1937 it was up-graded and the new model was called kg m/37.
The squad was lead by a Sergeant and he was assisted by a Corporal. The platoon was lead by an Lieutenant and he was assisted by an Sergeant. The Lieutenant also had two runners.
A platoon is made up of 52 persons. One Lieutenant, five Sergeants, four Corporals, two runners, four machine gunners and 36 riflemen.

The size of my!

Size does matter. Here is a picture comparing mine with one from Empress Miniatures. The figure from Empress is sculpted by Paul Hicks, who has sculpted a lot for Empress Miniatures and Musketeer Miniatures. It is a Falangist from their Spanish Civil War range.

Little known fact about the early Swedish tanks

Little known fact:
The first Swedish tank was the Strv m/21 (Strv stands for Stridsvagn, which literally means war wagon). Sweden bought 10 of them from Germany after WW1. They got smuggled into Sweden as tractor parts. They were used by Svea Livgarde from August 1922, but transferred to Göta Livgarde in 1927. There were 10 of them. At first they were painted grey, but in 1928 they were repainted with a camo pattern.
In the early 30s five of them got a stronger engine. Now their top speed was 18km/h, instead of 16km/h. The new model was called m/21-29. They were used until the start of ww2.
Both models were equipped with a ksp m/14 medium machine gun.
It was a based on the German LKII tank prototype.

Now you have the chance to own more m/21-29 tanks than the Swedes really did! Both Copplestone and Tobsen77 make them.

Tobsen77: http://tobsen77.de/products/stridsvagn.php
Copplestone: http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/range.php?range=VEH

A m/21 tank in a Swedish museum.

The Swedish panzer troops are advancing! It looks like it is tank number 10. 

Set 4 (AM): Riflemen, hats

Riflemen with m/23 uniforms and m/23 hats. The m/23 hat was the official hat from 1923 until 1937, but it was still used during ww2. It had the same colour as the uniform.
The m/23 hat was very similar to the m/ä och m/26 hats. The m/ä (model older) hat was dark blue and was the offical hat from the 19th century to 1910 when it was replaced by the m/10 hat. The m/26 hat was used by the Landstormen (home guard militia) and was grey.

Set 3 (AJ): Riflemen, helmets

 

Riflemen with m/23 uniforms and m/26 helmets. The helmet was originally grey but were later repainted green-brown-grey.
The m/26 helmets are very similar to the m/21 (high) helmets. The m/21 has a crest which the m/26 didn't. There were to different, but similar, helmets called m/21, one was called high and the other low because of the helmet's dome.

Set 2 (AH): Riflemen, hat

Riflemen with m/23 uniforms and m/10 hats. It was first used in 1910 and was still in use during ww2.
The hat was inspired by Charles XII and his Caroleans (Karoliner in Swedish). I suppose that the soldiers was supposed to think back to the "great olden days" and be more courageous.
 

Set 1 (AC): Command

First two figures are officers in m/23 uniforms and m/23 hat. The first has a pistol while the second has a sabre in his hand.

The third figure has a  light machine gun. He got a m/23 uniform and a m/21 (high) helmet. The light machine gun is a kg m/21, it is very similar to the BAR1918. Kg stands for "Kulsprutegevär", literally "Bullet spraying gun".

Great news

Latest news: I have talked to the molder and he says that he will be able to start posting figures in the end of next week. So I hope that we very soon will have more details of how to order them. We are going to sell them both as sets and singles.  

New Blog

New blog Ådalen miniatures blog. Why? I forgot the password for the old one.