WWII Locomotives & War Series nº 77 - by Carlos Briz

Vehicles & Figures - Bend Sinister

Airplane - F-toys

(Class Ok1 locomotive - Polish State Railways)

Charge!

That's right, the Poles threw everything they had against the Germans in 1939, but to no avail.

Poland was one of the testing grounds for the Blitzkrieg, that brought a brand new concept to european battlefields, where raw courage was simply not enough to get things done.

A PZL.37 Bomber Brigade was deployed in improvised airfields, in country areas, to avoid being blown up while parked in the well known airfields.

The end result was they were blown up while flying...

The Polish light tank 7-TP was in many ways superior to the Panzers I and II, but there simply not enough of them to go around. 

And even if there were, the Poles did not have the proper armoured doctrine to handle them against the Germans, as the French (who had more and better armoured units than the Germans) would soon find out.

BT



Locomotives & War Series - Cold War - by Carlos Briz

From the beaches of Normandy, to the Cuban Missile Crisis!

Well, not quite, since that crisis only ocurred in October 1962, and this dio over here is dated from 1961...

The "crisis" CB wants to picture here was related to the ill-planned invasion of Cuba, that resulted in a major defeat of the invading force.

The Cubans did not mind mixing US airpower with Soviet armour in those days.

My guess is that those palm trees over there are remnants of the set CB received from a few months ago...

WWII Locomotives & War Series nº 76 - by Carlos Briz

Vehicles & Figures - Pendraken

SANTA is here!

Nope, this is not the Santa you are used to, that goes by the name of Claus. 

It's the other one, that goes by the name of Briz, the guy who brings us a modelling gift almost every week.

It's SANTA BRIZ!

Over here you have something that most of you has never seen before: a place where a railroad track starts right on the beach.

This dio over here has a landing craft for almost every taste.

These flat-bottomed vessels were widely used by the allied forces during WWII, mainly in the Pacific and during the last stages of the war, as a means of delivering large amounts of troops and hardware in ususpected places.

This is an AWSOME dio CB!

BT

WWII Locomotives & War Series nº 75 - by Carlos Briz

Big Bird - F-toys

Figures - Pendraken

(Class C50 locomotive - Japan National Railways)

How does he do it?

Forget the seaplane, forget the palm trees, forget the locomotive...

Just check out that emerald green ocean!

On a rainy day like this one, a guy sure misses taking a dip in a clear green/blue ocean.

This summer I'm planning a trip to Algarve to enjoy the great sea they have over there, and maybe even make a visit to our friend ML.

The H8K2 seaplane variant was code named "Emily", and it served in almost any job conceivable for a seaplane, from bombing to transport and recon. 

This is another top-notch dio CB!

BT



WWII lomocotives & War Series nº 74 - by Carlos Briz

Big Bird - F-toys

Figures - Pendraken

(Class SW-2 locomotive - United States Transportation Corps)

What a perfect combination: horsepower vs. air power!

The B-17 "flying fortress" bomber is one of my favourite bombers of all time!

This piece of hardware also has some sort of iconic aura around it, since there were plenty of wartime tales related to the pounding these birds were able to take from the enemy and still manage to fly, and bring it's crew to their home base.

The US Transportation Corps performed many "miracles" during WWII.

One of them was the fast-paced rebuilding of the French railway network, after D-Day, allowing for a swift deployment of men and materiel.

That was heavy duty stuff!

BT

Post-WWII Locomotives - by Carlos Briz

Big Bird - F-toys

Figures - Pendraken

Vehicles - Spare box

(Class Köf II locomotive - German State Railways)

They're back!

The seaplanes, I mean. 

Check out another great dio brought to us by our friend CB, related to post-WWII Germany.

This Short S.25 Sunderland was nothing but "short". With a wingspan of about 35 metres (112 ft) it was one of the biggest flying boat used during WWII on the allied side.

This piece of hardware was also a major factor in the so-called battle of the Atlantic, where it proved to be a formidable adversary of the German U-Boats.

It's sturdy construction and ample defensive power made it also a difficult kill during an aerial dogfight, leading the Germans to nickname it the "flying porcupine".

Another day, another great dio, CB!

BT

WWII Locomotives & War Series nº 73 - by Carlos Briz

(Class ALN556 locomotive - Italian State Railways)

Here is a great a desert dio from CB, to bring up the heat!

And this time the "heat" is brought by a lot of fine Italian army WWII models.

As you can see (lower left bottom), even in the desert the metal scrap yard was a faithful companion of the side of the railway...

Check out that nice pair of self-propelled guns.

We want more CB!

BT

Orange Scenics Artwork (20mm cardboard buildings) - by Mário Laranja

Ok, this time it is all my fault!

That's right, JF has been nagging me for weeks now, trying to convince me to scribble out a few words in this post, but to no avail, since I've been really busy at work and I just could not bring myself around to it.

Sorry dude!

But since today it's PAYDAY, I am a little more cheerful!

Not that we (the portuguese) have many reasons to be cheerful about, since there seems to be a conspiracy around to deprive us of all our hard earned cash, with all those new taxes that seem to spring out of the blue nearly every day.

As we can see, ML is a guy that is always happy with the world, since he always brings out something great for us to check out!

That's right guys, this is all made of that versatile material that is in every guy's reach: paper.

I have a lot of surplus paper around my office ML, so be sure to drop by in case you need some raw material.

Where is the infantry, this time?

Oh, I see, they must be INSIDE the buildings...

This is another great job ML!

Do not forget to check out his outstanding website!

There you can see all the things you would like to be able to do, but that you can only reach with a wallet in you hand...or a credit card.

BT

WWII Locomotives & War Series nº 72 - by Carlos Briz

(Class GR.880 locomotive - Italian State Railways)

Holy Canoly!

What is the matter with you CB? 

Do you want to give us guys a heart attack or something?

Will you just CHECK-THIS-OUT!

I will never guess how you managed to balance that whole structure and I am sure everybody wants to know from WHERE that model came from...and do not tell me it's a paper model made by our friend ML...

This Italian landscape is a perfect setting for a coal mine.

From now on, I love coal mines...

When all you guys out there thought CB could not surprise you anymore, he brings another modelling masterpiece.

Well done CB!

BT

WWII Locomotives & War Series nº 71 - by Carlos Briz

Miniatures - Wargames-South

(Class BR E 94 locomotive - German State Railways)

Ok guys, this is a "drool-napkin-guaranteed-kind-of-dio"!

This time we have a urban war scenario, coupled with a lot of WWII British army hardware.

Check out how a bombed-out German building, with a locomotive inside it, looks like.

Maybe that artillery piece over there had a saying in the making-off of all this rubble...

CB: are you sick or something?

You must be, otherwise how can a guy cannot understand the reason why you send us only ONE dio each week!

BT

WWII Locomotives & War nº 70 - by Carlos Briz

Pithead Miniatures

 (Class E 18 locomotive - German State Railways)

CB is at it again!

This time he brings us a dio related to that wonderfull disaster that was the Operation Market Garden, during  the month of September of 1944.

In my book, this operation was a clear and very personal victory for the Red Devils, since these guys stood their ground alone, at the far end of the business end of the allied advance, and held against overwhelming odds (i.e. German tanks, artillery and so on...) armed only with light weapons.

Waho Mohammed!

While checking out this dio a guy can almost hear the Red Devils war cry!

What an awsome perspetive and placement of figures and materiel.

Gimme more CB!

BT

WWI Locomotives & War Series - by Carlos Briz

(Petrol tractor 20 Hp - British War Department Light Railway)

JF is always the same lazy dude!

This guy has several pics sent by CB in his mail box for days now, but is always delaying placing them in the blog for publication, and by doing this he is seriously limiting our followers right to check them out as soon as possible.

If I were you, I would complain about that...

Here we are, back to WWI and an ammo and fuel dump, organized by the British.

No horses in this dio, only horse power!

This is another very nice dio CB!

BT