Friday, 1 July 2011

Il Gigio Pass - WW2 Airsoft event - part 2

As promised in my earlier post, here are some 'in action' photos taken at this event.  Photo credits as per the first post.
Me manning the '42, in conversation with one of the soldats soldiers.  Martin is in the centre, chatting to 'our' Feldgendarme (the owner of the MG42).
A thing of beauty.  The MG42 that is!
MG gunner's eye view of the field of fire.
British troops moving up a very Italianate zig-zag path on the opposite side of the quarry.
Martin was our designated communication operative.  We memorised three German messages:  "Hilfe, hilfe!" [Help, help!]; "Der Schwere Panzer Abteillung, schnell!" [The heavy tank battalion - quickly!] and "Al ist kaput!" [All is, er, kaput!].
Later in the day - relaxing while the Brits attack another position.  
A more authentically 1944 version of the same scene.
They were the enemy but they looked pretty good!  The Military Policemen were particularly striking.
The assembled multitudes in front of the German command post after the end of the game.
A nice touch was the souvenir mug presented to every player at the end of the day.

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8 comments:

  1. Mojo1 July 2011 at 12:57

    Great! This looks like a lot of fun!
    Where's that MG42 from?
    Hehe, your "German messages" are funny ;)
    It's "Die Schwere Panzer Abteilung, schnell!" ("Die" is expressed like the character "d" ;-) )
    But I really can't figure out what you want to say with "Al ist kaput!" :)

    Nevertheless, great stuff you put up there!
    Cheers, Mojo

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  2. Simon Shakewell1 July 2011 at 15:57

    The 1:1 scale figures don't seem very realistic - I doubt they'd win any painting competititons, and the casting seems a bit rough. I'm sure I saw some flash.

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  3. Tim Gow1 July 2011 at 18:10

    Mojo
    It is indeed fun! The MG42 was built by one of the players. It has inner workings purloined from a number of Airsoft guns. Thanks for the German hints - they'll come in handy next time.

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  4. Tim Gow1 July 2011 at 18:12

    Simon Shakewell
    The painting on the MG gunner was particularly poor, but all those press studs on the FJR smock were securely fastened thus preventing any 'flash' incidents...

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  5. Martin Rapier3 July 2011 at 16:43

    Yes, the MG42s are based on replica ones manufactured by Zib militaria - a steel outer shell, wooden butt etc but in this case with Airsoft internals.

    One thing of note for budding painters is just how much the 'shiny' bits (belt buckes, FG gorgets etc) show up in the final picture. You can see why they painted over them in real life!

    It was a long, hot and dusty day (coupled with great big muddy puddles), but great fun. In the event I didn't get much chance to use our stock German phrases as the first British assault just ran right over our position. We then conducted what seemed to be an endless series of futile counterattacks, only to be mown down repeatedly by Bren gun fire.

    Eventually we retook the hill (as evidenced by the later photos), but mainly because the British had all gone off to attack somewhere else!

    Cheers
    Martin

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  6. Wg Cdr Luddite6 July 2011 at 17:31

    I can translate "Ali ist kaput" -

    it means another Arab has just surrendered

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  7. Tim Gow6 July 2011 at 17:43

    Martin R
    Thanks. So a great victory for the Germans then?

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  8. Tim Gow6 July 2011 at 17:45

    Wg Cdr Luddite
    Very PC - but we weren't that far south!

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