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Slovak Shield Modelling Slovak Forces in Flames Of War

A Guide by JP Forsey and Wayne Turner

Modelling the Slovak Forces

The majority of the items needed to depict the Slovak mobile forces are available from the current Battlefront range.

Name
Code
LT-35
LT-38
LT-40
Panzer IIF
OAvz.30
20mm vz.36 AA
37mm vz.37 AT
45mm obr 1942 AT
75mm vz.15 Gun
100mm vz.14/19 howitzer
100mm vz.30 Howitzer
10.5cm leFH18 Howitzer
10.5cm vz.35 gun
88mm vz.37 AA
Praga T-9 Tractor
Field Car
Praga RV truck
Praga 3-ton truck
GE020 Panzer 35(t)
GE022 Panzer 38(t)
GE022 Panzer 38(t) without the main gun 
GE011 Panzer IIF
RO301 Tatra vz. 30
IT160 20/65 autocannon
US500 M3 37mm gun (x2)- suitable for conversion
SU500 45mm obr 1937, 1942 gun (x2)- use Italian crew
GSO517 7.5cm GebK15 gun – use Italian crew
IT580 100/17 Howitzer (x2)
GE569 10cm FK30(t) Howitzer – use Italian crew
GE571 10.5cm leF18 how (x2) – use Italian crew
RO585 Schneider 105mm M36 gun (x2) – use Italian crew
IT551 88/56 Gun
SU273 Stalinets tractor (x2)
GE413 Horch Kfz15 car (x2 resin)
HU420 Botond truck (x2 resin)
IT431 Dovunque 3-ton truck (x2 resin)
Infantry Miniatures
Italian IT701, IT702, IT704, IT705, IT709 & ISO101 Italian Artillery Group. Romanian RO704 is also armed with the correct vz.37 (ZB-53) machine-gun.

Infantry

The excellent Italian infantry range provides the necessary figures to depict Slovak troops, who wore the Khaki Czech uniform of tunic, trousers and puttees with simple cross webbing.

The Czech helmet had a straight lower rim, rather than the dip over the ears on the Italian type, but these can be easily filed away to produce a flat rim. Side caps resemble the Italian Bustina. Some figures from the Russian range are also suitable, particularly artillery crews, as high boots were worn as well as puttees.

Infantry gun crew with a 75mm vz.15 gun
Slovak Helmet

One of the more distinctive features of Slovak troops was that they painted a broad mid-blue band around the helmet rim and a prominent Slovakian cross in white on each side in an effort to distinguish them from Khaki clad Soviet troops.

The Czech manufactured vz.26 LMG closely resembled the Bren gun, with a top mounted magazine, so purists may wish to remove the side magazine on the Breda LMGs and place it on top of the weapon. Note that SMG’s were relatively rare apart from a limited number of early Czech designs (vz.24) that resemble a wooden stocked Sten gun (side magazine) in appearance. 

vz.26 Light Machine-gun

Medium machine guns consisted of the venerable Schwarzlose vz.24, with water cooled barrel and the much more modern vz.37, essentially a BESA machine gun (common on British tanks) adapted for use firing from a tripod. 

vz.37 machine-gun
75mm vz.15 Infantry Gun

Guns

The 75mm vz.15 Infantry Gun is the 7.5cm GebK15 Skoda gun as use by the German mountain troops, as well as many other nations. Use German GSO517 to model this gun.

The 37mm vz.37 anti-tank guns are quite distinctive (see image above), but the US 37mm or German 37mm could be substituted with suitable modifications to match. 

Painting Guide

Slovakian vehicles used the Czech pre-war 3 tone (ochre, brown and green) camouflage pattern or an overall olive drab for armoured vehicles built before the German takeover and standard German Panzer grey or an olive drab for vehicles provided after 1940. 

Right: Sample of a Italian Fucilieri painted as a Slovak. The only conversion is to file the lip off the helmet rim and file the curves over the ears back a bit.

The Infantry uniforms are depicted in the Haythornthwaite World Army Uniforms of World War 2 title which is commonly available, as well as a brief description in the Mollo title covering the same topic. The relevant Osprey title for more detail is the Men At Arms volume 131, “Germany’s Eastern Front Allies 1941-45”.

A great deal of information and uniform plates are also contained in G Kliment’s “Hitler’s First Ally: The Armed forces of the Slovak State 1939-45”.

Czechoslovak Armored Fighting Vehicles 1918-1948 by Charles Kliment and Vladimir Francev also contains useful material. 

Sample of a Italian Fucilieri painted as a Slovak.
Sample of a Italian Fucilieri painted as a Slovak.

Paint Colours

Item Colours of War Colour 
Uniform Comrade Khaki
Helmet Sherman Drab
Helmet band Infantry Blue
Helmet cross White
Boots Black
Belts, ammo pouches Dark Leather
Canvas webbing, bags Military Khaki
Tanks and Guns Tankovy Green
Tank camouflage Sicily Yellow
Tank camouflage Boot Brown

LT vz. 40

LT vz. 40

Slovak AA gun

Slovak 37mm vz. 37 anti-tank gun
Slovak Forces in Flames Of War  
For more information about the history of Slovak forces on the Eastern Front, check out JP Forsey's informative article here...

You can now get Intelligence Briefings for Early-war Slovak Forces in Flames Of War Digitalavailable through iTunes for iPad...

For a preview of the Slovak Briefings, check out these links: 
Obrený Rota (Armoured Company) Preview...

Motorizovaná Pechota Rota (Motorised Infantry Company) Preview... 

Flames Of War Digital
Forces Of War

The Obrený Rota and Motorizovaná Pechota Rota are also available through Forces Of War, the Flames Of War online company builder.

http://forces.flamesofwar.com


Last Updated On Friday, February 27, 2015 by James at Battlefront