Enough of true scale modelling. I have managed to slap some more paint on my Hungarian troops, not because they have a battle coming up, but because they have been shamefully neglected since their last appearance in 2019 in the southern DNEPR. The following pictures show them before final inking and glossing (I refuse to call the process ‘contrast painting’).
Figures are Peter Pig WW1 and WW2 Germans, some with Zeltbahn.
Officers are a mix of Italian, Spanish civil war and Austrian. The armour is a QRF Nimrod, Toldi, and Butler’s Printed Models Csaba.
The truck is a Syborg 3d Print and the gun a 1/76 Airfix 6pdr heavily camouflaged, pretending to be a beute 10.5cm gun of indeterminate description.
My sole foray to Hungary was a trip to Budapest with the lovely Mrs K. The Schizophrenic Museum of Military History reflected Hungary’s troubled past in the path of successive bigger neighbours’ military steamrollers. It was all there in the museum: The cannon balls half embedded in the walls marking the high tide of Ottoman expansion and recapture of Buda in 1686, The Danube Flotilla, the failed Hungarian war of Independence in 1848-49, The Soviet years and afterwards. But what mostly caught my eye was a series of exuberant oil paintings of the Hungarian Air Force fighting the Soviets during World War Two. No graphic details of Soviet pilots baling out with burning parachutes or exploding ammunition convoys were spared. Alas no pictures emerge online. The English translation read, “Fliers from the ultra far right period of Hungary’s history”, whereas the German translation was simply “Unsere heldenisch Flieger” (our heroic pilots).
To my knowledge Nierhorster’s PhD Thesis is still the gold standard for information on the Hungarian armed forces. See the reference sidebar for the link.
I was expecting to be called out for not mentioning Hadrian’s wall or the Berlin Wall in my last post, but seem to have got away with it. 🙂
Lucky you. When I was in Budapest for a weekend the museum was closed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My commiserations, Paul.
I had a similar experience in the Palace of Potsdam, having gone to see and photograph the Kaiser’s garden trench layout. I had come across it briefly on a previous visit, with no camera, only to find on my return that it had been buried for conservation until it could be restored. On inquiry, the droll comment was “no playing war for you today” 😦
Regards, Chris.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They look great- the Hungarian Army is always interesting given their position in WW2.
Cheers,
Pete.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just needs varnish, Pete. Where have I heard that before?
Regards, Chris.
LikeLike
Nice to see Hungarians, Chris! 🙂 Not sure if mine will ever see the light of day! I have also been to the Budapest Museum of Military History and enjoyed it (back in 1987). Was surprised to see German soldiers on the streets in the Castle District, but they were making a WW2 film!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was surprised by how widely German was spoken, which was handy as not many Hungarians spoke English at the time. This came about as Hungary was one of the few places that West Germans could visit their East German relatives without a visa.
Regards, Chris.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Since the museum was quiet-ish when I visited, I ended getting a guided tour by one of the museum staff who didn’t speak English, but my GCSE German was just about good enough for me to follow what she was saying and it’d have been rude of me to refuse the offer of a tour!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great work, and isn’t 15mm “true scale” modelling!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ve heard most scales claim “The One True Scale” as their own, and even WH40K claims true scale Astartes after dedicated fans repeatedly insisted on adding plugs to the Diddy Marines to put height into their legs and torsos.
I should come clean and just admit that 1:1 True Scale modelling is just DIY! 🙂
Regards, Chris
LikeLiked by 1 person