"Polsten 20mm Cannons for LTV-4's" Topic

Does anybody know of a manufacturer of 15mm scale Polsten 20mm A.A. guns. I want to mount some on eight LTV-4's and I really would like to avoid having to scratch build them all! See the picture link below for an idea of what I want to find.
link
Polstens were produced as single, double, triple and quadruple mounts so kits may exist in 15mm which I am not aware of. Any kit in any configuration would be useful. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Rod Robertson.

It's an expensive way to go, but the single Oerlikon on the Battlefront 20mm portee (code BR 181) can be built without the CMP chassis. Only slight differences between the Oerlikon and its Polsten copy.

Allen

Oddly enough, I had this conversation with a friend yesterday! I too had to scratch-build the things. I haven't heard anything, but are FoW perhaps bringing out the ground-mounted Polsten amongst their new Market-Garden stuff?

QRF are usually very amenable to new product suggestions.

As it happens, the friend in question is designing a range of 15mm LVTs and it will include British variants – but it's likely to be a while before they appear.

Mark,

From what i had been told on the grapevine, you can whistle for a 20mm for the Para's, not enough possible sales to warrant a model.

Remember the D-1 issue a whole LAA Regt missing from ORBATS.

I'm sure QRF are looking at them, im sure i sent Martin a photo of one.

You can get them in 10mm

Yeah, Martin is the friend mentioned above. He's going to do a Polsten to go on the Buffalo IV. We're also scouring photos for Buffalo MG gun-shield variants and I've also given him the photo of the LVT-4(F) Sea Serpent.

So as he's doing the Polsten anyway, he's quite amenable to producing the ground-mount for it, but it's then up to QRF to decide whether they want to put it into production.

Ah yes, I remember that ridiculous circular argument about British Airborne AA guns:

They wouldn't put them in the army list or produce a model because they declared that British AA guns weren't normally deployed forward with the troops.

Of course we know that they weren't deployed forward because there wasn't a credible air threat. If there had been a threat, they would most certainly have been deployed up-front.

However, FoW allows non-historical match-ups, which means that you CAN easily be faced with a strong air threat. In which case you'd want the AA guns up with you…

And round it went…

Allen:
Thanks. I'll contact the folks at Battlefront Miniatures and see if I can get a special order of just the cannons.
R. Mark:
If Battlefront is not cooperative I will drop Geoff (the Lawyer) a line and see if QRF is willing to make some. Is your mysterious friend willing to take pre-orders; if so, I might be interested!
BF Andy:
I have no idea what the D-1 issue was (is) but Lt. Anti-Aircraft Reg't seems clear enough. Who is Martin and how does one get in touch with him? 10mm would be tiny little Polstens for my 15mm Buffalos.
Rod Robertson.

Hi Rod,

Sorry for causing confusion: our friend Martin Small is a freelance model designer – he's designing LVTs for QRF at present.

If/When he does the Polsten, it'll be through QRF. Obviously, QRF will have to decide if it's worth their while, but they're not usually shy about producing obscure models – and there is a distinct lack of a 20mm Oerlikon-type gun available in 15mm.

If you can't wait that long, Martin does occasionally do scratch-builds for people, though it might be expensive.

There is one other option if you can handle a bit of scale creep – there are a number of suppliers of 1/96 Oerlikon guns for Naval modellers – I got a couple from here link for some LCM conversions I was making a year or so ago. Lovely castings, if not cheap.

Good point! In the US, Bluejacket does a 1/96 (1/8" scale) 20mm deck gun for $3.19:

link

It may not be as nice as John Haynes'.

Allen

Ooo that's a good point – I need some of those for my LCTs.

BF haven't included 20mm AA in any of their FOW British Para lists so would be very unlikely to do a model.

All sounds good to me.

Principle visual difference is that the Polsten had a big box magazine on top while the Oerlikon had an off-set drum magazine as issued. IIRC the magazines were supposed to be interchangeable.

The Australian Army Museum at Singleton has a Polsten with box magazine & infantry style ground mount on display inside – it was apparently used for airfield defence by the Army on a number of SE Asian deployements.

Thank-you gents. It looks like I'll be scratch building them if Allen's BF suggestion and Mark's QRF suggestion don't pan out. Huw R. and Allen those are great naval accessory pages, thank-you again! Bsrlee thanks for the polsten design differences. Alas if I have to scratch build them, the biggest design difference will be the fact that the polsten auto-cannon will be the one glued to me!
Rod Robertson.

The Polsten was supposed to be a cheaper version of the Oerlikon, as stated the Polsten had a 20 round box magazine wheer as teh Oerlikon had a 60 round box.

The Polsten could also use captured German 20 MM ammo where as the Oerlikon could not. The Hispano Suiza was also similar to the Oerlikon.

The Polsten was used by the 1st A/L Recce sqn of 1st A/B Div, and the 20mm Hispano Suiza was used by the LAA Regt and A/L Bdes.