28mm late war British & Germans

[Ash]

Thanks Rick. Much appreciate all the helpful info being shared here.

[Harry Faversham]

In such cases you can put them on the side of the pit and use them as normal,  it's not accurate but when firing at enemy who are very close....

The enemy were very close when that famous piccy was taken. One of the mortar crew, mentioned the angle of the tube, in a subsequent interview.

 

[Ash]

This might be of interest:

https://www.liberationroute.com/pl/pois/676/the-mortar-pit

[Ash]

Anyone happen to know what the correct bridging weight number is for a Sherman Firefly V C ?

[Jemima Fawr]

30 or 33, depending on which source you read or which photo you look at.  Both were used, though I would expect all Fireflies in a regiment (or brigade) to be marked with the same weight class. 

1st Polish Armoured Division, for reasons only known to themselves, marked theirs with 40!

[Ash]

30 or 33, depending on which source you read or which photo you look at.  Both were used, though I would expect all Fireflies in a regiment (or brigade) to be marked with the same weight class. 

1st Polish Armoured Division, for reasons only known to themselves, marked theirs with 40!

Marvelous. I found pics of various standard Shermans with a 30, thought a Firefly might be a tad heavier.
The decal sheet I have has 30, 31, 33, then 35, 36 & 37..! Hence the confusion.

I think I'll go with the 33, unless I trash the decal, then I can have 30 as a back up.

Thanks

[Jemima Fawr]

Yeah, they were a bit random.  I seem to remember 31 being used by someone, but can't find the specifics.  Re 35, 36 & 37; I have no idea, but someone probably used them somewhere!

I was wondering if they were perhaps used by Sherman Ib (105mm) or Sherman IIa (76mm), but all the examples I can find of those tanks simply have the standard Sherman 30.

[Jemima Fawr]

Just occurred to me that the higher numbers were possibly for the Sherman Crab flail?

From a bit of reading, the standard weight number for Sherman V was actually 33, with Vc Firefly being increased in September 1944 to 35, but there are countless photos showing 30!  Weirdly, I then find lots of bog-standard Sherman I belonging to 33 Armd Bde painted as Class 33 when they should be Class 30!

This may be due to the fact that divisional REs were primarily geared toward building Class 30 bridges, which in turn were over-engineered and therefore more than capable of taking a Sherman.  It was in nobody's interest therefore' to 'disallow' Shermans from using Class 30 bridges.  By 1945 the divisional RE TO&E had been modified to build Class 40 bridges as standard and that may explain why we see Polish Fireflies in 1945 carrying 40.

It's certainly a confusing subject...  I remember another discussion where the Canadians adopted 5 as the standard weight class for Carriers, as when loaded with all the crap that troops brought with them, they could often be closer to Class 5 than their official Class 2! 

[Ash]

My only attempt at a universal / Bren Carrier, I just added a random round yellow circle decal to it (no clue what it represented) with a rather bold 40.
Thankfully it was pointed out that would be somewhat heavy for a Carrier. Turned out that should have gone on the Churchill..!

Higher number for the Crab sounds like good logic.

I managed to attach the 33 without breaking it.

[.:Gunslinger:.]

Also added some range thingies to the Arnhem mortar pit:

Fantastic work! The groundwork and vegetation just look so realistic and nice, the roots sticking out of the sides of the pit are an excellent addition!

How did you make the bushes (big and small) ?

[Ash]

Fantastic work! The groundwork and vegetation just look so realistic and nice, the roots sticking out of the sides of the pit are an excellent addition!

How did you make the bushes (big and small) ?

Cheers, glad you like it.

Not really a lot to it; tall plants are from Green Stuff World called 'Tall Shrubbery', the bushes are that rubberised horsehair stuff (looks like coconut fiber covered in a thin latex), bit of spray glue then dunked in flock. No need to even add paint...

[Ash]

Finished the Commando to Airborne Vickers team.







The last bloke with Tommy Gun will get added to the very small SAS group.






Nice big paint splat on his backside, put that down to Mk I eyeball failure...

[Rickf]

Must have been getting a bit warm for him to lay his smock on the deck, cracking little detail on a lovely piece mate.

[Ash]

Just a bit of fun. That bloke didn't really look 'baggy' enough, and has a lot of straps. The loader has pretty baggy sleeves, so looked the part smock wise.
Plus I had a left over lump of uncured Apoxie Sculpt, so thought I'd have another go at making a jacket...

Here's the Sherman Firefly. Tried making a tarp out of tissue paper, look a bit crap so hid it with a camo net.

[CapnJim]

Now, that is a Firefly!  Well done!