Dropping in to take a look/see at the progress.
Cody, the Sherman Firefly is looking very good. One of my favorite Shermans.
Alan, the figure work is great!
Keith, this is the first itme I've seen this, OMGosh. I think you've captured the intensity of Arnhem very well with the layout. I like the destroyed SPW from Graebner's ill fated assault, the Stug III from StuAbt280, and the croutched Red Devil from Frost's battalion. The Witches Cauldron.
Yeahwiggie, The Horsa is looking great, Very inspirational scracthbuilding. Nice work.
Looking forward to updates from all.

Hi Guys,

i know the Hamilcar could carry a Bren Carrier. Were any of these landed during Market Garden? I was wondering what they used to tow the 75mm pack and also where these were deployed?

Any thoughts.

Al

Alan, as far as I know no Brencarriers were used by airborne troops during Market garden. All transport was being done by jeeps, at least by the ones that survived the landings.

Here's my progress so far;
I've had quite a lot of trouble getting the windows into the fuselage. Also the glue used reacted with the plastic and dried to a very uneven surface. Sanding that down proved nearly impossible, because the hull is hollow and gave way when pressure was applied during sanding.
Another big problem I ran into was the painting. I somehow had the thinning and pressure set wrong, causing an uneven laher of paint. The worst part however was getting those "happy, bright red lines" covered. The paint did not adhere and seemed to run of the ink!
I had to clean the part up using Tamiya's thinner, which resulted in ugly streaks in the paintwork. I treid camouflaging that by added "chalk" textst often seen on vehicles. These draw away the attention from the main problem.
Here're some pictures:

Thanks Ron, that's what i thought.

Gliders coming along well, I like the slogans. Just a thought as it is belly down should it not tilt up or down a bit?

Thanks again.

Al

I remember reading that they did have Hamilcars involved in the landings but few landed with crew, cargo , and glider intact because of the soft nature of the Dutch soil due to the high water table. I remember reading about one what landed but sunk into the ground causing it to flip over, killing the crew and damaging what ever it had inside.

I had the same though. It almost looks too perfect. However, maybe the pilot was just very good.

Anyway, it is an excellent idea and the layout is good. Looking forward to see more.

Does anyone now what the Weather in Arnhem was like during the Battle ? I am just wondering is it considered Early Fall in September in Holland ? Thanks milvehfan

Hi mvf,

from the pictures I've seen most of the trees still seem to be well covered in folage, so i would think that the leaves would just be starting to turn a little. There doesn't seem to be much leaf litter around although with B & W pics it's alwasy difficult to tell.

On another point, a couple of photographs taken by LCpl Reg McFarland of the Divisional SIgnals Unit show Bren Carriers in Arnhem around the arera of St Elizabeth Hospital in Hulkesteinseweg near the junction with Utrechtseweg. during the fighting on the 19th Sep 44.

So some carriers did make it in the Hamilcars. Data from Op Marker Garden Vol 2 ''Then and Now' page 426.

Al

A useful site about the operation: www.marketgarden.com

Am I the only one building here or what???
Come on, troops!
Move it!!!


Just kiddin'!


My thoughts on weather and nature:
All the info indicates that the weather was good; no rain and not cold. That early in september some trees would start to change colour, but retein their foilage.

As for my build;
You are correct. The glider does look to neat and undamaged, but I thought that would be "one build to far"!

I have been working on the figures and did some basework.
I painted them in a light colour to check for any irregularities and fixed those. I added some netting and camouflage to the helmets, too.
The figures themselves are no longer OOTB. I changed and added equipment and the cigaretgiving medis does the same now with a canteen. That's healthier and better looking!

This is what they look like now;
Overall look;


commandgroup;


medic group;


The box with the kneeling figure will turn out like this:


And the base like this;


comments are welcomed, as allways.

Yeahwiggie, the dio is really coming together, and I like what you've planned for the medic. Nice touch with the research and photos. looking forward to seeing more progress uppdates.

Hi Ron,

Coming on well, the troops are starting to look good. You could do with a few more stores around the glider.

On the equipment question I invested in a copy of Op Market Garden Then and Now. Stuff left behind included, 557 x gliders, 544 x jeeps, 445 x trailers, 60 x 6pdr AT guns, 13 x 17pdr AT guns, 13 x Quad Tractors (I think these were Morris), 22 x pack 75mm howitzers, 2 x polsen guns, 18 X Bren carriers and 248 x MC plus a Clarke Crawler Bulldozer.

Working on this one at the moment:





It's highly unlikely that I will get finsihed so I'll build a small side dio of the Verlinden Battle for Arnhem set so that at least I can complete a campaign lol, lol.

Cheers

Al

what I managed to get done today, the front bits and pieces,

I'm not sure how to do the suspension units, if i should build them first as sub-assemblies, paint them separately, then attach them or just build them and attach them before painting, I've had a bad experience with attaching them before painting.

And I have come up with my diorama idea, hopefully Miniarts new British tank crew is ready before the campaign is over. I think Dragons US infantry at the Rhine can be converted into post Normandy US paras with a little work and research.

Nice layout of the scene, Ron. It really looks busy and the glider frames it very well.

Cody, That Sherman looks to be coming along very well. I normally leave off the wheels for painting AFVs. Especially for the Shermans big suspension units.
Looking forward to see what you can do with the figures and a little scratch building.

A useful feature on how to make parachutes has been posted here


Excellent progress Ron, looking forward to see that one finished.

I have the three figures build, and will start to paint them soon. I'm still not decided on the setting, although a lack of space and the right building is making it likely that I will go for the woods around Wolfheze, with or with out a railway crossing.

These are two of the figures I'm using.

Hi Cody,

You'll probably find it easier to paint them off the kit and then attach them. I like you idea of a mix of US and British Troops (meeting up). The Sherman is coming along well.

Good luck with your idea, I haven't fixed one yet but it's getting there.

Henk,

I take it those are the Wee Friends Paratroopers?

Al

Hi Guys,

1st of the jeep builds almost done:



I'm slowly developing an idea of what to do with them!!!

Al

Thanks for the kind words, gentlemen!

Alan, are you building, without actually knowing why, how or what?
Challenging approach!!

My build sometimes really puts up a fight and I get the feeling it's a build from hell..... Maybe that's what I'll call it; "TO HELL AND BACK!"...

Anyway, I have added parts of the landinggear, as someone suggested, to fill some empty spaces. It is made up from leftovers, like plastic rod and an old paintbrush. I also scratched the medicbox.


I also did the vegetation, using real moss from the woods. Afterwards (off course) I found out that the species found on roofs etc. is much better, because that's shorter and has a stiffer structure.
After I had the basic vegetation and sand added, I fixed it all by using hairspray... and that's where disaster struck! Again!!
All the parts I had handpainted, such as disasterarea no.1 and the landinggear turned a yellowish white! Using the airbrush was not possible anymore, so I had to handpaint it again, creating a differance in colour and loosing the white text.


In order to avoid it ending up on a wall with a bang, I set the dio aside and took a figure to see if I could somehow replicate the Denisonsmock camopattern. I tried applying it with diluted acrylics, using random strokes....

This is just the basic paiting. The real deal will be added.

After a cooling down I took the base again and did some more work on that and this is how it turned out so far.





The purple turned out wrong and the medic's box is to large, but hey, I handled worse!!

Hi Ron,

Coming along well, I like your smock and the pruple. nice colour. Starting to look good. The glider is looking good to.

Bad luck on the hair spray, but you have done a good salvage job.

I had a plan, that was to build a few figures, then I realised it was a dio camapign lol, lol.

I have been reading up and studying a lot of pics so I have the basis of an idea forming up. I understand the campaign runs to December so I shall press on. If I don't finish it will have been fun taking part.

Al

Last pic of the day.

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Now I'm getting bloody annoyed trying to post progress pics

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