Introduction

Accurate Armour is well known for their excellent range of 1/35 scale vehicles, but perhaps not so well know for the diorama accessories. They have quite an extensive range of German D Day beach obstacles as well as a small range of British Sea Defenses. This is a brief look at their German anti-tank sea wall set, "D Day Anti Tank Sea Wall Sections."

kit overview

The set comes packaged in a sturdy professional box, with the makers name on the side and a product description on the top. The box top depicts what you get inside, namely two sections of anti-tank sea wall and two sections of concrete walkway. The wall builds into a length of 11.5 inches, although the site info describes this as 11.4 inches or 29cm if you prefer. That means that each section is just over 16ft in length in 1/35 scale. The parts were packed in shredded paper for added protection with the walk ways being Cellotaped together.

kit details

Cast in a light grey resin the wall sections show the layered build marks of the concrete pour and some damage in the form of bullet marks on the front side. The detail of the frontal concrete sections is very nicely done. The height of the wall is 85mm approx or 9.5ft in 1.35 Scale. The shape of the wall gives it a thicker base area, slanting in to a thinner top width with the commonly seen thick round edge over hang at the top. At the base the depth is 26mm, 3ft in 1/35 scale narrowing to 20mm, 2.25ft just under the lip. The lip is 28mm in depth, just slightly over 3ft in 1/35 scale. The rear of the wall is hollow so you would need to back fill some ‘earth/sand’ into that area or in-fill it with plaster if you need to show an exposed rear.

There are two sections of concrete walkway, one for each part of the wall. These to have nice slab like detail, but no indication is given as to what height they might need to be fixed to the rear of the wall but looking at what references I have these are really optional depending on your setting.

The pour stub should you wish to remove it will require a sharp Razor Saw and a fair bit of effort, this is some of the toughest resin I’ve tackled either that or I need a new blade!

conclusion

Two handy sections of what appear to me to be accurate representations of one of the types of anti tank wall that can be found in the Atlantic defenses. Both the shape and size of the wall sections look to be correct, although reading the data at Lone Sentry the thickness and height varied greatly.

There were many types of wall type obstacles used. Refer to the excellent information at the link below to Lone Sentry's website:

Lone Sentry

I am no expert on the Atlantic Wall defences so whether 3ft in 1/35 scale is an acceptable thickness I cannot really say, but these pieces remind me of the anti tank walls I saw along the beaches in Jersey and in and around the small harbors and numerous slipway exits.

Anti tank walls were build both on the beaches and in land often to block a natural exit so it is not unusual to see pictures of them standing in single or double sections on their own. I searched through my selection of D Day pictures but I couldn’t find one with this particular style of Anti Tank Wall, which doesn’t mean this type is not there just that I couldn’t find a good picture for reference.

This is none the less a useful diorama item. My advice would be to check you references for the type of anti tank wall you need and purchase accordingly.
Normal precautions apply when working with resin.