Introduction

Accurate Armour are 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 External Corner Set. Designed to fit with their Anti Tank Sea Wall Sections I reviewed Here on Armorama.

There were many types of wall type obstacles used. I’ve borrowed a text from the Lone Sentry website to illustrate this, further reading is recommended.

”At many points along the western European coast the Germans have built concrete walls to serve as antitank and antipersonnel obstacles. Such walls usually are placed to obstruct the ends of thoroughfares and other easy exits from beaches and harbors, and to block the approaches to key positions back of the beaches. Their dimensions are from 6 to 8 feet in thickness, and up to 20 feet in height. In various places in Belgium the Germans have installed behind these walls several types of antitank barriers which were removed from the Belgian defense lines of 1940. Both stationary and portable flame-throwers may also be encountered at these barriers.

Walls installed across the full width of a street are 6 to 8 feet high and may be from 8 to 11 feet thick. They are reinforced with concrete bars, the ends of which protrude from the tops of the walls to serve as pickets for barbed wire. The backs of these walls are generally sloped and may have fire steps from which to operate antitank guns. Walls of these same dimensions are sometimes constructed in V shapes at beach exits, especially on open beaches outside town limits. The point of the V is toward the sea.”

Packaging

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 three sections of anti-tank sea wall making up an external corner of a wall and three sections of concrete walkway. The parts were packed in shredded paper for added protection with the walk ways being cellotaped together.

the kit

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 three 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

Three handy sections of what appears to me to be accurate representation of one of the types of anti tank wall corners that can be found in the Atlantic defenses. These corners can be found at the entrance to slipways and around fortified harbor areas. Both the shape and size of the wall sections look to be correct, although reading the data in Lone Sentry the thickness and height varied greatly.

I am no expert on the Atlantic Wall defenses so whether 3ft in 1/35 scale is an acceptable thickness I cannot really say, but these pieces remind me of the anti tank wall corners I saw along the beaches in Jersey and in and around the small harbors and numerous slipway exits.This is none the less a useful diorama item. My advice would be to check your references for the type of anti tank wall section you need and purchase accordingly. These are very handy sections for getting the correct shape of the corner styles used in constructing the wall and around harbor defenses and exits onto the beach.

Normal precautions apply when working with resin.