One Month Challenge: COMPLETED

[GazzaS]

Hello friends,

     At my club's meeting yesterday I got to decide next month's display topic.  The usual guy that does it wasn't there.  We'd just done "Eastern Front" so I blithely said "Artillery".  I know one fella who attends regularly is artillery mad.  But I don't have any artillery built.  So, I must build a fieldpiece along with a credible base and complete it by August 6th, our next meeting.

 When I was a boy of 12 I saw my first WWII documentary.  On it, I saw and LeFH 18 firing and I knew then that I must model one, one day.  Sadly, I never found one kitted until I ran into this AFV Club kit.

I started working on it today.  I completed most of the gun, breech, and recoil assembly.

And the suspension and braking system:

As well as some other parts to paint before main assembly.

Now...  a single gun on a piece of turf wouldn't be too difficult in a month...   but it would lack some context.  So, I've decided to recruit a crew.

I know...  Infantry.  I won these at the club raffle over a year ago.  The only artillerymen I have belong to another kit.  So I don't want to strip it.

So my plan...   my hope...  is to work these figures in with homespun ammo and other accoutrements and make a credible scenario...  in one month.

Wish me luck!

 

 

 

[Peterpools]

Gaz

Nice start on the artillery piece and the figures aren't going to be easy to work them into your diorama setting. Will be along for the ride 

 

[Martinnfb]

[Kaireckstadt]

Nice start Gary! Will follow this closely! 

[GazzaS]

12 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Gaz

Nice start on the artillery piece and the figures aren't going to be easy to work them into your diorama setting. Will be along for the ride 

 

Peter...  being a former USMC artilleryman...   I have a lot of experience here.  An artilleryman's day is spent with squatting, stooping, bending, and picking stuff up.  Shells, powder charges, tools, and everything else has to be picked up from the ground.  Very little work is done off the back of a truck.  And there are no shelves or benches to make life easier.  It's dirty, demanding, physical work.

[Peterpools]

Gaz

Got ya ... 

 

[GazzaS]

G'day gents and those who don't want to be called gents.

I only did some minor surgery on this kit.  Interestingly, AFV Club give you a full set of pioneer tools for making a dio where the tools are not attached to the piece.  But that wasn;t my plan.  I wanted to make a dio where they are in the process of firing without actually at the second of firing.  Tomake this plausible, the aiming posts had to come off the gun.  To do this required some gentle surgery.

I just cut and drilled away the actual aiming posts, leaving their brackets ready to glue to the trails...  one on each side.

I also separated the ramming staff from it's brackets, too.  Those I replaced with brass.

And today, I completed the gun.

Due to the complicated construction, I did a lot of priming before final assembly.  I didn't want any of that yellow plastic showing up.  There are only three decals for the kit.   Two firing charts on the left of the frontal guard, and a large letter on the right.

One of the cool things about AFV club is that they don't seem to simplify structures overly much.  So, that once you have finished a vehicle undercarriage, or the lower parts of this field piece, you feel like you know the equipment as much as you can without actually reading a manual or applying a wrench.

The next step was starting the crew.

That white dude on the far side of the gun is actually meant to be Rommel.  I needed him there because all of the other dudes are bent or stooping to some degree.  The guy by the gunsight is just the right height to be looking into the eyepiece...   which he would do after every shot to ensure that the gun was still laid on the aiming posts.  -They still to that today, but have more modern aiming devices.

And three of the other guys will be used handling ammo and powder.

So... let's look at Rommel.  In his trademark Afrika Korps feldbluse with riding trousers.  Definitely out of place where everyone else is wearing winter great coats.

So, I made him a great coat too.

The back side looks worse, and I'll have to wait for the Magic Sculpt to harden before I can work on it more.  I tried on the first go to use Green Stuff.  It just hardened way too fast.

I also have to make some shells, powder cartridges, and ammo crates.  Should be fun...   perhaps.  That reminds me that I have some PAK 75 shells which can provide me with powder canisters if I can't get them right myself.

By the way...   Rommel isn't flipping you off...    he's going to have a just-fired powder canister in his hands, savoring the warmth through his glove before he tosses it away.

[Martinnfb]

Alahu Akhbar and all that jazz   Syria 2015

 

[GazzaS]

6 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Alahu Akhbar and all that jazz   Syria 2015

 

Interesting!  I wonder how in the hell they get ammo for it.

[Peterpools]

Gaz

WOW. I can't believe how much I just learned about field artillery - way to go! Nice work on re-working the details, as well as the start on the figures. Thoroughly enjoying following your build and thought process as well.

 

[Martinnfb]

Surrendered ex-Wehrmacht leFH 18M howitzers were simply designated M18 in the post-WWII Yugoslav military. The M18/43F was a Yugoslav project that modernized the leFH 18M carriage and also modified the breechblock assembly to make it compatible with American 105mm shells (it could continue to use WWII German ammunition) and the Soviet PG-1 sight (likewise, it could use a German sight). There is little else changed on the actual weapon, and 95%+ of a M18/43F’s parts are compatible with a WWII German leFH 18M.

 

SOURCE

[Peterpools]

Martin, Thank You

I've now more then doubled my artillery knowledge

 

 

[GazzaS]

5 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Surrendered ex-Wehrmacht leFH 18M howitzers were simply designated M18 in the post-WWII Yugoslav military. The M18/43F was a Yugoslav project that modernized the leFH 18M carriage and also modified the breechblock assembly to make it compatible with American 105mm shells (it could continue to use WWII German ammunition) and the Soviet PG-1 sight (likewise, it could use a German sight). There is little else changed on the actual weapon, and 95%+ of a M18/43F’s parts are compatible with a WWII German leFH 18M.

 

SOURCE

 

4 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Martin, Thank You

I've now more then doubled my artillery knowledge

 

 

Thank you Martin for the fascinating article.  Who knew that so much interesting kit was still being used in our lifetimes!

m.

Sadly, a cold has set in.  My sinuses feel like someone jammed a red-hot poker into them.  To ease the pain I just had five shots of Bundaberg Rum.  i feel better but typing is a chore as I feel like only a small sliver of my brain is availab le roe ready use.  Yes...   I have to keep retyping words.

Anyway...   I got more done on the Rommel figure.  I madfe the buttons myself, punching them from aluminum sheet and fixing them with CA.

I know...   he's pretty rough.  But for my first re-sculpture...   I'm feeling pretty proud.  His right hand was way smaller than his left...   So, I used Magic Sculpt to make his hand bigger.  Where was this shit when I wanted bigger arms and peck's to impress the girls?  I used a knife edge to scuplt some knit lines into the glove.

Then I had to rescult the midriff's of all of the former Tamiya assault infantrymen.  Some will need buttons, but I need to wait for the magic sculpt to harden.  Then I can add arms and heads....   And paint

Typing when you'r f'd up is hard.  So, I'll go for now.  This is a new kind of venture for me and I have to admit it's fun.  Type at you soon=ish!

[DocRob]

Wow, you are experimenting a lot in your last builds Gary, specially with the figure painting and now sculpting. I never liked or built artillery, but it's enjoyable and inspiring to read your WIP, with the techniques executed by you.

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

2 hours ago, DocRob said:

Wow, you are experimenting a lot in your last builds Gary, specially with the figure painting and now sculpting. I never liked or built artillery, but it's enjoyable and inspiring to read your WIP, with the techniques executed by you.

Cheers Rob

Rob,

    Thank you for your post.  I am glad you are enjoying the thread.  As much as I like doing new things I didn't want to buy more figures for this build.  Hopefully this is one step in the direction of sculpting my own figures.  

[Peterpools]

Gaz

Amazing work ... sculpturing figures ... a skill on a whole new level. Following with great interest and admiration. Like Robs DoK, you're on a whole new level of modeling.

 

[belugawhaleman]

Great work! Can't even imagine making my own buttons for a figure in 1/35!

I have AFV Club's sIG33 15cm Heavy Infantry Gun kit and it also looks pretty good.

I'll be following.

[Martinnfb]

Hmmm, this is getting better by every post Gary, get well soon. In the meanwhile, here is something to consider.

https://www.firma49.cz/en/pro-figurkare/

 

[GazzaS]

9 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Gaz

Amazing work ... sculpturing figures ... a skill on a whole new level. Following with great interest and admiration. Like Robs DoK, you're on a whole new level of modeling.

 

Thank you, Peter.  I don't see myself working on just models in the future.  Doing 20 Tiger tanks and 40 109's seems awfully repetitious.  Even when I was a kid, my dream was to build just one of every variant of every German tank of WWII.  It's different when you have a story about a certain individual connected with the weapon, or some color scheme that just has to be done.  Color schemes taken from ambiguous black and white photos make even this a jump into the land of imagination.

  I've held a long desire to do 18th century soldiers in a larger scale.  BU\ut taking that first step in that direction is difficult.  Here, I have taken a first-step...  just a different step than I originally envisaged a few years ago.

4 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

Great work! Can't even imagine making my own buttons for a figure in 1/35!

I have AFV Club's sIG33 15cm Heavy Infantry Gun kit and it also looks pretty good.

I'll be following.

Making them is pretty easy.  All you need is some thin aluminum.  Pin vise.  Small drill bit.  And a rubbery eraser.

4 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Hmmm, this is getting better by every post Gary, get well soon. In the meanwhile, here is something to consider.

https://www.firma49.cz/en/pro-figurkare/

 

Thank you Martin.  Great little link!  Having a cold on your annual vacation sux.  Yesterday I got drunk twice to deal with the sinus pain.  HopefullyI won't need to today.

[Martinnfb]

Whatever it takes Gary. I usually pounding tons of garlic and hot tea. I was in similar situation last week, not fun at all.

[GazzaS]

3 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Whatever it takes Gary. I usually pounding tons of garlic and hot tea. I was in similar situation last week, not fun at all.

hahaha...  I don;t need no dudes offering me cuddles.  I'm a T&A kinda guy.

[GazzaS]

Hey friends....

    I feel like shit.  But I've bhad another five shots of Bundaberg rum and can type at least.

So....   Hiow to you make assault infantry not look like assault infatnry?  You give them soft caps.

Only in the USMC do that assholes make you wear your helmet 100% of the time.  But here, a few miles behind the lines, our German artillerymen are happy to wear their soft caps.  Rifles and helmets at the ready.  f'...  thouse five fresh shots are kicking in now!

I used 'Green stuff' to simulate flesh and wool fabric.  The German army were issued toques for cold weather.

I used my toothbrush sander to sand the fully erect dude...   heh...   sounds like porn...   both with the rest at some kind of stoop;;;;   What you gonna do?  I pretty much exhausted my stash of pre=43 soft caps.  I hate dipping into unbuilt kits for parts.

Green Stuff makes a great adhesive.  But it's still easy to move around before fully hardened...   I know....    we all have that problem..  So things I have to thing about...   Helmet and rifle stacks...

Ammo and powdah stacks...

As well as fired canister stacks.   Being an artielleryman is hard work....   but I know all about it.

0811....   that's the USMC designation for artillerymen or gun-bunnies as we have been called.  If you can;t truck it...   **** it.   Fill in the rhymne brothers!

 

[DocRob]

Some situational music from some San Diego outcasts from long ago, The Beat Farmers singer Country Dick Montana has some words for you .
Hope you feel better afterwards.

 

BTW: Figures conversion is looking promising.

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

13 hours ago, DocRob said:

Some situational music from some San Diego outcasts from long ago, The Beat Farmers singer Country Dick Montana has some words for you .
Hope you feel better afterwards.

 

BTW: Figures conversion is looking promising.

Cheers Rob

Thank you, Rob!  Very neat little song!

[GazzaS]

So....   with the figures partially modified...   with all of their limbs now...  I need to know what you guys think of the layout and flow.