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Hi all, This build will be a nice simple, straightforward base/vignette for a jagdpanzer iv l48 which I’m building. Title was taken from something a us tanker said in a book by Peter Caddick Adams, snow and steel. He said his time in Normandy was spent fearing the big game but every once in a while an viper would slither across the terrain and nip at your ankles (referring to the stugs and jagdpanzers low profile). So I started with some insulation foam measuring 29cm x 30cm. I marked out the rough plan in marker and glued it to some old chip board of the same dimensions. The board gives it strength and weight and stops any warping; Then used a hand saw, Stanley blade, surform and chisel to carve out the below, basic road with banks and fields with furrows (furrows are the wrong way around as wanted the tank to go against the grain and so moved them the other way later): I then coated it with my famous homemade mud solution, it’s family recipe that’s been handed down the generations! Top secret and will be carried with me until the day I die. ( nothing revolutionary here just quick dry polyfiller, paint, gesso, sand, grit and mud from the garden) it does the job and will be painted further later on: As you can see I’ve laid out a plan for this which will involve three types of fence: stone, barb and wooden: just to add a little variety also because I don’t want to entirely cover up the tank which will be in the middle. Below is the unglued 0.5mm oak veneer I bought to use on the sides. Theirs a bit of a trend for this at the moment (thanks to uncle nightshift in part). A lot of modellers paint it black to make the sides plain but I like the wood grain so have painted it with boiled linseed oil and a thin wash of burnt Siena oil paint to brighter, protect and bring out the grain further. I’ll cut this to side levels and stick on with wood glue. Then it’ll be a matter of shoring it up with the ground level. Anyway, that’s all for now. Paul.

Hello to all, I enrich my thematic on the battle of Normandy in the Cotentin with a small diorama in 1/72nd which represents the effects of the bombardment on the Panzer Lehr division during the operation Cobra which was launched on July 24th, 1944. As a reminder, the American armies were stalling in the face of a pugnacious and skilled German army. General Bradley wanted to break through the front by using air power. A first bombardment was cut short on 24 July. It caused losses among the US troops in contact, as well as the destruction of 10 tanks and 350 men in the lines of General Bayerlein's division. Bayerlein thought that the main attack had taken place, and did not withdraw his troops. The next day, 25 July, 1600 heavy bombers and 396 twin-engine tactical bombers dropped 3300 tons of bombs on a front of 7000 yards (6.4 km) and a depth of 2500 yards (2.3km). The Americans are tasting again, but the front is pulverized. The Panzer Lehr no longer existed as a formed unit. It should be noted that the US troops did not rush into the breach, and General Collins decided to engage the armoured divisions the next day. The flow of equipment and men was to grow, until it shook the entire German front in the south of Cotentin. I was inspired by this picture: I had a PzIV aufstD Mirage model in my inventory, and I "made it up" to look more or less like an H or a J: I liked the independent inspection hatches, as well as the photo-cut mudguards. If the model may look like a heiress to the purists of the Teutonic material, it is destined to end upside down: I sculpted the bomb holes out of polystyrene: and here is the result: The US infantrymen are 3D prints of a file found on the Internet. the veracity of the outfits may be questionable. The figures wore a helmet with a para-style chinstrap, over a fatigue dress outfit. If they can pass for paratroopers, I have tweaked them a bit to make them infantrymen. I changed some of the weapons with copies I made in resin. The staff sergeant now carries a Thompson, whereas he used to carry a Grease gun without a barrel. I painted lookouts on what appear to be boots, they do not go high enough, but I kept it simple by not sculpting the brittle resin. Figuring the M41 jacket would have required a lot of sculpting time for each figure. Thanks for watching, and have fun in modeling! I go back to my diorama that I show on the GB Salty sea dog, now... Regards, Eric-Snafu35

I’m hoping to build a Normandy Demag Panther A early based on the “Biouze” vehicle of 2.PzD being restored by the Wheatcroft Collection (Fgst.Nr.158134). For reference, I’ve got the Research Squad books detailing the restoration, but I’m looking for some advice on decals. I need to depict the original turret number I02 (which I think is in black numbers and a white outline) overpainted with 231 (in tall white numbers). Does anyone know of any decal sets that might be suitable? I’ve looked at Archer and Star but can’t seem to find a match. I’ve resigned myself to having to hand paint the ink-pot and quill turret emblem. Thanks in advance Rog

Hi all May I present the latest off the hobby desk (as we call it). Knocked out in Argentan is my first attempt at building an urban scene. I saw the original picture and knew straight away i wanted to have a go at doing that. I found it odd that the placement office was left virtually untouched by the bombing while the rest of the street was knocked to bits- shows the contrasts you can find in war. I made a brief WiP which you can find here if you'd like to know a bit more about the techniques involved: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235098840-knocked-out-in-argentan-wip/ And with a bit of photoshop: And the original inspiration (for info only): Hope you like it and thanks for looking. Any comments and critique welcome. Thanks Graeme

Hi all I picked up Tamiya's 1/48 Panther D a while back and was looking around for inspiration for a scene to put it in. I was originally looking at Kursk but I wanted to try doing a street scene which brought me to Normandy and this picture of a knocked out Panther A or G in Argentan (picture for info only!): I thought this will certainly be a test so why not share the progress along the way and hopefully pick up a few tips and suggestions from the helpful bunch here!? So i've completed the Panther build but kept the D version and i've also moved the position of the spare tracks and the side skirts in a bit of artistic licence- (mainly so i could see more of the metal tracks that i forked out so much for!) So i haven't quite decided how to tackle the building yet so i started with the fallen telegraph post. All scratch build using evergreen as the main pole, turned sprue for the insulator thingies and a mix of shaped, melted sprue, aluminium from a beer can and copper for the lamp. Here it is all based in Tamiya dark iron: Onto the weathering by a layer of hairspray and a coat of Tamiya German Grey and washes and speckled lifecolour rust (shadow and light): Here it is with the insulators painted and a sponged on layer of dust wash, plus some speckled lichen or maybe just ash flecks: Finally the block of stone it attached to (i assume it was mounted half way up the building as the lamp would only be about head height from looking at the original picture). Block is chipped plaster with a thin wash of dark sand with some copper wire added as re-bars. Phew 4 pictures and all just for a pole! So now i need to decide how i'm going to make the building-can't decide whether to buy some dense foam and carve out the bricks or cut out individual bricks from cork and stick them on...

Some years ago, I started a project to model some vehicles from the fighting in France in 1944, but like many projects time and a change of interests overtook it, and it was abandoned. However, the nagging urge to model the period remains. This time, I’ve moved up a bit in scale, and down a bit in detail, with the intention of using some of the vehicles manufactured for war gamers. This enables me to indulge my bodging style of “detailing “, or at least, adding fiddly bits. First up, an Italeri M10: M10 Tank Destroyer by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr M10 Tank Destroyer by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr M10 Tank Destroyer by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr These are intended as robust quick build kits, and without my bodging would easily go together in an hour or less.

After the initial Airborne and Seaborne invasion, the Allies got bogged down fighting in the Normandy countryside. The bocarge that the Allies faced favoured the defender, the way the fields were laid out with high banks, hedges covered with trees. Enemy and Allies were operating either side of hedges some times without even knowing. Stuff used: Tasca: Sherman Treemendus: Tree kit, Senic kit Miniart: British Tank riders Dragon: various German figures

Hi guys, this is my last model, it's a Sherman Firefly Vc in 1/35 scale from Tamiya (ex- Tasca), tank "BELVEDERE" of 27th Amroured Brigade , B Squadron, Normandy summer 1944. I hope you like it. The complete wip on this link: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234977617-sherman-firefly-vc-belvedere-27th-armoured-brigade-normandy-summer-1994/ Greetings Mike

Hi all, would like to take part on this D-Day Group Build. Cheers Prter

I was going to have a day finishing my B-29, but a couple of touches to the Panther led to it being finished late last night. So taking Tamiya's kit No 35170, what's been added? The kit came with Verlinden's resin zimmerit, designed for this kit, which was either too small or too large. Added to that was an Eduard zoom set for the engine fan grills and the tow cable bracket. That was about it. I tried Lifecolor's panzer paint set on this and the paint sprayed fine, I've no complaints there. The whole thing was finished using Humbrol's superb weathering powders. So, without further ado, here's the pickies. It will have a crew member in the turret hatch when he's finished. This was an easy and enjoyable kit to build ('swat the hobbies all about innit?) and there's a potential for another late G and a couple of Jagdpanthers in the stash. However, there is a Tiger or two and.................................. W