French Vichy Dewotine D520

Phew, last of May and I have finished my Dewotine D520 in Vichy colours. It started out as a wish to have something Vichy to support those French in Lebanon/Syria and North Africa. Once painted the decals disintegrated as soon as placed, despite being dosed with varnish first. So much for a £2 quick fix kit!. Step in Charles, while I had other problems to supply a set of French roundels. So a slight change to the paints scheme and I have

Looks the part

Henschel Hs 123 finished

The kind donation/swap from Alan Mc is now ready for action. So I now have a Henschel Hs 123 to support my WW2 German forces through Poland, France, the Balkans and even into Russia.

Unfortunately the decals for the Dewotine D520 that I was also working on disintegrated when I tried to apply them despite having had two coats of varnish applied first

M3 Stuart Honey tanks repainted

Back in the mists of time I painted three Matchbox M3A1 Stuarts for my Late WW2 British army. Since I replaced them with some more correct M3A3 these became available so I soaked them in dettol to remove the old paint and then repainted them in Cauter for the Western Desert.

WW2 German MMG teams

A small update as I complete some missing MMG teams for my early WW2 Germans, I had been using some late war version up until now. The fogures are mainly "First to Fight" with the comanders from the Airfix Pak 40 set.

Panzer 38(t)s and a Jeep

As part of my attempt to clear the stash I assembled these back in September last year. Both kits are by Fujimi, the Jeep crewman is a 3D resin print, just a little on the large size.

The Panzer 38(t)s will join four others and allow me to better game the action of the 7th and 8th Panzer Divisions in France 1940 as well as Russia in 41/42.

Now off to my first show of the year - Vapnartak

WW2 Chinese Summer Infantry

Somehow I missed these off my Workbench list. I "inherited" a few WW2 Chinese a few years back and always thought that it might make an interesting opponent for the Japanese. So when I found another pack of the Orion Chinese Army I got to work.

I painted them in a summer uniform, but afterwards realised that I could have mixed in more Germans in Stalhelms to add some variety. Some of the Chinese are repurposed Japanese.

Winter lights was not so good today but at least there was some. I'll need to add some supports so I'll be looking at German WW1 gun crews plus interwar weapons like a Pak36.

Normandy - Day 4

We decided to head further east but we ended up getting lost on the Caen peripherique before finally finding our way to Merville battery. Then onto Pegasus bridge and its museum. Finally a diversion to Hillman on the way back to avoid Caen.

The impressive C-47 Dakota restored to its original D_Day camo and markings

The bunkers are the same as Longues sur Mer but each one houses exhibits on the taking of the battery

Not sure about the relevenance of the 5.5" gun but it is positioned in one of the original gun positions used before the bunkers were added

Another view

Typical exhibit with a para jeep

Map of operations east of the Orne river

Onto the Pegasus Bridge Memorial Museum and a reproduction Horsa.

Bailey Bridge and the original Pegasus bridge behind

Centaur

The original Pegasus bridge

View across the new Pegasus bridge over the Caen canal

Cafe Gondree

Pak 38 50mm position

New Pegasus bridge raised

Churchill tank at "Hillman" WN17

Normandy - Day 3

Today we were travelling eastward to the impressive remains of the Longues sur Mer battery and then the remains of the Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches.

A Russian Putilov 76mm field gun captured in 1941 then used as part of the Longes sur Mer battery defences

Gun bunker

Interior view

Next bunker with useful cyclists for scale

Ditto

All four bunkers

The observation bunker, no longer accessible as it is starting to slip down the cliff, They filmed some scenes from "the Longest Day" here.

The view across to the Mulbery harbour remains

Final view of the bunkers and the Normandy coast cycle track

Arromaches view back to the Longues sur Mer battery

View along the shore, the weather was pretty wild.

The closest pontoon

Free French sherman tank on the east side of Arromanches, apparently part of the 2ieme Division Blindee landed here.

A useful map of the "British" beaches

A view of the Phoenix caissons

A final view of Arromanche, taken from the east looking west

Normandy - Day 1 and 2

On Day 1 I left Portsmouth at 8am on the Ouistram ferry. Arriving I had to negotiate the Caen peripherque to get to our accomodation near Port en Bassin stopping off at a supermarket on the way. That was enough for one day.

Day 2 was Omaha - started with the American Cemetery then down to the eastern enf of the beach, but the tide was in so I could appreciate how difficult it became to get off the beach. Then onto Pointe du Hoc another site managed by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). Finally finished with a visit to the west end of the beach

American Cemetery

Pointe du Hoc fortification plan

Another plan

On the Pointe, very crumbly rock, not good for climbing

Western end of Omaha as the tide begins to recede. Back towards Pointe du Hoc

Along the beach

WW2 Soviet Paratroops

Having fought two games with partisans using Battlegroup Bagration I was tempted by the possibility of using Soviet Paratroops as an option and so I then bought some files by Kojak and printed enough for two squads. them.

Looking at my pictures I spotted that I had forgotten to paint the googles, now fixed