Stunning work Robin and very well thought out.....

Regards

Alan

Grateful thanks again to Alan and Phil!

Well, as Tony said above, the Crocodile’s trailer is definitely unique as far as the shape goes – as you can see from Photo 2 (from the Bovingdon Tank Museum), there’s hardly a right angle in the thing! Before that however, Photo 1 illustrates the Crocodile in action. Along with the Hawker Tempest, the Churchill Crocodile was hated by the Germans and the crew of a disabled Crocodile could often expect no mercy if captured. A little strange considering it was the Germans who first introduced weapons designed to burn men alive during the Great War! The Crocodile was an adapted Churchill tank, which retained its main turret gun and co-axial machine gun so could still function as a standard tank without the flamethrower. The fuel was a mixture of petrol with a thickening agent (basically an early form of Napalm) which ensured that the burning jet adhered to whatever it struck. The armoured trailer weighed six and a half tons and contained four hundred gallons of fuel when fully loaded. Armoured in this case was slightly optimistic, the trailer was bullet proof but anything larger could penetrate it and set it alight. To reduce the risk of the tank incinerating itself the trailer was towed with a jettisonable hitch so the tank could rid itself of the burning trailer and drive away. The early versions of the Crocodile used compressed air to spray the fuel with compressed air cylinders fitted at the rear of the trailer, by the time of D-Day however, compressed Nitrogen was employed instead. The fuel passed from the trailer through an armoured hose to the rear of the Churchill and then through the tank bottom to the flame projector which replaced the hull mounted machine gun on the left (driver on the right). The trailer, fully loaded and gassed would give the Crocodile approximately eighty bursts of fire of one second duration, using about four gallons on each burst. The range was quoted at one hundred and twenty yards but many reckoned it was closer to one hundred and fifty. The igniter was fitted within the flame projector and for taking out bunkers and fixed defences the tank could shoot out jets of fuel to drench the enemy position before igniting the whole lot with a final burst of fire. The Crocodile was offered to the Americans prior to D-Day but not wanting to have to train to use the British Churchill, they decided to work on a similar system to retro-fit to the M4 Sherman. This unfortunately was a complete flop and so throughout the Normandy campaign British Crocodiles found themselves attached to the American forces as and when their services were required. The Sherman variant was eventually made to work but mainly served in the Pacific theatre against the Japanese. (They came in two versions – one firing through the hull projector like the Crocodile and an improved type which fired the fuel down the main gun barrel.)
So the first job was to figure out how to get that unique (and fiddly) shape for the main body of the trailer. The solution was a scrap piece of 2mm thick plasticard, cut into a long strip of about 5cm length and 2mm square. Diagram 3 shows the stages in getting the body shape. The newly cut 2mm ‘plank’ was sanded down in stages, first the angle from top to sides and then the undercut slope below the flat side panel. When those looked about right I could then sand away the front portion to achieve the angled front end before then gluing on a much thinner length of styrene to make the ‘tow-bar’ section. In actual fact, because the tow bar is actually the ‘sprue’ as well, I didn’t reduce the front-most section as shown in the Diagram 4 but left it the same thickness and simply carefully sanded it down to shape after casting. The rest of the simplified details as shown in Diagram 4 were tiny pieces of styrene offcuts, shaped and then glued in position. The bars along the top sides and the rear locators (I didn’t add the front ones) were stretched sprue whilst the wheels were slices from styrene rod. When I added the wheels, I suddenly discovered that the ruddy thing was too short! (It was probably bang on scale as far as length was concerned but because the rest was a little overscale, overall it looked too squat and didn’t project far enough behind the wheel as shown in Photo 5. Fortunately, this mistake was much easier to correct than most. As I had sanded/carved the body shape from the ‘plank’ I could just add a drop of liquid poly to where I’d cut the trailer off, glue the rest of the plank back on and once it was set slice the body off a little further back! The extended version is shown in Photo 6 with the elongated body attached with now enough room to add the rear tube holders. Photo 7 illustrates one of the first castings. These came out pretty well apart from the obvious air bubble in the wheel. Each casting had the same fault on either one or the other wheels so I added a pair of cut out channels to the rubber mould as I did with the balloon. Unfortunately, this time round it made no difference to the resin so I came up with the ultimately simple solution – if the resin won't fill the mould, fill it with something else! The wheels on the prototype were simple slices from a styrene rod so just cut a couple more of the same thickness and pop them into the rubber mould, pushing them down into the cavity before joining the two halves together for the pouring of the resin. The result is shown in Photo 8; a resin trailer bonded onto a pair of styrene wheels! I then just need to clean up the flash around the sides of the casting and slim down the forward end of the tow bar before gluing it to a Churchill with a channel filed out of the box on the hull rear to fit the tow bar into. The duo was glued together with a drop of superglue and placed in their final location on the beach to get the correct slope at the connection before the glue set. Then, as in Photo 9, the assembly received a couple coats of Vallejo Grey Primer before painting the Russian Green and weathering as shown in the Penny Shot in Photo 10. Finally, the completed tank and trailer were glued back down onto the beach with Deluxe Card Glue as seen in the final Photo 11.
So now I need to do a few more Barrage Balloons and a trailer or two to complete this section for later addition. For the next installment, while I get on with that, I’ll bring the current beach situation up to date with a series of ‘mini-dioramas’ which all add to the mayhem going on!
Until then, Stay safe and Happy Modelling to you All!

Robin.

Awesome work Robin those Churchill`s look the biz

Regards Phil

Robin

You are certainly setting yourself some challenges.

I thought the flame thrower would be next too impossible but You pulled that one off really well.

Now a sherman flail tank - interesting to see all of these taking shape. Its some very impressive work.

Tony

Grateful thanks again to Tony and Mark and apologies to all for the delay in posting – the pics below were taken a few weeks ago as I haven’t been able to do a thing for the last ten days – my ruddy back’s gone again! Same lower back muscle/tendon strain/damage as I had a couple of years ago (and just as painful!) If you want a definition of ‘irony’, ten days ago the courier delivered a large and very heavy box to the front door. And following the current Covid rules he then pushed off leaving me to find some way to get the flaming thing in through the narrow porch on my own. I managed it in the end but in the process did in my back (for the third time! ) Nothing ironic there, except that the big heavy box contained the motorised riser/recliner armchair that I’d bought as a surprise for Mum (92 yrs) to help her with her ongoing backache!
OK then, Photo 12 is a return to the overall plan photo I took a while back. I printed this one off on A4 paper and return to it frequently to check on the placement of the various ships and craft. There has been one small ‘adjustment’ to the positions; in the centre of the beach you can see the two LSIs on the shoreline. The one on the left is now in the act of going astern, withdrawing from the beach with her ramps retracting. This, as you will see later has an effect on the placement of the troops I glued down on the beach itself. Photo 13 is a close up of the three vessels on the far right of the diorama. The disembarking infantry figures have been glued in place mostly with the Deluxe Card Glue and the bow is positioned on the shoreline using the photo and the spacing of the craters. You can just make out the early tank trails lining up with the ramps of the LSTs, these were given more definition later with a darker brown weathering powder from the Carrs Mud set. The tool used to work in the tracks was bought on Ebay – about a hundred of them for a couple of pounds! They are tiny little fibre brushes on a pink plastic handle, which are sold for applying eyelash makeup! (The makeup section on Ebay is also a great source of modelling tools!)
With the Landing ship’s ramps in place, I then glued down a pair of figures to represent Officers or NCOs directing the troops off the ramps of the two grounded ships and once they were set I could then remove all the ship models to give me room to move over the base. Using the two figures as a guide I then glued down a double line of troops running up the beach as shown in Photo 14. (That’s a Sherman DD tank rolling up the beach just out of shot!) Then to check the positioning was OK I plonked the LSI back in place temporarily to give the effect shown in Photo 15.
With the main groups of infantry fixed down in place I could then plan where the landing craft were to be placed. To do this, all the ships went back on the base again so I could judge how much space was left in between them for the LCAs. Photo 16 illustrates the left hand side of the diorama with four out of the six LCAs in their allotted positions. Three (including the one shown in Photo 17) are actually beached further up the shoreline having come in with the first wave and got themselves marooned as the tide was going out, their troops are to be found up on the roadway, the other three landing craft that are in the surf are unloading and are the ones I fitted with standing figures earlier. Note on the far right in Photo 16 that group of soldiers, these are from the LSI that I decided was going to be reversing back off the beach. Unlike the two others disembarking, these have had time to congregate into a company before running up the beach and are not in the two neat lines. Also pictured here are a trio of Sherman DD’s moving up and a bogged down/knocked out Churchill in the centre. Photo 17 shows the last unloading LCA with a line of Churchills on the right which align with the LCT on the far right, and on the left a Deep Wading Churchill behind the Bridge Layer which are exiting the larger LST (shown in Photo 20). At this point, all the LCAs apart from the beached trio, which are glued down, are still unfixed. This is because I have to create the wave effects, both along the shoreline and further out before any of the vessels go in permanently. All three waves will have to go in at the same time and I need to experiment with the medium to check how long I’ve got to apply, sculpt and press the ships into it before it sets too hard. The bottle says it takes 24 hours to cure completely but it gets pretty stiff much quicker than that!
Photo 18 shows the pair of Churchill AVRE Carpet Layers, one empty and the other still to unroll its carpet. The right hand exit ramp is shown in Photo 19 with another Deep Wading Churchill moving up. Since this photo was taken I’ve also added the second Churchill Crocodile flame thrower, just beyond this view turning the corner onto the road. The troops on the far side of the ramp are British infantry, those on the near side were from the second fret of figures, the line of figures standing with hands in the air (supposed to be directing aircraft on the flight deck) – I painted these in German grey and jackboots to represent a line of POWs being escorted down to the beach. There will be a few more of them standing outside the bunker doors later. Finally in Photo 20, I put the vessels back in position temporarily to give some impression of the ‘chaos’ of the landings, which will hopefully be apparent when they get put back in for good!
There’s a few more little ‘character pieces’ I added in before the ‘accident’ so I’ll try and take some more pics for Part Three.
Until then, Stay safe, Happy Modelling and steer clear of heavy furniture!

Robin.

Robin

Sorry to hear about your back pains.

I suffer on and with similar. In my case too many hours a day sat looking at a computer screen, think its the centre of my problems.

Loving the build and even more amazing is the fact you have figures running up the beach - all very well done indeed.

Hope it continues well and the back settles down.

Tony

Many thanks indeed to Phil, Kev, Mark, Tony and Derek for both their comments and commiserations! Especially to those who have also suffered or suffering . There's no pain like back pain! You might be right Mark, Mum is now thinking about a two seat sofa and a second chair, although I did try hers at the height of the back problem and it was agony when I reclined back! It definitely helps her with her back ache though. Kev, you're absolutely right and I hadn't even noticed it! When I scanned and printed the seascape base it was virtually identical in colour but over the months its very gradually gone to a purple hue! Not sure why as the test print I did first to try the resin over the top has stayed blue under the resin but also gone purple elsewhere. Whether its ultraviolet 'bleaching' the inkjet colour or a reaction with the resin I don't know, (can't see why when its the parts under the resin which stayed blue on the test piece)! Anyway, the good news is it doesn't look too bad on the base and by the time the ships, LCA's, waves and wakes are in and whitened up for spray and foam, there isn't actually much open water left!
So carrying on from last time, as I mentioned right at the start of this build, my favourite scene in the epic movie “The Longest Day” is the long aerial shot of the Free French Commandos as they charge around the harbour at Ouistreham to get to grips with the (fictitious) fortified Casino building with the big gun underneath it. I say fictitious as the Germans had already demolished the casino to make way for the huge underground Command Bunker, which is what the Free French actually assaulted and captured! Anyway, during the assault Lt Kieffer makes a run back across the harbour bridge under heavy fire to get tank support and eventually returns on the back of a British Sherman DD. So here in Photo 21, Kieffer has made it back to the beachhead and is flagging down his ‘big gun’ to help assault his objective! Photo 22 shows the first of the armour to exit the left hand ramp cheered on by the infantry. In the front is a Churchill AVRE with fascine followed by the first Crocodile flamethrower with more Churchills following behind. Down the other end the tanks and infantry are moving inland up the road between the small shop and the first house as shown in Photo 23. The one thing I wish I’d done now, after seeing the close up photos is to have chopped off all the moulded Sherman turret guns and replaced them all with thinner stretched sprue ones. (The Churchills don’t come with any gun barrels so there was no choice there!) The view in Photo 24 is just back from Kieffer’s tank and shows the damaged gate pillars to the hotel. You might remember about three years ago, my Scramble diorama where I made the airfield hut out of individual 1/72 scale ceramic red bricks. In this shot, the pillars and wall are part of the single piece resin casting for the base but the red brick debris from the pillar is one of those ceramic bricks, hammered into tiny bits and each piece carefully glued in position with card glue and tweezers. A couple of the gate pillars on the houses also received the same treatment. Photo 25 is another shot of the troops on the beach from the other direction, along with quite a few of the DD tanks as well. The two neat columns line up with the LSI ramps and the more confused group is from the reversing ship.
Finally, in Photos 26 and 27, the two opposite ends of the diorama are shown from further out. Photo 26 is the left hand side as seen from the sea with Kieffer’s Sherman and surrendering Germans outside the bunker. Eventually this view will be obscured by the large hotel building in the foreground. I still have to adapt a few bits of the PE ship’s rails to make some metal gates for the various entrances. Photo 27 is the right hand side and once again the view will be blocked by the pair of shops up against the bit of pavement seen in the bottom left.
I will probably put in a few more infantry in the alley between the shops but in the next installment, it’s time to stop putting off the inevitable and start painting those buildings (and now that I’m well into them I know why I’ve been putting them off!)
Until then, stay safe and Happy Modelling to you All!

Robin.

Very nice work Robin. Looking very busy now.

Mark

Excellent detailing as always.




Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)