World War II Project - Jeeps! - British Airborne

With the anticipation of the new Rubicon jeeps arriving this week (perhaps even today), I decided to pull out the resin Warlord Games British Airborne jeep and get it built.

Now this is a fairly old kit but I was immediately disappointed with the quality of the casting. The resin casting was definitely from a mold that was on the tail end of its life. The metal castings were not good either. In fact the metal was brittle that several pieces actually broke at crucial spots. At this point I'm counting on having enough parts left over from the Rubicon kits to finish this one.

I suspect that this one will paint up just fine, but the build was just a little wacky, not difficult, just minor problems that irritate you. It makes me really look forward to getting those Rubicon kits though!

The raw, out of focus, jeep body casting. After the war, in the civilian world, this would become known as a CJ-2

All gussied up with what parts stay together. The driver's side front wheel does not sit well in the socket.

I'll hold off on priming and painting till I get the Rubicon jeeps.

28mm WWII Armor Conversion 3 - WWII 15cm sFH 13/1 (Sf.) auf Geschützwagen Lorraine Schlepper(f) (SdKfz 135/1)

Didn't really get any work done on this conversion today but I did receive the rest of the parts that I needed. At this point I really can't say enough about Warlord Games, they have really gone above and beyond helping me out with this conversion.

I made this order on Thanksgiving and the original intent was to throw in the howitzer bits into the order. Well, that didn't work out as planned because of the sheer quantity of orders that they had received. Harry shipped the parts by themselves since there was no way to really locate my order in their warehouse at that point. The regular order arrived yesterday with two more Marder Is in it (an extra in case I really screwed up) as well as the UNIC halftrack used by the 21st Panzer in Normandy. This one is also destined to be a conversion and will be getting the Pak 40 from the first Marder I kit. I'm hoping that will turn out to be an easier conversion than this one!.

I'm still dwelling on rebuilding the fighting compartment right now and I think I'll have to pull out my drafting tools to make it look right.

Two more Marders in case I screw up really badly

The howitzer bits that Harry sent. I really only need the gun barrel and the carriage and maybe the small aiming wheels.

The UNIC halftrack

I don't think there will be as much work on this conversion.

28mm WWII Armor Conversion 2 - WWII 15cm sFH 13/1 (Sf.) auf Geschützwagen Lorraine Schlepper(f) (SdKfz 135/1)

I took a deep breath grabbed the razor saw and the hull of the Marder I and proceeded to remove the fighting compartment. I then followed that up by removing the angled armor that sits below the level of the deck on the sides and rear. Now I just need cut out a foam block and start making a form to construct the armored plates from.

The hardest part was keeping the cut straight and level as I removed the fighting compartment. I was a little off at the end of the cut, but not by a huge margin. The razor saw made pretty short work of the resin itself.

I removed the fighting compartment as a single unit.

Here I removed the side armor.

And here the rear armor

I think I have something I can start building from now. I get to move from the destruction phase to the construction phase.

28mm WWII Armor Conversion 1 - WWII 15cm sFH 13/1 (Sf.) auf Geschützwagen Lorraine Schlepper(f) (SdKfz 135/1)

I am slowly moving forward with my acquisition of forces to play the Kampgruppe Von Luck pint sized campaign from Too Fat Lardies. My British Airborne troops are coming along quite nicely (I do need to get back to them though) so my thoughts turned towards the German forces that I would need. Since I'm still deciding on what miniature line to use for my German troops I thought I could work on the conversion of the SPG listed for the Germans in the campaign. This is the 15cm sFH 13/1 (Sf.) auf Geschützwagen Lorraine Schlepper(f) also known as the SdKfz 135/1. This is one of many french armor conversions that the 21st Panzer Division was equipped with in Normandy and one of the three conversions that appear in the Von Luck campaign. One of the other two vehicles is actually available from Warlord Games the Unix P107 (f) SPW halftrack. The other is going to be conversion utilizing this same halftrack to carry a Pak 40 (Pak 40 auf S307(f)). I don't have everything I need yet for the SdKfz 135/1 conversion but I have enough to get started.

I'm using the Marder I produced by Warlord Games which uses the Lorraine Schlepper hull. I was hoping that this might be just a simple gun swap, that hope was crushed when I pulled out my copy of World War II AFV Plans; German Early War Armored Fighting Vehicles by George Bradford. While the hull and running gear are just fine the fighting compartment is much different. While it does have the characteristic German slanted armored sides its not nearly as sharply angled as the crew compartment for the Marder I. I will have to completely cut off the existing fighting compartment and scratchbuild a new one. A bit more than I was counting on needing to do. What that likely means is that I will only do one of these conversions and any others that the German player elects to buy with his support points will have to be proxied (I think a SdKfz 124 Wespe would be a good choice).

One way to approach the fighting compartment build is to take a block of wood and cut it to the extrapolated interior dimensions of the fighting compartment then cut it to the proper angled shapes. Then I can use it as a pattern to cut all the armor plates and be confident that they will fit together, I'll start by making some matte board prototypes to see if I can reasonably re-create the fighting compartment. On the plus side I have an extra Marder I coming so if I mess up the hull to much I have a second shot at it. That will make for an expensive conversion though so I need to get it right the first time! Measure twice, cut once! Somehow that never seems to work out for me very well.

I will also need to scratchbuild the recoil blade but that was something I was planning on doing anyway and it should be a pretty straight forward build especially after building the fighting compartment.

The Marder I that I received a couple of weeks ago direct from Warlord Games

I merrily cleaned up the parts and dry fitted everything together. I thought that the hardest part would be removing the big gun shield from the front. How wrong I was!

Perhaps I should have pulled this book out before I decided that this would be a good idea.

Page 64, the page that crushed my idea of a simple conversion. At least I won't have to scratchbuild the gun itself. Warlord Games is sending along the SiG 33 15cm Howitzer barrel and recoil mechanism to help me out with the conversion. Initially it was the availability of the howitzer that made me think I would try to do this conversion.