RW 25 pounder and crew etc in 1/148 scale....

[PR19_Kit]

At my model railway club I'm involved with the small (5-6 of us...) N gauge group building a pre-WWII layout of an imaginary town and its station in the West Midlands of the UK. The layout is dated very precisely on September 2nd 1939, the day before WWII started, and we have various little vignettes to show this. There's a Hurricane on a Queen Mary trailer trying to turn into Station Rd and causing a traffic jam as it's so long, with two escorting RAF motorbike cops arguing with two civvie cops as to who has the tight of way etc. 

The town is modelled with a large market place, full of market stalls etc. but we also want to have an Army recruiting crew there, with a couple of small marquees and a 25 Pounder gun and its crew showing the public just how strong and ready the Army are. As the only person in the group (or even the whole club!) who has experience of a 25 Pounder, I got the job of building the gun and its crew.

It's a resin kit made by a firm of whom I know nothing, not even their name, and it's not too bad, just lots of VERY small parts that need assembling. For some reason it comes with THREE limbers, which is handsy as the gun only has one wheel, so one of the limbers will be sawn and filed down to provide the other one. The gun has no traversing platform either, so that'll need to be scratched, as no self-respecting 25 pounder would appear without one, they carried them underneath the trail normally.

As it's 1939 the Quad tractor should be a Mk 1, which will need a few changes to the windows as the model is a Mk II, but that's nothing that some styrene strip and  bit of PSR won't put right. There's only four gun crew members though, and there should be six, but as it's just a demo crew, four will have to do.

Anyway, here's the components, and note how small they are are on the cutting mat. 

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[McColm]

So if you are used to working in 1/144 scale and have all the necessary tools plus equipment to help you magnify the parts under construction the words fiddly and where's that part go to? Would seem appropriate. Good luck with your build.

[Gondor]

Kit's rule Number Two applies, the other two blokes are off drumming up support in the neared pub!

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Kit's rule Number Two applies, the other two blokes are off drumming up support in the neared pub!

  

There's two pubs sited around the Market Square too, so you're probably right.

It seems that the 25 Pounder could be operated by a four man crew too, it was called a 'reduced detachment' apparently.

[PR19_Kit]

To put it in context, here's the Market Square with just a small set of the stalls in place.

Most of the buildings etc. have been scratchbuilt, NOT by me I might add!

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[perttime]

It seems that the 25 Pounder could be operated by a four man crew too, it was called a 'reduced detachment' apparently.

According to wikipedia:
"The gun detachment comprised the following: No 1 – detachment commander (a sergeant) No 2 – operated the breech and rammed the shell No 3 – layer No 4 – loader No 5 – ammunition No 6 – ammunition, normally the "coverer" – second in command and responsible for ammunition preparation and operating the fuze indicator

The official "reduced detachment" was four men. "

I presume the "reduced detachment" would drop the ammunition guys, reducing the ability to keep shooting for very long.

[Wardukw]

Two words for ya Kit...bugger that 
That's a lot of clean up there and many a razor-sharp blade is gonna be needed.
Am I interested in this?..you bet ya   

[PR19_Kit]

Making progress on this, but boy, are those parts ever SMALL! 

Having to use gel superglue also increases the chance of them becoming glued to the cutting mat, the tweezers and ME as well.

The gun's assembled, with one wheel stolen from a spare limber and filed to size, and I added a trail bar to it as well. The sight on the LH side of the gun is SO mall but it sort of looks the part. The bad part is that the trail is twisted, and I'm thinking of giving it a bit of the hot water treatment, but it'll be some distance from the viewing public and it may not be worth the bother.

I've blanked off the LH window of the Quad and PSR'd it, but it'll need some more in the morning I'm sure.

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Here's the build so far.

[Wardukw]

  ..nice stiff Kit...small to the point of the carpet monster taking the entire model 
I myself wouldn't bother about the trail mate...it's that scale where it's small enough not to be seen at any real distance 
Now to the electron microscope to be able to paint it 

[rickshaw]

The traversing platform can be made from a 1/72/76 wagon wheel in all likelihood. I too wouldn't bother about the trail.   

[NARSES2]

That's looking good Kit, as is the layout 

Sept 2nd was a Saturday so it could be a busy old market or even the locals going off to the football 

[Old Wombat]

Personally, I refuse to work on something that insanely small!

[PR19_Kit]

The traversing platform can be made from a 1/72/76 wagon wheel in all likelihood. I too wouldn't bother about the trail.   

I decided to do it properly, with the aid of my Olfa Circle Cutter, which I've yet to use so far, and I've had it for maybe 5-10 years!

So here you have the component parts of the traversing platform..

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And here they are all assembled.

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It should have twice as many cross braces as I've done, but when I tried it they were far too fragile and the glue dissolved them rather than attached them. 

The upper level circle should be much thinner too, but the Olfa only goes down so far, and I had to cut out the inner part of it with a scalpel, NOT an easy task.

[PR19_Kit]

That's got all the construction done. 

The gun fits nicely on the traversing platform, and I added the two struts that run from the centre of the platform to the gun trail as well. They're pretty darn difficult to see but I know they're there. 

The Quad's now fully converted to a Mk 1, with it's LH door window blanked off and PSR'd and the two tiny triangular windows added each side.

So now it's painting time, and that means painting the gun crew too, NOT a step I'm looking forward to. 

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[buzzbomb]

Lick of paint and good go