This weeks reinforcements

 Just a small update this week ( literally small ). A FDM printed Type 166 Schwimmwagen

This weeks reinforcements

 A Kampfgruppe of Germans painted and based for the Arnhem Bridge project. I need to add a few extra figures to give me options for both infantry and PzGr platoons, but these 30 figures give me a good pool to start with. All figures are from Peter Pig, except the guy with the panzerfaust who is from Skytrex. 

Building the Arnhem Bridge Perimeter - Part Six - 126 Verlengde Rijkade - printed

Building the Arnhem Bridge Perimeter - Part Three - 126 Verlengde Rijkade

Just a brief update to the previous post as the main building at 126 Verlengde Rijkade is now fully printed. The building was printed in 15 elements as it is designed to have removable roofs and first floors. It just needs some decorative window frames added to the first floor windows and it will be complete.

Its a large building and could easily require an entire platoon to occupy and defend it.

Building the Arnhem Bridge Perimeter - Part Five - The Germans

Part One

Part Two 

Part Three

Part Four

The main German units that attacked the British bridgehead over the four days of the battle can be identified as following

KG Graebner, - SS Panzer-Aufklarungs-Abteilung 9 (9th SS)

KG Brinkman, - SS Panzer-Aufklarungs-Abteilung 10 (10th SS)

KG Euling, - SS-Btl. Euling, based around I/SS-Pz-Gr Regt 22 (10th SS)

KG Knaust, Pz-Gr Training and Replacement Btl.64 

Ko.Mielke, Training and Replacement Abt. 11 - subordinate to KG Knaust

PzGr Regt 21, 10thSS

schwere Pz-Ko. Hummel

I'll cover these units in more detail in subsequent posts, but the forces facing the British ranged from dismounted Panzergrenadiers and light armoured vehicles (Sd.Kfz. 250 and Sd.Kfz. 251) through to Panzer III and IV tanks and the formidable Tiger I.

Alongside this project, I've also been working on building and painting a Panzergrenadier platoon, as I currently only have a standard infantry platoon for gaming. I'd already decided to paint these figures in a camouflage scheme based on the 1944 Erbsenmuster (Pea Dot) Herringbone uniform. As this uniform had a similar cut to the standard M43 feldgrau uniform, I am able to use figures from the standard Peter Pig range.

Painting the figures this way gives me plenty of variety within the platoon, with some wearing full camouflage suits, others in standard feldgrau, and a few sporting a mix of the two and means I can use them for Arnhem.

I'd originally started basing these figures to match my usual rural terrain style, but I've since experimented with giving them a more urban feel. Ideally, I'd like to use the platoon in both urban and rural settings, so the finished bases are intended to strike a balance between the two, blending elements of each to create a versatile look.

Building the Arnhem Bridge Perimeter - Part Four - The Bridge Ramp and Underpass

Part One
Part Two 

Part Three

I paused printing the perimeter buildings this week as it occurred to me that in order to build the grass embankment I really needed the bridge underpass to hand so I could fit the embankment to it and ensure heights and dimensions all match as needed.

I have therefore spent the last week refining the underpass model, designing and scaling the underpass supports and printing them all out. 

The underpass was split into three parts as it was otherwise to large for my printer. In total it measures 280mm long, and is 145mm wide matching my chosen width for the entire bridge (and slightly narrower than scale). The road tunnel is 105mm wide with a height off 40mm.

As far as I can determine there are at least four sets of pillars between the underpass and the bridge towers. Four works well in game providing plenty of support and strength to the model while still looking open and uncluttered. This entire element measures 850mm long. The brick pillar (on the right), towers and steps are from the WOWBuildings Kickstarter, everything else I have designed myself. At this stage everything is just dry fitted. The pillars and underpass all have a one degree slope built into them with the road surface being 75mm at the towers, 60mm at the northern edge of the underpass

I am using 5mm sheet (insulating) foam for the road, and have topped this with wallpaper backing paper for strength and to provide a better surface for painting and finishing. The foam sheets are 800mm square, so my plan is to divide the entire road length, which stretches the full 6 foot of the table (1830mm) into three. A full 800m length for each of the bridge and embankment, with a shorter length joining these two elements on the underpass. 

The southern table edge is some 170mm from the towers, so I need to take this into account and ensure this unsupported element is strong enough for gaming and clumsy gamers, myself included. The iconic arch starts some 365mm from the towers and so sticks out too far for my gaming space, but I will try and create a way to include it, if only for a couple of photos.

Going forward this week the printer will continue churning out perimeter buildings, with the list getting smaller by the day, while I will start cutting 5mm foam to create the grass embankment.

Buildings left to print in red

Storage Solutions - The Perfect Platoon Box ?

As many gamers know Really Useful Boxes are really useful. They are robust, stack easily, have secure locking handles and come in a wide range of sizes. My one complaint, and this is very much a 1st world problem, is that they don't offer the perfect platoon sized box.

My two "Go To" boxes for figure and vehicle storage are the 1.75 and 2.5 litre respectively. 

Figure Storage

For my figures I base individual section members on pennies (20.4mm diameter), Junior Leaders on 20mm square bases (mdf or FDM printed) and Senior Leaders on 2p pieces (26mm). The advantage of using the coins is that they are cheap, and also magnetic. Based on these dimensions I can fit a maximum of 63 figures (seven rows of nine figures on 20/21mm bases) into the smaller box. While this number drops when adding Senior Leaders and weapons teams on their larger bases there is still ample space for an entire platoon. 

I place a piece of magnetic sheet cut to size inside the box and this is sufficient to hold all the figures very securely in place. I can actually turn the box up side down and nothing falls out, although I try to avoid doing so for obvious reasons.

So why is this not the perfect platoon box ??

The 1.75l box has an internal height of 60mm, more than ample for that of a typical 15mm figure (say 20/22mm all in allowing for helmets and waving arms), in fact over double the height if not nearly three times that required - All that wasted space.

The solution is as easy as it is obvious - add an additional layer to the box. This was done using a piece of 3mm mdf cut to size, a small drawer handle purchased from Amazon - two handles for £3.99, and four FDM printed supports. These are no more that square pylons 10mm x 10mm x 27mm. I topped and tailed each pylon with a penny, added a 20mm square of magnetic sheet to each underside corner of the mdf, covered the top of the mdf with more magnetic sheet and attached the handle.

This additional shelf will comfortably fit a 40 man platoon which I believe is the largest in game. You can actually squeeze in a good many more, but I like to keep access to handle easy, so I can lift the shelf out without touching the figures. With a platoon fitting on the shelf the bottom of the box is available for all the other infantry support options and smaller vehicles. 

With the first box being a success I will do this for my other platoons.

The British Infantry Box contains

Shelf: full infantry platoon, plus an additional PIAT team in the prone position.

Base: a fourth infantry section, sniper, FOO, four engineers, a MMG team and its entrenchment, two carriers, and two anti-tank guns.

The base still has space, with a medic and couple of additional JL and SL being the obvious next figures to paint and add. 

Maybe this is the perfect platoon box after all.

Vehicle Storage

For vehicles I use the larger 2.5l box, with an insert of 5mm foam board on the base. In order to arrange and keep them secure within the box I printed bespoke tabs for each vehicle (with their own length, width and height) added a magnet to the tab and a ferrous strip to the underside of each vehicle. The printed tabs are glued to the foam board and the vehicles held secure by the magnet and the tab fitting snugly between the tracks/wheels.

The platoon box is perfect for carrying a platoon and associated support to a games night, while both are great for safe storage at home.

Building the Arnhem Bridge Perimeter - Part Three - 126 Verlengde Rijkade

Part One

Part Two

126 Verlengde Rijkade is the large building immediately to the east of the bridge towers fronting on to the Rhine and can easily be seen in the aerial photos of that area. 

The building was initially unoccupied by either side, being 200m or so within the British perimeter on the eastern side of the bridge at the start of the battle. However at around 15.00 hrs on Monday 18th September KG Euling (including two PzIV) pushed the British out of the Jos Pé factory building which allowed them to advance along the river front and occupy the building. 

It was recaptured by No.6 Platoon, B Co (2nd Parachute Battalion) during the late afternoon and early evening. They were subsequently forced out when the building, particularly the corner element, (boxed in red in the top image) was taken under direct tank fire resulting in it catching fire and being severely damaged and burnt out. The building was again recaptured late Monday night by No.2 Plt A Co and finally lost on the Wednesday. (Margry (Ed), 2008; Zwarts, 2024).

The building was provided as part of the WOWBuildings Kickstarter, but the model of this particular building differs significantly from the photos I can find in terms of look and shape. The Kickstarter model has a very rustic look and appears it may have been mirrored with the long one storey building being on the right side of the model and not the left as seen in the photos. It also lacks several doors and windows. 

I initially re-worked the roofs but was still unhappy with the look, and so decided I would have a go at building my own version. I have an ancient copy of Lightwave 3D and a very basic working knowledge of how to use it. 

Progress to date has the building elements and all but one roof complete. I just need to remove the tiles inside the dormers so I can cut the window holes and then finish laying the remaining tiles. At this stage I am happy that the model is more accurate, even if less detailed than the Kickstarter version. I will get it finished over the next few days.

I am cutting the elements so I can print each storey as a separate piece for ease of gaming  and the larger elements so they can be fitted onto the print plate.   

Reference

Margry, K. (Ed).2008. Operation Market Garden - Then and Now Vol 2.

Middlebrook, M. (1994) Arnhem 1944 - The Airborne Battle. 17-26 September.

Steer, F. (2011) Arnhem The Bridge - Battleground Europe.

Zwarts, M. (2024) Einsatz Arnheim.