Battle of Gettysburg Tour – September 2024

 I have long held the ambition to one day visit an American Civil War battlefield. Then, in late September, whilst working in the US, I found myself with a Saturday off and the battlefield of all Civil War battlefields “only” 4 hours drive from where I was staying!

Free tourist map provided by the information desk

It was a no-brainer, as they say, and I was up and out of the hotel and on the road by 6am!

Rebel Uniform

The journey from Pittsburgh was straight forwards and on interstate dual carriageway nearly the entire way there.

Selection of handguns!

Arriving amongst the rain and mist at 10am, I was surprised to see how the charming little town of Gettysburg appears to still be made up of buildings contemporary to the war.

Recalling the Gettysburg address

I made my way to the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center thinking this would be a good start and would set the scene for my visit.

The Gun line in the Cyclorama

I was not disappointed. The visitor’s centre is modern and roomy. It has toilets, an information desk, restaurant, museum, well-stocked gift shop and the Cyclorama (a circular painting by the French artist Paul Philippoteaux depicting Pickett's Charge, the climactic Confederate attack on the Union forces during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863).

The 1832 "Old Dorm" Seminary Ridge

To enter the museum & Cyclorama there was a fee, which could be grouped together with a 2-hour coach tour. As I only had one day to visit & wanted to get the very most from the experience, I opted for the whole package ($53). I surmised that if time allowed, I could always re-visit any viewpoints that interested me in my car after the tour was finished.

Tour Bus - 2 hour tours

This proved to be a good choice. The museum tells the story of the whole Civil War and where the battle of Gettysburg fits in context. It was excellent, if a little darkly lit, with many contemporary items, weapons & uniforms displayed.

Typical rail fences on Seminary Ridge

The Cyclorama is very evocative. I’ve visited a similar thing on the battlefield at Waterloo and it’s a great way to place the viewer at point in time during a momentous event!

Starting point for Pickett's Charge

The coach tour was excellent. The tour guide was from Atlanta (a Southerner!) who did a great job to tell the story from both points of view. In fact, that was a great learning for me. When a country looks back on a Civil War, you have to remain positive and not point fingers at “Them & us” otherwise you just perpetuate the animosity.

The ground over which they charged

They took us around the site following the course of the battle over three days. Stopping every few hundred metres to get out and view the myriads of memorials etc. Many of these- the Confederate ones –are at risk from the US Woke/Cancel-Culture and may disappear.

The Devil's Den beneath Little Round Top

The area is a National Military Park supported by the American Battlefield Trust. I had downloaded their visitor information app ready to do a self-tour and found it extremely helpful when I drove around later on. The app is GPS enabled and will literally guide you from stand to stand and then give you all the information you could possibly need in written, spoken, pictorial & video format!! It’s amazing and completely free. You could easily conduct a “Tour” from the comfort of your armchair, it’s really that good.

The View from Little Round Top

The landscape is little changed (a few new buildings, better roads and slightly expanded forestry) from 1863 and you can really understand the tactical challenges faced by the two opponents.

The Peach Orchard

Many of the opposing forces front lines are marked out with rail fencing & preserved cannon. This makes it easy to understand the areas fought over.

The Wheatfield

The tour took you to all the iconic landmarks. Amongst the most iconic were Jenny Wade’s house, Seminary Ridge, scene of Pickett’s Charge, Little Round Top, the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield Devil’s Den, both commander’s HQs and the Gettysburg National Cemetery.

Gettysburg National Cemetery

I spent the entire day there, leaving for my hotel in Pittsburgh at 4.30pm just as it was starting to get darker.

Longstreet Memorial

Gettysburg is a fantastic place to visit. I could easily have spent 2-3 days there. The town itself deserves more detailed exploration and there were several more museums to be visited that I just didn’t have the time to see. Everything is accessible and well sign posted. There’s ample carparking and sufficient public toilets around the site.

Lee's HQ during the battle

I literally took hundreds of photographs, but I’ve just inflicted a select few to help illustrate the article!

View towards Little Round Top

If you ever get the opportunity to visit, don’t miss out!

Rubicon 1/56 - M106A1 4.2" Mortar Carrier - Part Two

The inner areas were then carefully masked before spraying the exterior with Vallejo Air 71.043 – US Olive Drab. A new innovation for me here, I printed up a couple of stencils the diameter of the road wheels and idler/drive sprockets so after spraying the entire track unit in a Dark Grey, I could pick out the individual wheels in Olive Drab without over spraying the track!

At this point I painted in red the areas where the vehicle had been “cut” open.

Details on the hull (like the spade, tow rope etc.) were hand painted before the decals were applied to the outside of the hull. There are loads of options as the decal sheet covers all the M113 variants produced by Rubican. I chose to represent an imaginary vehicle with yellow call-sign number and a vehicle name as well as the usual white stars. There are even warning stencils for swimming preparation to be added to the inside of the trim vane, where they’d only be seen by the driver!!

With all the parts painted it was time to assemble it all together (less the hull top) ready for final weathering and basing. Before I did this everything had a coat of AK Ultra Matt Lucky Varnish to blend everything together.

I drew up & 3D printed a base and armature once again to display the AFV with its hull top off and the ground-deployed mortar with crew figures to its front. The base portion took 4.5 hours to print!

It took me a couple of goes to get the armatures how I liked them, before I assembled the display stand with super glue. I textured the area of the AFV mount with Vallejo Pumice and painted it a reddy brown craft paint to simulate the red earth in Vietnam. Once dry this was masked and the stand sprayed gloss black with a rattle can.

The deployed mortar and crew were mounted on a 2mm MDF base so they can be removed from the stand for transporting it. The base was textured and finished as per the main base. As well as the three crew figures there were two mortar round and two ammunition crates that were added for effect.

To blend the finished models into their bases I used some AK Red Earth pigment which did a fantastic job of giving the vehicles a well-worn look.

I’d pre-printed two inclined plates to take small information panels, on the base. I created the labels in PowerPoint, printed and laminated them and attached them to the base with double-sided tape.

The vehicle and it’s roof panel were secured to the base and armature with Blu-tac to facilitate disassembly for transit to shows etc.

And there you are. One M106A1 completed.

I’m very pleased with the end results and impressed with what a fantastic kit this is. All that detail, figures, options, decals etc. for just £20!! Bargain.

Rubicon 1/56 - M106A1 4.2" Mortar Carrier - Part One

 
I’m now a little obsessed with building AFV models with interior details! After the success of my Rubicon Tiger II, I then built my Fujimi 1/76 Jagdtiger and have bought myself a Hobby Boss 1/48 T34/85 and an old Bandai 1/48 M4A3 Sherman ready to build!

Whilst surfing the web I found some CAD pictures of the Rubicon M113 family vehicles they have brought out to cover the Vietnam era. On closer examination they all have engine and crew cab details and (I think) will easily lend themselves to the type of “exploded” display I’ve used before.

Rough sketch of how I planned to display the model

As it looked to be the most interesting (and came with a full crew) I chose the M106A1 4.2” Mortar Carrier to build and happily parted with my £20 at Firestorm Games.

On opening the box, you are faced with four well packed sprues (each sealed in their own bag), a very busy decal sheet (the same for each M113 variant) and a clearly printed assembly instruction sheet.

 My initial observations are that it is very clearly moulded in ABS plastic and the sprues contain some parts that you will not need as they are intended for other M113 variants. One big missing is the lack of paint schemes and information where the decals are to be placed. I’ve had to do a lot of researching to identify where I think they are to go, which whilst interesting has been time I could have been assembling! Some of the best photographic references can be found here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/zippo132/with/39703953880

The model can be built closed up, with all hatches open, with crew figures or without and there’s even a spare 4.2” Mortar with shell boxes that can be built to display separately.

I’ve decided to build it with the crew outside manning this mortar and just the vehicle crew in the actual vehicle. I’m planning to leave the hull top separate so you can see all the engine, stowage etc. inside. I will design and print a 3D display stand so these can all be shown together. I will make a few cuts to the hull roof/front part so that the engine can be better seen.

On starting the build, it became apparent that there are a lot of extra sprue bits on the parts that all have to be removed, and the residue cleaned up.

I started by assembling the figures. Now, at this point I made a discovery!! I have always built Rubicon kits with Revel Contacta cement (the one with the syringe applicator) and never thought anymore about it. I also use AK liquid cement on models but knew that this didn’t work with Rubicon’s plastic. Whilst handling the assembled figures the following day, the driver’s arms fell off and I noticed that the glue hadn’t welded the parts, it had just set and held the parts on in that way. A quick Google taught me that you need a special glue for ABS plastics!! The consensus seemed to be either Plastic Magic or Tamiya Extra Thin cements were the best, so I had to make a quick trip to Cardiff to get some of the quick setting version of the Tamiya Extra Thin. This works very well, just putting the parts together dry and then a quick wipe of cement from the attached brush and the job is done. Just shows you never stop learning in this hobby!

The figures and assembled mortar were attached to scrap sprue to help with handling and given a coat of white primer prior to painting.

Whilst they dried, I tackled the running gear and tracks. The instructions suggest assembling them on the hull sides without glue in the wheels in place so they can be removed when dry, to make it easier to paint. This seems like a good idea so that’s what I did. I had to take care to follow the instructions closely as the tracks/wheels etc. are “handed”. When you assemble to two roadwheel halves, there is a small hole in the rim which must face downwards to accept the pins from the lower track length. The direction of track is crucial to get right, but the instructions are very clear and helpful. I left them to set overnight and the next day carefully removed the completed assemblies from the hull sides.

Next the engine and transmission were assembled – just three parts but it gives a good impression of the powerplant at this scale. The lower hull assembly comes next and all parts slot together extremely precisely. Dropping the engine assembly into the hull, the exhaust silencer rests on a moulded projection on the wing. The two partition walls can then be added before finally placing the driver’s seat assembly.

At this point I modified the hull front piece to separate the radiator covers which will be attached to the hull roof for display, leaving the engine on view.

Front hull cut to allow the engine to be seen later

Driver’s steering tillers are provided, but with the ¾ driver figure installed these will not fit. He is moulded with the steering handles in his hands and for what you will be able to see with the hull front in place, will pass muster.

When doing some research online, it became apparent that there would be a large radiator and cooling fan assembly attached to the undersides of the radiator covers and these are not represented in the kit. For completeness (as you’ll just about see them when the model is displayed) I drew up and 3D printed a very simplistic assembly which I attached to the underside of the radiator covers.

The 3D printed "Radiator Assembly" installed in the underside of the hull top

With this all done, I could carry on assembling the hull sides and floor etc. These came with simplified, but adequate interior detail, that just needed a little enhancement.

Note the removed front quarter from the hull front was attached to the hull side to maintain the fit of parts

One of the mortar round storage racks (with the cardboard tubes represented vertically) was beefed up with some plastic rod discs cut and attached to the top to represent the ends of the tubes. There’s also a rifle rack you could populate, however I didn’t have any scale M16’s so left that alone. Other details include the radio set, vehicle instruments and fire extinguisher.

Note the small plastic discs to represent the tops of the Mortar Round tubes

Once the hull walls were assembled, they were attached to the hull base. Next, I assembled the roof section with it’s hatches folded open. The details like lifting hooks etc. were also added and the multi-part rear hatch completed too. The last assembly was the two mortars (interior set-up & exterior set-up) and the commander’s cupola with .50” MG.

I now had the vehicle build completed in 7 sub-assemblies and could think about painting.

The Inner hull was sprayed Vallejo Air 71.009 – Duck Egg Green. This is a great match for vehicles I’ve seen pictured on the internet. Once dry, this was weathered with Army Painter Strong Tone wash and seat, mortar round, radio etc. details picked out. The engine compartment received a bit more in the way of “Dirt” weathering as befits a well-used diesel!

I mentioned the lack of info on decal positions, the first example being that there are some really excellent internal warning signage included that you need to find out the location for. The internet came to the rescue here and they were positioned to the right of the driver’s seat and on the bulkhead behind the engine.

Come back for part two to see the model reach completion!

REME Museum Model Show 2024 - Lyneham

 I attended this show as a member of the South Wales MAFVA Club last weekend and was very impressed by both the standards of models displayed and also the museum itself.

Whilst a little on the expensive side (£15 adults, £7.50 Children) it has some very good and quite unique exhibits.

There is also an excellent cafe and facilities. Altogether a great day out. I'll leave the pictures to do the talking.....

Our Club's stand

My Offerings....

1/6th Stuart Recce - fully radio controlled!

1/6th Recce Jeeps & Landrover

1/1 CVRT Spartan

Challenger ARRV behind where we were sat!

Whirlwind Helicopter above our stand

M5 Half Track converted to recovery vehicle

Some nice 1/35 Ferrets

The for-runners to SA80 - individual and Light Support weapons in 4.85mm calibre

Radio Controlled 1/6th scale vehicles

1/16th scale radio controlled tanks

More 1/16th RC tanks

Armortek 1/6th RC tanks - Wow!

More 1/6th RC tanks - these even had engine sounds etc.

One of only 3 (I believe) Sherman BARVs

Churchill ARV with a display of model Churchills in front

1/32 Lancaster cockpit

Lovely paintings of gallantry award winners from the two Gulf Wars

Inside the rear of an AEC mobile workshop