Pegasus Bridge in 15mm - 4Ground

For as long as I've been interested in military history, I have been drawn to small unit, Coup d'etat operations.

Top of my list has to be Operation Deadstick, the capture of the Orne Bridges, on the night of 5th/6th June 1944 by the Ox & Bucks airborne infantry.

I have visited the site of the operation a couple of times and the landscape is very emotive. (http://timstanks.blogspot.com/search?q=pegasus+bridge)

My intention has always been to refight this action using my 15mm WW2 collection, and to this end I have been collecting terrain pieces to suit for a number of years. (http://timstanks.blogspot.com/2014/07/pegasus-bridge-15mm.html)

Visiting CRUSADE 2020 a couple of weekends ago allowed me to fill one of the final pieces in the jigsaw - the Cafe Gondree - which cost me £18.

I chose to buy the 4Ground mdf version of the building as its ready coloured and offers far greater detail (realism) than the others I've seen available.

At first, the multitude of finely laser-cut parts and double-sided instruction sheet looked daunting. The parts need to be removed from their "Sprue" very carefully before assembling using either super-glue or PVA (I used PVA for all but the attachment of the finished chimneys).

I remove the parts by carefully cutting through the tiny un-cut "joining" piece between part and "sprue" with a very sharp scalpel.

Glider from Warbases and figures from Peter Pig

The parts are all cut immaculately and fit is perfect. I won't say assembly is simple as it is really quite intricate, but with care any competent modeller will cope.

I built the model over 6 days, constantly allowing sections to dry overnight before moving on. If using superglue you could probably do the entire job in one sitting.

4 Ground pre-painted models are sometimes criticised for the exposed "burnt" mortice joints. This model minimises this by cladding the core mdf building with coloured card sections of brickwork and render. The most obvious ones were on the chimneys and roof. To minimise these I mixed (as best I could) matching acrylic paint and carefully touched them up - I think reasonably successfully!

Safe in the display cabinet for now.....

When finished the model is very impressive. The roof is removable as is the upper floor to allow positioning of figures. It will provide a wonderful scenic addition to my game when I finally get around to fighting it out!!