28 mm Churchill Project - Hobart's Funnies II - AVRE SBG

[Steve-the-Duck]

Well, I'm not, strictly speaking, adding this to the D-Day GB, just going ahead as is.

SBG stands for Small Box Girder, basically the deployed bridge. It was made in a towed, single-part and folding versions, the latter I'm doing here. And, as I'm not sure whether they were about for or after D-Day, that's why we're here


The kit is a 3d print, from 3D Printing valley on eBay. They originally sent me a 1/72 version by mistake, which was soon rectified with this weighty beast. Not bad for under twenty quid!

My 'Churchill Project' is to build at least one of each in-service mark of the Churchill, as well as major variants like the 79th Division 'Funnies'

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

So, first off, the hull was weighted with 15 pennies, as that's going to be a lot of weight in front. I wanted to do the folded version just to show off the parts, and to make it easier do it in the 'travelling' form

Turret already undercoated, as you can see. The attachment points are two small hooks on the bridge to the bar on the front. At this stage I didn't hold much hope of that being very secure with the amount of weight on the joint


But things actually worked out!

A coat of Halfords black, and it's holding so far.

And the overall olive drab coat, which will be Brit-greened with an over wash or dust coat of Grey-Violet
I thought the bridge might not hold without all the cable bracing, but for now... better not jinx it!

In the back is the Warlord / Italeri Churchill plastic, which can be built in about six different versions, from Mk.III to Mk.VI and the AVRE. Which is nice.
This is going to be one of the Kingforce Mk.IIIs deployed before Alamein. Just needs the dust shield adding. The bars on the side are for the 'Sunshield' Lorry disguise.

Tempted to do one of those, or on a Matilda...

BTW, it wasn't until the olive was on that I saw the turret bin back was mis-printed. So that just needed a bit of re-profiling with a rasp

 

[Waspie]

You're not hanging around with this then????
Turned out ok Chris. Be nice to see how it turns out.

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

You're not hanging around with this then????
Turned out ok Chris. Be nice to see how it turns out.

Well, they're quick to do while glue and silver paint dries!

 

[Jakko]

I'm not sure whether they were about for or after D-Day

They were. Here are some photos I found at Panzerserra’s AVRE+SBG page.

Commandos shortly after having come ashore, with a Churchill with SBG bridge clearly visible in the background:



Canadian troops coming ashore with an SBG bridge visible against the anti-tank wall:


Close-up of that same bridge:


You can tell this one was laid by an AVRE first of all because it’s painted white. This was done so it wouldn’t be too obvious against the sky (though whether that was successful, I kind of doubt). One of the uprights that the winch pulled on is also visible, folded down onto the ground.

And an AVRE with the bridge-laying winch, just off the landing beach:


Interestingly, also a Universal Carrier and a Jeep, both with deep-wading equipment, and two D6A armoured bulldozers.

 

[Jakko]

BTW, I forgot to mention above that the folded version didn’t see action on D-Day, but can’t edit my post anymore by now.

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

BTW, I forgot to mention above that the folded version didn’t see action on D-Day, but can’t edit my post anymore by now.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I've not seen an in service date for the folding one

And that's the first time I've seen, or heard, of a white painted bridge! Good job I did do the folding one as I would DEFINITELY done the full-length one white if I'd known

The link to Panzerserra has been very useful. Wait, the Canadians thought of the AVRE? Well, after the Dieppe debacle, no surprise there!

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

And now I've got an ARV bubbling under... Mk.I or Mk.II...?

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

So, I,m just about to 'green-up' with a wash of grey-violet, the bridge gets the slightest tap from the tweezers in my hand...
and off it comes because of course it does!

Looks like I'll have to add some hidden pin after all... All the while I try to suss out how to add all the cabling

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

So, strangely, when I did a search for an SBG build, mine here was the third to come up on Googly-moogly

Now that is a definite first for me!

 

[Jakko]

I've not seen an in service date for the folding one

Futter doesn’t seem to mention it, and I don’t think I’ve seen many other references to the folding bridge anywhere else at all.

And that's the first time I've seen, or heard, of a white painted bridge! Good job I did do the folding one as I would DEFINITELY done the full-length one white if I'd known

You clearly haven’t read about my AVRE+SBG build from lats year

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

You clearly haven’t read about my AVRE+SBG build from lats year

Well, I can't keep track of everything you build, Jakko! But I did find a big piece you wrote on another site

Unless...
There are TWO of you!

 

[Jakko]

For everyone else’s sake, I hope not …

 

[Lee Drennen]

There are TWO of you!

That’s scary but in a good way.

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

Dagnabbit!
Over the weekend some invisible update on our PC means it no longer recognises my camera, so I can no longer upload any photos!

Everything was fine until WTF! Managed to fix it once, but now exactly the same course of action does NOTHING!
So, no piccie updates on anyghing from me for who knows how long!

 

[Jakko]

I take it you’ve become one of the great legion of people who love Windows updates?

 

[Waspie]

I take it you’ve become one of the great legion of people who love Windows updates?

I'm not sniggering!!! (Much)

 

[A_J_Rimmer]

Dagnabbit!
Over the weekend some invisible update on our PC means it no longer recognises my camera, so I can no longer upload any photos!

Everything was fine until WTF! Managed to fix it once, but now exactly the same course of action does NOTHING!
So, no piccie updates on anyghing from me for who knows how long!

Can you remove the SD card and just stick it in a USB SD card reader? (assuming your PC doesn't have a slot?)

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

Can you remove the SD card and just stick it in a USB SD card reader? (assuming your PC doesn't have a slot?)

If I HAD a card reader, but that IS an alternate option I hadn't considered. That might also help 'recover' my pics from Rome and Vigna de Valle, as research has shown, because the camera stores to card in month dated folders. Which makes everything in that folder innaccesible if the foldrs aren't locked, and it flips to a new month and creates a new folder, even when there's still some space on the SD card

We're going to lose so much data... "We lost the entire fifteenth century the other day. Still, that's just a few corrupt popes"

 

[A_J_Rimmer]

If I HAD a card reader, but that IS an alternate option I hadn't considered. That might also help 'recover' my pics from Rome and Vigna de Valle, as research has shown, because the camera stores to card in month dated folders. Which makes everything in that folder innaccesible if the foldrs aren't locked, and it flips to a new month and creates a new folder, even when there's still some space on the SD card

We're going to lose so much data... "We lost the entire fifteenth century the other day. Still, that's just a few corrupt popes"

LOL! Yeah, I do wonder how much of the data we have now we'll still have access to in 20 years time.