Saturday 7 December 2019

SH.A.G

My part of this years Whif GB over at the Airfix Tribute Forum

"It´s early 1944, the Invasion planning is well underway when, P.King, Special Agent of the S.O.E, sends back photos of the Normandy countryside. His attached report on the French Bocage gives particular Detail of one part of the Terrain, the Hedrows, a Detail that until this Moment,  the allied Command has overlooked. Furtunately P.King´s report contains a Suggestion which will turn the hedrows into an Advantage. With only months to go a Team of engineers is put together and Operation SH.A.G was Born".


The build.
The kit. The boxart is classic. A spray of bullets bouncing of the hull, the hull MG firing into the sky, explosions, fires..great stuff.

Hull cleared of all the bits and Bobs. At this Point I realised that I needn´t have bothered with removing the turret ring
Hull Remake with plastic Card.
Lifting rings made from florist wire, hatch from the kit, Drivers viewing slit from an old Esci Panther and gun from an old Esci Stug
I couldn´t properly fill the line between the new hull and the lower hull so to hide it I added a track rack on each side.
Painting..Basic dark olive green with a couple of lighter dry brushes.


Thing is..was a SH.A.G ever used at Normandy? Answer no. There are a couple of reasons for this. 
It was, with the gun mounted as it was, too Long for the available Landing craft. 
Also the hull ended up only a couple of Inches lower than the turret Version which more or less took away the Advantage. 
Lowering the hull any further went against H&S considerations. The Driver would have to be sat at a slightly uncomfortable "forced" Position which, after a long drivetime,  may have led to back and neck ache. The MGU, (Machine Gunners Union) rightly put in a discrimination Claim which, even though they were reasigned as principle tea maker, was upheld. 

10 comments:

  1. I thoroughly approve of this!
    Of course, the landing craft issue could be avoided by developing an amphibious (DD) version. But no doubt the prototype sank and the whole project was SHAGDD....

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  2. Hilarious! Love this Paul, a wonderful project.

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  3. Wonderfully convincing, I half expected to find that there's a prototype at Bovington! Classic Airfix box art too, never realised the hull MG was there for AA defence ;-)

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  4. Just when you thought the Sherman was tall and unwieldy. This machine starts rolling down road towards you.

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  5. Hello Paul,

    I found some photographs of a medieval crane you built on Google, unfortunately they are no longer available on here for some reason :( Is there any chance you still have them? As I would like to make a 3D model of it.

    Simon.

    P.S. I also am old enough to remember Bod :D

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    1. Hi Simon. I´ve built a couple of cranes so you have to tell me which post (Date of Posting) The pics I still have and since TinyPic has closed I´ve been updating the blog slowly after TinyPic went bust this year. I stupidly hosted a lot of pics on tinypic so when they went bust so did the links.

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    2. PS. nearly all my Pics hosted on Tinypic can still be found using a specific pic search using Google Chrome but some tend to be a bit blurred.

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  6. http://paulsbods.blogspot.com/2013/08/treadwheel-crane.html

    Google sends me here mate. I'm after photos of it at every angle if possible?

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    1. Ok. Got it. I´ve updated, replaced the pics, but..they are the only two I have and, sorry, I can´t take any more as it was built and painted for a collector and is now in his Possession. There´s a link at the top of the post to the maker of the kit, Modelbau Luft I´ve added it today, just click on the HERE ;-) There´s more pics of the crane built and an "Explosion" of the kit parts which might be of help.
      You´re Also into medieval themed stuff eh? :-)

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  7. Thank you mate! Yes, I make 3D models for games but I specialise in medieval gear (mostly). I'm constantly looking for medieval "clutter" to fill backgrounds. Props etc. There are only so many crates and barrels a game can have lol. I have got to that point now where I don't think there is anything new on google images for me to make and I'm always up for good suggestions. This is my blog if you fancy checking it out? https://stgbooks.blogspot.com/

    Thanks again!

    Simon.

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