The casting looks most excellent - ugly little brute (not you!) but I'm sure you'll ace it! Watching with interest.
Steve
Steve
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Here we go!!! First the background,
Captain Alfred Becker served in WWI and WWII as an artillery officer. Between the wars he earned a degree in mechanical engineering which would later be most useful. As an artillery battery commander, in the 1940 battle for the Netherlands, he came across abandoned artillery towing vehicles on the battlefield. As his battery was horse drawn, he thought he could use these vehicles to pull his own guns and he did. As his battery was re-stationed to Le Havre, in France, he also noted all the abandoned/destroyed French tanks, halftracks and English tanks everywhere he went. He made some conversions by mounting artillery guns on them and after using them on the east front, where vehicle losses were high, his works/conversions caught on with the high command in Berlin. He was then re-stationed to Alkett to do his work there and to find a way to mount 7.5cm PaKs and 10.5cm howitzers on the French Lorraine chassis...
He was sent back to France to evaluate all the remaining unused French vehicles and to determine if they could be used by Germany to boost the loses on all battle fronts. The German War Ministry created Baukommando Becker and he was given 3 factories to use. They were Matford, Talbot and Hotchkiss outside of Paris. He set up his HQ at the Matford factory and set about the huge task of recovering the abandoned, wrecked and destroyed vehicles all around France. He sent teams all around the country to recover the vehicles and bring them back to the factories. They were then sorted into 3 groups. Minor repair/refit, major repair/refit and beyond repair, with these being used for spare parts. He had amassed about 1800 vehicles of different types, including Lorraine chassis, Hotchkiss H35 and H39 tanks, Somua MCG 1/2 tracks and Unic P107 1/2 tracks. He was also sent a team of engineers from Berlin to assist him in his work. Along the way, he was also promoted to Major. I won't get into all of them and will mainly deal with the Somua MCG. He made plywood armor templates for these conversions as mock-ups. He then sent the templates to Alkett in Berlin for manufacture into steel plates. These were sent back to the factories near Paris where they were assembled on the vehicle. The 81mm mortars in the kit I'm building were also captured and are of French design...It's a really fascinating story about Baukommando Becker and if you want to read more, wikipedia has a pretty good and detailed story about him......
The Somua MCG 1/2 track was an un-armored vehicle used by the French to tow their medium artillery pieces and as a recovery vehicle. Until May 1940, 345 artillery tractors and 440 recovery tractors w/crane were built. With the fall of France, many of these were captured and re-used by the Germans after refits and armor upgrades. They looked like this,
The specs are as follows from wiki,
They weren't he fastest puppies in the world!!!..........Stripping one down, Becker made a wood mockup of the armored cab and designed the rotating table with the two rows of 81mm mortars. It was given the designation, Leichter Reihenwerfer (16 Rohre) auf Somua MCG s307(f) which translates to, Light Mortar (16 Tubes) on Somua MCG s307 with the (f) = French. The vehicle had a crew of 4, consisting of the driver, commander and 2 loaders. The loaders were completely exposed while loading and had little protection while underway. The armor plating was 12mm and protected against small arms fire and shrapnel. This vehicle had a weight of just under 7.3 tons, an 80 liter fuel tank and a range of 180 km with its 5-speed gearbox,6.8 t (6.7 long tons; 7.5 short tons) 5.30 m (17 ft 5 in) 2.17 m (7 ft 1 in) 2.85 m (9 ft 4 in) 2 + 8 passengers 4-cylinder, petrol, 4712 cc
60 hp (45 kW)1,500 kg (3,300 lb) 31 km/h
As you can see, the 81mm mortars (type Brandt Mle 27/31) were arranged in two rows of 8 tubes each. The table could rotate 360° and the mortars had an elevation of +35° to +90°. They were fired in two salvos of 8 each. The shells were held in place with a mechanism at the top of the tubes when loaded. Pulling a lanyard on each row, released the round into the tube and fired it. It used two different shells with one weighing 3.25 kgs and the other 6.5 Kgs. Maximum range was 2.8 Km and 1.2 Km respectively. The vehicle could carry 90 rounds onboard. Another pic,
Notice the shells in the loader's hands. A total of 36 (according to Spielberger) of these were built by Baukommando Becker. They were assigned to the 21 Panzer Division and used in the Normandy area in 1944. Major Alfred Becker survived the war and died in 1981...
On to the build!!! I have cleaned up most of the parts for the chassis and will save the mortar bits until I get that far,
The big question was how I was going to paint the thing. I figured it would be best to build the interior and give it a coat of paint and weathering. The main cover plate with vision ports could then be CA'd in place. So, here's the cab, so to speak,
The levers, pedals and shifter done. The steering wheel and IP will be added after painting. The gas tank has been added too. I had to make sure the filler neck aligned with the hole in the top plate over it. I also spent a bit of time cleaning up around the radiator fill neck and the hood as it was filled with excess resin in front. I moved on to the underside and went about test fitting the suspension parts to the frame and working on the front axle. The rear road wheel frames are workable, but with the solid resin tracks, they won't move,
Oh well, and Friul doesn't make a set for this critter either. I have done a bit more, but forgot to take some pics (as usual) ...I hope to get more done later today and have some pics for you too.
Sorry for the long intro and the time between posts today. I type as fast as pond water. Thanks for looking and take care....
Prost
AllenLife's to short to be a sheep...Comment
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Don't apologise about the intro Allen.... I've just had a right old read up and thoroughly enjoyed it
It looks a cracking little kit,the clear pics of your early progress show that,and I look forward to watching it develop mate
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Fascinating stuff Allen, thanks for sharingComment
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great prep work always worth your time to get it all preppedComment
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Thank you, John and welcome back. I am really enjoying this kit, so far. Working only with CA is a bit tricky though. It does clean up a lot easier than most plastic kits do, no multiple sprue attachment tabs to deal with, so prep was simple...
Trust me Steve, the kit is a lot better looking than me. Good to have you along Sir. How's your Mossie doing???
Thanks Andy and I figured some background would help to better to clarify the build. I do tend to waffle a bit as you know Buddy. Hope you and Rach are finally over the C crap...
You're most welcome Neil!!! Nice of you keep tabs on me too. I do have to have a good ketchup at those wonderful Fuselages, Fusilators or Fusiliers things you have been working your magic on, Sir...
Thanks all...
Prost
AllenLife's to short to be a sheep...Comment
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Wow!! that happened so fast, I forgot to look! I guess I'll have to stick around for the re-runs.
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Allen, I missed the start of this thread and I just had a catch up.
Very interesting vehicle and an amazing kit.
I'll seat somewhere, if any seat is still available, ready to delight my eyes. :smiling3:
AndreaComment
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That was a great piece on Captain Alfred Becker Dude 1 , thoroughly interesting. Reminded me of Percy Hobart Major General Sir Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart, KBE, CB, DSO, MC .Very similar in their engineering ideas.Comment
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Thanks for the ID Allen; the Mossie is temporarily stalled due to my inability to satisfactorily eliminate the nose seam (despite copious amounts of filler and sanding)! However, the Spitfire is Shelf of Doom, the Half-track build is progressing well and I intend to finish both within the time constraints! I now realise the problems of over-commitment
SteveComment
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Well Allen that information was well worth a read through. Quite a guy our Capt. Alfred Becker.
You've made a great start and as John said time spent prepping the parts is time well spent.Comment
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Great choice of vehicle. These quirky Brach kits look great. Never ever seen a build log on one before so nice to see what you get for having your wallet temporarily raped looking forward to progress
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Evening Folks and please don't ask........The build is still underway and I'm making progress...First,
Rick, you need to stop taking those naps all the time!!! Won't be any re-runs yet, so please stay awake Buddy......
There's always a place for you Andrea. You might want to wear very dark glasses and bring earplugs just in case I have problems. I wouldn't want to corrupt your morals my friend......
He was an interesting man Dude 2. The German problem was the losses on the East Front and the lack of effective anti-tank weapons to repel the Russian tanks. Hobart was cool as he made a lot of good mods to his tanks too. Hobart's funnies come to mind......
Sorry to hear that Steve...Are you getting good bench time or are you still involved in the renovation project with your fine lady??? How bad is that nose seam Sir??? Can you say hammer................
Thanks Jigs. Between the wars, he had a textile factory and after WWII and his release, he went back to Krefeld and started another textile business which is still going today. Prep with a resin kit is the only way to go. One has to test fit everything twice before dabbing the CA on it.
Thanks Los. Luciano Brach does make some interesting kits. Got a few more in the stash. They are pricey for sure and my wallet feels raped, but to be honest, I've get a warm and fuzzy feeling while building this. He makes 2 other kits based on the MCG. One with 7.5cm PaK 40 and a troop transport similar to the Sd. Kfz. 250. DES makes a few kits of French 1/2 tracks also. They're very finely cast resin kits too, but with a price......
As to my above statement...I started to finish the front suspension and went about cleaning up the tie rod and the steering arm. One has to be careful as these parts are thin and long to boot. Took a while and nothing got broken with my sausage fingers. I also drilled the steering arms out to fit the pins into them,
One could replace the pins and make the steering fully workable, but if I started that, this build could take 6 months to finish. You know one thing leads to another. I will have the wheels turned to one side and CA everything in place. The tie rod pins, when in place in the steering arms, are 0.3mm too far apart and skews the steering with too much toe-in. No biggie, as I can fix that with no probs. I then went about removing the 2 stabilizers between the differential and the rear suspension mount last night. In doing so, I touched one of the fasteners for the motor side panels and it fell into my lap or so I thought. Hence the "don't ask" from above. One of these,
Many foul words and an hour with my LED flashlight, on my wood laminate floor looking for it, NADA!!! The piece is 2x3mm and gone. I even checked inside my Nikes, but it was nowhere to be found. Ok, plan 2......I have a collection of a similar pieces from Dragon kits in my spares, but where??? Spent a lot more time looking for where I put the damn things and finally found them, along with my collection of wing nuts too. Unfortunately, they are shaped the opposite of the one above. I spent a lot more time today, after work, looking all over the floor for it again. No luck, so I'll just modify one of the Dragon pieces to use......I was not amused over this.....
Tomorrow, weather permitting, I want to AB the driver's interior, the underside, the track/suspension components and other parts. My order came today with fresh paint. I have been masking off the glue points as I don't like to CA painted parts together. Glue resin to resin and then do touchups as needed. Enough waffle for tonight folks..........
Update morn, with luck. Thanks for looking in and all abuse is welcome and cheerfully accepted...
I've posted some pics of other resin kits of French (Becker built armored and Normal) 1/2 tracks below. Not cheap, but very nicely cast and worth it.....
Prost
Allen
Brach Models
DES Kit
Food for thought...........................................Life's to short to be a sheep...Comment
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Allen, who can sleep with JR drooling all over the place!! I missed all the excitement cause I was busy wiping his chin! And the next time you decide to take off in a sudden burst of inspiration...how bout a head's up.
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Where was your bench apron, eh? Dude2 & I use ours religiously, thus fewer floor/shoe/cuff searches.Comment
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