Esci 7.5cm light infantry gun

I’ve always liked these German infantry guns so when I spotted this antique kit at a decent price I clearly had to have it.

Helpfully it includes five crew figures.

Despite the kit’s antiquity the figures went together well. The gun was more of a challenge as several of the parts were warped but it all came good in the end. I suppose I’d better paint it now....

Diekirch military museum

I forgot to post these photos from last September. Diekirch in Luxembourg is home to - among other things - the national military museum. It’s a cracking little museum with lots of exhibits, mostly from the 1944/45 campaign. The photos are in no particular order but we start with the most important - the field bakery!

Jeep with chilly looking crew

Kubel - I particularly like the copy of ‘Signal’ in the door pocket. 

River crossing vignette 

M-24 Chaffee. To my eyes one of the most cohesive looking tank designs of WW2.

Freezing mortar crew

PAK-40 and crew

15cm infantry gun

Looking at this weekend’s weather forecast I can’t help but think one of these would be useful!

37mm Door Knocker with obligatory Stielgranate

Nice to see the Schwimmwagen crew have a Plan B in case the engine fails....

Muddy Ketterkrad

Ex Belgian Army M-47

57mm M-1 AT gun. What us Brits call a 6 pounder. 

Still worried about the Luftwaffe!

M-4A3E8 stuck at the Westwall

1940 Luxembourg Army uniform 

The Sherman again 

Sdkfz-251

155mm gun and ammunition 

Free Victor?

Not a plea but an offer. RAF Marham’s Victor is up for grabs so if you have a big enough garden get your bid in now!
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/raf-marham-offering-free-victor-jet-1-6504843

https://www.arrse.co.uk/community/threads/eastern-daily-press-yours-for-nothing-raf-marham-jet-being-given-away.298203/

Another Victor

Acting up at Actium

This Wednesday John brought along a game he’d found on the internet. From long experience we know this is no guarantee of quality but we’ll try (virtually) anything once. 

Thus five players assembled under John’s supervision to shove around his 1/1200 galleys. The Romans were Martin (as Octavian - his own blog post will no doubt follow soon), Graham and Simon. The er, other Romans (and Egyptians) were led by Mark Anthony (Jerry) and the beautiful Cleopatra (er, your humble correspondent)

Our fleet was hugely outnumbered and our ships were slower but bigger. If your eyesight is up to it, the bases of the goodies are marked with letters, the baddies with Roman numerals.

We bid farewell to the Greek coast and floated off. We had to escape intact (some hope) or duff up the enemy fleet (even less hope!)

The overconfident Octavians were easily goaded into contact...

...and we had the best of the initial encounters. FYI, ships can take 15 hits. The white crosses are one each, yellow is a 5, red is 10.  

The action soon descended into what I believe the US military calls a ‘clusterf*ck’. Even Mark Anthony’s huge ship - beset on all sides by enemies - sank. 

At this point, the opposed initiative rolls  - ever more important - stalled. The pair of sixes was followed by another double as tension mounted. 

So who won?  Well me obviously!  Cleopatra’s pair of galleys slipped off  - much to Octavian’s distress!  We’ll draw a veil over the loss of the rest of our fleet.....