Joint dioramas

yes my friendi all ready both the drinks and wine most of all the gin for nannu pec

you are a great man

X'erbgha itratti dawk Marco, prosit. hemm xalataghal min irid jaghmel diorama.

These photos are wonderful and very nice, the aim of this topic was not to admire the photos posted but TO MAKE A JOINT DIORAMA .

Till today no one has shown any interest in doing something on this subject.

I am in to join forces with anyone who is willing to do a joint diorama, especially if this would be WWI or one depicting Malta during WWI, if we had any aircraft here, or the period between wars so Marco if you come across any photos regarding this subject please post them

J

Joseph wrote:These photos are wonderful and very nice, the aim of this topic was not to admire the photos posted but TO MAKE A JOINT DIORAMA .

Till today no one has shown any interest in doing something on this subject.

I am in to join forces with anyone who is willing to do a joint diorama, especially if this would be WWI or one depicting Malta during WWI, if we had any aircraft here, or the period between wars so Marco if you come across any photos regarding this subject please post them

J

Guz

If you are interested, I have a small idea for a Malta dio that one day I wish to make, so recently I have read that during the Siege of Malta, if not mistaken 1941, it rained so heavy that certain airfields ended up a mudfield with aircraft having their wheels stuck in potholes [anke dak iz-zmien kienu jeziztu] and had to be pulled out by tracked vehicles. There is a photo of a bren pulling trailers with bombracks showing the amount of mud ... so I always thaught of a mini vignette of a tank pulling a hurricane out of a hole having the oportunity to splatter some weathering ala AFV on an aircraft ... I think this incident would be a unique oportunity to splash some mud on an aircraft!

Ivan

dott please note when you get back from the alps that is

did you see the sherman picture, it does not neccessarily have to be painted in olive drab to be a sherman this one is very colourful

and while we are talking about olive drab, we all know what a pain you are as regards to the authenticity of olive drab shades on your models, well have you noticed that the two identical dodge ambulances in the picture have a totally different shade of olive drab from each other

iCocker wrote:

Joseph wrote:These photos are wonderful and very nice, the aim of this topic was not to admire the photos posted but TO MAKE A JOINT DIORAMA .

Till today no one has shown any interest in doing something on this subject.

I am in to join forces with anyone who is willing to do a joint diorama, especially if this would be WWI or one depicting Malta during WWI, if we had any aircraft here, or the period between wars so Marco if you come across any photos regarding this subject please post them

J

Guz

If you are interested, I have a small idea for a Malta dio that one day I wish to make, so recently I have read that during the Siege of Malta, if not mistaken 1941, it rained so heavy that certain airfields ended up a mudfield with aircraft having their wheels stuck in potholes [anke dak iz-zmien kienu jeziztu] and had to be pulled out by tracked vehicles. There is a photo of a bren pulling trailers with bombracks showing the amount of mud ... so I always thaught of a mini vignette of a tank pulling a hurricane out of a hole having the oportunity to splatter some weathering ala AFV on an aircraft ... I think this incident would be a unique oportunity to splash some mud on an aircraft!

Ivan

Let me in, Let me in, Let me in PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

Naf li BASSA KOLLNI but would love to paint the personell on this one as it would be a very interesting and unique dio

Ray

Brilliant Ray so we have ateam, all we need are the materials? Are Hurricanes available in 1/32 scale?

Ivan

van count me in.its nice to make something about malta

Yes if I am not mistaken there is a MKII available but I need some guidance from Marco.

J

iCocker wrote:Brilliant Ray so we have ateam, all we need are the materials? Are Hurricanes available in 1/32 scale?

Ivan

Revell has got one in this scale. It is an old tooling, but re-released recently and available. Not sure if there more newer and modern tooling in 32nd scale. Another option would be a spitfire mkIX using the tamiya new kit but that would be in 1943.

Joseph wrote:Yes if I am not mistaken there is a MKII available but I need some guidance from Marco.

J

at present it seems that only hurricane availabe in 32nd is the revell hurricane mk.I and is currently available in malta as i have seen it locally. As a mk.I it would be great to depict in malta during the early period of the siege.

Brilliant, the more we are the better ...

This incident happened pre-spitfire era so I guess we have to go for a Huricane, apart that it is a beast and would look more menacing and interesting weathering aircraft, metal and fabric ... so have to dig more about this incident, see which squadrons were deployed and what Airfield. Will check also what were the nearest tanks to the scene and will start from there ...

Probably for a tank we can do with a Matilda [not Griffon] or a Valentine ... figures we have Hornet and teh new Miniarm, so we have all the gear to start this idea ...

Ivan

Back from the -5 of the swiss Alps sporting a bad sorethroat and a crushing flu-type illness...

You have a point cousin eh...
The Dodge in the forefront of the picture doesn't look much authentic for OD in my opinion though ON A MODEL I prefer greener hues rather than the more brownish ones...

Back to the brodu and antibiotics...

Dottore

PS felt miserable having to miss out on SSM Christmas bash yesterday night...sure you had a great time!

Dottore wrote:Back from the -5 of the swiss Alps sporting a bad sorethroat and a crushing flu-type illness...

You have a point cousin eh...
The Dodge in the forefront of the picture doesn't look much authentic for OD in my opinion though ON A MODEL I prefer greener hues rather than the more brownish ones...

Back to the brodu and antibiotics...

Dottore

PS felt miserable having to miss out on SSM Christmas bash yesterday night...sure you had a great time!

Welcome back you sick Doc Roe
Missed you last night and to think you're gonna be 24hr duty on the 29th makes it even worse

Hope you can make it this Wed

Ray

Revell used to make the Hurricane MKI & MKII, but as far as I know only MKIIs came to Malta and the Revell MKII is not correct so as soon as Marco comes in with his advice about what has to be done, aircraft wise, I start the build.
Ivan if you have any photo or something it would be great else we have to check what squadron and aircraft were present at that particular time of year

J

So what I have in hand till now are the Malta Tank's available according to the British War Diary and an interesting image that started this idea [notice the mud and winter uniforms], at home I will browse more in depth about the airfields affected so we can investigate which squadrons were available ...




Summary -

It would appear that there were 18 tanks on Malta between 1941 and 1943 -

Three Light VIC listed as at September 1942 although only two were landed in November 1940. IWM GM465 dated 24 March 1942 shows three in the same shot. GM474 and GM847 both show T5878

Four Matildas all landed in November 1940. GM484 shows GALLANT GM498 and GM836 show GRIFFIN Others were Greyhound and Faulknor

Four A9 received in the first months of 1942

Three A13 IIA received in the first months of 1942. These include T15231 in GM454 and T18117 in GM467

Four Valentines, two Mk II and two Mk III received in April and May 1943


Sources -

War Diaries WO.169/904 for 1940, WO.169/3272 1941, WO.169/7395 1942, WO.169/14554 1943

Malta Tanks from IWM archive, sorry these are thumbnails

Matilda in action ...

Notice different camo



The elusive A13 as they arrived Malta just before receiving maltese camo



Another Matilda which also sparkled the idea

Joseph wrote:Revell used to make the Hurricane MKI & MKII, but as far as I know only MKIIs came to Malta and the Revell MKII is not correct so as soon as Marco comes in with his advice about what has to be done, aircraft wise, I start the build.
Ivan if you have any photo or something it would be great else we have to check what squadron and aircraft were present at that particular time of year

J

over here we got mk.1 as well, the first ones, mk1s were send from england through france and north africa in june 1940, although not intended for Malta but for Egypt. The first carrier delivery was on 2/8/40, operation 'hurry' flown off HMS Argus. On Malta, there were 4 versions of the hurricane, the mk.I, mk.IIA, mk.IIB, mk.IIC. They were delivered with and without trop filters, in desert scheme, in temperate scheme and also black/white undersides. Not all Hurricanes that were delivered on malta stayed here, infact about 150 continued over to North Africa. Only 12 hurricanes arrived in crates on MV Essex.

Squadrons that operated the hurricane are, 261sqd, 185sqd, 249sqn, 46/126sqd, 242sqn, 605sqd, 229sqd, 69sqd, and the Malta Night Fighter Unit MNFU - 1435 flight. Sometimes the same aircraft was operated by more the one squadron. So if you are going to build something particular, get a hold of the picture and I am sure the aviation museum got quite a collection. The main difference and most visible difference between the mk.I and mkII is in the nose are, the mkII being slightly longer but quite visible when put next to a mk.I. In the mk II series, the difference is in the armament, mk.IIa - 8 x .303, mk.IIb - 12 x .303, mk.IIc - 4 x 20mm. The other main versions of the hurricane were the mk.IId, and mk.IV which did not operate from Malta.

Revell hurricane - http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/?FULL=RV00018

From dates quoted re tanks etc, date has to be between 1941 onwards, so we have to establish which aircraft, what squadron and airfield that this squadron operated from. I think that we are not going to find a photo of the particular aircraft in those conditions so we have to use a bit of our artistry imagination. I think that in rainy conditions all airfields, especially pens, would end up as mud fields.
The most important thing is that we depict an actual aircraft with the right scheme and codes at an apropriate airfield and then, the sky is the limit of what one can do.

J