Maskelyne's deceit

[Leighbo]

Hi Guys, here's my latest project
I saw some pictures of some British tanks in North Africa and was fascinated so I did some research and found they were from Operation Bertram at the end of 1942.
I'm sure some of you have heard of this, but basically the mission was for the British to misdirect Rommel's Afrika corps in to thinking that there were tanks gathering in an area away from the German lines whilst actually getting them to think that the gathering of tanks near the front lines were harmless trucks. This was all the idea of one man, a magician called Jasper Maskelyne.

I won't go into this in detail here as there were many misdirections, but the full details are explained on this interesting website.
http://warandgame.com/2008/12/04/operation-bertram-september-november-1942-2/
The parts I was interested in were the tanks having a 'sunshade' fitted and also the reverse where a dummy tank was built on a truck chassis, both ideas to fool aerial observers.

I intend to build an A13 cruiser tank and then construct a sunshade using brass rods with some sort of paper or kitchen towel stretched over it.

The second and more difficult part is to scratch build a dummy tank from a wood frame again covered in paper and painted. The trouble is that this is unknown territory for me and also the reference photos show very detailed painting on the dummy tank including individual bolt heads and realistic shading. They were painted so well that even on the close up photos at first glance they look real.
I do enjoy a challenge!

If I can't get the dummy looking real then I will settle on the A13 and sunshade, but I am going to give it a crack!

Whatever I finish with will be displayed on a desert base.

The A13 from Bronco is going together pretty well, it is a well detailed model and will no doubt turn out looking great, but there are a few fit issues which need some fine filling and the large top hull molding was warped which caused a few problems. Also although there is quite a lot of etch on the kit I find it very fiddly and am forever losing the tiniest of parts! Also as there are side skirts on the tank it means I will have to fit the tracks first and paint them on the tank which is a first for me.

To start to build the dummy tank I found some plans for the MkII Crusader which when I printed them came out just under 1/35 scale, which is fine as I had read that the dummys were built under scale as from 1000's of feet up this wouldn't be noticable and this would save materials

I laid down the plans and cut some strips of spruce to create the frame for the tracks and glued them together. I then cut a copy in sheet balsa for the inside of the frame and used some wedges of balsa to hold the two parts together.

My first attempt in covering the front of the frame was with tissue moistened with PVA glue and water, but this ripped before I got it near the frame
The second go was with kitchen towel, PVA and water, but when I wasn't too happy with the result but I put it aside to dry and one of my cats walked through it!
My third try was with the type of paper used in making dress patterns (thanks to my wife!) with the same treatment and this time it has worked! I repeated the process for the edges of the frame.

Now I just need to repeat this process for the other side and then for the hull, and the turret, I do like making things difficult for myself!

Any comments or suggestions are welcome

Thanks for looking

 

[Quaralane]

Interesting.

 

[spud]

wow this will be interesting to say the least

 

[Leighbo]

Hi Guys

Heres the latest on this diorama

The kit build is finished, as before there were a few mistakes in the kit and a little filler required but it has built into a nice looking, well detailed kit.

The next step was to build the frame for the dummy canvas cover for the tank.
I accomplished this by bending brass rod around a form and cutting more lengths for the frame then soldering them together. I had never soldered before but it was fairly easy once I got the hang of it. The only problem I had was that I decided to build the two halves as one and cut down the middle, but once I did this a lot of the joints broke and had to be redone, but it wasn't too bad.

Once this was complete I wrapped the frame in some more pattern paper soaked in white glue and water, and cut to fit.

Once this was dry I fitted some brackets to the tank to hold the canvas. As I could find no references I used some brackes from my stash and cut small slits in the canvas so it can be raised and lowered.

The next step was to airbrush a Vallejo primer coat.

Leaving the frame aside I went back to the frame for the dummy tank. Using strip wood and balsa sheet I built a frame based on the blueprints and then stretched glue covered paper over this and left it to dry.

I repeated the process for the turret but used a plastic sheet frame instead of wood as there were some complicated shapes required.

Once dry I used the Vallejo primer, followed by different sand shades to try and give some depth to the structure, as it is a flat structure I cannot do my usual washes and oils etc...

Once I had the base coat on I cut the blueprint to mask the wheels and side skirt and used a combination of airbrushing and hand painting to depict the details. This is a challenge as the real dummy was designed to look like a tank from a long distance, not necessarily up close, so I will have to play around until I am satisfied.

Now I am comfortable that the dummy tank should work I have planned a base outside a hanger in the desert showing both vehicles just off the production line, with a few proud engineers checking out their creations.

Anyway until next time thanks for looking

 

[Quaralane]

Definitely some interesting work here

 

[spud]

very cool, looking forward to seeing more

 

[Chris S]

Very cool !! nice to see someone have a go at something like this ,the Decoys did play a big part and are much over looked .

Very nice work and scratch work too

Chris.

 

[Leighbo]

Hi Guys

Not had the time for much modelling recently, I've been busy with other non modelling projects, but happily I've got time again now!

For the base I wanted to show the front of a desert hanger as if the two vehicles were just being finished off and admired.
I started by making the hanger doors which consisted of surplus sprue for a frame, covered with thick foil ran through my crimping machine.

I made four seperate doors as I want to model one or two of them open.
Once i had these made I turned to the building frame, which was made in the same way but with thick card to strengthen it up.

The next step will be to add the corrugated layer.

Starting on painting the tank, I used various mixes of Vallejo middle stone, sand yellow and radome tan, starting darker and gradually getting lighter. Rather than sticking to a uniform approach I tried to be a bit more random to give a faded look.

After sealing this with a gloss coat and adding the decals I used diluted oils to pick out the bolt heads, vents and panel lines.

After a couple of days of drying and another gloss coat I added more oil weathering but this time using neat oils and blending them in with a soft brush. I used browns to accentuate the recesses and buff and white to add more fading.

Thanks for looking, I'll post again soon

 

[panzerace007]

LEIGHBO,

Cool concept ! I really like where this is goin' !

When you say pattern paper ... what exactly is that ? I think that turned out lookin' cool. It really looks like canvas , Great Job on that.

Can't wait to see more !!

 

[Rentar1]

Love it! Its high concept and I doubt that a lot of modelers have tried to pull it off. Great job can't wait to see it finished!

 

[schweinhund227]

Heard of those and seen them in Magazines or Books... but to see them in SCALE.... Awesome idea and Great Execution.....

Unique !


Norm.