kevin
Well-Known Member
I really like the paint job. The brown wash really highlight the camo colors. I like the rust effects on the exhaust as well.
Meng French FT (17) 1/35
- Thread starter Ron2
- Start date
Thanks Kevin!
Thanks !
Working on some barbed wire for the stand. Pain in the butt. I guess we'll see how bad I want this barbed wire! No I'm not leaving the barbs like that. I've got to make a ton more get them in place,then glue and trim them hopefully somewhat to scale- nah scale is already blown.
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... Haven't gone there yet.
I think you'd feel better about it if it were sitting in a muddy battlefield dio.
I think you'd feel better about it if it were sitting in a muddy battlefield dio.
That's coming
So I watched a blog the other day on the battle of verdun and there is so much I don't know about the battle but now want to study up on. (I'm using "study" very loosely!) Two facts I learned that surprised me was that the battle lasted nearly a year and that a carrier pigeon received the French Croix de Guerrero with palms for being wounded (mortal) yet still delivering its message. Truth be told I really want to make some jokes about American valor but I didn't sleep well last night and am running late this morning. Barbed wire is ok, definitely out of scale and not precise but it works. I think.
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That's amazing! Love it.
Out of kilter. Messed up. On the edge. Barbed. Muck.
It's all there...
And to me, the barbed wire works, not because it is historically or mechanically super accurate, but because it conveys the essence of what barbed wire is designed to do: present a thorny obstacle that will catch you up, to be shredded by some machine gun nest or mortar round that you can no longer evade.
Out of kilter. Messed up. On the edge. Barbed. Muck.
It's all there...
And to me, the barbed wire works, not because it is historically or mechanically super accurate, but because it conveys the essence of what barbed wire is designed to do: present a thorny obstacle that will catch you up, to be shredded by some machine gun nest or mortar round that you can no longer evade.
Thanks BB! I will say that if I ever want barbed wire again- I'm buying it!
Jakko
Well-Known Member
In English-language history it usually gets snowed under by the Battle of the Somme, but Verdun was an even more … ridiculous is perhaps the best word … affair than that battle was. The Somme was intended to take the pressure off Verdun, which it did to some degree, but what it actually achieved was to create a second meat-grinder.
Yes it sounded like a cluster of horrible circumstances and poor military decisions.
Jakko
Well-Known Member
Both were sound decisions in the light of the normal way of fighting wars at the time, really, because the mindset on both sides was still not to yield one step to the enemy. Which lead to both sides throwing ever more reserves and totally new units to reinforce (potential) failure, rather than — as the Germans were beginning to realise on the eastern front around then — at (likely) success.
When the German army failed to totally capture Verdun and ended up bogged down there, the overall commander, von Falkenhayn was eventually forced out and replaced by von Hindenburg (and Ludendorff), who wanted to disengage at Verdun but the French would not let them, because this kept German forces tied up there so they couldn't be sent to the Somme. The next year, under their command, the Germans withdrew to the Siegfried Line (called the Hindenburg Line by the Allies) in order to get a much better defensive position. The year after that, new German infantry tactics forced breakthroughs and showed that reinforcing success instead of failure, coupled to aiming to defeat the enemy's armies instead of trying to capture terrain, could result in huge advances. But low mobility of the artillery prevented a complete breakthrough, and Ludendorff then fell into the old trap of trying to hold the ground gained in the spring offensives of 1918. Coupled to the Allied naval blockade of Germany and the Americans joining the actual fighting, that lead to eventual German defeat.
(Von Falkenhayn claimed after the war that his strategy at Verdun had been to bleed the French dry, but this is widely regarded as an attempt to justify his continuing the battle when it should have become obvious it had failed.)
When the German army failed to totally capture Verdun and ended up bogged down there, the overall commander, von Falkenhayn was eventually forced out and replaced by von Hindenburg (and Ludendorff), who wanted to disengage at Verdun but the French would not let them, because this kept German forces tied up there so they couldn't be sent to the Somme. The next year, under their command, the Germans withdrew to the Siegfried Line (called the Hindenburg Line by the Allies) in order to get a much better defensive position. The year after that, new German infantry tactics forced breakthroughs and showed that reinforcing success instead of failure, coupled to aiming to defeat the enemy's armies instead of trying to capture terrain, could result in huge advances. But low mobility of the artillery prevented a complete breakthrough, and Ludendorff then fell into the old trap of trying to hold the ground gained in the spring offensives of 1918. Coupled to the Allied naval blockade of Germany and the Americans joining the actual fighting, that lead to eventual German defeat.
(Von Falkenhayn claimed after the war that his strategy at Verdun had been to bleed the French dry, but this is widely regarded as an attempt to justify his continuing the battle when it should have become obvious it had failed.)
