Making Ford F30s for the LRDG – Part Two: Building The Model

In Part 1 of this article I introduced the LRDG Ford F30. Now I’m going to show you how to make one of them for your Flames of War Raiding Force.

Choosing a Model

After having a good look at the available models, the one I chose to convert was Battlefront’s Breda portee BR156. There were two good reasons to choose this one over some of the others. First of all, the cab of the model comes in pieces – in particular the roof is separate from the main resin body. This is very helpful. Secondly, the connection between the cab and the bed of the truck is reasonably thin – this means that comparatively little work with a razor saw is required to separate the two, and also the casting detail on the chassis can be retained by some judicious sawing. The flat bed being open and not covered and not having anything cast inside it was also an essential requirement.

There were also a couple of added bonuses. One, the spare wheel on the Breda portee is cast between the cab and the bed, so again using the saw carefully, can be removed and used in the stowage. And two (and this is just because I hate wastage), I could use the spare Breda gun to scratch-build a ground-mounted 20/53 gun to add to one of my mid-war Bersagliere platoons. Nice. But that’s another article.

What Needs to be Done

The main changes made by the LRDG to the Ford F30 which need to be modelled are:

- Removal of the bonnet to expose the engine to the air

- Removal of the cab roof, windscreen and doors

- Raising the suspension at the rear of the truck

- Modelling the bespoke truck bed

- Addition of a condenser on one of the vehicle running boards

- Addition of sand channels and matting

The tyres used by the LRDG were actually wider but if you compare the Breda portee model’s tyres with the ones on Battlefront’s Chevrolet trucks you find the Chevrolet ones aren’t, but are actually cast a little smaller.  In reality the tyres were the same on both models, so for convenience I’ve retained the wheels from the Breda portee model unchanged.

The model also needs to be equipped with machine guns, a driver and crew, and a lot of stowage of all sorts of types.

You Will Need

The tools for the job are:

- Modelling knife

- Cutting board

- Razor saw

- Files

- Miniature drill with drill and burring bits

- Pin vice to use small drill bits manually

- A breathing mask (it’s going to get dusty)

- Some good cyanoacrylate glue to assemble the model

To make one LRDG Ford F30 you will also need:

- One Battlefront Breda portee model BR156

- Plastic card

- Milliput (or green stuff, but Milliput is a lot cheaper)

- A very short piece of roughly 1mm diameter metal rod

- Various odds and ends from your bit box. Specifically, some British, LRGD or commando figures, some extra wheels with tyres of the same size as those on the Breda Portee model, some appropriate machine guns (if you have previously bought any LRDG or SAS models you will probably have plenty of suitable spares), and as much random stowage as you can get your hands on. Jerry cans, canvass rolls, boxes, steel helmets, guns, and all that sort of thing.

- Some bandage stocking or similar material and some PVA glue to make camo netting

Step One: Preparation

 

Open up the box and sort out the pieces as in the photo. You won’t be using the bits on the left – the Breda gun assembly and gunner, the windscreen or the roof - so you can put these away in your bit box. Clean up the remaining pieces, removing the flash from the metal. Use the drill to remove bits of rough resin cast, especially under the mudguards.

It’s a really good idea now to wash all the bits in slightly soapy water and dry them thoroughly. Washing them removes grease left on the resin from the casting process and cleans up the metal as well. This not only makes them take paint easier later, the bits will also stick better when you glue them. And I guarantee you won’t want to wash the model later after it’s made.

Step Two: Exposing The Engine

This is probably the trickiest part of making the model sand is easiest done first when the masin resin body is in one large piece.

You need to drill out the bonnet completely so that you have a rectangular hole in its place. This will produce a lot of resin dust, so make sure you wear the mask and keep your work area well ventilated. Use a small burring bit and go at it very carefully. You do not want to damage the radiator and you want to retain a thin wall between the back of the engine compartment and the cab proper where the driver sits. Take your time about this as the results will be worth it.

When you’re done, and the dust has cleared, use the saw to cut the cab rear off at the height of the seat tops. Then drill away the cab doors to remove them. This will be very easy as the resin is quite thin.

Finally, use a small drill bit held manually in a pin vice to drill a hole in the corner of the side of the cab in front of the passenger seat. The hole should be big enough to take the stem of one of the machine guns you have found. Take great care in drilling this hole as the resin is liable to shatter if you press too hard.

Set the cab aside and take your plastic card. You’ll need to cut some pieces out of this and stick them together to make the engine. The photo above gives an idea of what you’re trying to make it look like, and the bits of plastic card you’ll need to cut and stick together.

You’ll want about four identical small rectangles of plastic card in a stack, one narrower rectangle on top, one shaped piece with rounded edges above it and a really small circular bit to go on the top. This is quite fiddly so you may have to do it several times before you get it to look right. Again, be patient, it will be worth it in the end.

Drilled engine compartment with scratch-built model engine

Step Three: The Truck Bed

First, cut back the sides of the rear wheel mudguards on the truck bed by about 1mm and remove the raised detail on the rear panel. Then saw away a section of the centre of the rear panel of the truck bed, to make it look like the picture below.

Take the main resin body of the truck. You’re going to need to make two cuts into this using the razor saw, and then use the drill to separate the two pieces completely, so as to separate the cab and the truck bed. The first cut is the easiest, from the bottom of the truck bed just behind the fuel tank up to the base of the track bed. Then turn the truck body over and make a second, longer cut directly down between the back of the cab and the spare wheel. Stop above the chassis as you want this to stay connected to the cab.

Now things are going to start to get dusty again so have the mask handy.

Using the drill, carefully cut away between the chassis and the truck bed so that both pieces separate. Be careful drilling the resin as it comes away surprisingly easily and where it is thin it’s easily broken.

Using the razor saw carefully cut off the spare wheel. You can keep this for use in the stowage. When the pieces have all separated, tidy up the edges with a file. It should all end up looking something like the picture below.

Step Four:  Assembling the Truck

The next step is to reconstruct the truck body. To do this, press a rectangular strip of Milliput underneath the centre of the truck bed. Press the cab section into this so that it attaches slightly closer than it did before, so that there is a gap between the rear of the cab and the front of the track bed but that this is not big enough to accommodate the spare wheel. Add Milliput to extend the line of the chassis along the underside of the track bed to the rear wheels. Press the rear wheels into the Milliput to make new attachment points in the Milliput, lower than and immediately below the cast attachment points in the resin track bed. This will ensure that when the wheels are attached there is a bigger gap between them and the track bed, effectively raising the truck’s rear suspension. When you’re happy with this, remove the cab (you will want to glue this in place later when the Milliput is dry) and cut some strips of plastic card to make the compartments at the lower edges of the track bed. You can fill up to these with Milliput. Set the truck bed aside for the Milliput to dry. I recommend leaving it overnight.

At this point you can glue the engine in place inside its compartment.

When the Milliput has dried on the truck bed you can glue the cab and the truck bed together.

Now glue the wheels of the truck in place. Cut some slightly smaller pieces of plastic card to simulate the doors of the lower compartments and to add detail to the rear panel.

The final addition to the truck proper is the radiator condenser. This was a cylindrical object which was attached to the radiator but sat on the running board on the driver’s side running board just behind the door opening in front of the truck bed. You can easily cut this from a rolled cylinder of Milliput, and then attach it in position when it’s dry.

And that’s it – you’re now the proud owner of a 15mm LRDG Ford F30.

Now that you’ve got a truck, in Part 3 I will describe how to add the important finishing touches.

Part 3

Making Ford F30s for the LRDG – Part One: The Ford F30

Replica LRDG Ford F30

For some time now I’ve been playing some of the desert raiding scenarios, but as until now I have not owned an LRDG force - I’ve been the one defending with the Italians. Not of course that that is necessarily a bad thing. Although the Italians don’t exactly have a reputation as the Second World War’s finest fighting force and they don’t have the best list of toys they’re not as bad as you might think in Flames of War. You do get are a lot of them, and they are a good match for the LRDG, particularly if you’re using the mid-war Bersagliere list.

That said, at last I have been putting things right and starting to get my own LRDG force up and running. And just to be different, I’ve decided to equip part of that force with Ford F30 trucks to support the Chevrolets.

Unfortunately neither Battlefront nor anyone else that I am aware of makes a 15mm model of the LRDG Ford F30. And that means an excuse to do some scratch-building. I’ll describe all that in another post, but before I do, here’s a bit of background.

The LRDG Ford F30

Before the LRDG was equipped with Chevrolet trucks, it used a wide variety of equipment, and one of the early mainstays of the force was the Ford F30. Despite being eventually replaced by Chevrolets they were much liked by the LRDG for being more robust, less prone to getting flat tyres, and less prone to getting stuck in the sand because they had four-wheel drive (which, astonishingly, the Chevrolets didn’t). They often found themselves in use alongside the Chevrolet trucks and were used during both early and mid-war periods.

“F30” actually applies to pretty much any truck made by Ford (hence the “F”) which is 30 tons in weight (hence the 30). Almost all of these looked like the standard CMP (Canadian Military Pattern) trucks used by the Allies throughout the war. But the LRDG ones were different. Customised to better withstand the rigours of long treks across the desert, the LRDG F30s had a very distinct appearance. They were made lighter by the removal of unnecessary bodywork including the passenger doors, cab roof, windscreen and engine cowling. A new truck bed was added and the suspension was jacked up. Wider tyres were that were more appropriate to soft sand were fitted, and they were equipped with a radiator condenser, sand channels and matting. And of course they were armed to the teeth with machine guns and filled with everything that would be needed for long trips through the desert.

Armament

As with all LRDG vehicles, Ford F30s were equipped with an assortment of machine guns according to the preference of their crew. Alistair Timpson, commander of “G” (Guards) Patrol of the LRDG, September 1941-December 1942 describes the situation in early 1942, when the F30s of G Patrol were in the process of being replaced by the new Chevrolets:

“By now Lewis guns had gone right out of fashion. We liked something with more punch and fire power. A number of .303 Brownings, some Vickers gas-operated machine guns, as well as an odd Spandau, Bren and Breda had been acquired. We also had … water cooled Vickers guns both .303” and 0.5”.”

- extract taken from In Rommel’s Backyard (highly recommended reading).

All of this equipment was available when the Chevrolets were introduced to G Patrol, so your F30 trucks can be armed pretty much in any way you fancy according to what you have spare in your bit box. Battlefront’s LRDG Chevrolet model is supplied with a Bofors gun option, and if you don’t use this on one of the Chevrolets you can quite legitimately fit it to an F30. 

So that’s some background on the LRDG Ford F30. In Part 2 I will describe how you can build a model of it in 15mm for your raiding force.

Part 2

Assault on Merville

This is a battle report I put together for a Flames of War game run in July as part of the Overlord Campaign run by WWPD.

THE SCENARIO

In the early hours of 6^th June 1944, men of the 9^th Parachute Battalion of the 6^th Airborne Division assaulted a German gun battery near the town of Gonneville-sur-Merville in Normandy. Reconnaissance indicated that the gun battery, positioned about eight miles inland from the sea, mounted four guns of at least 15” size which were capable of firing on Sword Beach. The paras were sent in to silence the guns before the invasion began.

The defences of the Merville Battery were formidable. Four guns set in concrete casemates were installed in an open area surrounded by a ring of minefields and barbed wire. A substantial anti-tank ditch covered the perimeter facing towards the beaches and strategically placed machine-gun nests covered all approaches. The battery was provided with 20mm anti-aircraft guns and was manned by a unit of grenadiers from 352. Infanteriedivision whose force included numerous heavy machine guns. More grenadiers based a short distance away could provide further reinforcements if necessary.

Appreciating the strength of the defensive position, an attack was planned in force. Three platoons of paratroopers with supporting pioneers and heavy weapons were complemented by a unit of glider-borne engineers equipped wth the tools and explosives necessary to destroy the guns.

Colonel Otway’s paratroopers were to land at drop zone “V” in fields just over a mile to the east of the battery.  and rendezvous near the village of Gonneville-sur-Merville, from where they would lauch their assault. Heavy bombing of the battery by RAF Lancasters, to soften up the objective, would prepare the way. A reconnaissance team dropped with the paratroopers would identify the best route to attack. Under cover of darkess, the paratroopers would overwhelm the outlying machine-gun nests and then attack the battery. At the same time, more engineers would arrive by glider, performing a coup de main assault within the battery itself. With surprise on their side, the attackers would quickly overrun the defences and destroy the guns. The position would be held until 07:50 when the paratroopers would withdraw and heavy naval bomardment of the battery would commece immediately prior to the landings at Sword beach.

Allied: 9th Parachute battalion, 6th Airborne Division

HQ C-in-C Otway & 2-in-C

3 platoons Paratroopers (FV)

1 platoon assault paratroops (FV)

1 parachute recon platoon (FV)

1 platoon Para Mortars (FV)

1 platoon para HMGs (FV)

Coup de Main:

1 platoon Airborne RE wth Pioneer supply jeep

1 x Horsa Glider

(approx 1750 points)

Axis: 352. Infanteriedivision

HQ C-in-C & 2-in-C + 2 mortars

2 platoons Grenadiers (CT)

2 platoons HMGs (CT)

Delayed, Scattered Reserves

2 platoons Grenadiers in trucks (CT)

1 platoon 3 x StuG G

Defences

3 x HMG nests

1 x quad 20mm AA flak nest

6 x minefields

6 x barbed wire

6 x trenches

3 x tank traps

(approx 1800pts)

The terrain is shown on the hurriedly-sketched plan below:

The Scenario used the following special rules:

1.       Allies deploy within 16” of their short table edge; Germans muse deploy within the battery perimeter.

2.       There are four objectives – these are the gun casemates that the allies are trying to destroy. To take an objective, an allied stand must start its turn in contact with one of the casemates, and not move, shoot or assault that turn. At the end of the turn, that stand may make a skill test to place charges and destroy the casemate. If they are a pioneer stand, they may re-roll a failure. If they are a pioneer stand with a pioneer supply vehicle within command distance, they may re-roll a second time if necessary.

3.       German reserves are delayed and arrive by road at the end of one of the roads as shown in the terrain plan above.

4.       The allies attack, and the game begins at night. Roll for dawn at the beginning of the German turn 3 as normal.

5.       All defenders begin the game in prepared positions.

6.       There is a preliminary bombardment of the defenders by the RAF (5 to hit, 2+ firepower). Any stands lost do not count towards or against the strength of platoons affected.

7.       Barbed wire, but not minefield, extends across the road into the battery as a gate. Treat this exactly the same as barbed wire.

8.       The game ends at the end of the allied turn 8 (there is no need for a German turn 8!) At this point, determine victory points as follows:

German forces are destroyed before the start of allied turn 8 (and therefore casemates taken and battery suppressed), or all 4 objectives are destroyed - 6:1 Allied victory

3 objectives destroyed – effect of shooting on Sword Beach significantly reduced - 5:2 Allied victory

2 objectives destroyed – guns are able to shoot on Sword Beach but with reduced effect - 4:3 Allied victory

1 objective destroyed – most guns are still able to shoot on Sword Beach - 4:3 Axis victory

No objectives destroyed, but Germans have lost at least two platoons – 5:2 Axis victory

No objectives destroyed, and Germans have lost fewer than two platoons – 6:1 Axis victory

THE GAME

I played against my friend Al on 6th July 2013 (yes, one month late) on a table set up in the garden (it was a really nice day). We played two games, taking each side in turn to see how it went and to test the balance of the scenario.

(Just in case you didn't think we were outside. Note sausages on the barbecue in the background)

AND NOW THE BIT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR: THE ACTUAL BATTLE REPORT

Hauptmann Knallkorper was a troubled man. His annoying subordinate Leutnant Zieselwurst had made an official complaint against him, because he had not recommended his promotion to battery commander yet again. What’s more, the war hadn’t been going very well recently, there was talk about invasion everywhere, even here in Normandy, and to top it all yesterday’s sauerkraut must have been off – even if there hadn’t been an air raid he could hardly have slept, he had spent most of the night in the bathroom.

It was strangely pleasant here, though. Dark and silent now the RAF had departed. He could make out one or two new craters around the battery, and there were some people moving around out there, but little had changed. The men were still manning the trenches, one platoon of HMGs deployed in slit trenches behind the main line covering the gate.  Quiet as usual. A peaceful, clear summer’s night, dry and clear in the moonlight, cooled by a light breeze from the north-east.

“Yes?” He looked up as one of the NCOs approached.

“Sir, it’s Leutnant Ziselwurst”,  the man announced. “Very unfortunate. He’s dead. A stray bomb on the toilet block. He appears to have been the only casualty of the air raid. A direct hit. He wouldn’t have felt anything.”

“Most regrettable”, he responded imprecisely, feigning distress as best he could. Good thing it was still the middle of the night. “Very bad, very bad indeed.”  Ziselwurst must have had the sauerkraut too. Given that, he would definitely have felt something. What a way to die. “But it could have been worse.” It could have been me.

Well, well, he thought, perhaps it isn’t so bad after all. I wonder what the rest of the day has in store?

At the edge of the woods, Colonel Otway, who would lead the main attack by two paratroop platoons through the minefield, checked his watch for the last time. “Right-ho,”, he whispered, signalling his men to advance in the darkness, “Let’s go”.  

Further north, opposite the main gate, at almost exactly the same time, Lieutenant Carruthers lowered his binoculars from his blackened face. “Can’t see a dashed thing,” he muttered beneath his moustache, “Too bally dark.”

The chap from the recce team was making very obvious signs at him. Mouthing something. Pointing at his wrist.  Finally he got the picture. “I say, chaps,” he announced in a low voice. “Chocks away, don’t you know”. And raising his arm, to the relief of almost all his men, who thought he might never give the order, he ushered his platoon and the assault paratroopers forward.

Above them all, at the same moment, silently coasting in the darkness, a Horsa glider loaded with engineers equipped with an excessive quantity of demolition equipment had found the landing zone. “Legs up!” the pilot called. “Brace!” The ground loomed closer, faster, and suddenly arrived as the glider settled perfectly between two of the casemates and scraped to a sudden halt just short of the flak nest. Engineers laden with explosives leaped from the cracked fuselage in preparation for the assault.

The two spearheads of infantry raced in darkness towards the outlying bunkers. Carruthers’ men were the first to reach their target, opening up with stens and grenades and silencing the defenders in moments. Otway’s men had further to go and for the moment found themselves in the open.

Inside the perimeter, the engineers assaulted the flak nest and the HMGs in foxholes beside it. With the nest destroyed, the remaining defenders refused to counterattack and fell back before their attackers. 

Consolidating, the engineers forced the Germans out of their foxholes and took up positions against the three closest casemates, at the same time advancing as far as possible towards the last.

Knallkorper may have been the first to see the glider. A huge shadow had passed over him and for a fraction of a moment he thought one of the bombers that took Ziselwurst had come back to claim him too. Suddenly realising the situation, and seeing the HMGs running for cover, he raised the alert. With remarkable alertness, all the remaining defenders unpinned. The HMGs repositioned themselves to improve their fields of fire, and as the moon came out from behind a cloud and extended visibility, the Germans let them have it. The engineers, concealed by night but otherwise in the open, took heavy casualties but morale was strong, and they remained in position to set charges on three of the casemates.

The paras pressed on with their attack Otway’s force, running through fire from the southern bunker, overwhelmed its defenders and moved towards a position at the perimeter less well defended than the closest point where enemy HMGs were positioned in strength. By this time Carruthers was at the gate, breaking down the barbed wire, but was delaying his assault so that his mortars and machine guns could move into position to give support.

Meanwhile, within the perimeter the engineers successfully set demolition charges on three casemates. As they exploded, the Germans counterattacked. In a hail of bullets, all the engineers died except for their platoon commander who, seeing a job well done and deciding the better part of valour, sensibly surrendered.

Although three of the guns had been destroyed, the Germans had no intention of giving up the last without a fight. Moving back to the trenches, and setting up HMGs to cover the gate, they put down a withering fire upon the paras, whose numbers were slowly but inexorably decreasing. As the heavy weapons dug themselves into position, and Otway’s paras approached the wire, the paras returned fire, though to little effect.

And then the sun rose.

Suddenly all of Knallkorper’s force could see the enemy, most of whom were now in the open. A hail of bullets descended. One of Otway’s platoons was destroyed by overwhelming HMG fire, and Carruthers’ assault troops suffered similarly. The tide seemed to have turned, and the chances of this small attacking force now breaking through the perimeter seemed slim. But it was worth a try. With mortars dropping a heavy smokescreen over the gate, and para HMGs giving the Germans their own back, the defenders were pinned and Carruthers’ force assaulted through the gate. Defensive fire was heavy, but although taking losses the paras were not forced back and for a moment they thought they might break through. But an effective counterattack by the defenders meant it was not to be, and they fell back in disarray.

As Otway saw his force retreating from the gate, he heard the sound of vehicles as two platoons of German reinforcements arrived from the north road. He then knew that the paras had achieved all that it might, and despite not taking all the casemates, the troops landing on Sword Beach would have less to fear thanks to this morning’s work. With a wry smile, he gave the signal for his scattered force to disperse into the countryside, their job done.

Despite what he had thought an optimistic start, the morning had not turned out so well for Knallkorper. His troops may have seen off the enemy, but three of his four guns were destroyed and his battery’s effectiveness significantly reduced. He wasn’t going to be stopping any invasions today. But someone was going to have to take the blame, and he really didn’t fancy spending Christmas 1944 on the Russian Front. I wonder. Perhaps he could give Ziselwurst that promotion after all …

Result: 5:2 Allied Victory