Free French Dodge + Pak40

Free French Dodge + Pak40

One of the various FB groups I frequent is The French Armour Modelling and Discussion Group, frankly they are mostly super detail, ultra exact modellers. The kind of people who my very best work wouldn`t impress one little bit, but hey ho. They are a great resourse of photos and models and I often find new ideas for my various French projects.

A couple of months back a photo was posted from an article out of an old issue of Steelmasters magazine, the article was about 1er Division Blinde (French 1st Armoured Division) from Operation Anvil/Dragoon to the end of the war. Among the photos was this one:

Obviously a Dodge WC-62 (or 63?) towing a Pak40, I knew I have to build it.

A bit more digging and asking questions revealed the photo was taken in Mulhouse (Alsace), November 1944 and the vehicle probably belongs to 3rd Battalion Zouaves, who were the mechanised infantry element of Combat Command 3 who captured the town on November 21st.  

S&S Models do a smashing WC-62 with resin and white metal parts which went together very nicely.

WIP photo playing with crew

I decided to build a canopy half pulled back like the photo, so made wire supports and used tissue paper to create the canopy (very old school). The driver is Britannia and the guys in the back Hat Industrie from their tank rider set, I added a bit of stowage and in place of the windshield I used plasterscene to emulate a tarpaulin wrapped around the folded screen. The Pak40 is an old Matchbox kit, the Free French decals are by Aleran

Finished model

I couldn`t resit painting up a gun crew by Waterloo 1815 for the deployed gun