d-day Archives - Felix's Gaming Pages

54mm D-Day on display at the Nothe Fort

It was seventy-eight years ago that the liberation of Europe began with Operation Overlord and the Normandy landings on the 6th June 1944.

In the depths of the Nothe Fort in Weymouth (as well as a civillian nuclear bunker (now abandoned)) there is a really beautiful 54mm scale model of the D-Day landings. Lots of different models in there including an Horsa glider.

It is a representative model and does not reflect an actual beachhead.

More photographs of the evocative 54mm scale D-Day model at the Nothe Fort in Weymouth.

Imperial Guard Tank Landing Craft – Scrapped

Back in 2004 I discussed using an 1/72nd Airfix kit of the WWII LCVP Landing Craft as the basis for an Epic scale Imperial Guard Tank Landing Craft .

Imperial Guard Tank Landing Craft

I saw this post as I was updating some other stuff, so I thought I would add an update. Alas this never got further than the ideas stage and the kit was eventually sold on eBay a few years ago.

Then and Now

I’ve always found the comparative photographs showing photographs from the 1940s and how those same locations look today. In the past you would have needed to physically go the locations to take those comparative photographs, however with tools such as Google Street View you can now find the same locations online.

The harbours of Weymouth and Portland were one of the biggest departure points for US troops with over 500,000 military personnel, including support staff, and 144,000 vehicles.

This is a circa late May or early June 1944 photograph of U.S. Rangers marching through Weymouth in Dorset, en route to board landing ships for the invasion of France.

Weymouth in 1944

Using Google Street View you can get a similar contemporary view of Weymouth.

contemporary view of Weymouth

You can actually see very little has changed since 1944, the hotel has changed its name and the buildings have been repainted, but the substance of the buildings have changed very little.

54mm D-Day

The final set of photographs of the evocative 54mm scale D-Day model at the Nothe Fort in Weymouth.

It is a representative model and does not reflect an actual beachhead.

First set of pictures, second set of pictures.

More 54mm D-Day

Here are some more photographs that I posted earlier. It is a representative model and does not reflect an actual beachhead.

54mm D-Day

It is a representative model and does not reflect an actual beachhead.

D-Day Landings

A 20mm demonstration game of the Normandy Landings.

Some very nice Hobart’s Funnies conversions in play, as well as a load of landing craft.

Very little sign of the Germans though…

More photographs of World War Two wargames.

Boarding

Military vehicles prepare for boarding prior to Operation Overloard.

From the Nailsea and District Model Railway Club Show.

Imperial Guard Tank Landing Craft

Epic conversion using the Airfix LCVP kit…

I have always had a fondness for the concept of small craft naval actions in Epic, reminiscent of the brown water forces of the Vietnam War.

I have just purchased a 1/72nd Airfix kit of the WWII LCVP Landing Craft.

I didn’t know this kit existed until recently when I saw it as part of a larger D-Day boxed set. I knew Airfix had made a tank landing craft in the past (which came with a Sherman tank and is still available (and was also in the D-Day boxed set)) but always thought it was too big for converting into an Epic size vessel.

This infantry landing craft is as you might expect much smaller and therefore makes it ideal conversion material.

The kit is pretty good in that it also contains components to make beach obstacles.

It is a full hull kit, so I will probably need to sand the base down a little to make it a waterline kit.

The real task will be epicising the model to make it look similar to the Epic models and less a 1/72nd kit. For this I will use plastic strip and lots of bits from Epic models such as Hydra turrets.