German Pontoon Bridge in 1:35 (Scratchbuild)

Started by Michel Verschuere · 30 ≡ · ↻ 1 year ago · 1/35, Bridge, Pontoon, Wehrmacht, WWII
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    Michel Verschuere said 1 year, 6 months ago:

    There is no pioneering work more important in achieving some of the most important breakthroughs in war history than that of bridge laying. The Germans mastered the art between the wars and made it integral part of their mechanized form of warfare that would shake the world between 1939 and 1940.

    Research:

    For some time, I was pussling with the idea to research how the standard-issue pontoon bridge system worked, in casu the "Brückengerät B" type that would mark the breakthroughs in Sedan and crossing the Dnipro later on. I reseached what I could find on the WWW but also purchased a Waffen Arsenal band that deals with the German types.

    A pontoon bridge floats and one essential part is the floating barge the system is based on. I set to investigate dimensions for this and drew plans in 1:35. Then I got the styrene and wood material to give it a go from scratch. To-date (and to my knowledge) there is no injection molded kit dealing with the subject, although I did find some expensive resin kits that are a bit off as far as state-of-the-art detailing standards is concerned.

    The build:

    The barge is basically of box construction using 0.5mm styrene sheet cut to shape. I then added the ribss inside and modeled the back reinforcement on a custom made jig. I have one barge now finished, I regard it as a test to see what issues are encountered not on the design plans. Starts to look the part but still some sanding and detailing ahead.

    Then I added more detail in the form of a wooden reiling as you can see here. I added selected pictures from the Waffen Arsenal band in the background.

    Hope you like it!

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 6 months ago:

    This is wonderful scratch build job, my friend @michel-verschuere! What a subject!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 6 months ago:

    Excellent chosen subject, Michel @michel-verschuere
    You hardly see German pontoon bridges being build, especially not scratch build.
    The great start promisses a lot. Looking forward to it.

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    Michel Verschuere said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Update: Finished some detailing. There were two capstans each side on the inner part and then also some handrails and supports as a cross beam. Here are some pictures.




    Take care folks!

    Michel.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Lost of words, my friend @michel-verschuere! Amazing scratch building!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Perfectly done, Michel @michel-verschuere

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    Michel Verschuere said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Second one underway! Greetz from the shipyard!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    A nice mold you are using to get them build perfectly, Michel @michel-verschuere

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Excellent, my friend @michel-verschuere!

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    Michel Verschuere said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    Not much benchtime recently but today I built the bridge part of the pontoon ferry. The essential part was a set of beams upon which all I-profiles rest/clamp onto. They had a complex shape and all I pretty much had were pictures...






    Always good to compare to the real thing:

    Hope you like it! Happy modeling, Michel.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    Turned out perfectly, Michel @michel-verschuere
    Some very good reference pictures as well.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    You have nailed the basic shape, my friend @michel-verschuere!
    Looks amazing!

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    George Williams said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    Great work, @michel-verschuere, it looks just like the photos. I’m interested to see what you will have using it.

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    Michel Verschuere said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    I was able to take this one a bit further, with the holidays near, I want to bring it to the paint-ready stage...
    I bent some clamps for the bridge and cut the individual planks from balsa. With this kind of scratch-project, I sometimes feel I'm shooting myself in the foot for all this ambition 🙂


    So it happens you need to make an initial move, look at it critically and then - when not satisfied with the result - figure out the mistakes made and do it all over agan. This model may not be larger than 15x15cm but it is very technically demanding...

    So it happened I had bent the underside of one of the pontoons about 2mm off. That was too much for symmetry. As a consequence, I had to take my scalpel and remove part of it again. Now it looks on for my standards and the two pontoons are almost identical.

    Symmetry in this model is important because the absence of it will immediately show on a model this small.

    Having said that, I have this funny feeling that the German kitmaker Das Werk will actually make a model of this some time. They had it on the box-art of a recent Dragon Sd. Kfz. 7 re-box:


    There appear to be resin kits in the market, but this attempt is more fun (also the parts are more crisp than when made in a 10 y/o resin mold).

    Hope you like it, happy modeling, Michel.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    Definitely liking your work, Michel @michel-verschuere
    Clearly much more fun building it yourself from scratch than buying it.
    Looks really great with the wood on.

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