Tiger Day, Bovington Tank Museum 2026

Hello There! I visited Bovington Tank museum recently, on the 'Tiger Day'. The weather was great and there were plenty of restored and moving vehicles and tanks to see, as well as many stationary exhibits.

The only real problem with such an event is that when there is always something going on in the main arena, there is little chance to view what is in the museum itself, without risking missing something from the main show.

This Dodge Command Car was immaculate! Plenty of little details were present, including the aerial mount, the complete tool rack on the back, map cases in the back seat and webbing straps across the doorways.

At the entrance to the museum is a memorial to those personnel who lost their lives, while on active service, since World War Two. Sadly there are far too many names on that memorial. There are also many conflicts since 1945, some that you may not even remember.

In the centre of the memorial is the following statement from Pericles. Something which is just as relevant today.

There were two kettenkrad on display, one of which was working in the arena. It was nice to see it working. According to the commentator this could work just as well without the front wheel.

This one had the markings of the fallschirmjager unit Ramcke.

Next a more common sight at military shows. A Daimler Dingo. I do like the smaller vehicles and my wargame forces both in the desert and Normandy have some of these in them. 

This was a surprise to see. I do not know if it is the same vehicle but I saw the shell of a Grant tank about ten years ago, at a previous show. Never thought I would see a working one. While there is more space inside than a 'normal' tank, it is still cramped. It is very tall!

A M5A1 Stuart tank was also parked alongside the previous two vehicles. This was in American markings and was also a working vehicle.

Inside the restoration hangar was a prototype version of the Tiger II. The turret has already been removed as the museum intends to restore this to working order. I cannot remember if this has recently been procured by the museum or if it is the one they had on display. They have an appeal for £1,000,000 to complete the restoration.

In the background I saw a Sherman BARV. Further around the path I was able to get a better shot of it.

What appears to be a Crusader, ( I am not good at telling that from a Covananter), was tucked away in a hangar.

There were many kettenkrad on show, on the day.

My partner even found something to interest her, with a number of motorbike on display

 

Also a German Motorcycle combination.

As you can see there were a lot of little details on this combination.

A large variety of small arms and support weapons were also in evidence.

In the arena the displays included a vast variety of vehicles on show. Here is the kettenkrad I had photographed earlier, with the markings of the Fallschirmjager division Ramck.

Next, one of my personal favourites, a Daimler scout car.

This later version of the Stuart Tank did appear very small when driven alongside some of the larger exhibits. Especially the Grant tank!

This may well have been the Grant chassis and 'shell' I photographed a few years ago at the 'War & Peace Show' As you can see, it is now a runner!

This was also a runner, but before the demonstration, all these vehicles were parked alongside the arena.

After the World War Two vehicles, a number of more modern vehicles were displayed. including a Leopard 2 and recovery vehicle.

Then a re enactment of the combat which led to the capture of the Bovington Tiger tank was played out.

It was great to see a Matilda MkII in the ring as well. I have never seen one of those moving!

It was joined by a Panzer III.

A too and fro battle was shown, albeit in a relatively small area for practicality.

Obviously, the Tiger did appear noticeably larger to the other vehicles in the arena.

Overall it was a highly enjoyable day and the weather was moderate and managable. Usually it is difficult to see the exhibits in the museum as well as the demonstrations in the arena but with the outside building being open to view and wide walkways to the museum, it was easier to get to the museum and have a look around.

La Belle Alliance Part Five

Hello There! I have continued to progress with the Waterloo building. The previous part is here. Now, I can describe adding and weathering the roof on the extension, weathering the window and door frames and applying a rust finish to the bars on the windows and door hinges.

This is a picture of a roof on a building at a previous game at New Buckenham Historical Wargamers. At this point I had not decided what finish I wanted to aim for.

I reached a decision when I drove over to a wargames friends new house, after he had recently moved. I drove through a part of a VERY rural Suffolk. 

On the way I saw a pantile roof on an old building and it was covered in moss. I though that during the Napoleonic period people would not be bothered about removing this and moss would be a lot more prevalent than now considering the less polluted environment

To start off with I used some pantile roof sheets from the Wills Scenics range of plastic materials.

The above is the roof for the main building. The roof was self colour. However it did not take paint well. I wanted to add different shades of tiles to the roof. I glued two sheets together to make the correct size for one side of the building. Above is the original colour on the left, enamel white undercoat in the middle and the repainted, (Vallejo 929 Light Brown), on the right.

The newly painted sheet on the right also had a slightly grainy finish.

I added some slightly different shades to the individual roof tiles. Unfortunately this does not show up well on this photograph.

I then washed the roof in Army Painter Quick Shade Strong tone.

When dry, I added a wash of AK interactive Slimy Grime Dark mixed with Woodland Scenics fine turf. The colour of the turf does not matter as the AK interactive product will colour it.

I then added small portions of the mix to the troughs of the roof to represent moss clumps. After this has dried I washed the roof in a 50:50 mix of PVA and water to hold the moss on the roof.

The clumps were painted 872 Chocolate Brown. When dry the top surface was painted 922 Intermediate green.

Next I painted the woodwork on the windows, doors, window shutters and barge boards.

I copied the system for painting worn old timber from Emmanuel Nouaillier. In the June 2008 edition of Continental Modeller he used a mixture of Humbrol enamel paints. (Matt numbers 27, 28, 98, 119 and 147). Using enamels come with the usual odours, especially from white spirit, when used as a thinner, and in my case the resulting headache.

I thought that it would be possible to use Vallejo acrylics. I found equivalent colours in 859, Basalt Grey, 875, Beige Brown, 841, Burnt Umber and 992, Neutral Grey. Thinning with water worked just as well.

First you clean the plasticard. Add a wood grain to it by rubbing the face of the strips with a suede brush, or for a deeper grain a wire brush. I make the grain deeper by scoring it with a scalpel with a no. 11 blade. The previous fine grain from the brushing guides the scalpel point so it does not meander all over the card. Remove the swarf from the plasticard. Make the frame, or in the case above, the window shutters. Glue them together with 'liquid glue for plastic' by Revell. Allow to dry. If you do get finger prints on the scored plastic, do not worry. Leave it to dry and rescore later.

Paint the whole item in enamel white and allow to dry.

The idea of painting is to wash the colours over the plasticard card and merge the colours together. You can try to get different shade on individual planks. Do not worry about the planks being too light or dark. Try to leave a hint of the various colours from the Vallejo colours listed above.

After the wood effect has dried, I washed in a thin coat of 950 black.

As the doors were treated the same as above, the door hinges were painted in 981 Orange Brown. This is the base of the rust finish.

I masked the rest of the door off. 

Then added a coat of pigment fixer on the bear hinges and added a covering of AK dark rust AK2042.

Before adding a coat of more pigment fixer to the surface of the pigment, I gently brushed away the excess pigment. I then dropped a further layer of pigment fixer and allow to dry before adding more pigment fixer.

After removing the masking tape I ended up with this effect. Any excess pigment that found its way under the masking tape can be removed using white spirit on a paintbrush and washing it away. 

As you may see in the above photographs I have added 'glass' to the windows. I used 'Leaded Windows, Diamond Pattern' from Scale Model Scenery. Another supplier to the model train world which can be very helpful.

Last I have added the 'La Belle Alliance' sign. This is made from foamcore. After cutting to size I  covered it in a layer of AK Terrains Dry Ground, AK8015. I let that set, and painted 820 off white. I used a 3mm high engineering, metal stamp set, to make the impression of the letters, and then filled in the impressions with 0.3mm tip pigment liner.

Next I shall add the timber boards to each end of the building and the main roof.

Naval Confrontation

Hello There! It is not very often that I get to play a naval wargame so it was great to see a game on offer one evening at the wargames club. 

The game consisted of a German in shore convoy being escorted by some R boats while out in the Channel some British MTBs and MGBs sat in wait.

The convoy had to get from one corner of the table to the other, to escape from the British forces. The rules were from a free wargames rules website and provided a very enjoyable game with good company. 

Book Review- The Tanks are Coming Through Now, (The Brigade Battles at Gazala 27 May - 18 June 1942 by Neal Dando

Hello There! Recently I have finished a few books and found them very helpful for various aspects of my wargaming. My habit of reading a number of books at the same time, one at work, one before bed and one in the afternoon, is not something that I would not recommend!

The chapters cover: Planning, Terrain, Training, Opening Battles South, Cauldron, Armoured Battles, Infantry Battles, Bir Hacheim and Conclusion.

Overall, and due to the confused nature of Gazala, the infantry and armoured battles do cross over in their chapters, but can be followed.

From a wargames perspective there are some useful maps and information to compile scenarios for a wargame. Also the maps do correspond with the text but the maps are all together, in the centre of the book, so the map relating to the text are far apart.

Also some of the place names in the text are difficult to find on the maps, if at all. Also due to the sparseness of place names in the desert, some references points of height, which are also difficult to find, if at all.

The chapter on Bir Hacheim is sparse but did produce some new information that I have not seen before.

Overall I would recommend this book, for the scenario information alone, but alone for the information on the changes in the armoured units and their strengths during the Battle. Units were constantly changing as squadrons were added and removed from commands during the whole of the battle.  

I bought this after realising it covered a lot of the battles during the battle of Gazala. It includes maps showing

Book Review - Command by Al Murray

Hello There! I had received this book as a Christmas present from my partner. 

I listen to 'We Have Ways of Making You Talk' which is the WW II podcast Al Murray co hosts with James Holland and have heard that this was going to be published.

I didn't really know what to expect at first but was pleasantly surprised with the easy reading content.

The chapters cover Montgomery, Freyberg, Tuker, Wingate, Slim, Bradley, Patton, Pearson, Hobart and Peter White.

Each Chapter covers some of the character and personality of each person and then goes into a specific difficulty they faced during their period of command.

Montgomery tackles the problem of venereal disease affecting the troops. This was a serious problem with the fighting men and dealing with it was made more difficult due to the public sensibility of talking and accepting such things.

Montgomery accepted that when men are away from home they will find their 'pleasures' where they can and that this will put them at risk of being infected.

Due to the coarseness of Montgomery's character he repeatedly gets himself in trouble with those up the chain of command because he ruffles peoples indignation and inability to deal with the subject.

Despite this he insists that every man who is not able to fight due to having an avoidable disease is helping the enemy.

Each chapter has a similar exploration of each subjects unique situation and ranges from the above to a change in the style of fighting in unfamiliar environment.

The last chapter describes the experiences of a man in the front line, in the closing months of the war in Europe, and the effects of some of the judgements of those above him in relations to the frontline.

Overall it was n easy read and a good introduction to to each commander. I read a chapter a night before sleeping and it did not require a thorough understanding of any person beforehand. 

There were a number of rhetorical questions and 'tongue in cheek comments' which did make you think, 'Why did that subject do that?' There must have been a more tactful way of doing or saying that but that is from the point of hindsight.

I have taken great delight in my profession of imitating the proverbial 'Bowling ball through a plate glass window' myself. Sometimes it is to gain attention and effect, when other methods have failed and other times it is to show those above that they are plainly wrong, as they will not listen to me.

Overall it was a pleasurable read and I do recommend it.