Salute 2015 Pictures - Rejects on Tour

I've just got back from Salute 2015 and its been as busy and as huge as always. I wasn't able to make the show last year so I was very eager to get along to it this time and meet up with loads of friends including several member of Posties Rejects. I'll work through my pictures this evening and tomorrow and hopefully will have all my pictures up and ready to view in short order. In the meantime here is a couple of pictures picked from the bunch just to whet your appetite.

Back to the D-Day Museum

On the return journey from our Family holiday in Devon I took a 'slight' detour via Portsmouth and the D-Day Museum. I've been here before but this was my wife's first visit and her first chance to see the impressive Overlord Embroidery. The museum has some very interesting items on display but the embroidery really is quite spectacular and worthwhile seeing just for itself. 

Picture Source - D-Day Museum

A Churchill 'Crocodile' Tank outside the Museum

A Sherman 'Grizzly' built in Canada

Some of the Exhibits inside

Eisenhower and Chruchill brief Rousevelt on the Overlord plans

Planning Map for the Invasion

Sherman Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle

DUWK

An unlikely recruit for the landing!

German Minefield warning sign

BigLee in front of the Churchill Crocodile

This is a great museum and well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Back to Bovington

I've just returned from a weeks holiday in South Devon with my family and we have had a great time. The weather was fantastic for this time of year and we visited a lot of places that we haven't done before. As usual we broke up the long drive to our holiday destination with a few hours at an attraction en-route and lucky me Bovington Tank Museum fitted the bill perfectly! I would say this was good fortune but the fact is I planned the route to take in my favourite museum and some of the most beautiful countryside in the UK as opposed to a shorter but considerably duller motorway route further north.  

The Tank museum has two new(ish) exhibitions for visitors this year and I was eager to see them both. The first is a tie in to the recent Brad Pitt movie Fury which was released last year and features the museums Tiger Tank and a Sherman Easy Eight. The other major exhibition is called Tank Factory and is all about the design and building of tanks and features several sectioned vehicles showing the insides of these metal monsters. Of course I went camera in hand and here is a selection of photo's from the Museum. 

The 'Fury' movie tie in Exhibition

The Sherman Easy Eight 'Fury'

Some of the replica uniform used in the film

BigLee with the Easy Eight

The new Tank Factory exhibition

The design office

Production Line

Sectioned Centurion turret showing the Commander and Gunner

Sectioned Centurion turret showing the Loader

BigLee by the production line

No visit to the Tank Museum would be complete without seeing Tiger 131

BigLee is a very happy chappy!

OK folks that's enough of Bovington. It was only a brief visit and I was trying the patience of my long suffering wife - aka the Wargames Widow - so after just a couple of hours we had to make tracks (so to speak) and head on to our destination. 

Breda 20/65 Autocannon AA Guns

One last Italian Platoon before I move on to a few terrain items I need to complete. I've painted a few 20/65's before but those were mounted in the back of LRDG Chevy's. This is the first batch I have done for my Italian forces and these are mounted on the back of a 3-ton truck.

The 20/65 was a good AA Gun but was fast becoming obsolete and in its Anti-Aircraft role. It continued to be used against armoured ground targets but even in this role by 1942 it was becoming ineffective. The gun continued in service now downgraded to use against soft skin vehicles and lightly armoured reconnaissance vehicles. 

Many captured Breda 20/65's were used in allied units and were mounted on a variety of vehicles including LRDG Chevy trucks. This truck mounted version of the gun has a Range 24” and a Rate of Fire of 4. Mounted on a turntable this gun has a 360° arc of fire making it a dangerous weapon if used properly.