Affair at Nery, 1st September 1914
1/32nd scale resin kits from Tommy's War
Assembled and painted in 2025 /26
I was sorry when Darren Parker Mead announced that his company Tommy’s War would be closing.
I’ve bought some superb offerings from him in the past, although I admit I don’t paint anywhere near as many kits as I buy, I do wish that I could.
When asked to make this kit though, I did pause a little.
Tommy’s War kits are really good, they’re also very accurate, but it’s a long time since I assembled a completely resin armour or artillery kit……
But hey, I can do this, so I said “yes, please”.
History.
The Action at Nery – really it’s called the “Affair at Nery” but somehow in this day and age the word “Affair” has different connotations. So let’s stick with “Action”
So, this is a famous battle to anyone interested in WWI conflicts, and the bones of it go like this.
The British had a brigade of mounted soldiers accompanying an artillery battery of six guns as part of the Great Retreat from Mons
They’d set up camp after moving away from enemy lines and were attacked in the early hours of September the 1st. the German artillery beginning their assault at about 5.40am.
Both German and British troops fought on foot, but the German forces held the higher ground and soon brought their own artillery to bear, particularly on the British guns, the crews of which were ill prepared as they had been told that they were due to move out within the next few hours.
Within the explosions and smoke, the horses of the British panicked and bolted, although a few remained tethered, leaving the British stranded.
The German’s outnumbered the British approximately 2:1 and if they didn’t have the upper hand immediately, then it was soon evident that the British soldiers should withdraw.
Unfortunately, the concentration of German fire onto the British guns had created havoc. Most if not all of the remaining horses and a lot of the artillerymen were either dead or seriously injured.
The commanding officer of the Battery, one Major Slater-Booth was knocked unconscious, and his second in command ( Captain Bradbury ) took over and had managed to get some of the guns into firing position. However four of the British cannon were put almost instantly out of action, the fifth gun falling silent very soon afterwards.
One gun though, of L Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, continued firing under Bradbury’s command, although he was fatally wounded in an attempt to bring more ammunition. The single gun continued firing though, under the command of Sergeant Nelson and three other men, attempting to take attention away from the now horseless British troops.
The gun crew – Captain Edward Bradbury, Battery Sergeant-Major George Dorrell and Sergeant David Nelson were all awarded the Victoria Cross for their bravery, the fourth man – Lieutenant Giffard was awarded the French Croix de Chevalier of the Legiond’Honneur.
Captain Bradbury was fatally wounded towards the end of the fighting, dying soon after a force of British troops arrived at around 8am.
The men had kept the single gun firing for nearly three hours, and only stopped because of lack of ammunition and the fortunate arrival of the relief troops.
The German forces retired with the appearance of the fresh British soldiers, leaving their twelve cannon, several machine guns and a lot of supplies. They were harried continuously for several days and due to loss of men and supplies did not return to the front for several weeks.
The model.
Tommy’s was has been revived by Attila Szabo, and I believe that he did the casting for Tommy’s War when Darren had the company.
I’m really pleased that Attila has stepped forward to keep the company alive, and encourage you to support him in his endeavours if you can.
As for the model, well, let’s deal with the gun first, as that’s the most complex part of the diorama.
Photo #1 shows the finished model taken from the website, and this includes the limber and a crew of four men along with the 13lb cannon.
Photo #2 shows the parts for the cannon laid out.
The assembly instructions for the cannon and the limber and a parts layout for the cannon is available to download from the Tommy’s War website, as it isn’t included with the kit.
It really is worth comparing the pictures with the components and adding numbers to the parts at this point. It’s one of the first things I did, partially to check all the bits were there, and more to make life easier for me to begin construction.
Photos #3 and #4 give a closer look at those same parts, note that there are a few that appear twice or three times, and that one or two of them when looked for in the 13lb gun instructions, aren’t actually used.
Photo #5 begins the assembly.
Just remember, this isn’t a mass produced plastic injection moulded kit, and therefore it’ll encourage the modeller to do a little more work.
For example the slide that the barrel would recoil along needs the holes for it and the recuperator hollowing out. I did this by initially drilling through the webs of excess resin, and then using a small dental grinding bit to gradually enlarge the holes until the barrel and recuperator slid into place.
The back end of the recuperator wasn’t quite fully moulded, so I trimmed off the partial resin cast, drilled into the end of the recuperator and fastened a small length of wire in place.
The only other thing to watch is that the parts align properly and that they are square in relation to the centreline of the barrel. The component that will eventually have the gun trail fastened into it is a little reluctant in this matter, but with a little patience and a small mount of trimming, it settles in place.
I don’t think my cursing helped in any way, but I felt better for a couple of gentle expletives.
Photos #6 and #7 and the gun is done. At this point I’ve not fastened the wheels in place, as having them removable would ease painting. The handle on the rear of the trail is a little beggar, just yearning to get knocked off almost every time I picked the model up, and I think I may have fastened it in place five or six times.
Having fought me a little at times – and mainly I think my lack of experience was showing more than any deficit with the kit – I was glad to get to this stage.
There are a lot of fine parts, and the breech end of the gun looks nice and busy.
My only real concern at this point was if the figures would sit in their positions correctly with all those little struts shown in photo #7, but that was a problem for another day.
Photo #8 Painting is pretty straight-forward. Although the gun from the action was brought back and is preserved, it has been painted a lovely, glossy British racing Green – or so it would seem from the reference shots I can find on the Internet.
When researching the colours used to paint British artillery pieces, I’m presented with a little bit of a conundrum, in that pre-war artillery pieces were painted mid grey, possibly matching battleships of the time ? And this was changed to a dull Olive Green at the start, or very soon after the beginning of hostilities.
With the war only beginning on the 28th July, could it be possible that these or other artillery pieces, rushed to the front, were still in that grey livery ?
One thing to note is the pride and care with which gun crews took with their artillery pieces, cleaning and repairing paintwork whenever possible.
Photo #9 So I opted for the dull Olive Green livery, using a light spray of Halfords Grey Primer, over which I sprayed Tamiya Flat Black from below the model, to give me the shadow colours, and then some Olive Green from a Tamiya “rattle can” that I’d picked up from somewhere……. Welcome to old age, my memory for these things really is becoming unreliable.
In this shot the wheels are painted to represent bare wood, and I can assure you that I’ve done a lovely job of that woodgrain on the spokes and rims……Honestly, I was really pleased with the effect I’d got.
And you’ve probably guessed that when I consulted my references again I realised that the wheels should match the Olive Green of the rest of the cannon…… A small selection of quiet expletives, and in childish protest, I didn’t repaint them until after I’d made the limber, so there !
The rope around the top of the recuperator was painted with some dark cream acrylics, bringing this up to highlights with pale cream, although it does look white in photo #10. Again looking at different references, the colour of this section could be anywhere from a pale brown right through to a very pale cream, depending I suppose on how long the rope had been in place.
The small aiming hand-wheels – three of which are dotted around the breech of the gun need to be painted brass along with the band of metal holding the recuperator and the barrel slide just forward of the gun shield, and a little more brass on the wheel hubs.
There’s a white stripe on a raised band of metal that is on the front of the gun shield, and that’s the painting pretty much done.
Photo #11 and my mind now turned to the limber.
This is a lot simpler kit to build, fewer pieces, and no small components to deal with.
One thing missing from the kit is spare ammunition, either to fill or partially fill the limber, or to scatter on the ground beside the gun, having been fired at the enemy.
Initial research and calculation resulted in me going with the 13lb gun being around 3 inch bore, equating to 75mm.
A quick look on eBay, and the only allied shells available in that size were for a Sherman, but there were empty shell cases in the kit on offer, so I purchased two sets.
Ah, but these were in 1/35th scale, and when they arrived were much too small to be of any use. Because this kit is 1/32nd scale Adrian ya fool.
I tried some 88mm shells, again WWII 1/35th scale offerings that I already had, but these were too big.
So, here in this picture I’m making half a dozen shell cases using two different diameters of plastic sprue.
The thicker diameter on the ends ( in white ) will have to be sanded down quite a bit to resemble the base of the shell, and a dimple drilled into the centre of the forward end of the black sprue section so I have a centre to drill out the shells to make them appear hollow.
But before drilling out, I’ll make a mould and produce a lot of replicas to be scattered at the left of the cannon.
I estimated a rate of fire of this particular gun could be as high as four rounds per minute, although I doubt that the crew could sustain that rate as the adjusted range and trajectory, not to mention seeking cover from incoming fire and bringing ammunition from other limbers.
I’m not sure about any other supply wagons with ammunition available to them either, but working on twenty four rounds contained in each limber, their possible maximum ammunition stock could have been 144 shells.
There was a second cannon in the battery that was operational for a short period before being silenced, but it would have been drawing from this stock as well.
There is a very interesting reading of an account from Dorrell relating his experience during the action, and statements like him having to “rest for a short period” due to fatigue, that his “Nose and ears were bleeding” due to the percussion of incoming rounds and that the “side of our limber were blown away and the wheels severely damaged” whilst all written in a very matter-of-fact manner, do give the listener some small window into the hell that these men endured.
Photo #12 begins the process of damaging the limber components. I began with this wheel, cutting away some of the spokes and removing a section of the wheel rim.
The remaining stubs of the wheel were sliced with a sharp craft knife to represent how the wood had splintered as it was broken away, and I carved slivers off the wheel rims so that a couple of pieces of white plasticard could be glued in place and curved away from the rim slightly so that they would look like the metal had parted from the wood.
Photo #13 – having assembled the body of the limber, I used a razor saw to remove a corner of the box structure and some of the tubes that would have held ammunition.
The saw cut was obviously much to smooth to look like the corner of the limber had been shattered, so I used the craft knife to make the edges uneven and splintered.
The upper part of the limber door was glued in place, but there is another section the same size that would be left separate and placed on the diorama to appear like it’s been snapped from it’s hinges as a result of the blast.
Photo #14 shows the damaged wheel temporarily placed on the wheel hub, however, this wheel is really intended for the opposite side, but I wanted to make sure that the door was clear of the “ground” at this point and for some reason known not even to me, I put the wheel in this position.
Still, it proved that the first part of the door was clear, and that the second hinged section would either be partly supported by the ground, or more likely, and as I planned, would be separated as though broken off by the shell tore through the limber.
Photo #15 shows the sections of the limber at this point.
The cross-tree has been snapped ( OK I sawed through it at an angle and damaged either end of the cut in the same way that I did the spokes of the broken wheel ), again to hint at the carnage that was happening from the incoming German munitions.
It is possible at this stage that this separate section of the cross-tree would in fact be put on the diorama to represent part of a third limber that isn’t within the scene I’m constructing….. Just thinking ahead here for spacing parts on the base.
The right hand wheel has been seriously damaged so that the limber will be tilted over to one side as per one of the reference pictures I was working from. And the side guard of the seat has had pins added for where it would slot in to the limber to stop the driver and a crewman falling off sideways.
The matching location bracket – the other one of which has disappeared with the side of the limber – has been drilled out to show where the pins would fasten. Again this part is going to be on the ground near the limber in the final scene.
Photo #16 shows a close-up of the badly damaged wheel hub, the scoring to make the ends of the spokes look shattered is more easily seen in this picture, along with the small pins in the seat’s side guard.
Photo #17 shows the two wheels together, I saved the sections I’d cut off as these might come in useful for damaged parts on the final diorama setting.
Painting. Photos #18 to #21.
So this was the point at which I agonised over the colour.
The actual gun from this action is preserved at the Imperial War Museum in London, although it’s painted a lovely gloss green – British Racing Green by ll appearances if I can glean anything from the pictures.
So that didn’t tally with the research I had stating that beginning of the war artillery pieces were grey, and only changed to green as hostilities continued.
But at what point was that exactly ?
I can’t in all honestly seem to locate when that order was given, and even then, in the confusion and heat of battle, is someone going to be pottering about with a brush, repainting things whilst dodging bullets ?
So, pick a colour and run with it, and I chose a dull green from Tamiya, having already expended half a can of the stuff on the cannon.
The Tamiya Olive Drab was applied over a coat of Grey Halford’s Primer, and also after spraying a Matt Black underneath to produce any areas that needed to be in shadow.
The exposed shell tubes were painted with Mars Yellow, Buff Titanium and then Titanium White oils, on the pretext that these would be made of something that would absorb shock for the shells in transit – Cardboard or possibly something of that kind.
The inner section of the tailboard was painted to represent leather, again to cushion the shells in transit and I added wear to the footrest with some Buff Titanium oils.
The damaged ends of the spokes were also painted to represent bare wood – Mars Yellow and Buff Titanium oils serving for this again.
The wheel hubs were painted with dome Darkstar Brass metallic acrylic, and a light drybrush of Buff Titanium was added to the exposed areas.
Some small amount of wear and chipping Was added to the rails of the seat sides, and after allowing all of this to dry I gave a very thin wash of Vandyke Brown with a lot of White Spirit mixed in, to the whole limber.
The separate “bits” were treated with the same colours, although I’ve not pictured them in these shots.
Back to a little construction, and the scratch-built shell cases.
Photo #22 shows the section of sand coloured plastic sprue with a smaller section of larger diameter white plastic sprue glued to one end.
I’d cut the larger diameter piece a little thick, and at this point it’s been sanded down to make it much thinner to act as the base of the shell case.
The line around the yellow sprue is where I’ve rolled the sprue with a sharp craft knife to make a partial cut through it, having measured how long I needed the shell case to be.
Photo #23 shows a freshly cut “shell case”, the slight dimple that snapping the sprue rather than cutting al the way through it can be seen on the left hand case, and this can be used as a guide to drill out the end of the casing so it appears hollow.
Photo #24 and the second limber has arrived, been cleaned up and fastened together. This one arrived with five sprues containing six empty shell cases. So added to the ones I’d made from sprue, I didn’t need to make a mould and cast any more as in total I had just over forty shell cases now.
I put five of these into the limber, having drilled small holes in the end of each casing to represent the firing charge pinhole.
Photo #25 shows one of the sprues of shell cases that are supplied with the kit.
Photo #26 shows the lines of painted shell cases.
These are a mix of the ones made from plastic sprue and the ones supplied by Tommy’s War. I’ve attached them to a piece of wood with double sided tape, painting the body and empty end of each shell first, and then turning them over to paint the capped end of the shell.
Each shell case has been drilled with a very small drill bit to mimic the firing mechanism and painted with Darkstar Shining Gold acrylic.