Affair at Nery, 1st September 1914
1/32nd scale resin kits from Tommy's War
Assembled and painted in 2025 /26
Photo #51 During the fighting, the right wheel was damaged and I needed to depict this on the model.
This picture shows the actual cannon with its damaged wheel.
Photo #52 and I’ve used a sharp set of snips to remove a section of the wheel in a similar manner to how I removed the outer rim from the damaged limber.
Each spoke and the ends of the wheel rims were made to look like the wood was splintered with a scalpel, and I carved a small section of the remaining wheel rim away so I could add the section that seems to have remained intact on the museum display.
Photo #53 and I’ve used a thin piece of plastic card for the metal rim, curving this slightly before fastening it in place with superglue and accelerator.
Photo #54 shows the wheel fastened onto the cannon and in photo #55 I’ve added paint to the wheel.
Photo #56 shows the cannon in position on the diorama.
Like the Limber it’s now glued down, pressing the cannon into the grass while the superglue cured.
The spade at the back has been sunk into one of the depressions I’d made in the groundwork to depict the force of repeated firing of the cannon and the recoil digging the spade into the earth.
All that’s needed now is to add some pastel dust to the cannon and limber, but before that I needed to finish the second limber and get that into position.
Photos #57 and #58 show better shots focusing on the cannon. Note in #57 the side of the seat that’s in the foreground.
This is part of the very damaged limber and has been “thrown” from the limber as it sustained the shell hit that caused a lot of the damage to the right hand side.
Photos #59 and #60The damaged limber has been set into place, and now requires a sprinkling of debris to tie it into the groundwork.
In #60 the outer door can just be seen on the ground to the left, this, like the side of the seat having been removed by the blast of incoming shell fire.
Photo #61 and although I’ve cut away several parts from the limber, they are going to get used eventually, here is the end of the cross-tree, and I intend to use one or two sections of the wheels that I’ve removed to place around the diorama once the figures have been added.
Photo #62 shows the crew’s own limber set in place, there are five shells still in the rack and the seat cushions that I formed out of Magic Sculpt have been painted prior to gluing the limber onto the groundwork.
At this stage I’d completed the deceased officer figure and his legs can be seen on the left, references state that he was moved away from the firing position so his passing “didn’t adversely affect the men”