Mick Hill

Presentation of Railway diorama's built by Mick Hill, from the UK

Comments by Mick Hill

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Railways at War-'Somewhere in England.'

During April and May of 2009, I have attempted to build a small garden railway in 00 gauge-1/76 scale, with the intent to run military trains covering 1939-1945 period. Construction work went well and I now have a 25metre run with sidings and passing loops. Majority of the rolling stock is ready to run from the major manufactures, Hornby, Dapol and Bachmann. I'm very happy that Henk of Holland have given be the chance to utilise their excellent web site to share some of the armour related wagons and military vehicles I'm working on for this railway.

Latest wagons constructed for my Railway at War ''SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND'' Garden Railway. The bofors guns are Airfix kits, painted with Revell Aqua color dark green. Chocks for the wheels are made from painted matchsticks with the securing ropes from a grey thread. I use grey thread for new rope, for old rope I submerge them in brown acrylic paint. The wagons are Bachmann lowfits.

17 pounder gun is from Matchbox/Revell Morris Truck and jeep kit(Revell 03219).Universal /Bren gun carriers with 6 pounder guns are Airfix. These are 1/76 scale and marked up as 11th Armoured Division. Only problem with this kit is that there are no Bren guns provided but SHQ Miniatures produce a set of British small arms (VP50) in white metal which is very useful. The 25 pounder gun is from the Esci/Italeri Morris Quad Tractor kit. All the storage, crates, jerry cans,barrels accessories are from Knightwing, Hornby,and various manufactures of small scale armour kits.

The Humber and Daimler armoured cars are Hasegawa. All painted dark green with 7th Armoured Division jerboa markings and secured with twisted copper wire painted dark brown and rust. Weathering is with MIG pigments- smoke black, industrial city dirt and Europe dust. Highlights and scratches to the paintwork are picked out with a silver pencil. Majority of the rolling stock for carrying vehicles are ready to run Hornby, Dapol, Bachmann and Mainline conflats, 1 plank and 3 planks. Another Bachmann wagon that I find indispensable is the GWR Well Wagon. I currently have twenty-three of these that will eventually have Armoured loads. A number of which are completed and I will attempt to describe here. Two 1/76 scale Matchbox/Revell Sherman Fireflys. wo modelled here are dark green from Guards Armoured Division. Added storage is from the usual manufacturers and my spares box. I'm planning to make camouflage nets from open weave bandages once I can source some? I've tried all the usual drug stores and chemists without success! These are secured to the wagons with cheap costume jewellery , pained dark brown and rusted up with MIG Pigments. The two Churchill MKIs are Hasegawa kits. One of which has a Matchbox ARVE Petard mortar turret fitted. These are marked up as 7th Armoured Division in Normandy. These are constructed straight out of the box, though the rubber band tracks can be a little tricky to fit correctly as you will see in my images. At present I have around 50 more wagon that will require vehicles so I'm going to be pretty busy through the coming winter months!

UK Railways at War

Hat 1/72 scale SHERMANS on BACHMANN WELL WAGONS

Pair of HaT 1/72 scale Sherman's . These are fast-build kits, made up of around 10 parts with added storage from the spares box. Painted with Revell Aqua color Bronze green, this is now my preferred colour for British vehicles. 7th Armoured Division markings added and weathered the usual my usual way with MIG Pigments and a silver pencil. Tanks are secured to the Well Wagons with cheap jewellery chain weathered with MIG rust and brown paint.

Hornby lowmacs with Matchbox/Revell 1/76 scale COMET TANKS.

A 14ton capacity lowmac would obviously be overloaded with a 33ton A34 Comet as cargo but in context, as the largest part of the burden of war production fell on the railways, to meet increased demands,and to prevent wagons running empty, all rolling stock were pooled into Central Wagon Control. Who were responsible for the distribution of 1,250,000 wagons. The build up to D-Day would see thousands of wagons carrying loads over their capacity. The Comet tanks are the vintage Matchbox/Revell kit (3222). Built from the box with the muzzle brakes drilled out and painted bronze green. The rubber band-type tracks are very poor but as there glued to the lowmac floor I'm not too bothered. For some reason, I've misplaced the Besa machine guns so they are currently omitted. 11th Armoured Division markings added and weathered in my usual manner with securing chains added. May add some storage at a later date.

Sherman and Comet

Hat and Revell 1/72 scale SHERMANS - BACHMANN WELL WAGONS

For more information visit the websites from Mick Hill:

garryhill.fotopic.net With pictures from Wheels & Wings,Yorkshire Airmuseum Elvington and others

gallerycassandra.fotopic.netWith pictures from Eden Camp, Imperial Warmuseum, Bovington and other musea.

photosbymay.fotopic.netWith small reviews of Italeri, Hät, Armourfast and other manufacturers

ukrailways.fotopic.netWith information about UK Railways and pictures above

photosbysharon.fotopic.netnew info part from Mick Hill

michaelhill.fotopic.netnew info part from Mick Hill

galerydale.fotopic.netnew info part from Mick Hill

E-mail to Mick Hill, UK

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This website is an extension of my modeling hobby and serves to inform only. It is NOT possible to order merchandise directly from me.
I do not own a (web-)shop. You will find some reliable vendors in the "links" page.

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