5.5’’ Gun Ammo Crates tutorial

Hello everyone!

Since I took the decision to build a respectable British armed force for my Normandy campaign, I thought to give it a try and be as consistent as possible.

With this decision in mind, I started building this army from the actual beginning, which in gun terms meant  the Artillery section. The Brits since the emergence of gunpowder relied a lot on the assistance of artillery during their campaigns, and WW2 could not be a different case. Its firepower had played a significant role in most of the battles the British were involved in, and also gave a huge morale boost to the ordinary ‘’charge-to-occupy’’ soldiers, before every attacking maneuver.

As you (who follow my blog) know, I recently purchased a model from Airfix (#1314 AECMatador & 5.5’’ gun), and up to this day, I am waiting for some reinforcements by post, which are three more Airfix’s Matador kits and some figures, as the crews for the guns. It usually takes 10-12 days to get my orders from England (country of my orders’ dispatch), so there will be coming any day now.

Instead of waiting like a sitting duck for the plucky Brits to show up, I did some research through the net, and found some interesting photographic material showing all sorts of details for these weapons. What I couldn’t find to buy for my 5.5’’ guns, was ammo crates. Well, to be honest there are some excellent models from Accurate Armor, but unfortunately they come out in 1/35 scale, so these models weren’t going to be of much use!

To do what I had in mind, I wouldn’t let some minor implications discourage me. That’s why I decided to make some ammo crates of my own – made by me - M(iniatures) T(errain) P(age) copyright! :-)

And, in order to give you an idea of how easy it is to make some for your arty pieces, I will post a sequence of photos of every step of the making process.

(In the end I will make a book with my tutorials and I will start selling it, but as I come to think of it, they are already available on the net…oh bugger! Chance: missed!) 

We live in a different world nowadays, so I reckon it’s better to drop keys instead of building cages, especially for such an important thing as our hobby. 

On with the tutorial then!

Part 1.

I took a sheet of 0.5 cm balsa, and I marked (with a simple ball point pen), two lines of 3cm width.

Part 2.

I then marked vertical internals of 1cm each (photo explaining). Between each 1cm crate, and with the help of my pen and my ruler, I marked some lines on every one of them, so as to give the impression of wood plunks glued together to make the crate.

 

Part 3.

I cut them (you can see the small pile).

I then took a strip of plastic (0.1 cm width) and cut some small pieces (0.8 cm/each) out of it. I was going to use three pieces of plastic for every crate (below you see the pile).

Part 4.

I then glued these fiddly pieces of plastic vertically, onto the wooden ‘crates’ .

Part 5.

I then took a strip of plastic (0.2 cm width) and cut some small pieces (0.4 cm/each) out of it. I was going to use four pieces of plastic for every crate (in the next phase you will see why).

Part 6.

I then glued these fiddly pieces of plastic vertically, onto the sides of the wooden ‘crates’, as holsters .

Part 7.

I then painted the whole lot with a brown colour. When dry, I used some brown wash (GW Devlan Mud) and when this wash got dry as well, I drybrushed the crates with the brown that was used as the base colour.

 

Part 8.

The crates: considered: finished!

Below you see the full array of these crates. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any brass rods to make small pieces of used cartridges and place them next to the crates, but I think I’ll manage to find some in the future, so stay tuned for perhaps a new tutorial (as if you needed another). :-)

I hope you found this tutorial useful.

C & C are, as usually, more than welcome!

From warm (as usually) Athens, have a good night!

T.