I am wanting to do a diorama of the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment crossing a river in 1940 France. The only rubber assault boats I can find are the three man boats. Does anyone know if there is the larger version used to transport troops and equipment? I was about twice the size of the three man boat and basically the same style.
Think you’re gonna be stuck with scratchbuilding that item… You can use the three-man raft as a guide to enlarge it and use Sculpy or something similar to make the larger raft…
Never tried that before, I’ve been out of the hobby for almost twenty years.
Okay persistence pays off. I found what I am looking for at Verlinden as an accessory of all things. It is the 1/35 scale German Supply Rubber Boat
This is actually the Medium Pneumatic Boat of the German pioniers, just what I was looking for.
I stand corrected… Good find…
What would be cooler is if the tube actually inflated like the real one, that way weight in the center with the ends curled up would be… real! I always thought a diorama of a raft bridge would be cool to model. The footage of tanks & trucks crossing really shows weight as the rafts under the vehicle curl up, also only 1 vehicle at a time!
Take a helluva lotta weight to bend an inflatable raft in scale… You can’t scale down air pressure…
Dragon also makes or has made a three man raft w/figures
and a large dinghy
Thanks, I saw these after I made the above post. Kind of cool they used the German nomenclature in parentheses. Although the Grosser Flosssack 34 (Large Pneumatic Boat 34) is actually the medium one. The small was 3.5m long, the medium 5.5m, and the large around 7.5m IIRC.
BTW my interest in these and other Pionier related models is that I served as an Engineer in the Army for 20 years. My Military Occupation Skill (MOS) was as a 12C which is the military bridging engineer.
As for the floats bending, the ones we used during WWII and even while I served had stiffeners along their length to reduce the effect significantly, otherwise the straps holding the two float halves together would fail and the entire ponton would separate and threaten the bridges stability
The Germans also stiffened their pneumatic boats with wooden floor boards to assist in maintaining rigidity. In addition when making rafts or bridges to carry equipment, they did their best, prescribed in their regulations, to cover close to two-thirds of the boats width with decking material. This leaves room in the ends for the engineers and their equipment. Rowers would sit around the edges of the deck to propel the raft.
Now if I could only find models of the ‘B’ material and ‘D’ material bridges. After all, one company has distributed a model of the Bailey Bridge used by the British and Americans.
Thanks for the above comments and sorry for the above lesson.
Indeed,
Less pressure could be added, like how your car tire looses 30% air pressure before its visually noticeable. Or build the diorama using Tamiya 1/48 scale armor with metal hulls[^o)]
I’d heat-form it…
It’s always good to learn about other MOSs in my book. I think the engineers are least appreciated and understood among those out there of the combat arms.
I dont know if this kit is the B or D type, but have you see it?
http://www.dragon-models.com/catalog/dml/new/6532/6532-poster.htm
That is a improvised foot bridge using the small pneumatic boats.
The following page shows the B-type in the upper picture and the K-type in the top half of the middle picture. The text kind of describes both types.
http://www.warandgame.info/2008_02_17_archive.html
While looking for this information I ran across a site advertising the B-type in 1/35 scale. It has a raft, part of the bridge, the ramp end using trestles, and the various trailer loads required to transport the components. All of this is towards the bottom of the page.
http://www.scalelink.co.uk/acatalog/elite_models___militarmodellbau_____retail_only_.html