How to be an Armoured Farmer, building Hobart's Funnies in Glorious 15mm (and maybe 28mm if they arrive in time!)
Fascine Variant
The S&S fascine carrying variant consists of a Fascine (obviously!) and the cradle which fits on the front of the AVRE. In real life this cradle was mounted at an angle to allow the fascine to roll off the front of the tank once the securing cable was released by detonating a small explosive charge. The cradle then had the ability of folding down flat so that the Petard mortar could be brought into action.
As no assembly instructions were available I trial fitted everything first. looked at photos of the finished conversion on the S&S website and also looked at reference photos for the location of the cradle on the tank.
Points to note for this kit, one of the supports for the main cradle bed has an angle to it so that it fits correctly at the turret side of the cradle. Both supports have locating stubs but do need to be bent in order for the finished cradle to sit down on the tank hull properly.
Fascine Cradle parts
Note the angle to the top of the rear (turret side) support
Finished cradle, note the position of the supports in relation to the cross bars.
Note the raised rear locating bar on the rear support to ensure it sits down on the hull correctly (also note to me to not use portrait photos as they always flip to landscape and look bonk on the post!)
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