Top Secret Nazi Dachs Werks - April 1st 2020

The past few weeks have been fraught with uncertainty, and I must admit to being a little disappointed that our opportunity to celebrate VE day at 'Salute' has been postponed for a year.  I am however very much heartened by the development of the Excel venue into the new NHS Nightingale and am hopeful for the speedy recovery of all those who it may serve.
Michael and I have been working tirelessly preparing 'Schloss Itter' for its debut which will now come much later than anticipated.  

However, today, (April 1st 2020) I can welcome all through the doors for a sneak preview into one of its darkest chambers.

In the autumn of 1942 the Nazi high command were becoming desperate.  Significant Allied gains across northern France, had progressed into areas from which V1 rockets had previously been launched with devastating effect.  As the V1's were forced to retreat, their limited range rendered them useless in pursuit of their cowardly terror attacks upon London and the south-east.  In response, the Nazi high-command began to devise schemes which might extend their shelf-life.


Unbeknown to many, indeed to history itself, Schloss Itter played host to the Nazi top secret 'Dachs Werks', a classified facility wherein the most eccentric minds of the Third Reich conceived heinous equipment with which to pursue their cause.
The V1 problem proved to be a challenge too far it would seem, as attempts to extend its range such as making the wings flap and injecting the engines with lightweight oxygen all proved futile.  
In desperation, Hitler ordered that the stockpiled weapon be readied for the ultimate defence of his Austrian stronghold wherein, and if necessary, he would be prepared to make his last stand.

As proof that fiction is often more ridiculous than fact, we can reveal some of the secrets of the Dachs Werks here today, April 1st, 2020, having uncovered some old documents from the Itter vaults.

Clearly, these archive documents detail the development of the weapon, and show how military planners were to maintain the V1's effectiveness as fuel supplies became scarce.

Some photographs from the period have survived too.

The facility was overseen ruthlessly by Katja Kitzler who reported directly to the Nazi high command. Never without her clipboard Katja was a hard task master determined to keep her team focused on the task in-hand.  So feared was she, that her colleagues set her feet in concrete to prevent her running and telling tales on them.

Wilhelm Schwarzenplunger (Billy to his friends) was the chief mechanic and artisan with the thermal lance.  It is thought that Wilhelm was a Swedish secret agent who had been working undercover for a Nazi sympathising industrialist hoping to cash-in on the reconstruction of Europe.  It is alleged that he used his spare time at the Dachs Werks to perfect automated furniture production.  
Although we may never know for sure, it is believed that many of his signature 'Billy' bookcases have found their way into homes the world over.  

Dr Ivan Fecktion, the infamous immunologist, was plagued* with a constantly streaming nose.  He was the real genius behind the Dachs Werks, until his experiment with launching a V1 using a medieval siege catapult.  During this experiment he unfortunately caught his index finger in the trigger mechanism causing a severe swelling.  After that fateful occasion he became known (behind his back) as Dr Wurstfinger.

Professor Bergen A. S. Frantz was an experimental chemist charged with developing cellulose based rocket fuel.  His 'herbology' experiments within the lab however were not appreciated by Fraulein Zimmermädchen.
On one occasion she caught him extracting cellu-oil from her prize winning mandrakes without her permission, and they never spoke again!!

Professor Frantz would occasionally moonlight as a Vet, and was often  seen in his uniform of armpit length rubber gloves.

We hope you have enjoyed this visit to the Schloss Itter Dachs Werks.  

Stay safe everyone, and take care.

James

*no pun intended

The making of the Castle Itter Christmas Card

With thoughts of the end of the school term, and the seasonal winding down of work related activities, Michael and I turned our thoughts towards yet another distraction.  This time something suitably festive for the blog.  Naturally, it needed to be related to the ongoing castle project, and as we had a spare gatehouse, the concept quickly established itself!

Merry Christmas everyone!

To begin our festive scene, a suitable plywood base was found to which an MDF base for the scene was fitted.  The gaps were filled with expanding foam which was carved to shape and finished with a generous smear of decorators caulk.

Some BIC pen tubes were added for the tree trunks which were suitably 'enhanced' with some Vallejo earth texture paste.



The addition of some 'Awdry' patent trees helped to fill the scene.  Michael has become quite adept at making these, I'm sure we'll be treated to a write-up soon.

Some reindeer were corralled, and all seemed been going well until someone forgot the safety catch!

However, keen to make progress, we disguised the deceased reindeer by firmly affixing them into the upright position on some sticks, Harnessing them with painted masking tape and some red thread from Michael's sewing box. 

At this stage we had become a little overwhelmed with the static grass, and so called in the heavy plant to help clear the mess.  A 28mm bobcat, (I think it's the best thing on the internet!)

After some initial reluctance, the reindeer were harnessed to the Sherman. 

Upon learning to work as a team, they enjoyed some skiing across the bridge.

Finally, he elements for the photo-shoot were assembled together with some nicely painted resin gifts.  

All had been going well until, there was an unfortunate Green on Red incident in the lead-up to the photoshoot.



Then an inundation of heavy snowfall threatened the whole affair.  So once again the Bobcat was pressed into service....

...and Mr Awdry kindly donated his cape, which made a most useful backdrop.

And thus the scene was set...

The Fieseller Storch being a  totally unnecessary but fun addition.



Merry Christmas everyone!!, and a big thank you to all who have followed and supported our project.



Finally, I couldn't think of a caption for this photograph.  Suggestions in the comments?

Schloss Itter : The Gatehouse design

Regular visitors to this blog and 28mm Victorian Warfare, will be familiar with the joint project between Michael Awdry and I to build in miniature a model of the Austrian castle at Itter, which played host to an unlikely, yet significant battle in the dying days of the Second World War.

Michael has been giving an excellent account of our progress, and in particular his magnificent efforts in bringing to life to the terrain pieces which I have been designing for the build.

As a reminder, I include the image below, which gives an overview of the model and the approximate terrain as the design stands to-date.

A significant element to the overall scene, and indeed the history of the battle, is the first of two gate houses which guard the approach to the castle from the village of Itter.

It is within this gatehouse that the 'Besotten Jenny', an American 'Easy Eight' Sherman tank was positioned as a first-line of defense for the unlikely allies who had taken-up defensive positions in the the castle itself.

Working from the photographs we had available it was a pleasurable task to recreate this iconic structure in miniature, although as always seems to be the case, I  overlooked one very important detail which is the source of some frustration for me.  More of that later.....

I like to begin projects like this by laying out the parts in 2d in the CAD software.  I really enjoy the process of building-up the parts in my head, considering the material they will be cut from, their thickness and how the parts will join together.

The image above shows how I tend to group similar parts into panels.  I like the creation of kits like this, and in this case each panel was sized to fit into an A4 envelope.  Should others like to recreate their own gatehouse at some point then at least the postage of the parts should be straightforward.

From this beginning, and quick mock-up was created to test the scale and fit of the elements.  Once again, Michael had to-hand the required hardware for the lash-up.

This mock-up presented a couple of minor issues, which whilst not visible in the photo above, did inspire me to think that I could do better.  So at this point I switched to the 3d CAD and refined the design.

Creating something like this in 3d takes quite a few hours to accomplish.  However, the action of building it up on screen first allows me to refine certain design elements which I hope will improve the final model.

For example, the gatehouse features some attractive stone corbelling above the main entrance.  Having studied this for some time, I wondered whether that might have something to do with the positioning of the roof structure.  Having decided that to be the case, I modified the structure to incorporate timber floor joists at that level, which led to the inclusion of the loft floor, from where Worsham and Mc Haley would have set-up their .30 caliber machine gun.

Unaware at the time quite how the upper floor was reached, and not wanting to design something which was obviously wrong I incorporated an access hatch through which our 'heroes' could pass.  I also designed a suitable ladder.  This hatch was tucked to one side of the structure, out of sight of any of the available photographs in the hope that no-one would be able to tell me it was wrong!

(I have since learned that the space was accessed via a spiral staircase in one of the towers which is a bit annoying!) 

I thought that the hatch may pose a health and safety risk, so included a small handrail to reduce the chance of an unfortunate accident.

With the final details decided upon, I set to building up revised model to test all was going to fit as anticipated.

Thin card was used to form the shape of the turret roofs, and laser-cut card roof tiles were applied to the main roof structure.

The turrets of the original were clad with timber shingles, so these were recreated too.

And so, content that my prototype parts would all fit as expected, a kit of parts was passed to Michael for him to work his magic.

However, I had become quite taken by this little building so I determined to complete my own example and with some hesitation, I share my result thus far below.

I hope this little insight into my contribution towards the Schloss Itter project has been of interest, and I thank you for stopping by.

Finally, what of the important detail which I had mentioned earlier?, which I have got wrong...

Well, photographs of the gatehouse all tended to have been taken from a similar direction, from which it was difficult to determine what lay to the right-hand-side of the smaller doors to the rear of the gatehouse.  

It wasn't until after the model had been built that I thought to scour the internet for some additional images in the form of postcards of the castle.  This led me to a lovely postcard of the castle in winter.

This had been the first time I'd seen the gatehouse from this angle.  Imagine my horror when I zoomed in and found....

'Clear as anything, there was an extra door!!!!

I'm not sure whether I've told Michael about this discovery yet or not.  And I'm not too sure quite what I'm going to do about it.  However, as I said in my last post "If it's not right, it's wrong", and I fear there may have to be a gatehouse Mk 4.  If there is, then it will incorporate the spiral staircase too.

Should you be visiting Salute 2020, and the extra door is missing, please don't mention it!! 🙏

Until next time (and I hope it works!), I've added a little video fly-by of the CAD model.  I filmed it with my phone, so if it does work the quality might be questionable!

Best wishes,

James

Vickers Vernon Part 2 - The Rear Fuselage

The fuselage of the Vickers Venom was, as far as I can determine, built in two pieces.  The front section as detailed in my previous post looks to be of timber construction, with the elliptical framework wrapped in plywood sheet which will no doubt have produced a very strong tubular construction.  However, it's clear from photographs that the rear section must have been a fabric covered as the polygonal framework can be determined by the tapering facets along it's length.

My recent experiments with tissue paper covering suggested that this would be quite simple to replicate, subject to constructing a framework with the required shape.  What is in effect required is an icosagonic ellipse.

Thank you Google!

I had expected this to be quite tricky, but as it turned out it was very straightforward.

From my drawings I was able to determine the dimensions of a rectangle which would bound the fuselage at each frame position.  The CAD software has a tool which will construct an ellipse to be a perfect fit within that rectangle.

I could then find the centre of the rectangle and draw radiating lines at 18 degrees from this centre point,  (360/20=18).  

By joining the points where the radiating lines met with the ellipse the Icosagon was created.  It was then a simple matter to delete the construction lines and be left with the correct form.

This process was repeated for each of the frames, and the profiles created were exported into the 3d CAD, extruded by 2mm and assembled to form the rear fuselage construction.

There are still a couple of elements to refine, but I'm happy with the progress to this point.  I think the extra trouble in creating the correct form for the rear of the aircraft will be time well spent.  For the record, I have currently invested about 3 hours in this project which doesn't seem at all bad given it's relatively complex shape when compared with the Storch.

As mentioned, I've been experimenting with tissue paper and shrinking dope as a covering technique, with some success.  Indeed, this may become my go-to solution for finishing MDF models prior to painting as a means of disguising the awkward joints which often become so painfully obvious once painted.

This picture shows the Mk2 Storch at 1:43 scale and it's little 1:56 brother.

It was a natural choice therefore for the rear fuselage element of the Vernon, and I hoped it would pull tight around the icosagonic frames to reveal the longitudinal 'fold' lines.



Sadly, this idea proved less than successful and the tissue paper tended to shrink a little too much causing it to sink between the frames.



My first thoughts as to a solution is to modify the frames to accept thin wires which will run along the corners to provide a structure for the tissue paper to form around.  Whether or not this will be successful we will have to wait and see.  If any blog visitors have a suggestion, please let me know and I'll test some alternatives and report my findings.

These two images give an idea as to my current thinking.



I will leave this post with an interesting photograph of the interior of a troop carrier variant of the Vernon.  The fold-away deck chairs are themselves interesting pieces, and I'll try to incorporate them into the model.

 *** STOP PRESS! *** 

At the point of posting I have just come across some more photographs which confirm much of what I have done, but also suggest some improvements.  So for the sake of providing a fulsome account of the build of this most interesting aircraft, will post this for now and continue the narrative with the corrections next time.  Stay tuned!

Thank you for visiting,

James