Tuesday 22 June 2021

Dfs 230 Assault Gliders

 Having got my Fallschirmjagers a Ju 52 to jump out of, I thought they also needed some gliders, otherwise how is poor Major Witzig going to land his engineers on top of Eban Emael?

Given how little use these were going to get, I didn't waste any time looking for 1/144th scale ones and just went for 1/300th. 


A Heroics and Ros 1/300th scale Dfs 230. What a lovely little model, the legacy of the pre war Luftwaffe glider clubs is very obvious in the design, although this was a fair bit bigger than the two seater versions, even mounting an MG behind the cockpit. Did the Germans mount an MG on everything?


Being 1/300 th scale metal, it only had two parts - the fuselage and a seperate single piece wing. It hardly had any flash and the wing section fitted perfectly. As usual, once sticking it together I undercoated it grey. 

At first I thought these were far too small to look any good, but I was mislead by the size of the fuselage as the wings are enormous. I can't imagine how big a 1/144  scale one would be. 


These little planes were generally fairly plain, with just small crosses on the sides of fuselage and under the wings. They were often just plain green on the upper sides, but I found some photos of some with a basic splinter camouflage on the wings so I did that to make them a bit more interesting. They also sometimes had some disruptive patterns on the sides but that was a bit hard in 1/300th so I just left them plain sky blue.


I left the undersides quite plain, no point in highlighting the landing skid. I drilled a hole in the centre of gravity for a flight stand.


Here it has some friends, I am sure that will be plenty for whatever use I find for them.

That was fun, lovely little models and a joy to paint.


10 comments:

  1. Those look great Martin.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Pete. They came out much better than I was expecting. They look a bit of an exciting ride I must say!

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  2. Pretty cool, Martin. Have you ever done an Eben Emael game? Not fair to ask most people, but with the depth and breadth of your WWII gaming, I'd be surprised if you hadn't. Or at least weren't planning one now ;)

    V/R,
    Jack

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    Replies
    1. No I haven't apart from incidentally as part of playing AHGCs "France 1940"

      There is an Eban Emael scenario in the Memoir 44 1940 campaign book, so I might have a look at doing that. Probably best for f2f play though.

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    2. Interesting, I’d always thought of it as a good co-op game against a programmed opponent, since the defenders were pretty much just boxed into their bunkers/pillboxes.

      I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit as it’s a major tactical consideration of my WWII USMC vs Japanese campaign (after the Solomons, of course).

      V/R,
      Jack

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    3. I've run quite a few 'assault' type games where the players are all one side, either cooperating or competing to reach particular objectives. I'd not really thought about Eban Emael as a candidate before, but that makes sense.

      I played a very good island clearing game years ago where the island was divided into areas, and the Japanese forces and defences were all deployed as cards (including dummies) and you went around exploring each area with very simple movement and combat rules. It worked very well, almost like a dungeons and dragons type exploration game.

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    4. Any rules to recommend, did any notes on that island clearing campaign survive, or is there anything on your blog? I'd be very interested. My plan for the Solomons is to play a VERY Hollywood-ized version of the Pacific War (straight out of the movie "Gung Ho!"), but following Gavutu, Guadalcanal, Bougainville, New Britain, etc..., I figure I'll be nice and tired of that, ready to do something a bit larger in scale and perhaps more realistic.

      V/R,
      Jack

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    5. They were 'The Sands of New Stanhall' by Ian Drury, published in the September 1998 issue (issue 130) of the Wargames Developments Journal. Unfortunately that is before the PDFs started to be published on the website.

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    6. As you mentioned, not much chance of finding it, but thank you nonetheless!

      V/R,
      Jack

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    7. I sent you a Google link to the rules to what I think is your email address. Did you get it?

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