Pegasus Bridge Diorama

The first pieces out of the box

Bridge constructed, now for some paint.

A bit of paint now added

Time to make a start on the Italeri Horsa Glider

Glider with a bit of paint.

Glider completed with its decals.

Lord Lovat will need a piper, but the box of Airfix British infantry has none. Time to make my own.

Couldn’t resist buying these for a Bank Holiday Monday blitz building session.

A few more extras built to fill the role of the Panzer divisions held back while Hitler sleeps.

Airfix Panzer IV. A nice Vintage Classic to remake, reminding me how much I hate fixing all those little wheels which even today don’t want to sit straight!

Airfix Sd.Kfz.234 Armoured Car. I’ve made this Vintage Classic in the past in the Africa Korps colours suggested by the box art, but luckily it was also to be found in 1944, Normandy.

Airfix Sd.Kfz.222 Armoured Car and part of the Vintage Classic Reconnaissance Set. I used the Eastern Front decals over a Normandy camouflage to complete this kit.

Airfix Volkswagen Kübelwagen. The second part of the Vintage Classic Reconnaissance Set is a must have in any WW2 German scene. Noticeably smaller in its 1:76 scale to that of Italeri’s 1:72 vehicle and no where near as fine a moulding, so I’m going to be placing this Kübelwagen A long way from the other!

Felt I needed a few motorbikes in the diorama, so splashed out on Italeri’s 1:72 scale German Motorcycles and they didn’t disappoint. Not only do you get 4 motorcycles and 2 sidecars, the ancillary figures are great!

Here’s the motorbike and sidecar from Italeri’s 1:72 scale German Motorcycle set. The guy with the glasses is one of the ancillary figures. Others I have used around the diorama.

The Panzer Park near Caen. This may not be the final layout but the Panzer Park now has all its players. The Airfix King Tiger and Stug III are from my 2020 D-Day project, so nice to be able to reuse them in this diorama. The figures are from the Italeri Motorcycle and Airfix Reconnaissance sets. I am very impressed with Airfix’s figures which, at least this time, I’m pleased are more 1:72 scale so fit nicely with the Italeri figures. Oh yes there are also a couple of Airfix RAF ground crew thrown in which I thought looked OK as German mechanics / tank crew

A shot of the Metcalf pillboxes making a rough job of acting as the Pegasus Bridge pillbox. I’ve had these for quite some time so made sense to use them. Also a view of 2 of Italeri’s artillery pieces included in the Pegasus Bridge set. The figures are Airfix German Infantry which I had prepared for an earlier project, so didn’t make use of the Italeri figures.

Received delivery of these very nice figures this morning from @drumandflag. Just had to have some resistance folk for my Pegasus Bridge diorama - it’s turning into quite an epic now!!

Have painted up 4 that I think will work plus a Aran jumper wearing figure who I’m thinking plus just be the Lord Lovat I’ve been missing! ?

French Resistance installed ...

An attempt at illustrating sabotaged telephone lines. Photos don't to the attempt justice as there is so little space to get the camera in and they are right on the edge of the diorama

Will have to do ... they at least show the vital part the Resistance played in the lead up to D-Day.

The tank park and a selection of Airfix Panzers

The tank park and a selection of Airfix Panzers

The tank park and a selection of Airfix & Italeri figures

The tank park and a selection of Airfix Panzers

The tank park and an Italeri German motorcycle

Armoured car from the Airfix German Reconnaissance Set

A last minute addition of Cafe Gondree from Warbases

I was not going to add this iconic Pegasus Bridge cafe as it would be facing the wrong way on the diorama with all the windows and detail facing away from the viewer .. but I went for it anyway

View back to the bridge

View back to the bridge

View from the bridge

View back to the French Resistance with two vehicles and a motorcycle from Italeri

View from above the bridge of the cafe

Italeri’s Horsa glider added to the diorama with some excellently moulded figures which are included in the kit. Would have loved to have had the tail removed as they were on some landings ... but no evidence for Pegasus

I had to use metal pins to secure the glider to the ground as it is so so tail heavy!

Created a pond above the glider as we know that there was plenty of water around the bridges

Saddled just a section of canal. Had originally planned to use the space on the right for something else and, with hindsight the cost of additional water would have been prohibitive

Digging and lining the trench was great fun