For the model diorama with the Mk IV tank in I am doing, I would like to make some of the reels that were used by British wiring parties who were patching up the front line defences. I would be really (or should that be reelly?) grateful if anyone out there has any information / drawings / pictures of such a thing that I could look at please.
Thanks for that - it looks like a quite easy scratch build. I have some etched 1:35 wire and some balsa so I will start there. Four questions about the brilliant final picture please:
1) What is the flappy bit the handle is attached to made of? It looks like a canvas or leather sort of a thing to me but I am not sure...
2) Were they painted? I imagine that plain timber would be a bit obvious from a distance and I guess a splash of service grey would do the business.
3) What is the handle made of? My guess is its wire because a) rope at that thickness would not put up with that kind of weight or abrasion from the barbs and b) the one thing they have a lot of at the barbed wire factory is wire...
4) Does anyone have any dimensions for these please?
Do you mean this? I confess I had not noticed before - crossed wooden planks are far more common from what I can see, certainly all I ever saw. The only thing that would make sense to me (availability, durability, utility) would be a strip of mild steel, perhaps galvanized. For the handles - run through the central hole - all we ever used (50 years later) was inch and a quarter (32 mm) water pipe (reusable). It has to work (unreel) smoothly, for one man if needs be but usually two (not exactly easy to do with just one - weight, running backwards, etc. - but an occasional necessity always allowed for).
Can't say I've ever seen them painted - when unreeled in contested ground it would be done under the cover of darkness if at all possible (Sappers not generally being regarded as expendable, they are, after all, the most intelligent of the "fighting arms" ). Not sure of dimensions - at a pinch you could estimate those from that last picture, with the Corporal.
Yeah right Sappers(intelligent) when I finished my tour of the Falklands in late 83 I returned on An RFA with some Combat Engineers you know the guys who build bridges whilst under artillery fire. anyway on the way down they had been naughty boys so as punishment they had their beer ration withheld. but because they had had a successful tour they were given the once confiscated beer to drink on the way back imagine the scene a load of 4 months sober guys being given 4 months supply of beer (nearly 500 cans per soldier) to drink on a two week journey back to Ascension islands, it was carnage on board. still it was happier times
). Not sure of dimensions - at a pinch you could estimate those from that last picture, with the Corporal.
