The Battle of the Stonne France 1940

[Gérard Deygas]

Hello everyone,

After a prolonged absence, I am very happy to be back with you on the forum... In recent months, I’ve been working on three big 1/16 projects with dioramas that take up quite a bit of space, as you can imagine. So I open a new thread with French material, very rare material on this scale. But the manufacturer told me that they would soon be marketing a new machine, it’s excellent news! I have already booked a copy without knowing what the machine will be.

Presentation

After a superb Renault R35 tank, DES offers us its third model in 1/16, the second being an M29 Weasel. The kit is focused for my greatest pleasure on the period France 1940. This chenillette Renault UE 2, 2 because it is the version of the UE model that has been improved incidentally by the presence of extended mudguards that better protect the body from splashes; new towing hooks and shackles replace those in a pig’s tail. the two Restor lighthouses are removed in favor of a single one – the Guicherd lighthouse. Finally, the gearbox goes from 3 to 4. As always with DES, the quality of engraving, molding, and precision are there. No unpleasant surprises when opening the pouches, where we see the use of 3D printing for a large majority of the parts, more than 200 molded in a pastel gray resin perfectly revealing all the details. The track elements are propose in portions and are preformed for positioning on sprockets and return pulleys. Their implementation will be facilitated. A decal board for a single decoration is included as well as the bust and two headgear of the tankers' helmets (for one of them, the helmet is topped with protective goggles). With this model that will certainly delight fans of the period on this scale, I sincerely hope that the manufacturer will not stop there and that it will offer us, in the near future, a Lorraine 37 L tank or, why not, a more Panzer.

 

[Gérard Deygas]

The Battle of Stonne took place from 14 May to 25 May 1940, and the village was captured and recaptured seventeen times after terrible fighting. A small village located 300 meters above sea level in the Ardennes, Stonne is a strategic place and if it falls, it will be impossible to launch a counter-attack on the southern flank of the German army. It is the 3rd motorized infantry division and the 3rd armored division supported by B1 Bis tanks that are mobilized to be sent to Stonne. After several days of fighting and despite incessant artillery fire and shelling by the air force, the Germans did not pass. The courage, perseverance and determination of Stonne’s fighters, despite heavy losses, resulted in a crushing defeat for the Germans, making this battle one of the highlights of the French campaign.
This Renault UE2 model 1937, 2 caterpillar because it is the version of the UE model improved, incidentally by the presence of extended mudguards that better protect the body from projections, and new towing hooks. AMX shackles replace those with pigtails, the two Restor lighthouses are removed in favor of one: the Guicherd lighthouse. Finally, the gearbox is changed from 3 to 4. The crew consists of two men, the driver and the passenger (often a mechanic). As the craft does not have a ceiling, the body being too low, the men are protected by a removable bell equipped with tiny vision slots. Without leaving the vehicle, the tipper installed at the rear is tilted, operated by a mechanism located inside the passenger compartment. Thus dumping ammunition and materials without exposing the crew to enemy fire. The exhaust pipe is protected by a metal sheet equipped with gills for its cooling. The series release of this version will be made from the year 1939.

The trailer, assembled in two afternoons, does not reveal any complication during the assembly of the different parts. The front, rear and side panels are positioned on the floor. I recommend spot gluing with a cyano gel glue because it helps to loosen the parts in case of misplacement, which happens. Liquid glue does not allow any right to error without breaking! Small recommendation, when you start assembling a resin kit, always work with new glue tubes because very often the glue from started tubes is too long to dry and especially less effective! These glue points are then reinforced by deposits of liquid cyano glue deposited at the end of a used X-Acto blade. There are two minor inconsequential errors in the assembly plan, which have certainly been corrected today. The X2 601 crossbars do not exist and the handles on the rear door are not straight but formed in a semi-circle. Rest assured, the right handles are indeed present in the box. Two conical bolts are missing on the crossbar, parts extracted from a Verlinden set. The reinforcement bar, part 613, is too short; more than 4.5 mm are missing to connect the two ends. This is a rare defect at DES, but as everyone knows, the 3D prototypes are not made by hand, there are some defects! I lengthened this part with the Evergreen profile. Therefore, the small positioning stop no longer needs to be there. The metal rod connecting the trailer carriages does not pass through the holes supporting the leaf springs of the suspension. I replaced it with a wooden skewer, its length is 84 mm. The frame will only be fixed after painting the whole thing; the rubber bandage on the rollers will therefore be easier to paint.

 

[Gérard Deygas]

The passage for an axis (length 12.5 mm and diameter 1.5 mm) is too narrow, we will enlarge the center of the light using a milling cutter. The return pulley does not fit into its housing; the cabochon, which is too thick, must be reduced by a good millimeter. To do this, the part is sanded by a circular movement on a sheet of medium-grain sandpaper. The bracket of the return pulley, part 514, is too wide; it needs to be 12 mm outside. So you need to cut and move the rear pillar closer by 1, 5 mm. In order to align the large crossbar supporting the running gear on the crate, I added a shim cut from flat Evergreen material. The fixation to the body will thus be reinforced. The fastening bolts of the front and rear sabots, which are too small, are replaced by parts cut out from the plastic card with the Punch & Die Hexagonal. The same will be done for the support plate of the caterpillar cleaning shoe, part 502. A few bolts are missing, which will need to be added on the large crosspieces; they can be clearly seen in the photos.