Model by Franco Fusco
(Pak gun, crews, sandbags, rubbles and damaged walls by Peter Dennis not included in the bundle)
When Rommel inspected the defences of the rolling bridge (Pegasus bridge) on the Caen Canal at Benouville ordered to pull down the house of the bridge keeper, Monsieur Niepceron, on the East bank of the Caen Canal, because it limited the firing arc of the 5 cm KwK gun. The basement was transformed into a bunker and used, and here the sources do not agree, as a dormitory, ammunition depot and perhaps as a machine gun position.
The MG 42 was design to supplement and replace, and derived from, the MG 34. It was cheaper and faster to produce. It was a very effective weapon with a high rate of fire that generated a distinctive sound that granted it the “Hitler’s buzzsaw” nickname. The weapon was so successful that was adopted by several NATO Nations after the war.
For its role of medium/heavy machine gun was available the Lafette 42 stativ. This wasn’t just a tripod and had many distinctive features. It included a recoil absorbing system and had a wide number of accessories: telescope, periscope for use behind cover, anti-aircraft leg, a searchfire mechanism to automatically sweep a predefined area and a trigger handle.
This model is a hypothetical scale reconstruction of the bunker on the east bank of the Caen Canal, just north of Pegasus bridge and a tripod mounted MG 42, no crew is included. To man the MG 42 you can use one of the crews in the WW2-1 – WW2 Normandy ’44 Infantry bundle or WW2-3 – WW2 Normandy ’44 Airborne Troops bundle.
The model can represent any defensive position implemented in the basement of a house. The internal height is limited and can’t host standing soldiers but can accommodate a tripod Mg and its crew or a pack gun and kneeling crew (not included). The kit has an optional partially dismantled wall and you can choose between two different orientations for the stairs hence it can be built in four different configurations.
You can customise farther this model adding sandbags, damaged walls and rubbles available in bundles T63 Sandbags, T59 Damaged walls and T66 Rendered Brick House (for the rubbles).
The Bundle will allow you to have on your table the bunker and tripod mounted MG42 (no crew is included), in 28mm scale.
The bundle consists of 3 sheets for the model and 5 sheets for the instructions. To build the bunker and MGs you will need to print 2 single face A4 sheets.
Once downloaded, the sheets can be printed as often as you like, which means you can build any number of bunkers and Machine Guns very cheaply.
You will need scissors, a craft knife, glue, paper of different weight and some stiffer card, all of which are described in the included how-to section.
The sheets are laid down in A4 format. Print your sheets at “fit to page” setting (Adobe Acrobat) onto A4 paper and US legal sized paper, on US letter size will print at 93%.
You can, of course, print the bunker in any scale you choose, making it extremely flexible in this respect.
Our Motto is Paper Armies, Proper Armies!
Enjoy