Dragon 1/35 Sexton II - 90th Field Regiment Royal Artillery

[jbellos1]

Really enjoyed your build string Gav - looks like a really neat kit. Well done!

[Deacon]

That's looking the business mate, well done.

[Joker56]

Great tread throughout , nice finish , well done fella

[Tiger131]

Well I enjoyed your build thread. ..what I will say is that this forum is so popular that if I miss a day out there is far to much to see and comment on I only really get the weekend to look and comment...its a shame but life gets in the way

[DBMiller]

Super thread and excellent work on that baby!

[Deacon]

Just read teh complete thread and have to say that I found it very interesting.

Great work on the research, with the kit looking superb.

[Gav0909]

Thanks for the kind comments.

Its a bit of a shame that I didn't have more time to get this onto a diorama. Perhaps it can be made into one in the future.

[Attacker2]

Hi.

A friend of mine sent me the link to this thread so I thought I would sign up simply to add my comments regarding your excellent model of 'FEE'.

As you correctly discovered 'FEE' was one of four vehicles (FEE, FIE, FOE and FUM) of 465 Battery, 90th City of London Field Regiment, Royal Artillery.

The 90th took part in the campaigns in North Africa and the Sicily landings, after Sicily they returned to the UK and replaced their 25pdr and Quad gun tractors with the NEW 'Sextons' (known to the gunners as 'Rams' as they believed them to be based on or converted from Ram tanks) in preparation for opening of the 2nd front and D-Day. The Regiment landed at H Hour plus 60 minutes on Gold beach after undertaking a run-in-shoot in support of the first wave troops. My late after was a gunner/driver with 'A' Troop.

The markings of the Dragon kit are sadly flawed and some artistic licence has clearly been exercised. Your reference photos (which you may have found on the excellent Royal Artillery Regiments in the Netherlands Website?) were probably taken in the Netherlands during the closing stages of the war. You will find similar photographs of my fathers troop that I supplied on the same website - a reference/credit to websites would be considered to assist future researchers perhaps? You will notice incomplete TAC and DIV signs on most of the vehicles at this time.

I thought you may find the following attachment of interest - a page from the Regimental History that explains the very unusual 'kill tally' that FEE had added below its name as a result of an 'Open Sights' 'Crash Action' that occurred while the Regiment advanced into Belgium.



My father recalled that after the action took place the locals mobbed the guns and gunners in celebration as the village had been spared any serious damage. The local believing that the gunners had 'shot' between the houses to destroy the German column head on. The gunners recalled it slightly differently… The village was in a slight dip in the ground and the column was engaged on the opposite slope.

I wish Dragon would resolve the issue with the markings/box art or a third party would take the opportunity to produce some replacements. An excellent job on the model and well done with your research.

Regards

Chris

[schweinhund227]

Very nice !