After my mother died recently I was obliged to clear out her old house. I knew there was some old modeling bits and pieces in her loft but was quite surprised at what I found - some real gems from way back in my younger modelmaking life.

Among these was three 1/72 V-1s: two were clearly from the Frog Dogfight Doubles kit (with a Spitfire XVI I think) but the other was unidentifiable - something I have absolutely no memory of at all. And why had I never made any of this trio?

Click on images below to see larger images

Anyway, I decided to keep the odd one for some kind of action in-flight diorama, being tipped over by a Tempest maybe, but the Frog examples could be used for a ground diorama I thought. A little internet research provided photos for enough inspiration.

The V-1s were easily put together and painted - in contrasting paint schemes by virtue of Tamiya acrylics. Things like the large trolley supporting the first missile was scratchbuilt as were other bits and pieces scattered around the base.

The base itself was a picture frame with the glass as the main base. The rear structure was some kind of plastic food container. Grass was actually fine dirt kind of drybrushed - which looks quite convincing as short grass in this scale.

The British infantry come from a Caesars Miniature set and are nicely detailed. They were painted, washed and delicately drybrushed in tubed acrylics. The Kubelwagen is a very, very old Airfix example but with a little re-painting still looks well enough I reckon.

And that's it: Brits advancing across a V-1 launching site somewhere in Holland or Belgium, late summer 1944.

Greg Kerry