"3rd owner very high mileage" NZEME Egypt 1942

The idea for this diorama came to me back in the early 80s. My neighbour in Cambridge was chatting to me over the fence while I washed my motorbike and said the last time he rode a bike was during the war and that it had tracks. I knew he was talking about a German Kettenkrad so I raced inside and brought out my Rommel reference book which had a photo of one. He flicked through the book then told me a story of an incident that took place when he was stationed in Egypt with the newly formed New Zealand Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (NZEME). They had enlarged a slit trench in the hard sand and rock to use as a mechanic's pit which they drove the light vehicles over so to work on the underside. After the battles at El Alamein a British truck that the Germans had captured and mounted a 2cm Flak on earlier in the campaign was recovered and brought into the work area for repair. They found the chassis was cracked, probably due to the weight of the gun and the rough terrain. The crack was welded and while his mate was underneath in the pit using an Oxy/Acetylene torch, the ground, which was soaked with oil and fuel caught fire and incinerated him before he could escape. My neighbour told me that they used the Kettenkrad for carrying the heavy Oxy/Acetylene bottles and larking about in the sand hills. As he had described the NZEME as "newly formed" I set the diorama in December 1942 which was the month of their activation. War records show 5 deaths in NZEME during their first 6 months so one of these will be the man in my story which I believe is not widely known and I have found no mention of it in the NZ war archives.
 

First job was the chassis which had from memory 221 parts incuding the extras I added to the engine etc. Mirror Models are certainly not for beginner builders with their insanely high part count but the tradeoff is really nice detail.

The cab was next with some super detailing and opening up the engine compartment. I did the build in 3 components which is a must with Mirror Model truck kits.

Next came the Tamiya 2cm Flak and scratchbuilt sled which I was lucky enough to find 3 reasonable pics of.

The tray was a quick enough build compared to the cab and chassis but I still managed to drag it out with some extras.

After advice from a couple of boiler makers with experience of chassis repair I was really pleased with the result.

After painting and weathering the 3 components the truck was assembled and the Flak/Sled combo fitting to the tray. The various little details like ammo boxes, magazines, spent shells, Jerry Cans etc were installed.

I now moved onto the Kettenkrad. A pair of fork shock absorbers were made from fine wire. Coffee tin foil was used to create the floor under the seat using some reference pics from a resoration project.

The bike was painted grey base as a vehicle that had come to the desert early in the campaign, decals were applied then it was over painted with German DAK sand and the Oxy set installed on the back.


 

I made the base frame from some beautiful hardwood floor boards that I found in a recycler. The slit trench was made with balsa side and a fire in the bottom which I made from a clear plastic box lid that I melted with a soldering iron and cotton wool.