Operation Claymore. 1/35

This week, the 4th March it will be 85 years since the Allied commando raid on the German occupied Lofoten Islands in Northern Norway.

In the early hours the 4th of March four landings from the sea were made. The goal of the raids were to destroy German infrastructure, fish- and paraffin factories and any shipping connected to the germans.

The raid was the first of twelve commando raids in Norway during the war, and it was a big success. In addition to the destroyed shipping and factories, several germans were captured, Enigma rotors and a codebook were brought back and ca 300 norwegians volunteered to go back to the UK and join the Free Norwegian Forces there.

The fish factory ship Hamburg on fire

Allied commandos rounding up germans.

Many years ago I made a diorama depicting a scene from this raid, and later gave the dio to the Lofoten War Museum in Svolvær.

I chose an A4 sized photo frame as the base for the diorama and began the construction.

Two building facades were made from cardboard, plastic sheets and balsa wood, and painted with acrylic paints from Vallejo. I made corrugated roof from some candy wrappings for one of the buildings, and sandpaper acted as tar paper for the other roof.

Cardboard and plastic strips used to make buildings.

Planning the layout.

The groundwork was made using self hardening clay, and I made footprints from the soldiers by pressing some miniature feet into the still wet clay after playing around with the layout for a while.

When this had cured I covered it with PVA glue mixed with white paint and drizzled "snow" in the form of microballoons over it all and let it dry.

The buildings were glued in place in prepared grooves in the clay, together with a few details as fish crates and shovels.

Fishcrates made from plastic sheet.

The building for the Harbour Guard gets a lamp over the entrance.

All the British/Norwegian soldiers came from three different Dragon kits. I did some slight modifications to some of the figures, improved their details with the help of a sharp scalpel and I swapped their Sten guns with Thompsons, as the Stens were not in use yet at this point.

Slings for the weapons were cut from foil of wine bottles and then I painted it all with my favorite model color from Vallejo.

Figure kits from Dragon.

Enfield rifle and a Thompson machine gun.

Two figures ready.

Now all I had to do was fix the figures in place and lean back and celebrate a job well done with a deep cup of wine.

Below are three links for further reading about the raid, and pics of the diorama.

Thanks for reading. I wish you a nice week.

Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Claymore

https://www.combinedops.com/Lofoten_Islands_Raid.htm

https://www.lofotenkrigmus.no/lofotraidet/