The Story of Fire Support Base Humble
Somewhere alone the line I had bought the Airfix 1/35 Scale 155MM M1-a2 Howitzer kit. I honestly can’t remember when or why: it was either on sale/really cheap somewhere or I saw it and decided that I’d never built an Artillery piece. Anyway, it had sat in my “stash” for quite a while until I decided that I wanted to take on a project a little out of the ordinary using a brace of 1/35 Scale stuff that I had.
So, while reading through “The Vietnam War” (The Illustrated History of the Conflict in Southeast Asia - Salamander Publications 1979) I came across an artists impression of a US Fire Support Base (page 28/29). In particular, the impression contained a diagram of a Howitzer emplacement – so the seed of Fire Support Base (FSB) Humble was born!
First up – a couple of definitions of “left and right or arc”. The diorama only represents part of a fire support base, and in that respect, is also much closer than in reality (due to space constraints). Initially, the plan was to include the Command Centre, but I soon realised that given space constraints etc this was not possible, hence the second part of the diorama being built separately. Secondly, there is/was probably no set design for actual components of a FSB, so I have applied some “artistic” licence to the build(s). Some may ask why the name FSB “Humble”. Well, that’s two-fold. Firstly, the build was only meant to resemble part of an FSB (as discussed), but more importantly, the street on which I live is Humble Court……….
The Dio contains parts/elements from a wide range of sources, as follows:
The Artillery section. The Gun is the Airfix M1-A2 as discussed. The gun crew is from the MiniCraft Soviet Soldiers at Rest kit, with helmets substituted from other kits to replace the fur caps in the original. The tools in the workshop section are from numerous sources, and the gun rounds are from the AFV Club 155/203 Howitzer Round and Stowage Case Kit.
The Mortar Section. The Mortar section is from the Tamiya M106AI Armoured SP Mortar Kit.
The Infantry Troops. These come from a variety of sources, the 50Cal is from an M113 APC kit, the figures from either the Tamiya M113 APC kit or the Dragon 1:35 “Nam” Series US 1st Cavalry kit, suitable modified.
The Fuel dump is made up of items from the Tamiya (from memory) Jerry Cans set etc.
The dio contains parts that were built in modules. The Arty module was completed first, with the crew quarters, Ammo Storage and Workshop area scratch built using balsa and 3mm foam core (available in large sheets from most framing stores). Likewise the Mortar area and 50 Cal area were scratch built. I took some artistic licence here, in that there are (somewhat crude) living accommodations built into the Arty, Mortar and 50 Cal positions in the expectation that crews would live close to the weapons (which was certainly the case with the gun crews). The overhead “protection” in each case lifts off to expose these crude living conditions, which equate to nothing more than a sleeping position, with “scratch’ built pillow and sheet included. No doubt if FSB Humble had been real the troops would not have been happy!!
All the sand bags are “scratch” built from air drying clay, and balsa was used to build the crude steps between some of the positions.
The Command Dio.
As discussed, this was originally planned to be part of the dio, but I soon realised that the concept would not work, so the command bunker was built as a separate entity. Again, the command bunker was built from scratch using balsa and foam core. The figures are a combination from the aforementioned Dragon “Nam” series kit as well as figures from the Tamiya M557 Armoured Command Post Car kit (including the desk). There is some scratch built furniture, with the radio from (I think) the M1-A2 kit.
The Command bunker is of my own design, and uses the concept that the command “crew” (the Commander and a couple of selected staff) would live inside the bunker – hence the separate “living” areas included. Note there is a (very) slightly larger area for the Commander (featuring a door – luxury!!), with an area for four support staff (separated from the command area by a black curtain, made simply from some material offcut) included. In the actual dio an “off-duty” member is shown in the “crew” quarters. The gun rack near the door was scratch made from balsa and is entirely my own design.
The maps etc were produced by down loading images from the Internet, saving same onto a PowerPoint side, printing on a colour printer then using a colour photocopier to reduce the images (time consuming but very effective!) The “Fuel Storage No Smoking” sign for the fuel dump was produced by the same process.
I had a lot of fun creating “Fire Support Base Humble” and the “Command Post”. While not modelled off an actual location, I intended them to portray what operating conditions may have been like during the Vietnam War. I hope you enjoy the dioramas.