Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

StuG E-75





Originally this was painted in that two tone winter camo I've been applying recently. It just wasn't looking right though, so I couldn't bear to finish the thing. Well, I decided to give up with that and give it a repaint. Now its a bit more interesting looking, sitting in the factory red primer. That gives a bit of narrative, along with the E-75, inferring just how new the model of tank is; with the Germans pushing them to the line as quick as possible (or maybe the factory they were being finished in was really close to the front lines).

The gun's ridiculous of course. Its something like a 150mm. Perhaps this is a prototype (going the way of a lot of 150mm tank destroyers of the era), in a fantasy world where the suspension is made from titanium or that stuff they made Starbug from (puppies I believe). feth, a rear mounted casement would've been so simple as well seeing as I wound up tearing off all of the deck's detail. Damn, that's annoying, guess I'll just have to make another one.

Its one of Die Waffenkammer's Tiger IIs - the one with the early model turret specifically. As the turret ring wasn't flush with the deck like on the other model, along with the turret itself being too early to use for a regular E-75, I decided to make a StuG instead. Everything's either plasticard or milliput, including the gas turbine engine (the idea stolen off a guy on Facebook).


E-75




As I've said before; I wasn't very happy with how the first E-75 turned out. The mantle looks a bit daft (hell it might even come to me going back and taking a knife to it). Here's my second attempt with the traditional mantle. As I mentioned this started out with the same camo as the other E-75, till looking at how it turned out made me be sick in my mouth and I repainted it. I picture the tank having been sitting in a repair shop where they shoved a spare turret on quickly to get the tank back into the fight (whether or not this actually happened, or the tanks were just sent back to the factory in the real world is beyond me). Despite not having the time to paint the turret they managed to fit some infra-red sights for the commander.

Again, a Die Waffenkammer Tiger II. A great mini. Whilst the tracks outside faces don't have the detail of Warlord's, overall I prefer this one. A shame then that I wound up covering up a load of it with the new front glacis plate and engine. With Warlord releasing their plastic Tiger IIs I'll be picking up the Zug. The plan with that's to make other stuff (which isn't so easy to do with a resin brick), like a Bar, E-50, and maybe an APC. That'll give me the chance to look at the kit and see if I want to use it, or stick with Die Waffenkammer's one for any future E-75s.

Damn, a missed opportunity. I could have painted the whole thing in red primer like the tank in this thread's header post.


Maus




Yup, another one. This is Warlord's go at the shoe box on tracks. The proportions are a bit different from Blitzkrieg's, though there's only millimetres of difference. The details are superior however, along with there being more pewter parts for robustness. I'd been picking something else up from Warlord's site at the time and thought, feth it I may as well go for another of these as well (they were supposed to operate in pairs).

...Probably the same attitude which has landed me with three E-100s on order and god knows how many vehicles at this point.

I've painted it in the same scheme as the first- the "we didn't bring enough paint to do the whole thing look". Ah, though with some variantion - mostly larger insignia for personal taste. Though I picture the Maus pairs being serialised, the two manufacturer's kits have different details, so I went ahead and painted the obvious divergent bits in a bare red primer (seeing a theme here) to hint at them being replaced at a later date.

And hey all the barrels are bare metal with this batch as well. You just get an idea in your head...

E-25




Here's my scratch built E-25 all done up now. I went for Octopus camo with the armour plates being added at a later date. Those wheels and tracks look beefy enough to take all the extra weight (we'll assume the engine is all right too).



Jagdpanzer 38 (d)




This one's done up in a plain white wash, no fancy camo here. ...Mostly for ease of copying it if I want to make another later on. Looking at it I wonder in the real world if they'd have favoured this or the E-25 (I doubt they would have fought in the same units). The E-25 has a lower silhouette, though overall profile wise they're quite similar. I kind of like the look of this one. A Hetzer that's just a bit "off".



Here's my go at some guys in early NBC suits. Probably uncomfortable to wear (...though that's par the course with those things), and overly bulky. The design's not really based on any real world suits from the period ...as well I couldn't find any pictures of those. Specifically he's wearing a smock beneath a ballistic vest, trench coat (purely for the aesthetic) and a gas hood. This particular one's armed with a Wimmersperg Spz, though the rest of the squad have StG-45 lookalikes.



I'm thinking of painting them up in tan colours; not sure how well camo would look. The actual model started as a Wargames Factory Special Forces soldier, with a Crooked Dice SAS Gas Mask head. Is he too anime looking?

I feel like I keep repeating myself in this thread, but your armour is (are?) things of beauty.

Sturmpanzer III/IV "Stupa 44"




Here's this one done. I went for a winter camo scheme over a hastily applied paintjob from the factory. The mud's not on it yet as it takes forever to set, so here's this one naked. I'm into the wide design, so once some spare Tiger II tracks come along I'll have a go at a StuG on the chassis at some point as well.

And the WIP in case you forgot.

Great paintjob on the Stupa. Why stupa instead of stug?

Sturmgeschütz translates as Assault Gun. Stupa's an abbreviation of Sturmpanzer. An assault gun's generally designed for anti-tank/ artillery, etc duties in an infantry support role. A sturmpanzer's an indirect fire vehicle mostly for urban areas (thus the fancy rangefinger on the roof > that big cylinder beneath the infra red sights. Zimmerit would be handy too, but the Germans used that for camouflage more than mine protection, and with RPGs being developed it'd be worthless). The Allies called the real Sturmpanzer IVs "Brummbars", though that was actually the German designation for the Dicker Max bunker buster tank (though there was the Sturmtiger II Bar as well).



My Sturmpanzer III/IV doesn't have the profile of the real vehicle, instead it has a jagdpanzer style casement. Originally it was going to be a stug till I made the angle of the front glacis too steep. The vehicle is much wider than a Panzer IV, and the gun's fairly far forward in the casement, so they've managed to squeeze the gun in I guess.

Real Sturmpanzer:



Post-war the Germans managed to shove a fairly large gun in a tight casement though.



Woo, rambling.

Well look what turned up today.



Hmn, did I order three of these? Ah right I did. There's some sound judge right there for you.

Now you're possibly wondering just how does the Special Artizan Services E-100 compared to Warlord's Maus? Well...



Yeah, its a bit big. I asked for the model to be scaled down a bit, but the seller said that thing became complicated when printing ah well. For the curious though here's the measurements in centimetres (including turrets).

Maus - real world values converted to 1/56th:
18.2118- 6.6294 - 6.477

Maus- Warlord model:
15.748 - 6.35 - 6.096

E-100 - real world values converted to 1/56th (presumably this includes the skirts):
18.3388 - 8.001 - 5.8674

E-100 - model:
17.2- 8.8 - 6.1

So not wholly accurate, but meh, my Lowe's too big as well (ah wait, that'll be fixed ). Who cares, with these three I think that's about all the E-series got models now.

Detail wise well ...its passable. The turret has rivets along the top, but I'm going to have to obliterate most of the surfaces with glass paper to give them a smooth finish (there's print marks all over which will be apparent with a dry brush). Other parts are as detailed as the print will allow - i.e. will need to be replaced. I'm fine with the work though. If I hadn't bought three I'd have built another from scratch out of spare 1/48th Tiger II parts.

The plan's to make one into a Krokodil, and the other two as regular variants (at least one with a replacement streamlined turret). The spare turret from the StuG can be turned into a Flak variant as well. Ooh and then maybe I'll turn one into an APC. ...No!

*edit. FFS. Just noticed that the turret's missing the lip the Maus one has so it clear's the engine deck. Hah.

The first E-100's still being touched up, with most the details needing replacing (I'm just going to cover the non-existent tracks with mud at this point). It'll be great to stick some paint on it, but I'm being side tracked from another heavy tank project which I'd like to finish first - which hopefully I'll find the time to post an unpainted picture of this week (an AA turret with tracks attached is how I'd describe it).

In other news, here's a load of infantry which I've had around for a while now. I've been side tracked with real life so much lately that it took me two weeks to add grass tufts to the bases to take pictures of them... (and yeah, clearly I was lazy this time as I couldn't be arsed giving them a white background ) .


SS Stormtroopers





A second squad of these fine chaps. This time I went for all gas masks for that cliche look. Originally they were wearing M1956 helmets (from The Winter of 79 range), then I noticed Warlord had those gas masks. Paired with the rifles the M1956s may have been more appropriate. The guns themselves are a mix of G3s and FN FALs. They're supposed to be a generic rifle in the style of the CEAM Modèle 1950 (itself based on the StG-45 and beginning development in 1946), so these soldiers are for more of a late 40s > setting.

As with the first lot which I posted a few months ago these are Mantic Games OOP human soldiers with Wargames Factory arms, just done up in WWII uniforms. Clockwork Goblin are coming out with similar looking SS Shocktroopers at some point conveniently, so I may manage to throw another squad or two together seeing as there's not a hope of finding that Mantic stuff anymore.  

They'll look great along with Clockwork Goblin's own similar looking Shocktroopers (I'm totally picking up at least two squads of them). Maybe then I'll be able to throw together a proper modernized force of SS - mounted in Katzchens with 38 (d) support.


Luftfaust Team



Some AA support. A dedicated infantry carried AA weapon may be a bit impractical, but well at the end of the war when the enemy had air superiority they're worth a shot. I can picture a squad carrying one in their Katzchen, or given to one soldier to carry for the eventually it'd be used. Though once you start thinking about secondary weapons like this we're getting into modern squad organisation territory.

They're both Warlord Games soldiers from the Defenders of Berlin set, again with the same gas masks as the SS. I went with the winter scheme as ever as it keeps them apart from most of the other paint jobs you see on this pair. The Luftfaust specifically looks really simple to build (I bought them in the first place just to copy the measurements), so hell, maybe making enough to kit out a proper small Motor Rifles style force mounted in Katzchens could happen one day.

SS Nachtjaer





Now these I've had for ages. Finally infantry to go along with all the night finding tanks.  

Warlord only makes five individual sculpts, and felt generous by giving me three duplicates of two of them between two blister backs... Again with the gas masks. Hey they keep the cold off the men's faces.

I painted the ZG 1229 Vampir Scopes up like their counterparts used on vehicles. This isn't historically accurate (I've seen the light painted yellow, and scope gunmetal, or both gunmetal), but let's say production changed eventually. Nah, no MG-42 with the scope kit unfortunately (because the one bloody model I found with one in 28mm is OOP!).

Yeah, they ought to have a Katzchen UHU following them about too.

So... The aim for the week's to have the first E-100 in a paintable state along with that second tank. I'm doing the E-100 in a realistic setup, though the other two will be a Krokodil and simplified turret/ AA variant.

Here's the state of the E-100. No paint yet, just making the thing ready.





With the model I've gone ahead and sanded every surface along with using millput to smooth out all the stepping on the underside (which was pretty bad). The plastic's super hard, so I wasn't willing to replace all of the details that I wanted - particularly in adding a rim around the driver's hatches.

The exhausts are now off of Warlord's Tiger II, along with details from Die Waffenkammer's being used on the engine deck (spare from giving the original vehicles gas turbine engines - something I'm seriously considering giving the second E-100). The barrel also needed replacing, both due to stepping on the underside and being completely solid.

I went ahead and added some spare T-55 fuel barrels to the rear (courtesy of the T-44 project) which personally I think look really good. Stowage is maybe a little overboard Anything for a bit more detail. Most of the tools come again from the Warlord Tiger II plastic kit.

The plan formulating for the second turreted E-100 is to modernise the vehicle. I'll give it a Tiger II style turret with a fancy rangefinder and maybe telescoping periscope (like the Paper Panzer models have). As I said the gas turbine engine's likely, though I'll probably give the Alligator/ Crocodile the same engine as this one - just with extra armour.

Then I need to work out what to do with two spare E-100 turrets... Heh, for the detail level in these models I could probably just scratch build another too (without the damn moulded on side skirts...).

I have a couple questions about those E-100s.

Are the skirts remove-able? Are you happy with where the skirts meet the upper glacis? It appears to have issues. But that could be just how the camera catches the 3d prototyping lines.

How do you plan on doing the Ausf. B Turret? With a 1/48 or 1/35 Tiger II turret?

I had looked into getting some of these, and also some of:

https://company-b-models-and-miniatures.myshopify.com/collections/german-afv/products/afv-germany-e50m

From Company B.

Personally I didn't like the box turret and hadn't wanted to try to build the Ausf. B Turret. Might have to give it a go though.

Good luck, and great models so far!!!

The model comes in two pieces - hull and turret. The side skirts are moulded on, and the plastic's so hard that you'd need to take a hacksaw to them to be removable. The issue with removing them is that the tracks have *zero* detail, so better to leave them on. IN general the kit has a Lego amount of detail. How they look is decent enough.

I'm just going to make the whole turret from scratch. I don't think that I've posted it, but I already made one ages ago out of plasticard - just for a smaller scale one.

Company B's E-50s Ausf. M are more like 1/50 than 1/56th. They're a fair bit larger than the Tiger IIs other companies make, nearer in size to the Maus. I already have two of the things, but would recommend just scratchbuilding one if you want an E-50 (I've one sitting about somewhere unpainted made out of Warlord's new Tiger II kit).



Ah and here's the mock E-100 turret I made.







I'm sticking with at least one of the box turret as well, that's what it would have had in the real world. The E-100 was a lighter version of the Maus,but people make assumptions with the design (across the board with tanks people love sticking ridiculously huge guns in their turrets. The E-100 had seriously difficulty in using the gun it already had). This current one's attempting to match the original design closely, but yes my other ones are going to be more like the stuff you see 1/35th scale modellers do.

If you want an E-100 there's probably the raw files available for one online. Just find those and have someone locally print one up. For the price I couldn't recommend the ones that I bought. They're not suitable for wargaming without a load of work as in my pictures.

Well thanks for the great info. Glad I didn't order the E-100s. I see what you mean about those E-50s also. They look like they are 1/48 scale. Very nice kits by the look though. I have contemplated making 1/56 E50s out of Panthers, but the Tiger II is probably a better idea.

The Trumpeter Turret that I keep calling the Ausf B. was based i believe on the dimensions of the Jagtiger fighting compartment, to house the same weapon, the 128mm.

Die Waffenkammer have expressed interest in making the whole E-Series lineup. The owner Jeff's been swamped with commissions for other companies though, so I don't think he's been able to start on one yet. Though on that note he's going to be selling a Lowe some time this year (which I'm already jumping at the chance to buy - even if I already have one). They already sell other super heavies like the British Tortoise and American T-28.

Are you meaning this thing?



Or



And I do remember the Dust Australis blog converting a Jagdtiger casement to be a turret on a Tiger II.



Right now the plan's to make something similar to each of those. I'll likely give the StuG (or Alligator/ Krokodil as they're called in the community) extended armour at the back and the E-25 Ausf. B turret as a replacement for one of the cupolas. As I've said the second regular E-100 will be a modernised variant.



When search for some bits for another build (never found them), I came across a child's toy which I'd picked up years ago for Post-Apocalyptic conversion fodder.



It was initially dismissed then for all its weird angles. Tearing off the tracks helped a bit; replaced with spare 1/48th scale Panther ones, before I then set about obliterating the oversized details.

With its sloped casement (if you can call it that) I was reminded of the Jagdpanther a tad. Extending this out with some plasticard and sticking dual 128mms in turned the toy into this.




I'm calling the the Flakkanonpanzer at the moment, after the post-war tank series. Specifically its tangentially related to later German prototypes of a dual gunned main battle tank (the VT series, which predictably went nowhere). I imagine this is maybe something similar; a competing project to whatever mainline battle tank was being used, though predictably impractical.

Its pretty much an E-100 Flak turret jammed onto a set of tracks. Working out where all the vents, hatches and vision slits would go was a right pain in the arse...

Yeah, you get this instead of that Panzer III/IV thing which I couldn't find the right road wheels for.

Or

Spoiler:

That one. I have the 1/35 model. Very nice looking kit. But far too large for wargaming. I'm having a hard time deciding between 1/56 and 1/48. If 1/48 I can get the Company B E50s, and Gasoline makes 1/48 E100s (with the Maus turret http://www.gaso-line.eu/news/gas50124.htm). Those could be mated to cut down 1/35 Tiger II Turrets. That would make my converting much easier. Although the kits would then be slightly out of scale to Infantry.

Your models are fantastic. As I rebuild my collection I will take inspiration from them. I especially like the PzIVs with sloped armor. Thank you!

Personally I prefer 1/56th for most 28mm models. The issue with most 28mm stuff is that the models proportions are far too wide, so when placed next to a tank the size height as them the tank looks too small (compounded by the models being on bases). Real humans are like 1/3rd thinner (at least) than 28mm models generally. If you stick a 1/48th vehicle with them you sort out width (they're still too wide even for those), but now you have the tanks piloted by dwarves (a real human's shoulders come up over the front glacis of a Tiger. A 1/48th's head barely crosses that, and that's with them on a base). So your choices are either live with models with gakky proportions, buy more realistic ones like Perry Miniatures or Wargames Factory do, or ...buy 1/48th scale infantry. CP models make a Kharkov German as do Empress Miniatures make loads of stuff which scale much (much) better with 1/48th vehicles.

Summary, feth "heroic" scale models.

Yeah, the Panzer IV's a favorite. ...Though I'm annoyed about the gun which I gave it. It has a long barreled version of the late Panzer IV's gun to make it a bit more competitive. That was a mistake given it'd still not be up to snuff. I should have had the realization that the IV by that point wouldn't have been intended as an optimal tank. Instead I'd follow what was happening in the real world at the time. The Germans intended to replace their 75mms with a smaller gun which had the same performance - the PAW 600. Much cheaper to make, and more modern - firing HEAT shells, it would have easily fit inside that simplified turret - which couldn't take the larger more powerful guns other tanks at the time were being fitted with.

...Its probably something others don't care about. But yeah, not having the foresight to replace my 75mms with PAW 600 (along with similar guns) does my head in a bit. Realistically of course we can get away with saying the old gun was an interim cover till the newer stuff was standardised . ...Or some bollocks. At least I'm not sticking 150mms in my turrets like most of the 1/35th weird war community are obsessed with.

It may still be barely the height of Winter in the real world, but somewhere post the Winter of 1945 things are beginning to heat up once more.

...And with that's going to be the last of any crap puns for the foreseeable future.

Yup, its been over a year since my last update in this particular thread. In the meantime I've worked on various other settings. Tsk, I now have two modern collections going. However, recently events have transpired which have pushed my towards wanting to return for a bit to my WWII models (read: Nazi Zombies).

For phase two things are taking a different turn as I look towards developing foreign elements outside of the Nazi German military. To date the games which I've played involving these figures have been strictly blue on blue, in a German civil war affair. Which, well, isn't all the great. I mean the models have been fine, but well, its just a little dumb to have the same army facing off against itself.

So here we are today, with the start on the forces of the Soviet Union. Despite Germany being ascendant compared to its real world counterpart come 1945, the War in the East rages on to a stalemate, as Soviet technology keeps a pace with their enemies.


With that needlessly long preamble, what's actually been done since my last post? Well, not much. I mean, tonnes has gone on with all my other miniatures, but WWII's been sitting at a bit of a well ...stalemate, with all those half built and unpainted models from where I last left off largely remaining in that same state. However, I'm beginning to creep back into handling these things. A few of those WIPs are now sitting in my immediate "to do" pile, and I've started some more (...yes, despite the actual "to do" pile remaining as large as ever).

I'll go into my plans for the Soviet forces later down in this post, however, I've nattered on long enough without showing anything off. Here's what little I've completed over this past week, besides my modern and other projects.









Soviet T-5/2





Known in German service as the Panther II, this vehicle flips what I've been doing with my Axis forces on its head, and gives the Soviets a taste of their own medicine. Originally this vehicle would have been destined to complete a trio of similar looking Panther IIs in my Germany forces. However, it would have been just another (if anything about the Panther II could be called atypical) model among that force. With a Soviet paint scheme and insignia it looks far more interesting.



I may have given the history of the Panther II earlier in this thread (its been a while, and like hell am I fact checking myself here!), but I'll lay it out regardless. It was a real vehicle, though my representation of it isn't fully accurate. The Panther II was intended as a successor to the original vehicle which would offer more parity with the Tiger II, both to ease production and improve the model. The project became too ambitious, and was curtailed into a simpler upgrade, and eventually its role would be intended to be filled by the later E-50 tank (which itself was never built).

My own Panther II incorporates design elements from the real vehicle and later Panther Ausf.F - i.e. the new turret (the Panther II had a less developed variant of this "Schmalturm" turret). In my post-1945 world these Panthers serve as a stopgap vehicle, using existing production tooling and parts as the Reich prepares to build E-50 in quantity. Functionally, with its improved armament (an 88'), armour and engine (though in this case I chose to go for a conventional diesel instead of a gas turbine like one of my others had), it would remain an acceptable vehicle at the front, if outmatched by Soviet heavy armour.




A note on its namesake as well. In Soviet service German tanks were given the designation "T" (i.e. whatever the Russian was for Tank) followed by a Roman numeral for whichever model the vehicle was. Thus a Panther was called a "T-V". I just added a 2 at the end.



This, like most of my prior Panther IIs is built from a few kits. The base model is a Rubicon Panther Ausf.D. This is paired with a turret and infrared sights from Heer 46. With that I then added extra armour made of plasticard (the real vehicle has a thicker front glacis, and I added to that with a welded on plate - which given the Soviet's production of some truly monstrous tank destroyers by the end of WWII, is definitely warranted). The spaced armour on the sides and turrets is an extension of the real style of spaced armour the Germans were using (at first to protect against anti-tank rifles, and later HEAT munitions), in response potentially to the Soviets rushing production of the RPG-1 (which was being tested as early as 1944 in the real world).

I kept the paint scheme fairly basic. With the vehicle looking like a more recent capture than the beat up old warhorses the Panther IIs in my German force look like. In reality the Soviets didn't make use of Panthers, preferring Panzer IVs for their reliability and glut of spare parts, but I'll make excuses that the II was a bit more of a robust beast, or at least an asset enough to warrant a new paint job in the short term. The stars could have been painted better, and if I was doing them again I'd go for sharp instead of rounded points, though its hardly like a factory stencil was used on the real ones.


There's lots more German vehicles laying unpainted for now. Whether any more are destined to oppose their original owners is a possibility (I know I have plenty of captured Soviet vehicles in German hands), though I'm not want right now for Soviet vehicles to build either.


T-44



Succeeding the venerable T-34 design, the T-44 brings a more modern chassis to a tried and tested armament. This is in fact a touched up model which I've already shown off here. Coming back to this project I'm not all that chuffed on the quality of some of the paint jobs, and with this Soviet focus, it seemed silly not to tidy the model up a bit. Currently this is the first of a few T-44s and its variants planned, in its regular guise as opposed to the up gunned and later variants.



Historically the T-44 is in fact a real vehicle, and was produced in decent quantities (though not quite up to Soviet production figures) during the Second World War. However, it was built too late. Either due to not wanting to commit unnecessary resources for the final push, or potentially in an attempt to hide this new vehicle from the Western Allies, the T-44 never left Russia. At least not until later on during the Cold War when they took part in quenching the Hungarian Revolution.

These initial T-44s, like many of the vehicles featured here, weren't without their teething problems. Nor would this truly by the model which defined this chassis. Rather after a series of prototypes were developed, a vehicle based on this chassis would see serial production. Whilst there was a T-44 tank with a 100mm gun, it wasn't until it received a larger turret and other improvements that the vehicle would be renamed the T-54, and well, the rest is history.




Currently nobody makes a T-44 kit in 1/56, however Clockwork Goblin had recently said that they intend to produce one for their Konflikt 47 range (and have rules, albeit with a non-existent hull Machine Gun in their main book). Mine is made from a T-54 kit from Blitzkrieg Miniatures. I swapped out the turret for a modified T-34/85 one from Rubicon and widened the turret ring. The early T-44s had solid road wheels, so I also filled in the ones on the kit. Other than that it was a case of removing some more modern components like the fuel tanks and trim vane, and the vehicle was ready for stowage and some paint.

This one's painted in its WWII guise, rather than the paint scheme which would be adopted post-war. So less of the standardised insignia we'd see during the Cold War, and instead some fanciful numerical unit designation and big slogan on the side.


Planned Projects

Now other than that pair, more stuff is in the works at the moment. Primarily vehicles, though I do have some ideas for infantry (however, the rules I'm using are mostly geared towards tanks, so they aren't currently a priority).

First I'll show off what I've been thinking about when it comes to real vehicles, before delving into the silliness.

SU-122/44

The Tank Destroyer variant of the T-44. It had a Jagdpanther style casement, as opposed to the more angular one of the SU-122/54 (which actually saw (limited) production). Like the T-44, none really saw service, though in this case it didn't make it past the prototype stage.




Uralmash-1 / SU-101/2

A T-44 based tank destroyer which used T-34 parts. It won out over the SU-122/44 for production, though still, didn't see service. Designed to replace the T-34 based SU-100, which had problems with its gun ramming into the ground on inclines, meaning that the gun casement was moved to the rear (which was a feature also seen on late-war German tank destroyer prototypes).




Object-704

KV-2/3 hybrid Tank Destroyer. Something which I'm already in the process of making (or rather continuing from where I left off last time). The turret's pretty weird, and tantamount to just how cramped Soviet fighting compartment's were (preffering to go wider rather than taller when it came to making space... "German's had no head, Soviets had no shoulders").




SU-57D/ 76D

The Soviet "Hetzer". T-70 based Tank destroyers with an enclosed casements. Similar to post-war airborne ASU-57 tank destroyers.




Gaz SU-85

Another T-70 based Tank Destroyer (the chassis was so popular that it would live on even post-war, despite being obsolete in its original role) which lost the bid to the T-34 based vehicle which used the same namesake. Same chassis length as the SU-76 production model. ...I'm just into the blocky forward mounted casements on these things.




LTTB

An intended successor to the T-70 Light Tank. As tankettes were seeing the door even before WWII, such vehicles didn't have much prospects in seeing development. The T-34/85 is a fictional additional from World of Tanks, but I'd be doing the same with my own model.




SU-122-2

"Hey Vladimir, you know how our 122mm guns are already enormous and adequate at taking out most German tanks already? Yeah, how about we stick two of them on a tank? ...So it can fire faster ...or something"




Besides those, which being they're based on real vehicles and largely existing chassis aught not to be too much of a paint to begin work on, I've had some ideas for fictional vehicles too. Yes, pictures will be coming, but till then deal with these ramblings and ah ...paint a picture in your mind or something.

* T-34 armoured artillery tractor. A cross between a Japanese Ho-Ki APC and BTR-50. ...Maybe with a ZPU-4 on the back.

* Vichy French Tank Destroyer. Looking like an even more Germanic AMX Chasseur de Char (read that as the post-war French built their tanks out of German parts, so an alt-history Vichy French tank would be the same ...but ah, with more ...Fascism. Hmn. Still junk though)

* Something to do with a spare IS-2 kit I have. Not another Object-704. At this stage I have no idea, as the IS-2 really didn't see much in the way of prototypes, and Warlord already sell an IS-3, so there's no use in turning it into that. I could get silly and transplant something like this onto the chassis I suppose.




And... Well that's my rambling to date. Things will hopefully progress over the coming weeks, with more tanks and a bit of terrain planned. For the moment I'm working between this and other projects, so it'll be down to what's being played at my local wargames club what takes president (though I have a tank game this week coming, and ideally I'd like to have one more thing done for that). Which yes, does include some WWII zombies, but ah, I'm not sure if I want to further taint this thread with stuff like that. The walkers and power armour were bad enough...

Till then, well, hopefully you guys find this sort of thing interesting. If you want to check out more of my stuff then I've kept a few other threads here and other places over the years ...not necessarily WWII or Modern miniatures of course, and hope to start some more weird stuff in future (something about a Sunless Sea I've heard...). Thanks folks.

Cool stuff in this thread! It looks like you've really done your research when it comes to obscure tank designs and designing your own. Your custom creations could pass for models of real ones! It's also cool to see those pictures of wacky tanks that you've dug up, that last KV looks hilarious!

To be fair, when it comes to fictional vehicles as long as you don't go too silly, there was enough dumb looking prototypes out there that your's are passable. That Jagdtiger II for instance just looks dumb, but well, if you're used to sci-fi tanks, its not the worst offender out there I suppose.



With World of Tanks and similar games there's much more material out there on the internet these days for those "what if" vehicles. Ideas are either in those games, or being discussed on their forums. Though admitedly, so is a load of fictional stuff as well, though its not like I'm not open to making fake vehicles (as long as they aren't too stupid). And that's the thing, with my own collection all those vehicles in reality wouldn't have been feasible in this alternative history world I'm using. Technology would have diverged. For instance things like the Panzerschreck may not have existed in a world where America didn't enter the war, as it was based on the US Bazooka. Similarly, without the Allied Lend Lease, this is perhaps an opportunity for making vehicles which the Soviets would have otherwise had access to in number.

Examples of these "replacements" have been something I've considered. For instance without access to British Universal Carriers (though still existing in a world where the British were using them, so the idea of a light artillery tractor was present) the Soviets may have considered putting similar vehicles into service. Or rather further modification of Komsomolets artillery tractor like this.



With the Germans making use of the Sd.Kfz 251 armoured half track, nor access to the M3 Half Track, the Soviets may have considered putting their own vehicles into service. The post-war Czech V3SO armoured truck comes to mind as a similar vehicle to what the Soviets could have came up with. Particularly in that this vehicle would then develop into the OT-64 SKOT, so whilst I could not necessarily copy this vehicle directly, building something which say looks like a BTR-60, but with a half track like body, may look the part for one of these alt-history vehicles.




For the moment, other than the WIPs which I mentioned, I pulled out another half built WIP from the last time I worked on this project. This one is the Sd.Kfz 251 mounted on a Panzer III chassis (similar to what the Soviets would do with T-34s, and T-54s post war), which I was calling the "Eber" (Boar). With this one I was originally sticking a T-34/76 turret on the roof, but it was already a strange vehicle, so that was just overkill (though the Germans did stick tank turrets on their half tracks for training vehicles). Instead I'm going with an autocannon, which modernises the vehicle's armament a bit too (and with how tall the vehicle is, the Soviet turret was even more unsightly, as does the low profile autocannon turret mean I've plated over the roof, which saves the passengers breaking their legs from existing out of the roof). Here's the model which I'd made previously to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Its a design which has certainly grown on me.



Maybe I can work out a Soviet variant of this. Though it'll need to be based on the T-70 chassis, as the T-34's just too large for such a light vehicle. I'm already making a T-34 armoured artillery tractor at least(which I have a ZPU-4 on order for right now). Hmn, damn, this is giving me ideas. A BTR-152 style chassis on a SU-76 chassis. Oooh...

Here's me dropping in again to this project, as it takes my fancy to work on some more tanks.

I've been working on bits and bobs for my WWII collection in the past while since my last post, though progress tends to be sporadic as its split between this and the dozen other things which catch my interest at that moment. Recently then I have managed to paint a few things fairly quickly, though many other projects remain a work in progress obviously.

Here's the handful which're done.


E-75 in Soviet Service (T-E-75?)






After an order arrived from Die Waffenkammer I hadn't expected I found myself landed with a few kits which I'd otherwise reorganised my plans for. See I'd wanted another E-75, but with this order falling off the map for the better part of a year I had bought and made a pair after this hadn't arrived (Jeff at Die Waffenkmmer was able to resend it – twice – even in the troubles he'd been having recently, so I can't slight him for the muck up).

Which meant I was landed with a kit and no idea what to do with it. The thought of doing something weird crossed my mind, though Warlord's plastic Tiger II makes for a better platform for conversions. Instead I was boring and turned the Tiger II into an E-75 (of a sort) and just painted it up in Soviet colours like the Panther II.

Its not too outlandish a conversion of Die Waffenkammer's model. These E-75s are becoming a bit mundane to be honest. Take off the hull MG, add on a rangefinder, and then do some other weird stuff if you feel like it. I didn't bother replacing the engine deck this time as there was enough going on, though did give it the gun from Heer 46's Schmaltrum kit to make it look a bit different. Otherwise with it being in Soviet use there's some of their modifications – with a pair of bins and fuel drums from a T-34 at the back, and a replacement headlamp at the front.

I could have been more adventurous, but it seemed interesting enough with the new paint scheme. It'll be another in a line of foreign tanks in Soviet service as I find excuses to give them more vehicles from models I've already built (i.e.a crap tonne of German stuff). Just slapping on Soviet colours to these already alt-history vehicles keeps them unusual enough for my liking, without delving into the gas turbine engines and other oddities that I find myself adding to the German kit.


Soviet E-10






Speaking of captured German equipment...

This time its less of the green splurge, and I instead mixed in a repainted turret on top of the original German paint scheme. Otherwise it remains pretty basic - with all the grime covering up for the lack of any camo scheme.

Regardless, another light tank for the Soviet forces- as I know I'm going to be inevitably as short on those as I have been for the Germans, as even with a few lighter vehicles being built, the heavies are always so much more fun to play with.


Chi-Ha / T-70 Hybrid Recce Vehicle (Y/T-70?)






The dumb things you do when you buy a kit, forget about it, throw it together into a dumb vehicle and say "meh, good enough".

My Japanese alt-history project remains where it was from the last time I posted anything about it. With Warlord releasing their plastic Chi-Ha kit, that made the resin vehicle I'd bought from them less appealing for conversions. There was other ideas (like sticking a Zis-2 on the roof), but this seemed like the most suitable for the resin kit without needless tearing it apart.

Not a lot of thought went into the background when throwing this together. I think it'd suit as a glimpse into the war on another front. Perhaps with things not going so well for the Soviets leading to the need for conversions like this. Or maybe its in service with local fighters somewhere in China – in a similar workshop to the one the Germans had in Romanian for converting captured vehicles to their standard? The Japanese front tends to be overlooked in alt-history media centred on Germany, so who knows what the state of the war over there is with Britain bowing out of the war in Europe (who knows, the Colonial powers could be duking it out the Far East, or around Oceania/ India).

Whatever, as I said I need more light tanks and this was a simple build. Just a widened turret plug to fit the Blitzkrieg Miniatures T-70 turret and some spare parts from a T-34 to Russiophy it. I've no idea how practical this would be as a real vehicle, but it looks neat. Like some parody of post-war cinema making mock up enemy vehicles from whatever tank they could get their hand on.


Chelovek iz Stali (Soviet Soldier in Captured German Panzermensch Suit)




Clockwork Goblin's German Power Armour suits have a nice dieselpunk look which suits the era perhaps a bit more than their other stuff. They're good and chunky. Once some of the sillier details are removed (like the spare magazines on the power plant - how is the wearer supposed to reach them with those shoulder pads?) they're pretty nice models.

With the squad of German Panzermensch I made (in need of a new paint job...) the idea was they were some super secret experimental program. Hidden away in the German heavy water treatment plants or deployed rarely in the field from E-50 based Heavy APCs. This Soviet example then would have had to be a rare capture (perhaps more common as the Panzermensch trials escalate), though indicative that at least a few had been captured, and this was one suit being field trialled to record the results.

It didn't take much to turn these into a Soviet figures. I just got rid of most of the StG-44 magazine pouches, replaced their heads with a Soviet ones with a sculpted on ballistic mask, and gave them a modified DP-27 LMG and AK. The DP-27's in the style of post-war modernisations, so I guess top of the line for the time. Just a bit of silliness to probably use in Zombie games or whenever I actually use infantry (I think we've played maybe one game involving infantry, otherwise we just use this stuff for World of Tanks style games – pretty fitting given the subject matter obviously)


Zombies



I suppose now would be the time to show off some of the zombies which I'd rushed through for a game a few months ago,so hadn't had the time to post any pictures of.

These have been used the once for a The Walking Dead game set in WWII. Where a group of Soviet special forces were sent out to discover the fate of some secretive Nazi weapons program, only to find the site overrun with zombies and a group of SS remnants fighting for their lives.

...At least on paper. All of the zombies wound up being killed by turn two or three and it turned into a shooting match. Um, because The Walking Dead doesn't seem to balance itself well for every model having a gun. Hmn. We'll have to rework things more in future so there's more zombies, but that'll mean painting more of these things.

Here's some snippets of the some 60 Zombies I now have. Depending on whether we run a WWII zombie game again I'll probably have to keep my eye out for more suitable figures at shows, as I suspect another 30 wouldn't go unused the next time we play .





The figures are a mix of Clockwork Goblin, Studio Miniatures and West Wind. With some of the Studio Miniatures models having West Wind heads for a bit more variety. There's a mix of camo in use by the Germans to give them more variety (if I paint more I'll add more patterns), as are the West Wind Soviet zombies a nice addition to break things up a bit.

I do have some 40 Zombies made from Warlord Games plastics. Those are chunkier and less animated however, which is why despite having made all of them, I rushed out to buy models from those three other companies instead. I could maybe salvage 10 or 20 to mix in with the zombies which are already painted, but the dedicated zombie models look better (I did sculpt over a few of them, but they just look too animated compared to the sluggish poses on the other figures).

(From left to right - Clockwork Goblin, Studio Miniatures, West Wind)




The Unpainted Tat

As for the state on the still yet incomplete vehicles.

Things have progressed somewhat on previously discussed models -though not to an extent particularly worth showing currently. ...I tend to work on too many things at once, so yes as those who follow my threads here will find individual progress can be slow. I'll relent and post some images of a few unfinished projects, which yes, I don't tend to like to show models off before they're ready for paint either, so these aren't at as complete a state as I'd like.


T-34-54




This crept up on me a bit as I was looking for a spare T-34/85 turret for a T-44. I didn't intend to make this vehicle from an existing model, but having stolen the turret from on of the German captured vehicles I'd made previously, I had to do something with the chassis. Of the T-34 Beutepanzers I have it was the least visually interesting, and with any long project you look back on older work and see their flaws (I want to repaint half these models...), so it was for the chop.

As for the actual conversion. It hasn't been too bad. Its based on another scale model representing the Bulgarian T-34/ T-62 hybrid if it were a functional vehicle. In particular with the engine deck being set back to allow space for the turret (unlike the real one where its removed entirely and plated over), giving the vehicle a bit of a M48 Patton look with its extended engine – and perhaps a bit more modern a style than the T-34.

The T-54 turret obviously still needs work. I've torn off the details on the original model which were overly simple to recreate them later. That's largely what's left to be done with this, other than rebuilding the front a bit where I'd removed details to add some extra armour on the original model.


LTTB




Another thing which has been on and off my workbench as it slips between flights of fancy. The underlying model is a 1/72nd scale IS-2. Working from an existing kit, albeit a modified one, makes builds simpler – even if of course that may mean the resulting vehicle isn't as accurate as it could be. ...I just hate building running gear.

The initial shape of the hull is lain out, but work on tidying it up and adding detail is still to come. Its not as accurate as I'd like – with the rear section being too wide due to the donor engine deck I used being larger than on the real vehicle. Though I'd like to think that was a simplification caused by using existing parts rather than manufacturing new ones. Which with a decent chunk of this vehicle being fictional due to the lack of complete blueprints, is something which can be overlooked.

Otherwise its also in need of a turret. The one it has on it right now will likely find its way to another T-44. The turret this vehicle has in World of Tanks is basically off of a T-34/85, meanwhile the T-44 variants can be a bit modified, making this plastic turret more useful for those than one which I can find in another kit. I may just buy a spare turret from Die Waffenkammer and pop that on. Nothing's a priority then.

Oh, and the road wheels are stand ins. I just needed something round to work from. Those will be redone later.


T-44




Still early days on this one. Ideally the plan is to produce a bit more period accurate a model than the T-44 which I already have. Adding in some details which I otherwise missed (like the extra vision block on the side of the hull for the driver – not found on later models), bulges on the turret, etc. As I have another two T-44s after this to build ideally this one will be a basis for what to change, though obviously the real vehicle were made over a number of years, so there will be some differences between models.

The idea for the moment is still to do the Assault Gun and a T-44-100. Which will have one vehicle using a static casement, and the other would be a modified T-34/85 turret – which is why I'd rather keep the plastic turret for that. I'd been looking at early T-54s (Object 137) as well as an alternative to the T-44-100, creating a turret from scratch to save the T-34/85 turret for the LTTB, but I think I'm more inclined towards the WWII era prototype rather than its post-war child.




German Armoured Car



The last thing with enough work done to be worth showing is something else German. ...I have to stop myself from making more Axis stuff instead of giving the Soviets a competent force, but I keep finding new ideas I'd like to build...

This one is a cross between a Puma and a post-war Spähpanzer Luchs. I think conceptually an attempt to make the Puma chassis more suitable for modernisation (it was difficult enough sticking a 75mm gun on it), in the style of Post-War French armoured cars. This isn't the base variant of this armoured car, rather its some weird offshoot mounting the Kugelblitz turret. With the original idea being to create vehicle with that turret styled after the BRDM which then evolved into this. The base vehicle would instead be using a large calibre autocannon or gun in an oscillating turret, but this is still fine as it is.



The underlying model is a widened Warlord Puma kit, with part of the engine deck from the Panther at the back (just to keep things period consistent, rather than creating a more realistic one from scratch) and a turret by Heer46. Its a hybrid of those two German designs I mentioned – like a post-war vehicle made from WWII parts -, with some contrivances to fit this concept (the separate mud guard) which otherwise would have had it looking too modern for the setting. I'm chuffed on how it turned out; its modern enough looking for some games set in a later period "Man in the High Castle" style.

Mudguard wise they're based on a mix of both vehicles – though they don't reach all the way to the front as that's how they are on the Luchs. However the Luchs has a trim vane, which seemed a bit too advanced for the era so was left off. I may extend them further in the style of the E-10 with some thin sheet metal – there just to stop and dirt – something would then be removed in later models perhaps to allow for a trim vane.

Terrain




Segwaying into other things (is this the half way point of this post yet...? I had to add bloody headings to keep things from becoming just a word mess in this essay). Here's another ruin also in an unpainted state.

I may have shown off the one with this one before, as its been sitting around since I started building the ruins for this project over a year ago. It was bought to steal its tracks from for one of those Hanomag/ Panzer III hybrids I made. Looking back I could have used it for another conversion, but having wrecked tanks as part of your terrain is a nice feature (even if it does limit them to just WWII games ...unless your games happen to be taking place on an old film set).


Other Project Options?

Elsewhere I've been doing some research into the T-70 as a platform for conversion. Earlier some variants were discussed, and I've since found some more which may have potential.

My current intent is to have a go at making some vehicles which used the T-70 (or similar vehicles like the T-80 as a base, typically through extending the chassis). Currently I have two T-70s, one by Warlord games previously painted as a German vehicle, and another by Blitzkrieg. The German one an serve as a donor with a repaint.

As far as these variants, here's a few more which seem like they have potential.


VT-42 t-70


An attempt to increase the longevity of the T-70 chassis – a concept seen on a few vehicles. Done by replacing its main armament with a 45mm long barrel gun with excellent armour penetration (purported to be able to take on German heavy tanks).

This would be a simple conversion – just replacing the barrel on the existing tank. Obviously this project ignores the realities of the real vehicles (which sites such as the Tank Archives go into in more detail, as to why these projects failed), and in the fashion of World of Tanks or War Thunder which I'm somewhat aping, I don't tend to modify these prototypes to be a bit more suitable. So yes, the tank with the one man turret would get a larger gun and not address its other shortcomings.


T-80


This one is perhaps less outlandish a model, being a vehicle which did see serial production. The T-70 had numerous flaws, which the T-80 attempted to address. Particularly in increasing the turret to two men so the Tank Commander didn't have to deal with three separate jobs including operating the gun. It saw limited service, as the time for light tanks was over.

A bit more involved than the 45mm gun tank, but not that extensive a conversion. I don't believe that anyone makes a 1/56th scale, but I could be wrong and Die Waffenkammer may have it in their archives somewhere. This could also feature the VT-42 gun, though that may muddy the concept a tad. Regardless, the background of the T-80 and its obscure nature would make it suitable for this project – even if it actually being real docks it some points.


ZUT-37


One concept to use the chassis for an AA gun. Perhaps more competent than the dual DShK armed prototype, though maybe not as able a platform as those vehicles using extended chassis. It was armed with a 37mm gun and intended for usage against both air and ground targets – though didn't see production due to its cramped interior.

Another potentially simple conversion of the T-70. This would involve creating a new turret from scratch and be open topped – something I'm not too fond of as that means making an interior and crew. I'm more inclined towards the 45mm armed vehicle, however if I had the time the turrets could be interchangeable between these models.


IS-10 SPG



When a request was made for a new SPG based on the T-70 chassis, two plants were tasked with the project. A third plant volunteered its own design, being the Grozny concern which had developed the Zis-3 gun. Their design was fairly simple – a casement on the T-70, with hardly any modification to the rest of the vehicle. Concerns were raised on the limited access to the engine due to the casement extending a bit further than the turret's plate at the back, which among other concerns caused the project to be shelved (I'd note however that this is an issue on the original T-70, where you have to remove the turret and its mounting plate for the same task).

Among all the SPG on the chassis, of which there were a few (even more than the hand full I mentioned in my earlier post ...really, there must be a dozen), this one seems like the most expedient to make. Which is saying something for the nature of Soviet tanks. I like this vehicle as it would suit the Blitzkrieg T-70, which is now lacking a turret, and be something similar to that Panzer II Luchs SPG I made in concept. Just a casement built over the chassis.


There are those other SPGs on the table for conversions as well, though those will come once I can settle on how to do the tracks. I'm still inclined towards the vehicles with the more Hetzer style casements than the variants on the look of the SU-76 (and there were a few of those as well... honestly the amount of attempts at using this chassis for SPGs is silly, though given that we were still seeing conversions Post-War its not unexpected).

For one however, I am always in need of lighter vehicles for actual games. I find my collection filled with heavy vehicles which whilst nice to look at ...don't always offer the most balanced force for playing games with. I'm not want for concepts at least, its just finding the time and inclination to actually build them – and for the moment at least my To Do pile for the Soviets seems to be filled with heavier vehicles as usual...


(Other) Other Project Options (not T-70s)

Otherwise I have came across some other ideas for vehicles not on the T-70 chassis which may be worked on down the line.


IS-2U


My continued effort to find something to do with this IS-2 may have finally ended. ...Its like the Soviets just jumped from the KV-1 to the IS-3 in terms of weird prototypes. I managed to find this prototype which seems to fit the bill – an IS-2 with progressed towards the pike nose of the IS-3.

The vehicle seems to be largely an IS-2 just with a modified armour layout similar to the later vehicle. Presumably being a prototype which was rolled into a bunch of other improvements to create the IS-3. Luckily a good chunk of the IS-2 seems to remain intact (engine deck/ turret/ running gear) unlike on the IS-3, so seems like a viable conversion compared to just buying an IS-3 kit.


Sd.Kfz 222 in Soviet Service


(Uh, this, but with big stars on it I guess)

I'm also kind of inclined into making one of these. Yes, it would mean more German stuff – but that's just a short term problem. As I finish more of the half built stuff I'll have plenty of actual Soviet vehicles and the captured German kit will be a minority.

Anyway, I like the look of the 222 and Rubicon now have their plastic kit. I was thinking of one armed with a PTRD Anti-Tank rifle done up with the usual green paint job and Soviet insignia. It could be interesting (and again I'm picturing some propaganda film – where lacking actual enemy equipment older vehicles are used done up in their colours instead).


BMP Prototype ...Things


There's a 1/56th BMP-1 somewhere in my collection which isn't being used. Whilst this is more wistful thinking than something which will likely be turned into anything – it is a thought.

Similar running gear to the BMP-1 appears on many earlier Soviet vehicles. If I could use the tracks from the kit which I already have (Sloppy Jalopy I think) then that could work for some of those vehicles and prototypes to complement the T-44s period wise – giving the Soviets some more post-war equipment in opposition to the lighter E-Series I suppose. Just a musing.


Closing (yup, seriously I had to add bloody headings as this was getting too long)

Here's another of my usual "I've not touched a project in a while, deal with this content dump" posts. Um, I could ask if more shorter consistent posts are preferred, but I know I can't keep to a schedule, so well, deal with it.

For the moment I'll try and wrangle some of the guys at my club to run another tank game at some point. The main thing putting that off is that I want more vehicles for the Soviets so that its less of the "German Civil War" battles we've been playing with all my Axis vehicles, so I'd like at least a few more painted before that happens. Another zombie game ideally will be on the table too, which may be less involved depending on how things are balanced (i.e. Not a repeat of the last game where we just unloaded AKs into the horde and it turned into a shooting match).

In either case more terrain is in order, namely those ruins, more soldier corpses and tank traps (the latter two being stuff I'd lost in a box and only painted a portion of). As we've been playing mostly tank games the sparse boards are all right, and I have enough terrain from the rest of my collection to fill in the gaps on your average board, but my preference has always been to fill my boards with about twice as many pieces as every other board in the club that night put together, so there's always more work to be done...

Anyway, more crap to paint.


-----------------

I'll give an addendum to this post to say that I always maintain other Social Media on my projects. So this thread's somewhat slipped by some of the progress I've made in the past.

As such here's a link to a thread on another forum I keep on this subject, though here's the highlights from what I missed out when updating this one. But I'll try and keep everything updated as and when I can remember...

This is seriously awesome stuff! Planning on doing Object 279 at any point?

Not particularly Object 279, as that's perhaps more for a 1960s project (something to do in future) and someone already made one in 1/56 - though as a one off. If I were to work more on 1960s stuff then it would more likely be British and French post-war prototypes - as the French in particular were heavily inspired by German Late War prototypes (their initial AMX series were literally made from the parts of German tanks).

Edit:

From doing some research into projects today I did come across this upcoming release for World of Tanks. Object 279E. Which looks like the 279, but with a less weird (still super weird) hull. It'd still be useless in the real world, but still, interesting to look at.

Meanwhile... I've had less time than I thought this week to work on things. Meaning that bits from last week which have been painted, or mostly painted aren't really a focus as I try and come out with more tanks for a game this Tuesday.

Currently the plan's been to give the Soviets more models so they have a bit more choice for figures in this World of Tanks style game we're playing. The Germans have dozens of options (though oddly only one artillery piece...), the Soviets are stuck with 3 Heavy, 2 Lights, and ...that's it.

Which is fine, I've not worked on them for long. Still, its come down to adding three more vehicles to that list this week (I hope).


IS-10 SPG



Here's what's become of this idea. The details are guesswork, as the real vehicle didn't make it past the rough blueprints stage. So they make look the part at least, but could be wildly impractical. Which is fine. Outside of that one blog post I found this thing in nobody probably even knows what this is...

LTTB



This has come along further, now with extra details. Its not perfect, but I'm calling it good enough for some paint.


One of the pair of Maus I have is receiving a repaint too. The turret's been stripped and will be done in Soviet colours, and the hull's having the German insignia painted over with black rectangles & red stars. Along with a general update to the painting, like with the T-44, as I'm not happy with how it looked (too much dry brushing).


These three vehicles then count as a SPG, Medium and Super Heavy Tanks. The first two are going to receive the same all green paint job as every other Soviet vehicle I have (maybe slightly different - I'm running out of a particular shade of green paint...).

I'd rather keep things simple and have each side easily identifiable. The Soviets will be a simple Green, the Germans coming in White or Tan. We had enough issues identifying the living soldiers from the dead in our Zombie game this week.


There'll be a post up at some point in the future with those things I painted last week, probably some shots of the Zombie game's table, and it'll likely run on into what we play this Tuesday as well through all my rushing to paint these last two models.

Love your project, you actually get to game with these beasts too? You should take some pics of the battles and do some AARs, would be great to see these monsters in action.

A game's still set for tomorrow (um, I think. ...Better send an email), and I now have these three done for then. Yup, ideally (if I remember) I'll take some shots of that. Then post them here with last week's Zombie game, and perhaps some more painted stuff later in the week. ...There's a load of images on my hard drive in need of editing, ah, what few are actually focused. Some of them even aren't blurry shots of random shots of chairs or Irn Bru bottles.






Maus








The Maus now repainted in Soviet hands - now with a dirty big Hammer and Sickle on the side of the turret. God I hate painting stars.

This was an opportunity to repaint the original hull a bit - this being the Warlord Maus I had, rather than Blitzkrieg's kit. I tried to reign back the dry brushing I'd done first, before adding the usual grime. In future I'd like to work on my dust effects - though its always a process of improvement (I already hate this thing. It'll have another repaint in a few years...).

This will fill in the Soviet's Super Heavy category for the moment. I can't say I'm a fan of really large vehicles - in part because they're an arse to store - but it just wouldn't be proper to not give them something they actually made. That's for another day. ...Maybe it'll be an opportunity to use that bloody Tamiya IS-2 kit I still have.


LTTB






"Light Tank Heavy Armour". 1944's idea of what a light tank was supposed to be, before the Soviets gave up on the idea and just kept their lighter vehicles on with the airborne troops.

This thing looks like a smaller T-43 or later Sheridan, though isn't that far off of a T-34 size wise. Which I guess showed just how obsolete things like the T-80 were by that stage in the war.

With it being made from a 1/72nd IS-2 kit - just widened and with the suspension sitting higher - it isn't perfect. There's a noticeable gap between the drive sprocket at the back and rear mudguards. And the engine deck wound up being too wide, so it lacks diamond shaped hull profile when viewed from above. Um, hopefully none of you are World of Tanks players who'll be jumping on me over that.

Out of the three tanks today I think its my favorite. Its not perfect, more of a wargaming piece than a proper scale model, but that's what all of these things are for. ...And its not like anyone else has built one of these in this scale. At least its away from the build pile finally.


IS-10 SPG






A less elegant example of the Soviet practice of sticking a box on a tank chassis. ...Their conversions of Panzer III looked less crude.

Blitzkrieg T-70 has less detail on their tracks than Die Waffenkammer's Tiger II, so received the usual mud treatment to cover up how poor some of these 1/56th scale tracks can be. ...Just nobody call me out on all the mud again; at least its toned down from how much I used to apply (see the Maus for reference). #


This leaves a T-44 and the T-34/54 thing in my immediate build area. Not that they may actually be what's worked on next (I could dump the lot and go play with my Elder Scrolls figures...). For the moment the T-34's in need of having its turret rebuilt (the original details were crap), which is what's holding me back from finishing it. The T-44's looking like it may be turned into the T-44/100 model. I'll get to another 85mm armed T-44 eventually.

Just a small follow up tonight. I started working on another vehicle this morning. This one will be a more suitable "Tank Destroyer" as far the rules I'm using are concerned -rather than the smaller T-70 based SPG (though neither really were built for the role in their original design briefs.



The SG-122 was another attempt at converting captured German vehicles into something usable by Soviet Plants. Similar to the SU-76i it involved building a new super structure over captured StuG IIIs. This one would serve as a self propelled Howitzer rather than a Tank Destroyer like the SU-76i, but it will look the part for my needs.


(SU-76i)

Only a dozen or so were built. They were issued to field units, though soon replaced by Soviet built vehicles. Eventually they'd see service and mostly be destroyed, with from the scant research I did only a replica surviving to this day (presumably as the Soviets were building the SU series fast enough to not need them any more). So this is another case of a vehicle actually being real, and seeing service, however its still something obscure; fitting the design brief of this blog.



I'm in the process of making this vehicle out of a Panzer III kit I'd already used for another conversion. One of a treo of Panzer IIIs with sloped armour which I'd put together after buying them by accident instead of Panzer IVs. The models are over used in games, and I'm not a fan of the design, so one was for the chop.

So far I've stripped the model back to the Panzer III and built the basic casement. Now its onto adding the hatches, gun and large stowage items before going into the details. The real vehicles seem to be missing some of the smaller Panzer III parts - likely when it was being turned into the new vehicle - so there isn't as much rebuilding necessary from where I had to removed things in my original conversion.

A start on another pair of vehicles. This time Soviet conversions on German hulls.

SG-122



The SG-122 was another attempt at converting captured German vehicles into something usable by Soviet Plants. Similar to the SU-76i or SU-85i it involved building a new super structure over captured StuG IIIs. This one would serve as a self propelled Howitzer rather than a Tank Destroyer like the SUs, but it will look the part for my needs as I try and find something a bit more suitable for a Tank Destroyer role for the Soviets.


(SU-76i)

Only a dozen or so were built. They were issued to field units, though soon replaced by Soviet built vehicles. Eventually they'd see service and mostly be destroyed, with from the scant research I did only a replica surviving to this day (presumably as the Soviets were building the SU series fast enough to not need them any more). So this is another case of a vehicle actually being real, and seeing service, however its still something obscure; fitting the design brief of this blog.



Tank Archives has an article and more pictures for those interested.




My own model's cannibalized out of an older conversion. At one point I'd bought a trio of Panzer IIIs by accident - thinking that they were Panzer IVs. These were turned into sloped armoured vehicles, however I've not really been happy with having three of them - and they wind up being overused in games.

With this model then I stripped down the work I'd done and have started the process of recreating the Panzer III along with adding in the Soviet modifications. Today's work was marking out the locations of future pieces - with most of the tearing up and rebuilding happening earlier in the week. Its particularly annoying that there's both limited period photographs of these vehicles, and that both models and modern replicas seem to get details wrong. This is the closest I could manage from what's available, though as ever nobody probably even knows what this is ...so I can get away with bodging some things.

T-4/ 76

In this case this is a fictional vehicle, so unfortunately there's not much source material to show off for this one.



The vehicle is inspired by post-war Bulgarian conversions of captured Panzer IV tanks retrofitted with the 76mm gun from a SU-76 - acting as static bunkers on their border with Turkey. I was going to build one of these regardless. Though in the Tank Archives post I found the SG-122 in there's also a segment mentioning a request to try mounting a 76mm gun in the Panzer IV. It was likely never attempted, but at least it was a theory.



My own model's still early on - so forgive the lack of gap filling and details. It takes the style of turret from the Bulgarian conversion and just pushes it a bit further so it looks more like a serviceable vehicle (adding a commander's hatch, sights and a fume extractor ...uh, when I model it). Rather than scratch building a SU-76 gun I took one off of a T-34; which seemed appropriate for a production vehicle rather than a one off.



This too isn't a new vehicle. Or rather its made out of the spare parts from all the Panzer IV conversions I've made so far. Its a bit of a bodge, the 38t parts for instance are there for lack of spare bits. Sandbags and tools will do to cover up a few areas to save on rebuilding everything.

Keeping the updates fast and consistent as ever.

Tonight we played another alt-history tank game at my club, so for the past week I'd been painted up a few vehicles to give some more options for the Soviet player. Along with pushing off a pair of older projects from the "to do" pile (one of them) which have been sitting around for far too long at this point.

I'll lead with pictures of the models and end with a dump of some images of the board. So first up here's the German stuff.


Super Heavy Tank Destroyer

Starting with something silly. I'll post the images below of this unpainted to show how little of the children's toy this is based on was left over. ...This more being an effort into using that toy which I'd had left unused for ages than looking for something which could ever be used in a game. Though perhaps one day the Soviets will have more large tanks for this to actually go up against.

Its pretty much an E-100 Flak turret on tracks (most of the bits coming from a 1/48th Tamiya Tiger kit). I'm thinking used as a Tank Destroyer on the Russian steppe somewhere. Ah, its more in the style of something you'd see in a video game than in reality, but all the angles look cool. ...Even if it is a bit daft.










Bergepanther

Originally this started out as a regular old Bergepanther using Heer 46's conversion kit - albeit with extra armour and a cab added. It just wasn't working out for me and my alt-history tastes though, so I stripped it back a bit and went for a different route.

Its partially based on a few real vehicles. The plow isn't a 100% recreation, but its a "good enough for wargaming / I have a game in a few days, screw it". The real one with a plow was a salvaged Panther made from a hodge podge of bits with a stripped down turret. Though here I went for the random bits, but the turret wasn't doing for me so instead I went for an autocannon. Which with the armour hopefully will keep it kicking if anyone shoots at it whilst its clearing some rubble.

It'll probably do for just a piece of terrain (which is what it was used for tonight) or perhaps a scenario vehicle - clearing as many roads as possible to help the Germans get off the board in a break through.







T-44

Now onto the Soviets. First from the pair of vehicles is a second T-44, going with the first vehicle which I already have made from the Blitzkrieg Miniatures T-54 resin kit.

With this one I wanted to be a bit more accurate to the real vehicle than my first attempt. With the game coming closer and general fatigue of having this sitting unfinished for so long I rushed some of the details, but its a fair representation I think.







T-4/ 76

One more German tank in Soviet service. I mentioned this is based in concept on a pair of real vehicles - a post-war Bulgarian bunker made from a Panzer IV fitted with the gun from an SU-76, and a request during the war to convert captured German tanks to mount Soviet guns which wound up not really going anywhere.







And just an update on that other Soviet tank I've been working on. Nearly done, but I haven't pushed myself to finish it off. I'm not happy with how the rear stowage area looks and will probably do my best to cover it up with some cloth or something.




Finally, some images of tonight's game. Or rather a few of the 3 we played ...as the first two were rather short (on account of me being a my usual gitish self).

Over the past few week's I've redone all of my winter terrain with new snow and mud effects. Hopefully things look a bit more realistic now. I'll eventually go through my tank collection and update the paint jobs and effects on those too. The pictures aren't the clearest, but hopefully you'll see the difference between these and the "before" pictures I'd posted earlier.

There's also a few new bits. Another ruin (the one with the StuG) and flooded craters. With plans to add a load of tank traps and rubble piles in future. I'd also like a proper winter mat (instead of the flipped over regular one we use ...which is completely untextured) so we play with a less stark white and instead something which mixes the snow and mud together a bit better. I've seen home made ones which look all right, its just finding the time to make one.




















As a last point (...yeah I know I just said "finally" a minute ago), elsewhere I've started (yet another) project. Or at least an off shoot of this one. The infantry side of my WWII stuff hasn't really been the main focus of this thread. I've decided to split off the less obviously alt-history figures into their own thing - which whilst realistically would still be suitable for post-1945 games, may as well be a bit more historical for the sake of being able to play regular WWII games with them.

Lately then its been a work in progress to repaint and add models to that SS collection I have. Mostly made from Heer46 and CP models figures with those winter parkas the SS had. With a decent number of other figures - largely Perry - done up with the same uniforms sculpted from clay to fill in whatever roles those companies don't do models for (heavy machine guns, radios, more sergeants etc).

This will also mean perhaps a few vehicles too. I'm not into the main German tanks much, so if there are many they'll be stuff like the Marder series and other converted or captured tanks, or things like armoured cars or recce vehicles (I was thinking of doing one of those Panzer 38ts with the 20mm gun turret used on Sd.kfz 222). A Marder III has already been started, and is just awaiting a pair of crew figures to be converted.

Expect a thread on those to be started at some point. Depending on how much interest there is at my club for the Eastern Front setting it may be ongoing, or I'll just keep it to the initial post and things will be more sporadic from there as I work out how to actually play with the figures. I was considering doing a Soviet force - either all in Snow Suits as Siberian Veterans, or as some sort of Engineering groups wearing armoured bibs (I know two companies doing both suits and bibs, and could easily sculpt either on other figures). That's probably way down the line however, and up in the air based on what's going on around here.


Anyhow, there's an update for this ...trimester (?). I'll see about getting around to posting pictures of the terrain more specifically - showing off the snow and mud a bit more. For a last image though here's some arty farty stuff done for the sake of ...arty fartiness showing off some Soviet elite infantry on patrol in some "dead" city (...hah, zombies ).

Love this blog and your modern one. Great research, photos and models.

Love the silly double barreled monster. Big cats are the coolest.

Battle rep would be cool with more immersive shots (and better lighting) and some text to tell what happens.