Mittwoch, 16. April 2014

Operation Sealion in 1/144 a German Panzerfaehre

When the Germans reached the channel, they wanted to Great Britain. But at that time neither the Wehrmacht nor the Kriegsmarine was ready for this jump.
While the Luftwaffe started their fight for the power over Britain's skies, the Wehrmacht and Kriegsmarine tried every idea
So they came up with tons of ideas. The Siebel Ferry was developed, the Marinefährphrams came up and many more ideas. One of these Engineers was Hauptmann Siebel. As he was in service with the Luftwaffe, he knew, that there were a lot of no longer used engines from Messerschmitts.
A not so good idea was, to put some existing pontoons together to bring, in combination with a no longer used engine from a Messerschmidt Me 109, a tank to the British shores.
These were called B-Fähre 40. I found no pictures and in the standard Book about German ships, Gröner I found in book #7 only one interesting fact. The Wehrmacht made trials with 3 engines form other boats while the Luftwaffe worked with the Messerschmitt engine.




 While I used a French tank, the Germans planed to transport a Panzer II or Panzer 38 over the channel.





Some words about my model, the sea is made with silicone and white paint. The Ferry is a complete 3D design. Of course more details would have been possible but I stopped at one point. The good thing is, as there are not so much information or pictures, nobody can say, that detail is wrong.





Dienstag, 8. April 2014

Famo with Bilstein crane 1/144

The Famo in 1/144 is nothing new, but to use him on a Diorama the model looked a bit naked. With the big storage and nothing on it, no that does not looks good. As I already had built the spade for the Famo, I came up with a new project. the Famo with the Bilstein crane. I remember some years ago you could buy this model from a small company in Japan, but is was not that cheap. So I decided to build the crane by myself.

First a short overview about the cranes in use with the German Panzerwaffe:

The German Army had for their maintenance several types of cranes. 


  • Büssing with an Bilstein 3 ton crane (a 4,5 ton truck) 

  • sZgkw. 18t. with the Bilstein 6 ton crane.

  • Friescrane with 15, later 16 ton lifting capacity, often in combination with a Hanomag tractor

All other cranes do not belonged to the maintenance units.

For my model I used the Famo from PanzerDepot. The model looks good and it is easy to put into his parts.





After some work with a screw driver I have disassembled everything I need. The most critical point is, not to damage the front wheels. I my case I made a perfect work, they broke both.



After some smaller work I could glue the new platform on the frame. The white part I designed some weeks ago and got it printed by Shapeways.




 Further I plan to use my new Bergegeschirr, which I had designed in 3D as well. Here you can see it in an first attempt with a Bergepanther and a Panther 



The Famo some time later. I have added some smaller parts to let the set look a bit more in constant use.

The Famo with the Bilstein crane after the first painting.





Next step I had to finalize the painting and to add a soft cover for the cabin.







10/52 Autocannone da 90/53 su Autocarro Semicingolato Breda 61

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