New old tanks from Dragon 41/52

Dragon has released a set with some new "old" tanks in new boxes. Nothing special, still the old designs just as sets to assemble them. Interesting, the Jagdpanther and the panther are missing, even these were some of the first sets, Dragon had published.  There is one small surprise inside the box. Two paper sheets to build a small town scenery as a small diorama. Next they will publish the Leopold railway gun gain.

1/144 Panzer IV to assemble

front side of the paper sheet, showing the basement for the two ruins

all ten 1/144 tanks from the latest Dragon set

Deutsche Version

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Es gibt ein neues Set von Dragon mit zehn alten Panzermodellen. Eben alles bereits vorhandene Modelle, jedoch als Bausatz und zum selbst Bemalen. die einzige Besonderheit sind 2 Papierbögen für ein kleines Diorama. Diese sind beidseitig bedruckt, Vorderseite die Grundfläche und auf der Rückseite 2 Hausruinen zum Ausschneiden. Als Nächstes wird Dragon auf den Leopold, das Eisenbahngeschütz wieder auflegen, wohl auch als Doppelpackung, aber keine neue Lackierung.

1/144 Ruinen zum Ausschneiden

1/144 Strassenkampfszene

Mini-diorama, German Tank in autumn field 12/52

Instead of always doing dioramas with a summer theme, I decided to try the yellow grass, which I had bought many years ago. So taking one of my small painting canvas and in less than 1 day it was done. For the second version I thought I should do something with the tank chains. Putting them in the ground has the disadvantage, that they are then blocked with plaster or whatever you use for the ground. So I got the idea to do a form in 3D so that I could press as much thank chains as I want. Okay the prototype was a bit to big, so I had to cut of the corners. But the result was excellent.
Instead of  plaster I used a soft material, which is called "Das modelling clay" 

1/144 Sturmgeschütz in autum scene

1/144 Sturmgeschütz in autum scene

1/144 tank tracks

1/144 tank tracks, not colored for better visibility

the set with both widths and my playground

the tank track, here my modified prototype

my next 1/144 battlefield

1/144 winter battlefield

1/144 winter battlefield, different tanks

https://www.shapeways.com/product/BANVSB9JN/1-144-tank-track-set

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Deutsche Version

Ich wollte mal ein Diorama mit einem Herbst Thema gestalten, Sommer-Dioramas habe ich schon genügend. In meinem Keller hatte ich von Woodland noch entsprechendes gelbes  Gras. Also einen meiner kleinen Bilderrahmen genommen und in weniger als einem Tag war ich fertig.  Danach wollte ich abe rnoch Kettenspuren auf dem Modell darstellen. Bisher hatte ich da nicht ganz so gute Erfahrungen gemacht, weil meist danach die Ketten des benutzten Panzers hin waren. So kam wir die Idee, dies einfach mit einer Walze in 3D drucken zu lassen. Da der PRototyp etwas zu gross geraten war, musste ich die Ränder abschneiden. Danach noch schnell weisse Knetmasse verwendet und ich hatte ein super Ergebnis. 
In den nächsten Tagen werde ich auch noch das zweite Diorama fertig stellen.
Die beiden Walzen sind ab sofort bei Shapeways erhältlich.
Viel Spass beim Ausprobieren.

1/144 Jagdpanther somewhere in Belgium 18/52

During the Ardennen Offensive the Germans had 51 Jagdpanther in use. Most of them saw actions in small groups. During the Ardennen Offensive or like the rest of the world calls it, the battle of the bulge, we had a lot of snow. I always wanted to build again a small winter diorama. Grass in different green colours you get on each corner and you see it on 99% of all dioramas. But snow, - that if a total different story. 

The diorama was built on one weekend. Basement is a thin piece of foam board, the frame is from a Swiss cake package, the ruin was built with foam too. The ground was made with a mixture of everything, small stones, sand and a bit of gypsum. The ruins were painted with several dark colours. The Jagdpanther is out of the box, it is the old Cando model.

That's it.

Here is a very good essay about where the Jagdpanthers saw actions / got lost.

General information about the Jagdpanther can be found here or here.

Jagdpanther in an ambush

Jagdpanther hiding in a ruin 

1/144 Jagdpanther

As this was done in less then two days I copied the idea and made a second, very similar diorama.

1-144 Jagdpanther in winter fighting

1-144 Jagdpanther in winter fighting

1-144  Tiger in winter fighting

As you can see on the last picture, not only Jagdpanthers fighted in the Battle of the Bulge, there were although some Tigers.