Bergepanzer auf Pzkpfw I Ausf. F

Here I represent my latest version of an German recovery vehicle.
This was a special version done by the troops in the field.

ZIS 5 with trailer

Here I present another rebuild of one of my Russian trucks.
This time I took a ZIS 5 from Southwest and remodeled everything a bit, 
so that it could pull my new trailer.
The trailer is made with 3D and printed by Shapeways.So if someone is 
interested, I can offer the trailer for sales.

T 34 recovery tank in German use

Over the last weeks I built a quick and easy tank.
It's a T-34, used by the German army as an ARV.

T-34 ARV in 1-144

German midget submarine Seehund

Some years ago I had a chance to get a German Seehund in the scale 1/160. As it is not that big difference to 1/144 I finalized it now and put it on a presentation scene.
I took a butter box from Trader Joe and placed the Seehund together with a small auxiliary boat.
The boat is scratch built from part I had left from other kits. All men belong to Preiser.

German Bunker and Bunkertrain

Finally I have finished my secret German Bunker.
With some ideas in mind about French bunkers from the Maginot Line I created this diorama.
I wanted to show the arrival of a narrow guage train and the entrance of a Bunker complex.
The Germans used a lot of the French Maginot Bunkers as production plants. So for example where I grow up, there the Germans used the French Bunker to produce parts for German submarines.
So I decided to go with one Bunker and the entrance to a second one.

My collection of trains

For the foundation I use again my Japanese Zen garden, so here you can see the layout

To fix the rails in the right distance and to make the gluing easier, I made these distance holders. So the rails have always the same distance and fixing is very easy.

 

One of the  trains and the first cut-off of the entrance. At this time I had not decided how the mountain next to the door should look.

The first Bunker, made out of foam, he will be placed in one corner. The openings for the guns are still missing.

The entrance of the main Bunker and the mountain which will cover the Bunker complex. To keep the weight of the diorama as low as possible I do as much as possible with foam.

The first Bunker is done. Besides the openings for the gun he got a copula on the top.

The entrance with the rails glued and fixed. The area around the rails I filled up later with a mix of sand and white glue.

The mountain got the first layer of paint and I start with the rails.

The first train arrives. The soldiers will check the papers before they will open the doors.

Before I closed the entrance with doors and on the backside with a sheet of paper, I took one final picture through the bunker.

The entrance. With one of my next shipments I will get a Wachhaus and some sand backs to protect the entrance better.

As you can see the rails does not run so perfectly straight but I saw a lot of pictures showing exactly the same.

Here you can see Lok # 2 which leaves the Bunker.

one of the wagons, all are 3D printed.

some new models arrived

Two weeks ago the postman made my day. I got a new shipment from my friend George from Panzerdepot in HongKong.
So here some of my new items:

Mercedes Benz LG 3000 tank truck for my not existing airfield:

The Mercedes Benz truck:

And then finally an update about my German Bunkerbahn in 1/144:

The diorama for the Bunkerbahn is done, I only have to add some details like the train crew, the signals, some flowers......  more soon

The MVTF in Menlo Park

This Saturday I found after several delays the time to visit this very interesting museum.
I checked the location the day before with Google Earth as they are located in a beautiful corner of Menlo Park, really nice but hard to find.
After passing the gate you come to a huge complex with in total 4 garages. Each garage is full with tanks from World War I until nearly modern tanks.
I had the luck to catch one of the best guides they have. So I heard a lot about the tanks from the Korean and Vietnam war they have.
My highlight was their German Panzer V, the Panther. They told me, that it is ready to drive.
I can tell you only, if you have a chance to pass by, take one of their tours, it is the time more than worth.

Here some of their highlights: