coming soon, 8.8 Flak 41

I`m in the process of finalizing the design of my latest Wehrmacht model.
At the moment I design the German 8.8 Flak 41.
First I will start with the Flak in firing position but I plan to build the Flak on the trailer 204 as well. Maybe I will combine both versions in one print. First I have to correct some minor mistakes and have to add more details so that I can get it printed soon.
Here is a first preview of the 8.8 Flak 41:

preview of upcoming work, my personal highlight for 2017

Hi all,

as my birthday is coming closer, I will show you the first pictures of my absolute highlight for this year.
It is the 1/144 copy of a German Artilleriefährprahm.
While planning the operation "sealion" the Germans started designing a lot of new ships. Especially for the landing they invented several landing and support ships. As the Pionierlandungsboote and the Siebel Fähre were too small, the Kriegsmarine designed the Prahme. It would take several weeks to write about them. Instead of that, if you like to learn more about German landing crafts, please check this wonderful page:  http://www.historisches-marinearchiv.de/index.php
Over the last years I got the Siebel ferry as a simple landing craft, as a Siebel schwere Flakfähre (AA craft), the Pioneerlandungsboot 39 and Pionierlandungsboot 41. About the MAL I do not want to talk, I just realised that it is not 100% correct so I will redesign it in the next months.
So what was missing was the biggest type, the Prahms, which took over several roles.
More when it is finished :-)
Here some pictures of the nearly finished Artilleriefährprahm type D3:

Artilleriefährprahm, white and fresh from the printer

Artilleriefährprahm, rear view

the Bridge of the Artilleriefährprahm

 most of the painting is done on my Artilleriefährprahm

Hetzer ambush and Tiger tank down, two new 1/144 dioramas

As I still work on a lot new stuff, but got nothing finished, I present two small diorama which I finalised in the last weeks. With both I started a very long time ago, but never finished them. 

The first one is a Hetzer tank in an ambush somewhere in Europe. Base is a piece of gypsum decorated with nearly every piece of green I could find.

The second one, I created after the gun of one Tiger tank broke by an accident. So I remembered a famous picture of an Tiger tank in Normandy. 

Pionierlandungsboot 39 final version

Finally, I finished the design of the smaller first German landing craft. With the design of the Pionierlandungsboot 39 the German Wehrmacht ( not the Kriegsmarine) had their first own ship. The Wehrmacht realized latest with the planning for Operation sealion that they needed own transport and crossing units. I forgot how many units the Germans built, but it was the most used landing craft.
By end of this week I will publish the design on shapeways, so that everybody can buy it.
My own own is so far ready, but I still need to decide in which colours I will paint it.
Therefore you get today only pictures of a half painted Pionierlandungsboot 39.

top and bottom of the Pionierlandungsboot 39

Pionierlandungsboot 39 still under construction

tanks in German ruins

While I wait for my last shipment from Shapeways I show you some old work. I hope you like it anyway. Next week I will present some new stuff here.

1/144 street fighting

1/144 Tiger in ruins

new tanks in 1/ 144 from a new company 4D

Last weekend I got a box of 16 new tanks easy to assemble. I bought them on Ebay, price was okay and now having the tanks in my hands, I can say even the quality is okay. As you can see on the pictures below, they do need much assembly and they are slidly prepainted. The only thing I do not understand, is the French AMX, all other tanks are WWII tanks but the AMX is an after war tank.

Sd. Anh. 121 Kässbohrer not Culemeyer but a 1/144 tank transporter

Sd. Anh. 121 Kässbohrer not Culemeyer but a 1/144 tank transporter

It was more an accident than a real plan that I started with this new trailer for tank transportation. I knew a bit about it when I was looking for my Culemeyer trailer. Then I heard, there was another design out, but , year not not too much information was found. So I finished the Culemeyer design and thought that's it. But this weekend I was searching for a French truck, a Bernhard, which was used by the French Army for tank transportation, when I found again my Kässbohrer. There was a discussion that many writers told it a Culemeyer design but it should be a design from the German company Kässbohrer. They are very famous for their buses and - for the "Pistenbully". No idea what a Pistenbully is? Google it, you will be surprised.  In the past Kässbohrer had again designed a heavy tank transporter but for the German Bundeswehr. It is called "Elefant" or and it is a very impressive set, trailer and truck. I believe the official name is "Panzertransporter SLT 50 3 Elefant".
Back to my new Sonderanhänger 121. First stop was at KFz. of the Wehrmacht, there it was confirmed, the correct number was Sd. Anh. 121.  So it would be my third sondernanhänger after the 115, the 116 and now the 121.
Google showed me very fast the few original pictures, all taken after the war. The best was from a show in Strasbourg and it shows a King Tiger on his Journey to the USA.
So there is a model which you can buy in the scale 1/35 from a German company. Here I found a short report about that kit, which gave me enough ideas to design it by myself.

After less than one saturday afternoon and a longer night it was done.

1/144 Sd. Anh. 121

1/144 not a Culemeyer but a tank transporter

1/144 side view of Sd. Anh. 121

at the moment the kit will come without the ramps

Here a picture from the original one, source for the picture is the National archive NARA: