Mutzig, the first modern Bunker, or Feste Wilhelm II 21/52

Last weekend we drove to a wedding in France. During driving in direction of Strasbourg we passed Mutzig a small town here in Elsass. By passing by, it reminded me that I have the best German Bunker close in my Neighbourhood. No kidding, but the most important Bunker of Europe is in Mutzig. 

But why is this Bunker so important? 

In Mutzig the Germans built for the first time a fortification with the modern (at that time) reinforced concrete. Instead of walls only concrete and steel. Today you can see the difference, the fortification still looks good, the guns are a bit rusty but that's all. Definitely a trip worth!

Only one remark, inside it is wet, cold and dark, so better do not visit it with shorts and flip flops :-)

2018 Flyer of Mutzig Bunker

2018 Flyer of Mutzig Bunker 

modell of one of the modern guns build by end of 18th century!

Mutzig overview

the Mutzig Barracks

entrance to the fortification 

side view of Mutzig open gun emplacement

Backside of the Mutzig gun emplacements

Mutzig guns in the year 2017

One last comment, the fortification was built by the Germans in the year 1893 while Germany had Wilhelm II as emperor. At that time the Elsass was German territory, even we had close by two World wars, the fortification never saw any action.

http://www.fort-mutzig.eu/pc/menu.php?la_page=1_accueil/accueil.php&new_langue=de

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feste_Kaiser_Wilhelm_II.

if you have no time then check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkLn7fY4U58

1/144 Marinefährprahm and Artilleriefährprahm 20/52

Finally I finished working on the two German landing crafts. At the moment I have to clean up my desk and then I will go back to some tanks and other long time projects.
The first video shows the Marinefährprahm Type D in the standard version, later they got more and more weapons.

The second video shows the Artilleriefährprahm, Type D but this time I painted it in a 3 tone camouflage as used in Norway.
Sorry that the video is not that clear. I will replace it in the next days with a better version.

1/144 Sanitätsbunker German Hospital at the Atlantic wall 19/52

The Germans built thousands of Bunkers during WWII. As the Germans are very pedantic, they created lists of bunkers for different use. These Regelbauten had nearly any type of Bunker on the list. Even Bunkers to provide water were planed. Besides these exotic types, there were more practical and useful types. One type I liked so much, that I built it. It is the Regelbau 639, grosser Sanitätsunterstand, a field hospital. Many of them were on the Atlantic wall in France.

Here you find some nice pictures of a Sanitätsunterstand  R 639

http://www.festungsbauten.de/DK/AW_Sondervig.htm

http://www.regelbau.dk/regelbau_visbunker.asp?id=65

Here you find general information about German Bunkers and the different types of Regelbauten:

http://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/37798/DEU-Typologie-nemeckych-objektu-1925-1945

The model was built on a kitchen plate we had left. The front is a MDF part, which I cut to the correct dimensions and painted with Grey colour. The rest are Standard parts which you could get everywhere. All vehicles are from my 3D collection. Most of them you can buy at Shapeways.

1/144 red cross hospital

1/144 red cross hospital, here you see the complete diorama in my photo box

1/144 red cross hospital with the Peugeot DMA and the Renault AHN ambulance

1/144 red cross hospital

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. 

1/144 Sdkfz. 251 radio version 17/52

Nothing special, but I finished it this weekend after I had it on my bench for around 1 year. 

Marinefährprahm and Artilleriefährprahm some progress 16/52

During the last days I found some time to continue painting my new new Kriegsmarine ships. Parallel I started painting the second one, the Marinefährprahm type D. For the Artilleriefährprahm I went with the 3 tone which was used in Norway. The Fährprahm will get something similar, but I haven't decided finally.
Further I added several Details like the guns and the 3.7 cm Flak. All life rafts are painted and the two sets for the Crew arrived from Arrowhead Miniatures Originally they are designed to work for the Luftwaffe, but I am sure they will do their duty for the Kriegsmarine as well.

So here are the next pictures, enjoy them:

Marinefährprahm

Marinefährprahm and Artilleriefährprahm

back of both Prahms, even the same design, they look different

The Artilleriefährprahm had the cargo bay welded while the Fährprahm could load several tanks

for the prototype it is okay, with the next design I have to add the front door and have to change the cover of the cargo bay

the weapons constantly changed and had been increased

1/144 Artilleriefährprahm

the cargo bay, in original, it was covered with corrugated sheet iron

1/144 Marinefährprahm typ D, a German landing ship 15/52

I' m going to build again a ship!

Because of a request from a friend of mine, I changed the design from my Artilleriefährprahm to the "Standard" Prahm. So this is then a Marinefährprahm Type D.
The difference was that this type had the task to transport troops and tanks. The Artillerifährprahm was designed to give heavy artillery support. The Marinefährprahm was designed for landing Operations. The Marinefährprahm had a ramp, so that tanks and other vehicles could leave the ship directly on the shores. At the design of the Artilleriefährprahm, the ramp was closed and welded. The guns and flak changed constantly because it depended on what was available or what was planed. So in the first design a 8.8 submarine flak ( because several of These were left from the submarines) and two machine gus on the back were the only armment. This changed during the war and the Marinefährprahms got more and more guns and even several vierlings flak.
Later even the Marinefährprahms got guns, I know a Picture, where two Vierlings Flak had been installed on the top of the Prahm.
The last design Change was the modification to Transport and lay mines.
This will be the starting point for my year of the model 2018!

Here are the first pictures of the Marinefährprahm Type D:

top view of the German landing craft

Fährprahm, the German version of an LST

at the beginning only with a 8.8 U-Boot canon

Before I can start selling it, I have to improve some details and will add some more stuff.

Here one last picture from my work bench, where the new and the old Prahm are waiting for the final assembly.

Finally here some sources for more information:

http://historisches-marinearchiv.de/projekte/landungsfahrzeuge/beschreibung.php

 There are the topics Marinefährprähme and Artilleriefährprähme are a very rich source of information. They list a quick history to each ever built Prahm.

A report about a built Fährprahm in the scale 1/72, you can find here: http://www.modellversium.de/galerie/5-schiffe-ww2/627-marinefaehrprahm-eigenbau.html

And here you can buy a Marinefährprahm in the scale 1/700: 

http://www.klueser.eu/kit.php?index=2622&language=de

or what about a very interesting version but in the scale 1/250:

http://www.die-kartonmodellbauer.de/index.php?thread/3912-marinef%C3%A4hrprahm-f-811-kmw%C2%B2-1-250/