coming soon - I hope so - Steam shovel in 1/144

I plan to build something new, not in a relation to any tank, but at least in relation to Bunkers.
To build some of the bigger Bunkers like the U-Boot-Bunkers (submarine Bunkers), the Germans used heavy equipment. Besides narrow gauge trains they used cranes and shovels. On old pictures you can see, they used what ever was available.
So I designed everything from scratch with my 3D program.

The first look on the computer screen

the first prototype

after some painting

As you can see, still a lot to do, and maybe I have to change the arm, for me it looks too long.

More soon.

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.

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.

Crossing a bridge or 1/144 Tigers on the move

This is a small diorama for my 1/144 tanks. The idea was to try several different ways to build the bridge. Finally I decided to build a wooden frame and to fill it up with Gypsum. Once the Gypsum was hard, I opened the form and started to engrave the stone structure in the surface. Besides the fact, that it broke on the weakest position, I was very satisfied with the result.

the bridge after the engraving

after the coloring with water colors

Oil drum trailer for German Wehrmacht in 1/144

At the beginning of the war, the Germans used some small trailers to support the tanks when travelling longer distances. These trailers have been a very simple and cheap design with one or two oil drums on it.

Here is my new print, a German trailer with two Oil drums on the trailer.

more old dioramas

Here some more of my old dioramas:

some promotion for myself :-)

In the last days I have decided that I will share a lot of my 3D designs, which  I have uploaded at Shapeways, with everybody who wants.

At the moment I can offer you 23 of my models. The good point is, I offer only models which I have tested before, so at least with my delivery they looked good.
If there is something you would like, so please send me your comments.
I hope you like my models and if everything runs well, I will be a Millionaire in around 10.000 years.

Here is the link to my shop:

http://www.shapeways.com/shops/Panzerfabrik_144?s=12#more-products