Kampfgruppe Gräbner assembled.

Not a lot to say here, the pictures mostly speak for themselves. They mostly fit into the frame of the post so no need to click (unless you *really* want to...).

Airfix Sd.Kfz. 222:






Nice little kit, comes with two identical SMG wielders and an officer type as well as a highly useful Kübelwagen to transport an OP team or officer around.

Fujimi Sd.Kfz. 250.


Only got one picture of this before the batteries died. I found this kit incredibly frustrating. Things refused to line up correctly and occasional details, like the driver's viewport just seemed to be seperate to up the part count. Furthermore, I now need to get an MG42 to replace the gun that came with it, as it was the wrong variant. On the plus side, I now have a slightly mismoulded BMW bike to use for something, and a model of Rommel to use for something (after the spectacular hole in his chest is filled...).


Finally, Hauptsturmführer Gräbner himself.






A simple conversion made by sticking the kneeling officer from Revell's German Infantry set into the commander's cupola of the Revell Humber Mk II. Looks pretty good to me, well happy with the result. You can see the glue residue on the front where I decided I didn't like the look of the spare wheel (and really, what're the chances of capturing a Humber II with all the spares?) and there's a few small gaps here and there. There's also the controvery over exactly what kind of Humber he used, but I decided this one made more sense from a gaming perspective, giving him a bit of personal firepower to add to the unit rather than just a simple leadership bonus.

Forgot to photograph the five infantrymen who hitch a ride in the Sd.Kfz. 250 and I still haven't got my hands on a Sd.Kfz.232 8-Rad which is the last vehicle needed. It's a really BIG recon Batallion... or I just got carried away with all the cool stuff he used (which is far more likely). This also marks the first named model for a historical participant.

Bonus image, only noticed this when processing the photos for posting. Perhaps some form of advance German spyplane? Click for original context.

First day of good sun.

Today was the first day I had some spare time AND the sun to take pictures in with my dodgy camera. It didn't last long before deciding the battery was dying but I managed to get through a bit of backlog before it died.

Anyway, here's my latest build: A Revell Panzer III Ausf L for the Fallschirmjäger Ersatz und Ausbildungs Regiment 'Hermann Göring' which was operating in the region of Son on September 17th and pressed into combat. The equipment was mostly old Panzer III and IVs with some eStuG D and Es and I plan to include one of each in the unit. Anyway, on to the pictures. Click for larger as usual:






As you can see, the tracks are multipart plastic rather than a stretched vinyl like on Airfix or other Revell kits. It was a headache to do and took the build time from an hour or so to two full evenings of work. They didn't line up particularly well either, although looking at other people's efforts I suspect that's my fault rather than a flaw in the kit.



The last image shows the internal view of the modified turret. I'm rather proud of this little mod really. I've got a thing for being able to elevate and depress the gun barrels on tanks, so I spent a few minutes working out how to modify this tank. Unlike the Cromwells and Achilles SPG kits from HäT this was not a quick mod, and required quite a bit of brace and counter-weight building. The end result is a gun which can move up and down, wiggle from side to side (unintentional...) and, best of all, bounces realistically when pushed across a rough table surface.

I really didn't enjoy building this one. 100+ parts for a 1:72 kit is excessive. Now that it's finished I like the end result, but I'm glad I don't need to build another one (or four....).