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Greetings!

'A gaping silken dragon,/Puffed by the wind, suffices us for God./We, not the City, are the Empire's soul:/A rotten tree lives only in its rind.'

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Vorwarts...

.... advancing on the Ferdinand front. Basic build complete. The running gear was fiddly, and I left it for a good 24 hours to cure before handling it again. However, the superstructure went together well, with only the slightest amount of filler needed where the rear fighting compartment met the lower hull, and even that might have been my fault as I didn't clamp the assembly. So, all in all, despite the slightly indistinct casting of the wheels in particular, a nice kit:



I won't be using the decals from the kit as they are for a Ferdinand lost at Kursk, and I don't want to set off on the wild goose chase of building thousands of AFVs for Kursk in 20mm (doubtless someone, somewhere is doing that as I type. Poor, happy fellow). That left me with a small puzzle, as I know that vehicles used in Italy and in odd places later in the war where modified Ferdinands - i.e. , Elephants. That would have meant sourcing a Stug III commander's coupla and building a front mg position in the hull. But I was fairly sure I had a reference to a Ferdinand that would do the trick. And I did:


The colour plate is from the fount of all tankie knowledge, Steven Zaloga, and James Grandsen's excellent 1983 book:


and shows a Ferdinand at the Nikopol bridgehead in November 1943. So, that's what my Ferdinand will be.

8 comments:

  1. Gosh I had that books years and years ago,I'd almost forgotten about it.
    I used to field an elephant in ww2 games around 1974 ,they are cracking machines.
    How is your health proceeding by the way?
    best wishes
    Alan

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    Replies
    1. 1974... all I could muster was a brace of Airfix Tigers, a couple of Airfix Panthers, some bits and pieces of 8th Army, mostly made out of cardboard and balsa, and the odd really good bit of kit, like the Fujimi Valentine (50p!). Can you remember who made the Elephant back then? As for my health - it's all going in the right direction, and I have been downgraded to 'outpatient' at the hospital from tomorrow.

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  2. Will we be seeing any armour that isn't for the hun? Hope that all is improving on the health front.

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    Replies
    1. Your wish ... see tonight's post. I begin to have hopes of thriving. Well, as much as a flower of the field might have such hopes!

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  3. Replies
    1. Cheers, Paul. I like the Pegasus 'Blitzes' - must get some.

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  4. cool, is this the Trumpeter kit? I'm building the same one at the moment, the running gear is a real %*#@, and there are some nasty injector pin marks on the fenders.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Dan. Yes, it is the Trumpeter kit. I totally agree with you on the running gear! Don't they know it's blokes that make these things, and we don't all have pianist's fingers. Don't worry about the ejector pin marks, as the spare track links cover these entirely - that was actually well thought out. It makes up to a pretty nice kit in the end, and I'll probably buy another.

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