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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.'

Sunday 30 December 2012

Bergepanzer III...

... A while ago I did something or other with one of the two Panzer IIIs one gets in the Armourfast box of quick builds. That, of course, left me with its companion, which, in turn, became part of the disjecta membra that I exhibited here a few posts ago. Wondering what to do with the remaining Panzer III, Dan, of Gunner's Wargaming, suggested that I try a Bergepanzer. So, here we are:


The finished thing, but minus the chain and hoist that should be on the jib arm. I thought I had a little bit of 'chain' somewhere, but a search through various boxes produced nothing, so I will have to source a bit of 20mm chain, and a hoist. Does anyone know the best place to get that sort of thing?


The Armourfast Panzer III is a pretty reasonable wargames model (certainly better than their Crusaders), as the DAK one above shows, while the hull formed the basis of the Bergepanzer. I wondered about opening up the turret ring, so that the little wooden access box would open downwards into the driving compartment, but decided that given the kit basher philosophy that rules here I could forgo that bit of work.


I made an initial mess of the superstructure, making it far too big on three axes, so had to start again. I also switched from PVA, which was a poor glue for the balsa wood, to super glue. As we all know, super glue's speed of adhesion varies greatly, depending on the materials being glued; but, the fix is instantaneous with balsa! I had to really make an effort to steady my palsied hands as I brought the little bits of balsa together. 



This view of the front of the Bergepanzer shows the main limitations of the Armourfast hull - poorly rendered lights, no notek light, and simple tracks, but, overall, it is OK for the wargames table.


 2012 is going out here in England (and Wales, Scotland and Ireland) in much the same way as it spent most of the last seven or eight months - that is, WET. My garden is just a soggy, squelching mess, but even in the horrid gloom there is light:


These bright yellow stars are the flowers of Jasminum nudiflorum. For which, much thanks. 

10 comments:

  1. Wonderful conversion,I wish I made crisp conversions like that! (And sorry to hear about the weather, here's to better days!)
    FF

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    1. Thanks! I can assure you that any crispness is due to the small scale, blurry photography, and limited ambition when it comes to conversion bashing. But it was fun to use balsa - old style again!

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  2. I don't like how much bigger the Armourfast Panzer IIIs are than the Airfix Panzer IVs. Makes it hard to bring myself to buy more. But this looks like a fantastic idea. Great conversion.

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    1. Hi, James. Yes, you're right, they do look a bit beefy next to other kit. Of the quick builds, I think Italeri (or some of them!) are probably generally good, and the Plastic Soldier Company Hanomags I did a while back were very good value, but not really quick.

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  3. Maximum effort there Stephen, it looks the real deal. Most impressed.

    Better weather for 2013!

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    1. Cheers, Paul! All the Very Best for 2013 - which has already arrived with you, of course!

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  4. Nice project! Chains for 1/72 scale are a bit hard to source - you probably need 26 or even 40 links per inch. I would look at model ship suppliers first, them model railroad suppliers.

    Cheers, Dave

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    1. Mmmm, thanks for this, Dave. I thought it might be tricky, but it hadn't occurred to me try model ship types first - thanks!

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  5. In case you havn't seen this offer of free minitanks,

    http://vintagewargaming.blogspot.ca/2012/12/free-roco-minitanks.html

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    1. Thanks, Ross - pity that it's a pick up only job. I wonder what he has?

      Happy New Year!

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