1945 GB

Thanks Check,

I have completed a considerable amount of work to her this weekend.  I added the superstructures, railings,  small boats and weathering.  I still need to add the Low Frequency long wire antennas and Hf antennas. After, I will start on the base.

I have to say, I am really pleased with it.

I will hold off on pictures until I'm finished so I don't ruin the final reveal.

I pulled out my Concord book US Tank Battles in Germany 1944-45 by Steven Zaloga. He has a very enlightening  paragraph in there which I will reference here: On March 15, 1945 the operational tank strength for the Germans on the entire Western Front was 239. In addition there 126 Sturmgeschutz, 77 Jagdpanzer IV, and 41 Flakpanzer (no mention of Jagdpanzer 38t's, but I imagine they would be in similar  numbers in the West). Less than 500 against a US inventory for the same time of 6,249 M4s of all types. Then add in Commonwealth and French tank strength in the West in 1945 that those <500 AFVs would be opposing and the odds truly become apparent. Even for defender fighting on home ground, with a qualitative technical edge and with the traditional advantages of those attributes.

I would be uncertain about German numbers that late in the war. I've been checking the two US official history volumes covering the period between the end of the Bulge and Remagen and they list some very nasty confrontations - I realize that German armored units were seriously understrength but there were Panzer, Panzergrenadier, Paratroopers and several infantry divisions west of the Rhine. (They're not listed as Volksgrenadier units so they would have had, at least on paper, anti-tank battalions). I  didn't have the energy to get into details but it appears that German resistance was erratic, but often formidable. This started to change around March 1 with Lumberjack - several allied advances were extremely rapid, low in casualties and brought home large numbers of POWs. But I would submit that there would have been more German armor in the West on February 15 than on March 15. (Prague didn't fall until after V-E Day) and it was not often bombed during the war. According to Wiki, don't know how they'd know, the Hetzer was under production until May 11 45. Heaven knows where they were - or could have been- being sent in 1945. It may be that late in the war allied troops were getting a "I won't be the last one to die" complex - very understandable to individuals but probably more costly in the blind stats of war. I do remember Zaloga talking about this in his book about the Sherman where it was not unknown for tankers to want the infantry to lead the way and the infantry wishing for the opposite and the results not ideal. But it's still amazing how long the Germans fought on when it was obvious that the result was ordained. Personally I think this example of resistance for its own sake had more than a little influence in the PTO and the almost zero serious opposition to dropping the A-bomb. By 1945 life was cheap and everyone acted accordingly. Creepy.

Well, here is my gritty and grimy Sherman...

Well done Sherman, castel!  Graffiti is a nice touch!

Beautiful Sherman Castel. just the right amount of weathering. 

Castel, very nicely done on the Sherman! If you're calling this one done, I'll add it to the front page roster. And I agree very much about your weathering touch. Not too much, and not too little.

EB, I would not argue that German armor strength was higher in mid February, than in mid March. Transportation systems were breaking down, and having a ripple effect upon all else, including production. As far as the numbers referenced by Mr Zaloga goes, while I would not call them absolute, I would say they are a pretty accurate assessment, from what information is available under the conditions to survive to this day. And es, German armor in the West was able to give the Allied advance some bloody noses in the Spring of 1945. In spite of the hopeless conditions and overwhelming odds that they fought under. I know that they were able to do even larger damage to the Soviets in the East at the same time. Most likely due to the great degree of desperation in the East.

Really nice work on the Sherman. Weathering is nicely done.

The front page is looking real good guys, thanks for all the great work we have so far. I am really looking forward to what's to come.

Castel - great job on that Sherman! I love the way you finished it.

-BD-

Well it's taken me a bit longer for the finishing steps than I'd anticipated, but it's done!

This is Royal Australian Air Force Wing Commander Robert Gibbes' Spitfire Mk. VIII in the Dutch East Indies in 1945. The kill markings are from his time in the Mediterranean theater, where he downed Italian and German aircraft.

Since my last post, I've got the door in place with its fiddly PE latching mechanism, the canopy is on, and the weathering is done.

After the washes, I chipped some of the paint with a Prismacolor silver pencil, then used pastel chalks for the gun stains, exhaust stains and the dirt on the wheels. I went with a light brown for the dirt because I couldn't figure out if this one would have flown off a coral strip, which would have been more pinkish.

All in all, I can say this was a blast to build. I have very few complaints about this kit - namely the two-piece hood, the propeller that falls out and the way the exhaust stacks are installed. The last one really wasn't a big problem, and thanks to Antoni for the advice on leaving the hood unglued until after paint to make installing them easy.

Comments are welcome, and thanks for looking!

I appreciate you all having me as a part of this group build. There's a lot of great work going on in here, and I look forward to following everything else that's coming along.

As far as the gallery pic - I like the first one for that.

Thanks again.

-BD-

BD, your Spit came out gorgeous! Excellent work all around.

Wicked job BD...just love it. What a beauty!! Well done....

I love it BD, very sweet  .

OK, here I go with the base, this will be the first time I try this method.

First I made the base out of an old piece of house siding and made poster board walls and used hot glue to attach them to the sides. I also stiffened the walls with some cardboard backing.

Then I placed the ship inside the box and laid in sawdust, and formed some crests and troughs. I then squirted some thin CA onto the sawdust to stabilize it. That worked remarkably well but use an enormous amount of glue. 

Once dried, I applied Mod Podge for a base for the acrylic gel.

I will use the acrylic gel to form the wave peaks and smooth the texture. After the gel will be applied, I'll paint dark blue mixed with turquoise at the foam. After the paint will come the cotton, but I'll show that when I get there.

That's all for now.

Steve

Castel - I like your Sherman, a fine example of the standard main tank of so many of the allied forces.

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Brandon - very fine work on the Spitfire, the Grey Nurse squadron markings truly give a more menacing look to this popular fighter.

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Steve - interesting approach to the water, something I've never tried, so will be taking notes.

regards,

Jack

Castle and BD - very clean builds on both kits. The weathering on the Sherm is nicely applied - it's a matter of choice of course but I think it could have used  a little more dirt/dust. In one of Zaloga's books (pretty sure) there are color photos of contemporary rebuilt armor taken out for an hour of fun - and they're very untidy after that shot of time. But there were so many Sherms around in 1945 I'm sure some tidy ones were there too - I've seen films of early war German tankers giving their mounts a bath.

BD I've got to admit that I've always found an excuse to skip micro decals on aircraft - you're a braver man than I. I don't think there were many true coral strips in the PTO and they would have been in the Solomons. The one that comes to mind was Munda Point - one pilot told me that if it was dry (it rained so much that by definition it also dried right away) the field was very bright - he compared it to snow. Coral had advantages, but it was also like landing on sandpaper and aircraft picked up mega-corrosion really fast. Bad for the paint job, but worse for the engines and landing equipment. (There are some neat pics of the plane flown by Jolly Rogers ace Ira "Ike" Kepford to give you an idea.) The Black Sheep fought out of the Russels and for some reason I've got coral strip in my mind there. But most PTO strip were mardsen matting over the best surface available - the stuff was one on those US innovations that doesn't get the girls but wins wars. Anyway, your weathering is very nice to my eyes.(I can't imagine how it could be done but many sailors in the Solomons told me many of the waters were so rich with coral, that there was bluish green glow that went back several hundred feet - extremely beautiful, although a tad dangerous if you were in a PT boat sitting in the "Slot." But barring some brilliant way to emulate darkness it wouldn't work. Of course I've seen electrified dios but that's way over my head.

Stik: I'm sure the Russians picked up a lot more casualties than we did. But their 45 campaign was a thing of wonder - they shoved army groups into positions where they could really do anything to stop the assault outside of Berlin. I was checking about Prague yesterday to see whether there was any geographical reason that stuff made there were easier to get East or West. Got no answer there, but there were over 1,000,000 Germans in Prague when "liberated" by the Reds on May 11 - several days after VE Day. Some were from Italy or garrison troops from the Balkans but most were remnants of AG Center. Now why the Reds felt it necessary to capture Prague and throw away a few more thousand lives boggles the mind - the bloody war was over. But Patton's tanks were also very close, an it looks like Stalin feared a US land grab. Stalin - yikes.

Bish: I'm in St. Paul for a few months and have some time to burn. I brought my Star Wars trilogy (all digitally upgraded) and it was great fun. I even liked Jedi more than I remembered. Everybody knocks Episodes 1-3 and they're not as good.  But they also didn't have Hans Solo or Vader - two of the most memorable characters in movie history - to raise the bar. People will be watching the first trilogy for a hundred years - literally I think.

Eric

Brandon, its a pleasure to have you on board, I think much has been learnt and shared thanks to your build. And its a real lovely one at that. I really like the colour scheme and with those markings I think it looks much nicer that those in Europe. Great build all round. I hope you will continue to pop in and post.

Thanks again.

Thanks for the kind words, all. It was a really fun build.

Bish - I do have a 1/48 Tamiya F4U-1D sitting in my stash. I plan to build it with the wings folded, and I already sprayed the interior green on the cockpit. When does this GB end? VE Day? If so, put me down for the Corsair.

Thanks again, everyone!

-BD-

The GB ends at the end of the year, Dec 31st. If you can fit it in, that would be great, if not, will be sure to look out for it elsewhere.

Ok, then I will enter it! I'm pretty sure I can knock it out before VE Day, but definitely by the end of the year.

Thanks!

-BD-

Brandon, VE day was early this month, are you thinking of VJ day.

Bish

Brandon, VE day was early this month, are you thinking of VJ day.

Yep, I meant to write VJ Day. 

-BD-

No worries. ye, the GB runs for the whole year not just to the end of the war, so plenty of time.

Bish

No worries. ye, the GB runs for the whole year not just to the end of the war, so plenty of time.

Oh those are dangerous words... I often think "I have until such and such date so I will do this project next instead".. and then Pink Floyd's "Time" theory intrudes again...

Not just me then. But I have been pretty good this year.

No my friend, not just you. I tend to pick up steam for building during the mid Spring thru mid Fall and am trying to keep pace as I would like...

OK guys, the roster has been updated with the new completions. If I have missed anything send me a PM or let me know here.

I try and keep a steady pace all year round, other than the garden I don't have many other distractions, I can usually spend several hours at the bench most nights. But the last couple of years I have been prone to over committing to GB's and then running up against deadlines. But I seem to have got to grips with it now, I am only committed to 4 and they all last most or all of the year, so I can relax a bit.

The roster is looking really nice, I am now lining myself up for the P-61, hopefully no more than 2 months away, really looking forward to starting that.

I thought I was a bit over committed too..but I'm caught up now. Heck. .the kit I am doing for this GB isn't even released yet!!

Now that's committing in advance. I believe its due out in July isn't it. I'll be interested to see what markings that kit has.

MC

That looks like variation on one of the techniques used by Chris Flodberg who is usually found on ModelWarship and specializes in water bases. He ended up using oatbran instead of sawdust but same idea. However, he used an intermediate step. You can smooth the surface a bit gels (like Flodberg, I prefer mediums - not quite the same). But at that point he would rip up pieces of paper into small pieces - maybe 1/2-1" in size (typing paper works perfectly) then when covered with paper start making rolling waves or other effects with your gel or medium. (Doesn't matter at this stage if it's opaque or not.) Then you paint the water, and lastly cover it with Gloss Medium (Golden or Liquitex). The full treatment then requires cotton (or better yet a synthetic cotton or rayon) for the wake. You can check all of Floodberg's techniques under the Tips & Tricks forum: one of the first posts there is one by uber-meister Jim Baumann called "A Compendium of Water Making Techniques. (www.shipmodels.info/.../viewtopic.php - if you are signed into the board.) All of the top base makers are listed and all of Floodberg's pages are there. Do note that Floodberg has two bits on YouTube which really make the wake - making very understandable.

When I did my first it was great fun - like my little tank dios like a return to junior high art class. If nothing else you will be messy somehow.

Looking forward to the completed project.

Eric  

Eric,

Thanks, I love Chris' work, in fact I've studied his method extensively prior to starting this project. I wanted to try something different than a food product though, so I used sawdust. I went ahead and painted over the dried Mod Podge and will go over that with Golden heavy acrylic gel to see how that turns out. If I don't like it, I can paint the gel.

This is my goal, however I only hope I can get close. Mine will have a little rougher seas though.

DKM Z-30 Zerstorer 
by Chris Flodberg