At last, here's my completed Towed Gun GB model... The towing/tower combo is made up of a Kettenkrad and Puppchen.
1945, somewhere in Germany, the Furher's last defenders have set up an ambush but are surprised by the fast advancing Red tide...
The idea of the ambush was always on my mind when I started this GB but I felt like I needed something else in there. I like un-even numbers of vehicles on my dioramas so I decided to introduce a T-34/85 which I conveniently had on the shelf, ready to be built...
However, I also like the smallest bases possible (for ease of transport and storage), and a whole T-34 would not fit onto the chosen base (3in x 3in). That's why I cut the T-34 in two. Still it was not a cheap model since I used wheels from three T-34 kits to reproduce a kind of typical T-34 look.
The T-34 is mostly Fujimi's quite decent little, 1/76, T-34/85, and I added bits from their T34/76, and from ESCI/Italeri's T34/76 too, for good measure. Both the Puppchen and the Kettenkrad are from SHQ's range of wargaming models, in white metal. I designed the Puppchen master a long while ago, but still had to superdetail it and the Kettenkrad too, as the SHQ kits are a bit more chunkier than normal plastic kits...
The figures are from my spare box, all heavily modified in terms of poses, and clothing, which was done with Milliput. The dead trees are roots from the garden, the ivy done with dried and crushed oregano leaves, while the bits of trees that the two German civilians have used to 'camouflage' their ambush spot are more bits of roots and crushed tea leaves. The ground is carved expanded polystyrene covered with a mixture of plaster, water, acrylic paint and wood glue. This allows me to by-pass the painting of the ground stage, and just bother with washes and drybrushing. The greenery is painted with various types (acrylics, inks, oils) and shades of green and yellow. The figures are acrylic with oils. The vehicles enamels (base coats) and acrylics (for the whitewash), washed with artists' watercolors, weathered with oils and pastel dusts.
Many thanks to Dwight for the spoof title and Peter for the real one!!!