OK: let's call the SU-76 a wrap.
su76m_3 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
SuActR by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
lftvig!! by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
Tamiya 1/35 SU-76
Paints: Golden High Flow acrylics, Vallejo Model Color, Mission Model acrylics
Weathering: Iwata Com.Art paints; Vallejo acrylic washes, Vallejo acrylic Terrain Effects, Sennelier and Gamblin pigments.
Base: Sculptamold, Blick matte acrylics, Blick & Liqutex acrylic mediums, Golden Self-Levelling Gloss Gel, W&S Static Grass.
The vehicle: The SU-76 was an excellent example of the Soviet ability to get good “bang for the buck” out of their weapons. It was based on the T-70 light tanks – a variation on a British design from Vickers- that was one of the most numerous of the ocean of light armor thrown at the Wehrmacht in 1941. Miserably handled these obsolete vehicles (although certainly superior to the PzwII) were knocked out in huge numbers, They did, however inflict serious losses on the Germans throughout the campaign. The Soviets rarely threw things away, and T-70s and BT-7s (upon which the T-34 was based) were found in front line service through Kursk. That said, it was obvious by 1942 that the light tank could not live up to pre-war hopes of using a swarm of fast and small tanks to exploit break-outs and accomplish “Deep Battle.” But the factories were there, and the T-70 had very limited material and manpower requirements. Thus the Soviet engineers building the T-70 argued that it would be possible to eliminate the turret and put on the redoubtable 76mm Soviet dual purpose gun. The fighting compartment had to be in the rear to mount the gun. The vehicle had a crew of 4. It weighed in at just over 10 tons. It was found very useful from the outset in 1943 and production was pushed. In one form or another it was used until the mid-50s by Soviet and Soviet bloc armies. Most were used for ground support as the armor had little value against any anti-tank gun, but if needed the SU-76 could engage any German tank this side of a Tiger. Some 13,000 SU-76s were produced, making it the second most heavily produced Soviet AFV during WWII. And because they were reliable and easy to move around, large numbers exist in museums and at war memorials. The SU-76 showed that any AFV was dangerous in the right place, even one that was petit. Compare my SU-76 with an earlier IS-2 built in the same 1/35 scale:
2tanks by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
The context: The big news in 1944 on the Eastern Front was the astounding Soviet mauling of German Army Group Center during Operation Bagration (June 23 – August 19, 1944). Bagration was the most complex and operationally impressive Soviet campaign during the war. Because of the size of Bagration and the existence of other Soviet actions, it's not easy to determine exactly how many men were committed and how high were German losses. Figure Soviet manpower at 2.25 million, supported by 4,000 tanks, 8,000 planes and a few zillion artillery tubes. German AG Center was robbed of much of its strength because Hitler feared that the Soviets would continue their drive into the Balkans in the South, and try to knock out Finland in the north. (And the pesky allies were on land in Normandy.) Furthermore, AG Center intelligence believed a major blow would come from south of the salient. Instead the Soviets built up a huge force with the utmost secrecy- greatly aided by a major offensive by partisans. When the attack came it was aimed at the front and north of the salient – which proved poorly defended. Although the operation was commanded by a roll call of Soviet blue chip generals (and they were good, if a bit free with presenting huge butcher bills) like Zukov, Konev and Vassilevsky, the real guru of this masterpiece was Konstanty Rokossovsky. Rokossovsky was born in Czarist Poland and later complained that the Russians thought he was Polish and the Poles considered him Russian. Stalin almost killed him during the purges, but only threw him into the Gulag. Rokossovsky had developed a brilliant record during the 30s and was identified with “Deep Battle” armor enthusiasts – whose leader was Marshall Tukhachevsky whose purge was one of the first of the 1937 debacle. Although tortured and beaten Rokossovsky refused to sign a confession. That actually was a good strategy. He was released in May 1940 without comment and reassigned at very high rank. He fought with tenacity and brains during the Battle of Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk. By 1944 Stalin declared Rokossovsky to be his “favorite general.” Might have been true – Stalin allowed Rokossovsky to split his attacking forces at the beginning of Bargration only after a personal guarantee from the general that a deviation from doctrine would work.
Work it did. Bagration was the archetype example of Soviet “Deep Battle” - a series of staged and massive blows designed to confuse the defense and penetrate the line at several points. Expecting breakthrough, immediate reinforcement was preplanned and allowed the operation to move forward with great speed and at great depth. In the first 72 hours of the attack, huge holes were blown in the German lines in several places (one of the largest leading to Rokossovky's rapid encirclement of Minsk) and a general advance within a week. In four weeks the Soviets inflicted twice the casualties on the Germans and seized twice the area as they had done in four months at Stalingrad. By the end of August, the Red Army was on the Vistula, had taken most of the Baltic states, were creating the Kourland debacle, and had crossed the borders of Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. The attack wasn't impressive simply because of the territory seized. The advanced had unhinged German position on the Eastern Front almost totally. AG Center was gone. AG South (or its equivalent) was shoved away from the center and toward the south. AG North was close to encirclement and also shoved away from the center toward the north. In short, the Germans would never have a significant line in the East after June 1944. There might be one on paper, but because the FeldHerr had been dislocated it was almost impossible for units from one part of the front to aid another. Indeed, because Bagration was fought over such a large area and achieved so much success, there was no single geographic point – like Moscow, Stalingrad or Berlin, that gave a kind of coherence to the campaign. It's easier to grasp that Sixth Army was surrounded at Stalingrad, or Berlin was captured by the Reds then the Soviet offensive of early summer 1944 demolished the entire German position on the Eastern Front. So, ironically, Bagration was probably too big, too decisive to be readily understood and remembered by many casual students of the Great Patriotic War. Whatever the case, after August 1944, there was one lopsided Soviet victory after another. Obviously these victories led to Berlin. They also put Red forces deep into the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Add to this debacle the collapse of the German Army in the West in August 1944, and German defeat was only a matter of months. (That didn't mean that the violence was over. The period August 44 – May 45 was probably the worst in the ETO with every army suffering appalling losses even when every German private knew the war was over. Lord.)
Rokossovky's portion of Bagration included a major attack out of the norther portion of the Pripet Marshes (often called Pinsk Marshes). This is a vast marshy lowland that follows along the Pripet River (a tributary of the Dnieper) and lies between Kiev and Minsk. There are few roads, and terrain varies between difficult to nearly impassable. During both world wars the Marshes divided the Russian front between north and south. During Barbarossa, German AG Center attacked north of the Marshes, AG South to its south. Germans rarely went into the marshes, but it was one base for partisan activity. Rokossovsky went to great lengths to hide his build up along the northern fringe of the marshes, and this helped amplify surprise. According to Wikipedia – and I'd not quibble – the SU-76 was widely deployed on this sector because it was light enough to negotiate the soggy ground that would not support T-34s. (Thousands of Soviet infantry built rafts, making it a kind of Roman Empire amphibious operation..) So I decided the northern Pripet Marshes would be a good place to stick my rendition of the SU-76. Today the area is a favorite location for Euro eco-tourists (think of it as the Everglades without the alligators). Here's a typical pic of the terrain:
Marshes by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
So I let my imagination travel a bit. I wanted soggy terrain with water over some of the surface. I assumed that Soviet engineers would try to improve some tracks through the area to enhance movement. I was making a vignette here. But what to do with the four man crew? I haven't mastered figures, so I put the crew in a tent. I don't think this is far off. For one thing several pics show SU-76s with large tarps attached. And where would the crew sleep? Only the driver could fit inside, the rest is engine. I suppose the crew could have covered the compartment, and slept in back, but the fit would have been beastly. So let's give them a tent – lots of armies have used them. I made a simple one out of card stock and linen/paper towel and the size is pretty good I think for four – they could have sat up to play cards and drink vodka. (Red Army soldiers got vodka like Nelson's sailors got their rum.) I don't see them sleeping under the tank, especially on damp ground. And unless the Pripet Marshes are completely different than marshes in Minnesota, I'd be thinking of clouds of mosquitoes in early summer. Anyway, the base material is PVC – it bent just a bit, which PVC should not do, so it might be plasterboard. The main material is Sculptamold, a paper mache like material that's great for dios. I mixed it with inexpensive Blick matte acrylic paints. On the upper portion I put on a smoother section of Blick gloss acrylic mixed with a darker brown and gravel in the mix and on top of it. (I had good luck on my camera settings on this model, and most of the colors are pretty accurate. For some reason the gravel on the road appears too light than it is – it's actually hard to see. I also put some Vallejo Mud/Grass Terrain Effects underneath the vehicle and behind it. Note that there aren't very prominent track markings on the road. This is another interesting argument by the fine German YouTube modeler Hamalkar Barkas who claims that tracks were rarely clear like footprints: tanks were made to apportion weight over a wide area and what you got was more of fuzzy trail than very clear track marks in the mud. Hamalkar also argues, correctly I think, that tools on AFVs were painted camo colors and not wood/metal etc. I try to emulate the real, so I followed suit. Obviously you get more visual interest if you paint tools differently. Mine were actually chipped over hairspray, but it's hard to see after the pigments.) I tried to emulate low lying water in the lower left. I dusted all of the ground with pigments and created some depressions with a spoon. I put Golden Self Levelling Clear Gel in the depressions and it dried very nicely. In between the puddles I put on some static grass with my little electric applicator. Unfortunately I didn't have longer static grass – I was sure I did, but, nope. You can get a pretty good view of the water and the base here:
tentwatdet by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
lftvig by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
I used the Wilder style “layering” weathering techniques on the vehicle except everything I used was acrylic or pigments. I didn't use enamels because I don't like them at all although I don't doubt their quality. I also didn't use oils – just to see how well I could push the acrylics and pigments. In future I will go back to oil works – indeed, if I ever figure out proper oil “rendering” I might do an entire weathering with oils and pigments. I try to do something different in every build. It makes it more fun (usually) but might prevent ever coming up with a solid build sequence that would lead to better models. Good excuse anyway. Regardless, I did washes and filters almost entirely with Iwata Com.Art paints. They're very hard to describe if you haven't used them. They have several transparent colors and a kind of grainy texture which I really like for smudging and streaking. I added gloss varnish to an oil color Com.Art and used it on fuel caps. BTW: for rust I really like Metal Effects which is a kind of bottled rust. I use very little rust except on the exhaust. Here's another case of war being the enemy of art. WWII vehicles weren't out there long to pick up a lot of rust. I'm sure it was there, but not often in large quantity. A good dose of rust adds to visual interest, but I'm not sold on the historic accuracy. (Someone like Mig Jimenez would say to hell with accuracy, and he might be right.) I'm also not sure how much real chipping took place, but I applied quite a few. They're often hard to distinguish from the occasional splattering of wet pigments I used. I do use a lot of pigments. Whatever real conditions did to real WWII tanks, we can all agree they got dirty, muddy, dusty and, because of frequent rain fall, dirtied, dusted and mudded and smudged again and again. I'd guess a kind of patina appeared quickly. (Soviet paint tended to darken with age – it was also matte and would have picked up dirt like metal fillings to a magnet.) The pigments really are beginning to interest me. I use them raw on a matte surface – no fixer needed or wanted. I use very high quality art house pigments from Sennelier and Gamblin, but products from MIG or Vallejo would work just as well. I began employing them in small dots and then tapping a blunt brush – it's a very interesting effect. I'm using five colors of pigments, but a kind of light gray-brown is the most used. (Much thicker pigments and Vallejo mud appears on the wheels and tracks.) Here are a couple of pics of a properly untidy SU-76 and some detail pics of mine:
SUaction by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
smudgedft by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
rtdet by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
reardet by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
lftrdet by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
topdet by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
Here are some more pics of the SU-76 vignette:
rtftdet by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
rtftvig by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
rtrvig by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
rtvig! by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
abvvig by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
lftrvig by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
lftvig by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr
Next up a Tamiya Ki-61? Or should I do the USS Bogue? Maybe even the Tamiya A6M3 Zero. We'll see.
Eric