Dragon 1/35 Elefant - "102" 1/653 Italy - WIP

Thanks guys, I appreciate the confidence boosters. 

Ferdinand/Elefant fun fact of the day.........

Elefact of the day.........

One of the modifications made to the Ferdinands to improve their close in defensive capabilities was to install a bow mounted machine gun.   Can you believe Ferdinands didn't have one?.  Apparently the original design called for a bow mounted machine gun, but the manufacturer was uncomfortable with compromising the integrity of the two armored plates of 100mm each (200mm total) and deleted the bow machine gun from the design at the time they were built. 

This proved to be one of the achilles heels of the Ferdinands during the battle of Kursk and the desperate defensive fighting at the Nikopol bridgehead.  After these battles, the remaining Ferdinands (42 + 6 that had already been sent back to be rebuilt, for a total of 48) were sent back to the Nibelungenwerke in Austria, to give them much needed maintenance and overhauling.  They had many upgrades done to them at this time to correct some of the deficienies (i.e. lack of bow machine gun, new commanders cupola based on the StuGIII, zimmerit and many other minor upgrades and modifications).  In order to try to minimize the compromize to the integrity of the armor plate where the bow machine gun was installed, an additional 100mm plate section was bolted on around the machine gun port, providing a total of 300mm (that's 11.811 inches!) of armored protection in that spot!  Holy cow, that's a lot of armor!!! 

Ferdinand fun fact of the day.....

There were a total of 89 Ferdinands that participated in Operation Zitadelle (organized into two Schwere PanzerJaeger Abteiling, Heavy Tank Hunter Battalions - literally translated).  These were credited with 502 confirmed tank kills, 200 anti-tank guns and 100 artillery pieces.  Pretty impressive stats no matter how you look at it!!! 

Luftwoller wrote:

Looking really fine there Scott. Cant wait to see the beuty finished. OH yeah, you had a Tiger a while ago, didnt you? What ever happened to that? LOL. ...Guy

I'm working on that one too.  I work on the Elefant while I'm waiting for things to dry on the Tiger.  They both look so cool sitting on my workbench, can't wait to get them both finished and in the display case. 

Thanks for all the kind words my friends.  I'm still learning the ins and outs of free handing camo schemes (been too used to masking and just spraying with aircraft )  I need to work on making my spraying a little lighter and wispier on these types of schemes.  I'll get the hang of it eventually.

Great looking pachyderm Scott !  Primo camo and zim work. 

Larry

Looking really fine there Scott. Cant wait to see the beuty finished. OH yeah, you had a Tiger a while ago, didnt you? What ever happened to that? LOL.

...Guy

The Elefant has its spots!  They are on a little heavier than I would have liked, but some touch up using Dunkelgelb in and around some of the spots (mostly the green ones) should make them appear a little wispier.  Most of the photos I've seen of #102 show it very dusty, so the dust coats and weathering will tone it down a lot. 

The Ferdinand/Elefant was extrememly heavy having a combat weight of about 72 tons.  As you can well imagine, this created tremendous logistical problems.  Their extreme weight required great care when choosing the terrain in which to drive over.  It was not uncommon for them to literally break through bridges. 

This would prove to be a serious problem in both Russia and Italy as the infrastructure just couldn't handle these heavy, highly specialized vehicles.  Often times, they would bog down immediately in any soft or wet earth.  As you can imagine, it required a lot of pulling power to "rescue" these vehicles. 

It amazes me how many times these great tank killers were so mis-understood by the higher ups and sent into terrain which was totally unsuited to their limitations.  

dupes wrote:

Get out! I'm assuming that the Abrams is capable of a slightly higher speed at that consumption rate, though. OUCH either way.

Oh yes absolutely, the power /weight ratio is astronomically superior. The Army spec is 300 kilometers and change on a semi improved road from a fully topped off Abrams. The front and rear fuel cells hold about 538 gallons (this may be less on the A2?) but, it barely makes this requirement. I have personally had to refuel after about 150k of "combat" driving over obstacles etc. during prototype testing. The tank is much heavier (turret) now so.....

SC

Ferdinand/Elefant fun fact for the day..... 

Despite the fact that most of the Ferdinands were disabled by mines at least once (some several times ) during the battle of Kursk, they still managed to achieve a 15 to 1 kill ratio!  Gotta love that amazing gun!  

I'm going to swing by my local LHS today and pick up a new airbrush needle and tip so I can spray some spots this weekend. 

crockett wrote:

dupes wrote: You realize that means it burned 4.48 gallons of petrol PER MILE to creep along at 6mph in the grass. For comparison, infantry on a forced march move about 4mph... If they were even slightly motivated (think "crazed soviet assault"), they should have been able to catch aforementioned machinegun-less ferdinand quite easily . Which, by the way , is better mileage than the M1A2 Abrams.

Wow!  I did not know that, although the M1A2 is much faster and more "robust" 

Get out! I'm assuming that the Abrams is capable of a slightly higher speed at that consumption rate, though.

OUCH either way.

dupes wrote:

You realize that means it burned 4.48 gallons of petrol PER MILE to creep along at 6mph in the grass. For comparison, infantry on a forced march move about 4mph... If they were even slightly motivated (think "crazed soviet assault"), they should have been able to catch aforementioned machinegun-less ferdinand quite easily .

Which, by the way , is better mileage than the M1A2 Abrams.

Ferdinand/Elefant fun fact for the day...... 

Did you know that it took at least three 18 ton Prime Movers to even attempt to tow a Ferdinand/Elefant?!?   

I have a great photo in one of my reference books that shows five 18 ton Prime Movers struggling to tow a disabled Ferdinand through some muddy countryside.

edit: Here is the photo

You realize that means it burned 4.48 gallons of petrol PER MILE to creep along at 6mph in the grass.

For comparison, infantry on a forced march move about 4mph... If they were even slightly motivated (think "crazed soviet assault"), they should have been able to catch aforementioned machinegun-less ferdinand quite easily .

Ferdinand/Elefant fun fact for the day...... 

The Ferdinand/Elefant had a very unique powertrain.  It consisted of:

Two Maybach HL 120 (V-12, overhead valves, engine displacement 11,870 ccm developing 265 metric HP at 2600 RPM using 74 octane fuel)

Each of the two engines drove a Siemens Typ K58-8 generator which generated the electric power needed to drive the two Siemens Typ 1494a direct current electric motors of 230 kilowatts each.

It had two fuel tanks of 125.5 gallons each for a total of 251 gallons.  This allowed the Ferdinand/Elefant a range of 94 miles on road, and only 56 miles cross country. 

The Ferdinand/Elefant had a maximum top speed of 19 mph (for only very short periods of time), cruising speed of 12.5 mph (on road) and a dismal 6 mph cross country.

dupes wrote:

So THAT'S what L/71 means! Actually, I didn't realize the "43" part was the year either, but I probably should have figured that out. After building that 1/72 Elefant, I'm definitely going to have to invest in a 1/35 one...that thing is a brute! Looking real good so far...what camo are you going with?

To be honest, neither did I until I read it yesterday in one of my Elefant references. 

This is the exact scheme I'm doing on this beast 

So THAT'S what L/71 means! Actually, I didn't realize the "43" part was the year either, but I probably should have figured that out.

After building that 1/72 Elefant, I'm definitely going to have to invest in a 1/35 one...that thing is a brute! Looking real good so far...what camo are you going with? 

Ferdinand/Elefant fun fact for the day...... 

Did you know the Ferdinand/Elefant was armed with an 88mm Pak 43/2 Sfl L/71 main gun?(88mm anti-tank cannon Model year 1943, modification 2 for self-propelled use, barrel length of 71 calibers)

ps1scw wrote:

espins1 wrote: Ah, that must be an old picture of the Elefant at Aberdeen long before my pics were taken. The above pic turned into the mess that was abandoned by the railway that you took pics of?

Aye laddy, so it would seem.  It's really a shame.  That's the only Elefant in existance today (unless you count the Ferdinand at Kubinka near Moscow).

espins1 wrote:

Ah, that must be an old picture of the Elefant at Aberdeen long before my pics were taken.

The above pic turned into the mess that was abandoned by the railway that you took pics of?

I found it on this site:

http://www.battletanks.com/

ps1scw wrote:

where is this one?

I just found a thread on another forum that seems to indicate the Elefant has been restored or is in the process of being restored.

http://www.com-central.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=7422

When was that photo taken?  The annoying thing is that no Elefants had a scheme like that.  Some Ferdinands had something similar to that at Kursk, but no Elefants.