Kursk. II S.S. Panzer corps slowly claw their way toward Obayan

[tr1ckey66]

The story behind the build is this.

The date is July 6 1943, Operation citadel is 2 days old. Against dug-in and very stubborn resistance German advances are slow. The only real gains are in the southern pincer, southeast of Obayan, where German Fourth Panzer army has battled it's way to Prokhorovka.

Ok, that's the setting this is the idea :emo6:...

I'm going to attempt 2 new things in this build.

1. I'm going to build a knocked out and partially burnt out tank. I think this is going to be quite involved as it will require an interior and some careful study of burnt out vehicles.

2. I have some German figures and, although I'm sort of happy with the poses, the uniforms require some alterations. The wehrmacht troops should be SS and therefore should be wearing the SS smocks. Short boots and gaters will also be required as well as some other stuff. This obviously requires some figure conversions

I'm going to use this build to try new techniques with particular emphasis on figure build and painting and the finish of the burnt out tank...

...Thats the idea, here's the kits...

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These are the kit parts to the AFV Club T34/76 with full interior.

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These are the figures

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There's a big risk here of this going badly wrong! but hey, I'll give it a go and we'll see what happens!!!

Really looking forward to all this Red Army stuff

удачи! (Good luck everyone)

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[bikerbart]

Hi Paul. This is just brilliant what you are planing. And i think it encompasses all that the GB should be about....trying new things. I love both the tank kit and the figures you have gone for, i will be watching this with real interest. Well done and good luck with the build, regards Martin

 

[Fenlander]

Good grief man!!! I thought I had bit off more than I could chew. This is going to be amazing, every faith in you Paul.

 

[tr1ckey66]

Thanks Martin, Graham.

I'm hoping that this build will move my figure building/painting on a notch, and this armour piece will be something a little different for me. I'm going to give it a go and anyone interested can follow my ups and inevitable downs (hopefully more of the former) as I go along. I'm going to try out Tyrel's tips for figure painting, what's the phrase? - 'Aim for the stars and you might reach the moon'?

Anyway, even if it ends in the bin I'll have learned something from it!

Graham - if I've bitten off more than I can chew, what about you! 2 tanks 1 rusky jeep and how many figures!!! You've got a bigger cast than Les Miserables! Let's face it we both like a challenge!

Cheers

P

 

[Fenlander]

:laughing: Challenge is the way forward.

 

[noble]

Paul the kits look very nice especially the T34 and the setting you have put in place should be interesting.

scott

 

[tr1ckey66]

Cheers Scott. Will you be joining us in the GB? I hope so

Paul

 

[noble]

Hi paul not sure yet i have an idea based on forced perspective but iam not sure how or if it will work so i will have to work out some of the details.

scott

 

[tr1ckey66]

Oh yeah, sorry, I read that yesterday. Sturmoviks, right?

Mate, you gotta do that! I once saw a dio with a stuka dive-bombing a tank in 1/72. It looked amazing - the Stuka was pulling out of the dive and the t-34 had exploded blowing the turret completely off. There were some figures in there too. If you want to bounce any ideas or I can help at all just give us a shout. There's got to be a way of doing it that won't require a dio 6 feet long!

Paul

 

[rogue-one]

this sounding great! i love the idea of the action and destruction of including a burnt out tank. will you be daring and bold and maybe have a burnt figure too?

 

[tr1ckey66]

this sounding great! i love the idea of the action and destruction of including a burnt out tank. will you be daring and bold and maybe have a burnt figure too?

Bobby, i'm not going to have any bodies in the tank as I don't want the tank totally burnt out. I'm thinking the round hits the rear quarter of the tank, splitting the track on it's way, and then enters the engine compartment. Here there is an explosion which blows a few hatches open/off and a localised fire develops. Basically, I want the rear of the tank to be burnt and the front end ok-ish - I think this will be a bit more interesting to look at than a totally burnt out tank. I may even have it still smoking with plumes of smoke belching out the back (a bit like the smoke on the box art of the figures I've got). In a nut shell the crew of the tank were able to bail out and run like the clappers.

I will have some bodies in the dio though as I've now decided to incorporate a trench into it with a couple of dead Russian soldiers.

I've been collecting some ref and got some good stuff...

General countryside land topography...

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Trenches...

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German uniform (interestingly enough it seems at Kursk the Germans were still wearing jack boots)...

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I have a lot more pics but this selection gives a general impression of the scene I'm trying to recreate...

I've made a start on the planning stage and have already started some of the figures. When I get to a logical break I'll post the progress so far.

Cheers

Paul

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[Cov1]

Nice idea, looking forward to seeing this, good choice in kits as well.

Ade

 

[Cov1]

Hi Paul, found this on a site, which a freind posted on, hope it helps

http://site.scratchmod.com/

Ade

 

[Ian M]

Sounds like you got your work cut out Paul. Must be quite a big one too!

Oi, Cov That Site is the nuts!! Well worth a look. If you need rust thats the place to look!! Truly amazing!!

Ian M

 

[Centurion3RTR]

Looking forward to this Paul as theres some techniques i'd like to try, like the burnt out tank. The T34/76 looks a very nice kit too.

Have fun, John

 

[tr1ckey66]

Thanks Ade for the site info - that will definitely come in useful when I get to the T-34. Excellent techniques

Ian - yep, there's a bit to do but it's all good learning fun.

I'm actually tackling the figures first, although I do intend to build up everything together. In this way I can get the composition of the piece looking correct.

The base actually isn't that big it's smaller than the Luftwaffe forest dio and definitely not as tall!

Paul

 

[tr1ckey66]

Ok, here are the figures roughly assembled. I've done the usual trick of mounting the standing figures on fuse wire to enable them to stand and to be handled more easily. At this stage my chief concern is to get the weapons 'sitting' in hands properly. I find it's a common problem with plastic figures that when you assemble them the weapons don't look right. To rectify this I've cut off some fingers, drilled out hands and in some cases cut hands from arms to enable the hands to better conform to the rifle/machine gun. At this stage it's quite rough and I'm just making sure that the figure stance is correct and any gestures look natural. As you can probably see I've replaced the heads by an appropriate set from Hornet (the sculpting on these resin heads is first class) and I also replaced the weapons with a 2nd Gen set by Dragon I had in the stash. More work is still required on the hands with some fingers to be sculpted but this will be done at another stage.

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All of these figures will require a different uniform sculpting. The SS soldiers in Kursk would be wearing the M1940 Smock and I'm going to attempt to sculpt this (as well as some other refinements) from 2 part putty with other details possibly picked out in lead foil or wire. This is my first go at this so it'll be interesting to see how this turns out!

This is the aforementioned smock.

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...In for a penny in for a pound!!!

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[bikerbart]

Some really interesting stuff you have going on here dude, i really like your outlook on the GB, trying new stuff/techniques etc, all credit to you for that. I do know exactly what you man about the hands on some figures, it often seems to be one area of a figure neglected when they are moulded, and they often apear very un-natural.

Love the camo design on the smock, that will be fun to achieve. Already loving following this thread, keep up the great work and posts bud, regards Martin

 

[tr1ckey66]

Planning...

I've got the basis for the dio roughed out. On the left is a trench that will eventually contain 2 dead Russian soldiers (2 previous figures are playing dead!). The T-34 (which my Cromwell is standing in for) is just to the right of this with the front-end partly over the trench. 2 German figures look down into the trench temporarily stunned by the carnage in it whilst the other 5 make their way across the open plain where the lead figure is downed by shrapnel (possibly blind).

I'm considering adding another figure to this... I think that a figure leaping over the trench would be cool.

Here's the plan so far...

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I'm also going to try Scott's long Grass tip. I've got myself some fur material and, although it may look like somebody skinned Orville and put it on my dio, I'm pretty confident that with a bit of work I can make this look like scrubby grass!

War is hell... unless it's carpeted - then it's quite comfortable!!!

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Cheers

Paul

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[tr1ckey66]

Some really interesting stuff you have going on here dude, i really like your outlook on the GB, trying new stuff/techniques etc, all credit to you for that. I do know exactly what you man about the hands on some figures, it often seems to be one area of a figure neglected when they are moulded, and they often apear very un-natural.Love the camo design on the smock, that will be fun to achieve. Already loving following this thread, keep up the great work and posts bud, regards Martin

Hi Martin, thanks for the support.

The weapons /hands thing... Resin figures normally have the hands cast already grasping the weapon, it's then just a case of attaching hands to arms. In effect that's what i"ll be doing as all the hands will be cut off (attached to the weapons) and reattached later. This will also give me better access to the uniforms for sculpting (at least that's the theory!)