Entry #28 "Michigan Dawg"

[SgtRock]

"Kampfgruppe Wilhelmstrasse"

Berlin, 1945.

The final days of the Third Reich find four defenders thrust together in an unlikely defense of this relatively undamaged street corner. A grenadier began the day fighting on the extreme outskirts of Berlin in one of the city's numerous parks but hard fighting has pushed him into this more urban area. He is joined by a Luftwaffe flak crewman whose gun position to the north of the city was overrun by the advancing Soviets. A Volksturmann and his grandson, a member of the Hitler Jugend, are Berliners and live just a short distance from the major thoroughfare of Wilhelmstrasse. Heeding the Fuehrer's call to defend the city they join the two soldaten to form this ad hoc battle group "Kampfgruppe Wilhelmstrasse". Armed with panzerfaust and rifle they will fight the Soviet tanks from street corner to street corner in a futile effort to stem the tide of war.

 

[Pangaea95]

Nice figs, and a cool subject, thanks for participating

 

[hectormoranc]

I like this diorama !

I think that this dio it's very nice, specially figures and background .. I like the HJ with the panzerfaust ... I considerated you need wheathering figs and walls and put many rubbish

.... Where do you buy green and grey panzerfaust ?


Saludos, HECTOR

 

[Michigan Dawg]

Hector, thanks for your comments.

I had fully intended to weather the scenery but I just flat ran out of time and so much of what I had planned to do just didn't get accomplished. I want to actually finish the scene sometime over the next few weeks and maybe I'll repost some pictures of it then.

Panzerfausts were painted not only in dunkelgelb but also in olivegrun and grau. Olivegrun examples had yellow markings while the grau and dunkelgelb versions had red markings. You can see an olivegrun example of a surviving panzerfaust in the Histoire & Collections "German Soldiers of WWII". I had several of the Dragon panzerfausts so I painted them in the alternate colors and decaled them with decals that I created. It's probably not obvious in the photos but my decals are actually based on a stenciled font that I've observed on surviving examples. [It may be that the stenciled font, although correct, may not be the only font that might appear on panzerfausts as there were many manufacturers of these weapons.]

I also created decals for the Tellermine 43 and 35s mines in the dio. These mines were usually painted dunkelgelb, feldgrau, or dunkelgrau and didn't always have markings on them but when they did they were white (at least that's all I've come across so far). I think they look pretty sharp and it was fun creating the markings for them (although it took me quite some time to track down the correct text and appropriate fonts).

I want to finish the HJ figure in particular as I think he's a cool subject. It took me about an hour to braid that toggle but with the help of God, a good pair of tweezers, and my +4 reading glasses I got it done! I'm working now on upgrading his uniform with an HJ membership pin, the HJ proficiency badge, new shoulder straps, and some other details. I think he'll look pretty good when he's finished.

Anyway, thanks again for the compliment!