"EWM Coffee Table chatter #10 + new DAK PzIIIE" Topic

EWM Coffee Table Chatter Wednesday 8th March
Well, Wednesday has been a hell of a day. No Tennis for me today, bad back but excellent in that we had a customer pay us a visit. Scott Ferguson came all the way from Canada, and took time from his trip to come and visit us.

We had loads to talk about and the "chatter session" over coffee, and beer in his case, lasted a good few hours. Scott was several hours "ahead of us" on Canadian time, so for him, 11 o'clock meant the "sun had past the yard arm" so he was presented with the finest bottle of tangelo, curtsy of my very good friends from Antwerp Bruno and Patrick. Scott also does not do tea or coffee, plus he is on holiday.


Scott has an incredible collection of miniatures at his home in Canada. He spent time browsing our trade racks and picked up a few EWM goodies.

At the coffee table I showed him the 2nd pull of a brand new model I had been working on.

I molded it yesterday and then "birthed" the new model in front of him. It's a brand new, German Panzer IIIE covered in stowage and track Armour, made for early war desert battles in north Africa.

It's a new 1 piece cast hull, separate turret with the option of turret hatches open or closed, use the crewman or not. Its good to go straight out of the pack.


It represents another "step change" in what EWM is now capable of. Scott was most impressed. He got to keep the second ever casting of this new model as a memento of his visit to us.

I did ask Scott to bring something Canadian along for us to enjoy over tea and coffee. I suggested so Canadian biscuits perhaps. Now, I am informed that Biscuits in Canadian mean something like Dumplings? I should have said "cookies", but luckily, we good some excellent Maple syrup Canadian cookies – cheers Scott.

I showed Scott the new "Work in progress" EWM buildings, and he got to meet both Nigel and Peter who work here at EWM.
Scott also got to see Mr Day casting figures for other customers in the casting building. Scott had not expected to see anything like this.

We then had a visit from Rueben or PE2 Collectables, who was passing to pick up more EWM show stock. He also was shown the new EWM Pz IIIE for DAK in north Africa. Rueben has casting number 3 out of the mould and will be taking it to the trade show in Wolverhampton this weekend.

Do check it out and remember, PE2 collectables are the EWM trade show representative in the UK carrying our products to shows.

We also saw a review of some of EWM products in Military modelling. It was a very positive review of the roads we make, thank you for that. It follows a number of magazine articles on EWM products recently, nice to see some recognition for some of the things we make and design here in Hertfordshire, England.

So, here it is, the new German Africa Corps DAK Panzer IIIE in ready to go format.

I added a short length of wire as the Ariel on the model, an easy mod you can add yourself if required.
Im absolutely chuffed with this model. I love the early war DAK stuff, all covered in track links, rear and side decking covered n all kinds of box's, tarps, bags, helmets etc.
I wondered if we could make this as a single casting, no building required. Well, here it is, our first attempt.

So, a great coffee table top chatter both morning, a splendid lunch and afternoon coffee/tea to, washing down Canadian maple syrup "cookies" too.

A fine accompaniment to conversations about toy soldiers, models and other tank related things….Arhh.

Cheers
Paul T@EWM

Lovely Pz III. Great casting.

Cracking conservatory centrepiece! Beats a plant or coffee table any day of the week! :)

Cheers Dave, my dad was a vickers gunner with the BEF in 1940, so it's kind of appropriate.
I've had it a good few years now. It's going in my MAN CAVE when I move.

Glad you like the DAK PzIIIe. It's one of our best yet. Working on more ear.y war DAK panzers in the morning……….

Cheers

PAul T@EWM

Like the model.

But if it is actually a IIIE with a 37mm gun then there weren't any in Africa. All the Pz III for North Africa were 5cm kurz. See Jentz Panzertrupppen vol 1 for details.

Of course there are lots of other places to use a nice IIIE.

Edward

Nice looking model, and I really like all the stowage -- built right in to the casting. However, that means that every single iteration of the model will have exactly the same hodge-podge of storage; so maybe it would be better to have the storage come in a few separate castings.

Now if we only had 8th Army figures to fight the DAK, Italians and these beautifully produced tanks we'd be all set. I know we're never satisfied.

I agree with Don, separate stowage would be preferable.
I'd want to remove the pith helmets.
And replace the gun barrels.

pz3 e were not used in North Africa.
pz3 f would be the closest and a few made it. Very few though. A pz3g like the one in the reference book was much more common.

The model gun barrel looks too thick.

Yes, I was confused by the thick gun barrel myself -- thought it looked more like the 50mm, except for being too short.

EWM have revamped the model as a Panzerbefehlswagen, yielding a legitimate DAK vehicle:

link

Unfortunately it's still not 100%. The turret was fixed in place and so should not be shown traversed. The right most turret machine gun was in a ball mount (the other mg and the main gun were dummies). There was no hull mg. The frame antenna appears to be missing the element that ran from side to side just behind the turret. But it could well have served with the D.A.K.

But it could well have served with the D.A.K.

Yes, DAK had them. As for the accuracy issues, I think it was just a quick attempt to salvage something useable, having slightly backed themselves into a corner with the pith helmet.

I think the consensus I've seen expressed here and on other forums is that people want separate stowage for gaming pieces and I expect EWM will probably take that on board.

I commend them for producing some very nice gaming pieces for us. I'm just a little disappointed that their research has let them down with this item.