"DAK Diana Zug - 1/144 scale" Topic

Hi All,

Here's some recent painting work. They're 1/144th scale models of the Diana Panzerjager SP, of which nine were built, all of those going to Rommel in North Africa, and to the 605. Sf Panzerjager Abt..

For an armor game coming up, these will be amongst remnants of the Bn., along with a platoon of Panzerjager Is I'll have soldiering on during the scenario, around the time of the 2nd Battle of El Alamein.

These are repainted Panzer Depot resin models, World Tank Museum crewmen, and with wire staples added to make the tarp stays above the fighting compartments.

Love this oddball stuff, and they're fun to paint….when needing only a few to get ready for a game.

Excellent work as usual!

Machinehead, thanks bud!

Btw, looking forward to seeing those Victrix Shermans you've been working on too.

Nice work!

And extra credit for demonstrating the willpower to build only 3, not all 9.

- Ix

LOL Admiral!

(a hard decision made way cheaper)

Very nice! Great minis

What a marvellous unit to field. I will bet every nerd will say this is a fictional vehicle (the sort of thing with plywood sides often seen in pre 1970s war films) and "there was no such thing".

There is many a weird German vehicle based on the chassis of something from France, Czechoslovakia or even more bizarre, but these are quite a novelty. Never heard of them. Imagine sacrificing the low profile essential for an A/T gun, for a bit of half track mobility. Oddball for sure but great imagination here!

Frederick and Deadhead, thank you guys too for your thoughts and comments!

I came back to this and only now read the scale.

OK, I did not think 1/35, but never imagined 1/144.

DH, these little tidbits here will look more to scale I'm sure.

The Kradschutzen section was finished yesterday, and I debated how to mount them, but finally went with individual bikes on smaller size stands, because these smaller stands will also help to create HQ sections needed for the rules I'm using, and for those types of command elements I'll be modeling now (for Infantry Plt. & Coy. HQs).

Some desert fleas -

OK….

The bikes have treads on the tyres. The headlamps have a cover. One of the riders is wearing a wedding ring…in 1/144 scale.

Not bad. Not bad at all. I will stick to Prussian Hussars in 1/72 for now and wish they were 28mm, which I am used to!

Deadhead, you're doing stellar work in 1/72nd, and 20mm is about as large as I care to go for playing WW2 company+ size actions with.

Although I also game WW2 in 28mm (that's strictly for skirmishing), 1/56th or 1/48th are poor scales for task force/kampfgruppe size games (bn. level), and way too expensive to buy multiple companies of vehicles for each side, but some do it and they need huge boards to play on.

Still, larger footprints for models and bases can become too big for the average gamer's table, so things stack up at unrealistic intervals, and there's tactical limitations imposed – limitation of space available for the approach march up to enemy contact, nor for pivoting off the line of contact for flanking out of gun ranges or LOS, and often no area for echeloning attacks in waves, or for having space for defenses in depth – the big figure scales have truncated WW2 and modern wargaming to mostly being those "last 100 yards" affairs, and that's where the scale has always played best.

If considering higher battle levels and the figures scales recognized as options for these levels of play, much depends on the finite space the gamer is going to have available to play on. Expecting there's an average, limiting space that each wargamer mostly has, means the figure scale needs to be reduced to play larger level actions with (the ground scale is increasing but the playing surface isn't), and for having more quantities of models and stands to be populating the same space within.

Though I came to the 1/144th scale as being an ideal for my WW2 team/task force/kampfgruppe level gaming choice, I recognize the excellence of 3mm, 6, [10], 15, and even 20s for doing the same battle-action level of gaming with.

A funny example of the big scales I can relate. I got on sale some of the fabulous History Works 28mm ACW buildings in the past few years, these based on some of the historic Gettysburg battlefield buildings. Quite frankly, one grouping of these to-scale models arranged into a single farm complex (with room to move around in and between) takes up one quarter of my average 6ft. X 4ft. game table area, and having any more than a single farmstead would simply blow-out any meaningful maneuver room for gaming, or for other terrain arranged not being mashed up like "inside a phone booth" arrangement.

I have yet to get all these acquired buildings onto a game board, but the looks ought to be spectacular then, while I recognize it's purely a 28mm skirmish action, an expected combat snippet.