"Normandy '144 - Panzerjager vom Schnelle Abteilung 517" Topic

Hi Mems,

Here's a couple pics of 1/144th scale Panzerjager 35R(f) from Anschluss Publishing (resin prints), painted up as supports to the 3rd Kompanie of bicycle troops from Fast Bn. 517, who fought against the US 2nd I.D., as the Indianhead division pushed south out of the Omaha beachead.

Tiny little tanks, and odd-ball conversion of French AFVs, that were still in the inventories of the Wehrmacht's Erstaz Army in the West in 1944.

These TDs will feature in a few scenarios of Schnelle Brigade 30 defending against the American drive 'up from the beach', following in the weeks after the Allied landings.

Great looking vehicles, FlyXwire! Also a bit more unusual as well but I like it.

Thanks Pete!

These models are about the size of big Micro-Armour pieces, and I see I got a little sloppy here and there on them, but working with this scale is a bit easier for me to see than as with your super-painted 1/285th minis.

(lots of time it's not until these pics that I see my mistakes) :)))

They look great! I know that sometimes the camera catches things that my eyes did not.

I love the name Normandy '144. I'm totally stealing that.

I didn't even know about the Panzerjager 35R(f). So many tanks, so little storage space…

I wish we lived closer together.

:)))

We would be able to partner on any of our Normandy '144 games….I'll host one, you host one…….

This previewing here, featuring Schnelle Brigade 30 vs. the US 2nd Infantry Division, and hedgerow combat from the 1st-half of June '144, will still let me do that 'off the shelf' initiative (everything needed packed and staying together in one container), but I'll be able to get a couple of scenarios out of the same game kit.

The games are also going to be infantry-heavy, but planning on using the areas-style game mat/system.

(working on the mat/map setup now, for the first encounter around Haute Hameau)

Aerial Reconnaissance has Haute and Bas Hameau both lightly defended -

Hard to believe these belonged to the same war.

That 'tankette' above? It's a Befehlsfahrzeug 35R(f) command tank I've customized from the 1/144th scale Panzerjager version.

The photo below shows how small these German conversions of the French R35 tank really were.

Le petit tracteur (a couple somewhere in that bocage), were pressed-into-service French prime movers, that the Germans called Zugkraftwagen P107 U304(f), amongst other things.

Found in units deployed in the East and the West, and into Normandy '144.

Zugkraftwagen P107 U304(f) just rolls right off the tongue…

I always wonder what German soldiers in the field actually called things with names like this. There is no way in Hölle they used names like "Befehlsfahrzeug fünf-und-dreißig eff" or "Sonderkraftfahrzeug Tweihundert-ein-und-fünfzig einte" or "Zugkraftwagen Pee Ein-hundert-sieben Ooh dreihundert-vier eff" in conversation, let alone in combat.

I'm sure they used nicknames, like "die kleinen Schweinen", or "Kätzchen eins und Kätzchen zwei", or something.

How small they were, you said. Fer sure, but high profile too. Tiny gun and very visible.

Imagine the guts it took to man something like this, with four times as many Shermans heading your way. Gimme a towed A/T gun any day, hidden low down in a hedgerow.

YA, you've got the slang, und der knack!

DH, you've got the eyes – as you've obviously spotted my smallish (but easy to fit-in drivers), compared to my proud (Pendraken) AT gunners here. Those stand tall 'cause they know they'll get the knacker over any Sherman that might come their way.

Fun stuff guys – "die kleinen Schweinen" :))), "mit dem Saukopfe"?

Getting close to playing a first scenario now with this recently painted stuff.

Peek here at the German game map, which that side will use to mark their unit dispositions on -

Last model here for the upcoming game (actually a Command Post piece for the US player side – and logistics-themed).

The model is a 1/144th scale Studebacker 6X4 Cargo Truck, open cab version. A custom-enhanced model by Charles Carroll, my paint and decals, with spare WTM figures.

Doing one-offs like this is a fun diversion.

Btw, the truck is magnetically detachable (in case the American Team thinks they need a Sherman to protect their big dice). :)))

Very nice truck, FlyXwire!

Thank you Pete!

Hopefully, I'll get a couple plays out of the effort, before it's put away, and something else off-the-shelf gets a work-over.

(lookin' at the 15mm Medievals presently, and wondering what package I can wrap around those with)

Lovely and very different from the normal.

The French conversions were a real mix of ingenuity but I for one would not have liked to have operated them.

There is a real ‘ feel' of the subject matter with your work.

Best wishes ,

Chris