"1:72nd Italeri Brummbar Build" Topic

This is the 1981 ESCI kit of the Sturmpanzer IV Brummbär Sd. Kfz. 166 which was reboxed by Italeri with new decals in 2007. I picked up this kit from a vendor at the Indy show for a good price, which is always a weakness of mine…

Inch High Guy: link

Excellent

I thought I'd read years ago that vehicles coated in Zimmerit paste were left grey due to the unpainted colour of the paste. Clearly I was wrong.

Another thing I just learned from consulting the truly wonderous and ever reliable Wikipedia (I have no reason to doubt it in this case) is that it was not referred to a Brummbär by the Germans:

"It was known by the nickname Brummbär (German: "Grouch")* by Allied intelligence, a name which was not used by the Germans. German soldiers nicknamed it the "Stupa", a contraction of the term Sturmpanzer."

I quite like Stupa :~)

Very nice model of an interesting vehicle.

Cheers
John

* From my high school German I thought Brummbär translated as grizzly bear rather than grouch but it seems my memory is wrong after about 45 years . . ..

I find this Brummbär name story strange, though it is all over the 'net. It is almost always attributed to Jentz.

I can't help wondering, if the unspecified "Allied intelligence" were going to simply make up a nickname for something, why wouldn't they choose either English or an Anglicised name? A more plausible version of the story with exactly the same attribution (ie Jentz) is:
"… It was most likely a nickname with certain German units, which was carried over into post-war from Allied interrogation reports."

link

Seems plausible, as you say. I'd always known it as Brummbär, although, as I say, I was wrong thinking it was a translation of grizzly bear, although ironically grizzly has a similar meaning to grouchy.

Certainly allied intelligence used English names for Japanese aircraft (Emily, Jane etc). but is this so common for German equipment"? Tiger and Panther are conveniently the same in both languages. I do know the He162 nickname Salamander was actually the German code name for the wing system, but came to be used in the English speaking world for the aeroplane itself. In German it was Spatz (sparrow) There are a couple of others I can think of (eg Flying Pencil for the Do17). Were the late model PzII called lynx, or was that only the Germans calling them Luchs?

Cheers,
John