"German Head of State" Topic

I've been working on a Weird War type game for a convention in two weeks. I thought I would share some pictures of what I'm doing. The first picture is two old style GW dreadnoughts painted up as German "Panzer Suits". They still need a little work but you'll get the idea:

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In the foreground is a Victory Force Fallschirmjäger that I've painted a little black mustache on. He originally was going to be a thrower for a WWII themed Bloodbowl team, thus the lack of weapons. But now he is soon to be without a body as you will see:

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The head is shown inside the protective tube of a #5 brush. I later scored the tube just above the head to make a small clear jar for the disembodied leader of Germany in his final battle. I only need to find a small 1.5 inch gorilla in the toystore and I'm all set for the head transplant. I later plan on making the head removable so I can mount it on all manner of silly vehicles or creatures.

The Weird War type skirmish scenario I'm running will be in 1945 with U.S. infantry and combat engineers raiding a top secret German science lab hidden deep in an old salt mine. The Germans with a bunch of weird experimental weapons are guarding something very valuable to them..their head of state.

I could use some help renaming the "Panzer Suits". I wanted a nice compound German word that would make a nifty abbreviation. Any suggestions?

The suits are neat (great use for the old 'peanut' dreads), and Der Fuhrer In A Jar is inspired! Something like that deserves a series of images; 'Where's Adolf's Head?'

Oh, and for the suit names, 'Panzerkampfanzug' jumps to mind, but I don't know if it's accurate.

Panzerkampfanzug is perfectly correct German. You wouldnt want to know about the sort of compound words we can create

Sturmpanzerkampfanzugkapitänsabzeichen would be such a word….

Brilliant Mike! I'll be "borrowing" that head for a game soon!

Rich

Panzerkampfanzug would have an abbreviation of Pkf or Pkfz?

Sturmpanzerkampfanzugkapitänsabzeichen (oh my that is a mouthful) would be SPkfzKs or something else?

So far I'm leaning towards the Pkfz since I can manage to say it in one breath. Thanks so far. Any other ideas?

Rich, of course you can borrow the Fehlendenkörperführerkopf*. When I'm not using it for Pulp/WeirdWars stuff I'll probably use it as a football for Bloodbowl. There's an idea to kick around..

*-Does that word make sense to our German readers?

Perhaps a compromise would be Sturmpanzerkampfanzug, sounds quite scary and is still fairly snappy. abbrv. StuKa!

"…kapitänsabzeichen" would be something like "captain's insignia". Sturmpanzerkampfanzug sounds nice, I'd abbreviate it like StPzKpfAnz or StPzKpfAz. Basically, drop all the vowels and you are halfway there.

Fehlendenkörperführerkopf: Körperloser Führerkopf might be better. Not everything can be done in one word

Hey, that's awesome! Don't forget that you can also use the Körperloser Führerkopf in the pulp game: "They Saved Hitler's Brain!"

Love the old Dreads, too.

I'd keep Panzerkampfanzug (PzKA?) for the basic suit, and Sturmpanzerkampfanzug (StPzKA?) for one with lots of extra armor and some more guns. I mean, if we're going for WW2 German, there has to be at least dozen variants for every basic hull.

Wasn't there an old B movie called "They Saved Hitler's Brain" that had the dismembered head in a jar?

Phil

Yes there was such a movie. You just see this poor actor trying to look menacing with just his head showing.

Rich

> I mean, if we're going for WW2 German, there has to be at
> least dozen variants for every basic hull

And you can give them the name of some poor animal totally unrelated to armored warfare, like PzKpfAzg Ausf. M Laubfrosch, and StPzKpfAzg Ausf. L Ochsenfrosch…

[And you can give them the name of some poor animal totally unrelated to armored warfare, like PzKpfAzg Ausf. M Laubfrosch, and StPzKpfAzg Ausf. L Ochsenfrosch…]

Also, you should look exasperated when people get it wrong. You can't tell the difference between an Ausf L/75 and a Sturmfrosch? Don't you read anything? You should buy the Osprey…

I do like the idea of two names. It is accurate since the two dreadnoughts I used were different, one being taller with a heavy weapon mount. To stay true to the genre (did I just say that..) I'd like to stick with cat names, perhaps Fallmuster-Kalikokatzen? I've rediscovered the Google language translation tool and I'm having fun.

Incidentally I'm using the Bolters as clip fed single or twin 25mm Schnellfeurkanone 45 L/24. Heavy Bolters would be the L/48 variant.

Körperloser Führerkopf, I really like that. I should try and rent that movie about Hitler's brain.

I've got a whole host of other things planned for the Germans- Exploding Guard Dogs, an Android like Yul Brynner in West World, an automated sentry MG42, a Goliath, and a squad of Sturmbots with StG-45s that will only follow discreet orders on 3 radio channels.

To be fair the American get multiple Flamethrowers, pack charges, and Bazookas.

Awww, pity, no Sturmfrosch then? Maybe a Sturmangora, then?

"Also, you should look exasperated when people get it wrong. You can't tell the difference between an Ausf L/75 and a Sturmfrosch? Don't you read anything? You should buy the Osprey…"

Pete, I'm waiting for someone to ask me where I came up with the idea for the Goliath and how I scratchbuilt it, in reality a straight 1/48 Tamiya model.. I've run straight up historical WWII games and had people ask me if I was running 40K. I think that may have driven me in the hybrid direction for a portion of the WWII skirmish games I GM :-)

@Zafarelli- Sturmfrosch I'll reserve for the German name for the Italian Troglodyte-Men of the Black Shirt Cult. They are used in secret missions to attack Allied ships when in neutral ports I hear..

More appropriate, I guess ;) On the other hand: are there any cats (well, cat names) left which the Germans didn't use for tanks?

They didn´t use "Siamkatze" or "Perserkatze". Well, they are just ordinary cats, but they sound exotic. And what about Löwe (Lion)? Did they use that?
Sturmfrosch sounds cool, too.
More names: Sturmkarnickel or Sturmhase (Stormbunny)
Sturmechse (Stormlizard)

Siam and Perser are more on the fuzzy side, arent they (as well as my Sturmangora)? Not really suited for something such as a StPzKpfAzg

According to wikipedia, there were plans for a Löwe, which never made it into a prototype.

Sturmfrosch almost made me fall of my chair

There were names like the Wespe which were not from the cat naming convention. I guess SP guns don't rate with tanks. So perhaps I'm not so stuck on cat names for a one man powered armor suit after all. I still want to use Sturmfrosch for my Troglodytes/Frogmen.

Maybe the Dachs and Königdachs for the powered armor? (Feel free to correct me on spelling)

"There I was with 1st platoon on hill 203 when our line was hit by a company of PanzerGrenadiers and a section of King Badgers.."

More cats: Ozelot, Jaguar, Berglöwe, Puma. (Still, I love the fuzzy ones…)
And for the tunneldiggers: The Maulwurf! Dadaaaaaa! First underground light recon Panzer (Leichter Untergrundspähpanzer).

I just did a quick search for Panzerkampfanzug, and came across some anime-styled lines of kits called "MaschinenKrieger". They use some ordinary German first names like Heinrich, Gustav, Konrad, or Dora (and the lame abbreviation PKA), as well as animals (they have a SK362/9 PzSpWg Frosch ). Insects might be another option (Sturmkäfer/Jagdkäfer). But look for yourself: home.att.net/~mak3000/mdls.html

LUgrSpPz Maulwurf… do the pilots need to be blind?

What about walkers? Like Sturmgeher, Sturmläufer, Strauß (ostrich).
And for underwateraction: the Unterwasserrüstung, Tiefseekampfanzug, Meerjungfrau or Nixe (mermaid).

Ahhh, well, there should be some minor problems with the Maulwurf. It should work with radar or sonar.
Blindness is optional. Either way, you can´t see a thing while digging in the mud. %-{

I love the Flaschenfueher! What a laught riot! Maybe you could tint the brush protector green before sticking Adolf's head inside.

Ah Faustnik, too late. I just finished working on him for the evening before coming back to TMP. I wasn't able to find a toy gorilla to mount him on tonight, so I opted for a kitbashed walker. I threw it together from scraps this evening. I'll put some pics up tomorrow night after I get some paint on it. I used small Kryomek Walker legs, with a Rafm robotic arm off the back and a buzzsaw and claw arms. The "bottle" sits on a post that projects out from the front in between the two front arms. Beneath the head is a belly mounted MP40. The head is removable from the walker. I only just primered it with that black gesso stuff, so once I put some color to it, I'll share some pictures tomorrow evening.

Considering how fast I put this project together, someday I may look into creating a collection of bottled heads and experiment with filling the tube with clear or tinted resin.

Zafarelli, Great link! I'm going to look for those at the next model show.

CuorDiLeone, some great names to think about. Thanks!

Sturmkäfer/Jagdkäfer

Those are *deeply* cool names.

Dr. Goldwyrm

How about Schicklegruber suits. Heh heh.

Thanks Ed. Every day a new piece of trivia.

Nvdoyle, I agree. Along those lines, the Volkswagen StPzKA MkI Ausf. B "Sturm Beetle" would be a fun name.

This evening I threw some paint on last night's creation:

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I still have some decisions to make on finishing the bases.

Well, we still need to teach you how to take miniature pictures, but it does look cool. Hitler's brain running a mech.

Cool!

Rich

Leichter Kommandoläufer LKLfr Flaschenführer…

Well, I´ll dig up my old Citadel Dreadnoughts and Robots and call them Flaschenöffner (bottle-opener)….

Rich, they do look better in person. I bought the wife a 5 megapixel Sony DSC-H1 camera but neither of us has had the time to figure out the hundred setting options. I should go back to using my 1999 640K pixel camcorder for digital pics until I've trained myself..