Small Scale Military Headquarters

After taking a short break to eat a snack between working on my Marder project, I was looking at my Tamiya 1:35 Pak-40 I built to tow behind my 21st 32X Hanomag. First off, I learned some new things about the Pak-40 in my run through Yahoo! search, but not enough. I really only found some great reference photos and specifications. What I'm really looking for is how the gun is actually connected, realistically.

I couldn't for the life of me find any pictures of a Pak-40 hooked up to anything. Nor could I find even a vague description of how the process works, I'm just stuck with a basic idea that the towing hook (the arm that has the eye-hole) connects to a "hitch" on a vehicle, which, I couldn't find a second reference if a 251 is able to pull a Pak-40, but my Tamiya booklet says it is, and shows a little black side view silhouette of a Hanomag pulling a 251. But I just want verification before I go through some work to do this.

I don't know what the "towing handles" do, I'm guessing that the crew uses those to lift the legs of the Pak-40 up to hitch-level and then folds them down once the gun is securely locked in place. This is my general, vague understanding coming from the Tamiya booklet and just by looking at photos. I may be wrong, but having worked on a ranch for 5 years this is kind of the obvious solution...

Other than that, are there any chains or similair objects used in the towing process? I want to add some small details like that if they were used.

I did see in one member's pictures after doing a search for "Pak-40 in tow" that I do remember, a custom truck pulling a Pak, and the towing handles were folded forward towards the muzzle. If that is how they are in tow, I'm going to have to do some cutting and gluing. No problem though. I honestly just noticed I left the end cap off of the gun rail... I also didn't think I'd notice the shovel not being there when the front plate was folded, but yeah, it's noticeable. Gotta fix that as well.

Oh well, more stuff to work on as the rain hopefully begins to dry up.

http://ww2armor.jexiste.fr/Mythicpanzer ... k-Guns.htm

this book is really good http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/r ... apg18.html

I just looked at my Tamiya box after looking at that site, and it's on the back of the box, in gray and color, it shows a 251 pulling the Pak-40, I forgot that was there, soooo... don't need much help now. I feel dumb. Reeeeeeal dumb.

Thanks Stug. Making me look silly.

That book does look grand! Jeez, it even shows the different wheel types. I might be in for that one day. (I'm eventually planning a 1/1 or 1/2 scale Pak-40 based pneumatic cannon, and want it to be ACCURATE.) Of course this will be years from now, as I don't have room nor the money to build something so intricate and powerful. 1/1 would be huge, and 1/2 would so small... All I know is eventually I will have a house, and want something to play with. I'm talking one single air chamber where the rail is, but it will be chambered to 75mm.

The ammunition will be as accurate as can be, but of course much lighter, maybe with a weighted tip. I actually already started blueprints months ago. Maybe I'm just crazy, but I can dream, can't I?

I wouldn't rely too heavily on Tamiya. In most cases, soft skinned halftracks or trucks pulled the Pak 40. German armored vehicles were so underpowered they didn't pull anything, except in an emergency.

Why not use the 21st 1/32 Pak 40? It's nicely done and the correct scale.

if ever you have an armour question, any armour question then go to www.missing-lynx.com and post it on the appropriate discussion forum. The best knowledge base in the world. I've even asked naval, aviation etc questions on there and got the answer lickity split.

I don't know, I was in Hobby Lobby, and it was there, 8 bucks. I had paint, brushes and glue. So yeah, I don't know. I figured it wasn't too reliable, I'd never heard of such. =/ But hey, it looks good, but looking good isn't good enough. I'll have to get me a large truck of some sort. For now this will do. Thanks for the reference Aferg, I'll try that out.