Normandy dio begins.. New pics 9-24-11

[grunt1]

I've poked around asking a few questions and have done a bit of research (more than normal anyway) and have taken the first steps to a larger dio I'd like to pull off outside ideally before the weather turns.

Anyway, there are a lot of pieces involved so I thought instead of waiting until it was done it might be fun to share the progress so far.

This is a Pickle 222.



This Stoewer R200 (spare tire in trunk) started as an Indiana Jones troop car. I moved the headlights, removed the running boards, built in a trunk for the spare tire, and added the angled doors.








This is the Panzer IV to Stug Kit from the Hun.


This is a Maisto VW being turned into a Kafer.


This is a Indiana Jones BMW R75, with a Pickle sidecar and a Grunt Trailer.


Actual R75 with sidecar and trailer

[YT]

Wow!

[Razor17019]

Cool stuff, Grunt.

[flyboy_fx]

[normandy]

+his is going +o be cool. (keyboard is ac+ing up, le++er be+ween S and U no+ working )

[pickelhaube]

This is going to be cool.

[flyboy_fx]

He's doing a massive Normandy dio and Im working on a Massive bulge dio! This will be lots of fun to watch!!!!!

[Light.Inf.Scout]

cool

[ram04]

These both are going to be great, can't wait to see them

[plasticboy]

Way to go! Exciting project!!

[ram04]

With Flyboy and grunt1 both doing dios, this should be really great, Flyboy has gave me a hint of what hes doing and if he does what hes been doing lately this is going to be one great dio

To do a 1/18 dio has to be really hard, the Hun has done a few that are amazing, Jnewboy does some very great background dios, so I'm really looking forward to these guys work

[grunt1]

New items and updates from the past week or so:

Jadgpanther (Hun conversion kit for Panther)


21st Century Kubelwagen



Lanz Eilbulldog



Stoewer with Dark Yellow base and Nebelwerfer 41


Stug IV (Hun conversion for Panzer IV) with MG shield


Ford v3000


Ford v3000 with small Anhanger




Wirbelwind (Pickle conversion kit for Panzer IV)


I have some tweaks in progress like:

- Adding the tools to the Wirbel and correcting the gun and interior turret colors
- Adding a second set of wheels to the anhanger
- Adding the spare tire back to the kubel hood, the paint job didn't go so well
- Adding a Notek blackout light and tools to the Stoewer

If anyone has any more details that are missing, I'm happy to hear about and try to fix them.

[Jnewboy]

love it! where did you get that Ford truck??

[flyboy_fx]

Jagdpanthers where highly rare in Normandy.
Looks great though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[normandy]

Grun+, ..... how big are you going +o make +his? Seems you've go+ nine or so vehicles already... very cool
Did you make +he rear / idler wheel on +he S+ug IV ? I looked a+ Hun's S+ug pics and +hey have +he la+er version.

[flyboy_fx]

Why are you +alking like +his? lol

[normandy]

fb, look a+ +he 5+h pos+ above.

[grunt1]

His keyboard is knackered. I thought the use of the + as a T was genius.

The Ford v3000 is a Highway 61 1940 Ford Truck. It's close to identical to a v3000 so other than a few tweaks it's mainly paint and detailing. The one detail that I haven't quite mustered up to is correcting the one piece windshield, mainly due to the cab modifications necessary.



Size wise I am shooting for something like the photos in the link below, in the yard, so it will be "big" but not as elaborate as trying to do it on a table top or a big cityscape, or something like that. Think gathering at an crossroads, or a convoy like in these photos:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25308

And for the Jadgpanther, thanks for the heads up. Your post made me do a lot of Googling which was fun. It looks like I'm ok though? There were about ~50 in Normandy in July out of only around ~70-80 produced at that time, so they were simply rare in general with remaining 300+ produced appearing mainly in Nov44-Mar45?
http://www.panther1944.de/en/jgpz-jagdp ... olume.html

It would appear that Panzerjager Abteilung 654 had the bulk of the Jagdpanthers during Normandy. "The 654th had full compliment of 42 vehicles".

[grunt1]

Oh and yes on the rear idler. It was something Pickle and I talked about a while back, that I would make one and he would try to cast it. We didn't make it that far yet.

[ram04]

grunt1, your one off customs are great, really looking forward to your dio, is the Highway 61 truck 1/16 or 1/18?, not that it matters.

I wish there were more support vehicles available to us.

[Heer]

Very interesting picture. Are one of the panthers on tow or are they in battle ready positions?

[PanzerArm]

Looks to be the one on the right is in tow. I can see that its left track is not in place.

Here is some relevant unit info on PzJg Abt 654 in the Normandy area:

Aug 43 turned over all surviving Ferdinands to I./PJR 656 and transferred to France without equipment
1 Sep 43 redesignated Panzerjäger-Abteilung 654
28 Apr 44 8 Jagdpanthers arrive in Mailly-le-Camp
14 Jun 44 17 more Jagdpanthers dispatched
27-29 Jun 44 one company with 8 Jagdpanthers attached to Panzer Lehr Division
18 Jul 44 2./ assigned to XXXXVII Panzer Corps
28 Jul 44 3./ arrived sometime prior; 21 Jagdpanthers operational, 3 in short-term repair, 1 in long-term repair
31 Jul 44 8 Jagdpanthers issued
1 Aug 44 8 operational Jagdpanthers, 13 in short-term repair, and 3 in long-term repair; 1./ remained in Mailly-le-Camp
10 Aug 44 1./ recommended to be sent to Normandy
14 Aug 44 8 more Jagdpanthers dispatched
Sep 44 rebuilt at Grafenwöhr



-Kevin

[flyboy_fx]

Good deal Grunt1!!!

Glad I got ya googling!

Just wanted to inform you they where RARE, but there. The Jagdkitty and stug look great!!!!

[ram04]

the Stoewer R200 is amazing, we need more support vehicles like that

[1958Zelda]

Grunt all your stuff looks great,looking forward to more pictures.