Hi all

Sal & William, thanks for the comments




The BP-44 in the pictures I posted is 1/72 scale, its the Armageddon kit that came out about 10 years ago. I don't recommend this kit, its only for diehard armoured train fans, as many parts are quite poorly cast, and it takes a lot of work to get it together, lots of sanding and putty, and many bits are unusable and have to be replaced. Problem is that no one else makes these train components in plastic in 1/72 scale, excepting the Panzertraegerwagen with T-38 tank, UM make one of these, though I used the Armageddon wagen, and used the UM T-38 tank.

For the build campaign I'm planning on building 2 more BP-42/44 wagons, again Armageddon brand but I'm modifying both.

One will have a Wirbelwind turret in place of the quad Flak 38, as per a few photos showing these mounted on late war BP-44 trains, and on another I'm going to mount a Flak 36/37 on a modified Panzerkanonwagen, this was a fairly rare variant, few photos of this version, and possibly only one armoured train was modified this way. I'm awaiting some brass parts before I can start either of these.

Also plan to do a fairly simple conversion to start the campaign - mounting a soviet 61-K AA gun onto a 2 axle Pilot Car.

bad picture of box tops, but you can see what they are

cheers
Neil

Hello

one week to go till kick off for the campaign... then its on

here are a few random pics of 1/72 scale railway builds I've made over the last couple of years..

cheers
Korpse

@ Korpse some nice looking stuff thanks for sharing

Guys we are now a little more then 48 hrs away from the start of this 1 so I hope everyone that has been waiting has all their goodies together. I myself have my kit(s) that I will be building for this 1 but however at the kick off time I will be preoccupied making sure that the Occupy Wall streeters are behaving for 17 hrs Then I will be back there for another 17 hrs 36 hrs later So I will have my hands full but I what to see lots of startup pictures and lots of progress when I check back in on Monday
So Happy Thanksgiving for those that it applies to and lets see those trains

I will be away for Thanksgiving. I will probably have Internet access while away but I thought I would put his up just in case.

Here is the link to the photo gallery for this campaign. Photos of your finished builds must go in here to qualify for a ribbon.

Military Railroad

Thanks Gary, and enjoy your turkey day

Hi Neil,

that's a great combination of wagons you have there.

Hi Korpse,

Same detail, with some unusual combinations there.

Nice work Guys.

I jumped the gun for the campaign as I was building this for the artillery campaign but here is my contribution of tracks.







Have fun guys, I'm looking forward to watching developments.

Cheers

Al

New to me is this source
http://www.o5m6.de/index.html
It is Engines of the Red Army and there is also new Engines of the Wehrmacht
Both are very well illustrated and both have Railroad/Armoured Train sections.
You may already know the site but I thought I'd try to help out by providing an info source.
Cheers from the Heart of the Continent
Will

so can I start now, please!!!!!

Mark Giles

Yes, Mark you and everybody else can now start

Quote from a famous conductor, " all aboard that is a board, all that aint, is a plank". Got to get my pics done and sent to Gary so he can post them some time next week. I quess my trian aint on schedual.

I should have made the topic sticky before I left for Thanksgiving. Will do that now.

Which one to choose....?


Decisions, decisions..

ill gladly build one for you

Thanks Gregory.

Very welcome sir, just trying to do my part for the campaign

Wow Kimmo, your going to build a whole train, ok your extension is approved
Your train selection stash is about the size of my whole stash

Wow! Great stash Kimmo. The Kanonen and Flakwagen would be my top of the list, but they are surely all great kits although I have not build any of them myself - yet

Looking forward to see what you choose.

Hi Kimmo

I vote you start the Panzerjager-Triebwagen 51 =)

cheers
Neil

With that much armor and firepower you could assault a whole town!

I know I couldn't decide.


~ Jeff

Thanks gents!

@Sal: even we have a year for this campaign, I couldn´t build the whole train, or in this case, those kits include only a half of the real train. Those kits are just a part of stash, rest is in 6 - 7 big cardboard boxes. Besides, there´s a Italeri kit, AB41 ferroviari, missing from that pic, just noticed. The train will be build some day....
@Jesper: you should buy atleast one of those kits, they are very good change for building tanks all the time.
@nyall: thanks for your vote. That´s the one I´ve been thinking too...
@Jeff: I thoughed so too but now I´m having good vibrations for one of those kits.

Ok gents.
It´s time for grand opening for this box. Finally.... I would say. Yep, this is my choice for this campaign at the moment, mostly OOB but I think I´ll use some parts of that Voyager PE set. No interior scratch build this time, otherwise it would never finish in time for this campaign...


Have to say, boys over Trumpeter know, how to pack kits this size.

Hi guys!

Man, have I been thinking about what to build for this campaign. Being a large scale (1/24) builder the obvious choice would have to be done in G scale. But what?

After lots of deliberation (and a realistic assessment of my free time) I scaled down the project ideas to a relatively simple one. I plan to use a 1/24 Hasegawa Jeep converted to rail use towing a small G scale german railcar full of supplies and ammunition. This would keep the scratchbuilding to a minimum and still make an interesting and unusual piece.

Any suggestions? Still working out the details so I'm open to any input or ideas.

Jim
Large Scale Armory

Kimmo, cool choice looking forward to seeing this one

And just a general question about the Campaign. Are in progress pictures encouraged ? Or do you just want pictures of the build when its all completed ?

cheers
Neil

@ Neil, Yes in progress photos are very welcome and if you could add a word or to as to a method you are using or problem that may have occurred, that would be even better
@ Kimmo, I agree nice choice there, glad w are not building the same kit This is what I'm gonna go with

My start up shot

Started working with the included track bed yesterday, and I'm not to happy with how the rails sit on the ties with the prefab ballast. I may just use the rails and ties and make some scratch ground work. Have to see

Hello

I've kicked off with UMmt kit, number 615, 'Two Axle Pilot Car' (Long 9.2m), in 1/72 scale (the one true scale )

These were produced between 1920 and 1940 by the USSR and were used for transporting just about anything, including military vehicles, up to 20 tonnes in weight. Some were used to mount AA guns on for train protection from air attack, and others were coupled at each end of armoured trains, loaded with sandbags to detonate any mines that may have been laid on the train lines.

The kits has 52 plastic parts and 32 brass etch parts needed for construction, and two pieces of brass wire. There are a few uncounted plastic and brass parts on the sprues that are not needed for this kit. (UMmt make a number of russian rail vehicles and use some common sprues across kits).

Construction is quite simple, & parts are mostly well cast, with minimal need to sand or cut away flash, except on some very small parts.

The long brass sections on the underbody are hard to bend, as they are very long and slim. I clamped these parts in a vise, to enable a neat uniform bend to be made, applying pressure along the bend with a metal ruler.

The sides are two separate pieces that can be attached in the upright position or folded down, or just one half can be folded down. I assembled mine folded up. The level of detail is good for 1/72 scale.

You could make a fascinating train load of military hardware with a length of these wagons, with either german or russian equipment on board. The germans made use of captured russian stock like this. The germans had a massive programme of regauging captured russian railway lines and rolling stock to german standard gauge and by the end of 1942 had converted most of the rail lines in the captured areas in the east to their gauge, as the railway was the most fastest, cheapest & most efficient method of supply for their armies in the east.

This is quite a large and wide wagon, its wide enough to hold a Panzer III, if the sides are folded down or taken off, but at 20 tonnes capacity only a Bergepanzer would be light enough for the wagon, but this still means lighter tanks, halftracks and trucks and artillery pieces could be carried.

as in progress posts are encouraged, here are some shots of my progress to date, with an Opel bus body and T-26 tank to give a size comparison.

still a number of small details to add to this wagon, I'll post more pics when more progress made

cheers
Korpse