Finlands last stand, part 1 - Sturmi

Hallo everyone!

Back in the modelling business for the first time in some 20 years I have finished my first diorama. I'm happy to be back and I hope you'll like my efforts bearing in mind that it's been a while since my last attempts.

/Fredrik

Background
The historical theme for the diorama is the decisive fight to defend their country that the Finnish soldiers fought on the Karelian Isthmus in the summer of 1944.

The diorama is an free interpretation of the battle of Tali-Ihantala and displays the moments before the Russian breakthrough in the morning of June 25th of June along the road to Juustila.



The 1st Assault Gun company of the Finnish Armoured Brigade were positioned east of the village Tali at Hiihkallio. The soldiers were resting eating oatmeal awaiting the Russian assault.



The 1st Assault Gun company used German made Sturmgeschütz 40 Ausfürung G, called Sturmi by the Finnish soldiers. The displayed Sturmi is the Ps.531-19 "Marjatta" commanded by 1/Lt Sartio.

The kit
The Sturmi is made from Dragons kit 6320, Stug.III Aufs.G slightly modified to be a Finnish lookalike using decals from Echelon Fine Details. The figures is a mix of figures from Dragon, Tamiya and Tank, all with heads from Hornet. The motorcycle is a DKW NZ 350 from Tamiya completed with additional photo etch from Royal Model.



The Sturmi is quite heavy weathered to try to achieve a battle worn look to the Sturmi as well as to the soldiers. On the 25th of June the fighting had been going on for more than two weeks.



Please comment!

Hello Fredrik!

Its always nice to see a Sturmi. And I see that you have chosen to portray Marjatta.

My project has not be worked on since I realized I had to repaint it.
http://www.planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5016

Cheers

Hallo Janne!

Thanks for the comment, my very first one It was really a nice coincidence that you were the first to comment as your build has been a source of inspiration for me - thank's!

As for the Sturmi it's a interesting part of the WWII history. The Sturmi's and the crews really wrote themselves into history with their decisive fighting.

The choose for Ps.531-19 was more of a coincidence as I found a story to tell when Lt Sartio left his unit on a motorcycle for a meeting with Major Kiviperä, the commander of JR 5, just before fighting took place.

I think it looks very good Fredrik Considering this is your first diorama in twenty years, you definitely should feel proud of your work.

Maybe you should consider adding a few more branches to the spruces on the left? They look a little naked to me...

Jesper

As much as I find the German super heavies a bit of fun, I am left a bit cold by their mediums because every model show I go to is overwhelmed by them!

That said, I have long had a couple of Tamiya Stug III Gs on the shelf - and have even built up the hull of one - with the intention of building Sturmis because they are a bit off the beaten modelling track, and the cam scheme and other mods are a bit different.

As an aside, I have a small collection of Finnish rifles - three M91s and an M39, all of which are based on the Russian M91 action (okay, so one of them is actually a US-made Remington):

I really like the weathering in particular and overall composition or your scene. I've been wanting to do a Sturmi myself and have a partially assembled Dragon Early G that may get properly finished one day . . . and yours may just the inspiration that gets the project back on track. Thanks for sharing.

Thank's for all the feedback. There's a few hints and tips that I will take into consideration!

It would be really nice to see all the in progress Sturmis completed! It's a nice piece to build since there were so many modifications done to the Sturmis during the Continuation War. One of my issues was finding decent colours for the camouflage. I have commented on this in part 3.

After the battle of Tali-Ihantala concrete and logs were added on the vehicles and is some cases extra armour and extra track plates were added as well. I have tried to build mine as a quite early one (June 25th) before those modifications were done. That is also the reason for excluding the kill marks on the barrel. Marjatta had 4 kills from the June 15th. On the 25th two more were added the day adding to the war total of 7.