Greg;

Hi!

Stowage on panzers...

It varied all over the place - unditching beams, gas-cans, barrels, tarps, boxes, personal gear, spare parts, ammo-cans, dining room chairs, rolled carpets, what-have-you! LOTS of stuff appears in pictures throughout WWII and across all theaters.

There ARE some vague patterns by panzer type, time-period, and theater... Poland and the Blitz in France mostly had less stuff - and much less "gas and water" - than did Russia or north Africa campaigns. Earlier tanks often had square-hewn wooden unditching timbers - often with iron fittings. Later, these "formal" things seemed to have mostly disappeared and mid-war tanks sometimes had logs (mostly in Russia...) - increasingly rare as the war went on. Advancing AFV in Russia and in north Africa carried EVERYTHING with them - so were often really loaded. Later in the war, fuel baggage slowed down and many tanks in the east ended up carrying both military and civilian refugees and baggage.

Type matters. Early war small tanks (I and II) generally had less junk. 38(t), III and IV in Russia were beasts of burden, as were any type in Africa. Big tanks - Tigers and Panthers and KT - mostly did not seem to have tons of crap. Tiger I had logs on occasion - Panthers and KT - only very rarely that I know of. Late-war IV - the J is of course a later-war beast - had camo and cans and junk and personal gear. Logs or beams were, at best, very rare on late war IV.

But we German modelers (and others, too) LOVE our clutter! Here's a couple of "early war" pieces from my stable as examples. I tried to capture some of the ambiance of advancers in the Blitz (relatively light-loaded and fresher small tanks) and Op Barbarossa - where beams were IN and fuel precious.





Go look at pics of your type in your chosen period and get a feel for what was common and seen.

Cheers!

Bob

Stowage is good but HUGE mistakes by many modelers are as follows:

1) watch clogging air intakes or vents. No vehicle crew would jeopardize the coolant system of its engine. The same goes for flammable materials near the exhaust.

2) don't block the upper edges of the glacis or the turret. Crew periscopes need the angle to see. Several aftermarket resin sand bag sets would have you blind the driver. Stupid oversight.

3) Don't have anything that if knocked off, would jam the turret traverse. Deadly consequences.

4) tie things down. Imagine going to work in the morning and placing your bag/purse/lunch on your trunk. How many turns would it take you before it disappeared. Many modelers act as if they have no sense of the undulations and violent actions that AFVs actually do.

5) consider physics. The #1 violation are 55 gallon barrels. Yes, some Germans strapped them on for long trips -- but these were removed before combat. Loaded, they'd be in excess of 500 lbs. Yet I've seen modelers strap them to fenders. And crews don't store loose rounds on the engine deck either.

6) personal/valuable goods. everyone steals. No souvenir Luger pistols lying around the Sherman tank.

7) interiors and open topped models. keep the floor clear. These were highly integrated systems which allowed a trained crew to fight and maneuver. A gas mask canister or mess tin or empty shell wouldn't be on the floor -- to roll around and injure the crew.

8) no loose chains! There is no value to them. too dangerous -- clog the suspension. They would be bagged, if needed. Tanks use cables (besides early French and Soviet AFVs). How many dangling chains do you see hanging off of construction equipment on the side of the highway?

Basically, use common sense. Would an actual crew man stow item X at location Y. Is there a better place to put it. Would it be concealed? If you look hard enough, you'll see violations of this common sense in many situations. HTH

But, I do declare that the mounting brackets and assemblies for those side panels are the messiest, and most dangerous looking obsticles for a crew to have to manuver and walk in and around. I can only imagine how many men cut their legs up trying to weave in and out of all that mess.

Greg

I always consider the artistic view point as well

If you haven't figured them out, here are the corrected links from Bob's previous post.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-277-0825-31,_Russland,_Panzer_38%28t%29.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-265-0037-10,_Russland,_Panzer_38t.jpg

As for the cans near the mufflers, they could be holding water, not gas. In fact, in colder weather I wouldn't be surprised to see a water can right on the muffler. What better way to have hot water at the end of a road march or patrol?

I would expect that the Germans - noted even in this thread for being careful about crew and vehicle safety - would have outfitted these with shields were they really hot.

With the quality in modern kits, loads of etch is not needed anymore, and in most cases is not even seen when the model is painted up and weathered. On the other hand, adding some strategic stowage adds so much more to the finished model. There are some great points lifted above like in Roys case, the no-no´s for stowage and as Robert mentioned the supply lines should be considered before your decision on what stowage should/could be used.
I always consider the artistic view point as well. Stowage can add life and scale to your model, and also colour which adds contrast and helps break up a monotonous and monotone colour scheme. The market has also realised this and there are some fantastic stowage sets available today from Black Dog, Blast and Legends Productions, to name a few. Many of these sets are vehicle specific. Others do individual stowage items for the same purpose ... Verlinden, Value Gear details, Plus Models, etc.
These items make your model look more natural, lived in and even add some character. On a competition table theres nothing worse than looking down at 30 or 40 green models and none of them standing out or locking the viewers eye. Stowage can make the difference. See Lester Plaskitt and Andy Taylors T55 that took gold at this years Euromilitaire for a perfect example of what I mean.
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