Hi guys, well this is my second small build (in progress) that I have decided to post to a forum. Basically its a variation on the (in)famous picture of Joachim Peiper in the Ardennes sat in a Schwimmwagen. The orignal picture is rather grainy, so its difficult to guage the actual terrain, but as the Ardennes offensive did take place in snowy conditions I assume that snow was lying around.



So this is relatively straight forward, the Schwimmwagen is basically the Tamiya version, with a few scratch built elements and a update photo-etch set from Eduard. The figures are the tamiya set, with replacement Hornet heads. I tried in vain to find a suitable head for the driver, to correspond with the picture, but alas I couldnt find one or at least not one that would be delivered to the UAE! I toyed with the idea of scratch building the head, but with limited access to either Green Stuff or Milliput that idea was also shelved! Hence why this became a take on the (in)famous picture as the accuracy is obliviously not there!

I shall post more updates once uploaded!

ok, here are the first few pics of the built schwimmwagen in the primer stage. At this stage the primer (tamiya spray) didnt take well and was rather bubbly and nasty in spots. I cleaned them up a little, as I felt I could use them to my advantage at the weathering stage to be honest.







After Primary painting and before weathering:

driver added and initial weathering completed

vignette begins to take shape at this stage, with weathering completed.

I am still playing around with this and toying with the idea of adding a third chap, like in the real picture and the rifle hanging from the sign post...unsure at this stage

According to accounts, snow was pretty patchy, depending on the particular area of the Ardennes. Sometimes it snowed slightly over-night and melted during the day creating muddy roads. The heavy and permanent snow only started on Christmas Day, or shortly afterwards. Judging from other photos taken during the same time frame there was little to no snow at that time.
But then, it's difficult to convey the impression of winter without snow! So maybe use some artistic license and just sprinkle some snow on the tree branches.

i searched in vain for better pictures of the area, and most seem to suggest little to no snow, but with the graininess of the orginal pictures its difficult to tell. I admit, there wasnt huge drifts, possibly light scatter and loads of slush, but as i said due to the fact I couldnt get an accurate driver head nor couldnt be bothered to scratch build the real road signs, this is a similiar version not an accurate representation, which is a shame because an accurate representation would have been far better.



this one shows a larger area, but its difficult to see whethet there is snow or not. Its clearly chilly and rather muddy although the half track seems to suggest otherwise whereas Peiper's schwimmwagen is caked in mud!

Battle of the Bulge, Then and Now Page 157 has the famous picture (taken from a movie still) of three SS men riding a schwimmwagen at the Kaiserbaracke Crossroad. Their driver is unidentified but the two NCO ranks are Unterscharfurther Oschner and Persin. Joachim Pieper's rank was Obersturmbannfurher. Pieper was not anywhere near the location where the photo was taken at the time.

Re Peiper, you're right. If you go on YouTube, Critical Past channel, you will see the actual footage of these men. The film was a propaganda stunt. Regarding the weather, you'll see that both car passengers are completely splattered with mud.

It’s no secret that Peiper was present in the Ardennes and undoubtedly the photo was staged, after all what commando mission takes along a film crew etc? It is however true that the kampfgruppe was active near Malmedy, not Bastogne, and the weather was awful - the entire reason the battle of the bulge was initially successful was due to no air cover because of the weather. Nevertheless, I fully appreciate that my vignette is certainly not accurate - maybe another staged photo shot ordered by Herr Goebbels

I think your vignette is great!

Don't beat yourself up over absolute historical accuracy. Your vignette is consistent with an overall flavor of a specific time and place.

A little late but MK 35 use to do the figure in the Schwimmy.

Don't think its produced any more.