Here is my diorama idea:

Takes place in France '44 (possibly falaise or montain area) with the 2nd or 3rd SS Das Reich

Okay theres a panther V ausf G, Marder III, sdkfz 251 halftrack, and a kubelwagen traveling along a road which has a ditch on one side of it for water runoff. The marder is hit by a lowpower american anti tank gun in the transmission (so I dont have to make too much battle damage) The driver of the marder is wounded and runs the marder off the road into the ditch, and maybe has rolled onto its side 90 degrees.

The crew of the disabled Marder III jumps or thrown out of the fighting compartment of the marder and is covering fire for the wounded driver (dragon panzer crew set) the panther runs off the road to take care of the enemy threat and provide covering fire for the wounded marder crew. The halftrack unloads its soldiers and a kubel is quick in tow providing more soldiers.

My questions are:

1. What american anti tank guns can penetrate 15 mm of armor but not create so much damage that a hit to the transmission wouldnt kill the driver, if so where should the hole of the round be, how big, how much damage, what damage would be sustained from a run off a road, possibly being tipped over?

2. Since i have a panther, marder, 251halftrack, and kubelwagen, would it be good for realism and composition to have a duplicate vehicle, like 2 panthers, or 2 halftracks etc?

3. Also, what figure sets can i use for figures in a kubel that are in a hightened sense of alert? Not a relaxed mood like those of tamiya. but preferably be a set of figures, not the resin warriors or verlinden....dont got that much dough haha.

4. The Dragon panzer survivor figure set is what im using for the marder crew....are the black uniforms in this panzer survivor set compatible with a marder crew uniform?

5. Do some vehicles featured in this dio not belong? Or do you feel this is too big of a dio, should it feature just the marder and the halftrack etc...

Please help me all you armorama armor guys, even if you can only give me answers to only one question, thats fine! i need all the help i can get because this is a big dio....

Thanks in advance,
Ian

The concept is pretty good. But you will need to think it out alot more. Verlinden and Warrior make excellent figures for what your looking for, but like you said, you dont have much money. This diorama in my eyes will be pretty big with atleast 10-15 figures im guessing. The kubel will be at the front up a bit and have the marder back just a little behind. The kubel was used for recon and was usually sent in first, since it had the faster get away. If you saw the part in Saving private ryan where the guy blows the marder (I think) up with his bazooka, that in my eyes will pretty much be what will happen. If you dont like the fact that the driver will get killed(which in some cases he wont) than simply knock a track off. The tank will still zig zag to a halt at the road side.

Heres the critique,
1.) Im not sure if a unmanned bazooka team would take on a panther, 251, and marder. For thats what they are doing is engaging in combat when they shoot that first bullet. The infantry would also be with the tanks in the back so, unless there is a huge hedgerow with about 10-15 americans behind it, than its pretty much suicide to be shooting at a tank.

to answer your question, you dont necessarily have to have 2 of the same type of vehicles in 1 diorama to make it realistic. Since I am a big halftrack fan, id rather put a halftrack in for the panther. The DML uniforms are im pretty sure OK for using in the marder.

To line up the guns for ya, id put the kubel first, the marder second and if your going to be (putting 2 halftracks) put them in the back with the infantry bailing out. or 1 panther and 1 halftracks: Put the panther at the end.

Hopefully this helped.

hi ian.

to answer some of your question #4 & #5:

- the marder crew will most probably wear a field grey uniform, as black uniforms are worn only by tank crews.

- as for the no. of vehicles or whether the dio is too big, i see that you will have a large vehicle (panther), 2 medium (251 & marder) and small (kwagen). IMO i'll keep it simple by using only 3 vehicles, that is i'll dump the kwagen as it serves no purpose, and the 251 were also used for recon in place of the kubel.... of course this all depends on the actual size of the dio.

anyway... your dio concept is going to be set in the 'in-action' mode... it should be very exciting! so go ahead and finish this one

Bodymovin -

Sorry for delay on reply. I really like your diorama idea and think that it could be worked into something outstanding. Couple general things. Das Reich would be 2 SS, not 3 SS. Also depending on whether or not you want to stick with SS, it may have an effect on the vehicles you'd want to use. Also the "role" that is being portrayed, like a Recon or Tank Destroyer unit. I'd defer to others in Armorama that are much more knowledgeable than I am in this area.

1- I'd go with something like TsunamiBomb's idea of a bazooka blowing off a track on driver's side (definitely possible to get wounded that way). Though the Marder would "pull" toward the side that had the track still on, not zig zag which would work to end up in the ditch (if on "track" side). You could show a typical ambush scenario where you take out thee lead and trailing vehicles to clog road.

2- Vehicles could be determined by role. Recon would more likely have SdKfz 222, 223, 234, 250, 251 mixes.
Panzer Abteilung would be more along Marder with Sdkfz 250 or 251s. Panzer like Panther G would lead way to penetrate or counter attack with Panzergrenadiers in the 251s following to support, hold, or exploit. I'd leave Kubel either out or in back.

3- Dragon has several Panzergrenadier sets and Fallschirmjager that could work for troops. Resin like Verlinden or Warrior just seem to have better "action and variety". If Marder is to befocus, maybe go with resin for crew (expense saved by using less vehicles) and troops from Dragon.

4- Marder crew likely to be in camo or as "moJimbo" described. Panzerjager crews (not sure I'd could say didn't as I'm not that sure) would be less likely to be in black "Panzer" uniforms.

5- I'd go with the "wounded" Marder and SdKfz 250 and/or 251 combo and leave off Panther. Troops moving out to counter the threat. Or maybe have Panther instead of Marder?

Ian - These are just my thoughts on a great diorama idea, and it got me thinking (and planning whichis why it took so long to reply) along similar lines. When it comes down to it, about anything you'd decide on would/could be possible. Best thing is to enjoy and go for it. Please keep us updated and thanks for letting us share in it a little. Hope some of this helps,

Blade48mrd

Nice idea - I agree with previos posts so I won't duplicate some of the thoughts.
here are mine
If you have multiple vehicles on a road make the base something like 12"x30" or a bit wider to accomodate a bend in the road.
If you dump a vehicle on it's 90, make sure you detail the bottom.
There are lots of figures by Dragon or Tamiya (you may need to do some minor conversions).

If I left any vehicle out - it'd be the Kuble.