Panzer Freaks,
I am working on a project where I am going to have a dismounted panzer crewman with an MG-34 scrounged from the hull MG position.

I have a few questions about depicting this:

1) I have seen the collector's brass tank MG version's with the heavy barrell and no shoulder stock, would this be correct for late war AFV's?

2) are these MG/barrels original from the factory or did they change this and go to "straight" fMG-34's for ease of production?

3) Do you know of any links and/or references for this? I have tried to sift through a lot of panzer pic on the web but can't find good detail shots of the hull MG position.

Thanks,
Craig

Couple of pics taken fron the inside here:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/willphelps/Album0000023-03.htm

Shaun

The MG34 that was the basis for the hull and coaxial machine guns on German armor lacked the shoulder stock, since it was mounted in the turret/hull and the barrel was a stouter and I think shorter "Armored" version. The regular barrel and stock would fit from the infantry version since the basic frame was the same.

And who knows when they lost their aircover the tank crews might have picked up a spare MG for the AA mount.

The hull mg was issued with a butt stock for dismounted ops.

Thanks guys,
I guess I will have a bit of latitude here in how I set up the gun & gunner

Craig

I have only seen a couple of interior pictures and they did not have the butt stock. That does not mean that they were not issued and the crew removed them or some one restored the tank and put in the wrong gun. As a tank crewman I would like having the room without the stock.

That's it. The gun was issued with the stock, a bipod and gunsight, but these were detached and stored inside when not in use as a 'normal' MG. The stock can be seen in the radiorack in one of the photo's in Shaun's link.

Cheers
Henk

GUys,
Thanks for all of your responses.
I will be able to outfit my figure as I wanted to, with a hastily removed/scrounged (sans the shoulder stock, tripod etc.) MG-34.

I'll be sure to post pics when I am done.

Craig

Guys,
I have finaly come across the MG-34 variant I was looking for



from the site http://www.geocities.com/Augusta/8172/mg34hb.jpg

A very good paz=nzer faust site also.

Craig

One highly visible difference is that the hull mounted version of the MG34 has an armored barrel jacket - it is thicker and has no cooling holes. Also missing is the (folding) front sight. Look for pictures of guns that match that general description for more details.

Konrad

Exactly Craig - that's it.

Konrad