Paul,
cool idea. It is alot of work but the underground effect on the right will look really good and add that nice touch to the scene.

This is my Berlin street turret that I have completed. It is a resin turret from the old Kirrin kit with some resin figures . The base is scratch built with various additions like VP bricks etc. This scene is set the day after surrender and these Germans are waiting for processing buy the Russians. I took the liberty of using and English language paper so that I could get the 'Hitler dead' thing accross.





I am trying to upload to the gallery but everything seems to be corrupting as it goes on! frustrating, must be a virus around.

That is an incredible dio. The Hitler's Dead is a great touch.

Ian,

That's a great dio! Well done!
There are so may details in it; so much to see!
And also great figures with those wounds and the broken leg.
Feel free to post more pics in the campaign gallery of this beautifull dio!

BTW; take a look on how :
Martin's diorama is commin' along (click here)

I'm building my JSU122S at this moment.

How are the others doing?

Paul

Paul,Alan,
thanks, I'm glad you like it. How do I get to the campaign gallery? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

Martin,
your dio look great. It will be a 'visual feast' when you are finished with those buildings and equipment. It is 1/72 scale not 1/35 ?

Yes, my first 1/72 project. Saves space and costs

It's here: http://photos.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php/cat/15713

Hey all,

Just a post to show my progress on the JSU122S.
Man what a big MG that beast have!







Paul

Thanks for the address Paul. I got the photo's up to the gallery.

Nice assault gun. That is a big MG isn't it!

Thanks Ian!

BTW; I discovered a very nice site about the remains of the battle in Berlin. The city was what they called a 'festungstadt'.
60 years later they still have so many buildings left.

Check it out on:
Berlin Air-raid Shelters, Flak Towers and Bunkers
The site has also some nice links to other sites of bunkers, flaktowers and undergroun complexes in Berlin and other cities.

What do you think of this: an appartment building build over a bunker (you just don't swap a bunker down, even if you want to).
.

Wow ,some really interesting stuff.............especially how everything has been overgrown in time. Just shows how insignificant we are in the big picture.
The shots of the bunker are quite weird with the grass grown over and all the surrounding courtyard gone. Almost like it never happened.

I've been in one of those air raid shelters (and later it became a shelter in case the soviet fired a nuke)

Really impressive, they had a sound installation which played the sound the people heard when Berlin was bombed. Man, what an incredible noise that was! Aircraft engines, the sound of bombs falling down, and very very loud explosions. It was kinda scary, but really impressive.

Too bad I didn't had a digital cam at that moment

About the Pantherturms:

What kind of bunker/fortification was used in Berlin? I know 4 possibilities:

- Regelbau 687
- Steel fortification
- Wooden fortification
- Entire Panther tank dug in

I know about the last one but I've got a Italeri Panther turret here without the hull so I thought I could use it for a street turret diorama with a bunker/fortification instead of the Panther hull.

Martin

Martinnnn

I Googled around but could not find much.
Perhaps can Ian help you with that. This is one of the pics he posted earlier, taken from a book he have.

I couldn't find much interesting stuff either, except for this:

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/content2.php/cid=215

However it doesn't give me an anwser on the question which fortification the Germans used in Berlin for the tank turrets.

My guess is the steel fortification which is most likely for the city but I can't be sure, it's just my guess.

Edit: never mind, found what I was looking for already!

So could anyone tell me what kind of troops manned the Pantherturms? Tank crews? Hitlerjugend? Volunteers like the Volkssturm?

Martin

Martin,
I am still trying to find who manned these turrets but I cannot find any ref. to this info. I would guess at Volksturm or rear guard units. Two excellent ref's on the turret's are Tankpower vol 6 on the Panther. This has quite a bit of info on all types of these emplacements plus great tech dwgs as well. In this vol they state that Berlin had 25 Pantherturm's of the improvised type[ use of old turret's or tank bodies as opposed to the 1,2,3 versions that were manufactured.
Another good ref is Panther Variants 1942 -45 [vanguard/ Osprey].

Hi

I've found some info on the Pantherturms with steel shelter. They were used in Berlin and I've got some nice pics and drawings of them.

I will use my old Italeri Panther A turret for a nice diorama on this subject. Yesterday I've....

- Repaired the broken 75mm barrel
- Removed the turret roof
- Removed parts like spare track racks
- Done some research on Panther turret interiors
- Started the first scratchbuilding for the interior
- Started on the diorama base

The diorama will show a Pantherturm I (with steel shelter). I will fully scratchbuild the interior of the Pantherturret and the steel bunker. The diorama will also show the interior of the bunker.

Like this:


I will also add figures....guess I will just add a Wehrmacht, SS, Volksturm and Panzercrew figure lol. Got some figures from Tristar, Tamiya and Dragon which I can use for this.

So, looks like I will work on 2 entries....

Martin

I have an old hetzer and the Tamiya Pzr IV J and I was hoping to use either one as a wreck in my Battle of Berlin Diorama. I have been told that that Pz.Div."Kurmark" had late model Jagdpanzer 38t Hetzers in the battle for Berlin, with hard-edge paint schemes consisting of three colours: dark yellow, ivory and red-brown. Anyone got any other info about these or other unit’s Hetzers or Pzr IVs. If they were there would a plain dunkelgelb paintjob also be suitable.

Hey Pat!

Nice subject!

I found these 1945 Hetzer "Starr" pictures (below) on:
http://www.panzertruppen.org/heer/canones/imagehetzer.html

On http://www.pzfahrer.net/starr.html it says about this type of Hetzer:
" The equipment (note: Hetzer "Starr") was to have been demonstrated in Kummersdorf on April 16 before Gen. Leeb and then shown to Hitler at the Chancellery in Berlin on April 17."
So, considering the Russian attack on Berlin started on the 16th of April I think it's very likely a Hetzer - or at least some Hetzer "Starr'" would be in Berlin in this colour.

More info about the division I found on:
http://www.feldgrau.com/heerk2p.html

"This Division was formed on January 22, 1945 in Germany from the remains of Kampfgruppe Langkeit. Kurmark fough along the Oder Front in February, 1945, and remained heavily engaged along the Oder Front until April 1945, when it was pulled back from the lines to the area of the Falkenhagener forest. Kurmark was then sent back to the front in an attempt to help stem another major Russian breakthough, but this move was unsuccessful and Kurmark was forced to withdraw to the area of Muncheberg where it remained until late April, 1945, when it broke out of the Russian encirclement at Halbe. The remains of Kurmark surrendered to the Americans after crossing the Elbe River on May 5, 1945. This division is often also known as Panzergrenadier-Division "Kurmark".

I don't know if the division was really IN the city of Berlin, but close enough for this campaign: the Halbe encirclement was about 18 km from Tempelhof Airfield and Muncheberg 26 km from Berlin border. Therefor the division is considered te be of importance for the battle and therefor the campaign.

Go for it!

Paul

Thanks 007 I guess I'll go ahead with the Hetzer. I plan to half bury it under some rubble anyway. Hope to show some in progess shots soon.

Lol I bought this book (in Dutch) for 7 euros today. What's the normal price? 35 - 40 euros? Great deal :-)

€21.60 paperback in Dublin

Here is the start of my Berlin45

Wow that looks really good Alan!

Martin

Hi Alan
That looks interesting. What kind of dio are you going to do? It really looks good.

Simon

Well you got that for a steal Martin! I paid $40 AUS.
Still it is a great book . Be warned, it will be hard for you to put down :-). If you like it, he has done another on Stalingrad which is of the same standard. He has a unique way of telling a military action that makes it very easy and interesting. I look forward to your comments on it.