I recently got a nice 1/72 Dragon Armor diecast version of the Firefly Vc tank. When viewed from the front one can see an upper case "G" - painted in white on both sides of the turret, the gun mantle, the driver & gunner's positions and, at the bottom, on each part of the three-part transmission, for a total of 9 times. I have checked several sources online and on my bookshelf, but I haven't yet found out what purpose or meaning this marking had.

Can anyone tell me what this was for?

Lee, I think it's a foundry mark for the original manufacturer. Somebody will be able to gove more details if they have references.

Vinnie

Obviously you have DR 60259. Those painted "Gs" and "Ws" were placed there by German examiners of the tank. They mark areas of cast iron pieces versus rolled armor plate. The basis for the DML kit is a photo of captured Firefly VC. However, as it's marked with engineering & structural information, I doubt that it went into combat as such. It was probably either at a research depot or on the way back for examination.

Vinnie: Look at a pic of 60259 and you'll see that Lee is speaking about painted markings and not the cast "General Steel" markings I believe you're referring him to.

Hope this helps. Happy New Year guys!

Roy

Thanks Roy!

Vinnie

Found out some more: "G" may stand for Gub or Stahlgub for cast or cast steel and "W' for Walzstahl or rolled steel. cf p 145 of Hayward's Firefly book

Vinnie and Roy, thank you guys very much!

Roy, that was nice reference work. The next time I see my German friend I can mention "Gub" and "Walzstahl". He's not a model builder but we trade language items back and forth. I've done more searching on this but still found no references. And I looked for Hayward's book and only found one old copy at Amazon for $129.55 USD !

Usually I'm not so keen on models like Russian T-34s with Balkan crosses, U.S. P-47s with swastikas, or Japanese aircraft with American markings, etc. I know this is foolish. But this Firefly story is more subtle and interesting. Also, the markings are not so big and distracting. The vehicle retains its original appearance.

Thanks again. Happy New Year!

It's funny about captured items. While researching for my Tasca Firefly, I came across a German captured one that was reclaimed by Allied troops in 1945, in the Netherlands. It had a full complement of welded on armor and its muzzle brake was even replaced with a german one. I have wartime photos of Commonwealth personnel looking it over. Surprisingly, the actual tank survives and is pictured in Hayward's book, circa 1990. Now I have no excuses!

I plan on depicting it at the time of its capture. It appears to be dk yellow with a secondary camo color and garishly large white/black crosses.

I finished a German captured Willys Jeep that was recaptured by troops of the US 82nd Airborne in June '44. That was a fun project.

While Hayward is basically right about cast and rolled steel, I'm not entirely convinced about his German. Specially Gub for cast. My German dictionary gives 'giessen' for the verb 'to cast' and I can't see that ending up as as Gub - my memory from reading Spielberg is that it's something like 'gegossen' . Sometimes in German a character like a capital B is used for double s and this might be where the confusion starts.

David

That's the word you're looking for:
Guß = casting, founding, cast

gießen = to cast
gegossen = cast adj.
Gußstahl = cast steel
Walzstahl = rolled steel

After the Spelling Reform the 'ß' was replaced with 'ss' in some words. That's why you can find both spellings.