Hoth's Corner

[Hoth_902]

Thanks everyone. CavDog, you are so right, it is a labor of love and each milestone energizes me to meet the next. In hindsight, I should have done 1 company at a time but sadly I jumped in the deep end,.. LOL. I'll get there. The nice part is that I have actually got some of them on a table and will be again soon. That way they are not waiting forever till all pieces are done.

[foxbat]

These look really nice, Hoth.
Will you apply a wash to them? This can alter the color in some way.

[Hoth_902]

Foxbat,

Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it. As for wash application, that is the plan. I am really not sure how I will accomplish that. There is one thought to do a pin wash at varying features around the vehicle and/or an overall wash. I have never gotten that far in the over 1500 plus models that I have started. Normally base coat, do some detail and then get distracted. This is the first time I am going the distance. I will test things out on two vehicles and see what I like better. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Probably before the wash, I will be adding vehicle numbers and some vehicles with aerial recognition markers like Pete puts on his vehicles.

[pmskaar]

Great work on those Panzer IIIs and IVs, Hoth. You and I are basically modelling the same unit although my numbering of the units in each company is a bit off. I also went with 6th Panzer Division and the 2/11th Regiment.

I remember a guy, Gary Davies, from the UK, giving me the April 1943 organization which, it turns out, is in the Panzertruppen book that I also have but really tiny print. I used the III Panzer Korps at Kursk as my guide. This is from Histoire and Collections and is a great book. It does detail what companies had what and how many Panzer IIIs J/L/M, Panzer IIIN, and Panzer IV. It did not detail which vehicles were in which platoon however.

I admit, I kind of winged it on the numbering and they are a bit off as I did not know how many platoons or how many tanks in each platoon. I have the right numbers and types of tanks though and I can organize those accordingly.

The returns that show the numbers at platoon level are from April 1943. There were 2 1/2 months between these returns and Kursk. I wonder if any of the organization changed in that time or if any more new tanks (Mk IV) were received in the meantime. At least it is something to go on.

I have 2 companies basically done. I may do the whole battalion one of these days but that may not be for a while.

I am looking forward to seeing more of your work here. Keep it coming.

[chrisswim]

Hoth, good looking camo, nicely done.

[Hoth_902]

Chris, thanks for the compliment. I appreciate your feedback.


Pete,
Thanks for your feed back on my regiment. That is crazy that we are working on the same unit. Maybe its not so crazy... The whole reason why I picked the 11tth regiment is because someone, on the forum, posted the TO&E from "Panzer Truppen". Right after that, I decided to buy the book. This was mainly because one of the people in my hobby group go back and forth about the numbers or vehicles that would would be available for combat. My contention was that there had to be some battles where a particular unit would start at full or close to full strength at the begging of the battle. This is where "Panzer Truppen" has been invaluable. I was shocked at how depleted the Panzer units became in at the start of 43 on the eastern front. However, if I understand what I am reading, at the start of Kursk the 11th panzer regiment was pretty close to full strength when it went into combat. This would go along with other things I read about units that were rotating out and would leave there vehicles behind to get units to full strength before kursk. Sadly, the losses were horrific and with in a couple of days, the 11th was loosing huge numbers of vehicles.

For my Unit, I am using PzIII L, N, and Ms. For my PzIVs, it's exclusively the "G" model. I have 7 PzIVGs that I used the H turret so that they could have the turret with side armor. I need variety. I feel the Gs with the H turret are ok because I thought some of the newer vehicles got the turret with the one piece hatch. Small detail that no one may care about, but I do.

As for the composition of the units and the model that made up the unit, I kind of winged it as well. Most of my companies will have PzIII Ls and a one company will PzIII Ms. Or maybe I will mix and match them. Again, variety makes things interesting and probably more realistic.

I toot wonder the same thing, how much has changed in the unit composition by the time Kursk began. I think there was some change. If you look at the chart on page 78 (July 1st) of Panzer Truppen and compare it to 52 (April 17th)f, it looks like the number of PzIVs had come up by a few and the PzIII (LG) went down a little. The thing that I was curious about is that none of the plates for Light, Medium and Heavy companies show a mixed unit like Page 52 shows. Page 78 shows 3 Light companies and 1 medium. So did the Germans move a few PzIVs into each company like page 52 shows and then have 4 mixed? If so, would they have renumbered the vehicles so that all the hull numbers matched for each company... or would the PzIVs have hull numbers as they would have been in the Medium company and then when they were in combat, the hull numbers would be all jumbled?. If what I wrote makes any sense.. LOL..

With two companies basically done, what camo pattern did you use? Is it the same one that you normally use? Post some pictures here of what you have done..

Can't wait to show more of my work. All my PzIIs are painted in just Dark Yellow. I decided to not do any camo on them. I need to post some pictures of them

[Hoth_902]

Well, Redleg is always encouraging me to Post progress. So I decided to do just that. In an effort to take stock of what I have and what I need for my regiment, I lined them up in the respective companies.

Upper left is the two headquarter companies. The only thing they are missing is the 14 Flame tanks. They will have to wait for another day. Starting from the Lower Left and moving to the right is the 4 companies of the 11th regiment. Though I will keep some of the vehicles in Dark Yellow, variety is the spice of life, I still have a few vehicles to camouflage. That is accept the PzIIs, they are going to remain dark Yellow. My Command tanks are going to all be Pz IIIJs and the first two companies and the last company are all PzIII Ls and the 3rd company is PzIIIMs. The stuff in the upper Right corner is just spares that I thought I needed but turns out I did not..



Man, They sure do look purtty all formed up in parade formation. Hope you all enjoy.

[redleg]

That is a beautiful sight, Hoth! Keep the pics coming!

[Hoth_902]

Thanks for the compliment Redleg... I go back and forth on weather the Green is too dark, too thick, not thick enough or the pattern too or not dense enough.... I am a hot mess... Then when my brain settles, I think I did good enough..

[chrisswim]

Love the formation, so very martial!

[Hoth_902]

Thanks Chris. I appreciate it.

[panzergator]

Nice work on this Germans! I'm anticipating the opposition, too. I hear the fishing of a bank account...

[Hoth_902]

Thanks Panzer. Always love when I hear from you. As for OPFOR, I have a couple T34 companies already purchased and waiting to be produced.

Since I am on a roll, when it comes to posting pictures, I will carry the momentum with another picture. Ladies and Gentleman, I give you my Tiger and Stugs..




I am particularly partial to how the camo came out on the tigers. Both are 1943 companies and the Stug company is one based on June of 1943 with smaller platoons. At a later date, I may try to expand them to the full 5 vehicle platoons. These stugs are all going to be Dark Yellow.

[chrisswim]

Hoth, too bad, it’s sad for you I know … these look so nice, but they must be smashed, destroyed.
P-47s on the way in.

So looking nice will be past tense … they looked wonderful until….

[Hoth_902]

I love where you head is at. A formation like this cannot be ignored. Sadly, these are 1943 kit and are on the easter from.

Thanks for the feedback.