"Operation Barbarossa" diorama 1:35 scale

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 5:40 pm

Time to start my thread about my entry for the group build!
Dioramas are my favourite discipline in the hobby so i think it is appropriate to build one for this group build and show you in detail how it can be done.
I have plenty of reference books on my shelves, because the pictures are very inspireing for me. These are among my favourites:

I saw the picture below in "Deutsche Panzer 1935-45 which inspired me immediately. It shows a Soviet anti-tank battery overrun by German Panzer III´s. The man standing next to the gun is a German aswell. I like the look of this battlefield a lot, all those empty artillery shells on the muddy ground and the German tank nearby are a perfect set up for a diorama.

So here are the kits i´m going to use for this project:

Cyberhobby/Dragon Panzerkampfwagen III Ausführung G. On the box it says "Afrika Korps" but these tanks were used on other fronts aswell, the kit also gives you painting and marking options for both African and Russian front.

Bronco Soviet F22 gun (that is the gun type you see on the picture although i think the model shows an older version which does not really matter, i don´t build exactly this scene i just use it for inspiration).

Dragon German infantry during the operation Barbarossa. I might use one or two figures of this set and maybe a tank commander figure made out of spare parts just to enliven the diorama a bit. Not really sure at the moment but i think it is a good idea.

The diorama itself will not contain much special features, more or less just a muddy ground with the tank, gun and the figures on it. Building extremely elaborate dioramas is of course awesome, but as you can imagine the wide steppes of Russia don´t really allow that. If you take a look at the backround of the photograph you won´t see anything, just wide flat land and mud.

That´s it so far, i don´t know when i will actually start this project but all materials are here and ready and that is definately a good omen

Post by **Paul** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 5:59 pm

That's gonna be a nice dio Micheal look forward to seeing it build

Post by **schweinhund227** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:08 pm

you are always.... Taking things to the Next level my friend !!! Awesome idea !

Looking forward to your Updates...

Take care

Norm.

Post by **Lee** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:08 pm

Yep, will be watching this thread with interest Michael, great subject

Post by **DC87** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 7:14 pm

Nice idea and a great photo. Good luck.

Post by **Coen** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 7:24 pm

That's going to be one hell of a busy diorama. Good luck. Look forward to seeing it progress.

Post by **Nige99** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 2:59 pm

Looking forward to seeing this!

I love armour.

Post by **bullgill67** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 10:07 pm

best of luck with your build

michael

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 11:27 pm

Ahh so you have decided to do one of your dioramas eh? Enjoy thatSpitfure profi pack won't you LOL

Looking forward to this, wgenever I am curious as to how to do something I usually just look on your channel. This will be good.

Post by **chief5437** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 11:30 pm

I think this will be a showstopper!

Post by **NovYank** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 1:02 pm

This looks like a very interesting topic to do a diorama of! The Russian Front in WWII has a certain chaos and destruction to it that fascinates me. Although in my experience, chaos on the battlefield usually translates to chaos in the workbench. I'll be following this thread closely and I can't wait to see your progress!!!!!

Website · Post by **Gav0909** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 1:06 pm

This looks like its going to be a cracking build Michael. I remember your Stalingrad diorama, most impressive.

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 5:19 pm

Thank you all for your encourageing words, i´m glad you guys show so much interest

Hopefully i get it started soon, have to complete some other stuff first.

The Blitzkrieg campaigns are really interesting from the tactical and technological point so i often build dioramas of that.
I´d love to visit eastern europe one day and enjoy the vast land, it is an impressive view just like on the picture below:

Soon i will post some pictures of the kits, just some kind of "kit review", in the meantime i will tell you some background history to the upcoming diorama.

The term "Operation Barbarossa" (refering to Fredrick Barbarossa, a medieval emperor in the Holy Roman Empire) means the Axis attack on the Soviet Union on the 22nd of June 1941 on the whole front from the Finland and the Baltics to the Black Sea (a 2.900 km long front) and it is the largest military operation in history (Axis: 3,8 million soldiers, 4300 tanks, 4300 aircraft and 7200 artillery guns. Soviet Union: 5,5 million soldiers, 20.000 tanks and 11.000 aircraft - as you can see the comparison of the strenght in numbers is pretty amazing). It is also the campaign with the biggest casualties in history.
The invasion was led by Germany, but included other Axis countries like Finland, Romania, Hungary and Italy.
Whether it was a viscious attack or a preventive attack is a matter of recent discussions among historians, as always the truth is somewhere in between.

German troops attacking a village supported by halftracks armed with machine guns and anti-tank guns.

The German successes in the first months were overwhelming, for example in the Battle of Kiev the Soviet Union lost more than 600.000 men and thousands of guns and tanks (thats actually more than twice as much as the casualties of the U.S. in the entire war), in the Battle of Brjansk and Wjasma 700.000 Soviet soldiers got killed or taken prisoner. Such huge losses of the Soviet Union let the German high command think that the enemy will soon be vanquished, but the vast reserves and especially the will to defend themselfes let the Soviets going on. The reserves on the Axis side were little.

Some Soviet tanks, like the KV-2 and T-34 were superior to German tanks, but they were deployed by using outdated tactics (mainly as infantry support).

Those crushing defeats of the Red Army were possible because Stalin eliminated a lot of his generals in the years before because he feared their power. The German tactics were very modern, the generals and soldiers had a lot of combat experience and there were technological advantages like a widely used communication system (every German tank had a radio unit on board, in the Red Army just one tank in every platoon)

The goal of the Axis plans was the capture of Moscow and securing a line from Leningrad to Astrachan on the Kaspian Sea. This should either defeat or destroy the Soviet Union and allow the Axis acess to all kinds of ressources aswell as land for permanent occupation and annexation.

As you can see on the map this goal was not achieved, first the "rasputiza" (roadlessness), the Russian mud period and then the early winter stopped the advance near Moscow. This marks the end of the "Operation Barbarossa". The Soviets brought fresh reserves to the front and were able to push the invadors back till the Axis were able to erect a new defence line.
In the occupied terretories of the Axis dispersed Soviet Soldiers and Civilians, who suffered a lot by the occupants, formed the partisans who attacked supply lines of the Germans.

"Rasputiza" - the mud period.

The fierce Russian winter. The German soldiers had no suitable equipment for winter battle, the plan was to end the campaign before winter.

[youtube]bnU2AcdghTY[/youtube]

Post by **Tiger131** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 5:35 pm

look forward to seeing this come alive..and them last pictures are quality real battle shots a dio in the making

Post by **PhildaFish** » Wed Jun 12, 2013 2:04 am

A great opportunity to watch and learn from a master dio maker!

Post by **Lee** » Wed Jun 12, 2013 7:47 am

Excellent info Michael...

Website · Post by **Gav0909** » Wed Jun 12, 2013 12:40 pm

I hadn't read much about this until recently when I read a book called "The Wehrmacht in Russia" by Bob Carruthers. I was fascinated by the sheer scale of that conflict compared to much of the rest of the war. While they were advancing, the Germans surrounded and captured or killed entire Russian Armies, numbering in the millions. I just can't imagine what it must have been like to fight in a battle knowing there were hundreds of thousands of men on each side, and thousands and thousands of tanks. No wonder its still possible to find both German and Russian vehicle parts, weapons and equipment around the areas of these battles.

I really look forward to seeing this come to fruition. I hope you do some video builds as well!

Post by **Bagpiper** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 5:07 am

Excellent history on this. Looking forward to following this thread and build.

Cheers
Jim

Post by **JDMMODELS** » Sun Jun 16, 2013 5:52 pm

Very interesting post. I have gotten ideas for my own GB project from reading and watching what you have posted. I also found a youtube video after watching the video you posted. I am posting this here for your reference if you have not seen it.

[youtube]DIqINNdqvCU[/youtube]

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 1:37 pm

Alright, it is time to take a closer look at the kits:

Lets do a little review of the Soviet 76.2mm M1936 (F22) Divisional gun from Bronco.
This is my second Bronco kit so far, the other one i built had impressive detail, but the construction itself was very hard and complex. I hope this time it will be a bit more relaxing

Alright, here is the boxart:

Content: Instructions and one bag with the parts.

Here the biggest sprue. All parts are very detailed and no flash is visible. The gun barrel is open and is detailed inside.

These parts are for the gun struts.

There are some nice rivet details!

Two identical sprues for the wheels. The quality of the moulding is awsome, the details are very crisp.

Some shells and ammo boxes. They will be of big use for me on my diorama.

The wood structure is nicely replicated.

Lots of tiny pieces. This will be big fun to assemble them

Some Decals (nicely printed) and photo etched parts. Those are a great addition to the overall good kit.

The instruction sheet with some historic background information on the front page.

This will be fiddly! The instruction sheet is clearly arranged and easy to follow.

Painting and marking guide. Only one scheme is suggested, but this is enough in this case.

Overall i would say it is a good kit, not too expensive and definately a good alternative to the ICM kit of this gun.

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 2:06 pm

Next we take a look at the Cyberhobby/Dragon Panzerkampfwagen III Ausführung G.

A lot of these Cyberhobby kits are old Dragon kits mixed with parts of newer Dragon kits combined with photo-etched parts and other goodies like "Magic Tracks". I like the whole idea of upgrading those old kits.

Boxart. It says "Afrika Korps" but we can use it for a tank which served on the Eastern Front aswell.

Some German Afrika Korps figures are included aswell, but we won´t need them.

Magic Tracks - love them! Great detail, easy to assemble, what else do you need?

The lower hull. You can see that this part is from the old tooling Dragon Panzer III.

Plenty of jerry cans with photo-etched parts. They will be nice cargo on the back on the tank.

Plenty of wheels. Those are the old type narrow wheels of the early Panzer III versions which we need for the G variant. A whole set of the broader wheels is included aswell.

Upper hull and turret parts. You may notice that the upper hull can be used to build a StuG III aswell - Cyberhobby threw all kinds of sprues into one box whereever there are parts useable for a G version on them.

Nice details on the engine deck.

A couple of smaller sprues with tools, suspension parts and so on. It is difficult to maintain a general survey.

Fenders and parts of the Upper hull. Overall the quality of the kit is good, no flash or other issues are visible.

Nice detail on the fenders.

Again some parts for the turret. This kit is a wild mixture of all kinds of Panzer III kits made by Dragon.

Again wheels - most of them won´t be needed.

Photo-etched parts and Decals. Both look very good!

Instruction sheet. Down below you can see a diagram with all included sprues. The blue parts won´t be used - lots of spare parts!

The instructions are clearly arranged.

Two painting and marking versions are possible - one Afrika Korps tank and one in Russia 1941/42

In my opinion this is a great kit, quite beneficial over all and good detail. The mixture of all kinds of sprues from different kits can be a bit confusing, but the advanced model builder can easily deal with that.

Post by **Paul** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 2:14 pm

Great looking kits Micheal look forward to watching you build them

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 2:24 pm

Great looking kits Micheal look forward to watching you build them

And i can´t wait to start this whole affair

Last but not least the "Operation Barbarossa" figures from Dragon.

Boxart. On the right hand top corner you can read "Gen2", this means this kit features the Gen2 parts for the equipment. They have better details on them as figures of other manufacturers, but in my opinion the difference is not as big as it sounds.

Here the sprue with the parts for the soldiers. Great attention to detail and no flash in sight.

Detailed faces are extremely important to make the figure look realistic when painted up.

This is the Gen2 equipment for the soldiers. A lot of these parts won´t be used but will be kept in the spare parts box.

The details are nice.

One thing i definately like about the Gen2 equipment is the possibility to assemble the weapons in loaded or secured position.

The assembling instructions are on the back of the box. Shouldn´t be too difficult to follow the instructions.

The painting guide is a bit minimalistic, but as i often build and paint such figures it does not really harm.

In my opinion a great set with excellent detail for plastic figures. The poses are cool aswell and are suitable for my diorama.

Website · Post by **AlexModelling** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:04 pm

it will be an awsome diorama Michael! as usual my friend:)

Post by **Tiger131** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 4:59 pm

like them figures got them on my wish list look forward to seeing them getting the works

Post by **Lee** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 9:54 am

Post by **spruecutter** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 11:48 am

A nice review of the kits, looking forward to seeing this progress.

I know what you mean about the extras in the Dragon kit. Great for the spares box but care is needed in the assembly to select the correct parts.
I've just got the Panzer 38 T after seeing it in your recent video. It's a lot more complex than I'm used to and will be an interesting build for sure.

Best regards
Pete

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Sat Jun 29, 2013 3:20 pm

Today i finally got round to start the building process! I began with the assembly of the Panzer III G.
I will also make a building review series on Youtube about this project, i will post the videos bit by bit when they are done. They will be more or less a summary of what i post here in picture form and also show you the most important steps of the painting and weathering in detail.

The first back up roll on both sides of the lower hull had to be removed and positioned a bit closer to the lower hull hatches.

I simply followed the instructions to assemble the running gear. On some parts there was some flash but it was easy to remove it with a sharp knife blade.

The back plate with the exhaust. All parts fit together very well. It is important to maintain the overview of the build and needed parts as there are a lot of parts you don´t need because they belong to later variants of this tank. It can easily happen that you mix everything up by accident. There are also some minor mistakes in the instruction sheet (for example the labeling of the suspension bars) which can be a bit confusing for unexeperienced model builders. For me it was easy to deal with that.

Post by **Paul** » Sat Jun 29, 2013 3:29 pm

Hi Micheal

At the top of the page could you reduce the size of the 4 th pic down of the hull as its way too big for the forum

Thanks Paul

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Sat Jun 29, 2013 6:29 pm

Paul wrote:Hi Micheal

At the top of the page could you reduce the size of the 4 th pic down of the hull as its way too big for the forum

Thanks Paul

When i posted it the size was normal so i have no idea what happened? There was also a "edit" option which seems to have disappeared, so i can´t go back and either delete or add the resized picture. I don´t know why ImageShack sometimes changes the size of pictures later.

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Sun Jun 30, 2013 5:40 pm

The assembly continues!

I glued the upper hull in place, some clamps were needed because the upper hull was slightly twisted.

Then i added some parts on the engine deck. The parts fit together nicely.

The assembled fenders. I glued the tools right in place already, i don´t mind to paint them later with a fine brush. Some model builders prefer it to paint them separately, thats just a matter of taste. The kit includes several small stowage boxes which are not needed, but i added them anyway because those tanks were loaded over and over with supplies.

I had to fill some holes (because they are not needed) and cut a rectangular hole into the front plate to glue the correct machine gun opening in it.
On the extra armour plates i applied some "Mr. Surfacer 500" to replicate the rough surface of steel.

With a gripper i carefully bent the end parts of the fenders to simulate damages on this rather thin metal sheet.

Post by **chief5437** » Sun Jun 30, 2013 6:11 pm

Nice progress, I just know this will be good!

Post by **Paul** » Sun Jun 30, 2013 6:12 pm

Great work Michael

Post by **DC87** » Sun Jun 30, 2013 6:29 pm

Very nice. love how the fenders look

.

https://www.youtube.com/user/bnealuk · Post by **T3hGuppy** » Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:52 pm

Looking very good

Post by **spruecutter** » Mon Jul 01, 2013 12:33 am

This is all looking familiar albeit in a larger scale. I can appreciate the fine detail of the Dragon kit all the more for having just worked on a 1/48 version. Great progress shots.

Post by **Coen** » Mon Jul 01, 2013 9:24 am

Right now I can't build anything, I haven't been able to build since mid April when I packed up my old work space.
I even have this kit in my stash too I think, I love panzer III's and IV's.
You make it really hard to resists setting up a little shop of horrors until I finish my new shop.
Fantastic progress!
Green with envy.

Post by **Nige99** » Mon Jul 01, 2013 10:06 am

Great info and review of the kits so far, outstanding! looking forward to seeing more of this. Great work keep it up.

Post by **Bagpiper** » Tue Jul 02, 2013 12:39 am

Coming along very nicely mate. Looking good

Cheers
Jim

Post by **hansolo** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 10:53 pm

Hi Michael,

The Panzer III looks very well detailed and very well proportioned.
A great looking kit!

The whole dio is gonna be awesome, as allways.

Looking forward to the rest of the progress.

cheers

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 9:54 pm

Hi folks and thank you for your nice comments

The assembly is pretty much done now, i thought everything was in place when i took the pictures but when i checked the instruction sheet one last time i saw that i forgot some small parts. I will add them tomorrow.

I added the antenna buy using a part of a heated up stretched sprue and positioned it in half raised position. I think this looks dynamic and interesting.

Plenty of wheels - they show the early narrow type of the first Panzer III versions. They look better than the broad type ones which are also included in the kit so i assume the narrow ones are from a recent Dragon kit. I will keep them separate till they are painted. Then i will deal with the tracks.

The assembly of the turret was easy, but i had to fill some damages on the surface caused by me when i cut the part from the sprue. Some filler was also needed on the gun barrel because it consists of two halfes (a aluminium barrel would have been a nice investment but the plastic part is alright aswell - i´m not an aftermarket fanatic).

There were ejection marks on the pads of the commanders hatch, so i filled them with Milliput and improved the overall look of those pads. Some areas are covered with some Mr. Surfacer 500 to replicate the rough steel surface.

Next i will think about a tank commander figure, most likely i will "frankenstein" one using spare figure parts. I won´t prime the model right now, next i want to assemble the other models to use them on the diorama base to find the right arrangement.

I´m also working on the first part of the video documentation about this project, as soon as the video is long enough i will upload it on Youtube and post it here aswell.

Post by **Paul** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 10:01 pm

Nice work Michael, look forward to seeing more

Post by **PhildaFish** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 11:38 pm

Stunning photos, informative posts, educational videos and a great build!

Post by **Coen** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 2:13 am

Really looking forward to the video on this one.
I hope to see how you use the Mr Surfacer.

Post by **coladito1** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:22 am

Michael, what can I say? it's coming along beautifully!!

Post by **ww2hispanomodels** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 11:30 am

I have no words

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Sun Jul 07, 2013 6:04 pm

Thank you very much for your encouraging words

Next i assembled the soviet gun, as expected a rather complicated Bronco kit with a lot of tiny parts but in the end it took me two days to assemble it, thats fine.

I started with the gun barrel. Its nicely detailed.

The wheels consist of three parts each, i´m glad this was the case! I have bad memories of the Dragon 88mm flak gun tires...

The gun mount and shield assembled. As you can see the plastic part of the shield is very thin so the sun can shine through. No need for photo-etched parts here in my opinion.

Those two parts were the most difficult of the kit. The instructions were not that clear and i got confused a little bit.

Slowly it comes together! I´m glad the whole construction was quite stable even when freshly glued together.

The gun is done

The assembly of the ammo box was harder than i expected ,the box consists of 10 part when i remember correctly. I cut off the warhead from one shell to create an empty shell which will later be placed on the diorama.

Then i assembled the figures. This is the tank commander. I used some parts from the Dragon "German tank crew 1939-1942" set.

Those are the figures from the Dragon "Operation Barbarossa" set we talked about in earlier posts. They were easy to assemble and i´m glad that i can use 3 of the 4 included figures for my upcoming diorama. There was some flash to remove on them but with a sharp knife and some sandpaper thats not a big deal.

Sun Jul 07, 2013 6:40 pm

the models and figures look good so far! i bet this is going to be a superb diorama!

Post by **Tiger131** » Sun Jul 07, 2013 6:49 pm

superb them figures look quality

Post by **ww2hispanomodels** » Sun Jul 07, 2013 8:39 pm

It has an amazing look and the figures I'm sure it will look really cool!