Showing posts with label Expo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Expo. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Inspiration Modellbau in Mainz: Behind Omaha #1

 These days, I will show you some pictures from the Exhibition Inspiration Modellbau (Inspiration Modelmaking) in Mainz, Germany. We have set up my Demotable to advertise our non-commercial (and german only :-/) ruleset "Behind Omaha".

I won't be able to post a full scale AAR on many of the games, because we were repeatedly "interrupted" by people showing interest and I don't remember all the battles of these two days... Also, when I was not playing, I was shopping or making models most of the time, so I only managed to get a glance of what happened ;)

Lets start off with some pictures from the first Battle: Me(Germans) against Edi(Soviets)


The pic above shows the initial table setup with the soviets on the far side and the germans right in the front.
As you might be able to see, there's a german halftrack burning, having a complete 10 man platoon in its belly. Also the Pz. Kw. IV on the left has taken a hit. In return, I damaged a (hidden) T34 on the left, killed a Jeep in the tablecenter and also killed a T34 standing on the left behind the burning jeep.
My other halftrack is blocking the way through the bocages on the right, reducing the possibilities to break through for the soviets.
Afterwards a harsh butching took place where my tanks got killed by T34s and a soviet AT-Gun, and some T34 went up after a fearless infantry attack with "Haftladungen".
In the end, both armies were kind of immobilized, so we decided this to be a draw.
It was a really good battle which began really bad for the germans, but I managed to turn the table ;)
Above its Edi on the left and me on the right :)

These are the models of Daniel, aka. Kraehensang

A battle between Germans&Romanians vs. US&British troops
"Fredericus Rex" with "Plasticwarrior"
Plasticwarriors Armies for sale :(
Wiking Paintworks (visit his Blog here!) with his girl (she's painting too!) :) As always, he's doing some really fine stuff :)
They were presenting his Irish Guards-Army and their skills...
 Me and Jan-Martin before our small Demo-Battle: 1 Panther against 2 T34, both sides had an equal infantry platoon.
Battlefield decoration...
The new setup. We were just using the 2 farmost modules to enable parallel games.

 I managed to immobilize one of his T34s and damage the other, before my Panther was immobilized too and my infantry got fried... ;)
Good job, Jan!


 The next battle was as harsh as the one before. It was me against Blutvogt (visit his Blog here!) I had a setup which I found kind of unfair afterwards: Flamethrower Tank Pz. Kw. III, two Paks, an infantry AT-Team and a Jagdpanzer IV.
 Against 2 Shermans, a Greyhound, a GMC-Truck, a White scout car and a Half-Truck with an infantry squad on each one of them.

The Greyhound passed the bridge and was instantly killed by the Jagdpanzer IV which was able to open fire in it's first round, due to superiour range.
The convoi with its soft-targets advances down the road, right into hell, while the Sherman hides behind the wall, watching the debacle begin.

 The Sherman sets across the trench, showing its flank to the Jagdpanzer IV and a Pak-Team, which means certain death...
The other Pak dealt with the White Scout car, which was badly damaged. The Squad managed to get out, and rallied beneath the Bocage.

Next round:
The Pak finishes the White scout car, while the Flame Tank moves out of the bocage and fries the whole squad which managed to emerge from the White scout car.
The Panzerjäger-Infanterie-Squad followed the Flame-Tank and got a glance of the GMC-Truck which obviously tried to get away ("Augen zu und durch" - Shut your eyes and run like hell). But with two Panzerschrecks in his back, he did't get far. The Squad inside was burnt alive... :-/
What's remaining? The Half-Track and a Sherman. I really don't remember what happened to the Half-Track, but the Sherman hid in a bocage-corner and was afraid to get out. I think at this point Blutvogt withdrew from Battle.

As I said before, the setup was pretty unfair, but we just wanted to do a short presentation game for the visitors and it worked. It was pretty short ^^
I hope Blutvogt is not depressed and I guess next time, he will put some more value for his points on the table ;)

That's it for the first post, there are some more to come!

Cheers, Mojo

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Museum Part 3: Other WWII originals

Hello Guys! Today I'd like to show you some more classy WWII originals I photographed at the WTS in Koblenz.
Go through it all, you'll see pleasing stuff like a French FT-17 light tank from the inside, german WWII infrared nightvision devices,  the Kettenkrad, the HUGE Schwerer Zugkraftwagen 18 to. (Sd. Kfz. 9) and a load of other beautyful stuff!

leichter Ladungsträger Goliath (Sd.Kfz. 302)

leichter Ladungsträger Goliath (Sd.Kfz. 302) - sprocket wheel
 As far as I remember I saw the following Vehicle in every german museum that features WWII vehicles. The Kettenkrad seems to be a must-have. I should have one too...
Kleines Kettenkraftrad Typ HK 101 (a.k.a. Kettenkrad) (Sd.Kfz. 2)

Kettenkrad (Sd.Kfz. 2) drivers seat

Kettenkrad (Sd.Kfz. 2) with trailer
 But if I cannot have a Kettenkrad, I would also be satisfied with one of the next two. Unfortunately you pay up to 70.000 € for a BMW R75 in good condition...
"Schweres Wehrmachtsgespann" BMW R 75

"Schweres Wehrmachtsgespann" Zündapp-KS-750

Schwerer 8-Rad-Panzerspähwagen Typ GS (Sd.Kfz.231)

Same, obviously disabled by 2 20-37mm shots in its back

leichter Zugkraftwagen 1t (Sd.Kfz. 10) - incomplete
 What comes next, completely blew me off my feet. Compared to todays trucks, it might be not THAT big, but honestly, I was really impressed of the size of this Sd.Kfz. 9!
schwerer Zugkraftwagen 18t (Sd.Kfz. 9) - Front

schwerer Zugkraftwagen 18t (Sd.Kfz. 9) - side

schwerer Zugkraftwagen 18t (Sd.Kfz. 9) - Engine Block

schwerer Zugkraftwagen 18t (Sd.Kfz. 9) - Drivers seatrow
 This is pretty cool: Lacking an opto-electrical indicator, they added a "winker", an arm that shows the direction, the driver is going to turn to.
schwerer Zugkraftwagen 18t (Sd.Kfz. 9) - Indicator (a.k.a. Winker)

schwerer Zugkraftwagen 18t (Sd.Kfz. 9) - rear seatrow

Its so huuuuuge!

Leichter geländegängiger Einheits-Lkw 2,5t

Willys Jeep along with some postwar Kübels

VW Typ 82 Kübelwagen

VW Typ 166 Schwimmwagen

VW Typ 166 Schwimmwagen - Back

VW Typ 166 Schwimmwagen interiour
One thing that really pleased me, was that most of the exhibits are standing free. You can touch that cold steel and sometimes get a sneak peek inside. Thats what I did with this beautyful FT-17...
French FT-17

French FT-17 drive detail
 Here you can see the tail-attachment witch is useful for passing bigger trenches. The crew can tilt it up to access the inertia-starter.
French FT-17
 A look through the open turret-hatch in direction of the drivers compartment.
The only thing that seems missing down there is the seat-cushion, as the user-elements were pretty basic (see interior details Wikipedia)
French FT-17 Drivers compartment

French FT-17 Ammo

German WWII Air-to-air Missile R4M "Orkan"

Nachtsicht Fahrgerät

Wehrmacht Infrared Vision FG 1250
Have you ever seen, where the Tiger's roar comes from? Watch this:
Maybach HL 230 P 45 as used on Tiger I

Tiger I Crankshaft with Pistons

Tiger I driving and steering transmission

Tiger I driving and steering transmission
 And some parts from his little brother:
Panther driving and steering transmission

Panther driving and steering transmission
 Since I was short in time, I could not take more shots of this pretty interesting chapter: Uniforms and personal equipment...
German Camo Uniforms

German Uniform

German "Sumpftarn" Camo Uniform
 Now, some more small Dakka-Dakka ;-)
Granatwerfer 36

Some MPs

Various StGw 44

FG 42 in all three versions

Machine guns
 Another curiosity: This model of the Infantry Assaultbridge on Pz. Kw IV was (most probable) used to demonstrate Hitler the design and functionality of a concept for a bridge-laying tank:
(Original) Model of the Infantry-Assaultbride on Pz. Kw. IV

One man Splinter-Shelter

Rolling Bomb (used to blow up reservoir dams)

British Airmine HC 4000 lb
These were the last pictures of WWII equipment and vehicles that I shot at the WTS in Koblenz. Unfortunately the Panther-tank and the StuG III were off to Trier for some refurbishment. That made me a bit sad...
So what, I'll have to go there again :-D

Next time, I will show you some Post-War developments shown there. Some of which seem pretty peculiar...

Have a nice time!

//mojo