Reenactment photo

Post by **gdmoore28** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 12:12 am

The good folks at Wephaus Supply showed up at our Battle of the Bulge event despite the constant, heavy downpour and cold temps. I need to give them a plug here. These are truly nice, courteous people who are totally devoted to outfitting reenactors. Give them a look-see the next time you need reenacting supplies:

http://www.wephaus.com

GeeDeeEmm

Post by **waffendude** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 8:44 am

very cool---almost gives me a woody

Post by **Pug42** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:15 am

@ Beltlead and M1 Tanker... we portray 1st SS Leibstandarte, which like the 12th HJ was the only formation to use Italian camouflage material to make German tunics and trousers. The other pattern is Dot 44 (sometimes called pea pattern) very common on late war SS units, mixed up with field grey or Italian cloth items.

The tank is built on a T55 actually, and dimensionally it is pretty much spot on for hull and turret, just the wheel pattern that is quite different, and also lacks the 'mass' of all the interleaved wheels on the real machine. The SPR Tigers built on T34s are far too small when you see them in the flesh.

I'll be attending a 'Russian Front' 36hr Living History tactical at the end of Feb, sleeping rough... we are only allowed period equipment so no modern sleeping bags.... dig a hole, wrap yourself in the issue grey blanket, then your Zelt or shelter square and huddle up to somebody else with straw or dry leaves for bedding... ha ha I must be mad...

jmatchlock · Post by **jmatchlock** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:18 am

M1 Tanker - on page 1 and 3rd picture down with the MG 34 - looks gray and black ?

Post by **M1 Tanker** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:23 am

Looks like a Heer zeltbahn something made into a tunic....hard to tell from the picture. I do the basic wehrmacht soldat now. No awards, no rank, no camo, no extra frills someone say in a picture

Post by **DARIVS ARCHITECTVS** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 5:36 pm

Me too. Been doing straight Heer since the beginning. My brother and I were at an even and some GI's actually asked us what our uniforms were, and shook out hands when we told them. They have NEVER seen any units except "ELITE" units. They no idea what regular German army even LOOKED like.

joshk98k · Post by **joshk98k** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:21 am

Hey guys,

What is the size difference between the T-55 and the T-34. You said the SPR Tiger's are far too small, but by centemeters or meters??? How much does yours weigh?

I am just curious since my unit just bought a SPR Tiger replica. I have the books at home so if I don't get an answer I can look it up later.

Thanks,
Josh

Post by **Pug42** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:54 am

The difference in size is down to the fact that the T34 is smaller if you use it as a base vehicle, also the turret ring is too far forward. Our T55 based version has a steel frame and sheet metal 'armour' built on top of the T55 hull, with a turret ring off an Abbot self propelled gun to mount the sheet metal replica turret, further back than the original turret ring. At a guess I would say the biggest discrepancy is the width of the vehicle, a couple of feet maybe? You could Google the T34 and T55 for comparative dimensions, and compare with that of an actual Tiger?

Abbot turret mechanicals and breech block are used to enable a power traverse and gun elevation (all hidden inside) and the whole set up weighs around 30 tons, so quite a bit lighter than the original battle tank as doing away with the heavy T55 turret and replacing with sheet metal version saved weight... but it's still a pig to drive, Russki gearbox!

As the person who volunteered to paint the Hazkenkreuz and turret numbers (so spent a lot of time in, on, and around it!!!) I can tell you that visiting the real Tiger I at Bovington Tank Museum was interesting... the deck height from the ground is an exact match, as is the width of the hull. Shame about the wheels as it's the biggest giveaway... not a lot we can do about that though...

joshk98k · Post by **joshk98k** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:40 pm

I hear you about the wheels. Nothing anyone can do about the road wheels situation :-P . Yours is a GREAT looking piece! I knew the turret ring of the T34 is too far forward. This is the most often heard complaint. But if people are going to complain about us getting a Tiger into the field the only way possible then I guess they will have to live with it because it doesn't bother us in the least. Authenticity is super important to us but we have to make due with what we have, right?

Ours weighs 35tons (original turret and hull plus mods). And she is 10 feet wide.

Actually ours looks kinda like the proposed German VK 45.01 (P) tank (The turret of which was mounted on the planned VK 45.01 (H) or VI H Ausf H2 to make the production Tiger, according to Osprey).

It's GREAT getting Armor in the field!!!!!

Here is a pic of delivery day. She needs some cosmetic work ( like correcting the comander coupula and hatch) but she is a great start!

And if you go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eel7e_16cIc&eurl= you can see a short vid of her on delivery day almost crashing into my new truck!!!!

Josh

ChevyM14 · Post by **ChevyM14** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:24 pm

were can I buy a T34 or T55?

.

joshk98k · Post by **joshk98k** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:27 pm

California or
http://www.milweb.net/index2.html , click on Vehicle Park and then Armour & Tracked.
or
http://www.russiantruck.co.uk/tracked.html

Josh

-M60_Gunner- · Post by **-M60_Gunner-** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:29 pm

At those prices, why I'll take two!

Post by **gdmoore28** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:38 pm

Josh--

Your tank looks Fan-freakin'-Tastic.

Yeah, it ain't exactly like the original. But, who the heck cares? You do the best you can under the circumstances, and you guys have done great.

GeeDeeEmm

joshk98k · Post by **joshk98k** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:46 pm

Thanks man! We appreciate it!

ChevyM14 · Post by **ChevyM14** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:50 pm

great just when I get my WWII jeep payed off, now I have to buy a APC or russin tank

.

Post by **Pug42** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:25 am

@ joshk98k - you have a nice example! Like the zimmerit, and correct style of turret numbers etc. Like you say, for reenactment having a tank at all to play with and ride around on is a BIG bonus!!

We are hoping to have another cool replica vehicle this year but I can't say too much...

Post by **tomcatshaas** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:30 am

I need one of those tanks! Is there a parts kit for them?

Maybe we can get a group buy going on weaponeer.

TC

Post by **DARIVS ARCHITECTVS** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:36 pm

Man, Josh, what I'd give to have that in my front yard! How did you get the front and and the wheels to look precisely like a Tiger I? The one they had in Saving Private Ryan looked so fake from the front. Were you able to stay true to the original tank's dimensions?

joshk98k · Post by **joshk98k** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:49 am

Hey DA, You must be talking about PUG's Tiger which looks AMAZING!!!! Ours IS from "Saving Private Ryan."

3 Tiger replicas were made for that movie. One was for close ups, one was for filler and distance shots and one they blew up. You can get all that info from http://www.sproe.com . The "filler" tiger did not have smoke dischargers and now resides at a tank museum in England. Ours is the one from the close-ups (think of the "sticky bomb" scene or when Hanks sprayed is Tompson into the driver's vision port). If you look closely you can see where the Hollywood pyro blew off some of the road-wheel rubber during that scene. That road wheel has been moved to the opposite side and in a different location so that the wheel damage doesn't affect her too much (until we can get it replaced).

I WISH we could get the road wheels right somehow. We have all been thinking about it but those Russian road wheels are just so massive that we can't even put inserts in there to simulate the interwoven German wheels. It would be dangerous when all the mud and such built up. If you guys come up with anything let us know!

The other thing that could look better is the driver's vision port. Our's is too big. The practical reason is for safety so the driver can see to drive. So that's worth it! Ha! It's kind of like looking through a short tunnel and the driver field of vision is very very small.

As for dimensions, they were scaled down proportionally to look correct to each other. Pug is correct, she is a little smaller.

Ours has a total width of 10 feet 4 inches. A Real Tiger with transport tracks was 10.3 feet and with combat tracks was 12.2 feet (according to http://www.alanhamby.com/technical.html)

If you want to see more pics of ours go to our homepage http://www.9thsspanzer.com/ and click on the pic. Not many pics of the front since she is getting a facelift

Hopefully she will be ready within a month!

Josh

Post by **gdmoore28** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:01 am

Our group of reenactors spent a fun day Saturday at a relatively new Ostfront event held just outside of Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Some of the Russian reenactors didn't show up, so we ended up with the numbers backasswards: lots of krauts, just a handful of russkies. But we had nice, cold, cloudy weather and fifty or sixty acres of woodland to chase around on, so we all had a great time. I'd love to see this event grow in the future, as there are a lot of good folks involved.

In any case, here's a few pics of the event.

This is our motley crew: