Brilliant stuff, never seen that before.
Brian you did a great job on it
Indeed. Finally got the figure photos to show. (Crappy internet) Nicely done!
Hi Rob,
as you might remember, the most common patrol vehicle in West Germany was the Volkswagen T3 bus.
I remember them well as I’ve sat in the back of one more than once. In handcuffs no less.
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I remember seeing those all over the place yes. I was stationed in Erlangen from ‘85-‘87.
Richard, Greg, many thanks for no small leap of faith; 'just need some impetus to crack on.
I’m sure it’ll come given the surprising amount of interest(!)
@BootsDMS I’ll be referencing your figures for a future west German what if dio i have planned but also have been haphazardly working on I’ve the years!
Sounds intriguing…!
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Bundesgrenzschutz/Bundespolizei is had a lot of interesting vehicles next to Sonderwagen
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I like that Transformers-sytle Wasserwerfer.
Thanks Paul; my model will be set a little earlier - around the mid-sixties(!) - wherein of course I was blissfully unaware of the very existence of the BGS.
In fact, thanks to all for the interest in this project; hopefully it will re-energise my dwindling modelling mojo of recent months.
Once again, all hail to Armorama!
Very cool subject, I was wondering, what colour did you select for the vehicle?
I’ve been wondering what to do with my Dragon Saladin kit, and this looks fun.
Grz,
Sam
Hi Sam; ‘Glad you find this sufficiently interesting. I still major in enamels and identified Humbrol Matt 88 Deck Green; Revell do a similar colour in their enamel range Matt 48 Sea Green. It would appear that BGS colours changed throughout its existence but I think these 2 colours are probably good enough for the Saladin period.
The modifications to the Saladin do not look as though they’d be too difficult to scratch; I opted to purchase the MR Modellbau set for mine as it’s not that expensive I feel.
If you need registration numbers then TL Modellbau do a very useful range of decals although they’d need modifying a bit for the Saladin time-frame:
Bundesgrenzschutz-Beschriftungen 1:35, 10,95 € (tl-modellbau.de)
I trhink the color of the real vehicles were Schwarzgrün. A friend of mine managed get a can of real BGS laquer to paint his Dartmore or Firing Line resin Saladin.
Hi Rob, indeed the NVA Grenztruppen had their own costal guard, land and sea. The designation of the Trabant car is Kleinkübelwagen P 601 A. A co-worker has on in his collection, but in contary to the Trabant, which was made entirely out of “Plaste”, the Kleinkübelwagen had a “Plaste” bonnet and fenders, the rest was made of “Russenstahl”.
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That big blue truck thing looks like Optimus Prime!
Ken
Ty for the reply I’ll look into those colours…
bye,
Sam.
I cannot believe it’s been 2 years or so and I just let this one fade; my apologies to all, I really need to have a word with myself.
In actual fact, most of the legwork was done and it just needed finishing off, which I’ve just done this rainy afternoon in darkest Wiltshire (southern UK); the bonus is that I can now take it along to the model show tomorrow (IPMS Avon, near Bristol).
BGS models are not uninteresting I feel, I just love the juxtaposition of Wehrmacht-style kit and more modern vehicles; I still hope, one day, to tackle the Saladin. If so, I’ll try and complete it and not drag it all out over 2 years(!)
Anyway, I do hope this is still of interest; please remember that this vehicle was not, in fact, ever in service with the BGS, I just identified it as it was the nearest model I could find to the armoured vehicles they did use.
Just to recap: the Bundesgrenzshutz (Federal Border Troops) were responsible for the security of the Inner German Border (in conjunction with NATO troops in the vicinity) throughout most of the Cold War. The model depicts a mobile patrol RVing with a foot patrol, one of whom is in shown greeting the vehicle commander. This is all serious stuff: They are smack up against the IGB, as shown by the sign and the red/white striped barrier. Perversely enough, the East German border guards will be monitoring just such progress.
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This looks great Brian.
I’m only sorry I won’t after all be at the Avon show tomorrow to see this one. I’ve been waiting for some time for a minor leg op, which happened at short notice this week. Good news is it all seemed to go well, bad news, I can’t drive far for a week or so cos things are a bit sore!
Hope to be able to catch up properly soon, most likely at the “autumn” Yeovil show I reckon.
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