Some of you may remember me, most won’t because while I’ve lurked since 2011-ish I haven’t submitted much work.
I was working on a big SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 25 project that involved kit-bashing/customized figures and a Panther Ausf A late production.
For those curious, it’s archived here.
That project got away from me. Work picked up, I was away from home a lot and realized that while fascinating, the location I had chose for it (between Rots/Villineuve and Norrey-en-Bessin) is just a field with waist high grass, and not the best for showing off the figure work. I carefully covered each figure and stowed them in a foam filled box and they and the Panther are in a plastic tote on a garage shelf.
I haven’t built since, nor have I attended any group builds, IPMS shows, or gatherings and have missed the hobby.
While traveling, I’ve watched a lot of Youtube and listened to audiobooks.
You could say that I’ve have gone on a bit of a Stalingrad bender. That’s how I tend to approach the hobby. I’ll play a video game that covers a campaign, then dive head first into into learning what I can and building something for the display shelf. I had never really done a deep dive into Stalingrad, so it worked out.
I’ve been watching TIK’s Battleground Stalingrad Series on Youtube and listened to ‘Stalingrad’ by Antony Beevor, ‘The Gates of Stalingrad’ by David Glantz and Jonathan M. House Pritt Buttar’s ‘On a Knifes Edge’ Ukraine November 1942-March 1943.
I’ve become fascinated with the battle. There’s something about it that feels very…almost mythical. I saw an opportunity to build something and attend this years MOSSCON in May while I’m home and not working and I now knew I wanted to do something with Stalingrad.
There’s no doubt it’s a popular subject, I’m sure many of you, have done a Stalingrad project of somekind. It almost seems like a “required reading” of the WW2 armor builders. This is my swing at it.
I’ve decided to focus on the 24th Panzer Division. I picked up ‘Death of the Leaping Horseman’ by Jason D. Mark and was blown away by how great of a record it is. I knew a bit about the unit’s history. Building models since I was a kid in the 90’s, I had seen plenty of builds on the subject and even have seen it covered in video games like Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad, where they take you from the assault on Mamayev Kurgan, to the Train Station and into the factory District. I had a rough outline of the unit’s path and that’s what I wanted to focus on with this build. Nothing extremely specific location wise, just at the end of this tether in halls/workshops of Krasny Oktober.
Going over the sources, it’s clear that the month of October was just a meat grinder within the factory district with control of many halls changing daily, if not hourly.
A hall that had been successfully taken in the day by the Germans would then be viciously counterattacked at night by small but furious team of Soviet soldiers with grenades and SMG’s.
It became a back-and-forth in which the trick became taking a hall or workshop and holding it by supplying it well enough.
My diorama will specifically cover one of these workshops. I want to capture the look of the Germans in this push, being equipped with more automatic weapons than usual infanterie units, lots of ammunition and pioneer/engineer equipment. The central balance of the project will be a Panzer III Ausf J (long) of the 24th Panzer Division.
As with any build, I start with some books and then dig into the figures. I kit-bash and customize almost all my figures, so I bought some Miniart sets and a bunch of resin figures on eBay that match the 1942 Don/Steppe/Fall Blau panzergrenadier.
Book Sources:
As with all my German builds, if I can sneak my favorite firearm in there, I will! It’s the
Gewehr 41. I will! In this build there’s 2, since they show up in some numbers in Stalingrad.
The second Gewehr 41 equipped soldier
Assorted WIP figures
Assorted WIP figures 200mm
Zug leader and MG34 Laffette tripod
The ground will have mounds of debris and so I need to build some figures that are taking cover against said mounds in their assault and defense of the the factory interior.
I have a very rough idea of the composition and balance. These images are from figuring that out. They are in no way final and this was just stage “blocking”, as they call it in the musical theater world, to get an idea of how the scene will look.
Staging and blocking with some of the Miniart accessories to get an idea of balance.
I enjoyed digging into these
The following is just some screenshots of what I used to get an idea of the unit’s path after the Don Steppe/Kalach stage of Case Blue.
Beginning of Case Blue, for reference
It’s interesting that we tend to draw similar but not the exact same conclusions from these historic campaigns. I feel like most tend to think of the German loss at Stalingrad as being mostly on over stretched logistics, failures to secure flanks, and being beaten in the city, and I don’t differ from those opinions, but after reviewing what I have, I kind of feel like the campaign was lost at Kalach. The losses taken during the late summer were horrendous and the delays seem to be fatal when viewed retrospectively.
Slogging across the Steppe
These are the photos I’m usign as inspiration and reference for my Panzer III Ausf J.
Of interest is the 24th’s unique custom stowage boxes on the rear of the engine deck.
Situation at the beginning of September
Order of Battle for the Germans
The advance into the city early September
Fight for the southern half in early and mid September
This details the route and fight the 24th Pz Div had in their repositioining from Mamayev Kurgan to the North towards the factory district.
This maneuver was tricky. Mamayev Kurgan was very hard fought and it’s hilltop location critical for artillery spotting.
Breaking contact rearward and moving concisely to the north wouldn’t be easy.
Both ‘Death of the Leaping Horseman’ and TIK’s Battlestorm Stalingrad TY videos cover this very well. Highly recommended.
Late Septemeber advance into the factory district
Some pretty famous photos exist of IR 577 in this area. I’m using these photos to draw inspiration from, in building up my infantry. These photos, being very near the 24th’s position, capture the vibe and equipment sets these soldiers had moving into the factories.
Original Map references
