Tuesday, June 14, 2011

German Jagdpanzern in a Traffic Jam

A German supply convoy has run into a tank destroyer column and must wait its turn to use the road. On the positive side, at least they are not driving on mud! The tank destroyer column has a variety of self-propelled guns, an 8-ton truck towing an 88mm gun, and couple of anti-aircraft guns to give it some protection. The supply convoy in addition to the 3-ton Opel blitz trucks, and Maultier (a half-tracked truck), has some panzer grenadiers on half-tracks and a couple of pak 40s in tow in case it needs to defend itself. Lastly, they also have a motorcycle scout who is eager to go!
These are a combination of Forces of Valor and 21st Century vehicles. When 21st Century Toys first started manufacturing realistic, factory-painted plastic vehicles around 10 years ago, I thought those vehicles were the best thing there was, except of course for high-end manufacturers like Minichamps. Compared to anything that came before in the plastic segment, they were head and shoulders above the competition. And then came along Forces of Valor with even more realistic vehicles in die cast metal for only a slightly higher price. 21st Century tried to stay in the game, coming out with their on line of [partly] die cast vehicles, but unfortunately for all of us in the hobby they did not survive and now Forces of Valor can set their prices unchallenged. And even they have substantially slowed down in their production of new models. Hopefully at some point we'll see once again some healthy competition and new models in this segment of the market that not long ago seemed to be thriving.

The big picture



88 Being towed by 8-Ton Truck


View of tank destroyer column from the front


Supply column waiting its turn


Lead elements, supply column



Where the rubber (or the track?) meets the road

 
Lead elements, tank destroyer column

Click here to see pictures of a German column being ambushed.



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