Schützenpanzer Marder 1a1

[angry.bob]

This is a longshot, but I'm looking for good reference photos of the main and remote controlled MG3 turret on Schützenpanzer Marder 1a1's. I'm getting around to building a bunch of my models and I'm as far as I can go with the old Tamiya Marder "with no version" (#3598). The detail on those parts seems a little lacking and since they're a natural focal point I want to build them up as best I can. I vaguely remember at least one of you was a Marder crewman and was hoping some of you might know of a good resource. There's just nothing for that remote control MG3 that I can find. I assume it must have sucked because it was taken off for all the other versions.

Anyway, thanks in advance.

[Stormwaltz]

I can't answer the question, but this was the most intriguing thread name I've seen here in a while.

[Abagadro]

Never mind.

[angry.bob]

Never mind.

Oh, no. Please share. I'm sure it will be a treat.

[calapine]

I guess it will be hard to find many pictures of the A1 variant, that's more than 30 years ago now...

I came up with a few images that show the Heck-MG:

[Sky]

You know we do have a barely used mini painting thread, historical welcome!

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=16395.0

I started it two years before I actually painted anything :p And then it was another year and a half before I started painting for reals.

[calapine]

Maybe you can get some inspiration here: http://f3.webmart.de/f.cfm?id=2078181&r=threadview&t=3425340&pg=1




A German model builder made the same Marder you want to replicate. According to his post that's even a model by "Tamiya"....what a coincidence.

[Teleku]

Can't help you with this, but out of curiosity, what are you doing exactly?  Just a bunch of random (very detailed and specific it sounds like) models, or are you making some crazy Cold War diorama thing?

Anyways, good luck.  If you need any help on Polish military equipment, I live 5 minutes from the national museum which has an outdoor collection of all the various planes, tanks, armored cars, canons, coastal guns, ect. that the Polish military has used (IE, been handed down to them by somebody else) since independence.

[Jeff Kelly]

There have been conversion kits for ROCO 1:87 kits, you might find them on ebay (tip try to browse ebay Germany or Austria) there also seems to exist a Revell model of the 1A1.

There is one 1A1 at the tank museum in Münster Germany. Maybe you have someone that can take pictures for you there

[Jeff Kelly]

I found a forum post with pictures of a 1A1 kit http://f3.webmart.de/f.cfm?id=2078181&r=threadview&t=3586692&pg=1

[Jeff Kelly]

and another one with pictures of rel 1A1's

http://www.panzer-modell.de/referenz/in_detail/marder1a/marder1a.htm

[angry.bob]

Thank you all very much for the help! In addition to that I found a Scribd account where a guy has put up the out of print Waffen Arsenal books (here). They're in German, but are really great references.

Can't help you with this, but out of curiosity, what are you doing exactly?  Just a bunch of random (very detailed and specific it sounds like) models, or are you making some crazy Cold War diorama thing?

Anyways, good luck.  If you need any help on Polish military equipment, I live 5 minutes from the national museum which has an outdoor collection of all the various planes, tanks, armored cars, canons, coastal guns, ect. that the Polish military has used (IE, been handed down to them by somebody else) since independence.

I'm starting to build my model kit collection, some of which I've had for 30+years. For instance, the Tamiya Marder kit in this post was manufactured before there were a bunch of different versions. There was just the initial version. Over the years kits of the different models of Marder have been produced. This Tamiya kit is generally very good, but it's certainly improvable and can be brought up to modern standards. For this kit and many of the others that involves a photoetch set, machined metal barrel, individual link tracks, etc. Those can get pricey so I need to decide if it's worth spending another $30-60 on aftermarket stuff, scratchbuilding inaccurate/missing detail, or buying a more up to date kit of the subject. In this case, The Marder in the kit is a 1A1 version, the very first version of the Marder the German Army used. No one else makes a kit of that model, not even Tamiya anymore. They've reboxed the kit with a few different parts and sell it as a 1A2. As far as I can tell the only difference is that the 1A2 doesn't have a remote controlled machine gun on the rear, top deck. the 1A2 added a ATGM to the turret, and possibly some different stowage. That means I can use the aftermarket accessories made for the 1A2 on a model that represents a 1A1. So this morning I just ordered the Eduard photoetch set, a turned aluminum barrel, and the AFV Club working track. Yes, it's a 1/35 scale working, functional track kit. So, for $40 and the reference photos I can build this kit to a modern, accurate standard. Once I'm done with that, I'll track down the Revell of Germany 1/35 Marder 1A5. Then I might grab some more of the older Tamiya kit and scratchbuild the stuff to make some of the more interesting variants. Then I'll stick them all on a shelf and look at them.