15mm Marder III-M from Battlefront

Marder III-M tank destroyer and infantry from Battlefront

Just one more quick painting update before Dallas gets some battle reports up on the blog (hint - escape from the Death Star, the re-write).  I've been doing a lot of 15mm WW2 lately, mostly in winter, but I went back to "summer" painting for this vehicle - a German Marder III-M tank destroyer.  This is a 15mm model from Battlefront, as are the individually based infantry that I painted along with it.

A nice model from Battlefront

I love the look of the Marder series of vehicles - they speak to a certain eloquent desperation.  In many ways, on first glance, it looks so damn impractical you wonder how it ever came to be in service.  To me this speaks to the great pressure the Germans found themselves under as they confronted the much more numerous tanks of the Allies, particularly the Soviets.

I like the roll-bar on the top of the fighting compartment...

"Hey, we really need to get these guns on wheels - now.  What can we do with that old tank chassis over there?"

Rear view of the cramped fighting compartment

The Marder sports the very effective 75mm high velocity gun, cramped somehow on to the chassis of a Panzer 38t.  You can see on the model just how incredibly cramped the "fighting compartment" was, and the armour up there would have been negligible, just enough o keep the small arms fire off.

The photo is a little blurry, but the figure holding the 75mm round has a badly miscast face - mostly covered by the paint...

This Battlefront model is very nice, but Battlefront can be hit and miss on casting sometimes, and unfortunately there was a big miscast on the faces of one of the crewmen (the guy holding the 75mm round).  I didn't want to leave him out, as I think having the crew on the gun looks nice, and just one guy in there wouldn't seem right.  So I just painted around the miscast…it looks a little odd, but not terrible.

Get those T-34s!

Marders served in the anti-tank battalions of infantry divisions and panzer grenadier divisions. As a fighting vehicle, they could dish it out, but certainly couldn't take much abuse.  Still, hard-pressed grenadiers would have counted on these odd-looking vehicles for essential support on defence - and even attack!