Saturday, September 23, 2023

The Ardennes Offensive

A close up of the fearsome Tiger II tank.
At 70 tons the largest tank to see large scale service in WWII.
Not produced in great numbers the Germans did gather a force of them for the attack later known as the Battle of the Bulge.
The Germans often had large red markings on the side of the tank so crews could recognize each other.
The tanks move easily in the deep snow.
The Tiger tank is actually a slightly modified M47 tank by Roco Minitanks.
Not unlike the Spanish Army M47 tanks that were modified for use in the 1965 film the Battle of the Bulge.

 Decades ago I got three M47 tanks with the storage boxes cut off the back of the turret and a replacement panel installed and the guns had been cut off and replaced with Roco Tiger II cannons.  I cut down the double baffle muzzle break to a single baffle, painted the tanks panzer gray.  All part of my restoration, rehabilitation and refurbishment of my M47 collection.  Since part of my collection includes movie crews it seems reasonable  to have a few "movie prop" vehicles in the collection too.

4 comments:

  1. There is something charming about this whole concept!

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  2. Thank you Archduke, that is very kind of you to write.
    Bunkermeister

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  3. M47s were used by the Spanish Army in both the movies The Battle of the Bulge and Patton IIRC. Looks good - the M47/Tiger IIs on the march!

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  4. Yes, in the days before CGI you had to do with what you could get!

    Thanks for reading.

    Bunkermeister

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