Reconnaissance patrol of
PzGrenDiv "GD",
Lithuania 1944

PzGren Division "GD" at Schaulen

After a new crisis at the Eastern Front had shown near the Kurland sector, Panzer Grenadier Division Grossdeutschland (short: PzGrenDiv GD) was relocated from Aug 12th 1944 to an area west of Schaulen. Its mission was to wage an assault immediately in direction to the east to prevent the Kurland frontier to be cut off from the rest of the Eastern Front.

The approach to this sector lasted not less than 8 days for a distance of 200 kilometres. My Diorama shows a little recce unit, consisting of a WV-Kübelwagen and a WV-Schwimmwagen and their crew, including a Major of this elite division during a short break. The men make good use of this spare time, to cook something and to study the road map.

The unit is the spearhead of the GD Division at its march to Schaulen. In the heat of the summer, the little birch tree spends some cool shadow.
 

Vehicles and figures:

The two vehicles came from Tamiya and are built "out of the box". As the newer kits are from a quite good quality, they don´t need PE parts for detailing.

The extra load and accessoiries within the vehicles is a mixture from Verlinden, Tamiya and Dragon. I painted them with homemade mixtures of acrylic paint.

The figures are Tamiya and Verlinden ones and are except for the driver of the Schwimmwagen from a very good quality. All of the Tamiya figures got new resin type heads from Verlinden company. The paint job was made by means of oil-, acrylic, as well as enamel colours.
 

Diorama:

The slightly angled base plate was made from styrofoam, that was covered with modelling-plaster cast After that a mixture of earth, wood glue, water and detergent for the surface as well as static grass from the Heki company fro the grass areas were applied. The small field with high grass was manufactured with uncountable brush sheds, that were bundled and inserted in pre-drilled holes. There will be a construction report concerning the making of the birch tree in the "Tips and Tricks"- section within January 2004.

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