Tag: panzer viii maus

Basecoating the Maus Super Heavy Tanks

The Maus was a German World War Two super heavy tank that was completed in late 1944. Five were ordered, but only two hulls and one turret were completed before the testing grounds were captured by advancing Soviet forces It is the heaviest fully enclosed armoured fighting vehicle ever built at 188 metric tons. It was armed with a 128mm gun and a coaxial 75mm gun. The Maus was intended to punch holes through enemy defences in the manner of an immense “breakthrough tank”, whilst taking almost no damage to any components.

I have been constructing two 15mm models of the Maus Super Heavy Tank. One from Zvezda and the other from Clash of Steel. Having given both models a white undercoat I gave them a base coat of Army Painter Desert Yellow Spray.

This is the Zvezda model.

This is the Clash of Steel model.

I sprayed the tracks with Mechanicus Standard Grey Spray, though I think they will be painted a dark brown colour eventually.

The next stage will be painting the tracks and the camouflage. I am going to go for the similar pattern as on the GF9 Clash of Steel model.

Though as I don’t have an airbrush I am going to have to do this by hand with a paintbrush.

Another Maus

The Maus was a German World War Two super heavy tank that was completed in late 1944. Five were ordered, but only two hulls and one turret were completed before the testing grounds were captured by advancing Soviet forces It is the heaviest fully enclosed armoured fighting vehicle ever built at 188 metric tons. It was armed with a 128mm gun and a coaxial 75mm gun. The Maus was intended to punch holes through enemy defences in the manner of an immense “breakthrough tank”, whilst taking almost no damage to any components.

This Maus came in the Operation Unthinkable starter set for Clash of Steel. One of seventeen tanks in the box.

This is the sprue.

The model was a relatively simple build.

I kept the tracks off the model to paint separately.

Having recently  constructed the Zvezda Maus, it’s interesting to compare the two models.

They are pretty much identical.

However from a modelling perspective, the Clash of Steel version is much easier to put together.

I then gave the Maus a white undercoat.

The yellow of the plastic can still be seen, but I wasn’t trying to do a thicker base coat, this was about setting a primer for the sand base coat later.

Next step will be painting the model a sand colour.

Constructing and undercoating the Maus

The Maus was a German World War Two super heavy tank that was completed in late 1944. Five were ordered, but only two hulls and one turret were completed before the testing grounds were captured by advancing Soviet forces It is the heaviest fully enclosed armoured fighting vehicle ever built at 188 metric tons. It was armed with a 128mm gun and a coaxial 75mm gun. The Maus was intended to punch holes through enemy defences in the manner of an immense “breakthrough tank”, whilst taking almost no damage to any components.

I’ve always been impressed with the 1/100th scale models from Zvezda as well as being good quality plastic miniatures they are also reasonably priced.  I was intrigued  to see that my local model shop had the German super heavy tank Maus in their range of Zvezda kits.

Zvezda Panzer VIII Maus

I think it might have been priced wrongly at £3.50 as similar boxes (i.e. the bigger boxes) were £7.00. So I bought two for potential objectives or models for alternate history games set at the end of World War Two.

The model comprises two plastic sprues and look detailed and I think it will capture the feel of this monstrous tank.

Zvezda Panzer VIII Maus sprue

Zvezda Panzer VIII Maus sprue

The sprues have sat around for a while, but having recently purchased a similar 1/100th scale 15mm Maus from Battlefront I was intrigued to see the comparison.

The next stage was to construct the models, even though it says snap-fit, decided to glue the model together. I was going add some weight to the model too, so give it some heft and ballast. I think a super heavy tank, even at 1/100th scale, should be “super heavy”. However, I didn’t have any weights to hand. The model was not as simple as I thought it would be to construct, I had issues with getting the gun the right way around, but got there in the end.

This is a large 15mm model, as compared to the M18 Hellcat in the same scale.

The next stage was a white undercoat.

Operation Unthinkable

One of the Clash of Steel Starter Sets have been on my wants list ever since I found out about them at the beginning of the year.

I ordered Operation Unthinkable boxed set containing the British and German tanks.

Operation Unthinkable was the name given to two related possible future war plans developed by the British Chiefs of Staff Committee against the Soviet Union during 1945.

In the box, as well as the rules, counters, and dice, are seventeen tanks. 

For the British you get

      • Two Tortoise Super Heavy Tanks
      • Four Centurion Tanks
      • Three Comet Tanks

The Germans have

      • A Maus Super Heavy Tank
      • Two King Tigers
      • Two Tiger Tanks
      • Three Panzer IV/70 Tank-hunters

This was the main reason for buying the box, I wanted some Centurions and the Tortoise. Getting the other tanks was just a bonus.

Here are the sprues from the box.

I am not sure what I will build first, but looking forward to constructing and painting these. This is from the back of the box.

Thinking I might get the USA versus Russian starter set as well.

This is the Operation Unthinkable Workbench.

Late War Monsters

Well Late War Leviathans are going to be released by Battlefront.

When the Mid-War Monsters were released in 2011 I did get some of the TOG tanks, and also said in a blog post:

I do hope that we see future “monsters” for Flames of War, there are some nice concepts and ideas out there for both Early-War and Late-War

When the Mid-War Monsters were re-released eleven years later in 2022 I wrote something similar:

Hopefully they are popular enough, that we get to see more of them, maybe some Early-War Monsters and some Late-War Monsters as well.

Well here we are in 2024 and Battlefront have announced their Late War Leviathans.

We have seen the German Maus.

Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus was a German World War II super-heavy tank completed in late 1944. It is the heaviest fully enclosed armored fighting vehicle ever built.

The Soviets have the IS3.

The IS-3 was a Soviet heavy tank developed in late 1944. Its semi-hemispherical cast turret (resembling that of an upturned soup bowl) became the hallmark of post-war Soviet tanks.

The US have the T28 Super Heavy Tank.

The T28 Super Heavy Tank was an American super-heavy tank/assault gun designed for the United States Army during World War II. It was originally designed to break through German defenses of the Siegfried Line and was later considered as a possible participant in the planned invasion of the Japanese mainland.

The British have the Tortoise.

The Tortoise heavy assault tank was a British heavy assault gun design developed during the Second World War, but never put into mass production. It was developed for the task of clearing heavily fortified areas such as the Siegfried Line and as a result favoured armour protection over mobility.

In addition there will be range of 1945+ models that can be used for alternate history games where the Second World War went beyond 1945. In the announcement video we have seen the Centurion Mk1 and US Pershing tanks.

These models will also be useful for gaming scenarios in the world of The Hot War series by Harry Turtledove as well as the Late War Leviathans background from Battlefront.

Eine kleine Maus

Panzer VIII Maus

The Maus was a German World War Two super heavy tank that was completed in late 1944. Five were ordered, but only two hulls and one turret were completed before the testing grounds were captured by advancing Soviet forces.

It is the heaviest fully enclosed armoured fighting vehicle ever built at 188 metric tons. It was armed with a 128mm gun and a coaxial 75mm gun.

The Maus was intended to punch holes through enemy defences in the manner of an immense “breakthrough tank”, whilst taking almost no damage to any components.

Panzer VIII Maus

I’ve always been impressed with the 1/100th scale models from Zvezda as well as being good quality plastic miniatures they are also reasonably priced. My only real complaint is that the other types of models in the range are designed to fit the box, not the same scale of the vehicles. So the infantry figures and artillery pieces, are 1/72nd, some aircraft are 1/144th and even 1/200th. I have even seen 1/350th boats in the range. This is a pity. The1/100th scale vehicles though fit well with my other 15mm models.

I was intrigued the other day to see that my local model shop had the German super heavy tank Maus in their range of Zvezda kits.

Zvezda Panzer VIII Maus

I think it might have been priced wrongly at £3.50 as similar boxes (i.e. the bigger boxes) were £7.00. So I bought two for potential objectives or models for alternate history games set at the end of World War Two.

Zvezda Panzer VIII Maus

The model comprises two plastic sprues and look detailed and I think it will capture the feel of this monstrous tank.

Zvezda Panzer VIII Maus sprue

Zvezda Panzer VIII Maus sprue

The next stage will be to construct the models, even though it says snap-fit, I think I will glue the model together. I will also add some weight to the model too, so give it some heft and ballast. I think a super heavy tank, even at 1/100th scale, should be “super heavy”.

I wonder if Zvezda will produce any other models similar to this? If they did what would you want to see?