Das Lezte Gefecht
(The Last Stand)


By Tommy Kortman

The concept for this piece came about from a conversation I had with a gentleman, Paul Keefe Jr., at one of the first meetings of our fledgling armor modeling club, “The Tank Crew”. It was from this discussion and subsequent reading of “Combat History of Schwere Panzer Abteilung 653” that I learned that there were 2 “Elephants” at the final Battle for Berlin. This then is the subject of my diorama.

I have tried to show the desperate attempt to keep Berlin from being overrun. Soldiers from different units and branches of the military were pressed into service, hence the assortment of uniforms presented here.
The base for the diorama is from Joe Farina. Ironically, the original sculpture that the copies were cast from was created by the very same man that became my sounding board, fact checker, and friend, Paul Keefe Jr. This base is so well done that all I really had to do was paint it. I did however add a few detail touches. I built the collapsing floor from balsa and bass wood.
Small details were added from various Tamiya and Academy accessory sets. These include Jerry cans, Potato masher grenades, empty grenade case, shell casings, canteen, mess kit, helmet, and a fuel drum. Hitler’s portrait was scratch built from Evergreen styrene, clear acetate, and a Verlinden propaganda poster set.
The water in the street was created with clear acrylic paint from Testors. The base was first sealed with Model Master primer. It was then base coated with Polly Scale’s roof brown railroad color. I did this so that if any thing was missed during painting it wouldn’t show as bad. I used Testors Acryll and Poly Scale Rail Road paints. Most off the painting was done by dry-brushing and scrubbing.

I wanted the diorama to look more like a photograph than a created story. To this end I tried to create the feeling of stopped time. I used the bullet splashes, spilling fuel, firing machine gun, and shot soldier to try and convey this.

The bullet splashes and spilling fuel were created in similar fashion. I applied Woodland Scenics Water Effects to a Teflon glue tip for superglue. The water effects dries almost completely clear, perfect for moving liquid. By mistake, I found out that the water effects doesn’t stick to the Teflon tip. So after it had dried completely, I removed the “water from the tip. I was left with a hollow tube of “water” that was the correct diameter. All I had to do was cut it to length. The spilling fuel was made by gluing a small length of monofilament fishing line between the drum and the base, and coating it with “Water Effects”. When the “effects” dried I painted it with Tamiya clear yellow and orange. The splashes were glued to the base with superglue. The glue was then covered with a little more “water” and the dry brushed sparingly with white paint.
The last step was to add a little texture to the rubble. I used a combination of Hudson & Allen “Rubble” and real brick and mortar ground up. This was applied with diluted white glue and water.

The figures are from Warriors and Verlinden. Most are built w/o any modifications.

Wounds were added to the one soldier, an eye patch and throat mic was added to the commander, and a scope was scratch built for the sniper. The figures were painted with Testors Acryl and Poly Scale RR colors. As previously stated, by the end of the War, Germany was pressing everyone and anyone they could find into service. Soldiers from different units and branches were fighting side-by-side. I’ve included soldiers from the Hitler Youth, the Luftwaffe, an SS sniper, Volkstrum, the 18th Pzr. Grenadiers, and the British Freikorps (foreign volunteers).
The Elephant is the new release from Dragon, kit #6126 (well, it was new when I started this project.) I used detail parts from Eduard, Fruili Modelissimo, CMK Hot Barrels, Warriors, Elephant, and Cavalier.

The zimmerit was applied to look well worn. I cut and chipped up the Cavalier parts before they were applied. Where I either didn’t like the Cavalier piece or it didn’t fit quite right, I used Elmer’s wood filler to create the look that I wanted.

Eduard photo-etch was used extensively throughout the build-up. The fenders are from Warriors. Each section of fender is comprised of 2 pieces horizontal and vertical. The fenders were damaged before assembly. First the horizontal piece was “damaged” and then the small vertical edge was bent to match. This was glued to the first piece with superglue, using small bits of Evergreen as support.
The kit had 2 faults that had to be fixed. The first was the 2 conical bolts to the left of the rear hatch. They were flip-flopped. I cut them off and repositioned them correctly.

The other mistake were the hinge blocks for the gunners hatch. These were also carefully cut off and repositioned correctly. At this time I also added hinge pins to all the hatch pivots on the top of the fighting compartment. These were made from Evergreen rod.

Since the commander’s hatch was to be open, the ejector pin mark on the pad inside the hatch had to be filled. I used auto body filler because it won’t shrink like Squadron (green or white) will.

Squadron green was used however, added to the chassis and suspension as mud clods.

Anti-tank and small arms hits taken by the Elephant were replicated by using various size ball cutters in a Dremel tool. The small hits and casting imperfections were created by bouncing a very small bit across the surface in a random manner. On the larger hits, Elmer’s wood filler was used to replicate melted steel. While this may not be technically accurate because of the steel used at the time, Artistic license allowed me to use this fantastic effect. I got this idea from issue #28 of the Japanese publication Armour Modeling. This magazine was also used a guide for weathering on the Elephant.

The kit was painted with Tamiya acrylics using Chris Mrosko’s technique from his book, “Panzers Tactics” from Letterman press. I varied the technique slightly in that I base coated the tank with a lightened Dunkel Gelb and then picked out the seams, edges, corners, and crevasses with straight color. The dark green was applied next, then the red-brown. The tank was coated with clear gloss and then the decals were added. Once the decals had dried the entire kit was dusted w/ lightened Dunkel Gelb overspray.

The tank was then sealed with Testors Dullcote. The dullcote was applied lightly. It still, however, softened the underlying paint. This came with a hidden plus or 2. First it allowed some of the base yellow to show thru the camo colors for a more mottled appearance. Second, I was able to represent some horizontal scratches on the fighting compartment hull by dragging needle point tweezers across the surface.

When the dullcote had cured, I began weathering. For the weathering I used Testors, Polly Scale RR colors, and Rustall. Initial washes were also laid down after first brushing on a coat of clean testors paint thinner. This step definitely gives more control over the placement of the subsequent pin washes, like around the conical bolts. I used either burnt sienna or burnt umber depending on the look I was after.

The entire vehicle was then dry brushed w/ Testors Model Master USMC Armor Sand. The next step was the rust washes with Rustall. This was done sparingly. I wanted a well worn vehicle not a neglected one. The “mud” on the lower hull was painted and weathered at this time.

I now turned my attention to the tracks & sprockets. The road wheels were the first to be attached. The rear sprocket from Fruili was attached next.

Since I was using Fruili tracks & sprockets I temporarily attached the kit supplied sprockets so I could measure the correct spacing from the sprocket face to the hull (37mm). The rear sprockets were shimmed and attached with 5 min. epoxy. The front sprockets were fitted and shimmed, but not glued. The fronts were allowed to rotate until the final fitment of the tracks was complete. Then, they too were attached w/ 5 min. epoxy. 108 links were laid out for each side. The tracks were then soaked in “Blacken-it”, a metal blackening solution from A-West.

When the tracks achieved the desired color they were removed from the solution and allowed to air dry on a paper towel. When the tracks were dry, the wear points were sanded with 600 grit sandpaper. They were then fitted to the suspension. The tracks were given a light wash with Rust-all and then dusted w/ pastel powders.
The top of the fighting compartment was now permanently attached at this point. It was easier to work on and handle w/o the large structure in the way.

The aluminum barrel from Hot Barrels was attached next with super glue. The fit of this piece was fantastic. I would have liked a machined muzzle break though.

With all of the components assembled, the entire tank was given a “light” overspray of Polly Scale “Dust”. A word of caution here. When using the Dust, be patient and use it sparingly. The effect will sneak up on you and can, if you’re not careful, be overdone. There-by ruining a lot of work.

One quick side note. Some of the blast areas were drybrushed w/ various shades of black after the Dusting. This was done to convey damage inflicted at different times during the Elephants career. You will also notice that some of the damaged zimmerit shows a steelish grey underneath, indicating fresh damage, while other areas have obviously been repainted sometime after the damage had been done.

When everything was dry I went back with some burnt sienna and burnt umber and added some paint chips. A silver pencil was then used to highlight bare metal or worn areas.

The spare track links on the back of the upper hull and the towing clevises were given a treatment of Instant Rust.
Tow cables were the next item on the list. Unfortunately, Dragon does not supply these with the kit. I got mine from Elephant through VLS. These are steel cables with resin ends. The cables had to be annealed before they could be shaped to the way I wanted them to lay. I used the kitchen stove for this procedure (Please don’t tell my wife. She was asleep when I did this.) I then drilled the ends to accept the cables, fitted them to the hull and attached them with superglue. The cables were also given the Rustall wash/silver pencil treatment. The final item was a brass wire antenna complete with an Evergreen insulator.

The Commander is a Warriors figure. He has received a set of Tamiya head phones and a scratch built throat mic. A Verlinden map was also used. The loader buttoning up the hatch was from the same set as the commander. His hand was modified to accept the brass wire hatch handle.

This was a longer project than I had anticipated, but I am extremely happy with the results. I would like to thank Paul Keefe and Jim Rosado for their advice, ideas, support, reference books, and in general…help during this project. They helped me to try and keep this piece as historically accurate as possible. I would also like to thank Chris Mrosko for his wonderful book, Panzer’s Tactics, which allowed me to try some techniques that I hadn’t thought of before.

A special thanks also goes to Mr. Shep Paine. I was fortunate enough to meet and talk to Shep at the 2003 MFCA show in Valley Forge Pa. This conversation had me trying different figure combinations and positioning until I found something that “flowed”.

I’d also like to thank Vince Buonfiglio for taking the photos for me.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank my wife, Tammy, for her vast patience and support.

Parts, pieces and reference material used:

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