'46 German E25

[Dizzyfugu]

The issue with the coincidence rangefinder is that it normally is linked with the gun in a vertical axis, and both gun and rangefinder sit in the same turret and move together horizontally. In a casemate layout this is not really possible, unless you have an arrangement like the Swedish S tank? I cannot remember any real SPG of this layout that features such a device? I know that German SPGs like the Jagdpanzer IV or the Jagdpanther were supposed to use a Scherenfernrohr (a.k.a. Panzertruppen Entfernungsmesser 0.9-meter Raumbild, a powerful magnification glass which was capable of range calculation, too), there were openings on the roof to allow the stereo optics to be "extended", keeping the crew safe inside of the hull.
Therefore, it will probably not be useful for aiming, and as a separate observation and rangefinding tool I'd put it in the small turret - maybe redesign it (taller, and then with armored "antlers" on both sides), so that the machine cannon there (IIRC a compact 30 mm MK 108 from the Luftwaffe was supposed to be used in this projected small turret) is linked with the rangefinder?

[Jakko]

If the idea is that this is an artillery observation vehicle like the ones based on the post-war KaJaPa, then its rangefinder wouldn't be linked to a gun at all — it would be a rangefinder for the sake of having a rangefinder, not for aiming a gun with.

Putting both a coincidence rangefinder and a cannon (or machine gun) into the same small turret is probably going to be problematic, IMHO, because you can't have the gun in between the ends of the rangefinder — it would need to always sit below that, even at full depression. Plus, why use a complicated, expensive device like a coincidence rangefinder for sighting a short-ranged automatic weapon at all? Or why risk damage to the instrument from its recoil forces?

[buzzbomb]

If the idea is that this is an artillery observation vehicle like the ones based on the post-war KaJaPa, then its rangefinder wouldn't be linked to a gun at all — it would be a rangefinder for the sake of having a rangefinder, not for aiming a gun with.

Yes, this is still the case

Right then.
Some reworking/redesign around bits that did not work during the experimental phase and to hopefully address some of the concerns raised in the discussion.

Moved the range finder to replace the MG in the turret because :-
a. fire from the MG would have hit it
b. a tad higher and more flexible.
c. If you really want to, you could also say that it could be extended upward by maybe half a metre or so.
Replaced the MG with a Hetzer type Remote MG. And yes.. the Rangefinder LOS does clear the MG Mount

Scissor Binocular mount added over the Casement blanking casting


Overhead view, the boxes on the back of the turret are counter weights. The remote MG also has more ammo via a transverse ammo box below the gun. Normally these would
tend to use the 50 round circular magazines. Brass grilles are only tacked on at the moment until I finish faffing about. Plus the wandering vent has yet another home.


Maybe a bit more tinkering then to the paint shop/procrastination phase, then put on all the bits not fitted yet like the pioneer tools, jack and other bits that might impede the camo painting if I use the hard edge scheme.
   

[Jakko]

IMHO, this is much more believable than the way you had it before. The rangefinder would be more usable, and the machine gun pretty much can't hit it by accident and it still has a good field of fire to all directions where it really matters.

[buzzbomb]

Thanks for stopping by again.

So before I disappear for a weekend of modelling mayhem at our club Build weekend/Modellers retreat... an update.

We are out of the paint shop and have decals (exactly 2  ) put on. Next stop.. the weathering booth

[Old Wombat]

Looking very good, BT!

[Wardukw]

That's some lovely air brush work bud 👍
Very pleasing to ghe eye 

[Jakko]

That's looking pretty good.

[Dizzyfugu]

 Nice Hinterhalt scheme. 

[NARSES2]

That's looking pretty good.

And I thought it was us English who were meant to be masters of the understatement ? 

Seriously I really do like that scheme 

[Jakko]

Nice Hinterhalt scheme. 

That's the scheme where there are little dots of a dark yellow over the green and brown camouflage patches, and dots of green over the dark yellow ones. He could still put that scheme onto this model, but right now it's simple 1943–45 three-colour camouflage.

And I thought it was us English who were meant to be masters of the understatement ? 

Must have rubbed off because I hang out with British people too much on forums like this one.

[NARSES2]

And I thought it was us English who were meant to be masters of the understatement ? 

Must have rubbed off because I hang out with British people too much on forums like this one.

  

[Dizzyfugu]

Nice Hinterhalt scheme. 

That's the scheme where there are little dots of a dark yellow over the green and brown camouflage patches, and dots of green over the dark yellow ones. He could still put that scheme onto this model, but right now it's simple 1943–45 three-colour camouflage.

And I thought it was us English who were meant to be masters of the understatement ? 

Must have rubbed off because I hang out with British people too much on forums like this one.

No. "Hinterhalt" was a very vague concept; it was not confined to a certain paint scheme, it was rather a concept of using camouflage paint/pastes in the field to add patterns and contrast with dark colors (green and red-brown) to a factory-finished uniform vehicle (Dunkelgelb). Very early there even was the idea of using circular templates to create a "shadows under leaves" effect, which can be found on a few vehicles like this Jagdpanzer IV:



Was much too complex to apply, either in the factory or in the field, so that improvisation took over - even though the idea of counter-shaded mottles prevailed to simulate light effects and break up the silhouette. But that's not what constitutes the Hinterhalt scheme.

[Jakko]

I'd never seen the term used to refer to anything other than camouflage with those little dots — which is what the disc-camouflage on the StuG IV (that's what's in your photo, not a JPz IV) also achieves, but as you say, in a much more complicated manner. Though it's beloved by modellers, of course

[buzzbomb]

Got to the "that will do" stage. It is now on the shelf. Time for the broad arm sweep to clean off the bench.