Sd.Kfz. 131 Marder II - 9.Pz.Div. - Falaise 1944
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The Marder was a somewhat brilliant solution to a myriad of problems, chief amongst which was numerological inferiority in armored vehicles on virtually every front. It sought to combine an abundance of otherwise obsolete or non-standard tank hulls and a number of different foreign and domestic anti tank guns at the Wehrmacht's disposal. The Marder II, made in two versions, combined a prewar PzKfw.II's hull and mechanicals with either a captured Russian 76mm anti tank gun (in the SdKfz 132) or the German PAK40 75mm gun (as in the modeled SdKfz 131). While the open-topped and lightly armored self-propelled guns couldn't hope to compete in open combat with allied main battle tanks, their heavy firepower, small and nimble size, and their sheer abundance made them perfect for ambush work in the fighting withdrawals that the German military found themselves in throughout the second half of the war.
My model represents a Marder II of the German Army's 9th Panzer Division, one of the few divisions known to operate the SdKfz 131 model in the Normandy campaign. The 9th Panzer Div was certainly a hard-luck unit, in almost constant combat on the eastern front from the very first day of Operation Barbarossa. It was badly mauled at the battle of Kursk in 1943 and stayed on the front line until finally pulled off the line in April 1944, with only 15 tanks and a tiny percentage of its men left. The 9th was transferred to southern France for respite and reequipping. This recuperation was cut short when the Allies landed in Normandy in June. The division absorbed the 155th Reserve Panzer Division and was thrown at the allied advance, arriving just in time to be almost completely encircled in the Falaise Pocket. Tasked with holding a gap open so that Army Group G could retreat to the east, the 9th Pz did so at grevious cost. Of the 12,700 men and 150 Tanks that the 9th Panzer arrived in Normandy with, only 1500 men and 5 tanks would escape to fight another day.
My model is made from Special Hobby's lovely 1/72 Scale SdKfz 131 Marder II. It was built directly from the box with the exception of some fine wire details, particularly the rings for tool stowage. The model was painted with AK Real colors to match a 9th Panzer Division example from AK's Book: "German Armour in Normandy". The hull numbers were from a generic decal set, the white outlines hand painted. Weathering was done almost entirely with artists oils.
The base is for a glass ball, purchased from Amazon. Scenery is real rocks, set in AK "Terrains" soils, and a myriad of model railroad scenery. The fence is scratch built from cocktail sticks, and the tree is a combination of real sticks, model railroad foam "foliage" and model Noch "leaves". This is also my first time using a static grass applicator, I'm happy with it, but I think I can do better next time.
