Hi guys,
I've been meaning to build my Grille 17 for ages but I'm still undecided what exactly to do with it. I've pretty much decided on it sitting in, or in the process of being driven into, a dug-out emplacement on the edge of some woodland. A friend of mine has donated some dead Bonsai trees, and I work in a shop which has quite a large railway section with scenic scatter etc so that's not a problem.
I was thinking of depicting the Grille as having either just arrived at the emplacemet or not having been ther for long, mainly because I have searched high and low for 170mm ammo for the 72Sf cannon and can't find it anywhere! Therefore it wouldn't look too out of place if the Grille was sitting in its emplacement surrounded by guys with spades and pickaxes, waiting for the trucks carrying the ammo to arrive.
I also thought of having a well disguised E10 or E25 nearby, hidden in a derelict building or some bushes as a forward observation vehicle. The scenario I suppose would be that the Germans had some kind of situation in mid to late 45 which allowed them to mount a counter offensive so they sent out light armour to search for weak points in the Allied lines so they could call in the heavy artillery. I have an E25 already, would they have used these as scout vehicles, or would they have used the E10 instead? I know the E10 had variable height suspension so was easier to hide, which appeals to me as I'd like it to be barely noticeable.
Finally the derelict building would be some kind of forest keepers hut or something similar, which would have been (partially?) burned down at some point in the distant past, setting a couple of nearby trees on fire as well - some of the Bonsai trees donated by Steve have been set on fire, don't ask...
So I suppose my questions are:
Does anyone know who makes ammunition, an aluminium gun barrel, and any other "must-have" option parts for the Grille 17? I've sourced some Fruil tracks for it already before anyone suggests those
If I was to build a small derelict building and hide a tank in it would it be better to use an E25 or an E10?
Does anyone have any photos of dug out emplacements for mobile artillery or any idea how they would be built, eg would they have taken the time to put in boards and posts around the sides, would they build a machine gun emplacement nearby, would they have a separate radio or use the one in the vehicle, would they have a range finder and other observation set up or would they rely solely on instructions over the radio? What other support vehicles and roughly how many men would you expect to see?
Many thanks in advance for any and all feedback or suggestions,
-Steve
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