What’s Walrus Building?

A big bar tab. We had a small setback this week as one of our contractors had a small accident. Nothing serious but we lost a day of work on the house so we may be a tad behind although my co-owner did move in this week and is starting the unpacking process. I’m moving in 5 days and I’m like 97% packed. Should be done over the weekend and I’m going to be going back and forth over the next few days. Still on schedule to come out of the dark on the 31st.

On a more historical note Cobi had a sale so I’ve ordered about 5 pieces to go with the two I already have so there will be lots of builds for me once I settle in. Only downer note is that the IJN Akagi arrival has been pushed back to July. I pray it will not be pushed back further.

What’s Walrus Building?

No new pictures but the work is proceeding well. I’m going up tomorrow so should have some new pictures for next week which will be shortly before the big move. I, and the interns, are looking forward to it.

What’s Walrus Building?

Well, not me, but the contractors are going at a good clip. Here are some highlights.

That is one wall of the bar. The second and third shelve walls had this grey covering. I asked them to see if they could match the paneling. What they discovered is that the previous owners for some reason put ceiling tiles on the wall and when they took them off found the wall was already paneled. Weird.

They created this spot out of a hall closet and part of my bedroom closet. The washer/dryer is going in there. It is a tower model. Also going in our some side shelves.

This is the framing of my kitchen. Fridge is going by the door. Got the tiles and the counters picked out. It should be done in about ten days. I’m planning another trip up next week to see the progress.

Well that’s it for this week. Another 20 days until I move in. Still packing and throwing stuff out. The joys.

What’s Walrus Building?

Nothing much today. I had to two run ups to the new house the last two days and I am resting. You couldn’t make move by putting 40,000 volts through me. But work has been done. I got the car and license changed over to the new address. I am now officially living free or dying. Got my appliances delivered and made the final adjustments with the contractors on what is being up graded. I got no more money so it will have to do.

As kind of hinted at this week I got the pool opened but discovered a small leak in the piping between the filter and the pump that has to be addressed. Shouldn’t be a major problem… I hope. Here are a couple more shots of the main living room bar area.

Oh yah, party central.

The IJN Akagi looks to finally be back in stock so I hope to get my preorder soon. Another 25 days until I move. The s**t is getting real.

What’s Walrus Building?

Take a guess.

We closed on the house on Thursday so the next phase begins. Renovations. I’ll tease some before shots of the abode and then get you the finished arrangements after the move in. Let’s start with…

The Bar.

Big selling point for me. Here is what it looks like now. Probably add a couple of shelves in there but it is good to go. I’m thirsty already.

And less that is a fridge on the left. This should be fun.

On the Lego front I am obviously suspending activity until I move in which is currently set for May 29th. Realistically I might resume building in June. That resumption will start with the Sturmtiger that I just got delivered. I am also getting the IJN Akagi. I won’t be ordering anything else until after the move in and my life gets back to routine. Until next week, cheers!

What’s Walrus Building?

A whole lot of anxiety. Next Thursday is closing. Fingers crossed all the T’s are dotted and the I’s are all crossed.

Previous Build

German Staff Car Type 230

The Mercedes-Benz W 153 was a luxury six cylinder passenger car built in parallel with the W 143 from 1938, and first presented in public at the Berlin Motor Show early in 1939. It was one of several Mercedes-Benz models known, in its own time, as the Mercedes-Benz 230 (or sometimes, in this case, as the Mercedes-Benz Typ(e) 230).

The car had the same 3,050 mm (120 in) wheelbase as the longer wheelbase versions of the W143 from 1937, but with a completely new and much more modern body as well as a completely new chassis. In place of the earlier car’s pressed steel subframe the W 153 had an x-shaped oval tube subframe. The car had been developed by Hans Gustav Röhr who headed up the company’s Passenger Car Development Department for two years prior to his death in August 1937.

What’s Walrus Building?

Plans. Plans, plans, plans. We finally got a chance to get into the house with our contractors for a short period of time. A lot of discussions and the result is we have a tentative plan of what we want done. Now comes the fun part, how much? We await the projected cost summary. That aside I have been planning out where all my furniture and belonging will go. So far it looks like everything will fit easily. That was helped by a fortuitous discovery. Doing the first walk throughs there was this door in the bedroom which we thought was a closet. Upon opening it looked like a blank wall about 3 inches in. Odd, but it was dark and I didn’t think about asking about it. When we did the walk through this week we took a closer look and discovered it wasn’t a wall but another door. When we unlocked the door and looked in we found 3 storage room/areas. While not tall, only about 5 and a half feet, they were still substaintial with one having clothes racks and shelving. All my storage needs met! It certainly helps clarify what I will now keep or get rid of. So that’s what I was building this week. Regular builds will probably resume in May after I move in. Until then, here is a previous build.

PzKpfw. V Panther Ausf. G

The Panther tank, officially Panzerkampfwagen V Panther (abbreviated PzKpfw V) with ordnance inventory designationSd.Kfz. 171, is a German medium tank of World War II. It was used on the Eastern and Western Fronts from mid-1943 to the end of the war in May 1945.

On 27 February 1944 it was redesignated to just PzKpfw Panther, as Hitler ordered that the Roman numeral “V” be deleted. In contemporary English-language reports it is sometimes referred to as the “Mark V”.

The Panther was intended to counter the Soviet T-34 medium tank and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV. Nevertheless, it served alongside the Panzer IV and the heavier Tiger I until the end of the war. The Panther was a compromise. While having essentially the same Maybach V12 petrol (690 hp) engine as the Tiger I, it had better gun penetration, was lighter and faster, and could traverse rough terrain better than the Tiger I. The trade-off was weaker side armour, which made it vulnerable to flanking fire, and a weaker high explosive shell. The Panther proved to be effective in open country and long-range engagements. Although it had excellent firepower, protection and mobility, its reliability was less impressive. The Panther was far cheaper to produce than the Tiger I. Key elements of the Panther design, such as its armour, transmission, and final drive, were simplifications made to improve production rates and address raw material shortages. Despite this, the overall design has still been described by some as “overengineered”.

The Panther was rushed into combat at the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943 despite numerous unresolved technical problems, leading to high losses due to mechanical failure. Most design flaws were rectified by late 1943 and early 1944, though the bombing of production plants, increasing shortages of high-quality alloys for critical components, shortage of fuel and training space, and the declining quality of crews all impacted the tank’s effectiveness. Though officially classified as a medium tank, at 44.8 metric tons the Panther was closer in weight to contemporary foreign heavy tanks. The Panther’s weight caused logistical problems, such as an inability to cross certain bridges, otherwise the tank had a very high power-to-weight ratio which made it highly mobile.

The naming of Panther production variants did not, unlike most German tanks, follow alphabetical order: the initial variant, Panther “D” (Ausf. D), was followed by “A” and “G” variants.

The Panzer V Ausf. G (September 1943 – May 1945)

The Panzer V Panther tank was given the Ausf.G version designation to indicate this production run of tanks used a different redesigned chassis. The turret and 7.5cm Kw.K L/70 gun was the same one used on the earlier Ausf.A.
On 4 May 1944, during a meeting at the M.A.N. company, a decision was made to design a new Panther tank chassis. Work had already started on developing a new version of the Panther tank called Panther II but that was far from completion. Some of the lessons learnt from that design process were used in formulating the plans for the Ausf.G tank chassis.
The side pannier armor that covered the top of the tracks on both sides of the tank was angled at 40 degrees on the Ausf.D and Ausf.A tank chassis. The new chassis pannier side armor was sloped at 29 degrees. The thickness in the armor was increased from 40 mm to 50 mm. This increased the weight of the tank by 305 Kg.
To compensate for this increase in weight the designers looked for areas where the thickness of the armor could be reduced. They chose to use 50 mm armor plate on the lower front hull instead of the normal 60 mm. This saved 150 kg. The forward belly plates were reduced to 25 mm from 30 mm. The front two belly plates were 25 mm thick and the rear plate was 16 mm thick. This saved a further 100 kg in weight. The rear side armor wedges at the end of the superstructure were not part of the new design. The floor of the pannier was now a straight line. These weight reduction changes meant that the increase in side armor thickness did not result in an increase in weight of the Ausf.G tank chassis compared with the older chassis.
As the bottom of the pannier was now 50 mm nearer to the top of the track no weld seams or stowage straps were fixed there. This was to stop them coming into contact with the track as the tank drove fast over undulating ground. Instead the stowage straps were welded to the side of the pannier armor.
There were many other minor changes but the overall thinking behind the design was to simplify the construction process to enable more tanks to be built as fast as possible. For example, the ventilation systems for the transmission, brakes, engine and exhaust were redesigned. This meant that the two additional parallel vertical pipes that came out of the left armoured exhaust cover at the rear of the tank on the late production Ausf.A tank chassis were no longer needed. Starting in May 1944, cast armor exhaust guards gradually replaced welded ones. To help reduce the red glow given off by the exhaust pipes at night, as a temporary solution, sheet metal covers were gradually introduced starting in June 1944. Starting in October 1944 these were replaced gradually with purpose build Flammenvernichter flame suppressor exhaust mufflers. When additional supplies became available they were back-fitted to other Panther tanks.
Another simplification of the production process was to introduce less complicated hinged hatches above the heads of the driver and radio operator. It was found during trials that the performance of the cross-country ride of the tank with or without the rear shock absorber was practically the same. Starting from 7 October 1944 the factories were ordered to stop fitting them to help simplify production.
Maschinenfabrik-Augsburg-Nuernberg (M.A.N.) started producing Panzer V Ausf.G Panther tanks from Fahrgestell-Nummer Serie chassis number 120301: Daimler-Benz from chassis number 124301 and Maschinenfabrik Neidersachsen Hannover (M.N.H.) from chassis number 128301.

What’s Walrus Building?

At this point, packing boxes. Amazing how much one accumulates living in a place for 25 years. Counting down to closing which will be April 25th.

Previous Builds

Pzkpfw VI Ausf. B Konigstiger

The Tiger II was a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B, often shortened to Tiger B. The ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 182. (Sd.Kfz. 267 and 268 for command vehicles). It was also known informally as the Königstiger (German for Bengal tiger and also, literally, “King Tiger”). Contemporaneous Allied soldiers usually called it the King Tiger or Royal Tiger.

The Tiger II was the successor to the Tiger I, combining the latter’s thick armour with the armour sloping used on the Panther medium tank. The tank weighed almost 70 tonnes, and was protected by 100 to 185 mm (3.9 to 7.3 in) of armour to the front. It was armed with the long barrelled (71 calibres) 8.8 cm KwK 43 anti-tank cannon. The chassis was also the basis for the Jagdtiger turretless Jagdpanzer anti-tank vehicle.

The Tiger II was issued to heavy tank battalions of the Army and the Waffen-SS. It was first used in combat by 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion during the Allied invasion of Normandy on 11 July 1944; on the Eastern Front, the first unit to be outfitted with the Tiger II was the 501st Heavy Panzer Battalion, which by 1 September 1944 listed 25 Tiger IIs operational.

What’s Walrus Building?

Nothing. Waiting on my two pre-orders so nothing to report. I’m probably going to put these posts on hold until I’m settled in to the new digs. Given everything it looks like that will be the end of May. If I can make it. Just got hit with a tax bill higher than I expected and now I just had a bridge fall out which is going to have to be addressed just as I am experiencing a cash crunch. Sigh. What joy. Hope everyone else’s life is going better.

What’s Walrus Building?

Hi gang. Sorry about no post last week but I had a busy day househunting up in New Hampshire so couldn’t get around to it. Right now I am very close to getting a deal done for a place in Nashua. Just some minor points to clear up and get the seller to commit. Wish me luck.

Another reason there was no post last week was that I had nothing new to report. Wasn’t working on anything. Since then I have completed two. One is the Elephant which I previewed two weeks ago. It was basically the same build as the Ferdinand so nothing much to say about it.

Different color scheme and turrent slightly different but other than that, the same vehicle. Since I had nothing to do I revisited one I had put aside for missing parts and decided to just move ahead with it to finish it off. The build was another tough one with getting the connects to stay in place when adding on something else later in the build. Quite frustrating but I finished it off. Not one of my usual vehicles but still of WWII vintage.

Choo-Choo! This is the DR BR 52 Steam Locomotive used during the war by the Germans. I didn’t put it on the tracks because they are elsewhere with some flatcars on them which will show up in previous builds in the future. Speaking of previous builds…

Previous Builds.

U-Boot U-96 (TYP VIIC)

The Type VIIC was the workhorse of the German U-boat force, with 568 commissioned from 1940 to 1945. The first VIIC boat commissioned was the U-93 in 1940. The Type VIIC was an effective fighting machine and was seen almost everywhere U-boats operated, although its range of only 8,500 nautical miles was not as great as that of the larger Type IX (11,000 nautical miles), severely limiting the time it could spend in the far reaches of the western and southern Atlantic without refueling from a tender or U-boat tanker. The VIIC came into service toward the end of the “First Happy Time” near the beginning of the war and was still the most numerous type in service when Allied anti-submarine efforts finally defeated the U-boat campaign in late 1943 and 1944.

Type VIIC differed from the VIIB only in the addition of an active sonar and a few minor mechanical improvements, making them 2 feet longer and 8 tons heavier. Speed and range were essentially the same. Many of these boats were fitted with snorkels in 1944 and 1945.

They had the same torpedo tube arrangement as their predecessors, except for U-72U-78U-80U-554, and U-555, which had only two bow tubes, and for U-203U-331U-351U-401U-431, and U-651, which had no stern tube.

On the surface the boats (except for U-88U-90 and U-132 to U-136 which used MAN M6V40/46s) were propelled by two supercharged Germaniawerft, 6 cylinder, 4-stroke M6V 40/46 diesels totaling 2,800 to 3,200 PS (2,100 to 2,400 kW; 2,800 to 3,200 shp) at 470 to 490 rpm.

For submerged propulsion, several different electric motors were used. Early models used the VIIB configuration of two AEG GU 460/8-276 electric motors, totaling 750 PS (550 kW; 740 shp) with a max rpm of 296, while newer boats used two BBC GG UB 720/8, Garbe, Lahmeyer & Co. RP 137/c or Siemens-Schuckert-Werke (SSW) GU 343/38-8 electric motors with the same power output as the AEG motors.

Perhaps the most famous VIIC boat was U-96, featured in the movie Das Boot.

What’s Walrus Building?

I know you are all dying to know. I showed you the box previously but here is the work progress on the Ferdinand.

The next build going on is the Elephant.

As this progresses I won’t be showing too much as the chassis and base are exactly the same as the Ferdinand with only a slight color variation. Then, because of an ordering mix up, the next will be skipped as they are a second copy of both of these vehicles. I have nothing else lined up at the moment and hoepfully may be suspending work if the house situation dictates.

Previous build

USS Enterprise CV-6

USS Enterprise (CV-6) was a Yorktown-class carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1930s. She was the seventh U.S. Navy vessel of that name. Colloquially called “The Big E“, she was the sixth aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. Launched in 1936, she was the only Yorktown-class and one of only three American carriers commissioned before World War II to survive the war (the others being Saratoga and Ranger). She participated in more major actions of the war against Japan than any other United States ship. These actions included the attack on Pearl Harbor — 18 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers of her air group arrived over the harbor during the attack; seven were shot down with eight airmen killed and two wounded, making her the only American aircraft carrier with men at Pearl Harbor during the attack and the first to sustain casualties during the Pacific War — the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, various other air-sea engagements during the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Battle of Leyte GulfEnterprise earned 20 battle stars, the most for any U.S. warship in World War II, and was the most decorated U.S. ship of World War II. She was also the first American ship to sink a full-sized enemy warship after the Pacific War had been declared when her aircraft sank the Japanese submarine I-70 on 10 December 1941. On three occasions during the war, the Japanese announced that she had been sunk in battle, inspiring her nickname “The Grey Ghost”. By the end of the war, her planes and guns had downed 911 enemy planes, sunk 71 ships, and damaged or destroyed 192 more.

Despite efforts made by the public after the war to turn Enterprise into a museum shipEnterprise was ultimately scrapped from 1958 to 1960.

What’s Walrus Building?

My long nightmare is over. The Colosseum is complete.

Once again the problem of the bricks not staying together when you have to apply pressure to attached some in a different place happened. And it happened on sections that had to be built multiple times. Glue came to the rescue but really stretched out the build time. But it got done. Check out the photos.

I had some extra parts so I added them in to the front there to make it looked more built up. The flame actually was a leftover piece from the Flammpanzer. It works as a burning flame. To continue.

This is the current build. I had a little bit of a mixup with a pre order so I actually now have two of this and two of the Elephant. Oh well.

Current Build

Previous Build

Junkers JU 87 B Stuka

The Junkers Ju 87, popularly known as the “Stuka”, is a German dive bomber and ground-attack aircraft. Designed by Hermann Pohlmann, it first flew in 1935. The Ju 87 made its combat debut in 1937 with the Luftwaffe‘s Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939 and served the Axis in World War II from beginning to end (1939–1945).

The aircraft is easily recognisable by its inverted gull wings and fixed spatted undercarriage. Upon the leading edges of its faired main gear legs were mounted ram-air sirens known as Jericho trumpets, which became a propaganda symbol of German air power and of the so-called Blitzkrieg victories of 1939–1942, as well as providing Stuka pilots with audible feedback as to speed. The Stuka’s design included several innovations, including automatic pull-up dive brakes under both wings to ensure that the aircraft recovered from its attack dive even if the pilot blacked out from the high g-forces, or suffered from target fixation.

The Ju 87 operated with considerable success in close air support and anti-shipping roles at the outbreak of World War II. It led air assaults in the invasion of Poland in September 1939. Stukas proved critical to the rapid conquest of Norway, the NetherlandsBelgium, and France in 1940. Though sturdy, accurate, and very effective against ground targets, the Stuka was, like many other dive bombers of the period, vulnerable to fighter aircraft. During the Battle of Britain of 1940–1941, its lack of manoeuvrability, speed, or defensive armament meant that it required a heavy fighter escort to operate effectively.

After the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe deployed Stuka units in the Balkans Campaign, the African and the Mediterranean theatres and in the early stages of the Eastern Front war, where it was used for general ground support, as an effective specialised anti-tank aircraft and in an anti-shipping role. Once the Luftwaffe lost air superiority, the Stuka became an easy target for enemy fighters, but it continued being produced until 1944 for lack of a better replacement. By 1945 ground-attack versions of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 had largely replaced the Ju 87, but it remained in service until the end of the war in 1945.

Germany built an estimated 6,000 Ju 87s of all versions between 1936 and August 1944.

Oberst Hans-Ulrich Rudel became the most successful Stuka pilot and the most highly decorated German pilot of the war.

What’s Walrus Building?

The Colosseum project is progressing and I am on the last bag of bricks so should be done soon. Well, soonish. I have an order in for the Ferdinand anti-tank vehicle which should be in a day or so.

Current Build

The base.

The village

The Colosseum

This was really tough as the parts had a nasty habit of not staying together. You push to attach something here and something there comes off. Very frustrating and I was forced to glue them together which extended the time on this part, but I got it done. Now I am working on the stands and last part of the build so next week you should be able to see the finished build.

Previous Builds

Sopwith Camel F.1

Sopwith Camel F.1

The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War-era single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the best known fighter aircraft of the Great War.

The Camel was powered by a single rotary engine and was armed with twin synchronized Vickers machine guns. Though difficult to handle, it was highly manoeuvrable in the hands of an experienced pilot, a vital attribute in the relatively low-speed, low-altitude dogfights of the era. In total, Camel pilots have been credited with downing 1,294 enemy aircraft, more than any other Allied fighter of the conflict. Towards the end of the First World War, the type also saw use as a ground-attack aircraft, partly because the capabilities of fighter aircraft on both sides had advanced rapidly and left the Camel somewhat outclassed.

The main variant of the Camel was designated as the F.1. Other variants included the 2F.1 Ship’s Camel, which operated from aircraft carriers; the Comic night fighter variant; and the T.F.1, a “trench fighter” armoured for attacks on heavily defended ground targets. A two-seat variant served as a trainer. The last Camels were withdrawn from RAF service in January 1920.

What’s Walrus Building?

Hi friends, it’s Friday so let us catch up.

I finished the Sturmpanzerwagen A7V take a look.

Pretty easy but I got a more intriguing build ready to start. I’m moving away from various vehicles and ships to something different. While it is not the Lego build I will eventually get when I have enough extra money this a smaller version which should be a challenge.

This will probably take a little longer to build then my other ones which works out since I have preorders in for two vehicles that probably won’t show up until March. It is basically the same Anti-Tank vehicle with a slight variation. I’ve ordered a Ferdinand and an Elephant. When they are done you’ll find out why they are different. Now on to a previous build.

Previous Build

60cm Karl-Great 040 “Ziu”

Karl-Gerät” (040/041) (German literally “Karl-device”), also known as Mörser Karl, was a World War II German self-propelled siege mortar (Mörser) designed and built by Rheinmetall. Its heaviest munition was a 60 cm (24 in) diameter, 2,170 kg (4,780 lb) shell, and the range for its lightest shell of 1,250 kg (2,760 lb) was just over 10 km (6.2 mi). Each gun had to be accompanied by a crane, a two-piece heavy transport set of railcars, and several modified tanks to carry shells.

Seven guns were built, six of which saw combat between 1941 and 1945. It was used in attacking the Soviet fortresses of Brest-Litovsk and Sevastopol, bombarded Polish resistance fighters in Warsaw, participated in the Battle of the Bulge, and was used to try to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge during the Battle of Remagen. One Karl-Gerät has survived and the remainder were scrapped after the war.

What’s Walrus Building?

Good questiion, let us answer it.

Just about to finish this one up, if I don’t get distracted which I am at the moment as I am house hunting. Just the start, getting ideas but maybe sometime this year. I hope. But here is where we stand.

Sturmpanzerwagen A7V 

Just working the last few sides and will post the completed build next week.

Previous Builds.

Sturmgeschutz IV Sd.Kfz. 167

The Sturmgeschütz IV (StuG IV) (Sd.Kfz. 167) was a German assault gun variant of the Panzer IV used in the latter part of the Second World War. It was identical in role and concept to the highly successful StuG III assault gun variant of the Panzer III. Both StuG models were given an exclusively tank destroyer role in German formations and tactical planning in the last two years of the war, greatly augmenting the capability of the dwindling tank force available to the German army on the Eastern and Western fronts.