Project - Wehrmacht horsepower - Field kitchen

[SteveKrieg]

G'day all,

Well hot off the heels (or hooves in this case), the planning for the next scene begins. As stated earlier, the first three vignettes pertaining to the over-arching diorama theme of German Army mobility during World War Two covers their predominant use of the horse and with the Panzerschreck carts packed-away I'm now putting together all that is necessary for a scene I've been keen to assemble in some years...a horse-drawn Hf.11 bzw. Hf.13 large field kitchen (Feldkuche or more affectionately known by the troops as 'Gulaschkanone') with associated limber Vorderwagen.

Picking out a couple of horses to draw the wagens was easy, scratch-building the harnesses probably not so but looking forward to giving it a go regardless (thanks 'Dutchman' for the pics in the last thread as they'll definitely come in handy reference for this one).

I'm in two minds about how to pose it...whether I have a couple of catering crew in the driver's bench seat giving the impression the wagen is on the move or having the wagen stopped momentarily with one of the cook's dishing out from the kettle pot to a couple of soldaten whilst the driver keeps the horses calm with a feed bag. Options aplenty which will no doubt become more cemented the further progress on this one is made. The wagens will get a complete workover as usual (circa France 1940) and the wherewithal of the cooks stowed nicely.

The model field kitchen is all-metal with wooden wheels, I can't for the life of me remember who produced it but I bought it back in 2012. Unfortunately my CHE field kitchen had a badly damaged undercarriage (due largely to the weight of the polystone on the wheels when displayed for a long period), this subsequently became part of the mobile field kitchen (placed in the back of a Protze truck) for the 2014 'Blitzkrieg' diorama. This metal version no doubt more sturdier and hard-wearing for the task.

Enjoy, Steve

 

[The_Dutchman]

Hi Steve,

Glad to be of assistence. Here is a link to a site from a guy who collects WW1 german artillery and which I used to create my own harnesses for my horses: https://www.lovettartillery.com/WW2_ERA_German_Art_Saddle_Harnessing.html

Attached a few pictures of the harnass I created. If you pm me your email adress, I can send you some full size pictures.

Cheers,

Randall

 

[SteveKrieg]

wow, that is some amazing work there Randall and I also like the way you've cut-back on the mane. Did you work off a trace for the harness?. At the moment I'm trying to find the right width and thickness and I've got a few weeks to source the materials required (or best closeness as possible). My email address is Steviecm67@hotmail.com

Much appreciate your guidance on this one and, judging by your work, exceptional guidance. Cheers muchly, Steve

 

[The_Dutchman]

Thanks for the compliment Steve. The horse's mane was cut by the previous owner, As for the harnass: I actually created a paper version of the harnass and taped that to the horse's body in order to compare it to some of the wartime original pictures. Then I used my paper template to cut the leather. Most of the hardware was puchased on Aliexpress, I'll include links to the items in the mail to you with the pictures.

Cheers,
Randall

 

[SteveKrieg]

G'day all,

Just some quick update pics on the Hf.13 Gross Feldkuche (large field kitchen) affectionately known by the Soldaten as 'Gulaschkanone' and its 'Vorderwagen' (front limber). Being all metal, I decided to clean and spray with oxide primer to give the coat of Feldgrau the right shade of grey. The limber was, like many German wagens of its kin, made of wood but because the model is metal then I thought a primer coat a reasonable idea to prevent any future rust.

The wooden wheels came without the metal rims which I've done with thin plastic card and painted accordingly. Whilst three of the wheels have been painted feldgrau, I decided to paint one of the Limber wheels in 'new wood' to give the impression that it had recently replaced a wheel badly broken during the advance.

My plan is to completely detail as best as possible the inside of the kitchen's various compartments (for this I'm using a couple of references including Scott L. Thompson's 'Gulaschkanone' by Schiffer (probably the best I've sourced on the topic). Actual wood and crushed fire residue will be use for the fire stoves and pans and a small bowl will be placed inside the cooking pot so that I can fill it with soup when required for diorama effects. This particular model is more robust than the CHE polystone productions (which are heavy and somewhat fragile in-comparison).

A bit of scratch-building and replacement of parts is required and as you can see, this process has started already and I've more than enough stowage for the limber (much of which I used on the mobile field kitchen vignette in 2014's 'Blitzkrieg' diorama (refer to the thread on that for pics).

More to follow, enjoy and I hope everyone is coping fine given the current condition of the world. Cheers, Steve

 

[SteveKrieg]

And a couple more...

 

[SteveKrieg]

G'day all,

Just a quick update on the German field kitchen (which I've found out was produced by 'Toy Models'). Equally important to the field kitchen was the way in which it was moved around the battlefield and though it could be mounted on a truck, railcar or towed behind a vehicle, the purpose-built way of mobility was via its Vorderwagen (front car or limber). Made of wood (like most German wagons/carts of the period), the limber also contained the wherewithal of cooking ingredients - either stowed on its outer racks or under the its hinged bench seat in storage compartments.

Given the models are all-metal and sparse on detail, I had to detail and weather the wear/tear of the wood and add some of the smaller components in order to give it the required sparkle (pins in the wheel hubs, chains, axe and shovel brackets, metallic rims, whip holder). Decking the racks with the food containers (the large feldkuche normally came with six of these 'Speisentrager), fodder for the horses, buckets, water jerries, foodstuffs and pers gear.

Now onto the field kitchen itself. Enjoy, Steve

 

[Panzercommander HOH]

Looks great, Steve!

Love the accessories on the field kitchen!

Fred

 

[Squidley]

Lots of excellent bits and bobs there. It all adds up!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[thegreatshaggy]

A staple of the German Army that could be found everywhere yet always over looked minus what Dragon did when they released their Field Kitchen sets. Nicely done especially the details given to the limber.

 

[Hammer's Africaners]

Looking good, keep those pictures coming

 

[SteveKrieg]

G'day all,

Firstly, hope everyone on the SAG (and their respective families) are doing okay in these rather peculiar circumstances?.

Secondly, some update pics ref the Large Field Kitchen (Gross 'Gulaschkanone'). As with the accompanying Vorderwagen (Front car), the 'Toy Models' Field Kitchen required quite a bit of research in order to bring it up from its rather spartan origins. Being all-metal though, there were some things I could not rectify...the front left-hand pannier (which housed fluids for the kettle and plates/cutlery for the officer types) is too shallow and the little draw below where I've installed the scratch-built coffee grinder is a cupboard; aside from these, I've been able to fit-out the kitchen to a level better than I had originally envisaged.

Thanks muchly to Scott L. Thompson's 'Gulaschkanone - The German Field Kitchen in World War Two and Modern Reenactment (Schiffer), I've managed to add quite a bit of detail and a forthcoming book (unfortunately in German text only) will hopefully provide more.

Judging by the third fire bay on the rear of the wagen, this is a later production model (it was used to heat a elongated meat roaster which earlier pre-war models did not have which is why earlier models only had two fire bays). From what I can gather, this later variant did not see service 'til early 1941, however; by placing a food container in-front, I can conceal the bay and ash pan in order to have it for an earlier-war variant.

 

[SteveKrieg]

Still have to add a few more little pieces to complete and then I can begin fitting it out with its cooking crew. I'm still awaiting the fittings to make the horse harnesses with (thanks again to Randall on that crucial requirement) which I've ordered off Ebay and the material sources locally.

The intent is to have the kitchen limbered up with the two horses, the cooks at the rear giving out stew from the kitchen kettle to a couple of soldaten with food carriers whilst an officer poses for a photographer near one of the horses with an apple in-hand.

Such is the plan.

Enjoy and stay safe, Steve

 

[thegreatshaggy]

Outstanding work. Can't wait to see it altogether

 

[SteveKrieg]

G'day all,

Just another quick one. Save for some incoming hinges (to affix the central firebox door) and some fittings for the horse harnesses, the field kitchen and limber are pretty much complete. Now the fun of pulling out a couple of cooks, some infantry and a few food-related odds and sods to complete the diorama.

I went into this particular project thinking there's only so much I could do however the more I delved into the finer points of detail the more I found I could put into it and anyone out there who has a 'Toy Models' all-metal field kitchen and limber combo should not fear as the skies the limit on what can be done with it in terms of detailing despite the fact there are - much like the DML variant - some minor inaccuracies (nothing new I guess in that regard) but we work them accordingly.

There'll be a bit of a pause now whilst I await and construct the parts on this one so I'll push on with my next 'cab off the rank' and update this thread once complete. The next project in-line with German mobility during WW2 is my all-metal TAOWAN winter white-wash Sd.Kfz250/1 which will also feature in this year's (finger's crossed) model show. A separate thread will cover this build (one I've had covered on a shelf since 2012) which will include a full repaint and detail of the exterior in whitewash and livery of the GrossDeutschland Div and the same for its interior. Enjoy, Steve