Well- despite some camera issues, some time issues, and a few "damn, my brother in law is probably drinking that case of Breakfast Stout I got" issues- the trip to Aberdeen was made and some pictures were taken.

Remember this?


Well... luckily, times change. Often for the better.



Yours truly with my new pet:




#102?


An Elefant ass!

(cue up "I like big butts and I cannot lie, etc. etc.")

The end you didn't want to see in 43-45


The odd part about a generally pretty damn good paint job- they painted the impacts to the vehicle silver. I guess to make them stand out, but... /shrug/





Quite the improvement over the previous situation. And lemme tell you, gents- even in these pics, the scale of this vehicle isn't quite obvious enough. It's HUGE. I would definitely not want to have been on the recieving end of one of these, let alone the full 2 battalions that served at Kursk.

More coming tomorrow- 9 pics of a Hydrostatic drive PZ IV for Von Poop, Leopold, a Hetzer, a Dora shell, and so on.

But right now, that Lagunitas "New Dogtown" Pale Ale is calling from the fridge.

And no, I'm not entirely sure what "New Dogtown" refers to, but the brewers are from CA and I know they partake of some other "substantive pleasures", so... yeah.

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Seriously, all today is missing is free cotton candy and the annual Bay State Hooker Parade to make it any better.

What a beauty...I would love to command one of those monsters...




Ahh, and would you happen to know what unit/year/theater this is a representative of?

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Good Pics, Crazy, Thanks for posting them.

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Best Regards,
JW

Good stuff.
Now they've tarted her up (presumably this is a primarily cosmetic restoration?) I really hope they get her under
cover sometime soon, she's a rather rare old girl after all.

Cheers,
Adam.

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"Wars cannot be fought with dream stuff" - Sir Percy Hobart.

APG always looks like a funny ol' place. Good pictures BTW.

Thanks Crazy D

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Ceraphix- I'm about 99% sure this specimen was captured by US forces in Italy, so that would likely place it with Schwere Panzerjager Battalion 653.

As far as the #102- that's obviously part of the cosmetic update on the vehicle, so not sure if that's an accurate number.

From what I could see- it looks like the refurbish was mostly cosmetic, though it does look like they might have at least done SOME welding to "put it back together", as it looked from the earlier photo like there was some structural damage.

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Seriously, all today is missing is free cotton candy and the annual Bay State Hooker Parade to make it any better.

I see in the background there's been quite a bit of painting going on at APG, stabilising the damage already done somewhat. Really good to see them getting a grip on the collection, they might be bloody great lumps of steel but some of those vehicles really looked like they were on the brink of being pretty much lost if the neglect had continued.

Cheers,
Adam.

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"Wars cannot be fought with dream stuff" - Sir Percy Hobart.

In the background...is that a Soviuet SU-series two over to the right from the Tiger chassis?

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Best Regards,
JW

Looks like Brummbarr (??) - Jagdpanzer - Jagdpanther - Jagdtiger - Stug (or another Jagdpanzer??) - Su... 85?, too small to be an SU100? Or does a Jagdtiger just distort scale for everything around it?.
Sorry, errr, Yes Jeff, looks like a SU .

Couple of million quids worth of esoteric German Armour parked in the Maryland sunshine anyway... I hope they're wary of shady Russian collectors flying skycranes .

Cheers,
Adam.

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"Wars cannot be fought with dream stuff" - Sir Percy Hobart.

What is that twin barreled monstrosity to the right of it? It looks like a AAA track.

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Best Regards,
JW

Thanks, man.... I am headed there next week and now I can not wait... its gonna be cool.

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The Muslim Brotherhood “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands..." — Mohamed Akram. http://jihadwatch.org/

Great pics. Oddly enough, is that a machine gun port next to the driver's side? I thought the Elephants did not have machine guns.

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

In the background- Hetzer (can't see the gun well, hence V.P.'s Brummbar guess), JgdPz IV, JadgPanther, JagdTiger, StugIII (early short barrel model), Su-85?100?.

I think.

PzJgr- Elefants had the MG installed during factory refurbish after Kursk. The original vehicle (when they were Ferdinands) didn't ahve the MG installed.

Slip- saw that one as well, but with time and camera memory limits, I didn't check closely.

Tikial- bring some $$. The giftshop (which was closed when I was there) will have you drooling!

As far as the general condition of the vehicles there- they seem to be doing *some* work, but still not too much. Some paint touch-ups, and a few vehicles (as in the Elefant) seem to have had some major work done. But some of the others which are also in need of work remain untouched.

Would be nice to see the work continue, no doubt.



(p.s.- once I get all the photos uploaded to my own photopile site, I'm planning on uploading all of them as well to the photo bank here on this site. Gonna take a little while, but should be all available here within a week or so.)

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Seriously, all today is missing is free cotton candy and the annual Bay State Hooker Parade to make it any better.