It´s been three weeks already since our last news and we barely noticed it. We were that busy with working on our upcoming version 1.6 of which we have finished a first test version. Time for us to present you another news of what awaits you in the next full release of Battlegroup42.
Our focus today lies on the Wehrmacht. We were able to save more models of the abandoned BGF mod. Some of them were already finished, some of them had to be finished by us. This means
that there´s content which hasn´t been available yet in the BGF releases. Let´s start with the Sd.Kfz. 251. We´ve replaced the original DICE model with a very detailed model made by DaCrapper which
was skinned by Tha Godfather and Postman. It has a fully modelled, open interior and serves, wherever possible, as base for different variants like the "Stuka zu Fuss".
The Sd.Kfz. 251 was the standard armored personal carrier of the German Wehrmacht. It was an armored version of the gun tractor Hl kl6 from Hanomag. 16.000 of those sturdy and versatile vehicles were produced by many different companies until the end of the war. In its basic version it was armed with one or two machine guns and offered enough space for an entire armed Panzergrenadier group. The Sd.Kfz. 251 was also used in special roles like assault engineer vehicle, radio vehicle or armoured ambulance and as weapon carrier for guns, mortars, flamethrowers and rockets.
The next addition also replaces an old and not even half as nice model in our vehicle pool: The Panzerkampfwagen III, mostly only called the Panzer III. This model was made by Koricus's high quality workshop, it was skinned by Postman.
The Panzer III was built in large numbers starting in 1939 and was the standard battle tank of the Wehrmacht in the early years of the war. It played a major role in the Blitzkrieg successes of 1939-40 although some weaknesses showed up at that time - 160 tanks were lost in the attack on Poland. It couldn´t cope with the new Russian tanks on the Eastern Front in 1941, only in Northern Africa it still had some success against British forces. Production ceased in 1943 after some 6000 produced tanks. Nonetheless the running gear was further used for the formidable Sturmgeschuetz III.
The third and last new addition for today is one of the most famous tanks of all times - the Panther ! Those two new models were also created by Koricus and the different skins were made by Postman. Like the previous models, it was converted and coded for BG42 by Sarge31FR.
The development of the Panther was aimed at producing a worthy opponent for the Russian T-34. The new tank first saw action in the Battle of Kursk in the Summer of 1943, which was first scheduled for springtime but then delayed to allow the participation of the Panther and other new tanks, like the Ferdinand. After eliminating some initial design faults the Panther became one of the best tanks of the war, almost perfectly combining armor, protection, mobility and firepower. Over 6000 were
build, but even those numbers had no big effect on the war.
That´s it for today. We´re not yet finished yet with our news so look forward for another update soon. Stay tuned and visit www.battlegroup42.de regularly.
Nice are you going to add Landkreuzer ratte p 1000, it was so close to be true.
I have a Ratte work in progress model :D It was actually built for Battlegroup Frontlines but since we shut down the mod it's not needed anymore for that mod. And I don't think that our sister mod BG42 is going to take it, because it's too much science fiction :P
Cheers, Wasper aka ThaGodfather
Ratte....Thats more like a land behemoth, Also, Awesome job on the mod guys!