It’s about a month till we enter 2019, and that brings us to the 75th anniversary of the year 1944. Like the earlier World at War group builds, this one is for the purpose of memorializing with models the events and participation of the many nations engaged in WWII.
The object is to build a model of anything that existed in 1944, the way it appeared in 1944. You can select any subject from any nation, using any scale.
The year 1944 offers up a wide range of subject matter for all the theaters of operation: D-Day in Europe was a major event; so also the Battle of the Bulge. The Red Army entered Poland in January. The “Big Week” bombing campaign was in progress. The “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” decimated Japanese airpower. Operation “Market Garden” happened. And that only names a few of the major events.
The home fronts in the various participant nationss could provide other suitable subjects for modeling.
The GB will run from 1 January, 2019 until 31 December, 2020–the 75th anniversary of the year the war ended. That way, new participants can join up any time, and can build a representative model from each year of the war, from start to finish.
The events of each year during the war are too momentous to forget or neglect.
Here’s the badge for the 1944 anniversary build.
All of the previous “World at War” GB’s are still open for new participants, and those who haven’t finished yet.
1944 Group Build Roster
checkmateking02: Tamiya 1/700 USS Iowa BB-61
EBergerud: Tamiya 1/35 Panther D; 1/35 Tamiya SU-76; Tamiya 1/48 Ki-61d Tony; Tamiya 1/700 USS Bogue
Bish: Fine Molds 1/72 Me 410B-1; Revell 1/72nd Fw 200C-8
Zvezda1980: Italeri 1/48 IL-2 Shturmovik
scottrc: Dragon 1/700 USS Lexington CV-16
stikpusher: Dragon 1/35 M4A4 (Grenadier Guards at Nijmegen)
Glamdring: Dragon 1/72 LVT A1
modelcrazy: 1/48 Tamiya Fieseler Fi103
bobbaily: TBD
Jacknewbill: Hasegawa 1/72 P-38 Lightning ("Virginia Marie,"433rd fighter squadron Boroka Airstrip Blak Island, Geevlink Bay, Dutch New Guinea October 1944 flown by Robert Anderson)
Est. 1961: Special Hobby 1/48 Brewster Buffalo (Finnish air force)
crown r n7: 1/35 Tamiya King Tiger
DRUMS01: Tamiya 1/16 Kublewagen Type 82
Nuckss: Trumpeter 1:700 scale tribal class destroyer HMCS Huron
tempestjohnny: Hasegawa 1.48 P-51D
John 3:16 KJV: Smer 1/48 Piper L4 Cub
Tomcat: Monogram 1/72 F7 Tigercat; Monogram 1/48 F6 Hellcat
Armor_Aficionado: Tamiya 1/35 scale M8 Greyhound
Galatians 2:16: 1/48 Revell Monogram P-47 Razorback “Touch of Texas”
Tal Afar Dave: Airfix 1/72nd scale Avro Lancaster B.II
68GT: Revell 1/48 P-51D
minitanker: 1/87 scale dio of a 12th Panzer “C” Type light armored recon company trying to make it’s way to Normandy; 1/87 Wespe Hummel dio
MEGAHERTZ: TBD
Niko: Tamiya 1:48 Focke Wulf, Fw190 D-9
Reserved for finished builds
Jacknewbill: Hasegawa 1/72 P-38 Lightning ("Virginia Marie,"433rd fighter squadron Boroka Airstrip Blak Island, Geevlink Bay, Dutch New Guinea October 1944 flown by Robert Anderson) FIRST FINISH!
Bish: Fine Molds 1/72 Me 410B-1
DRUMS01: Tamiya 1/16 Kublewagen Type 82
EBergerud: Tamiya 1/35 Panther
crown r n7: 1/35 Tamiya King Tiger
EBergerud: 1/35 Tamiya SU-76
Nuckss: Trumpeter 1:700 scale tribal class destroyer HMCS Huron
John 3:16 KJV: Smer 1/48 Piper L4 Cub
EBergerud: Tamiya 1/48 Ki-61d Tony
Bish: Revell 1/72nd Fw 200C-8
scottrc: Dragon 1/700 USS Lexington CV-16
Glamdring: Dragon 1/72 LVT A1
minitanker: 1/87 scale dio of a 12th Panzer “C” Type light armored recon company trying to make it’s way to Normandy
68GT: Revell 1/48 P-51D
Armor_Aficionado: Tamiya 1/35 scale M8 Greyhound
EBergerud: Tamiya 1/700 USS Bogue
Zvezda1980: Italeri 1/48 IL-2 Shturmovik
checkmateking02: Tamiya 1/700 USS Iowa BB-61
minitanker: 1/87 Wespe Hummel dio
Tomcat: Monogram 1/48 P-47 Thunderbolt
Tomcat: Monogram 1/48 F6 Hellcat
tempestjohnny: Hasegawa 1.48 P-51D
minitanker: 1/87 Hvy. Flak unit in retreat past PAK43 with JagdpzrIV pltn
modelcrazy: 1/48 Tamiya Fieseler Fi103
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I’ll be in for some kind of tank and plane: probably a Tamiya SU-76. And some kind of plane - or maybe that 1/700 USS Bogue I’ve got?
Eric
How did i miss this post over the weekend. Start me off with the Fine Molds 1/72nd Me 410B-1. I am sure i will add at least one more later in the year.
Thanks, Eric and Bish. I’ve added you to the build roster. Good to have you participating again.
I’ll update when you finalize your selection, EB. I like the idea of the Bogue. It appears she was in a Measure 32 scheme in '44. That ought to look good.
Nice choice, Bish. It’s a plane I’m not very familiar with, but it looks pretty impressive and dangerous.
For myself, I’m kind of undecided between some 1/700 Dragon destroyers I’ve had for a few years; or maybe USS Iowa in late 1944 measure 32.
No way I’ll miss this! Count me in for sure. Subject will probably be an IL-2 Sturmovik, scale and company I will decide later.
One remark: if I’m not mistaken the Soviets first entered Polish territory on July 1944, with the Lvov-Sandomierz (southern) stage of operation Bagration (another very juicy modelling subject).
Welcome to the GB, Zvezda! Very good to have you join us. I will update the roster, and when you decide on the maker and scale, I’ll add that.
As for the historical information, I think I got the January date from wikipedia, which claims that the 1st Ukrainian Front entered Poland on 4 January, 1944. They include a map showing where.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_World_War_II_(1944)
Whether it’s accurate, I can’t say.
Thanks for joining the GB!
You are right and it IS accurate, because these were indeed the pre-war borders of Poland. I was judging by today’s map (e.g Pinsk nowdays is part of Belarus). So anybody who wants to build a subject of the first Soviet incursion into Polish territory, they should add a lot of snow, winter camo’s, heavy clothing, etc.
Funny you should bring up January 44. Tis true that Poland got moved around a lot after refoundation in 1918. When drawing up frontiers - always sketchy because events on the ground often intervened - the Brits warned against putting a lot of Russians or Germans inside Poland, a pretty hard task. FM Lord Curzon advocated a border with Russia pretty close to the WWII postwar boundary. Stalin agreed. In 1939 Soviet troops in September moved up to roughly that border. As I recall, on paper the Germans had actually allocated more territory to the Rooskies, but the German armies moved so fast that the original stab in the back was rendered a little dicey. So Stalin did not make an issue of it, and kept the territory the Red Army had taken - more or less on the “Curzon Line” which later became “more or less” today’s Polish border with the Beloruss.
Which is making me think that I might want to do my new Tamiya Panther D. I had intended this for 1943 (Kursk natch) but events intervened. The kit doesn’t have Zimmerit but I’m not sure that matters. After Citadel, the Germans spent the rest of 1943 running toward the Dnieper. There were 840 Panther Ds built, and I’m guessing that any sent East weren’t taken out of the line for a field application of Zimmerit in a Russian winter with the Reds on their heels. And the Reds were on their heels - the fighting in January set-up the Korsun Pocket - another snow-bound debacle for the Wehrmacht.
So plans now are to spend the year in this GB. We’ll do the Panther with winter camo and dress up the SU-76 for Bagration (so I can use my static grass gadget which is great fun.) Then I need to do a PTO subject. So I’m thinking the terrific more or less new Tamiya A6M5 “Zeke.” And the Bogue for sure - I’ve got to see if I have another ship in me. 1/700 scale isn’t always good news, but the Bogue is really good history. That means four Tamiya kits…not bad. Anyway, I’ll start on one of these (I’m thinking the Panther) as soon as I get done with a C47 I’m doing for the C47 GB and let you know for sure.
I’ve got a twin pack of 1/700 Dragon DDs (Benson class maybe?) and they’re very neat. I picked up a 1/350 Dragon Z38 German DD. It beckons me because it became ice bound in 1944 and had to be dug out by tugs. I’m a big fan of Krycell snow made by Precision Ice and Snow in the UK. They make ice sheets. An ice bound DD dio could be very sweet - but I’d have to know I had a ship in me. A new year coming and so little time.
Eric
Zvezda: I hadn’t thought about the borders of Poland changing, so that’s a good reminder. Winter themes are always intriguing.
Eric: That’s a wide-range of subject matter, so your build should be entertaining and educational. I have a couple of the Dragon two-ship destroyer kits, too, so I’ll be very interested if you do that route.
Hi Check,
You can add me and my Lexington to this GB as well. I have it in the 1943 GB but not much changed between late 43 and early 44 other than the conversion from the SBD to the SB2.
Good to see you back, I didn’t know if you had been locked out of the website.
Scott
Good to have you join up with this GB, Scott. I’ve updated the build roster with the Lexington.
I haven’t been locked out of the site yet–but then, I haven’t had to re-sign in either.
Thanks for your participation again!
I was locked out again not long ago. Finescale has said they are doing work on the site, so bugs must be showing up - the whole thing was down a few months ago. But in my case, a browser issue was at least partially to blame. Firefox updates every twenty minutes or so (or maybe it just seems that way) and updates can cause trouble. After an update I could get on the FS forums but not sign into them. I could do it in Chrome. Anyway, in Firefox there’s a history of all sites visited under the 4-bar icon in the upper right of the browser. Open the history. Find the site that’s trouble (had trouble with YouTube at the same time), right click the site icon, and choose “forget the site.” Once done, the site vanishes from your history. And for some reason, this procedure often cures log-in problems. Eric
Thanks for the suggestions, Eric. I hope they work for the people having trouble.
The only trouble I’ve had is not being able to log in on my computer at work. But I can log in using my secretary’s computer. It’s strange. [:O]
Sign me up for something…
so many possibilities in my stash…
Stik You’re sure right about that. I suppose there would be a few planes or vehicles that wouldn’t have appeared in 1944 (Spitfire & Hurricane Is, standard Pz I or II for example), but not many. Almost everything was still in use somewhere and new models came flooding in during 1943-44: everything from Panthers to Jets, all US 2nd generation planes & warships and the Rooskies reequipped both tanks and planes. Precious few really new things in 1945 - unless you count the Abomb. So if you’ve got a WWII kit, chances are good the weapon emulated was serving somewhere in 1944. (Speaking of which, I still haven’t made a US Sherman. Maybe an Easy 8 for 1945.) Eric Eric
stik: I’ve added you to the build roster. Glad to have you sign up. I always look forward to seeing your projects.
CMK, thanks for adding me and your kind words. Now to pick something that won’t bog me down by being too involved… decisions, decisions…
The last day of 1943, 31 December, was a Friday.
In war news, der Fuehrer broadcast a message to the German people, while in the UK, Deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee addressed the British people. Referring to the upcoming 1944, Hitler acknowledged that “This vast war will reach a crisis this year.” Attlee expressed a similar opinion: “We do know that in 1944 the war will blaze up into greater intensity than ever before. . . Nineteen-forty-four may be the victory year; it will only be so if we continue to put forward our utmost efforts, and if we allow nothing to divert us from our main purpose.”
The US 8th Army Air Force bombed the CAM ball-bearing plant and Hispano Suiza aircraft engine repair depot in Paris, France.
On the Eastern Front, the Soviet army captured the city of Zhytomyr in Ukraine during its drive toward Poland.
John Denver (Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.) was born in Roswell, New Mexico. Actor Ben Kingsley (Krishna Bhanji) was born in Snainton, North Yorkshire. Pete Quaife (Peter Alexander Greenlaw Kinnies), founding member of “The Kinks,” was born in Tavistock, Devon.
On the first day of the new year, 1944, Louis Jordan and the Tympany Five were number 1 on Billboard’s R&B charts with the song “Ration Blues.”
At the Orange Bowl, LSU beat Texas A&M; at the Sugar Bowl, Georgia Tech beat Tulsa; at the Rose Bowl Southern California beat Washington; and the Army beat the Navy at the “Arab Bowl,” played in Oran, Algeria.
And this year—2019—on the seventy-fifth anniversary of 1 January, 1944, you can begin building for this GB. Start up as soon as the new year rings in, according to your local time; unless you are otherwise celebrating.
Thanks to all of you participating. And: Happy New Year!