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The Ferryman’s Due - Ponyri and the Price of Crossing into the Abyss
- Thread starter JSteinman
- Start date
The body shop will have a time with that thing. 
Skinny_Mike
Well-known member
geez that's awesome!
Skinny_Mike
Well-known member
Lots of progress. Looks great!
JSteinman
Master at Arms
Alas while right for the hull, based on an Ausf E, the photo shows later tracks applied, so I have an other set on the way…I don't see an expiration date on them, carry on!
Brokeneagle
Master at Arms
Beautiful work John. 
I have some damage to inflict on my Panzer 3 guards, so I am watching this with great interest. I also love the shot damage - perfect!
As far as the ground work goes , I would just add something small like some battle junk or weapons left over on the battlefield.
I have some damage to inflict on my Panzer 3 guards, so I am watching this with great interest. I also love the shot damage - perfect!
As far as the ground work goes , I would just add something small like some battle junk or weapons left over on the battlefield.
Perhaps something to help convey the scale? I have yet to see a slightly wounded abandoned horse walking around a scene. My point, it doesn't have to be a human. Note that the Germans were largely dependent on horses for supply and the Soviets had issued trucks to replace horses for the battle. Most of the1000+ horses treated by the German veterinary unit suffered from exhaustion, only 117 were wounded.
References
DiNardo, R. L. Mechanized Juggernaut or Military Anachronism? Horses and the German Army of World War II. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.
Thesis by Major Enrique Ramos, USA "ANALYSIS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BATTLE OF KURSK IN JULY 1943"
Regards,
Skinny_Mike
Well-known member
Looks great Doc. I think it would look good just as you suggested, tall grass with pieces of the tank tossed about.
Mike
Mike
Duke Maddog
Well-known member
I like Saul's idea amd Mike's got some good sense as well. I'm also thinking along with Mike's idea maybe a shell hole or two in the ground for near misses. Just a crazy thought...
JSteinman
Master at Arms
So this is back on the bench, and even though it is still a WIP, I have started the article. I find that writing as I go, helps me keep things straight and sometimes acts as an inspiration. So with all that said, I give you my first rough draft of the intro…
The Ferryman’s Due
Ponyri and the Price of Crossing into the Abyss
By the time the assault guns of Sturmpanzer-Abteilung 216 reached Ponyri, the battle had already begun to take on the character of something larger than a local attack. This was no clean breakthrough in the making, no final effort poised to unlock a decisive victory. Ponyri was becoming a place of payment. Every advance demanded more than it returned. Every gain was measured against wreckage, exhaustion, and the hardening realization that the road ahead led not through the Soviet line, but deeper into ruin.
Few places on the northern shoulder of Kursk came to symbolize that truth more clearly than Ponyri. Repeated attacks, savage close combat, and the relentless narrowing of German possibilities turned the settlement into far more than a tactical objective. It became a threshold. To move forward was to accept a price that could no longer be justified by the ground itself. Men and machines were still committed, orders still issued, and guns still fired, but the balance had shifted. What had begun as an offensive was becoming an act of attrition, and beyond that, something darker: the first clear reckoning of a campaign that could no longer deliver what it promised.
That is what this diorama attempts to capture. Not simply a Brummbär at Ponyri, nor just the appearance of a hard-fought corner of the battlefield, but a moment suspended at the edge of decision and consequence. The vehicle, the ground, and the figures are meant to suggest more than action alone. They stand at the point where momentum has begun to fail, where commitment has become compulsion, and where the next movement forward feels less like progress than passage. Ponyri was Germany’s crossing of the River Styx, and the ferryman had come to collect.
The Ferryman’s Due
Ponyri and the Price of Crossing into the Abyss
By the time the assault guns of Sturmpanzer-Abteilung 216 reached Ponyri, the battle had already begun to take on the character of something larger than a local attack. This was no clean breakthrough in the making, no final effort poised to unlock a decisive victory. Ponyri was becoming a place of payment. Every advance demanded more than it returned. Every gain was measured against wreckage, exhaustion, and the hardening realization that the road ahead led not through the Soviet line, but deeper into ruin.
Few places on the northern shoulder of Kursk came to symbolize that truth more clearly than Ponyri. Repeated attacks, savage close combat, and the relentless narrowing of German possibilities turned the settlement into far more than a tactical objective. It became a threshold. To move forward was to accept a price that could no longer be justified by the ground itself. Men and machines were still committed, orders still issued, and guns still fired, but the balance had shifted. What had begun as an offensive was becoming an act of attrition, and beyond that, something darker: the first clear reckoning of a campaign that could no longer deliver what it promised.
That is what this diorama attempts to capture. Not simply a Brummbär at Ponyri, nor just the appearance of a hard-fought corner of the battlefield, but a moment suspended at the edge of decision and consequence. The vehicle, the ground, and the figures are meant to suggest more than action alone. They stand at the point where momentum has begun to fail, where commitment has become compulsion, and where the next movement forward feels less like progress than passage. Ponyri was Germany’s crossing of the River Styx, and the ferryman had come to collect.
