On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. From East Prussia and Germany in the north and Silesia and Slovakia in the south, German units, with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive encirclement attack. After heavy shelling and bombing, Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 28, 1939.
The release of the 1/48 Tamiya Marder created quite a buzz among modelers. New releases always do, but this was different. The Marder has been long awaited and marked a new tooling in kit design.I believe that it began with a dare, but soon the idea of a Marder build-off took hold. Missing-Lynx moderator, Luciano Rodriguez, put out the word that a group build was at hand...MarderMania would begin soon.Modelers from around the world placed orders for the new kits and work was begun. Seeing the need for added support, Jan Soobotka from the Hauler company quickly went about engineering an aftermarket photo etch set then generously sent 10 lucky modelers a sample to use during MarderMania. I was lucky #10 in the Hauler raffle.
One of the nicest aspects of MarderMania was the opportunity to develop new friendships. During the buiding and paintings of our Marders, Pat Johnston and myself seemed to be working almost in tandem as we completed construction and decided upon our grey schemes. Pat even made the joke that I must be looking over his shoulder!
Unfortunately, the distance between Pat and myself prevented collaboration in the truest sense. Undaunted, Pat and I began conversations as we proceeded with the idea that upon completion of our individual projects we would make a combined presentation.