"Panzerkraft Monthly" magazine - idea for tank enthusiast community

Hello all,

I have recently come across a splendid (at least to my viewpoint it is so) idea – a “Panzerkraft Monthly” tankery community magazine/newsletter. It is an idea I got from what Games Workshop is doing with their Blood Bowl – they have a newsletter specifically for that theme which makes it so attractive and makes you feel like part of a community (or something along those lines I shall say…). So, to cut my digressing short, I would like to create an online magazine/newsletter for those that have interests in anything tank related, from wargaming design, battle reports, scenario creation, battle/campaign reconstruction and modelling, to historical research, up to actual reconstruction and re-bulding of anything tank related for historical re-enactment activities. This is an attempt to bring various people together to discuss one thing that they are passionate about – tanks.

This will be, at least for now, a monthly magazine. I think of hosting it on this forum and on other forums, and have it shared through Facebook by anyone here (I don’t have it, so some help with this will be great). It will be organised in sections for each theme of panzer-kraft interest/hobby. Maybe, once I get more time (after I manage to shake off my engineering honours project probably), I may even move to creating my own website (which will be primarily intended for uploading free access to my translations of Russian sources on WWII) on which it will also be hosted along with other stuff. That however, is something of future consideration and planning though.

Now, the reason I am putting forth my idea here for open discussion is to get some healthy lot of criticism and/or suggestions for what the community here thinks and would prefer to see, or what you think may be realistic. I know that I may sometimes set Napoleonic plans, and then wonder why some points become somewhat unachievable…

Anyway, let me know what you people think here, and remember, if you don’t want to host a reply here, you can always PM me instead – I don’t bite .

That sounds really awesome and to quote Homer Simpson, "Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter."

One thing I would be really interested in, is hearing some reviews from anyone with different models or where to find rarer examples. I really wanted a Centurion Mk I in 15mm scale without all the work of downgrading a later Mk resin casting. I stumbled upon Butler's Printed Models in the UK and give them a HUGE thumbs up. I never realized just how many people are out there with tanks for sale and would be great to gather any recommendations. (When some family stuff winds down here, I'd be willing to type up some thoughts and pictures if you'd be interested btw!)


As a possible source of materials, you may be interested in scrolling through twitter sometime. I find a lot of historical, recreation/reenactment, and model building there. I'm also very willing to promote there, not that I have many followers but might reach a few more to get it rolling. Also feel free to get in touch anytime here or in private.

I'd be interested in anything tank related for this idea. By the way, also if you did manage to get that Chi-Ha converted into a Chi-Nu, that would be great as well. Basically I am thinking of doing a pilot version soon to get things rolling and not finishing up in a planning dead end. So for now, it may just be us two, maybe I can get someone on the sidelines aside of this forum to contribute. I have a few interesting historical study ideas that can be written up for this thing. So either way you would prefer or works best for you - put you articles into the post here, PM or e-mail (I think you've got my Gmail address), either way works just as fine

By the way, I will be doing a 3-D printing review as well, I have recently started experimenting with 3-D printing techniques (using the free Google Sketchup tool as well, which by the way is fraggin' crap for shapes that are a bit more complicated than cubes and pyramids). Trust me, if you have never tried it before, it is harder than it looks - I was surprised to find that there are many little nuances with it and how touchy some things are. So obviously there will be a lot of things directly applicable to 3-D printing models (and as such, tanks as well) - so that may be another review article in itself for perspective.

As soon as I get a pilot version out, putting it out through twitter may help to draw attention of people interested, and may grow the community as well. Alright, so time to get the gears turning from my side, let me know when you have something that you would like to put into the first try .

Ok. A couple of people seem to be enthusiastic with the idea. I guess time will tell and direct the theme/themes as people (hopefully) get on board with this. Hence I will make the announcement:

The first pilot version is planned to be out by August 31st 2018

If you do not wish to have personal names as the author, you may use either your forum name, or make up one for the magazine specifically. For example, with me, until I am sure that it is under control, I will for the time being use the forum "name" for myself (which will probably only remain so for two or three issues): "Tenente".

If you would like to submit an article into the editorial, there is two options of which I can think of:

1) e-mail directly to: panzerkraft.editorial@gmail.com
2) PM through this forum

If you see this and have an idea that someone from another forum/facebook/twitter/other social media may be interested in contributing, feel free to spread this around as you see fit. Hope to see some interesting articles in there.


Please note: I would like to avoid anything political in this project, so therefore avoid any research that involves delving into politics. Any political, or taking sides in submissions will not be passed through. Also, obviously I think this is not needed to remind, but please do remain polite and don't send no vulgarities through. So basically this is about hobby and reenactment side of things, with also a place for tactical research (research and analysis of past operations/battles/skirmishes) and technical research (that is things involved with engineering and manufacturing of tanks and reasons for specific engineering decisions).

Great idea, I'm all for it.