The "backbone of the Wehrmacht," the German Mauser Kar98k is one of the most famous small arms of World War II.  Somewhere between 12 and 15 million were built at numerous arsenals between adaption by the Reich in 1935 through the end of World War II in 1945.  Chambered for the hard hitting 7.92x57mm (8mm Mauser) round, the Kar98k was a simple but reliable bolt-action rifle that held 5 rounds in an internal box magazine beneath the action.  While outclassed by the then-new semi-automatic rifles starting to come into play on a wide scale, the Kar98k nonetheless was well liked by the German troops and served until war's end. 

                It is basically a shortened version of the World War I M-1898 Mauser Gewher long rifle that was found to be unwieldy for trench warfare, and much inspiration was taken from the earlier Kar98az that also served in World War I.  It weighed between eight and nine lbs, depending on the stock material used, and was  1,110mm (43.7 inches)  long with a 600mm (23.62 inch) barrel. 

                Nine different manufacturers in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia made Kar98k rifles at various points and factories producing Mauser weapons in other occupied countries (eg. FN in Belgium and Radom in Poland) just made components and not complete rifles for security reasons.  Some Kar98ks were made with concentration camp labor with high sabotage rates.  To protect against allied bombings (and earlier to hide arms production from the Versailles treaty) all German WWII military small arms were marked with various letter and number codes that stood for the maker and year of manufacturer. These codes changed several times throughout the war, but for instance a "byf 41" marked rifle was manufactured by Mauser at Obendorf, Germany in 1941.   Various accessories were made for the Kar98k such as sniper scopes and rifle-grenade launchers but are not the subject of this drawing here. In the picture there are 5-round chargers or "stripper clips" for each gun, a box of wartime German ammunition, a "tobacco can" cleaning kit, and a cartridge box worn on the soldier's belt. 

                The Kar98k went through numerous changes throughout its production life and the five rifles here illustrated represent various changes.  Early rifles were made from walnut stocks, but by 1939 the supply of aged walnut was exhausted so the substitute found was laminated plywood.  This is illustrated by the thicker "cupped" buttplate on the lower guns that was needed to keep the wood from splitting.  It worked just as well and the main downside was adding about a lb of weight onto the gun.  The length of the cleaning rod was increased early on, and the first rifle is shown with a nickel polished dress bayonet that actually didn't attach to the rifle.  The bayonet for the Kar98k was the S84/98 and was made by numerous cutlery contractors- handles could be of wood, or later of Bakelite.  Early rifles were well finished with deep bluing and nice walnut like a nice sporting rifle but later on finesse deteriorated significantly.  The nosecaps and barrel bands are evident when they go from being finely milled to crudely stamped.  The rifle at bottom was probably made in 1944, yet none of the changes affected the critical reliability of the performance of the rifle, as no changes were made to the action itself.  A later "Kriegsmodell" version (not shown here) would delete the cleaning rod and bayonet altogether but German ordnance built safe, accurate and reliable Mausers right until allied soldiers rolled into town and "liberated" the factory premises.  After World War II, ex-German Kar98ks would see action in hot spots all over the world from Africa to Palestine. 

                The drawing here started life as a rough pencil sketch of the rifle and basic accessories.  Digitally traced, inked, colored and textured in Adobe Photoshop, the finished file has 41 layers including my signature, the Nazi flag made in Adobe Illustrator, and the traced scanned in pencil sketch.