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Some where in Russia in the spring of 1943, an (as yet unnamed) Hauptmann surveys the field before committing his troops to battle...
Nothing gets the job done like halftracks. OK, so they are more like rolling beer cans, at least they all have machine guns.
All miniatures are by Battlefront.
For those days when I don't feel like using halftracks (hay, it could happen...) I've equipped my HQ with alternate transport. The staff car is from Battlefront with a converted passenger. The motorcycle is Old Glory/Command Decision, with a Peter Pig officer hopping out of the side car.
First Panzergrenadier Platoon, ready for action! I like a well motivated soldier. All miniatures by Battlefront, rocks by the Cahaba River. Bonus points to anyone who can tell where the dead trees came from...
An upclose look at the beer cans -- I mean, armoured transports -- used by 1st Platoon. I love me some custom stoage, all nice and muddy... yummy.
Second platoon marching through rocks. Again, pretty much all miniatures by Battlefront.
Heavy Weapons Platoon, keeper of the big guns. In the field, only the machine guns act as a distinct platoon, the halftracks with 75mm guns being on semi-permanent loan to the Panzergrenadier platoons. You gotta combat-attach the post-diggers, man! The halftracks with big guns, SdKfz 251/9s, and most of the men are by Battlefront, with some Peter Pig infantry mixed in. The SdKfz 251/1s(late war) are from Old Glory/Command Decision, all with custom stoage.
A detailed look at my machine gun pits, hand made of plastic card, balsa wood, sticks, sand, and glue. Battlefront bases slide right in and hold.
Since the Luftwaffa can't keep the planes off our backs, we'll have to do it ourselves! They make a handy anti-tank gun, too. All miniatures by Battlefront.
Nothing adds punch to an assault like a little armour! But in this case, there was a mix up with the supply officer, and the wrong tank model was sent to the front. So, I've added plastic card armour to the gun mantlet and hull front and added schurzen, ending up with three Panzer III Ls, originally by Old Glory/Command Decision, driven by a Battlefront tank commander, upgraded by Utini420. Now, these still look a little show-room clean for my tastes; they still need to get the good mud coating I put on all the halftracks. Also visiable is one of my burning tank markers, made from the stuffing from "killed" dog toys. Thanks, Gimli!
My first fancy objective marker, a [i]Mobilfieldwerkstat,[/i] or mobile field work station. They fix all the broke stuff. The Opel Maultier was special ordered from Battlefront then heavilly converted to make the covered work space. The frame was made with paper clips, and aluminum foil was rolled up for the canvas cover. Most of the tools and shop debries are HO scale parts, but some come from other places. The mechanics are by Peter Pig.
The force stands in semi-readyness! Like any other gamer, I have a ton more stuff, but its all still, "almost ready." OK, they are assembled and primered, but most of these just arn't ready for their close ups yet. I'll be adding more as I finish the models and take their glamour shots.
The splinter-patturn camo smocks in that army were painted with these colors, and in this order (vallejo paints):
1. Black Primer
2. German Camo Medium Brown (over brushed, like aheavy drybrush with just a little black showing in the creases)
3. German Camo Beige (applied wet in little zig-zags, going left and right, in crooked verticle swaths down the body and arms, etc.)
4. Reflective Green (wet, in little V shapes over both the brown and the Beige)
I tried painting it the way most folks seem to first, with the beige going down, then trying to get jagged shapes of brown with green over them, but I always ended up with too much brown, so I swapped the brown and the beige. Since I mostly wanted beige, and I always seemed to have more of the 2nd color, I just did the beige second. This also lets you work in a touch of highlighting.
As far as colors go, ya, I've fudged a bit. See, I hate the color yellow. The gray is correct for mid war (I'd use them in Late, but they are designed for Mid). Historically, German camo was very hit or miss - until mid '43, tanks were gray from the factory, but in late '42 (I think) they started issued camo paint to be applied in the field. It was supposed to be mixed with petrol and spray painted on, but most troops ditched the spray cans and had better things to do with fuel, so they mixed the paint with old oil or whatever and put it on with rags. I've gone for this look (again, I don't like yellow). I've sort of rationalized it as indicating the time period of the tank, without breaking the look of the force - plane Gray for Early war only vehicles, gray with green for Early/Mid war vehicles, gray with green and yellow for Mid/Late war stuff. Maybe I'll try some Ambush for LateWar-only stuff, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
I'll just close with this, the unit history I wrote for these boys for the Flames of War tournament hosted at the Atlanta War Room in September, 2006.
stadt is written like this: stadt ;)
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