The first part of which was completing another box of PSC panzer IV's...
I made 4 in the Ausf H variety, to complete the missing platoon command and platoons tanks, by turret numbering, giving sufficent for an HQ and 3 combat platoons of 4 tanks each...
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| Panzer IV Ausf H |
The remaining Panzer from the boxed set of 5 I turned out an Ausf G... no side Schurzen armour for this fellow... but still a nice big gun, which in the MidWar setting he is destined for, should be ample...
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| Panzer IV Ausf G |
Back to the core project and I needed 4 Mobelwagons... These are Battlefront resin and metal...and were a bit of a sod to put together! The worst part was the gun mount, which once assembled then sits off centre on the mounting point, and wouldnt rotate properly without hitting the hull sides... Darm it! I was going to drill and pin it so it could rotate... but after buggering about for a while I gave up, cut off the mounting lug from the base of the gun and just glued them into position so they sat centrally and glued the base of the front gun shield to the hull front side for extra strength and stability...
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| Mobelwagons |
I glued the side walls in the lowest position as I hope these will be shooting up ground targets as well as their original AAA role! I have added decals to the hull sides but you cant really see as they are hidden under the lowered side panels.
So this completed the require platoons for me to field... "The Panzer Bums!"
"Here come the Panzer Bums" (hummed to the tune of Men In Black...) ;-)
I read a battle rep a few months back on the WWPD site where they described a force of Reluctant Trained panzers from the Blood Guts and Glory book as the 'Panzer Bums'. Intrigued I read the report and laughed it off...Reluctant Trained was a little out of my comfort zone, being more used to the Confident Veteran German troops... but then a little comment in the report said that while they typically take horrendous casualties, theres frequently still enough left to get the job done and the list had proved to be quite successful on the whole...
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| The 'Panzer Bums'... |
...that got me thinking... and playing about on EasyArmy... and sure enough... at ~1750points you get a ton of armour... 20 medium tanks, 4 AAA and 14 halftracks and two platoons of MG/faust infantry. Thats a shit load of firepower! Even if half of it gets destroyed there's always going to be something to fire back...
So there we have it, the Panzer Bums ready to rock and roll in Lorraine... the only fly in the aspic is no recce... so ambushes are no doubt going to hurt... but with 14 halftracks zooming ahead they could be the forced 'recce' of the main tank force... whatever pops up in ambush is probably going to catch a ton of return fire... oh and no artillery...so no smoke either!
The Panzers in the above list are admittedly Ausf J's... which just means they also have slow traverse on the turrents, but I dont think anyone is going to mind too much me proxying them with the Ausf H.
I recall a mate telling me that Trained armies are usually 'shooty armies' ... well yep I think that's certainly the case here... and since this force is Auto-Attack you'll always have all the guns on the table...
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| PanzerKompanie from Blood, Guts and Glory |
Of course, being Reluctant Trained...its going to hurt!... So I also made a whole load of burning tank markers recently too - gulp!
Wish me luck!
That's insane, I love it! Great consistent paintwork, and those Mobelwagens look like a nightmare to assemble. It should be a fun game against the Soviet horde :-)
ReplyDeleteLOL, Cheers Paul - yep totally bonkers! Indeed...vs soviets should be interesting too... lots of fire to mow down strelk... and enough AT to wreck T34s... the only problem would be heavy tanks... i'd just have to hope to have enough platoons to manuvre for flanks shots... or pass tank terror and assault with all those faust lads !
DeleteLovely late-war camo work on these fine additions, Scott. The entire force is indeed quite impressive.
ReplyDeleteGreat paint job. Miniatures and models looks realistic and awsome :)
ReplyDeleteGreat job. As a whole force they look VERY impressive looking. Superb work my friend!
ReplyDeleteWhat fantastic Panzertruppen Scott! I'm looking at my lot of unmade PSC with a sense of foreboding now - how can I meet that sort of standard? My answer is to turn instead to North Afrika where lots of lovely Desert Yellow is the trick :-D
ReplyDeleteGreat job mate. Now lets see them in action!
Very nice work and an impressive German force Scott!
ReplyDeleteChristopher
Well done! Panzer Brigades are one of my favorite armies to play in LW. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Certainly hoping too :)
DeleteLooks awesome and making them rush across the table and rejoice in their lack of battle experience should equal lots of fun! Looking forward to a battle report.
ReplyDeletecheers
That's a very nice Panzer horde! You definately don't see German lists with that much on the table very often. Should force your opponent to think about movement and deployment a lot more. There's always gonna be a lot of barrels pointing your way wherever you go :)
ReplyDeleteThat's a really consistent looking force there. I recently ran a fearless trained force which really sucked, but then I wasted points on 5 panthers, looked good but a huge points sink. I think your idea is better, far too much to shoot at!
ReplyDeleteI would have thought 5 panthers would hold their own rather well in most cases... of course depending on what you were playing against, and mission...
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