German reinforcements ... Bolt Action... Medium mortar & Light Howitzer

Some recently completed work for my German whermacht forces...

First up an 81mm mortar ... 

And next up a light howitzer; LEiG 75mm infantry gun...

More work in progress to follow...

Bolt Action - German MG42 Team

Another little addition to my German army...

The much feared MG42, or as it was nicknamed - "Hitlers Buzzsaw" !

As with many of Warlords sets the figures come with a set of optional heads so you can choose which to use... The one I used for the Gunner caught my eye...

Take a closer look...

It can now be revealed what the fiendish past of Dr Nefario was! ;-)

For those of you left puzzled, check out the animated movie "Despicable Me"... one of those great kids movies that adults get a laugh out of watching too...

I now must find a way of equipping my Grenadiers with "Fart guns"... ;-)

Bolt action armoured medley

I have been assembling two Bolt Action forces now for a few months, both US and German, and have greatly enjoyed assembling and painting their plastic vehicle kits. 

This first one is the German StuH 42, assault howitzer. A birthday present from my family 😀. 

Fitted with a casement mounted medium howitzer, it can really hurt enemy infantry. 

But it's not terribly good against enemy armour as the HE round doesn't have the greatest penetration, but can at least pin down the armour.

Next up is the Hetzer. A tank hunter fitted with a heavy AT gun. 

It does however have weak side armour so you really need to watch it's flanks.

It also has remotely operated MG with 360• field of fire. 

Next up is the Hanomag. I've done this one before but this time have toned down the decals with a brown wash as Millsy suggested.

An armoured personnel carrier, good for getting your troops into the table with a degree of protection from small arms fire. 

Capable of carrying 12 men and fitted with an MG for supporting fire. But you need some in it as passengers to fire. 

Next up is Panzer IV H. Again shown before, and again decals toned down. 

Fitted with a heavy antitank gun and two machine guns, it can hurt enemy armour, and infantry. 

Schurzen side armour gives some protection against bazookas to its flanks. 

The Puma is up next. An armoured reconnaissance vehicle, fitted with a medium AT Gun and MG. 

Equipped with dual steering positions it can reverse as quickly as it advances making it get out of trouble fast.

But that big gun tempts you to be bold with it so you have to remember it's not armoured like a tank! 

All the German armoured arrayed below.

Next up, the yanks...

First up the M10 tank destroyer. Fitted with a heavy AT gun, it can deal to enemy panzers very well. 

It also has a pintel mounted HMG, so can hurt infantry too. 

But it is lghtly armoured for a tank and is open topped so small arms fire can pin it.

Next one of my faves, the M3 half track. 

Bristling with MGs it can spit out fire from its passengers.

An armoured personnel carrier capable of carrying 12 guys. 

I can't help thinking of Kelly's Heroes when I see it. 😀

An HMG covers the front fire arc.

Next, the classic M4 Sherman tank. 

A medium AT gun with a nifty HE rule, and two MGs and an HMG. It can really bring the hurt to enemy infantry.

But it's prone to catching fire if hit... Leading to the nickname ' Ronson' after the lighter... It always lights first time...

For some yank armoured recce  we have the M8 armoured car.

A fast wheeled reconnaissance vehicle fitted with a light AT gun, MG and pintel HMG ... They stick 50cals on everything!

And finally all the tank armour arrayed.

I have been steadily working on the infantry side of these forces and will detail these in future posts. 

In the meantime, I'm really enjoying the game.

StuGs and StuHs - StuG Battery

More German armour... The humble StuG or Sturmgeschütz (Assault Gun) was the first boxed set of armour I got for my  fledgling German forces a few years back... The BF boxed set contained 5 vehicles and looking through some of the army lists I was using at the time, I noticed an option to upgrade one StuG to a StuH or Sturmhaubitze (Assault Howitzer), per platoon of StuGs. So I did that, making 4 StuGs and One StuH...


It wasn't until I was introduced to what 'breakthrough guns' can do to infantry, at the hands of Pauls SU122s one game, that I instantly became enamored of these deadly vehicles...

However finding an option to take StuHs in numbers with my desired German forces, was not always straight forward, as they often were not a support choice for the Mechanised German forces I was favouring using...

But they have stayed on my radar, and I have always looked to see where they may fit... Whenever I had used them they were proxied by my StuGs, but I really don't like using proxies... so with many other platoon options sorted, it was time to get some StuHs done, so I ordered a box from PSC...

You just cant beat the price of the PSC kits. Yes they are more time consuming to make than the BF resin/metal kits, and don't have the same heft as the BF ones. But when you can get 5 plastic ones for about the same price 2 Resin/Metal ones, its just a no brainer...

I decided to make 3 StuHs and 2 StuG Gs, with the Saukopf (Pigs head) styled main gun. This gun shape was better at deflecting incoming rounds, and would also help distinguish these newer vehicles from my existing BF StuGs...

More detailed info on the StuG and its variants here, thanks to wikipedia.

PSC 15mm StuGs and StuHs

3 x StuH 42

2 x StuG with Saukopf mantlet

Rear views...

Adding the BF vehicles, I can put out a platoon of 4 StuHs, the BF will be the command vehicle...

StuHs, plus the BF one to right as command vehicle

My BF boxed set was painted long ago and in a slightly differing paint style, but they still seem to match in well enough, though I may give the BF ones another coat of matt varnish to dull them down better to match in... size-wise there is very little difference...

BF StuG to left, and PSC StuGs

And adding in the StuGs, I can field 2 platoons of three StuGs, the Saukopf mantlets identifying the command vehicles

4 x StuH , & 2 x 3 StuGs

So I guess I now have the option to field a StuG Battery, another German force variety...

There's more to this story however... During the making of the PSC kits, I noticed that there was damage to the top hull, in the same places on all the sprues, ... It looked like some kind of damage had occurred as the sprues were taken from the mould? I let Will at PSC know my concerns, and despite still being able to make the kits, with a little greenstuff repair work to each, Will sent me a replacement box free of charge!
Now that's excellent customer service!

So I'll shortly have another 5 vehicles to add - I'll most likely add more StuHs, as I have finally come across a force which combines my 'beloved' half track force, with StuHs - The Fuhrer Begleit forces, currently a pdf armylist from BF website... looking forward to trying it out at some point in the future. I just need to order some Begleit tank riders from BF for the StuHs... watch this space for more...