FoW - FlaK, Tank hunter team and WIP Panthers

I recently finished some Anti-Aircraft assets for my German FoW forces. I started these a little while ago, but got side tracked by the plastic tank making frenzy I embarked upon!

With the increased performance of aircraft in FoW, with auto-range in against targets in the open, the Typhoons I have been facing, which hit on targets on a 3+ have been making rather a mess of my glorious panzers, so something had to be done!

I initially order some armoured half tracks carrying 3.7cm FlaK43 guns, but these took a little while to arrive from the UK. In the meantime I grabbed a pack of these on impulse of the racks of my FLGS...

They will be very useful in my Atlantic Wall defences of the Normandy Beach terrain I have been making recently. Also they will add some defence to my Grenadiers once the Allies eventually push past my beach defenders.

3.7cm FlaK43 anti-aircraft artillery

The army lists also give the option to mount these as portees in the back of 3 ton trucks and I ordered a pack of Opel Blitz trucks. I had hoped to be able to make the guns multi-use by not gluing the gun to the ground mount, and be able to fit them in a mount in the flatbed of the truck too. But it was very cramped for space and without cutting off the truck sides, it wouldn't work. I didn't want to do this to the trucks as I wanted to be able to use them as is, as well.

So I left these guns as normally ground positioned. I'll make do with the armoured AA half tracks once I get them assembled for mobile AA.

These guns, I must say were quite fiddly to make, and it took me quite a while to figure out how to put them together. It took many repeated hard looks at the same item on the BF website from all angles to figure it out.

In the end I am pleased the way they have come out, and look forward to shooting down many allied aircraft with them including those pesky typhoons!

Next up...

I also finished the last one of my required 9 tank-hunter panzershreck teams for my Panzer Lehr Panzergrenadiers. These guys will hopefully make a bit of a mess of any allied armour they come across.

Panzershreck tank hunter infantry team

Finally for today...

The first of my sexy big cats! ;-)

A quick WIP shot of my box of PSC Panthers. The PSC boxed set comes with enough bits to make the 3 panther variations; D, A or G.

I have modelled these as the A variant to back up my Panzer Lehr panzergrenadiers above. The astute amongst you may notice some small variations amongst the tanks too.

Also the way the PSC set works, the A variant doesn't get the ball mounted hull MG . But I preferred the look of the ball mount, especially after looking at the A variant from BF.

PSC Panther 'A' - WIP

I did a bit of web research, and found that the Panther and its variants were rolled out over a period of time with differing upgrades, and indeed repairs done to battle damaged tanks,  performed over time, so it was quite possible for tanks to have a varying appearance, as upgrades were introduced to the models or repairs made.

So I started with the basic PSC A hull, and trimmed off the box shaped hull MG. I then drilled a hole in its place and added the ball mount MG. I stayed with the A variant for the turret front, but used differing cupolas for the turret, and made variations to the exhausts as well.

Finally as for paint schemes, as we know the tanks were issued to the crews painted Dunkelgelb from the factory and the crews were issued paint to add their own camouflage patterns. So just about anything goes, as you may have seen from my prior half tracks blog post.

These base colours have a harsh contrast now but once dark washed and then highlighted up it subdues the camo pattern in a rather effective manner I find. Again see earlier posts on half tracks and Panzer IV H's for the final 'look'.

More on these guys later...

I also hope to have the AVREs varnishing finished over next couple of days. Also I have finished the first of 3 Jagdpanthers, though it still needs decals and varnish.

Busy busy as always!

Cheers
Scott

Tank Hunter teams - Panzer Lehr FoW, & Beach WIP

Another set of figures finished just before Easter, were the Tank Hunter teams for the 'conversion' of the Gepanzerte PanzerGrenadiers, to Panzer Lehr status. Each GPG platoon in Lehr gets three PanzerShrek teams to supplement the infantry teams. These combined with a PanzerFaust SMG command team makes these platoons very resilient to armour. I have only eight teams here, the last one is on order, and will be painted as soon as it arrives.

In the meantime I am pressing on with my Howitzers. I have finished the guns, and the cast resin scenic bases and the staff cars all painted ready for varnish. I am working through the gun crews which shouldn't take too long as they don't have a lot of equipment on them, which speeds up painting. With luck I'll have them done for the weekend.

And pressing on with more terrain activities...

Well you can't fight a beach amphibious assault without a beach so... I made a start over Easter.

Its a 2cm thick sheet of polystyrene glued to a 3mm MDF sheet. Then I sliced and cut and shaved and sanded it down to a slope. Finally PVA sand to it.

The only thing is, the sand here (west coast of NZ north island) is a lot darker than the sand of the Normandy beaches so I am going to have to paint a lighter shade to get the right effect.

After that I have some plastic L-strut on order to make a load of beach anti-tank obstacles, which will be glued into place before I box off the the seaward end and fill it water-effect resin.

That's all for now , back to painting my howitzers...