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