Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Halftracks - 15mm Plastic Soldier Company

I finally managed to finish my plethora of Halftracks, SdKfz 251/1 Aus D, for my Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers for my Flames of War German force.

Sd Kfz 251 D

These were painted up as part of my entries into AHWPC.

They are 15mm scale plastic kits from The Plastic Soldier Company. They scale up very well with the halftracks from Battlefront, with little noticeable difference between them. The only difference being the crews and mounted MGs, which are both 'heroic' scale from BF, compared to the slender PSC ones...

They get a total of 7 crew and passenger figures for each vehicle and enough stowage options to keep you amused!

I painted them up in my 'usual' fashion, in this case - first sprayed up BFs late German armour spray 'middlestone'. Once that was dry I hand painted on the camo patterns, with a varied array of stripes and spots, using Vallejo Luftwaffe green and GW dark skin.

I then gave the whole vehicle a shading wash of a 50/50 mix of vallejo black / dark brown washes. Once this was dry the whole vehicle was given a drybrush of Foundry 30b - a dark yellow-like colour.

The tracks were quite laborious and I wonder if the effort was worth it as all you can really see is the finally heavy 'mud' dry brush... but any way these were painted GW dark skin, then dry brushed a 50/50 mix of gunmetal and dark grey. Then washed as above, and drybrushed 'mud' with vallejo camo brown.

I painted the crews and passengers seperately and added them to the half tracks as they were done. The crews first as these had to be glued into place before the 'top section' of the halftrack was glued down into place.

Next all the stowage was painted and glued on in a varied pattern so hopefully no two half tracks are the same.

Last of all, decals were added from DOMs. Polyurethane gloss varnish was used as a base for the decal. Then decal added, and left to dry. Then a wash of decal-softener was added and again left to dry. Next another layer of gloss varnish was painted over to seal the decal in place. Finally a layer of vallejo acrylic matt varnish was painted over to dull down the gloss finish.

I have done three combat platoons of 4 vehicles each; 111 to 114, 121 to 124, and 131 to 134. Next was the heavy platoon which will carry the MG42 teams, 141 to 143. Next up was the PaK40 platoon, 211 to 214, and finally a single command vehicle 221 which will be in command of a infantry gun platoon or mortar platoon...

So thats them all done now. I can look forward to officially including them in some future FoW battle reports.

So now I can press on with more reinforcements for my Germans, I have just about finished the HMG platoon, and have made a start on the PaK40 platoon.

AHWPC - Stowage! Its a dirty word!

Work continues on the horde of halftracks...

stowage!

I finished painting all the little bits of stowage from the sprues I had clipped out en-masse earlier. Over 140 of the little buggers... I tell you if I see another frickin jerry can I'll...@#$$%^&! Sorry please excuse the outburst!

Well I have just finished gluing them all into place, in a varied arrangement so hopefully no two halftracks will be identical. After that I've gloss varnished the areas where the decals will go; the black crosses and Vehicle ID numbers as per the GPG HQ in earlier post.

So hopefully they will be completely finished this weekend.

After that I am about 50% finished doing the HMG platoon, so progress is starting to be made.

After that, I have options of the PaK40 platoon, 8cm mortar platoon, 10.5cm howitzer platoon, or 15cm nebelwerfer platoon...

I know I started off the Typhoons earlier, but my recent gaming in FoW has all been Germans, so I am looking to expand their options on the battlefield. That, and my two regular opponents and I are looking to start the two Axis of Attack campaigns from the D-Day supplement book; Cutting the Cotentin, starting off with Utah beach landings, so Germans against the US, and Breville Gap starting off with Sword beach landing, so Germans vs Brits.

Looks like its going to be an interesting and busy year of FoW gaming :-)

Gepanzerte Panzer Grenadier HQ - AHWPC

I finally managed to make my first submission to the...

I have been busy ploughing on with my plethora of halftracks, and whilst working on the core of the combat platoons vehicles have also had time to work on the HQ vehicles and infantry command teams of the HQ group.

These came to a final conclusion this last weekend with the basing of the infantry and decals and aerials added to the command half tracks.

The whole command group

Here above you can see the whole command group from the boxed set from Battlefront. I also ordered some extra Panzerfaust models to add into the command figures, to convert them to command panzerfaust teams. I used up the optional panzerknacker models as regular grenadiers in the background positions of the command bases to bump up the numbers on the bases. (I already have command panzerknacker teams from my Festungskompanie)

CiC command 251/1 D Half track

To make the command vehicles stand out a little better on the table, I added aerials to the vehicles from plastic bristles cut from a kitchen broom and superglued into place. I also researched the correct vehicles numbers to use, thanks to an article of the Battlefront website.

CiC - SMG Panzerfaust team

2iC armoured transport 251/1 D half track

2iC - SMG panzerfaust team

HQ Anti-tank team armoured transport; 251/1 D

HQ Anti-tank asset - Panzershrek team

Combat platoon commander - SMG Panzerfaust team

Combat platoon commander - SMG Panzerfaust team

I just need to scrounge an NCO figure and spare grenadier and I can make my third required GPG platoon commander SMG Panzerfaust team...

Another thing I tried for the first time on these infantry teams are the Silflor bufallo clump static grass clumps. The patches of static grass that actually appear to stick up as a clump. I rather like them.

These guys got their first formal outing at the Te Horo Hootenaney in previous post.

I am rather looking forward to the tactics I can develop now with these guys under the new FoW V3 rules.

I have just realised when the 251's of the combat platoons are fully loaded up (2 or more teams onboard), they count as having tank escorts too, thats going to increase the amount of MG fire the vehicles can spit out on the move to 5 dice (3 for hull MG, 1 for Passenger fired AA MG and 1 for tank escorts) and further help in the German special Mounted armoured transport assault rules, rolling two dice in the mounted assault.. Got to love it! I already have medium tank support for these troops, I just need to add some Artillery, Recce, and maybe some dedicated mobile AA, and I'll have a fairly combined arms force.

Oh, my boxed set of PSC Panthers just arrived in the mail today too, so that will add some stronger panzer support too :-)

AHWPC update 9/1/12

Well, I have managed slow but steady progress since my last update; I have painted and added the front Machine-gunner and rear passenger fired AA MG to each half track.

Look at little closer and you will now see their numbers have grown to 23. I have got the 3 Command halftracks done to the same standard now, the only difference being the command halftracks have their stowage done, but are absent the front machine-gunner!

They are starting to look useable now, and as such have had a couple of outings for me to try them out.

The first was against Mike, fielding my commando force in Hold the Line. I think its fair to say I overwhelmed his forces. Mike held on till his Shermans turned up from reserve hoping they would turn the tide, but once they got involved in a fire fight with my Panzer IVs, they quickly left the field... So things seemed to go well.

Next game was against Paul and his Brit paras, in a Breakthrough. Things seemed to go OK to start with, and luck certainly seemed on my side for first half of game, but from the half way point things quickly started to fall apart as I made poor tactical decisions at the same time the balance of luck shifted. I could have hung on perhaps and kept contesting the objective until my last PzGr platoon arrived, but by then I had grown somewhat demoralised and it was getting late too, so I capitulated that game.

But I learnt and awful lot more that game! :-)

I didnt take any in game pics as I didnt want to steal Curts thunder when I finally get these ready to deploy.

So a couple of games in the week too was very enjoyable, but dented my painting time severely!

After that saturday morning I had to work then saturday arvo I had a 'forest' of logs to cut up with chainsaw for fire wood so that just about buggered me for the rest of the day. Then sunday was my daughters 6th birthday, so again not much painting over the weekend.

But I am now pressing on with painting the passenger teams - 4 figures for each half track, and going to add the stowage.

Here's the 4 panzergrenadier team members for each halftrack. The only thing that puzzles me slightly is the guy with his head turned to one side is holding a U-shaped tube of something across his knees, and I can't figure out what its meant to be, to enable me to paint it the correct colour! Anybody any ideas, answers on a postcard to... (comments below would be great!)

The last days of Maelstroms January sale are running out so I grabbed a set of PSC Panthers on pre-order, and a few Total Battle Miniatures buildings.

Looking forward to more FoW soon! :-)

Quick post update - I've realised while trimming out the figures from the other sprues tonight, that the guy looking sideways is holding an MP40 submachinegun. But the barrel is so fine in the plastic, I've knocked it off while trimming and not realised... oh well, he's now holding a 'utility piece of iron'...

AHWPC update 2nd Jan

More work done on my Half-tracks:

Well, here they are. 20 PSC Half tracks pretty much done, I recently managed the following: (thanks to a turn to rainy weather here and having a couple of days off over the New Year break.)

• First up I drybrushed the HTs with 'dark yellow' in this case Foundry 30B. I find this nicely blends down the camo pattern.
• Then I panted in the tyres and internal seat backs in black
• Then I weathered the tracks and the wheels drybrushing a mid brown (vallejo german camo brown)
• I then painted up the 40 crew figures ( 2 for each HT), though I think this was one of those 'devotion to duty moments' - I fully painted them, even though once they are glued into position, and the top of the halftrack is glued into position, you'll only see their backs!

I did a bit of a google search on interior of the HT, and found this image:

...thanks to: http://www.sdkfz251.com/ - very useful site, and showed the side seats backs are a black vinyl or leather looking material, I would have left them yellow had I not seen this image...

So as they stand now they are 'done' and useable for gaming, but I still want to do the stowage, passenger crew figures, and add decals - I am just about to place an order for DOMs decals with Maelstromgames - so until they arrive, the HTs can't be fully finished...

But not too worry - doing the stowage and crews/passengers will take a little while and I still have to finish off the GzPzHQ three HTs and command stands and 'Shreks.

Anologue Hobbies Winter Painting Challenge (AHWPC) - update

Just a quick shot to show where I am upto:

• 20 PSC Half Tracks assembled, base coated, and washed
• 3 Typhoons assembled, undercoat basecoat done
• 3 Command HalfTracks from GpPzGr HQ pack assembled and base coated
• 3/4s of the ' driver' figures trimmed ready for paint for the PSC Half-Tracks.

So next jobs to do:

• Drybrush Halftracks 'middlestone'
• Paint halftracks tyres black
• Drybrush 'mud brown' to Half track wheels and tracks
• Do stowage options for halftracks
• Do crews for halftracks
• Wash command halftracks, do command figures for GpPzGr HQ
• Paint Typhoons
• Add decals to halftracks and typhoons

So still a fair bit to do, but its started raining here, and its set in for the weekend :-), so I'll get some painting done hopefully, and have a game of Flames of War lined up too!

And so it begins...

Anologue Hobbies Painting Challenge is officially on!

Well here's what I managed to get assembled to start the ball rolling:

15 Half Tracks, 3 Typhoons and a partridge in a pear tree!

Ok maybe not the partridge ;-)

One small fly in the ointment - when I unpacked the typhoons I found 3 of the under wing rocket racks were missing, so a frantic email to battlefront customer services, has 3 replacement parts zapping their way to me as we speak, through the frantic xmas courier rush! As it is I can still probably make a start on them as the rocket racks will have to go on last after I have done the invasion bands on the wings.

The half tracks are good to go, these will mount up my three platoons of grenadiers and have some for the prospective HMG platoon to have 'battle taxis' awaiting them.

I havent glued on the tops of the half tracks and will be doing them seperartely like this as I need to add the drivers inside and paint the internal seats too.

Right, off to get spray painting...

Good luck to all!