Go Go German Sherman!

'Operation Midnight Panzer' has continued and five more hulls roll off the assembly line... they were assembled during the painting challenge,... but at the end of the evening, when I had had enough of painting for the evening, I'd spend the last 20 mins or so, of the night, assembling one of these tanks... and so on...

They are 15mm scale Panzer IV Ausf H, one of the later models of the Panzer IV with the long barrel high velocity main gun, and sporting side armour Schurzen skirts...

They are plastic kits from Plastic Soldier company, which I continue to find easy to assemble and cost effective... and once again painted in a late war 3 tone came pattern. No airbrushing, just block painted, shade wash and drybrush. A little detail work picking out tools etc. Do the tracks... a little HB pencil to denote worn parts on tracks, some drybrushed weathering, a little rust effect on the exhaust.. and finally decals.

Now I know the turret numbers are not sequential so these are not from the same platoon. This is because the first time I put turret numbers on the first PzIVs I got, I had not understood their significance and went with a mixture of assorted numbers. Thankfully I found the left over decals so have started to bulk out the original formation with the 'missing tanks'! If you get my drift?

So that's 10 Panzer IVs ready, and the plan is to complete one more box of five PzIVs, featuring a few commanders peaking out of their hatches, and that will give me three combat platoons plus the HQ panzers... enough for a horde of 'German Shermans' to confront the allies, ... perhaps in the Lorraine region...? Hmmm, wonder what list I'm looking at?  :)

German Panzer IV H: (FOW)
FA6, SA3, TA1.
Main gun, range 32", AT11, FP 3+
Co-Ax and Hull MGs
Side Armour Schurzen, and Protected Ammo.

Wehrmacht Command half tracks and Flamethrowers

Well after a lengthy period, I finally managed to get my first submission in to Curt, for his 3rd Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge...

And no they weren't the Hobbit set of Goblins you may have been expecting...

I had got part way through the Goblins, and then, after a little reminder from a mate about our proposed big Total War FoW game planned for the Easter Weekend, I realised I still had a bunch of FoW stuff I wanted to get completed in time for this...

So, I set to putting together the plastic sets I got from PSC of the 251 Half tracks & their conversion kit, and the set of Tiger I E's ... These were done enjoying the sun sitting out on the deck at the weekend, whilst the evenings it was back to painting goblins...

Once they were assembled though, they got the evening painting time too...

I think it was in part this issue of having several things at once on the go on the painting table, that got me a bit down, as it can seem you are working endlessly with nothing appearing to get finished, and the painting area also starts to get cluttered with unfinished products, which I find rather demotivating...

But thankfully these got finished in reasonable time. I quite like doing vehicles like this as they seem fairly quick to do, though the crews and stowage can be a little fiddly, plus the decal work too.

Well enough rambling, here they are (as always click pictures for a bigger view).

SdKfz 251D/10 Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Platoon Command Half track.

I have long ran my 'half track horde' bristling with machine guns across the board, but whilst deadly against exposed infantry, once the infantry digs in , or the half tracks come across the slightest piece of enemy armour, they are instantly made impotent...

This can in part be helped by the addition of the PaK36 3.7cm Anti-Tank gun to the platoons command vehicle.

In game ; ROF 2, AT 6, FP 4+. Range 16".

Great in theory, but in game terms I am not entirely sure how much use they will be, as this is principally a mobile force, which drops the rate of fire of this main gun when firing on the move, probably making it hardly worth firing. And if I stop to fire it at a better ROF, then I have lost my mobility...

But they look great, and it makes the platoons command vehicle stand out. Yes, I am all for visuals and not so focused and 'game tactics', but hey that's the way I play!

Painted up in my usual three colour camo scheme, making them most suitable for mid 1943 onwards...

The only difficulty I had was the decals as I had already used the platoon command numbers on the original half tracks... I didn't want to but a whole new set of decals to get these few that I needed... So I ended up chopping up others I was not likely to use and then try and line up the bits OK on the vehicles. I think they turned out OK. (Decals from DOM).

So three command half tracks for three combat platoons...

That left two more vehicles to convert from the box... with a choice of 'stummels', 8cm mortar carriers or Flamethrowers. As I already had the stummels and mortars carriers, I went with the Flamethrowers. Again more for the look and variety, rather than the in game tactics, of having a greater number of stummels or mortars... And besides, flamethrowers can be deadly in the right scenario!

SdKfz 251d/16 Flamm

Fitted with two 1.4cm Flammenwerfer.

In game: One shot only! ROF 3(each), FP 6. Range 4"

The flamethrower was a weapon first devised in WWI as part of a way of attacking and reducing enemy strong points during trench warfare. It has remained in that role ever since.

The value in the game is it can hit enemy teams relatively easily (just requiring a skill check, with no modifying to hit), and any infantry, gun teams or 'open topped' armoured or unarmoured vehicles hit are instantly 'killed', with no saving throw, even if 'dug in'. And the enemy platoon is automatically pinned as a result.

So this is their inherent value, in supporting, or opening the way for an assault, automatically killing the front line of defenders, hopefully including HMGs too, pinning the platoon and then allowing you to roll in with the main assault infantry.

Again that's the theory, but any canny player will know what these are capable of, and they are going to end up catching a ton of fire, to try and stop them.

So one intrinsic value in them perhaps becomes as a 'sacrificial' unit, they will take the hits, allowing other units to act unmolested...

... and of course if I can get them in place through guile, cunning, terrain and smoke, so much the better!

Wish me luck!

'Little Tanks' - Mittlere Panzer Co. & Luchs

I finally got my horde of Panzer III's finished! I originally got them as a quick way of getting into the MidWar setting and they were probably originally destined for the Mediterranean theatre...

But after some time I realised that a DAK force didn't really appeal, and my young son's interest in painting up his 8th Army  troops seems to have fizzled onto the back burner...

So I decided to switch these guys to the Eastern Front setting, and paint them to match my existing forces. They are Plastic Soldier Company, Panzer III H variant, in 15mm scale.
 

Now, I am not sure but I may have taken some artistic licence in their depiction... Whilst the Panzer III H certainly featured on the Eastern front from the Mid War period onwards... I am unsure if they would have had the depicted 3 colour camo pattern... but I didn't really fancy painting them grey... as they then wouldn't match my existing forces... and besides I may proxy them as later variants of the panzer III ...

I completed them a couple of weeks back but was just waiting for a set of smaller scale decals for the turret numbers to arrive from DOM in the UK... The side of the turret of the Pz III H has a small raised area which I was concerned would not allow the standard size decals to lie flat, so I got the small ones so they sit just below the 'bump', and have gone on well.

HQ above with Co and 2iC

First platoon of three tanks

And then 2 platoons of five. All up together this gives 1350pts of armour. Add to this a little recce and maybe a Stuka and I will have a usable force on the table.

Next up a platoon of PanzerII L 'Luchs' (translation; Lynx):

The Panzer II was a tank that features in the early and MidWar setting but by the LateWar setting it had been modified and turned into a reconnaissance vehicle, where they seem to have been used quite widely on the Eastern Front.

Again these have been finished for a little while and were just waiting for the turret decals as again, the side of turret of the Luchs is rather small.

I also used them to demonstrate a guide to painting the German 3 colour camo pattern here.

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.