German armoured recce - Half Tracked Panzerspah, and SoTR?

Another platoon I have long been wanting to add to my Wehrmacht forces for FoW, an armoured recce platoon, half track panzerspah, comprising one SdKfz 250/1, and two SdKfz 250/9.

As recce, their role is to advance ahead of the main armoured troops, seeking out enemy ambushes and revealing gone to ground, on hiding enemy troops.

They also come equipped with sufficient fire power to spoil the day of exposed infantry, and the rapid firing 2cm gun of the 250/9's will make lightly armoured vehicles think twice about getting close...

Painted in my usual 3 colour camo style for late war...

On patrol...

Recce scout ahead past a French cafe, looking for hidden enemy...

...but wait, whats that they are scouting ahead for?

What is this? Some new devious terror weapon? A 'Secret of the Third Reich'...?

Some of you may remember a post I did some time ago about buying a 40K set for my son... well back then I threatened to do something like this, and recently I found time to do it, this guy is a test paint, but I think he's come out OK, not that I am an expert in painting 40k stuff...

I decided to mimic the late war German camo scheme and decals... The idea being the marine chapter has its roots in ancient Earth history... The marine chapter suitably being called 'Das Reich'...

I figured this would be one place where the GW overzealous use of skulls on everything would actually work, mimicking the silver deaths head motif of the Waffen SS units...

The only thing I wasn't sure about was whether I should have conduit tubes on the back of the arms, maybe black or metallic...

I figured with their camo pattern they will be perfect for use on an earth style temperate zone type planet, and so did a traditional 'grassy' base...

I will gradually work through the rest of the boxed set, probably adding another figure to a set of German armour I am working on each time...

My painting of this figure, combined with watching Alien & Aliens with my young son for the first time this week, has had him glued to the painting seat again, working on his orks, for the first time in months...

OK, so who's going to come up with some FoW stats for this bad boy... rapid firing 88mm? Yes please ;-)

Heavy Artillery, and the Generalmajor.

Finally, more munitions of war roll off the production line...

I have decided to bring some 'big guns' to the party, with the intention of causing as much mayhem as possible to the enemy, to soften them up, allowing for an easier roll forward for my infantry, and armour, once the time comes to advance.

With that in mind, I chose to add an Armoured Heavy Artillery Battery to my forces. This brings the Hummel (Translation - 'Bumblebee') self propelled artillery piece to the game. This AFV mounts a 15cm howitzer upon a panzer chassis, with an open topped fighting compartment for the crew to shelter in. They also have access to an AA MG for self defense.

I can already make use of the infantry platoon command team, observor teams and Staff team from my 10.5cm artillery battery platoon, but did need to add the Opel Blitz Radio truck, with its 'bedframe' on the top.

I also have enough spare half tracks to mount the observor teams in as needed and also spare Panzer III's if I choose to upgrade their transport

Ranging in posts stored on back of vehicle.

So far only two of the hummels are finished, but a third model is almost finished, and I plan to add a fourth. Increasing the platoon to 4 vehicles, will allow me to add a 2nd observer, covering more of the battlefield, and gives the platoon a little longevity before they are knocked down to 2 vehicles with its inherently reduced effectiveness.

Last up today, another Warrior; Generalmajor Otto-Ernst Remer.

Remer (*) was a renowned commander of the Grossdeutschland Panzergrenadierregient (*),  fighting on the Eastern front. He was decorated with the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves for his performances

When Remer leads a platoon, he increases their motivation, ability to advance with stormtrooper moves and their assault capability.

He has sadly caused some consternation on the FoW BF forum about his ability to lead platoons into an assault, mostly due to the lack of wording on his profile which most assume should have included the phrase, may perform a 'Mounted Assault' when using an armoured half track transport...

From what I have followed, most people seem to play that he can perform this function and I believe Phil ruled on this in a forum post...? [I am happy to be corrected, comments below!]

Here he is as an infantry command team, with a schwimmwagen, for transport. He may be upgraded to have an armoured half track transport.

Remer survived the war, finally being held in an American PoW camp. His post war activities are also featured in the interesting wikipedia link - he seems to have caused as much consternation in real life post war, as he has on the BF forum! ;-)

{*thanks to wikipedia for the linked info. - from reading the info on Remer, I realised his interaction with Joseph Goebbels featured in the movie Valkyrie, played by actor Thomas Kretschmann}