My 500 pt Germans for Bolt Action

I've finished painting up my 1/72 Germans for Bolt Action (BA) so I thought I'd post a few photos and have a look at my army list.

I decided to make the force a late war Heer Veteran Grenadier Infantry unit. The main reason was that I wanted to try out assault rifles because they look cool. Here is the list I've chosen.

1 x 2nd Lt + 1 Rifleman, (Regular) 60 pts

1st Squad, (Veteran) NCO + 7 men (1 SMG, 7 Assault Rifles) 142 pts

2nd Squad, (Veteran) NCO + 7 men (1 SMG, 2 LMG, 5 Rifles) 147 pts

1 x MMG, (Regular) 50 pts

1 x Medium Mortar, (Regular) 50 pts

1 x Sniper Team, (Regular) 50 pts

Total 499pts

I went veteran as I think it's the best option for Germans. Their morale is better and they're harder to hit. I see the 1st squad as getting stuck in, although they have the firepower to defend if necessary. The 2nd squad with it's two LMGs will be used to hold objectives and provide covering fire for the 1st squad. I added a rifleman to the officer so a lucky hit doesn't take him out of the game. I would have preferred a 1st LT but just didn't have the points.

Support comes from the MMG and medium mortar, although I'm not convinced they'll be particularly effective. I'll see how they go and may look to replace them with some cheap armour or a half track. Rounding out the force is the sniper team which I'll use to pick off NCO's or just add pins.

The figures are all Valiant Miniatures 1/72 figures which cost me £8.24 for a box of 68 figures. So this 500pt force only cost me £3.15. You've got to love 1/72 figures.

I have enough spares left to go to 1000pts but I'll probably add some armour and/or transport first. I also want to add enough figures to give me a force I can use for Chain of Command. Here's some other photos of the finished figures.

1st Squad with Assault Rifles

Tripod mounted MG42

80mm mortar

2nd Squad with 2 LMGs

My 1/72 German assault rifle squad

I've finished the assault rifle squad for my 1/72 Germans now. So I decided to post a few 'work in progress' photos as it seems that's what all the big kids do these days.

So how did I produce these decidedly average figures? Well, I start off by spraying the figures with the appropriate base colour. As these are late war Germans I used grey. I then block paint the detail colours for the skin, webbing, weapons etc. The end result can be seen below.

 

They're not brilliant, and I miss out some of the detail as well as painting outside the lines but the dip covers a multitude of sins. Lots of people may be aghast at my approach but I'm not a painter I'm a wargamer. As long as the end result looks ok on the table I'm happy. Once the block painting is finished I brush on a coat of Army Painter dip. In this case the 'Dark' tone which is black. I'll be using the 'Strong' shade, which is brown, for my Brits as I think it will go better with the khaki.

 

The figures after a coat of dip.

 

Once this has dried overnight I give them a spray of Army Painter Matt varnish, which I think is an excellent product giving a really nice flat finish. Then I attach them to the mdf bases which I paint with Coat D'Arms 'Sandy Brown' Brushscape textured paint before adding GF9 Green static grass. The end result can be seen below.

 

The finished squad

You can see the other squads here and here.

Support units for my 1/72 Germans

I've moved on to painting up the support units for my Valiant 1/72 Germans. They comprise an MG42 on a tripod and an 80mm mortar.  For those of you who are interested, the painting details can be found in my post on the infantry squad I painted up earlier.

80mm mortar & crew

Tripod mounted MG42 & crew behind log emplacement

Group shot

And from the rear

Next up will be my squad armed with MP44 assault rifles. That just leaves the officer and his escort and a 2-man sniper team. After they're done I can move on to my Brits.

The first of my 1/72 Germans

I've made a start on painting up the Valiant 1/72 Germans I bought recently. I'm aiming to use these for both Bolt Action (BA) and Chain of Command (CoC). So here is a photo of my first squad. The painting isn't great but it looks ok on the tabletop, which is all I aim for these days.

For those who want to know how I painted them here's the details. First I sprayed them with Army Painter grey then block painted the details. Next up was a coat of Army Painter 'Strong' tone dip followed by a light drybrush of white and then a spray of Army Painter Matt Varnish. The bases I did with Coat D'Arms 'Sandy Brown' Brushscape (which is a textured paint) topped off with GF9 Green static grass. I'm always amazed how much better the models look after a coat of dip. Makes even my painting look ok.

Like lots of old school wargamers I'd used a ton of Airfix figures for gaming but for some reason I've never thought of going back to that scale until recently. But now I've picked up these I'm a convert. The detail is good and the above squad only cost me 97p. So two complete 500pt armies for BA will have only cost me about £5.50, that's less than the price of one 15mm tank!

Work in Progress

I'm in the middle of sorting out my 1750pt Panzerkampfgruppe force to play Ben on the 9th April. My Panthers are assembled and awaiting paint so I've moved on to sorting out the Nebelwerfers. I went with Battlefront for the figures as they are the only manufacturer that really covers the full range of options available to WWII forces.

The pack contains three Nebelwerfers, each with five crew, an SMG command stand and an observer stand, plus the bases for all the models. The contents can be seen set out below.

Before opening the pack I was a bit concerned about the casting quality as I've found that Battlefront figures often need a lot of clean-up. But I was pleasantly surprised. There was no flash and all that needed doing was a bit of trimming on the bases as usual. I was a bit unsure of how the Nebelwerfers went together and what some of the parts were for, but a quick trip to Google sorted that out.


Mystery parts!

Everything went together ok and they're now on the pile awaiting a trip to the garage for priming. I'll put some photos up of the finished force later. All I need now is my order from Maelstrom to arrive. I'm waiting on some Forged in Battle PaK 40's and some paint. The Forged in Battle stuff is still on order and has been for over two weeks now. I hope it arrives in time to get painted up.

FearNaught - El Alamein

In my 'How to Waste a Day' post last week I wrote about my problems in choosing a force for the upcoming 1500pt 'Fear Naught - El Alamein' campaign weekend in June. I've now narrowed my choice down to two forces, both from the 15th Panzer Division. As the organiser likes to keep Artillery and Air Support controlled by a central command you can't have any in your lists so I've had to comply with that limitation.
The first is a 1490 pt Panzerspähkompanie (15.) Armoured Car Company comprising:

Company HQ
1 x Sd Kfz 223 (radio)

Light Panzerspäh Platoon (15.)
1 x Sd Kfz 223 (radio)
4 x Sd Kfz 222 (2cm)

Light Panzerspäh Platoon (15.)
1 x Sd Kfz 223 (radio)
4 x Sd Kfz 222 (2cm)

Heavy Panzerspäh Platoon
6 x Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad)

Anti-tank Gun Platoon
1 x Cmd SMG team
3 x 7.5cm PaK40 gun

Light Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon
3 x Sd Kfz 10/5 (2cm)

Panzer Platoon
5 x Panzer III G or H or J (early)

I've gone for this option because I like the idea of an armoured car force as it's something different from the norm. However I do have a plan (of sorts) on how I would use it.
The tactics are a variant on a medium tank swarm approach from WWPD. The aim would be to use the Light Panzerspäh platoons to either advance quickly to grab objectives or to try and flank enemy forces splitting their attention. Maybe even getting into the enemy's support units. These would be backed up by the Heavy Panzerspäh platoon to provide fire support and to exploit openings. The Pz III's would sit back with the PaK 40's to snipe long range targets flushed out by the armoured cars. Hopefully the armoured cars will be able to remove 'Gone to Ground' from some of the targets to aid the long range shooting. The Pz III's would also be able to move up to deliver a coup de gras when needed. The Pak 40's can also provide static defence near any objectives that happen to be in my deployment area.  The AA I have is in addition to that mounted on the vehicles so that should be more than enough. Plus they can also provide some anti infantry fire if no planes appear as well so that's a bonus. The only thing I don't like about the list is the lack of a 2iC now they have become much more useful, but you can't have everything.

The second list is a more standard 1475 pt Panzerkompanie (15.) Armoured Company comprising:

Company HQ
2 x Panzer III G or H or J (early)

Panzer Platoon
5 x Panzer III G or H or J (early)

Panzer Platoon
5 x Panzer III G or H or J (early)

Light Panzer Platoon
5 x Panzer II F

Rocket Launcher Battery
Cmd SMG team
Observer Rifle team
Kubelwagen
2 x 15cm NW41

Light Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon
2 x Sd Kfz 10/5 (2cm)

This is a more straightforward list with all the punch coming from the Pz III's. The Pz II's are classed as a Recon platoon so I would send them forward first to flush out ambushes and remove 'Gone to Ground' where possible. The anti-air support with this list isn't great but they can also provide some anti infantry fire if no planes appear. I'm not sure if the Nebelwerfers are classed as artillery by the organiser so I may have to drop them and go with something else, probably Pak 38's. This list is ok if a little uninspiring. It does have the benefit that the models can be reused in lots of different forces, albeit with the wrong camo.

Sadly the deciding factor in my choice will probably be cost. The armoured car force will cost twice as much as the Pz III force as I can get most of what I need for it from The Plastic Soldier Company. Of course wargamers are not noted for being rational. Who knows I may even end up buying both, plus that Italian Squadrone Esplorante Reconnaissance Squadron looked nice......

Plastic Soldier Company German Infantry

I got a box of the Late War German Infantry from Graham of Simple Miniature Games on Thursday night. So I thought I do a quick review.

The box itself has a clear plastic window on the back so you can see the models without having to open the box (which I imagine is a boon for retailers). It also has the usual painting guide.

The box itself contains 10 junior officers/NCO's, 90 grenadiers & 15 lmg teams. They are moulded in grey plastic and come on five identical sprues.

Mine had no flash anywhere and the mould lines are minimal. Certainly less than on most metal miniatures. The casting is crisp & clean, again better than a lot of metal miniatures. On each sprue you get 26 figures, the breakdown as  follows:

3 standing firing
1 kneeling firing
2 kneeling pointing w left arm
2 standing throwing grenades
3 advancing weapon low
2 walking carrying ammo boxes
13 multi-part figures that need assembling (includes lmg, radio op, & inf with various weapons)

It's these multi-part figures that I don't like. You can see the poses you get in the picture below of the assembly sheet.

I assume that they are done this way because of casting issues. But the contact areas are tiny. I don't see why I need to glue the heads on two prone figures for example. I guess you get more variety in poses. But I'd rather have less variety in poses to get one piece mouldings than have to fiddle around trying to glue one tiny piece to another tiny piece.
Anyway what do I think of them. First off they are great value for money. Quality of moulding is great but having to assemble some is a pain. Overall 8/10 I would buy more if I needed them.

Coming this weekend

Just got a box of the Plastic Soldier Company Late War German Infantry. Look for a quick unboxing this weekend.