Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIV #1 - Early WW2 Germans

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XV is only two weeks away, and the final countdown has started. Due to my computer crashing, I never got around to cross-posting any of my submissions from AHPC XIV. I hope you will indulge my journey down 'Memory Lane'.

 

First up is a force of early war Germans consisting of a squad of nine cavalry, nine casualties to act as pin markers and another truck specifically to be used as a weapons tow.

The nine cavalry figures are by Crusader Miniatures. The first three I got at least 25 years ago as a free sample with an order of primarily late war British/Canadian infantry packs. What do you do with three cavalry? In my case, you assemble and prime them, and then put them in a storage box for a quarter century. When I recently put in an order for more minis from Crusader, I decided to get two more packs to flesh out the original three to a total of nine. The Bolt Action rules don't have any provision for Heer cavarly, only SS units. I am not sure if they will see action on the table top, but most German infantry divisions in 1939-40 used cavalry for reconnaissance. They were painted using Vallejo acrylics with a variety of Games Workshop washes.

On an interesting note, the three original figures I received as a free sample had horses that looked more like plow horses than cavalry mounts. The more recently acquired figures had nicer sculpts for the horses, but being somewhat thinner, there was a noticeable gap between the horse's body and the saddle blanket.

 

'Forward at the trot!'

Command group

The three free cavalrymen from Crusader Miniatures

 

Early war German army cavalry on patrol

 

The nine casualties figures are by Black Tree Design, although I bought them when that line was still known as Harlequin Miniatures. They came as a pack with three minis of each of the three poses, one with a leg blown off, and another missing an arm. I am not sure what plans I had for them at time. Again, like many miniatures I have purchased, they sat in a storage box for at least 25 years. More recently I had mulled over plans to use them as pin markers for Bolt Action, and I had a few ideas on how I would do it. In the end, by the time I finally got around to doing something, several others had already done something similar. A case of 'great minds think alike'? I cut bases for them out of old plastic gift cards the same size as those I made for my cavalry figures, and then made a small box using a thin 2" strip of card scored every half inch so that it could be folded to form a square. The sides around the box were built up using Spackle, and then the base was coated with sand. The figures were painted as for the cavalry.

 

9 pins markers for Bolt Action

A close up of the nasty wounds, and the box to hold the dice

The final element is a Krupp Protze Kfz 69 to act as a weapons tow for my Pak 36. I had painted up three of these trucks during AHPC XII, but did them as troop carriers. While on my re-enacting travels in April I stopped in at a hobby store and found they had one box of the same kit from Rubicon Miniatures that has the necessary parts to do either version of the truck. Just what I was looking for. The truck was painted using AK Interactive Dunkelgrau, and then given a wash of Vallejo European Dust Model Wash.

 

Rubicon Krupp Protze Kfz 69

A top view of the Protze with a Pak 36 in the background

 

Challenge Submission #3 - WW2 German Panzertruppen

My third submission for this year's painting challenge is a selection of early to mid war units appropriate for a German Panzer Division. They include a squad of Kradschützen (motorcycle troops), a Sd.Kfz. 222 light armoured reconnaissance vehicle, and a platoon of Panzerkampfwagen I Ausf B light tanks. The last vehicle is an iconic Panzerkampfwage VI Ausf H or Tiger I.

The Kradschützen are a mix of Black Tree Design and Bolt Action miniatures for a total of nine figures on five motorcycles, with two where the passenger is riding in a sidecar, and two where the passenger is riding pillion. I picked up the two Black Tree Design motorcycles a number of years ago at an estate sale, and the assembly looked rather daunting with the bike, the handle bars, and the riders all being separate pieces. I wanted to flesh them out a bit, and ordered two motorcycles from Warlord Games where the passenger was riding in a side car. One more motorcycle was ordered a few years later, again from Warlord Games, but this time with the passenger riding pillion. If I thought Black Tree Design bikes were daunting, the ones from Warlord Games consisted of 10 separate pieces, and didn't come with assembly instructions. I was able to find those online, but to get everything to fit correctly was really tricky, especially since the handle bar and the driver's arms came as a single piece.

With much patience, I was successful in getting everything together so that it all looked right, although the drivers still don't seem to be sitting properly on the seat. The instruction for the bikes with side cars showed stowage satchels attached to the sidecar, but none came with the kits. I did get enough for a single bike in the kit with the passenger riding pillion. These got moved over to the sidecars, one to each, and the second stowage bin coming from my bits box along with a gas mask canister. Three of the bikes were mounted on long bases that came from Warlord Games, while the bikes with sidecars were mounted on bases cut from old plastic gift cards. Everything was primed in black and then painted with Vallejo or AK Interactive acrylics. They are now ready to take the field as part of the 8th Panzer Division.

 

The  Sd.Kfz. 222 light armoured car was another acquisition from the above mentioned estate sale. It was a multi-part metal casting which I think is an old Battle Honors kit. The scale looks closer to 1/48 than 1/56, and although the body is hollow, it still weighs in at 266g (almost 9.5oz). In fact, it is so heavy that the axles that came with the model were unable to support the weight without bending. I had to pull the wheels off again and replace the axles with lengths of florist wire that were much stiffer.

The fit of the pieces was pretty wonky, and I had to fill a number of gaps with epoxy putty. The rear fenders were a single piece that were difficult enough to fit to the chassis, but the front fenders were even worse. They came as two separate pieces, and the fit to the chassis just didn't work as all the angles were slightly off. Eventually I gave up and fashioned the front fenders out of a single piece of thin plastic card. Once all the fenders were in place, I made some headlights out of the heads of pushpins that I have filed flat on one side. Finally I added the shovel and the rolled tarp from my  bits box. The commander that came with the model was wearing an Einheitsmütze, which is more mid to late war, so I replaced him with a figure from a Bandai tank kit. The vehicle was painted in a similar fashion to the Kradschützen, and then some AK Splattereffects Dry Mud was applied. It will make a useful addition to my early war Germans.

 

Next I have a platoon of three 1/56 resin Panzerkampfwagen I Ausf B light tanks from Warlord Games that I purchased as part of a bulk order along with DallasE. I liked how he mounted his on bases to make them a bit more compatible with 1/48 and 1/50 scale vehicles, so I did likewise. Assembly was pretty straight forward with the tracks, etc, fitting well to the chassis. I used magnets to attach the turrets, countersinking them into the chassis and the turret itself. The only flaw was that two of the exhaust pipes were not well cast, so I carved the partly formed bits away, and rebuilt the exhaust with some copper wire and the insulating sleeve. These were then painted using the same technique as for the armoured car. They were then mounted on the bases that had already been prepared with most of the sand, paint, and flocking before gluing the vehicles in place. The red vehicle numbers and German crosses on the tanks are appropriate for the France 1940 campaign.

 

Lastly I have  a Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausführung H, also called the Tiger I, of the 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion. The battalion was the first unit to receive and field the Tiger I in August 1942, and it was one of the most successful German heavy tank battalions, claiming the destruction of 1,400 tanks and 2,000 guns.

The model is a 1/48 scale Bandai kit that I picked up on eBay. It was obviously a second hand kit as it had already been started, but what the original owner had done was glue both the inner and outer road wheels on all the odd numbered axles before realizing their mistake. I contacted the seller about the problem, who refunded my money without wanting me to send the kit back. It languished for many years in my pile of unfinished projects until I thought that a repair was possible. I used a fine saw blade to cut off all the outer wheels from the odd numbered axles. Now all the inner wheels could glued onto the even numbered axles. I drilled holes into the axles and the back of the wheels I had removed with a pin vice to take a short piece of florist wire to provide strength to the joint when I glued them back in place with a little bit of epoxy putty to fill the slight gap. Once all that was done, the rest of the kit was assembled as per the instructions.

Prior to this, I had already acquired a Solido 1/50 diecast Tiger I in grey. It is visible in the background of the pics below, but not part of the submission. Other than a bit of tweaking, new decals, and adding a muzzle break, the Solido model is as I bought it. Since it was already painted in Panzer grey, I wanted to use the same paint scheme with the Bandai model to make them part of the same unit. After priming it with black, I used AK Interactive acrylic 704 Dunkelgrau, and then drybrushed the raised areas and corners with a lighter grey. Special parts like the tools and tow cables were painted appropriate colours, and a few parts got either a black or a dark brown wash. Once the tracks were on, I hit the lower areas with AK Splattereffects Dry Mud. 

 

Thanks for reading.

Second World War Soviets

 The Analogue Painting Challenge is about to kick off next week, and this year I am looking at expanding my Bolt Action Second World War collection starting with my Soviet horde. Here is the current array on parade. The infantry are primarily from Black Tree Design, with a few riflemen and the majority of the heavy weapons from Battle Honors. The platoon of T34/76 tanks consists of a 1/50 Corgi, two 1/50 Solido, and 1/48 Bandai. The Bandai T34 and the 'captured' Kubelwagen are recent additions, but most of the figures and tanks were painted over a decade ago and saw much action on the table top with the after school wargames club I organized.

 

A group photo of my Soviets: four rifle squads of nine men each, one SMG squad of eight men, two medium mortars, one heavy machine gun, one medium machine gun, one 76mm divisional gun, a headquarters, a captured Kubelwagen, and four T34-76 tanks, ready to repel the Fascist invaders.

A close up of one of the rifle squads, the 76mm divisional gun M1942 (ZiS-3), and two 82mm 82-BM-37 battalion mortars. The Battle Honors mortar teams came with figures to either be 'on the go' or 'deployed'.

Another two rifle squads each consisting of a section leader with a submachine gun, six riflemen, and a DP-28 light machine gun. Behind them are a DShK 1938 heavy machine gun team, and a PM M1910 medium machine gun team. The machine teams again came with enough figures to be either 'on the go' or 'deployed'.

A fourth rifle squad in front, a squad armed with PPSh-41 submachine guns behind them, and a platoon of T34-76s at the back.

A stern commander with his captured Kubelwagen staff car, and a small escort of riflemen.

A group of 'character figures' from Black Tree Design. You can just smell the bacon frying. 

A close up of the two medium mortar teams from Battle Honors.

A close up of the two machine gun teams, heavy machine gun on the left, medium machine gun on the right.

A close up of two 1/50 diecast T34s from Solido (closest to the camera) and Corgi. The Corgi is a later model with two hatches in the turret.

The last two T34s, a plastic 1/48 Bandai kit, and a 1/50 Solido diecast model. Both are the early version with the single turret hatch.

 

So what's on the workbench for the next few months? Soviet infantry in summer uniforms, Soviet infantry in winter uniforms, Siberian veterans, a variety of support weapons, more tanks, and an armoured car or two. Below are just a few of the projects I hope to have rolling off the assembly line soon.

Soviet Infantry (Winter) and Siberian Veterans from Warlord Games, and another T34/76, this time from Tamiya. I plan to do this one in Winter camouflage.

 

Russian Infantry in Summer Uniforms, Russian Infantry Heavy Weapons, and a pair of Russian 45mm Anti-Tank Guns, all from Plastic Soldier Company, and a KV-1 from Hobby Boss.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have enjoyed this little trip down memory lane. As projects are completed I will post them on the blog to keep you up to date on my painting challenge progress.