Winter StuG III

1/56 scale plastic StuG model - kit from Warlord Games.

As Dallas noted, I have been on quite the painting tear with a 28mm WW2 project.  I got started on a late-war winter German force last December, and the project has come along nicely, starting from zero figures to include a platoon of infantry, some support and even some Hanomags to ride around it.  It's more than enough for a nice game of "Bolt Action" - but there is one element missing - some AFV support.  This new model will address that.

An iconic piece of WW2 kit...the unique front silhouette of the StuG.

This is a plastic StuG III from Warlord Games - it is a 1/56 scale kit (sigh).  I have painted it up in winter colours to match the rest of the force that I have put together so far.

The plastic kit has lots of nice detail, but if you look closely at the bottom right I could NOT get the hull sections to sit together smoothly...f*cking plastic models...I always mess them up...

I don't plan to do a lot of tanks or anything in 28mm - I play other scales for that - but they still needed at least one to feel like my first phase of this new project was truly accomplished. So here we are!

Dallas does seem to have a lot of Sherman tanks, so I might need to add another AFV of some kind...

I left the schurzen plates off of the model, as there was no reasonable way to mount them and expect that they would not be immediately snapped off on the gaming table...

This kit was relatively straightforward to assemble, although I still found a way to struggle with it. That's just me...any normal hobby human will find this kit easy to build. BUT there is one exception to that statement: it's the schurzen plates. I really wanted to have those on the StuG, but as you can see, the Warlord model has flimsy plastic connection points. These closely mimic the real way those plates were mounted, so model is realistic. But in terms of wargaming-table logistics, this approach is delusional, as they would snap off the second someone tries to pick up the model.

Anyway, it looks great without the plates, and I might figure out a more robust solution later.  So I built the plates, but have left them to the side for now.

75mm gun will help take on enemy armour...

I threw my usual painting recipe for winter AFVs on the model...as I have said before, I like my winter vehicles to look like a mess, because winter IS a mess - a total f*cking mess. F*ck winter. Snow is pretty on Christmas Cards (and there are days like that), but anything that drives or moves through the winter will be mucky in no time at all. I like my vehicles to reflect that.

Here is the vehicle along with a couple of the infantry models painted during the recently completed AHPC X.

I wanted to start with a StuG for the Germans because StuGs look cool and they were a pretty common AFV (insofar as AFVs were available to the Germans late in the war).  I tend to neglect StuGs in my WW2 collections in other scales, so I thought I would start with this iconic vehicle in 28mm. My late war Germans now have some AFV support, and are ready for a game...whenever that might be possible...

Ready for action on the table! I'm sure it won't get knocked out on the first turn or anything like that...I mean, when has that ever happened to newly-painted vehicles, right?

As you have seen elsewhere on the blog, Dallas has been really beefing up his collection of 28mm US forces in winter kit, so at some point we'll be able to have a really awesome game of "Bolt Action" set during the Battle of the Bulge, which is something I've always wanted to try! Who knows when that game will take place...but in the interim, collection escalation is always a lot of fun. 

Thanks for reading, and I hope all are safe and healthy out there.

15mm StuGs (and StuH) Finished

15mm StuGs (and StuH) from Plastic Soldier Company

I finally finished the box of 15mm German WW2 StuGs from Plastic Soldier Company.  These are all "G" variant, I believe (I had incorrectly identified them as "F"s in the post on my first two).  Four of them have 75mm guns, and one (without the schurzen skirts) has the 105mm howitzer.  I think that makes it a "StuH" instead of a "StuG"? I don't know if StuG batteries commonly mixed the two types of weapon, but I wanted to have at least one howitzer vehicle just to have something a little different.

Ready for action on the Eastern Front

It's about time I got a unit of these into my collection.  As Curt has said, the silhouette of these vehicles is really nice - so sure they are going to hit you, they don't even need the turret! I know that's not the reason they were developed, but still...and after all the Germans built, what, eight or nine thousand of these vehicles? They were fairly common vehicles, and I look forward to getting them into a game where, of course, newly-painted vehicles will dominate.

Stowage detail is a litte soft, but not the end of the world

After bungling the assembly on one of the first models, I managed to finish these last three without screwing up too badly (although on one I put the drive sprocket on the inside of the track assembly instead of the outside - whoops! - cue the hobby knife and much swearing...).

Sturmhaubitze with a 105mm gun - serious direct fire support for the hard-pressed grenadiers

These PSC models are very, very nice but I am just such a curmudgeon when it come to assembling things that I still prefer Battlefront (which you still need to fiddle with, just not as much).  That's not to say you should avoid them - again, it's just me.  If you want to build up a 15mm WW2 vehicle force, PSC is a good way to go about it.  Great price and fun kits.

Rear view of the StuH

These are all painted in a two-tone yellow and green cammo pattern that I have used with most of my German WW2 armour, meant to be "late-mid-war" but really will do for any period from the summer of 1943 to the end of the war.

StuG batteries roll towards the front...or, in this case,  Kathy Reichs' latest best seller...

Up next? Random odds and ends as always, but I will offer this slight preview: winter is not too far away here on the prairies of Canada, and I'm hoping it is not too far away from the gaming table either...

15mm StuGs from Plastic Soldier Company

15mm StuGs from Plastic Soldier Company

The WW2 painting table blowout continues.  Here are two 15mm German StuG assault guns - I think "F" variant, but I'm not 100% on my "StuGology" - with 75mm guns.  The vehicles are from the Plastic Soldier Company.

Top view of one of the models

My 15mm German WW2 collection is laughably heavy on the panzers, but shamefully lacking in vehicles like these, so it's good to start balancing things out a bit. StuGs were a very common part of German tank destroyer units in the various infantry and Panzer grenadier divisions.  They manufactured a lot of them (and I'm likely understating that) and the vehicle's silhouette is synonymous with the Second World War.

Random green cammo pattern to match my other panzers

These Plastic Soldier Company models are very nice - decent price, lots of options - and five per box! You can have a whole battery of these things ready to roll in pretty short order. But I have to say I still prefer the heavier models by Battlefront and others. 

Hmmm...something odd about the wheel assembly on this one...what did you do there Greg?

Why Battlefront (or others) over PSC? I like the vehicles to have some heft, and I also prefer models with very crisp detail on the casting.  And one piece track assembly!! I dislike lots of assembly. I'm not saying every Battlefront tank model is easier to work with (again, whoever thought up the plastic schurzen for Battlefront's current late model Mark IVs should be caned), but overall they are still a lot easier for me to build than the PSC vehicles.

The other flaw I find with the PSC models is that the detail is very very soft.  It is much harder to pick out, say, the tow cables and stowage that is cast on to the hull of a 15mm PSC tank.  When I spray a base colour on to the model for the first go, the detail softens even more and is easily lost.

But that's just me, and I'm grouchy.  I'm not here to tell you to avoid PSC - quite the contrary! You should absolutely go nuts and by their stuff! They offer good service and a great way to build up an armoured force very quickly.

Ready for Eastern Front doom

And even though I'm an inept modeller (see if you can spot the StuG in which I put both idlers on one side and both drive sprockets on the other side! GREAT work Greg, you dunce!)  they turned out well-enough to deploy on the table and get overrun in a game sometime soon.

I still have three more kits from the box.  They will wait for me refill my too-small reservoir of modelling patience before I take a crack at them, while I look online for other StuG alternatives :)