Yellow, Brown and Green Means...

...more German vehicles.

Some StuGs and some flak tracks.

These are all BF models, finished for a friend. He had undercoated them with the rattle can German Armour paint that BF sold, so I just needed to add the disruptive patterns and details.

As protection from those pesky American Jabos, my Germans gain three Flakpanzer 38(t)s:

And finally, breaking from all the yellow and green, I finished a platoon of LW Guards infantry, to have them ready for a tournament. They've only been waiting for paint for three years. Me, slow? Nah.

The Russians are Coming!

When BF released their plastic T-34 box, I bought one just to see what it was like. BF have a winner here. The models practically fall together, detail is excellent. decals and magnets are included and all for $9 per model. The assorted gun barrels are much sturdier than the Plastic Soldier Company equivalents, which is a good thing - perfect to-scale modeling is all well and good but these are toys for table top gaming, not static display models, so they need to take some handling.

I used White Ensign Model's "WW2 Russian Green" to airbrush these models, over a mid-grey primer. I had an urge to experiment with shades, so I made up a batch that was lightened with a sandy yellow and sprayed this over the models first, then went back over them with straight-up Russian Green, leaving the lightened colour on all the raised areas - hull and turret edges, and so on.

I was surprised at how pale this paint shade turns out to be. Some internetz reading tells me that current opinion is in favour of this much paler green for WW2 Russian tanks and that the darker green we used to associate with said tankovy was an error, a later colour, an expedient variation because of paint shortages in late '41 or early '42 (the famous "use the tractor paint, comrade" approach), or a combination thereof. Whatevs, as my teenage son says.

The models looked to light and bright, so they received all-over washes with GW Devlan Mud and Badab Black into the engine grills. After that was drying, I looked at the decal sheet, couldn't make up my mind (too many options!) and then justified a lack of action by saying "decals should have gone on before the washes".

The last couple of batches of vehicles, assorted things in German Gey, were weathered with airbrushed browns on the undersides, chassis, and lower areas to simulate earth and dirt. The T-34s weren't, because the wash was pretty dirty already.

And yes, the 76mm turret with commander figure does not sit on the hulls because I managed to get the magnet reversed, despite multiple precautions. Oh well.

Still in Grey

The last few German Grey vehicles for a while.

These two vehicles are 8.8cm flak cannon mounted on a lightly armoured halftrack chassis, designed to suppress or destroy bunkers from a safe distance and sometimes known as "Bufla". Battlefront models that went together very nicely. Paints by Tamiya, Humbrol and Vallejo.

They are big beasties and should look impressive on the table.

Next up are some models painted for a friend. The first three vehicles are from Battlefront's currently-absent Mid-War Monsters range and represent experimental German tank hunters, in this case Dicker Max vehicles (I think). They mount a honking great gun on a tank chassis and make big holes in pretty much anything they hit. Cue the jokes about Hitler compensating for something...

And then a pair of early Tigers:

And The Grey Goodness Continues

The next batch of German grey.

Four halftracks from Plastic Soldier Company. These models are nicely detailed and go together well. There are passenger and baggage items on the sprues but they do not seem as crisply detailed as the vehicles themselves and just do not appeal to me, so I gave up working on them and went with clean, empty vehicles.

License plates are decals from Command Decision. They are durable and easy to work with and settle down well with decal solvent. The numbers come from Dom's Decals and work very nicely, too.

The next pair of halftracks are from Peter Pig, in metal. Again, nice models, pretty much identical in scale and detail to either PSC or Battlefront.

I like the netting effect sculpted onto the PP model.

More German Grey

After a spurt of feverish activity in May, I had a bunch of German vehicles almost finished. Then they sat and collected dust for a while, to get that authentic weathered look. Finally, a guilty conscience and the need to clear the workspace prompted me to finish them.

First up, a gaggle of Sdkfz 221 and 222 armoured cars in mid-war dark grey. The models are Old Glory; the awkward screen cover for the turret was difficult to clean up and install properly, so my squadron have taken them off, the better to enjoy the Greek and Russian sunshine.

Dirt and dust were airbrushed on from low angles. I finally managed to get Vallejo Model Air colours to work for me; diluted about 80% with thinner and sprayed on for dirt.

Next up are a pair of StuG F models, again from Old Glory. Presumably there is a third model lurking in "the stash". Nice clean model, sharp details making them a joy to assemble and paint.

Still running with StuGs, a pair of D models from Battlefront, marked for Stalingrad. Aside from extensive dirt spray (on a roll with the thinned Vallejo paints), these also received heavy dusting with gray overspray, to give the impression of operations in an urban wasteland. Various areas around the hatches were cleaned of dust using a cotton bud and solvent before the paint had completely dried. The effect was quite nice, although somewhat understated. I'm being unusually wordy describing this dusting effect because it was mostly lost when I sprayed matt varnish over the finished models. Oh well, next time I will aim for garishly overstated effects before I apply varnish.

Lastly, for now, a lone early-war vehicle, a Panzer I Befehlswagon. This is another Old Glory model, the command vehicle that comes with two Panzerjaeger Is in their three-pack. This one is finished with dark brown camouflage, just for variety.

And now to finish the crew and stowage for a handful of halftracks and some 88s...

Springtime For Hitler

Aah, spring. The flowers blooming, the birds tweeting, the bees buzzing away. Sunshine, green grass and, in 1940, the rumble of advancing panzers as the Germans decided to go on holiday in France, via Belgium.

And so we come to my latest batch of photos, 1940-ish Germans, the second batch of little army men for my early war army for Flames of War.

First up, why are we marching? The bosses might talk about orders, duty, national rights and so on, but soldiers know it is for les femmes and le vin:

Loosely based on some 1930s art deco style postcards.

Many panzertruppen are riding around in Panzer IIs:

Four of the models are from Peter Pig, the fifth is Battlefront; the two brands mix-n-match well.

Lucky panzertruppen get to ride in Panzer IIIs, in this case "e" models, from Peter Pig:

The Germans had discovered pretty quickly that the 2cm cannon in Panzer IIs had to work hard to hurt enemy armour, especially modern tanks such as those used by the French, so they took a particularly hard-hitting Czech gun and mounted it on a Panzer I chassis to create the Panzerjaeger I:

Two of these models are Battlefront and two are Old Glory. Not such a good mix, as you can see, with the BF models being significantly bigger. They'll do for now, though.

The roving Panzers cannot be everywhere, so the Schutzen need anti-tank guns and sustained-fire machine guns to defend themselves against unfriendly types.

The guns are from Battlefront, the figures are a mixture of Peter Pig and Battlefront; again, no problems with mixing-and-matching here.