Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Late War Winter Germans - 15mm

15mm late war winter WW2 Germans

Curt C from Regina recently inspired me to finally get some winter WW2 figures done.  I started with Russians, but wanted to do some winter Germans for them to fight on the gaming table here in Winnipeg.  Trying my best to copy Curt's excellent work, I recently finished a small, individually-based 15mm platoon of my own.
Mix of great coats and parkas on these troops
The figures are all Battlefront ones, 15mm scale, from a box of late-war winter Volksgrenadiers.  Battlefront's sculpting for infantry can be a little hit and miss, but these were mostly all "hits". These fellows manage to simultaneously look well-equipped and a little bedraggled - after all, what could be worse than facing the Red Army? Facing the Red Army in the winter!

The larger base on the right has an MG42 team

You can see from the pictures that I am still not varying the bases for NCOs, special weapons etc.  The special bases are en route from Warbases in Scotland, and I was too impatient to wait.  Individual 15mm figures do not take long to paint, so I will either re-base, or just paint more, when the new bases finally get here. In the interim I'll just print up little tags for the figures if it's called for.

NCO directs his squad

I used the same gel & paint approach on the winter bases as I did with the Russians.  I have some ways to go to improve, but I'm starting to get more used to the techniques involved. I still try and make the snow messy and dirty, but often go too far with weathering (same on my vehicles).  I know less is more, but on the other hand I can think of them as "late winter/spring" bases.

The must-have German LMG firing position

There are three eight-man squads, led by an NCO and including an MG-42 team and a fellow with a Panzerfaust.  The troops all have rifles, and the NCOs have MP-40s, although I think one STG-44 snuck in there somewhere.

Slightly blurry Panzerschrek team
There is a two-man Panzerschrek team, and one senior officer, who I think is supposed to be a "warrior", one of those Battlefront "Special Character" types. I don't bother with that kind of thing much in WW2 gaming, but he was wearing an Iron Cross so I thought he would be good to represent some kind of hard-ass veteran officer holding the grunts together.  My brushwork is too weak to pick out the Iron Cross, so I tried to highlight the ribbon a bit.

The fellow in front with the red ribbon is the senior officer - so tough he barely needs protection against the weather
Based individually, I hope to use these sometime soon in a game of Blitzkrieg, or Chain of Command or Bolt Action or some such similar WW2 skirmish rules.  I am working on some vehicles to support these fellow, and hope to have a post on that soon.

A cool-looking way to hold the MG42 - not sure if that worked out in practice...


Winter is on the way - hope to get these fellows on to the table soon. Winters on the Eastern Front offer a lot of great scenarios.  And of course these guys can also fight in the Battle of the Bulge, but for now I am focusing on the East, looking to add more winter units to the German and Russian sides.  I am also doing some units in the more common FOW-style group bases.  Should keep me busy during Curt's next painting challenge...



8 comments:

  1. You've done a great job on these Greg. I agree the Battlefront infantry is hit and miss but I found these winter themed packs to be very nicely sculpted and cast.

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  2. I like the bases. Really reminds me of the footage of Germans in the snowy grasslands outside of Moscow. The tufts of grass are very fitting I think.

    One thought I had is that maybe the snowy bases would pop a bit more with a black or dark brown edge along the sides. The off white looks a little unfinished. Just some unsolicited constructive criticism.

    What did you use to base them? I quite like individually based 15mm models.

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  3. Thanks guys.

    Cameron - the bases are 20mm round, and the weapon teams are on 25mm round. They are 1.5mm thick plywood from Litko.

    I had originally tried black edges on the bases, and found that on the table the dark circles really took away from the figures - gave the appearance of a bunch of dark rings.

    But it would be nice to get them to pop a little more...hopefully on a proper winter table, and not my kitchen :)

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  4. Great post; great models; great painting: nice work all round!

    I'm only just getting into Bolt Action-style individual 15mm basing, but I'm concious that drab Brits tend to all look the same, so my plan at the moment is to EITHER paint a unit/rank/specialism flash onto the back of the base (as I do with my massed 40k IG infantry) OR maybe even modelling a wee small 'plaque' onto the base behind the mini (maybe 3mm wide?) - which may or may not then be painted - to differentiate. What did you do in the end, please?

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  5. Hi Drax - those of us doing the individual 15mm basing all have our own approach, but generally we are using different-shaped bases to make things different...so squares for NCOs, hexes for senior commanders etc.

    I have also had good results just taping a small paper label under the base if that is ever called for...certainly if you have the skills to do a little plaque, go nuts!

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