Friday, December 13, 2013

Winter Has Arrived Yay! (Not)


More 15mm winter WW2 troops and tanks
Well the winter has once again locked the Canadian prairies with its dreadful embrace.  The current day time "high" temperatures range in the minus 25 degree Celsius range, and once our enviro-guess-Canada weather "forecasting" service adds its random wind chill, the temps are even more awful.  So of course this is all perfect inspiration to finish some more winter WW2 stuff...

Matching the current weather outside my house. Note that an additional 30cms of snow has come since this photo was taken some time ago

Not much to show in this post - I've been away from the painting table for a few weeks, back just in time to take a stab at yet another Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  But it was good to get these bits cleared off before the Challenge started - a set of half-tracks, 251/7s, a few more infantrymen and another pair of Panther "A"s.

An SdKfz 251/7 - will need to warm up after starting the engine...

I opted for these half-tracks over more conventional ones to give the option of having an engineer/pioneer force.  Often they have the worst jobs - repairing bridge crossings, clearing minefields and other work, all under fire.

I believe those are meant to be temporary bridging sections on top there, but I have never been too sure...
This force is also semi-inspired by Scwhere Panzer Regiment Bäke, which included an engineer battalion on its roster for at least some of the period it was in action. The Panzer crews would have relied heavily on them to help keep their advances/breakouts moving, particularly in the face of tough weather conditions.

Peter Pig vehicles are real beauties, sharp castings with nice details like the stowage on the front.
A scenario where some engineers are trying to secure some rickety bridges somewhere on the Eastern Front during the winter, then trying to blow them just as the Russians approach - this appeals to me! I think that would make for a good Chain of Command game.

Some foot sloggers from Battlefront.  These castings look depressed, which I love about them.
The half-tracks are from Peter Pig, and were quite lovely to work with and paint. To my mind they remain top-of-the-list when it comes to quality 15mm figures and vehicles.There are enough half tracks to mount up a platoon - three vehicles.
Panzerschrek team.  I bet that was a fun piece of kit to haul through the snow...

The infantry are a smattering of spare castings from Battlefront - a panzerschrek team and a few regular panzer grenadiers. Once again I am impressed with the quality of these particular castings from Battlefront - their winter Germans are really well done.

Another snow cat, weathered to show it has fought its way through several kessels since the snow fell...

The Panthers are "A" variants, and the models are from Battlefront.  These were real beauties to work with and I had a lot of fun painting them.  The details on the hull are top notch.  While they are of course more expensive than the very, very nice models from Plastic Soldier Company, I still think these are tops in my books and a great value.

Panzer 314 ready to roll out.

As with my previous batch of winter tanks, these received heavy winter weathering treatment. Again, it's probably a little too much, but I still have a lot to learn when it comes to being a bit more subtle with the weathering on vehicles :)

Lots of wonderful, sharp little details on the Battlefront Panthers

So the Painting Challenge starts this weekend - I will be a slow starter in this challenge, but I've got a fairly high points goal (although the others are all just low-balling and sandbagging - right, Ray?) so I hope to tear out a few good starting pieces over Christmas.  During the Challenge I hope to do projects in different scales and periods including 28mm Napoleonics and Sudan, 15mm Arab-Israeli Wars, more WW2 stuff of course, and maybe some sci-fi! I know Dallas, Byron and Kevin are in for the Challenge too, so I'm looking forward to seeing lots of great Fawcett Avenue content lighting up the blogosphere!

16 comments:

Unknown said...

They're just gorgeous!

David Larkins said...

Absolutely lovely. You can feel the chill coming off the metal. Well observed on the expressions on the Battlefront infantry--they look distinctly put out.

(Also, glad I'm not the only one who has been slightly mystified in the past by those 251/7's and their tread-like appendages.)

Curt said...

Excellent stuff Greg! I love the weathering on those vehicles.

Cameron said...

Very nice. I like the warmth of colour that comes through under the whitewash. I especially like the 251s. Very appropriate considering the weather conditions.

DeanM said...

Brrrrh...great looking winter troops - I'm feeling the cold weather!

Anonymous said...

Looking really good!

Even if the weathering is over the Top, it creates nice largest areas of Dunkelgelb which contrast nicely with the white.

Looking forward to crossings brushes from tomorrow on!

Maxamillian said...

Really cool vehicles there! I'm starting some winter stuff right now and saved some of these pictures to help, i haven't painted a tank in ages!

Phyllion said...

These are ace, you've really nailed the grubby winter look on your vehicles.

Ian said...

These are very nice indeed. I like the heavy hand weathering for what's it worth.

I am just winding down my prep for the Challenge, just going to choose the first projects off the table.

Good luck and looking forward to seeing what you do

Ian

Greg B said...

Thanks for the comments everyone, and good luck to others in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!

Anonymous said...

Very nice indeed. Eastern Front winter is always a favourite of mine. You can really see the misery in those Battle Front figures.
Yes they are bridge sections for clearing ditches and if also seen them used as decking for inflatable raft ferries.
Neil

peter said...

You give me a really cold feeling with these models! The weathering on the models is just superb!

Greetings
Peter

Dallas said...

Great looking models, well done!

Galpy said...

absolutely wonderful painting the colours are perfect

Chris said...

Can you tell me how you did the paint job? A tutorial perhaps? I'm looking at painting up a winter force and yours look amazing.

Greg B said...

Hi Chris - thanks very much. I don't think I can do any sort of tutorial soon - my winter stuff is on a bit of a back burner for now as I focuse on some other projects. You could always email me at greg dot burch dot mb dot ca at hotmail, and I can try an answer any questions you have.