15mm Marder III-M from Battlefront

Marder III-M tank destroyer and infantry from Battlefront

Just one more quick painting update before Dallas gets some battle reports up on the blog (hint - escape from the Death Star, the re-write).  I've been doing a lot of 15mm WW2 lately, mostly in winter, but I went back to "summer" painting for this vehicle - a German Marder III-M tank destroyer.  This is a 15mm model from Battlefront, as are the individually based infantry that I painted along with it.

A nice model from Battlefront

I love the look of the Marder series of vehicles - they speak to a certain eloquent desperation.  In many ways, on first glance, it looks so damn impractical you wonder how it ever came to be in service.  To me this speaks to the great pressure the Germans found themselves under as they confronted the much more numerous tanks of the Allies, particularly the Soviets.

I like the roll-bar on the top of the fighting compartment...

"Hey, we really need to get these guns on wheels - now.  What can we do with that old tank chassis over there?"

Rear view of the cramped fighting compartment

The Marder sports the very effective 75mm high velocity gun, cramped somehow on to the chassis of a Panzer 38t.  You can see on the model just how incredibly cramped the "fighting compartment" was, and the armour up there would have been negligible, just enough o keep the small arms fire off.

The photo is a little blurry, but the figure holding the 75mm round has a badly miscast face - mostly covered by the paint...

This Battlefront model is very nice, but Battlefront can be hit and miss on casting sometimes, and unfortunately there was a big miscast on the faces of one of the crewmen (the guy holding the 75mm round).  I didn't want to leave him out, as I think having the crew on the gun looks nice, and just one guy in there wouldn't seem right.  So I just painted around the miscast…it looks a little odd, but not terrible.

Get those T-34s!

Marders served in the anti-tank battalions of infantry divisions and panzer grenadier divisions. As a fighting vehicle, they could dish it out, but certainly couldn't take much abuse.  Still, hard-pressed grenadiers would have counted on these odd-looking vehicles for essential support on defence - and even attack!

German Panzer IVs in Winter - 15mm

Some 15mm Panzers for winter action on the Eastern Front

More winter stuff for the 15mm WW2 table. Here are a pair of Panzer IVs done in winter paint. One is a Panzer IV-F2 from Battlefront, and the other is a Panzer IV-G (I think) from Plastic Soldier Company. Both sport the potent long-barreled 75mm gun. 

Plastic Soldier Company Mark IV-G on the bottom, and a Battlefront Mark IV-F2 at the top of the photo

I think tanks of this vintage would have seen action on the Eastern Front in the winter of 1942-43.  There are a lot of really interesting aspects to that campaign which would make for great scenarios - the rush to cover the retreat of the German army groups from the Caucasus, the attempted counter-attack to relieve the trapped German 6th Army at Stalingrad, the battles for Kharkov etc.  In all of these actions the Germans would have relied heavily on the few Panzer IVs available to their mobile divisions at any moment.

Pigment powders used to add soot to the engine decks and exhaust

I am unsure about the use of the numbers on the turrets - this is based on a few references I have seen in some different books where German Panzer divisions sometimes just put a single number on the turret to denote a company, even as the three-digit numbers were starting to be used. I thought it looked interesting, a little different from the usual three-digit approach.

I forgot to leave the areas around the crosses "grey" on this tank...

I really like weathered tanks for WW2, vehicles that look like they are seeing some serious action on the front and not on a parade. So once again I went a little overboard on the weathering. I imagined these tanks as having been hastily white-washed by their crews during a short break between Soviet attacks, and then in constant action through the winter, being exposed to snow, rain, ice, then more snow, then some rain, all while driving through mud, forests, built-up areas etc. while getting shot at with the heaviest stuff the Soviets can bring.

The white wash is wearing away from continuous action and exposure to harsh winter elements

I just feel like that kind of environment should really mess up your paint job, so I tried to do a lot of "chipping" with a sponge, and stippled different shades of white on different areas of the tanks.  I used weathering powders over the engine decks and muzzle brakes, and put washes of GW's Devlan Mud on the running gear.

The detail of the stowage on PSC models is not quite as crisp as I would hope...but you can't beat the value

The models were fun to work with, although I prefer Battlefront to Plastic Soldier Company as the details on the hull & stowage are a lot crisper. Your experience may be different, however, and certainly you can't beat Plastic Soldier Company for price and flexibility of their kits (you can make many different Mark IV variants with each sprue).

Those long 75s will come in handy against the Red Army's T-34s

Fun as it is to mess the tanks up, I need to get towards a "less is more" with that tendency, so I hope the next tanks won't look quite so worn out.

Ready for action on the table

Mark IVs are fun, but the most common Panzers at this time would have been Mark IIIs, so I have a few of those under way on the painting table. Hope to have them done before too long!

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...

Red Wedding Squadron - "Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures" meets "Game of Thrones"

This past weekend, Conscripts Kevin, Frederick and I ran a participation game of X-Wing Miniatures at the 2013 Central Canada Comic Con (C4 for short). We we putting on the game for Imagine Games and Hobbies, who provided the tables.

Kevin and I devised six 100-point teams, based loosely on the canon of the original  movies: Luke Skywalker, Biggs Darklighter, and Wedge Antilles flew in a flight together, Han Solo and Chewie piloted the Millennium Falcon with a couple of Y-Wing escorts, Gold Leader led a flight of 3 of Y-Wings, Darth Vader led some TIEs, Dark Curse led another gaggle of TIE fighters, and Boba Fett was escorted by a couple of Interceptors.

Princess Leia's Blockade Runner was lying dead in space, in the middle of the large 8'x5' table. Whoever had sole control of the board at the end of the game would win.

Below, looking "east", Luke's and Gold Leader's sections are closest to the camera, with the Millennium Falcon in the distance.



On the Imperial side, from west to east, was deployed Boba Fett's, Darth Vader's and Dark Curse's teams.





At the start of the game we were joined by conventioneers Jim, Danny and Eric. Throughout the course of the game, other people came up to watch, so we talked with them, describing the mechanics of the game and handing out fliers for Imagine and Jim-Con. As the game progressed, a few other players were brought into the game, as we gave over our ships to them.

To the west, Boba Fett and Darth Vader ganged up on Luke, with Gold Leader caught in the shadow of Leia's ship.



Biggs was the first to fall, bravely absorbing shots that would otherwise have hit Luke and Wedge.



The Rebels concentrated their fire on Boba Fett and Vader, reducing them each to a single hull point. However, Luke was the next to fall, caught in an Imperial crossfire. From the disabled blockade runner, Leia mourned the death of her boyfriend, not knowing he was her brother. (George R.R. Martin would be proud.)



Meanwhile, Han Solo and Chewie led a charge into the middle of a TIE swarm...



...shooting down two of them in quick succession!





Gold Squadron finally arrived, but too late to save Wedge.



In retaliation, Vader went down to concentrated Y-Wing fire.



And Boba Fett's luck finally abandoned him. After dodging way too many proton torpedoes and laser shots, he was ion-cannoned to death.



Han Solo's escorts started falling.



A couple of newcomers joined the game, helping consolidate the Imperial advance by overwhelming the remaining Y-Wings.



As the game wound down, all that was left on the Rebel side was the damaged Millennium Falcon. We judged that Han escaped, vowing to return another day to rescue the Princess.

Leia, for her part, had her eye on one of the Imperial TIE fighter pilots who never took damage, always rolling "evades", even when hit with 3 crits.

"The Force is strong with this one!"



The game ended in utter carnage. Most of the named characters were gone, with Wedge, Fett and Vader all dying during the same turn!

At some future convention, I think a "Rescue Princess Leia" scenario would be in order.

+++

The rest of C4 was a lot of fun. The 3rd floor was filled with booths selling memorabilia, art exhibitors, club displays, and various celebrities signing autographs and posing for photos. Check out this great home-made suit from the Bioshock video games, seen at, IIRC, the Costume Alliance booth.



I was also able to buy a nice cameo necklace for Jen from a lovely former work colleague, Angela Sawatzky, who sells steampunk jewelery under the brand By Blackbird Designs.



I spoke to several people who thought this year's convention was better than the last couple of years. I hope to see people out at next year's con.

15mm Zvezda KV-2

On a recent trip to Calgary I stopped in at the Sentry Box, probably Canada's best game store. Among an armload of stuff (mostly scenic grass tufts for basing, if truth be told) I impulse-bought one of the new Zvezda 1/100 snap kits - a WWII Russian KV-2 heavy tank.

A few days later I busted it open. The model is comprised of 12 (!) pieces which, as you can imagine, assemble very quickly.

Here's the completed model.

Comparison with an Old Glory 15mm KV-1. Same chassis and certainly very compatible in scale execution.
 

 Last night I was watching the hockey game and decided to paint the model. I'd already undercoated/basecoated with the excellent Krylon "Camo" green primer (a dead-nuts match for Russian armour olive) so I just needed to do some drybrushing and weathering, and stick the model on a Greg-approved base ;-)

The model painted up very nicely. I used GW Codex Gray to put a few chips in the paint but they may not be too visible.

Powder treatment with MIG light dust and light rust powders. Lazily, I decided to use the latter for red dirt treatment on the tracks and lower hull.

Decals were from the decal folder but only one side worked - the other side fell apart so I trashed it and painted the numbers on freehand. Can you tell which side is which?

All in all a very satisfying little model and fantastic for gaming - especially at the price - $5.50 CAD!

15mm Russian WW2 AT Gun

Defend the Motherland!

In between painting winter stuff, I finished another piece of summer kit for my summer WW2 Russians, a 76mm gun.  The gun and crew are all from Peter Pig, and the large base is from Battlefront. Again, I have to apologize for the bonky lighting on the photos...the grass is not actually sci-fi-neon yellow on the base...

Used for everything from defeating Panzers to opening ration cans at camp...

Unlike most artillery pieces, this actually makes a bit of sense to have directly on the table top. The Russian army had clouds of these things during WW2, some as light artillery, others as direct-firing anti-tank guns (many probably used as both). 

Tried to paint a few chips into the metal here and there to give a sense the gun had seen some action

As always the quality of Peter Pig is top-notch.  I wish their guns came with more little extras, like ammo boxes or shell casings (which you often get with Battlefront), but overall Peter Pig continues to offer the top overall sculpts on 15mm WW2 stuff.

Prepare to fire on the fascists!

This gun is a little lonely in the collection right now - how often did the Russians ever have just one of anything? I did it as an experiment to see how the Peter Pig artillery pieces looked, and I am pretty pleased, so I will need a few more to round out the battery.  And of course, will need to do a few with winter bases now...