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...