Panzer IIIs in Winter - 15mm WW2

Panzer III-Ls from Peter Pig - 15mm WW2

One last "clearing of the baffles" project that started on the Easter long weekend.  Here is a group of Panzer III-Ls in winter colours.  The models are from Peter Pig.

That tank commander would be pretty damn cold, I think...

Last fall I started, together with Curt C, a little 15mm winter WW2 project on the Eastern Front. These tanks were meant to be part of that effort, but they have sat there primed yet unpainted for almost six months.  I wanted to get them finished off during a little break from my 40k Legion project. And since there were flurries (AGAIN) this weekend, I thought it was appropriate timing.

The tactical numbers are decals from Plastic Soldier Company

The blue collar late model Panzer III is a favourite tank of mine.  The vehicle has thick plates of extra armour bolted to the front of the turret and the glacis.  The gun has been increased in size as much as it can be for the turret (to 50mm) with a longer barrel to add as much velocity as possible to the shots. This tank design has been tweaked to give everything it possibly can in the face of an increasingly superior Soviet adversary!

The detail on the Peter Pig tanks is excellent, without equal in 15mm

I think this version of the Panzer III saw service late in 1942 and into 1943 - all the way to the fighting at Kursk.  The winter of 1942-43 saw some very heavy fighting in the face of the Soviets' shattering counteroffensive around Stalingrad and through the Caucasus region.

There are a lot of nice little details, like the spare track links draped across the front of the tank

These models are from Peter Pig, and once again I am blown away by the quality.  They were easy to put together, a lot of fun to paint, and they are just gorgeous.  I would love to paint a whole company of these models!  Peter Pig is tops when it comes to 15mm WW2.

A thin gel medium was used to represent the snow

Like  my other winter tanks, I put a base coat on ("The Fang" from GW in this case - geez I hate the lame names of their paints) followed by a base off-white to represent the white wash, followed by some  heavy duty weathering to represent the abuse dished out by the elements in a Russian winter.  I stippled various shades of white on the armour, sponged some dark grey chipping along the edges, and then used some "Agrax Earthshade" and "Nuln Oil" washes from GW to pin-wash some specific spots.  The tanks look worn as heck, just the way I like them.

I hope to get these in to a Chain of Command game some time, but I'm finished painting winter stuff for now.  This past winter here in the Canadian prairies has been a relentless soul-crushing hell of non-stop cold.  While I was glad to get these cleared from the painting table, I'm done painting winter stuff for a while.  F*ck winter - just f*ck it in the face - painting winter stuff makes me think too much of it! I'll resume the winter stuff next October :)