Team Yankee West German Panzergrenadiers and Marder SPWs

Obviously we have been on somewhat of a Team Yankee tear lately so I thought I'd round out the year's blogging with a few more posts featuring the wonderful WWIII selection from Battlefront. The final tranche of my West German Bundeswehr force features the Panzergrenadiers and their Marder armoured transports.

Unfortunately, the infantry castings I received in my two blister packs of Panzergrenadiers didn't seem up to Battlefront's usual standard. I know that their infantry aren't to everyone's taste, what with their exaggerated sculpting and oversized weapons, but I think they're great. They remind me that I'm painting and playing with WARGAMES FIGURES DAMMIT, not weedy 1/76 Revell plastics, if you know what I mean. Battlefront infantry are the 15mm equivalent of Dixon 28mm figures, with their barrel bodies and heads shaped like footballs. But I love Dixon figures for what they are, too - a connection back to my early days in hobby, pre-Internet, ogling the colour adverts in Wargames Illustrated.

ANYWAY... while the Panzergrenadiers weren't the best castings they were nevertheless adequate considering my brushmanship, so I just went ahead and painted the damn things.

Lots of MILAN teams to wreck a tanker's day.

The command figures are quite nicely posed.

Now then, if Battlefront's infantry come in for the odd critical word, the opposite must be true of their plastic vehicle offerings. I can't say as I've ever read a bad review. The Marders are just great models.

I suppose it shows Battlefront's confidence in the Team Yankee franchise that they've gone all-in with the plastic kits. I certainly appreciate this as the cost savings over buying specialist resin kits is substantial.

Crew and decals are provided for the vehicles too, of course. The kits went together easily and look great painted up as well.

Well... that's it for the Bundeswehr, for now. I've got Leopard 2s and PAH helos, M109Gs, Gepard AAA vehicles and Fuchs transports (God knows what I'll do with the latter) and now the infantry and SPWs completed. I suppose some Tornados might be cool, but I'm not keen on the looks of the Jadgpanzer rocket things or the other BW vehicles on offer right now. But maybe a few Leopard 1s to fill out a recce unit...?