After having my first ideas pooh poohed somewhat severely enough to invoke the fetal position again .. I have managed a complete and utter re write from the ground up… incorporating some basics but essentially a whole new set of ideas.
Firestorm Market Garden campaign – Modified
(Bump for August)
Well my army has always been modeled on the 331st Grenadier Division. Unfortunately they didn’t have any tanks but they did serve with the 5th Panzer army in Normandy before being systematically slaughtered in the Falaise Pocket.
And as a part of the 5th Panzer army they had opportunity to serve with some very veteran tank divisions. Being a couple of SS divisions, Lehr Division and 116th. As I’m not a real big fan of the SS units I have adopted the 116th as the stable mate for my 331st.
116th was also a Veteran of the Eastern Front, they had Panthers and Panzer IV’s.
So anyways for my upcoming tournament army I am having Stug IIIG’s organic of the 331st. Numbered inappropriately as the 4th Battalion.. even though they only had two.
And the Panzer support is a platoon of three PzIV’s. I finished four tanks even though I only needed three, so as I can field a decent or larger platoon later.
These tanks are PzIVG late tanks.. in the tournament the book says PzIVH should be used.. they almost look the same except the big air filters that should be on the right hand side… but I’m cool with it. And I don’t think they will notice. (Which reminds me I must sculpt some Panzerfausts to lay on the base of some of the command teams to stay WYSIWYG legal.
Going on… the tanks are numbered from the BF decal sheet except the black crosses which are command decision decals. The swastika flag is green stuff. I have a sculpted whippet dog to sit beside the platoon commander but I wasn’t happy with it..looked more like a German Shepard.. wasn’t thin enough. So I left that off..You will notice his hand seems to be resting in mid air.
The command figures on the Stug III G are Peter Pig figures.. Craig Courtis put me on to these years back. You need only buy these and glue (or in my case putty GS) them on. I find these very good as they are stronger and look right. You will notice I left the MG42’s open on the earlier two Stug’s .. because of he fidliness of the figures and MG’s.
The Stugs have got some of that paint rot that seems to have plagued some of my earlier figures and vehicles. Which I am sure is associated with the floor polish glaze and the polyurethane Matt varnish… but i also have a suspicion it is a Tamya paint issue too as I have some that aren’t glazed or varnished which have it really bad. But I digress… the Shurtzen has some obvious parts where the paint has rotted off… however it looks like a white or light gray has been added to the cammo pattern.. and I like the effect so instead of totally stuffing it up and trying to repair the paint job, I have kept it as is.
Anyway enough of this Jibber Jabber as a TV famous Judge in a Boston court who also played the part in a very funny Blues Brother movie as a Nazi once said (yes I’m loosing it) on to my poor photography…
Platoon commander
OK! “Show us the Stugs” I hear you shouting! OK ok but don’t ring in just yet because we have even more to offer you….
As a bonus.. if you can pick out the inaccuracy with the uniforms of the stug crew you can win a prize.
Well that’s all.. hope you enjoyed the read
Hello everybody?
My names Martin, you may recognise me from blogs such as: US infantry #1 and US infantry #2!
Today I am going to tell you about the US infantry Heavy Machinegun platoons X2 project.
I started by preparing a massive amount of US infantry figures I had to paint some 2 months ago.
I included 2 blisters of new HMG teams from Michael who bought them at discount from the Toywold sale in Dunedin.
I added all the odd platoon amount I got in another auction I won. As these were the old castings which are better I decided to use them. Besides they also had some bazookas.
Undercoating in Krylon metal cote.. black. Good stuff.
This time I became even more dismayed by paint so many infantry that I took one HUGE short cut.
This time I have not painted base colour and left the black primer showing in the recesses and shaded areas of the miniature.
This time I am going to ink and dry brush highlight.
It will be intersting as the paints are all the same brand and colours… we shall see some comparisons.
Pictures to follow..
Today I have painted all base colours and only have the final leather and wood colours to apply. And of course the helmet colour which is last.
So I should have 2 x HMG platoons ready in a few weeks after Christmas. Plus an extra Infantry platoon… that makes.. five platoons…
Also I have enough Shermans now to field 2x 4 tank platoons with 2 command tanks.
Curently working on stripping and air brushing 2 GMC M10’s I have 1 Utility car.
