I've finished painting a pair of captured CV 35 tankettes for my Greek force. They are armed with dual machine guns, so no match for the German panzers, but useful as mobile pillboxes to suppress the attacking infantry.
They are a boring green, but I did add some hand-painted national identification flags to the hull sides. ;-)
More Greeks to come soon (plus some I have already painted here). The tankettes are from Company B; figures from Great Escape Games.
I've not been particularly productive so far in 2021...probably general apathy brought on by being in lockdown for so long. Anyway, I have painted some more Greek Evzones from Great Escape Games. I've fully finished, other then adding some vegetation to the bases, 21 individual figures now; 23 left to finish, plus the mortar and anti-gun models.
Here are a few shots of a little vignette containing three infantry figures. I have started basing some figures on multi stands like this, even though they are 28mm, because it makes moving them around the gaming table so much easier. I intend to use this army for Iron Cross, so there is no requirement to have them based individually anyway.
I have also started work on painting two (captured from the Italians) CV-35 tankettes. I have only applied the base coat of dark green so far. I started off using an airbrush, but gave up with that after three coats: there are so many little nooks and crannies on the model that it is virtually impossible to get the airbrush angled correctly, so I ended up painting a couple of watery coats all over and into the many recessed areas.
I wish that I had bought a tank commander and stuck him in the top hatch to reassure me that they are the correct scale! Every time I look at them I think they are 15mm sized models! Here is a CV-35 with the Greek Lochagos.
These tankettes are tiny in comparison to every other armoured fighting vehicle; it must have been terrifying for the crews to go into battle during the Second World War in such a diminutive bit of kit. Here is what it looks like next to a Panzer 38(t) in the same 1/56 scale.
The CV-35s are only armed with machine guns, so won't be tasked with taking on the Panzers, but will certainly have to keep out of their way or get trampled beneath the tracks. It should make for some interesting gaming!
The CV-35s are from Company B, the Panzer 38(t) is from Warlord Games and the infantry figures are from Great Escape Games.
I have started painting some Greek infantry from the Great Escape Games range. I intend to use them in games of Iron Cross, in an Invasion of Greece scenario, so these first 10 figures will represent two platoons.
The colours I used (this helps me to remember in case I come back at a later date and want to add more figures to the existing army) were all from Vallejo Model Color range. I based the colours on some photos of a group of WWII Greek re-enactors, who I assume have paid plenty of attention to getting the authenticity of the uniform correct.
I have so far purchased 20 infantry + 4 HQ figures; a mortar; a heavy machine gun; a sniper team; three anti-tank units and a couple of captured Italian CV35 tankettes.
These will be supplemented by several squads of British infantry and a 2 pounder. I've got a variety of early war British tanks too, so just need to research which ones can be fielded in Greece.
I've not worked out the points value for Iron Cross yet, but it seems like I have enough to hold back the invading Germans. Just need lockdown to be over so that I can get back to some tabletop gaming!
The Aufklarungspanzerwagen 38(t) was a reconnaissance version of the German Panzer 38(t), which itself was based on the Czech LT vz.38 light tank. This model is from Rubicon and is made from the base Hetzer kit plus two add-on packs to convert it into a light recon tank with a 20mm autocannon.
Like all Rubicon kits, it is really well manufactured with lots of detail and clear assembly instructions. I do have one gripe with this conversion kit though. The resin superstructure piece, which sits atop the ABS plastic main hull, to convert it from a Hetzer into the recon version, did not fit correctly. No matter where I placed the superstructure onto the main hull, there was a gap of 1-2mm. In the end I flush-fitted it to bond together at the front of the hull and then used filler putty to fill in the gap at the rear. You cannot see the join after it has been sanded and painted, but it is not the quality that I have come to expect of Rubicon. (I have assembled almost 30 of their kits over the last couple of months and every one of them has been micromillimeter perfect except this one piece.)
I wanted to add this Aufklarungspanzer to my growing collection of German armoured units, so that I have a specific unit to use for reconnaissance in Iron Cross. I've been playing a game of Germans vs Russians with Stuart from Great Escape Games. In the ongoing scenario, his Russians are dug in and hidden from the advancing Germans, so a recon unit will come in really handy to expose the disposition of his troops prior to the rest of my tank units blindly stumbling onto his anti-tank guns. I've also got a small number of motorcycle mounted early war troops (from Crusader, I think?), so will deploy these as a recon platoon too.
Surprisingly, Rubicon do not have a Panzer 38(t) kit, so I recently bought a troop of them from Warlord. I quite enjoyed putting the Warlord kits together, but having now assembled the Rubicon kit, which is ostensibly modelled/based on the same Czech LT vz.38 chassis, I thought that they should be the same size. I thought that whoever mastered the 38(t) model for Warlord got some of the dimensions wrong. The length is the same as the Rubicon kit, and also consistent with them both being 1/56 scale, but the Warlord 38(t) is almost a centimetre narrower that the Rubicon 38(t), so cannot be correct to the 1/56 scale.
However, some members of the wargaming community have pointed out my misunderstanding!
There are/were in fact two variants of the Aufklarungspanzer, which were based on the 38t. The Rubicon model is based upon the Hetzer chassis, which was itself derived from the chassis of the LT vz.38 chassis, but modified, hence the difference in size. The Hetzer-based version apparently never saw action and was a prototype developed at the end of the war. The second version, which did see action albeit in limited numbers, was built on the original chassis of the 38t and is far more similar to the Warlord models I have got. Rather than the tank turret shown in the photo below, the recon version had a 2cm autocannon and open top turret.
I'm still intending to use the troop of 38(t)s because they still look cool and are a bit different to the usual plethora of Tigers that grace too many wargaming tables. By the time the troop gets close to the same position as the Aufklarungspanzer on the gaming table, I am fully expecting the recon unit to be obscured by a smoke marker i.e. a blazing wreck!
I played a game of Iron Cross recently where I was playing as the Germans attacking an entrenched Russian position (Operation Zitadelle, perhaps?). In addition to several infantry units and a Pak36 AT gun, I had 6 x Panzer IIIs, 2 x Panzer IVs and 2 x early production (unreliable!) Panthers. These were pitted against a dug-in and hidden force of Russians, approximately 2/3rds the strength of my Germans, featuring 6 x T34s. Below is the Schwerepunkt led by the Panthers and a platoon of Panzer IIIs.
The objective of the scenario was for the Germans to push forward, puncture the Russian lines and wreak havoc in the Russian rear. Unfortunately, that didn't happen: just like on the first day of Zitadelle, the German advance started well, but bogged down in attritional fighting along the main road and eventually was beaten back by some superb shooting from the T34s. By the end of the battle, there were lots of smoking tank wrecks littering the battlefield, mostly German.
So, I have decided that for Day 2 of the assault, once the German field recovery unit had retrieved and repaired some of the knocked out Panzers, was to throw more armour into the attack. I have therefore bought a platoon of Panzer 38(t)s from Warlord and have assembled and painted them up.
These are really nice kits to build, on a par with my favourite manufacturer, Rubicon, who for some reason do not produce a standard Panzer 38(t) model. They do have a Hetzer and a conversion kit to make an Aufklarungs variant, but no standard 38(t). I feel like I need to get myself the recce tank now, though I am not sure whether the scale of the Warlord and Rubicon kits will be compatible. They look to scale when placed next to my Rubicon Panzer IIIs, but I guess I will have to buy one to find out.
These Warlord kits took about 45-60 minutes to assemble and have plenty of detail on them, plus a good selection of waterslide decals. I was building German 38(t)s, but there are decals for Romanian and Bulgarian vehicles too.
Here are the finished articles painted in plain panzer grey. I chose a basic paint job to match the rest of the models that I have done recently, so that I can use them in a number of early to mid war scenarios.
I have also painted up another infantry squad of panzerjagers to hunt down the T34s. They look a bit shiny still; a few years ago, I started coating my miniatures in Kleer floor wax, which gives them a protective coat, and then overspray them with Testor's Dullcote to take the shine off them. I find that this gives a nice finish and also prevents the paint from getting too chipped. For some reason, these 5 minis are still shiny even after two coats of Dullcote. I also need to finish off the bases by adding some vegetation, but I'll get around to that some time soon...I've got about 30-40 minis that need their bases finishing off.
Can't wait to get these bad boys out onto the gaming table for Day 2 of Zitadelle!
Following on from my post yesterday, I have painted two pre-production samples of Great Escape Games' forthcoming range of 28mm WWII Bulgarians. I am sure that a pro painter will have made a better job than me, but it is far easier to get a sense of what a miniature figure is like once it has been painted.
I have to say that these were really nice to paint (and quick), not for lack of detail, but the paucity of equipment that the Bulgarian soldiers carried around and the simplicity of their uniforms. Normally, I paint WWII Germans, which tend to have more detail on their uniforms and also lots more equipment, all of which requires a different colour. These guys have a single colour uniform, some ammo pouches and a bag. ;-)
I spent a bit of time yesterday scouring the Internet for colour photos of Bulgarian uniforms, of which there are very little. I settled on using photos of a bunch of re-enactors; here is a link to one of the sites I used for reference. The colours I used (all Vallejo Model Color) were:
I know that they are not going to win me a Golden Demon, but I think they're good enough for gaming. Just need to wait for the range to go into production now. ;-)
I've recently been reading more about, and therefore getting into, the war (WWII, of course) in the Balkan region. I've started collecting an early war German panzer division and think that the opposition that I will pit against them first will probably be Greeks.
Does the Crete campaign (Operation Mercury) count as early war, or is it straying into being mid-war? Either way, I've already got a good sized force of German Fallschirmjager and Gebirgsjager as the invading force and a small, but growing, band of Allies and some partisans to oppose the invasion. I've got Indians and DAK for North Africa too. I've always fancied gaming Syria in 1941, but back to the Balkans first...
My good friend, Stuart, from Great Escape Games has provided me with a couple of pre-production samples of GEG's forthcoming Bulgarian range to paint up. Here's what two of the riflemen look like based and under-coated. Check back soon for progress updates on the painting.
They have just closed a "GEGstarter" (a sort of kickstarter type thing) with an initial commitment to produce 40 miniatures. I can't wait!
UPDATE: I have now painted the minis.
I thought that I had finished this first house in my Band of Brothers project, but after looking at it on my painting table for the last few...
