20mm WW2 Winter German infantry platoon

The painting table has had a decidedly chilly feel this week.  I'm playing in a Korsun/Cherkassy pocket-based scenario (organised by Richard Crawley) for Chain of Command at Gauntlet next week, so had an incentive to get this unit complete.  Winter Germans have always appealed, ever since I saw the cover of the Sven Hassel novel Blitzfriez, back in the 1970s.  The cover depicted a close up of a German soldier dusted with frost and the thousand yard stare of a soldier with shell shock.

So, here they are.  I still need to do a little detailing; the officers hat needs insignia, as does the assistant Panzershreck gunners field cap.  They are painted in my usual WW2 German field grey, with ivory used to represent the snow camo.  The snow effect is made by mixing white paint, PVA glue and bicarbonate of soda into a paste and daubing it on with an old brush.  The mix sets like cement, but it appears the bicarbonate of soda recrystallizes to give a dusty appearance reminiscent of frost when lightly dry brushed.

All the figures come from the Pegasus SS for Kursk set 2, with a few exceptions noted below.  I plan to add some armour support for them, probably taking advantage of the Early War Miniatures/Armourfast offer of 4 Sdkfz 251s with kit to convert a command vehicle plus stowage and some Britannia/Grubby Stugs.

First up the command team, officer on the left and Panzerschrek team on the right.  The Panzershreck gunner is an Esci figure from the 1980's, while the assistant gunner is an Airfix Akrika Korps figure from the 1970's.  One of those I played with as a kid.

1st Section/Squad.  MG team of two gunners and ammo carrier on left, six riflemen and the section NCO.

2nd Section/Squad, organised as 1st.  The prone MG team comes from the Airfix WW2 German infantry set and is probably at least 45 years old.  Tempus fugit!

3rd Section/Squad, as previous.

Some spare riflemen, for specialists.

The senior NCO running with SMG, useful as an adjutant or similar figure.

Sniper!  The scenic base is made up from some twigs that I picked up while walking home after dropping my boy at school.  The figure was standing in a very upright posture with what looked like a corn stook wrapped around his body.  I painted the stook to look more like twigs and branches and then put him in the centre of a snow covered thicket with some static grass tufts and some ivy festooning the upright tree.

Another view of the sniper from a different angle.

And another.

Yet more.

Forgot to mention the brush bristles representing shrubs and saplings, which can be clearly be seen either side of the figure.

The officer in more detail, showing my attempt at pea-dot camo.

Front view of the officer.  He's not particularly photogenic as he's hunched forward talking into a telephone/radio handset.

Kneeling rifleman.

Rifleman preparing a hand grenade.

Standing rifleman; I like this pose.

Kneeling rifleman, different pose.

Rifleman resting.

Rifleman running with panzerknacker charge.

MG team with gunner bracing the weapon on his assistant's back.

Another view.

Prone MG team.  They scrub up well for old Airfix figures from my old toy box.

So, a platoon of Germans, ready to try and work their way out of the Cherkassy pocket.   Will any of them make it?  I hope to know, with some pictures, by next Saturday evening.

Thanks for looking.