20mm German Wirbelwind and Pz IV

The Italeri Wirbelwind that I built over the Christmas break, painted up using one of the schemes suggested with the kit for a unit in Germany in 1945.  A lovely kit, but I'm going to struggle to get crewmen to fit without a lot of cutting down.

Decals all came with the kit.  Vehicle is painted in middlestone mixed with pale sand, then brown stripes added based on armor brown mixed with German camo mid-brown, with central stripes overpainted in German Late WW2 field grey with some reflective green added.  The whole vehicle is washed in Agrax Earthshade and dry brushed Iraqi sand.

The Italeri kit also includes a full turret for a standard Pz IV, which was handy as I needed a mantlet and gun barrel for a Pz IV I bought from Paul at the club a couple of years ago now.  I liked Pauls scheme on the tank overall, so tried to match mine in, although I think the base colour was too yellow, should have used more sand! 

So, quite pleased with the result and its always nice to get a "twofer" out of one kit.

Thanks for looking.

20mm Universal Carriers

 More Christmas builds completed.

Four Plastic Soldier Company universal carriers, (l-r) an MG carrier, PIAT carrier, 2" mortar carrier and Bren carrier.  Figures are Raventhorpe, except the dismounted Vickers team, which is from an Italeri/Esci set.

The carrier section.

Bren carrier.

2" Mortar carrier, complete with huge crewmen.

PIAT carrier.

The section from an oblique view.

Rear view of the carriers.

The MG carrier with Vickers MMG dismount.

Another set of giant crewmen.

Nice that the gunner is modelling in a leather jerkin.

These are painted using my "normal" British armour colours, WW2 Russian uniform washed in Agraz Earthshade and dry brushed Iraqi sand.  Decals are Skytrex.

Thanks for looking.

On the workbench Jan 2021

Happy New Year!  So, with the Civil Powers taking control of the kitchen table (AKA my workbench), painting ground to a halt over Christmas and into the New Year.  So, with little to entertain on tv these days and lots of long dark days and nights, what better than to assemble some of the kits that reside in the stash, some of them for several years, others more recent.

First up, a real quick build from First2Fight, a PzIIC - very much like assembling one of the smaller Zvezda 15mm kits, but this one in 20mm.  Needs a bit of jazzing up with some stowage.

Then an Italeri Wirbelwind.  Not a bad model to assemble and nicely detailed, but the need to plastic weld some of the gun assembly was fiddly, but not significantly so.  However, the tracks were a bit of a sod as individual track links needed to be glued around the stong curvatures of the sprocket wheels and as connectors between straight sections.  What a palaver, especially as they don't attach to each other in any way other than glue.  Still, quite a nice model once it went together.

Another First2fight, this time an Sdkfz 247 recce/command car.  Axles a little spindly, but builds into a nice sturdy little kit.  Think it will need basing to minimise damage to those thin axles though.

Interesting assembly challenge posed by this Fujimi Ferdinand.  The big issue was making the tracks link up as they are old style rubbery plastic needing to be hot welded, but one track was a good centimeter short, while the other was more like an inch short.  Even draping over a radiator to warm up and then stretching didn't significantly close the gap.  In the end, I used bits of the sprue the tracks came on to melt and add length on the underside of the tracks - as I'm going to base them,  it shouldn't be too visible.

Compared to Fujimi, this Airfix Cromwell was a delight to assemble and the tracks were so straightforward it was untrue.  Any model manufacturers would do well to try and emulate this technique for track assembly.  I need to dig through my spare tank commanders to pop a figure in the hatch.

A universal carrier section from Plastic Soldier Company.  These were from the standard set, with the addition of 2" mortar crewmen from the carrier variants set.  This is where, again, I have been somewhat disappointed by PSC, as they appear to have used a slightly different scaling for the variants box compared to the basic carrier sprue.  This makes crew figures from the variants box appear to be giants, compared with the basic crew (I estimate more like 23 or 24mm high, rather than 20mm), which is really noticeable when comparing the driver and gunner figures with variant crew figures.  Natural variation in height might explain this, but for the fact that the helmets of the variant crews look gigantic compared with the basic vehicle crews.  Unfortunately, the scaling difference also means that parts such as the armoured front of the artillery observation carrier are slightly too large to fit the rest of the standard model and need cutting back to fit.

A second carrier section, one to carry a bren team, the middle a 2" mortar from the variant kit, but with standard kit crew, and the third to carry a PIAT team.

A Vickers MMG carrier - again, compare helmet sizes between front seat crew and rear passengers.

Artillery observation variant.

3" mortar carrier.

Wasp flamethrower.

So, not a bad group of vehicles assembled over the holidays, I'm quite pleased with that little lot.  Should keep me out of trouble for a few weeks.

Thanks for looking.

20mm WW2 German Mediterranean infantry platoon

I finished up the platoon of Mediterranean infantry (DAK figures painted in a mix of tropical and temperate uniforms).  New figures are at the front, while the test figures I posted earlier are at the back.  I like the motley look that the mix of uniforms give to the unit.  Apart from southern European action, I think these would work well as units defending Tunisia, as well as troops fighting in the Caucasus.

The whole platoon, three rifle sections of 5 men and three MG34 teams, plus a 6 man command team at the back.

Assorted close-ups of the figures.

I shall do another of these at some point and I am also scouring my unpainted figures for troops in greatcoats so I can add some figures in earthy brown DAK greatcoats - those early mornings in the desert can be chilly, while the mountains of Tunisia can be bitter.

Thanks for looking.

20mm WW2 German Mediterranean infantry

Following Will's suggestion, I painted up some DAK figures in a mix of DAK colours and more conventional field grey uniforms.  These guys would work for Tunisia, Sicily and southern Italy, as well as the Balkans and Adriatic, and maybe even the southern USSR.

Figures are a mix of Esci, Italeri, Revell, Airfix and Caesar.

First up a 6 man platoon command group.

Field grey jacket and tropical shorts.

Tropical jacket, just grey helmet.

Officer in tropical jacket and grey trousers.

Revell SMG in field grey jacket.

Bendy barrel Caesar rifleman.

First section of 5 rifleman (on left) and 3 man MG34 team.  Mix of tropical and temperate uniform and kit.

Rifle section.

MG34 team.

I quite like the look of the figures, so will finish the platoon and probably add a second, which would use up the last of my spare DAK figures.

As ever, thanks for looking and thanks to Will for the suggestion.

20mm DAK assault engineer platoon

Having rediscovered my stash of unpainted plastic DAK infantry, I decided to do a dedicated platoon of assault engineers.  The platoon comprises three rifle sections, three MG34 teams and a command team of 6 including the CO.  There is also an integral flamethrower team of two men.  I also did another 2 man flamethrower team in case I needed an optional extra weapon, plus a two man mine detector team.

Figures are a mix of Airfix, Esci, Italeri, Caesar and Revell (both DAK and Pioneer sets).

One of the flamethrower teams.

Mine clearance team.

The other flamethrower team.

Command team.

CO with pistol.

Senior NCO.

1st rifle section.

1st MG34 team.

2nd rifle section.

2nd MG34 team.

3rd rifle section.

3rd MG34 team.

I also had one of the Airfix Opel Blitz truck and PAK 40 AT gun sets in the stash, so painted this up for the later campaigns in North Africa.  I need to add some decals to the truck.

I bought a seconds EWM kubelwagen at the Vapnartak show last year and crewed it with AB Miniatures DAK driver and passengers - lovely figures that paint up well.  The kubelwagen took a bit of TLC to repair as it was a miscast, but has come up well, albeit with no frills.

I think I've reached the point where I can't usefully use any more DAK infantry, although I still have enough for another couple of platoons.  I do need to add another British platoon for the desert to bring them up to company strength.  Looks like I'm back on to the Ready2roll resin vehicles I bought at Vapnartak this year, although some WW1 German infantry have sneaked on to the painting table.  For the WW1 Germans, I'm thinking of painting these in a uniform suitable for Palestine for late war troops of the German Asia Corps or possibly for German-equipped Turkish troops of the Yildirim Army Group.

Thanks for looking.