38t Panzer "Marsch"

The perils of trying to update a blog on a mobile device mean that I am typing this post again. Perhaps it was my chubby fingers or a "interface error" but here for the second time of telling is the "38t Panzer Marsch" (see below): 

These are all examples of the Fuji 38t 1/76 kit, copiously available in the 1990's where most if not all of the above were collected. Like their namesake Skoda 38t the kits were relatively cheap and easy to put together. Many a pitched wargame battle was fought against the Matchbox French Char 1 bis (one notable game occurred in a London pub's wargames room where "Rommel" as per history took a part.French DCR in France 1940).

They have a lightened "hard campaigning" look about them and so need the balkan black German cross and those 'red and white' large side numbers. One day that will come ;)

The 38t is a nice little model that serves well for the Germans in Poland 1939 (as part of their "Light" Divisions), in France 1940 famously with Rommel in the 7th Panzer Division and also 8th Panzer and even into Russian in 1941. Axis satellite allies also used them post-1942 but there the camo schemes started to go three toned and away from the grey. You could even find them as mobile "train" defenses, carried on flat-beds in "Partisan country" to deter partisan attention.   

Panzer II "Marsch"

The early war panzer photograph collection was never quite finished. The Panzer II 'posse' pose together (see below) in France or Poland.

Four Matchbox/Revell and two Fujimi, the chap with the commander is the really early war variant (see below). They are crying out for decals (black crosses in particular) and I want to give all the early war crew tank commanders a little individual attention.

I do have one other Panzer II still in DAK colours and I am debating what to do with him, whether to turn him grey or camo him up for the recon vehicle.

Red Muscle the T34/76

What wargame collection is complete without the ubiquitous T34 of 1941 era? Fast, rugged, punchy and well armoured, sloping to boot. Its tactical deployment in the early years of the war was its only undoing. Nevertheless it blunted the Blitzkrieg and was a Hero Of The Soviet Union in its own right.

This is not a matching pair. The chap on the left is a Fujimi 1/76 and the AAMG version to the left is perhaps my favourite Matchbox (now back out in Revell colours) tank kit. Prime choice for the Commanders tank.

Again an old couple whose life together started in Aberdeen and finally were painted and "decalled" to completion in England.

152 reasons to be wary of Russian tanks

Bar the crazy, multi-turreted T-35 land-tank the KV-2 has got to be the front runner as the strangest Russian tank (early war?). To call it a "tank" may be stretching its definition as it was primarily a 152mm "Bunker Buster", Like certain WWI dreadnoughts (HMS Agincourt and the Invincible/Super-Invincible class battle cruisers come to mind) it could run into trouble if it discharged a broadside without being first firmly footed.

A behemoth it truly was.

Tip: If you are a small (20mm, 1/72 or 1/76) plastic/metal German wargame infantryman and you can read the writing on the side of the KV-2 then you are too probably close (Teller mine in hand or not).

Destruction of fortifications like the Finnish Mannerheim Line are its true purpose in life, but its mere existence scared the pants off the German Panzerwaffe in 1941. Encountered during the opening phases of Operation Barbarossa it corrected the false German belief in that the Panzer IV F1 was a true "heavy" tank.

This is the 1/76 Fujimi kit, bought fifteen years ago in Aberdeen, gradually built and painted in fits and starts. I will have to turn my recent "bare plastic" kits into a form like the above (note: even decals). I still like it and think it holds it own after despite its modelling age.

PS I thought one these was more than enough for any wargame army but I notice Paul from Plastic Warriors has a troop of three!

Airfix Tiger I refurbishment: Part Two

Moving onto a basic Dark Yellow overcoat (XF-60 dark Yellow):

Now comparing with Old Airfix:

(New Airfix) Against the Fujimi as Comparison

(Old Airfix) Against the Fujimi as Comparison

I think it's an improvement on the original shape :)

Next a new Camo Pattern to make it pretty ...

"Brown" and "Green" Tigers

Following hot on the heels of 1/72 Hasagawa "Green Tiger" painting saga comes the 1/76 Fujimi "Brown Tiger" in what I can only say was a comparatively speedy paint job but also giving it a very Eastern Front effect. In the staged scene below we can see "Brown Tiger" to the back halted, covering "Green Tigers" advance:

Note in the background the huge vastness of the Russian Steppes leading off over the horizon. Then note, somewhat spoiling this illusion, top left and the shadow of my window sill. Obviously expecting danger "Green Tiger" halts and now covers "Brown Tiger" as it advances. You will have to excuse my vivid imagination here as I have been painting (or just looking at) these beasts for far too long.

You may also notice that "Green Tiger" looks a little lighter in parts of its base Dark Yellow from previous photographs, I retrofitted lessons from "Brown Tiger's" painting. I am happy with "Green Tiger" now :)

Am I done with German heavy tanks? I must admit I am tiring, but I do have a pair of Airfix Tigers still to do. Yes, this would make-up a heavy (reinforced) German heavy tank company, however the Airfix kits do have a serious flaw. They require a bit of modeling as infamously as the kit designers studied a version that had been reconstructed from an abandoned Tiger (from Tunisia) at a tank museum. The Allies in their haste to fathom the secrets of the Tiger took it apart but broke it (so urban myth has it) and things like stowage bins to the rear of the turret were forgotten about as they tried in vain to get the engine started. Along came the Airfix designers, studied what they though was the real deal and didn't see the difference with war time photographs until the molds had been pressed. I intend to do a job like Tim Marshal (first photo on page, bottom right) did on his, but the plasti-card can wait for a while ;)

Painting Tray Update

Behold (at last) the behemoth King Tigers have rolled away to strike terror into the hearts and minds of the Western or Eastern Allies alike. Or alternatively presenting a plum target of opportunity for a young Jabbo fighter-pilot (Mustang or Sturmovik) to make his name. In convoy below (a faked wargame moment):

Or deployed, ready to dominate a wargames table near you ;)

Meanwhile a further batch of German heavy armour presents its profile under the painting lights. These pair of Tigers (1/72 Hasagawa and 1/76 Fujimi [early version]) pose a slight problem for me as I will have to move away from the three tone camouflage scheme I was enjoying. Something either Dark Yellow with Green or Brown irregular lines to break up the profile. The 1943 summer look as it were.Currently they sit in the Oiled and Metallic stage ready to take their camouflage markings on:

Meanwhile up in the skies the Airfix Battle of Britain single engined fighter project continues in a stop start fashion. The Hawker Hurricane MkI stands in its shade colours as:

While the Boulton Paul Defiant (viewed broadside) is shown here. It packed a surprise rear-punch to a Hurricane profile (seen from behind), but once bitten twice shy in combat as a 12 o'clock attack was its undoing.

Last but not least a second metal Goblin, The Great Goblin King himself gets painted and the Moria Goblins HoTT Army project takes an oh so small step forward:

In the background I have almost uncontrollable urge to paint 20mm WWII plastic infantry in large industrial batches, after all in the northern hemisphere the nights are beginning to draw in.

:)

Thin stripes and no spots

The Porsche turreted Royal or King Tiger stalking its Sherman prey in Normandy shortly after the D-Day landings, well at least in my mind's eye.

My 1/76 scale Fujimi Prosche turreted King Tiger is shown above (caught with the setting sun behind it,too far from the invasion beaches to make a difference). I remember the classic photograph with the Esci kit showing a King Tiger unit with mixed turret versions hiding under trees in Normandy, trying not to attract the attension of passing rocket-firing Typhoons of the RAF.

The side view is shown above (be warned the click-in photograph is fuzzy and may blur your eyes).

Instead of the full three-colour spotted "ambush" pattern I used previously I went for the slightly earlier, thinner (hence more) striped three-colour version. It also helps me tell from a distance Henschel versus Porsche on tabletop. All this means, and an audible sigh of relief follows, I am done with making and painting my King Tiger kits, Henschel or Porsche until in the distant mists of time I come back to decal them.

I can now claim a reinforced (very) heavy German tank company! As a footnote, tanks of this sort in CD3 and Battlefront etc, really distort ground scale effects. Making in the worse case tanks look "silly close" on  table. So why did I bother? I guess it was because I already had them and they was there. I should really move on now and paint something sensible and reusable on the wargames table ;)

Hunting Pack of "Big German Kats"

And so I come to the final bit of painting ...

After the stripes comes a quick attack of spots, lots of yellow in the dark brown and dark green areas, then (a few) green in the base  yellow area and (again just a few) brown in the base yellow area too. This certainly breaks up the defined regions very well. Nice! The finished 1/76 Fujimi KonigTiger (with supporting band of LOTR Moria goblins in the background[eh?]) is shown below:

This means I now have a hunting pack of Big German Kats (yes "K" for Kongtiger).

This would be a company strength formation for Command Decision or Battlefront (or even Spearhead) and realistically I need no more for any feasibly historical wargame. True, I still have a model of the Porsche turret version (found in combat to be a weakness as it trapped rather than deflected some incoming enemy shots), but I file that under the category of variety not necessity. To mix in with the Henschel variants and Tigers in early D-Day+ Normandy 1944 battles for instance.

These boys are good for late 1944 in the Ardennes/Rhine and late for the 1944 and 1945 eastern front battles. However, if truth be told, the unit is great to model and look at, but a rarity on the battlefield and askew to the typical historical Order of Battle I prefer.