Fire in the Sky!

Platoon of Panzerwerfers finished :-)

I'm also working on my British Desert army. For the moment i'm painting about 3 hours a day average and not getting tired of it. I'm not speedpainting, just enjoying the evenings behind the pencil.

keine schlacht ohne Panther...

Just in time to squeeze another post in for February...

I like Panthers, as a matter of fact, i LOVE Panthers.

They're very pricey, they are arty & ambush magnet, they die first (at least in my games, damn M10s) but they are so good looking! I don't care if they take up alot of points, i don't care it's just too little for 'too much', it's just too damn cool to play with Panthers.

Panzer Lehr - Panzer IVs

I'm continuing to work on this wonderful division. I'm getting more and more intrigued by it. I'm at the point of buying all three books about it's commander Bayerlein.

The Panthers are 95% finished, only need some weathering and netting.

This is a Panzer IV platoon, the numbering is not quite correct as there was no 3.company fitted with Panzer IVs, but there are pictures of a Lehr Panzer IV with the numbers '333' so its all a bit strange. I numbered them before i found any good reference on the order of battle so it's too late anyway. Tbh, this is there 3rd paint job after stripping them 2 times with Aceton...

I got some help in photographing these tanks :-)

My son, he did well...

Modular Gaming Board

Hi all,

Just posting some pics of my modular gaming board i recently made. Currently painting my Lehr Panzer IVs, they're almost finished, only need the numbering and some weathering and then it's on to the Panthers or either the Panzerwerfers.

The gaming board is designed so all the pieces can be rearranged according to my needs, there's gonna be 3 more pieces so i can make 2 gaming tables for our monthly 'Battle Days' as we like to call it (Battle Days is our monthly get together where we play wargames all day, there's about 8 of us and it's big fun!). 1 piece will have a river running through it, another will have a western European Village and another one will be ... i don't know yet, suggestions are welcome :-)

Each piece measures 120x60cm and is made with 'being cheap' in mind. A how-to can be found here.

To be honest; i've stolen all of my ideas from BigGav.

For the European town i'm gonna go with houses from a Portugese blog called 'Orange Scenics'. I've found a solution for my cobblestone roads and for my church. It's gonna be awesome!

Oh yeah, almost forgot, i played my first EW desert battle last weekend, it was great... i have some more expansions in the pipeline for my British Desert Army. And before i forget... i kicked some Italian ass!

Going strong!

Finished up my Lehr AA platoon. Did have some problems with basing but everything turned out okay i think...

Total Battle Miniatures

Making good progress on my 7/2 Half-tracks. Almost finished now. I decided to put them all 3 on a seperate large base, dunno why, i saw it somewhere and it looked nice. Ordered some Panzer Lehr decals from Dom's Decals. Best decals ever...

Like i wrote in a previous post, i ordered some Total Battle Miniatures houses a while ago. 6-7 houses including the big Orthodox chruch. That thing is huge!

Massive Orthodox Church

That one is already painted up and flocked to go with my tables. The rest is waiting in a black basecoat. If you order some after seeing these pictures, make sure you wash that in warm soupy water or you'll be smearing paint all over the place and nothing sticks :-)

Church painted up. Don't mind the Wehrmacht stuff in the background... ;-)

In the picture above you'll notice the green board beneath the church, consider it a teaser for the upcoming posts. It's one part of my gaming board.

All i need on that Russian church is some AK Interactive Green Slime to mimic wood-rot (or how the hell do you write it).

They look darker now...

Getting ready to play a 2000pts battle tomorrow. there's alot of discussion on the official FoW-forums about the Russians not being powerful enough. We'll i'm about to find out. I'll be playing a Heavy Tankovy against, of course, a Panzer Division with everything going from Panther's to Stug's to a Tiger II.

Curious how that one is going to turn out :-/

A new year... a restart

Hi all, i took a while but i'm slowly getting up to speed again. I finished alot of stuff in the last months but I didn't had the time, patience, mood, (fill in), etc... to put in on the blog. I have to apologize for this to those who care(d).

Played alot of FoW, still not finished painting 28mm ACW but this year i should put the finishing touches on my two brigades, bought the Dropzone Commander rulebook, haven't looked at it tbh :-( Dystopian Wars came to a standstill, not good but don't really care :-) I received a 15mm Republican Roman Army which is on the painting que (read somewhere 2014). My SS-Panzergrenadiers are finished which is a good thing.

Currently reading Tigers in the Mud from Otto Carius and The Forgotten Soldier by Sajer. Both are very good reads, heard alot of bad things about the latter about not being 100% historically accurate but i don't care, it's a good book nevertheless.

I have a few projects to share with you, couple weeks ago i build myself a 180x120 modular gaming board which is quite nice to see. I have a couple more extensions in the pipeline for it. I bought alot of Total Battle Miniatures eastern front houses (including the uber-church), which are also very nice btw.

Painting is going at a steady pace atm, currently painting up my 1750pts Panzer Lehr for the new updated Normandy books due out in June 2013. Next will be an addition to my Mid-war Panzer Grey Germans so i can use them Early War too (read Panzer IIIs and Mortars).

I'm also in the process of buying a complete French Town from a Portuguese guy. Already bought 1 house for it. It looks very, very nice!

That's all...

Panzeraufklärungs-Lehr-Abteilung 130, Normandy '44

After a long break... a Konigstiger

I don't know what happened, i just got tired of painting. The house needed alot of work and the garden needed (and still does) alot of work, my son needs alot of work, i just didn't have the energy to start something, let alone finish something. Until this week...

I finished the second of 4 King Tigers. This one in a more Normandy 44 kinda-camo and you know what? I used Vallejo Middlestone for dunkelgelb on this one and it never looked better. Those 6 Panzer IV's will be sprayed in the same manner. Pictures below...

Second, I also finished my first Eight Army infantry platoon, still need to base them. Shouldn't be to hard to do, it's "just" sand :-)

And third, i finished my SS Heavy Platoon. So my SS-army is 99% complete. Pictures of those will be posted later. I'm getting good feedback from my gaming buddies, i sense a little jealousy there :-)

On with the pictures! Panzer March!

Argh! It's him again! and he brought his baby-brother!!

At last...

A Flames of War book about a battle in my homeland, one of the greatest battles of the Western Front during WW2. I always liked the way the Bulge started, the mighty German panzers roaring through the Ardennes, scaring the hell out of the Americans. I love it! ;-)

SS-Rocket Artillery Battery

Nebelwerfer 41 Rocket Artillery ist bereit!

Only the 2 kubelwagens for the observers i still need to finish. Tomorrow will be a big test for a 1750pts SS-Army list...

Anybody know if you can mix Turning Tide with Grey Wolf. I can only field Fearless Trained Nebels in Grey Wolf while the SS-kompanie from Turning Tide can field Veteran Nebelwerfers...

SS-Panzergrenadiers

Finally finished these little bastards! A quick post to show some badly taken pictures... not too happy with the basing but don't feel like doing them all over.

 Now time to finish my Nebelwerfers, all they need is some base-lovin' and then it's MG42 time...

Sometimes you just gotta paint a Konigstiger

"Sometimes you just gotta paint a Königstiger..."

Myself, April 2012

 

While searching for the correct Dunkelgelb i came across some WW2 Tank Sets from Lifecolor. Not too pricey so i ordered them directly from eBay. About 17€ each. I purchased them because they had a strange approach to the Dunkelgelb, it was very, very light. Considering everything I tried before was either to dark or to greenish I was very, very eager to try it out.

Königstiger (Henschel Turret), Poland 1944

Keeping in mind that it was a light-yellow colour i picked up one of my Königstigers, picked out a camo-pattern and started spraying like a madman! Thinned the Lifecolor with Vallejo Airbrush Cleaner (yes, you read that correctly) and like magic ... it worked!

I tried something like the pattern in the picture above. Used some new weathering techniques and i think, to be honest, it's one of my best pieces of work yet. A medal for me! Huzzah! No really, i like it alot, i have 2 more to paint and then its on to paint set number 2. I'm gonna use that to try some Bulge work...

Enjoy the pictures and let me know what you think!

Re-Action 2012. Part 1

Yesterday was fun. We went to the Action 2012 Wargaming Convention @ Rheindalen, Germany and we returned with lots of goodies.

A 90-minute drive and a wrong exit (I hate GPS-devices; I prefer the "put the road-map on the hood and start looking" way like any decent commander would do) and we arrived at the checkpoint where I had to open the trunk and the hood for inspection. After some directions from the bloke at the checkpoint we headed for the registration-office to get our car-pass. After that, it was on to the convention!

Lots of tables, though not as nice as the previous year tbh. Some good traders and a very nice, relaxed atmosphere! We hope this convention continues in the next year but future is looking grim as the Military Base is almost certain to close in the following years.

Part of my Flames of War treasure hunt; A Jagdpanther Platoon, Ernst Barkmann and my next Flames of War project; A British Airborne Company!

I was also looking for some Hetzers but at 10€ a piece i quickly restrained myself from buying. Either Maelstrom Games is getting my money or I'll try the Forged in Battle ones. Only thing that's holding me back is the bases on those. Maybe try trimming them is an option...

Next post will be about some other purchases i did over there... can't wait to paint those up!

Stug III's ready for battle!

Phew!! Finally finished these guys. Actually, not 100%, one still needs the commander in the copula but i consider them done.

I tried all kinds of techniques and stuff on these tanks. Maybe a little too much. They all look very battle-worn, maybe a little too much battle-worn :-) Also, i had my time with Vallejo Model Air. It's all going in the bin! I'm switching to Tamiya. I had good (compared to Vallejo Model Air; excellent) results with those paints so i'm switching and not looking back. The only thing i need now are some empty dropper bottles with some ready-made-mixes of Tamiya paints with thinner. Maybe i can empty some of those droppers from Vallejo ;-)

Mixed in with the Assault Guns are my first SS-Panzergrenadier figures. The Company HQ with Panzershreck option. I painted some figures from the Pak40 gun crew that i mistook for the Panzershreck loaders. Damn, those Pak40 shells looked big compared to the Panzershreck's shell :-). The second team is coming with the first infantry, which i'm gonna paint next.

This Saturday we are gonna pay a visit to Re-action 2012. A wargaming convention in Mönchengladbach, Germany. It's small but very nice. Good atmosphere thanks to the location. A British military base better known as JHQ Rheindalen. Check out the link!

Stug III Platoon

Finished my first Stug III a couple of days ago. I considered it "a tester" for the rest of the platoon. I think it turned out rather nice. It's painted for the West-front around '44. I tried to give it a battle-worn look which in the end, also turned out very well i think. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder or something.

The rest of the platoon is still on the factory floor getting finished. They will be completed in a few days if i can stick to my schedule. Only thing left to do after finishing the tank is paint the schürzen. They're already primed black and are also awaiting the finished paint coats...

After that it's infantry time! and after the infantry it's Nebelwerfer time!! I'm so looking forward to painting those :-) Enjoy the picies...