1/72 WWII Wargaming- German Tanks

After completing a US armored tank company I went back to my axis stuff and completed a platoon of Panthers, a platoon of MkIVs and company command tanks. This entailed building and painting about 6 new tanks and adding decals to all the tanks I have done. The decals were purchased from warhammer historical before they went belly up. I found they were so thick I wasn't able to make the transparent portion of the decals invisible either through gloss or dullcoting after application so depending on the angle the transparent portion is only opaque. Too late to start over though so I'll live with it. The 2nd platoon leader (121) is a dragon kit with zimmerit and a four man crew (which serve well as tank commanders). The rest of the Panthers are Armourfast. The MkIVs are all Plastic Soldier Company and the Wespe is the old Italeri kit.

1st platoon of the 1st company. Pzkwf V Panthers

3rd company commander followed by the 1st platoon leader

 

1/72 WWII Wargaming- Pegasus Hobbies LCVP

 Obviously you only need them if you're going to play an invasion or maybe a commando scenario but priced as low as $7.80 a kit, Overlord could never be cheaper to create on the table with the LCVP from Pegasus Hobbies. I don't really like the "water" base that comes with it so I cut this one to waterline with a Dremel tool. You could just as easily plop it on the table without cutting it without losing to much visual appeal as long as you don't glue the keel piece onto the bottom.The included 15 US Infantry (13 riflemen, 1 BAR man and an Officer/NCO with a Thompson) and a three man crew make it perfect for the wargamer.

1/72 WWII Wargaming- Infantry comparisons

Like any scale, 1/72 plastic infantry varies in size from manufacturer to manufacturer. AB figures market their metal figures as 1/76 scale but they are only a tiny bit smaller and size up well with my favorite plastic guys; Plastic Soldier Company and Caesar Miniatures. Italeri and Revell weigh in at the tall end of 1/72 scale with Revell being too large to use in the same units with the smaller guys...at least if you are rather picky like me. That said, many will rightfully point out out that real soldiers come in many sizes. Here's a quick comparison shot that I hope you might find helpful if you have not already purchased boxes and boxes of each (Mega Hobby.com loves me!)

1/72 WWII Wargaming- US Armored Forces

While I hadn't had much time for hobby activity the last bunch of months, I'm looking forward now to spending more time assembling, painting & gaming. I've finished a company of  sherman tanks and a bit of artillery support.
 I've used AB figures for most of my tank commanders but finally took the plunge and bought about a company each of their German and American infantry. I'll still be using the PSC Germans (and Americans now that they are out) but couldn't resist the wonderful sculpting of AB.

Aside from one diecast M4A3E8, the rest of the shermans are all Armourfast M4A3s or M4A376s.

The 155mm Long Tom and the M5 artillery tractor are both Hasegawa kits and are readily available. Along with their own gun models, AB figures makes a nice 9 piece 155mm crew set. They also make a 105mm crew set which I ordered for my M7 Priests.

After waiting for quite a while and finally deciding that the Italeri M7 priest 2 kit box might never be available again I looked at diecast models. These were going for anywhere from $22 to $30 a piece!...but I finally stumbled on an ebay store that had them for about $11 with reasonable shipping so I bought three.

Happy gaming & see you soon!

1/72 WWII Wargaming- US Forces

I bought the new Warhammer Historical Kampfgruppe Normandy rules... like a week before their 50% off sale!
Anyhow, I like the rules and so have put the Russian front on hold while I crank out some Shermans. I've started with a small force (about 250pts): A HQ unit (1 jeep w/3 men), a platoon of 5 M4 Shermans (2 w/75mm gun & 3 w/76mm gun), an M10 tank destoyer, an M4 105mm, a recon M5, an M8 armored car and a 10 man squad( which is all I have painted so far). I have enough German forces painted to give these guys a great fight and I'm looking forward to doing an AAR with photos of my first game.

The jeep is Academy models and is a little small for the Italeri US figures that I cut up to make a crew. Then again, Italeri are bigger than most of the figures I'm using but not so much that I won't use them at least until I have AB Figures' units painted.

The M8 armored car is an Italeri kit. The tarp and packs come with it and are very nicely sculpted. I'll have to find a crewman to stick in the turret...meh, probably won't last long enough in the game to bother.

An M4 105mm will be good support for the tiny infantry force. This is an Armourfast M4105 All the US vehicles were painted with the Flames of War all in one primer and base coat US armor spray. Then some quick weathering : a sloppy light wash of medium brown and maybe a little dark gray paint, followed by a tan/pewter gray dry brushing. Decals are Skytex and an AB commander was added.

M4a3 Armourfast Sherman.

I'm using a Hasegawa M3 Stuart. I'm basing my force on the 2/6 armored infantry battalion attached to the 1st armored division in the Italian campaign and depending on how early in '44 the scenario might be, I don't think it's too sacriligeous to use instead of an M5. Plus I've always loved this kit....and the Haunted Tank! I used a tank crewman from the new Hat Industrie US tank riders set. Posture is a little odd but the detail is nice. The set includes about 36 GI's lounging on tanks and 8 tank commanders in 2 poses.(Hat recently released tank rider sets for UK, US, Germans & Russians)

An Armourfast M10 tank destroyer. I'll need a few of these.

For now I'm using Italeri US Infantry. One box has enough figures to do a 1-1 platoon including bazookas with extra 60mm mortars and MMGs. The sculpting is pretty nice although the MMG and mortar figures have long been dogged for not being prone. The figures are at the big end of 1/72 figures like some ESCI sets but I think still useable with PSC & AB figures.

1/72 WWII Wargaming- Wespe, Plastic Soldier Company Panzer IV

I purchased 2 of the Italeri Wespe and a Dragon Models Hummel kit for the SP battalion of my artillery regiment. I just finished a Wespe. The kit was easy to build up until the final step of gluing the tracks on. Like the old ESCI kits the "flexible" plastic tracks will split if you even stare at them wrong. Unlike rubber tracks which can be superglued on in realistic fashion, superglue seems to hasten the tracks breaking as both did on the Wespe  within 30 seconds of being wrapped around the drive sprockets over  little super glue. I switched to Loctite plastic/vinyl glue and at least got them serviceable. The  kit comes with a seated driver and a standing crewman which would have been useable but  which I replaced with Caesar Miniatures panzer crewmen anyway.

I completed my first three PzIVs from PSC too. The purest scale modeller may have some issues with the thickness of the schurzen pieces but the wargamer will be overjoyed at the speed and ease of assembly along with the durability to be able to survive the clutches of the careless gamer. I really love these kits and looks forward to more great  PSC 1/72 releases. The only modification I made was to swap the commander out  (they provide two different busts but IMHO they are too big & thick) with a Caesar Miniatures Panzer crewman and I glued the commander hatch halves together since they do not provide a single CO's hatch suitable for an H model.

One more company of panzers and Pz Regt  GD should be able to take on the 13 T-34/85s of my Russian guards tank brigade.

1/72 WWII Wargaming- German Radio Vehicle & 81mm mortar. Russian AT gun.

It was the multiple vehicle quick assembly kits from Pegasus, Plastic Soldier Company & Armourfast that lured me back into 1/72nd WWII gaming but I knew that to field some of the more specialized vehicles I would need to purchase detailed model kits. I bought an ACE Models K.f.z. 17 Radio vehicle for my Arty Regt HQ. The kit contain a dizzying 100+ parts, with much cleaning, sanding and gnashing of teeth required. I did a pretty hack job on it and I'm glad that its finished. I'll probably only need one more radio van for my army. Ha, I've become so spoiled and impatient due to Testors liquid cement and Armourfast type kits that I expect to assemble a  1/72 vehicle in 20 minutes or get all cranky about it. In the picture below, the building in the background is a Pegasus Hobbies Russian log house (Izba). The farm house, barn & wooden fence are from a Mini Art set  1/72 East European Farmyard.
http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/mna/mna72020.htm?source=froogle
The sandbags, bench, radio and funk soldaten warning division HQ that they are about to be overrun are all from the Airfix forward command post set.

 

I also finished the support weapon company of 1st Bn PzGren Regt GD. The Pegasus Hobbies 81mm mortar is shown below.

 

 Last is a Russian 76mm AT gun by Italeri along with some PSC Russian Infantry a few Caesar partisans and a Pegasus BA-6 armored car. The AT gun set comes with 2 guns with movable trails and 12 crew.

Thanks for visiting and thanks to you all with gaming blogs of your own that have provided me inspiration and much enjoyment.

1/72 WWII Wargaming- German Artillery

This is the Revell kit "German Artillery". Components are shown in Plastic Soldier Review:
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/review.aspx?id=443

It is a soft plastic kit and goes together well with Loctite Vinyl Fabric & Plastic flex adhesive:
http://www.loctiteproducts.com/p/cntct_vnylpl/overview/Loctite-Vinyl,-Fabric-&-Plastic-Flexible-Adhesive.htm

 My plastic Arty Regt GD will eventually have an SP arty Bn and several  towed  battalions of 10.5cm & 15cm.