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.

1/72 WWII Wargaming- Infantry figures.

I'll end up painting a lot of infantry for this game and I want to get them done quickly and simply while still trying  to be neat enough so that they will look decent on the table. I've just finished the HQ and support weapons sections of a partisan brigade. The figures are from Caesar Miniatures' French resistance fighters set and Balkan partisans set.

 

A 50mm mortar converted from an Italeri Russian inf figure with the mortar tube cut down and his head swapped for a partisans.

 

A Partisan machine gun team converted from a Zvezda machine gun team and Caesar partisans.

 

A Caesar miniatures French underground fighter

 

 

Caesar Miniatures partisans surround a PSC German Infantry figure

 

A test figure painted as Waffen SS from the Caesar Miniatures Panzer Grenadier  set.

 

Lastly a Pegasus Hobbies 12cm mortar from the German mortar set. The set comes with 3 8cm mortars, 2 12cm mortars and 23 crew.

 

1/72 WWII Wargaming- German 88mm Flak 36

This is a Hasegawa kit. It comes with 2 different barrels ( one for the 18 model and the 36 I assume),  two detachable wheeled carriages, 6 crew, four 88mm ammo boxes, a few rounds and several spent casings. The kit was straightforward enough and the only conversion I made was to swap the crew heads for spares from the PSC German infantry sprues as the original helmets are awful. the PSC heads are a hair bigger but not too much so I don't think and worth it considering the aforementioned originals.

1/72 WWII Wargaming- Panther G & Opel Blitz

 Armourfast Panther G. The Box makes two tanks. They go together very quickly and contain very few parts. No commander figure is included but the commanders hatch can be glued closed or converted easily to attach in the open position. The main gun must be assembled static horizontally. An Orion commander is mounted in the closer tank with a Ceasar panzer crew figure in the far one. An airbrushed late war 3 color camo scheme and some basic weathering wash & drybrushing makes these kits highly serviceable wargame pieces.

The Pegasus Opel Blitz. Look no further for your motorized needs! 2 truck kits included, each with a pop on/off molded plastic canvas covering. With canvas top removed, the troop space contains benching for passenger figures if you provide your own. The kit does provide a nice driver figure in soft cap for each model. Very few parts as to be expected and the kit goes together in minutes. The best part about this kit in my opinion are the thick axle posts that match up to the holes in the tires very snugly and solidly allowing the tires to be glued on quickly and set down to dry without risking poor looking wheel alignment.

1/72 WWII Wargaming- more kits: T34-85s.

The below tanks represent elements of the Russian 15th Guards Tank Brigade. A PSC T34 85 (closest below), 2 Pegasus Hobbies T34 85's (next 2 w/commanders) & 2 Armour fast T34 85s (buttoned). The commander figures are all Preiser. I used the new flames of war Russian Armor  primer/basecoat spray paint.

Plastic Soldier Company T34/85. I really like this kit. Each box makes 3 tanks and contains 3 sprues. Each sprue makes up a T34 chassis and a model 41 turret (pictured directly below) and a model 85 turret (2nd picture down).  Each tank only has a few parts and assembles very easily. Focusing on the model 85 version; The hatch is separate to glue on but must be cut to glue open as shown in the pics. The gun barrel is way huge! (edit- PSC reports that thay have corrected the barrel issue). The turret has a wide center post and swings smoothly on the chassis. The barrel must be glued in place. A commander bust is included. It's a nice sculpt but looks a little fat compared to the Preiser commanders that I already had (and used instead)

 Pegasus Hobbies T34 85s. Another very nice kit. The box yields 2 T34 85 tanks. Two commander cupolas are included; one molded with open hatch (shown) and one molded buttoned up. Each cupola has two pins which fit into the recessed  turret top area so you can glue them or swap in game (the pins are short though and the cupola will fall off if turned over). The kit was easy enough to build, contains few parts and can be built to allow the gun to traverse  vertically. No commander figure is included. Looking at the pictures now I'm a bit upset that I didn't do a better job sanding the lines where the turret tops and bottoms join but too late now they're in the field! Not the worst thing I've done anyway;  close observation often reveals cat (we have three) hairs embedded on the kits that my aging eyes failed to notice during painting.

Below is an Armourfast T-34 85. Very easy to assemble and each box makes two tanks. No commander figure is included. The separate commanders hatch can be glued on closed or easily converted to glue open. The gun barrel can be assemblerd to traverse vertically. The tracks are the least detailed of the three kits reviewed. I like the Pegasus and PSC kits a bit  more but will gladly use the Armourfast ones I have completed.

1/72 WWII Wargaming

Some pictures of painted WWII 1/72 plastic soldier and  model kits.

A Dragon Models mid production Tiger 1 with a Ceasar miniatures panzer tank crew commander. My Kampfgruppe is based around the division's Panzer Grenadier Regiment but I will also be eventually fielding all three of the divisions panzer battalions including Tiger I's from the 3rd,  heavy, battalion.

 The Kampfgruppe HQ and a Tiger 1 from GD's 3rd Panzer (schwere) battalion. The turret numbers will need to be changed however as 217 will not work. GD's heavy tank battalion turret number sets started with S, A, B or C depending on whether the vehicle belonged to the HQ company or companies 9, 10 or 11.

An Ace Traction Avant 11CV and a Dragon Models Sd kfz 251 transport the KG headquarters. The figures are Plastic Soldier Company German Infantry and Preiser Panzer Grenadiers (set pr72503)
The church is Italeri.