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!