Grey Panzers On the workbench

Pictures of some work-in-progress WW2 German panzers, nearly finished. 

A mixed bag of brands, an Altaya Panzer IV top left, two Trumpeter StuG IVs, an Armourfast StuIG33, PSC Panzer IV top left, two Altaya die-cast Panzer IIIs and a very old repaired and repainted veteran Panzer IV middle right.

All painted with Vallejo Model Color Dark Grey Blue followed by a dark wash and some weathering.  I've run out of Balkenkreuz decals now, so I'll have to try doing them by hand.

"Ersatz" Opel Blitz

There was a time 20+ years ago, when it was impossible to get your hands on a 20mm Opel Blitz and inspired by a post on Will's Wargames Blog I thought I'd share a couple of photos of two British vehicles that made their way into the miniature WW2 German arsenal.

This rehashed old Airfix Austin K6 was a solution, and the vehicle is still in my collection today from back then

Nowadays of course you don't need to go to such a ridiculous end as there are so many kits and ready-made options available.

Another "Ersatz" vehicle was this Opel Blitz ambulance bus below. This was a more recent concoction, using a die-cast Bedford OB Utility bus.  There are kits of the Opel Blitz bus available but at the time I thought that from a distance this could make the grade. 

Happy New Year to all you fellow modellers, gamers and toy collectors out there !

Battle of Berlin – Stretcher Bearers Conversions

Repeating here some photos from an old post that was wiped out when the site was hacked a few years ago.

The stretcher bearers are old Esci WW2 French in greatcoats with headswaps, the “Frau Medic” is a hard plastic lady from Dapol, the two walking guys are Airfix WW1 French, the surrendering figure is a Revell Engineer with a headswap and the old guys in caps carrying the stretcher are WW1 Airfix Germans

Ersatz M10 - Work in Progress

A quick update on some work in progress.

I'd wanted this Dragon kit for some time, and I think Dragon first put this kit out about 10 years back, maybe even longer. 

I was put off by the high price of the kit and was glad when I saw one online at a reasonable price. The box was a little dog-eared but the contents were complete.

And to be honest I'm glad I found this cheap because when I took it out of the box, I noticed the flexible tracks were in a little plastic bag which was full of a kind of sticky oil. 

Very strange I thought.

Then a kind of  "Quatermass and the Pit" event happened as I took them out of the bag - after their years of being preserved in there, they crumbled and cracked into little pieces ! 

So now I've got myself a lovely Ersatz M10 with no tracks.

I've gone the quick route to solving this and susbstituted the whole track and bogie assembly with a one-piece set taken off an old CC-Lee Panther kit I had in the stash that I never got around to building.

Now undercoated on the painting table waiting for a little free time over the weekend to try and finish it off.

So, a lesson learned with regard to this Dragon kit and its old flexible tracks - over the years they leach oil and fall to bits.

In spite of the track problem, I've got a vehicle I've wanted for quite some time.

Operation Barbarossa - Bolt Action Skirmish Game in 1/72 Scale

Pictures of another recent scenario with three of the regular crew (Alex / Carlos / Juan). In the game we kept distancing measures in place, and face coverings when necessary.

The game was a skirmish operation roughly based on / around the time of Operation Barbarossa put together by Carlos, composed of a small mobile force of German Panzergrenadiers supported by a couple of Stugs. 

Russian infantry were defending a small village and as the game progressed they received increasing support from BT-7s.

 

 Germans start moving in towards the village

 

 

 
The Russian commander looks out at the oncoming enemy.

 

 

 A political Commissar in the meantime keeps to the rear to "persuade" any dubious Comrades to hold their ground.

  

The Germans continue their advance 

 

Mortar shells come raining down on the awaiting Russians.

 

Bolt Action rules allow you to add medics. In this case the lovely Svetlana made an appearance to help out the boys under mortar fire.

 

 German squads arriving on foot through a small wood reach the outskirts of the village.

 

Stug surfing ! On the road into the village, a StuG tears down the road loaded with a squad of improvised tank riders.

 

 More BT-7s make an appearance. 

 

The Germans on foot who reached the outskirts have a tough time out in the open and stack up more and more casualties. 

 

The Stug surfers dismount but pay a high price, the Russians holed up in the houses practically decimate them in a hail of gunfire

 

Another BT-7 enters the fray and causes a lot of headaches on the Western flank. The fast-moving tanks get in behind the Stugs and disable both vehicles.

 

Meanwhile the remaining infantrymen are pinned and the German player decides enough is enough, he can't win this time so he concedes he's fighting a losing battle, and the victory is given to the Russian player.

 

The Commissar looks on at the retreating Germans - this time he hasn't had to persuade anyone to stand their ground.

 

The game was difficult for the Germans, too much ground to cover and probably not enough forces for the attack - but who said battles were fair ? 

In any case, we were thinking of maybe tweaking the scenario and playing it again sometime. The Russians didn't really do much apart from just shoot every turn in a static defence and the arrival of four BT-7s sealed the fate of the Stugs. 

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and as always the only victims in this battle were just little toy soldiers. 

Keep safe and in the next update we'll try and maybe get some photos up of a pre-Covid colonial game played back in February, or some photos of a few Airfix US Paratroop conversions

1/72 Scale German Panzer Crews – Airfix Figure Conversions

Some photos below of an attempt made a few years back at to get a set of “fighting” bailed-out Panzer Crewmen.



Figures are a mixture of Airfix Luftwaffe Ground Crew, USAAF Personnel and Afrika Korps with new arms sliced off figures from other German 20mm sets.

The uniforms don’t stand up to close inspection, but on the table they look the part and hopefully make them identifiable as Panzer Crewmen.

Figure Conversions . WW2 Elderly Berlin Policemen with Shakos

A couple of the scenarios in the Berlin campaign that our wargame group gamed some time ago needed some squads of "elderly policemen", many of whom had to be armed with just handguns.








These are figures from various sets of Germans - Revell, Airfix, Caesar, HaT, and even some of Orion's sets of cops-n-robbers and gave them heads with shakos taken from the HaT Industrie 1/72 scale WWI German Jaegers.

Bolt Action Wargame in 1/72 Scale

A few evenings back we had a game (and a few beers) at our mate Alex's place.

Carlos put the scenario together and acted as umpire. The rules used were Bolt Action by Warlord Games.

A WW2 skirmish encounter in a small village between British 8th Army squads versus Afrika Korps supported by a squad of Italian infantry.

A nice touch was in the middle of the game when a group of armed, and very angry, male inhabitants of the village entered into play, shooting at both the British and the Germans.

The objective was to capture and bring out alive a double-agent being held in a heavily fortified old colonial fort in the centre of the village.

The game was nicely balanced, we played it out twice - the Germans took the objective in the first game and the British the second time around.

Some pictures below from various turns during both the games

Brits enter the village



The 8th Army figures are mostly Airfix with a few Revell and Esci 8th Army mixed in.



Germans deploy, coming out to meet the desert rats







DAK are mostly Airfix with a few Revell, Esci and Matchbox figures.



Colonial fort in the centre of the village. Italeri North African House. Lovely sturdy and detailed kit, paints up really well.







Pegasus models "German Truck". One of Carlos' models, the passengers are seated Revell artillerymen with headswaps.



A large Italian squad takes up a defensive position on one of the roofs in the village. HäT and Esci/Italeri figures. The mortar team are from various sets with new heads.



In the midst of the battle, armed villagers attack both allied and axis forces.





The guy with the revolver is the Lawrence of Arabia figure from the Esci Muslim Warriors set. The rest of the figures are Airfix Arabs-Bedouins





Meanwhile the battle raged on