From BenF: Cold War 1984 - West Germans in 6mm (80 Points)

Merry Christmas all! I'm thrilled to be taking part in my third Painting Challenge. For my first entry of number IX, I've got some 6mm Cold War Bundeswehr ready to defend West Germany from the communist hordes. These are the final pieces of a force based around I. (German) Corps in 1984. We've been playing a lot of Cold War Commander at the local club, and I've begun working on a campaign based around a Soviet drive to the Rhine across the North German Plain in the spring of 1984.

One of my personal targets of this painting challenge will be to finish off the forces needed for this campaign - Dutch, a bunch of Soviets, and a small French force.

First off, here's the whole force. This really is an 'odds and sods' collection, as i've already painted up the majority of the infantry and armour needed.

Here's a Panzer battalion of Leopard 1A1A1s, to compliment the battalion of Leo 2A1s  which I have already completed. According to my research, the majority of the Germans were still using the upgraded Leopard Is in 1984, at least in the 11th Panzergrenadier and 7th Panzer divisions which will be the main Bundeswehr combat arms of the campaign. The panzers are GHQ and the M113 'Beobachtungspanzerwagen' is from CinC. The camo netting is done using slices of soft foam 'melted' onto the vehicles using superglue. Aerials are nylon bristles from a cheap dustpan brush. A random Leopard 1A4 was included accidentally in one of the GHQ blister packs, so I painted it up as well, albeit in the NATO three colour camo rather than the Gelboliv of the rest of the force.

Next, here is a battalion's worth of Unimog U1300L trucks. These can be used for lots of different roles, as transport for Jäger, Fallschirmjäger, or Heimatschütz Reserve battalions, or as tows for artillery pieces. The trucks are GHQ, the VW Iltis and the command figures are from Heroics and Ros. The quality and detail of the new 6mm Heroics sculpts are superb.

Next up, here is a Bergepanzer 2, the armoured engineering vehicle based on the Leopard I. This is a Heroics and Ros vehicle with some decals from Flight Deck Decals 2400.

Below are a few Tpz Fuchs transport vehicles which I will be using for pionier assets. I may add another 5 at some stage to provide enough transport for a battalion of Jägers. These are from CinC. 

Next, here is a 'Beobachtungspanzerwagen M113A1G'. Name really rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Anyway, these are forward artillery observer versions of the M113 unique to the Bundeswehr, and are from CinC.

Finally, a selection of artillery, self propelled and stationary. The M109A2Gs are from GHQ, the rest is from Heroics and Ros. The field guns are the 155mm FH77, which were used by many NATO forces. The huge gun-on-tracks is a M110A2. The tiny little AA guns are 20mm Flak FK20-2s, and the M113 variants are an M125 (81mm) and M106 (120mm) self-propelled mortar vehicles. 

So, by my totalling the points should be 75 points :

32 x vehicles (64 points)

5 x artillery pieces (5 points) 

12 x infantry figures (6 points)

That's it for the first entry. Next up will be the soviet hordes - all 82 odd of them......

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Welcome back, Ben! 

I've really enjoyed your microscale work in past years, and so you don't fail to please this time out either. Geez, these are lovely little models. 

One mod that I'm very taken with is how you did the camo scrim on the Leopards - that effect is just terrific - consider it unabashedly stolen.  The command stand is another highlight, with the vehicles just having pulled off the autobahn and the officers conversing - very cool. The tiny decals are just icing on the cake as they really finish of the models nicely. Fabulous stuff.

I'm going to give a few extra points for the creative detail work and nice compositions - well done!