After some silence in the challenge from my part it's time to deliver a small points bomb with the core of my coming Early War Wehrmacht force for Flames of War. Two full Panzerschützen platoons and the company command with all their accompanying vehicles including one of my favorite German vehicles the Zündapp KS750. With these guys finished I have about half of my force finished points wise and a bit over half in terms of individual miniatures left to paint. There's actually a few more miniatures than needed in the lists, but I had the miniatures anyway and it never hurts to have some extras.
I had already planned to post these last week, but then the famous real life got in the way and I didn't really get any painting done over Christmas as I kindly followed the better halves advice and left my painting equipment home. After a mad rush after getting back home on Friday the halftracks were still missing a wash and mud so I had to postpone them until after New Year.
These are mainly Battlefront miniatures with Plastic Soldier Company 251s. These were absolutely the worst offerings I've seen from Battlefront. Massive amounts of flash and hideously disfigured faces etc. BF offerings aren't exactly top quality normally either, but still on the better side of the average when compared to other 15mm manufacturers. These were something totally different then. The difference between the motorcycles and the infantry was quite astonishing with the motorcycle teams having distinguishable facial features and little to no cleaning up to do. Most of the infantry on the other hand look like somebody has hit them in the face with a sledgehammer. And that's after you've carved all the random extra chunks out of them.
The PSC halftracks on the other hand are a joy to put together as there's little cleaning up required and everything fits together rather nicely. The crew detail is maybe a bit on the soft side and I'd rather have slightly over emphasized features in smaller models. Still well worth the money and even if they are a bit expensive for plastic kits they are still half the price of the BF resin ones. They are still missing the aerial recognition flags that were quite prominent in the early part of Barbarossa, but considering the s**t storm you see on the forums when somebody adds a Swastika to their models I decided it was probably better to leave them off from these photos and do them afterwards.
All in all I have 2 platoons of 37 models, 2 command stands with 3 models each, 2 motorbikes with 3 crew each and 10 half tracks with 38 passengers inside them. That should give me 276 points if I've calculated correctly. In addition to these there's also 2 drivers in all of the Hanomags, but I guess claiming points for them would be a bit cheeky as you only really need to paint their shoulders and helmets :)
From CurtWow, that is an impressive amount of work Samuli! Very fine painting as well. I especially like the well-used Hanomags along with their passengers and I'm always a sucker for BMWs with their sidecars. After this lot I can see why you'd want to steer away from German grey for a bit. :)
Impressive entry Samuli :)
ReplyDeleteSuperb work - especially the motorcycle troops
ReplyDeleteVery fine looking force!
ReplyDeleteAnd what a bombshell it was! Excellent work!
ReplyDeleteAlways good to get a good sized amount of figures done. These are very nice
ReplyDeleteExcellent job! The 251's are awesome. I really like the dust on their tracks... one can almost imagine them rumbling along some dirt track in the russian wilderness. A shame about the figures though... so if I'd start early war in 15mm I should go for the new PSC sets then.
ReplyDeleteI'm not the biggest fan of the PSC infantry myself. The Late war brits are OK, but I think the rest are a bit lacking in detail. It's pretty clear that they are designed for 28mm and then just scaled down as the detail isn't too clear on the faces etc. Personally I like the details that are a bit emphasized as they look better even if they are unrealistic. Realistic proportions on faces for example in 15mm make them almost flat.
DeleteVery nice painting work.
ReplyDeleteNice work and I agree early war stuff from battle front is highly variable in quality and includes some of their worst offerings. Thanks for the info on PSC half-tracks I have been eyeing them from a while.
ReplyDeleteGreat looking bomb, I say add the flags and be done with it, :-)
ReplyDeleteIan
Love the trucks! Although the infantry gave you fits, they look great ranked up with their rides!
ReplyDeleteThank you guys!
ReplyDeleteLooking good and I like my vehicles a bit beat up and grungy too.
ReplyDeleteChristopher
Love 'em Samuli, especially the HTs.
ReplyDeleteA formidable force with a formidable paint-job. Cracking submission. Top stuff!!
ReplyDeleteExcellent work, those look very nice.
ReplyDeleteExcellent work, Samuli. Even though the BF figures aren't great, you've made them look good from what I can see in the photos, which is pretty much what you'd see looking down at a games table. I'm curious what make of paint you used for the halftracks, as they look somewhat greenish on my screen.
ReplyDeleteGreat effort.