From SamuliS: The King and the Whirlwind (31 points)

Yet more of the dastardly Jerry! These are the final vehicles for my force, two Kingtigers and two Wirbelwinds with 7 crew altogether netting me 31 points. I'd originally planned for these to be the last to paint up, but switching from a regular Grenadier Platoon to Volksgrenadiers forces me to paint some more infantry, this time with StG44's to provide the two Assault Rifle armed squads in the platoon. Not too bad and should hopefully be finished over weekend.

The later model Kingtiger that I ended up painting as a company commander was my Secret Santa gift. Definitely came in very handy! Thanks to the mysterious benefactor for that!

The other one with Zimmerit has been in my lead pile for a while. I bought a bunch of Germans from an online sale for cheap. Will be the last time I'm going to do that without proper close-up pictures. The deal included 11 plastic PzIV's which were all put together wrong so were unusable. All the infantry was based 2-3 figures a base so looked silly and had plenty of guns broken off, etc. The Kingtiger was one of the better minis from the lot with only the mudguards glued on so that there are quite visible gaps and they don't align too well with each other. Still won't be visible when playing so I can live with that and actually salvage something from the pile of rubbish that I bought. Luckily I've managed to get most of the crap sold of (even with an honest sales text and photos!) and the KT didn't end up costing more than the retail price, so it's allright.

As usual I painted them with a heavy modulation effect from dark yellow to ivory before slapping on camouflage. My previous Kingtigers are all Zimmerit versions so I decided to paint this one in the same style as them to make them look like a coherent platoon that could be usable in earlier times when supply was at least a bit less haphazard. The second one I painted with a scheme similar to a picture I'd seen from the battles around Remagen where the tournament force is themed. The Wirbelwinds were also painted according to some different reference images found online. Not really any specific unit, more of just a general camo to fit anywhere the Germans fought. I only did a slight modulation on the camouflage colours and it shows after the wash with the colours not really popping out like the yellow. Still I think it adds a nice contrast on the surfaces.

As usual I applied some chipping with a sponge followed up by heavy washes with a few different shades to slightly tint the surfaces and to add some streaking. The missus wasn't too happy as I ran out of my cheap Q-tips that I normally use to clean excess wash off and took some of her fancy ones that are apparently reserved for make up things and not my silly hobbies... Finally a liberal coating of two different mud shades on the tracks and lower surfaces and they are done.

 

 

Wow, Samuli! Even with the extra work of the auction, they look mighty fine. Of course I am a fan of German armour and  the camouflage, so these tick that box nicely. I'd say the Tiger has suffered some minor battlefield damge(or sabotage at the factory) if anyone points out the gaps!