Thursday 18 January 2024

From GrantH: Germans for the Battle of the Scheldt [Overdue and Returns] (360 Points)

Greetings everyone! 

Happy to be back for the first time in a few years! After letting the "I will surely get around to it" pile go out of control while away at school, the challenge has once again motivated me to chip away at the unpainted things in my collection.

For my first post of this challenge, I present 68 late-war Germans for my Battle of the Scheldt project. I started this project after reading an excellent two-part series by Tim Cook on the Canadian contribution to WW2.  The watery battlefields of the Scheldt campaign immediately stood out as an interesting operation to model a few forces and draft a 'pint-sized' campaign around. Having finished my Canadians in the time between challenges, painting up a worthy adversary was long overdue.

For this particular force, I mainly used Warlord Games plastic SS and Winter infantry kits to create a varied core force of infantry and support specialists for my Bolt Action and Chain of Command games. I equipped them with the idea in mind that by the later stages of the war, they would likely have a mishmash of equipment and uniforms. As such, these troops have varying colours of greatcoats, smocks, and field uniform to reflect the diversity of equipment supplied or scavenged. Some are equipped with darker variations of the German field grey and the more orangey fall camo smocks, while others have been outfitted in more greenish variations of field grey. 

Here they are broken down into some easier to view sections:

German Pioneers with anti-Tank Gear.
Special Weapons Teams - Tripod mounted MG42, Panzerschreck, Flamethrower, and marksmen.
NCO's and Officers with MP44s and MP40s and a few C96s.
Officers 2: Now with more peaked caps!
and the Infantry.
So much infantry. 
Can never have too much infantry.
Some light machine-gunners in the mix with some loaders.
That one guy without a helmet will surely regret his decision.
More infantry!
Some machine gunners to support the horde.
Because there are 68 of the buggers, I did not want to photograph all the webbing, so here is a little selection.

For a grand total of 68 Minis at five points per figure in 28mm, and a submission to the challenge theme 'Overdue and Returns', I believe this post is worth 360 points to kick off my contribution to the Challenge! At long last these figures may face their Canadian adversaries in full Technicolor after one too many games with matte black primer.

Thank you to Curt and the minions for once again organising this fantastic event! It has been a pleasure to see what everyone is working on and to once again be involved in the challenge. I think I will have German armour support to paint next, but after this long project working on cold weather forces I think it is time I turn my attention to something sunnier...

TeemuL: What a nice come back to the Challenge, Grant! Waiting for the last minute to make the first entry and with that first entry almost reaching your points target. :) I do hope you don't let the target to prevent you and you keep painting more and more. Your mixed uniform approach looks good, as well as the muddy bases.

27 comments:

  1. What a points drop. Lovely work here.

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  2. Excellent points drop Grant and a fun project to boot. Well done.

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    1. Thanks! I have certainly enjoyed working on it!

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  3. What a huge post! As a Canadian, I love to see someone gaining this campaign! Gritty and mucky.

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    1. The grit and muck definitely appealed to me as part of the aesthetic for painting and as a unique challenge for wargaming. playing on tables with flooded fields and exposed roads under the watchful eye of MG42s presents an interesting challenge, but great opportunity to use LVT A4s and WASP IICs to even the odds!

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  4. That is a great looking force to oppose your Canadians.

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    1. Thanks! It feels great to have both forces painted up!

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  5. Great painting Grant! You can never have enough of the PBI!

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    1. Thank you! and indeed, better too much PBI than too little!

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  6. Great work, figures really pop

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    1. Thanks! I have been working on learning how to properly add highlights to minis

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  7. Welcome back Grant, I to have been away for a good few years and now enjoying the challenge to clear some figures from the lead pile. Your Germans look great love the style of painting, I look forward to seeing some armour

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    1. Thanks! welcome back! I have some Panzer IVs and half-tracks that are almost finished to give the force something that can compete with Canadian Firefly crews

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  8. Fantastic Grant, well done! There was a Dutch movie done in 2020 (De slag om de Schelde, The battle of the Scheldt or The forgotten battle). I haven’t yet seen it myself, but I think it’s on Netflix and it was reasonbly well received. Should you come this way sometime there is a very nice museum devoted to the fighting in the area near Knokke. Anyway, great figures and I hope to see more of this project!

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    1. I watched that movie around the same time as I was working on my Canadian force! Very much enjoyed it, can recommend. I will add the museum to my list! I definitely plan on doing some onsite research when I am next able to visit Europe.

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  9. Lovely collection Grant - its always good to see so many variants in an army

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    1. Thank you! I figured a strong number of variants would add to the war weary veteran force aesthetic.

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  10. Welcome back Grant, lovely start to your Challenge 👏

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