From TeemuL: Bagration Germans [History] (158 points)

Instead of the lovely old metal miniatures, today I present rather new plastic miniatures. Here we have a German Panzergrenadier Company HQ and two Panzergrenadier Platoons with Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks. Models are from Battlefront Miniatures Hit the Beach box for Flames of War. I painted the Panzer IVs and Tank Hunter teams before the Challenge, but here are the main components. You might also recall my last week's entry of 20mm WW2 Germans in winter uniform, this time this are 15mm WW2 Germans in summer uniform, ready to make a fighting retreat against Soviets during Operation Bagration or die trying. We have a small East Front campaign planned for the first months of this year and now I have the starter force ready. I'm planning to buy some mortars and more vehicles, but at the moment I have painted all my Germans for this project. Of course plans change when contacting reality and after a game or two I might want something else to bolster my forces.

The miniatures are painted following the Splinter Pattern Camouflage instructions provided in the Colours of War book. There are little bit different shades of green and brown, when I tried to find a proper compromise between "reality" and "looking good." Some of them look quite right, there's Reikland Flesh Shade painted over the camo to tie the colours together. The base colour is khaki. Pants and helmets are dark grey with a quick highlight of light grey. I painted the grenades dark yellow, but I guess I should have painted the Panzerschrecks yellow, too, instead of black. I guess I can live with that... And still claim history points for these. :)

The bases are rather simple, painted green and then some green sawdust and couple of tufts. It should look quite ok for summer in Ukraine and be generic enough to be usable on other theathers, too.

In the Library I have completed Sections 1 and 2, but before moving on, I'll get back to Section 1 and claim 20 points for History topic. What's next, we'll see.

I did say something about not posting old metal minis, but I finished the Germans during the week and I had then time to do something else during the weekend... I picked up a nice couple from the primed collection, going with the good old method of elf and dwarf. They were both on 25mm round bases, but then I realized, that the dwarf might actually see some action on the gaming table if he had a square base. The traditional 20mm base was too small (no scale creep here, dwarf if from 1988), so I decided to use the Old World base size of 25mm. Most likely these two won't see any adventures together, though...

The elf looks a bit odd, chain mail, sword, fancy poncho like cloak, and bare legs. It took me a while to find him and actually he is a half-elf fighter mage, which explains his odd equipment. He is Julie Guthrie's Personality 804 by Grenadier. Most of the colours on him are what I had on the palette, which gives him a little fantasy feeling. The red on his cloak is freehand, I wanted something looking magic there. White blue hat completes him.

The dwarf on the other hand is a no nonsense dude, heavy armour, heavy axe and bare head, some pouches to carry dwarf bread and tools to keep his axe sharp. He is completely business oriented and his business is chopping heads, I guess. This lovely character is from 1988, Grenadier A294 Dwarf Companion by Nick Lund, also sold in blister pack 906 Fighter and Companions. He is almost just chainmail and beard, but in true 80s spirit, I gave him a red axe shaft and colourful pouches and blue boots.

The green base is the wrong colour, I used my trusted Coat d'Arms Goblin Green while painting the bases of Germans and I didn't have the exact same colour anymore and was unable to mix the correct tone. So I went with Army Painter Greenskin.

64x 15mm minis (2 pts) = 128 points

History topic = 20 points

2x 28mm minis (5 pts) = 10 points.

Total = 158 points

Sylvain: Awesome work on these Germans, especially the camo pattern on their uniform. The two platoons look ready to assault (or die trying). And I also like your vintage metal figurines. Where do you get those? Is there a vintage miniatures mine in Finland? Keep the pace, the Monday Crew needs all available men to the front!