From SylvainR: Tray 07 - 6mm Early WW2 German Engineering Equipment (65 points)

 

One of the many factors explaining the success of the Blitzkrieg in the early years of the Second World War was the extensive use of engineering equipment by the German, especially for river crossing.

First, below, is a company of German pioneers in "Flossack 34" rubber boats.  At the end of the post, there is a short tutorial on how I created the water effect, if you are interested. Note that there is one element showing a squad leaving the friendly river bank, and another landing on the enemy side, for variety.

After checking all the 6mm catalogs I could find, I still have no idea what company made these miniatures. My guess is that they are old GHQ models that were later replaced by a newer version. Anyone would know where these come from?

To help establish a bridge head, the German army would use pontoon bridges. This one, below, came in two shipments and was pulled by horses. It's possible to build a bridge with the parts, but I preferred to glue them all in place. I have other fully set-up pontoon bridges anyway. These are from Heroics & Ros.

Next we have 3x "Brückenleger auf Panzer IV" or bridge layers made by Heroics & Ros. These were produced from February to May 1940 and were used in most WW2 theaters. One is painted in late war dark yellow scheme, but I wanted to do all the engineering equipment at once. This time, I left the bridge removable.

Now, a pair of sturdy Sd.Kfz. 9/1. I will use them in scenarios where the German have to build something, to add some cool doodads to the game. Models from GHQ.

To complete the tour of the engineering equipment, here are 2x "LandWasserSchleppers", from GHQ. Ordered in 1935, only 3 were completed by late 1940, for a potential "Operation Sea Lion". Because of their size, I had to put them on larger bases. Since these are amphibious, I thought it would be cool to show one entering water.

 Finally, here are 3 Battalion HQs for the Germans.

The first one is for the motorized infantry battalion on motorcycles I painted last week. The colonel is directing his troops to the narrow road: "The old Dutch Lady told us that this is a shortcut to Amsterdam, quick, we need to capture the Queen!" Of course, this was just the road to the abandoned old mill... Since I had a Pz.Kfz. 232 (6 rad) left over from last year, I added it on the base for visual effect. You should be able to read "Amsterdam" on the road sign. If you wonder, the color code on the back of the base means this element controls 3x companies (blue, red, green) plus one weapon company (yellow).

This little diorama is for the cavalry battalion HQ. I added a mule and some foot soldiers for ambiance. The crew got the radio out of the cart and is sending the latest intel about enemy positions.

This last vignette is the HQ for the Fallschirmjäger battalion with the famous Commander von der Heydte. Since the HQ was dropped with the troops, they might sometimes see some action. The photo from the rear turned out with a weird amalgamation of colors. There are 6 soldiers on this base, if you want to spend a few seconds trying to distinguish them.

With this final tray, I have now completed my second bunch of German elements for early WW2: 1x battalion of Fallschirmjägers, 1x battalion of cavalry, 1x battalion on motorcycles plus some reconnaissance on bicycles and motorcycles as well as some engineering equipment.

 Here is a table showing the progress on my 6mm WW2 project.

My goal is to complete two armies per year. Now that I am retired, I might be able to do a little more but on the other hand late WW2 armies, which are next in line, are quite big, just because of the variety of vehicles. I also need to mention that 85% of my friend's collection was already painted. The early war stuff that I have been working on lately was, for the most part, still at the stage of unfinished projects, so this gave me minis to paint during the Challenge. However, very few late war models were left unpainted and I might not have much to present on my WW2 project in future challenges since it will be mostly a matter of basing/re-basing the miniatures. But we'll see...

62x 6mm foot figurines at 1/2 point each = 31 points (I did not count the "Flossacks")

4x 6mm mounted figurines at 1 point each = 4 points (motorcycles included here)

12x 6mm vehicles at 2 point each = 24 points (cart included here)

Total = 59 points

Thanks for reading! 

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ADDENDA: TUTORIAL ON WATER EFFECT

In case I have to do more water effect in the future, I wanted to document the techniques I used, to compensate for my gradually failing memory. Hopefully, it could be of use to other challengers as well.

The first step was to prepare my bases. For the two bases with banks, I needed to create an elevation, so I simply sawed one of the mdf bases in two, created a slope using a small file, glued these bits to the bases (be generous, mdf absorbs lots of white glue) and added some scenery material like sand and rocks. The miniatures (Flossack & crew) were painted separately from the base in this case.

The next step was to add the water texture. The bases were painted "sienna", since most European rivers are muddy. I wrapped a tape around the base, then I poured in the acrylic water texture (from Vallejo). I left the bases to dry a whole day then removed the tape and trimmed the residual edge left by the water texture. It feels rubbery and you need a very sharp blade to cut it out.

The final step was to use Vallejo's "Diorama FX Water Texture" to add some wake at the front and rear of the boat. Just a little bit is needed, since paddle propelled boats move very slowly. I added just a touch of white (not flat white) at the front to emphasize the wake. I painted the edge grey (for German), added the color code (orange for pioneers) and voilà! The same process described here was used for the LandWasserSchlepper, but with a bigger splash.

Thanks for reading!

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Wow Sylvain - Tray 07 is a Tray of Treasures! Some truly incredible hobby engineering here - featuring engineering equipment and tasks, no less! At the game level involving 6mm figures these sorts of things are ideal for helping to show/locate critical tasks for advancing forces. 

This is all brilliantly done - and I am sure many, many Challengers will appreciate the water effects tutorial as well! Between the amazing water effects and the awesome signage and details in the command vignettes, I'm using my totalitarian minion powers to round this up to 65 points. Great work!

GregB