Tag: german

Constructing the Flames of War German Panther A Platoon

I bought this box set as it was available at Hobbycraft for a much cheaper price than the list price last year.

Panther is the common name of a medium tank fielded by Nazi Germany in World War II that served from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the T-34, and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV; while never replacing the latter, it served alongside it as well as the heavier Tiger tanks until the end of the war. The Panther’s excellent combination of firepower, mobility, and protection served as a benchmark for other nations’ late war and immediate post-war tank designs, and it is frequently regarded as one of the best tank designs of World War II.

Having cleaned the castings, I then started the construction process, first by gluing the tracks onto the hull. Then adding the extra components of which there is a fair few.

I found fitting the front mudguards the most challenging part of the model, it wasn’t easy to fit them flush and in the right position. I decided not to model any of the Panthers without them, as was shown on the box.
For the command vehicle I added some extra stowage from the Panzergrenadiers Headquarters pack. For this vehicle I also kept the armoured skirts off. For the others I either used the full armoured skirt or cut them down to represent battle damage.

Some of the models come with “extra armour” in terms of road wheels and spare tracks. Sometimes this is sculptured on to the turret or hull. I added additional “extra armour” to some of the models.

The following pictures show the finished Panthers before they are undercoated.

I found fitting the front mudguards the most challenging part of the model, it wasn’t easy to fit them flush and in the right position. I decided not to model any of the Panthers without them, as was shown on the box.

For the command vehicle I added some extra stowage from the Panzergrenadiers Headquarters pack.

For this vehicle I also kept the armoured skirts off.

For the others I either used the full armoured skirt or cut them down to represent battle damage.

Some of the models come with “extra armour” in terms of road wheels and spare tracks. Sometimes this is sculptured on to the turret or hull. I added additional “extra armour” to some of the models.

I added some extra stowage from the Panzergrenadiers Headquarters pack.

The next stage will be an undercoat.

Constructing the Flames of War German Panther A Platoon

I bought this box set as it was available at Hobbycraft for a much cheaper price than the list price last year.

Panther is the common name of a medium tank fielded by Nazi Germany in World War II that served from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the T-34, and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV; while never replacing the latter, it served alongside it as well as the heavier Tiger tanks until the end of the war. The Panther’s excellent combination of firepower, mobility, and protection served as a benchmark for other nations’ late war and immediate post-war tank designs, and it is frequently regarded as one of the best tank designs of World War II.

Having cleaned the castings, I then started the construction process, first by gluing the tracks onto the hull. Then adding the extra components of which there is a fair few.

One of the Panthers is going to be my command vehicle and so I have modelled it with the tank commander in the cupola. I will also be leaving the “skirts” off, in the assumption that they have been lost in combat and have not yet been replaced. This will also differentiate the tank from the others in the platoon.

I will also be leaving the “skirts” off, in the assumption that they have been lost in combat and have not yet been replaced. This will also differentiate the tank from the others in the platoon.

Flames of War German Panther A Platoon

I bought this box set as it was available at Hobbycraft for a much cheaper price than the list price last year.

Panther is the common name of a medium tank fielded by Nazi Germany in World War II that served from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the T-34, and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV; while never replacing the latter, it served alongside it as well as the heavier Tiger tanks until the end of the war. The Panther’s excellent combination of firepower, mobility, and protection served as a benchmark for other nations’ late war and immediate post-war tank designs, and it is frequently regarded as one of the best tank designs of World War II.

The resin and metal certainly fills the box.

There are five Panthers in the box and the hulls and turrets are in resin.

These are clean castings and the detail is very good, the Panthers for example have the Zimmeritt paste and you can see how the where it has “chipped off” has been modelled onto the hull.

Each of the castings is different, with this one there are spare tracks attached to the turret as extra armour.

They are very clean castings and the small piece of flash on the turret with this model was basically all that needed to be cleaned off.

The castings needed mininal cleaning before the next stage of constructing the models.

See the workbench feature on my Flames of War Panther A Platoon.

15mm German SdKfz 251 Armoured Half Track

The SdKfz 251 (Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251) half-track was an armored fighting vehicle designed and first built by Germany’s Hanomag company during World War II. One of the most common, and best armoured of the wartime half-tracks, the SdKfz 251 was designed to transport the panzergrenadiers of the German mechanized infantry corps into battle. Widely known simply as “Hanomags” by both German and Allied forces, they were widely produced throughout the war, with over 15,252 vehicles and variants produced in total by various manufacturers.

This is an old metal model that I think was made by SDD. I am using it as a testbed for which method I should use with my Flames of War resin models and I suspect in the end it will probably end up as a piece of scenery.

Having given the model a basecoat of Warpaint German Armour the next stage will be to add the disruptive camouflage.

I thought long and hard about how to do this, and I didn’t have or really wanted to buy an airbrush, even though that appears to be the accepted method for doing late war German camouflage.

What I did was take an old paintbrush and cut off the bristles leaving a quarter inch. This brush is then used to stipple on the camouflage pattern.

I used Reflective Green (890) and Chocolate Brown (872).

I am quite pleased with the effect.

Though the official German manual during the war told how the camo pattern was to be applied, it said the raw paint mixture was to be mixed with petrol and sprayed onto the vehicles. Reality and short supplies of petrol meant that more often the camo pattern was “painted” onto the vehicles, sometimes with brushes and sometimes with rags.

I do like the effect that the airbrush gives these models, I am not sure if I have the requisite skill to do it justice on small models like this.

See the workbench feature on the German SdKfz 251 Armoured Half Track.

Flames of War German Panzergrenadier Headquarters

I purchased a Flames of War box of the German Panzergrenadier Headquarters. In the box you get a bunch of resin, plastic and metal. So having cleaned the metal castings, I glued the infantry to some wooden sticks using wood glue. I then gave the models a white undercoat.

See the workbench feature on this boxed set.

Flames of War German Panzergrenadier Headquarters

I purchased a Flames of War box of the German Panzergrenadier Headquarters. In the box you get a bunch of resin, plastic and metal.

I like the fact that you get three different half tracks, having made these up, I decided I must start on the crew and the accompanying infantry at some point.

So having cleaned the metal castings, I glued the infantry to some wooden sticks using wood glue.

Still working out how to hold the crew figures for painting.

See the workbench feature on this boxed set.

Flames of War German Panzergrenadier Headquarters

I purchased a Flames of War box of the German Panzergrenadier Headquarters. In the box you get a bunch of resin, plastic and metal. Having put them all together I gave the models a white undercoat. The next stage was to give the underbody a dark brown basecoat.

This will add shadow to the underneath of the model.

This is how they look from underneath.

I then sprayed the models with Warpaint German Armour.

As my can came without a nozzle, I have had a few issues using the temporary nozzle and as a result I oversprayed the model.

Not many problems, but as you can see in this view, one of the tracks on one of the models got a little too much paint.

I will probably see if I can “remove” the excess paint, otherwise this will be a very muddy SdKfz 251.

One thing I do like about FoW models is that in this set you get three different half track hulls rather than three of a single mould.

One of the key questions I am facing now is how will I do the camouflage. The consensus ont the web is to use an airbrush. I would like to avoid that if possible as it isn’t as convenient or as quick as I would like.

See the workbench feature on this boxed set.

15mm German SdKfz 251 Armoured Half Track

The SdKfz 251 (Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251) half-track was an armored fighting vehicle designed and first built by Nazi Germany’s Hanomag company during World War II. One of the most common, and best armoured of the wartime half-tracks, the SdKfz 251 was designed to transport the panzergrenadiers of the German mechanized infantry corps into battle. Widely known simply as “Hanomags” by both German and Allied forces, they were widely produced throughout the war, with over 15,252 vehicles and variants produced in total by various manufacturers.

This is an old metal model that I think was made by SDD. I am using it as a testbed for which method I should use with my Flames of War resin models and I suspect in the end it will probably end up as a piece of scenery.

Having given the model a white undercoat I gave the underneath of the model an undercoat of Humbrol Dark Brown spray.

This will add shadow to the underneath of the model.

I then gave the model a basecoat of Warpaint German Armour.

The next stage will be to add the disruptive camouflage.

See the workbench feature on the German SdKfz 251 Armoured Half Track.

Flames of War German Panzergrenadier Headquarters

I purchased a Flames of War box of the German Panzergrenadier Headquarters. In the box you get a bunch of resin, plastic and metal. Having put them all together I gave the models a white undercoat.

I still need to add the main frontal armament, any crew and the crew equipment. I maybe should have done that before undercoating…

One thing I do like about FoW models is that in this set you get three different half track hulls rather than three of a single mould.

This photo compares my metal SdKfz 251 with the resin/plastic version from Flames of War.

As you can see there is not only more detail of the FoW model, but the detail is crisper and more defined. The plastic tracks certainly help here as does using resin for the main body.

See the workbench feature on this boxed set.

15mm German SdKfz 251 Armoured Half Track

The SdKfz 251 (Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251) half-track was an armoured fighting vehicle designed and first built by Nazi Germany’s Hanomag company during World War II. The largest, most common, and best armored of the wartime half-tracks, the SdKfz 251 was designed to transport the panzergrenadiers of the German mechanized infantry corps into battle. Widely known simply as “Hanomags” by both German and Allied forces, they were widely produced throughout the war, with over 15,252 vehicles and variants produced in total by various manufacturers.

Like some of my other models I am unsure of the manufacturer of this one. However it is a completely metal model. I want to use this one to test out my German armour paint scheme. I might then use it to create a Flames of War objective.

I found the frontal weapon and stuck it to the model.

After that the next stage was a white undercoat.

Another view.

You can see how it compares to a Flames of War resin and plastic SdKfz 251 in this photograph.

As you can see there is not only more detail of the FoW model, but the detail is crisper and more defined. The plastic tracks certainly help here as does using resin for the main body.

The next stage will be to give the underbody a dark brown basecoat.

See full workbench feature on the German SdKfz 251 Armoured Half Track.