15mm WWII Germans for Early through Late War

[Just Jack]

All,

Well, if you thought my British force for NW Europe is big, just wait until you see this! Like the Brits, this force is set up along the T/O&Es of the Rapid Fire Reloaded rules, with a three-battalion infantry regiment and then various and sundry supporting vehicles, guns, and armor. This force is large, but only because I did my best to keep one set of infantry to serve throughout the entire war. So, rather than a gray uniform/helmet for early war and camo for later war, I went with a gray-green uniform with camo helmet covers (kind of a PanzerGrenadier Grossdeutschland look, maybe?), hoping that help me slide by from the beginning to the end, and then I took some liberties with softskins and other support weapons and painted them a dark green, as a sort of compromise between dark gray and dunkelgelb. I hope it works, and would love to hear what you think, good or bad.

As with the British, I did a lot of painting myself, but I also bought a considerable amount of stuff already painted (particularly from my buddy AJ) to help round it out.

Enough yakking, let’s take a look!

Here it is, the whole mess. The infantry, softskins, and various support weapons are in the big box at left, early war armor in the box at top right, and late war armor in the box at bottom right.

Some German rifle stands, showing the gray-green uniforms with camo helmet covers.

A pair of the dreaded ’88s.’

Motorcycle troops.

A short-barreled Panzer IV. This was the first time I tried doing muddy tracks and using makeup brushes for dry-brushing, and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out.

A trio of Tigers. Man, I have no idea how I got so many Tigers, but I’ve got three in gray and three in dunkelgelb camo. In any case, more than I should ever need, hopefully not more than my Allies can handle.

A Sdkfz 250 for mid- to late war.

A pair of Jagdpanthers.

Stuka!!!

To see a bunch more photos, please check the blog at:
https://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2021/06/15mm-wwii-germans-for-early-through.html

So, whaddaya think? Worthy of hitting the table and (hopefully) getting its ass whipped? I certainly hope so 😉 It’s been a long time coming, but I’m finally ready to play, now I just need to hop in with both feet, and it’s weird, I’m kind of scared, like I don’t know where to start. Which, if you follow my blogs, you know that’s not typically an ailment that afflicts me, I usually hop in and hit 20 to 50 fights before I even realize what happened. Part of the problem is that I want to follow a particular British unit (brigade, probably) through the fighting in NW Europe, but then I think, “well, if I’m going to do that I should start in France 1940, then do some North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, before they hit the beach on 6 June 1944.” Sound crazy? Yeah, it is, but I’ve already found myself looking for some Vickers light tanks, A10s, and Matildas in green (already got’em in desert colors). It’s definitely a sickness…

I still have some US troops and vehicles and German FJ, all for North Africa, to post in the coming days. Anyway, hope all is well, and please drop me a line to let me know what you think.

V/R,
Jack

[Deleted User]

All you need are the infantry, SdKfz 222 and Panzer IIs, maybe a Panzer III. real men can take over Europe with just those.
I think you should have gone with Hs 129 just to be different. Or Fw190F to match the British fighter bomber.

I like those camo up Pz II and SdKfz 222.

I’ve used the “ladies’ makeup brushes”, wasn’t happy with them because the hairs kept coming off.

[Whirlwind]

Lovely looking stuff Jack. I have been working on something pretty similar myself…

[Just Jack]

Thomaston – Indeed, and luckily they weren’t real men 😉  A division of Marines prob’ly coulda done it though, amiright? 😉  I really like the FW-190 (not so much the HS-129, which I could have gotten some off Ebay for real cheap), but I figured by the time the Focke-Wulf came around the Germans weren’t seeing very much CAS anyway.  Plus, the Stuka is just so iconic to me, gotta have them.  Those make-up brushes were AWESOME for me; yeah, some of the bristles came out, but nothing catastrophic.

John – Thanks man, and I can’t wait to see to see your new gear.  On a side note, I haven’t made any process on Napoleonics, and it’s really aggravating me.  I’ve even re-read some of your Polemos batreps lately, and I’m motivated to play some, but don’t have the troops…

V/R,
Jack

[Whirlwind]

Thanks Jack.  Mine is a little way off, since the project grew the wrong way around – partly your fault for the inspirational campaigns and battle reports over the years!!  I realized I could follow a platoon (in 15mm) and a company or so (6mm) from most of the major combatants from the beginning of the war…but that means I want to add Poles, French, Japanese and Chinese too.  So I reckon another few months yet, since the ones I don’t have are largely the ones to get onto the table first!

Most of all though, I just want to get really back into figure and board games – most of my gaming time recently has been spent on RPGs and video games (my eldest two prefer them), which is fine, but I prefer the more tactile and analogue stuff.

With all the effort you have been putting into Vietnam and WW2, I am surprised you even have time to consider Napoleonics – more power to you!!

[ian pillay]

Glup. My word that’s amazing!

Tally-Ho! Check out my blog at…..
http://steelcitywargaming.wordpress.com/

[Just Jack]

John – Yes, I know EXACTLY how you feel.  Like I said, I want to jump my Brits straight into Normandy, but how could I pass up following those same guys through France, North Africa, Sicily, and Italy first?  Yeah, my boys would much rather play videogames than wargames with their old man as well; don’t misunderstand, they get very excited to play, but once we’re in there and hit about the 45-minute mark they’re ready to get outta there.  And not just Napoleonics, but ACW and AWI, too! 😉  Napoleonics will always be a love of mine, and I have vacillated so often between wanting to play tactical level fights (one unit is an infantry battalion/cavalry regiment, with multiple bases so I can show formation) and grand tactical level fights (one base=a brigade) that I’ve come to the realization I will never really be happy until I can do both, probably the former in 10mm and the latter in 6mm.  But I sold all my painted Napoleonics and so I’m not currently able to do anything…

Iain – Thanks man!

V/R,
Jack

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