PaK 40 auf RSO

Between tournaments I will be building a new Platoon of Veteran Tank Hunters of PaK 40's auf RSO.

Those Germans put PaK 40's on everything that moved...

PSC offers a great kit that includes parts to make a PaK 40 and three versions of the RSO (Raupen Schlepper Ost), one of which is the PaK 40 auf RSO. Sadly, you cannot build them both at the same time.

Fortunately I had a couple of spare PaK 40's from the Battlefront Puma kit. These are a perfect fit.

I previously built the PaK's to go with my Grenadiers (which are going to be painted soon, I swear).

Neatly magnetised with magnets that are way too small...

Golden Grenade tournament

I've finished my Company for the upcoming Golden Grenade tournament...

This will be my first V4 tournament and my first proper tournament in almost two years... Come to think of it, I have only played three games of V4 so far...

 At 1200 points, it was quite a puzzle coming up with something that was reasonably balanced and for which I had the models available (I don't have that many Germans, yet)...

Decals? Check! Crew? Check! Weathering? Check! All finished and ready to go...

In about a month I will be taking this list and expand it to 1650 points for the next tournament... Just need to paint some more panzers...

A new Flames of War Project

With the release of V4 Flames of War I decided it was about time to re-boot my all-plastic German Army for Late War...

Triggered by the appearance of the plastic SdKfz. 231 8 Rad from PSC (which is an excellent kit, by the way) I set out to build an Aufklärungskompanie. I sold my old Company (Hermann Göring Panzerkompanie) and started building a new collection.

With an ever growing number of plastic kits to choose from, there are just so many options. The three main brands I have been using are Plastic Soldier Company, Battlefront and Zvezda, with PSC being my main supplier... In addition to these three brands I also use Shapeways to get 3D-printed models to fill the gaps between the main three ranges.

As the project is well underway already, I will start with a sneak peek of a selection of painted models...

US Armored reinforcements for Flames of War

Some more reinforcements for my US Flames of War forces... 

A Platoon of M10 Tank Destroyers... These models have been waiting for paint for a long, long time...

Together with my M36 Jacksons which I painted a year ago... I updated these with some new antennas. I think I came close enough to the older models, the new M10's will fit in without problem.

A M31 TRV... The model is still missing it's Commander, but he'll be painted soon. I enhanced the model with some stowage and tracks with dust guards.

And my current painting project (one of them)... A Platoon of M12 155mm SPG's. These models were in dire need of an overhaul, extra stowage and some sandbags.

Taskforce A reinforcements

For my Late War Taskforce A for Flames of War (from the Overlord book) I painted some armored reinforcements to further enhance the mobile ability of this list...

I have already played with the list several times, but so far always used a full Platoon of Combat Engineers and an Armored Rifle Platoon. The two new units will allow me to put more focus on armored support.

Four M8 Scotts... I added some stowage and improvised armor (a couple of sandbags) to tie them in with the rest of my armored forces.

These are the first models to be given my new style antenna... Before I used nylon brush hairs but these tended to get warped out of shape during transport. The new antennas are a bit shorter (only 35mm) and are made from a thin metal rod (.45mm in diameter).

Three new M4 Shermans... As with the Scotts I added stowage and Improvised armor. The model on the left doesn't need improvised armor as it already benefits from the special Swastika Ward Save...

Together with an armored M4 OP (from the Priest Battery) and the M4 with dozerblade from the Engineers. 

Blitzkrieg Germans for Flames of War

I've been collecting and painting Americans for Flames of War for a couple of years now, building a Company suited for both Mid War and Late War. For this project I relied (and still do) exclusively on Battlefront models.

Quite recently I started with Early war Germans... 

In the picture below is my Leichte Panzer Company from the Blitzkrieg book. It's still far from done, but I'm aiming to finish these models before the Early war tournament I'm going to attend.

When reading through this blog you might notice that I have a thing for plastic models... For my Germans I chose to take this a step further... I am going to use only plastic models for this project. The Panzer II's and Panzer IV's are from Zvezda, the Panzer III's are from Plastic Soldier Company and the Panzer I's are from Minairons. The Stuka is from Victrix, and is in 1:100 too.

Getting the models I need/want in plastic is a bit of a challenge, as there isn't a lot of the Early War period equipment available (yet)... Choices have to be made, consessions have to be done... For now, this Company is adequate, and I'm also working on some very nice Panzer 38(t)'s. However, I am very much looking forward to plastic 88's and plastic Recce vehicles...