Jagdpanther

I haven't had some of Zvezda's fresher 1/100 models, including their tank destroyers. I've felt a bit down with my painting and sought for something simple to do, so I bought a bunch of them now, including this Jagdpanther. 

I went with a dunkelgelb basecoat, reddish brown and dark green stripes, then a layer of highlights, a brown wash and a buff drybrush. The camo net is made of an old curtain, green tea and moss. The muzzle brake also broke off and has been replaced by a bit of dowel and green stuff.

More tanks

A Matilda and a PzIVF. Bought at a local hobby store on a family trip early July. It is important to support local hobby businesses.

More Zvezda 1/100 fighting vehicles

Parts of the latest mad money spending, eight Zvezda vehicles, 50/50 for the Germans and the Russians.

15mm ground targets, fences and ruins

The WW2 campaign is rolling on, and here's some neat stuff to bomb to pieces. First a cruiser/destroyer (depending on scale) and two 152mm howitzers.

More Soviet armor

Two more KV-1s finished for the Red storm. I figured converting T-34 turrets to resemble the KV-85 would be too much of a burden and as the KV-1's main gun is the same category in my house rules it matters little.

VMC Russian Green was used for the main parts on a black undercoat, then a black wash and highlights were added, followed by some rust sponge patches and pigment on the tracks.

With these I have 4 KV-1s and 2 KV-2s.

The Battle of Medvenka AAR

This game was played on the 2nd day of Christmas, but other content for the blog kept it waiting. Here appears a full force of both Germans and Soviets, and as we are still imited to a 4x4 foot table, the battlefield is kind of packed.

As part of a German offensive on the East, a strike force, after a previous recon misson, was sent out to shatter the defenses of the Russian village Medvenka.

German OOB

3x Elite Tiger tanks

5x Panther tanks

1x SS squad with Hanomag

3x Infantry platoons with two squads and MG support

Air support: 1x Ju-87, 1x Fw-190

4 artillery barrages

Soviet OOB

Heavy tank company, 1x KV-1 HQ, 2x KV-2

Medium tank company, 3x T34/85, 3x T34/76

2x Bunkers with 85mm turrets

3x Infantry platoons with LMG support

1x BM-5 Katyusha

PSC 15mm T-34

First batch of my Christmas present painted. Two T-34/76s and three T34/85s, one as a company commander. 

Zvezda 1/100 Katyusha, ZIS-5 and Opel Blitz

Materiel and heavy armature for 15mm WW2 gaming. Cheap, easy to assemble and paint. There were minor troubles around the axis and wheels though, they could be an easier fit. It required a lot of drilling and sanding and it almost broke.

Katyusha and little brother. The painting scheme on these was the usual, black basecoat, block painting, wash, highlights and finish. I did not add any further weathering. On the tyres I used a dark grey highlight and black glaze.

Zvezda PzIVD and BA-10

The last post with the Zvezda lot, two more ground vehicles this time. I added some green stripes to the PIV on the regular factory grey coat (I have found an image where an early PIV was shown with this sort of camo).

Besides that, it is the usual combinaton of basecoat, undercoat, wash, highlight and drybrushing. These two were the last of the MDF bases I ordered a while ago so I will need replacements.

The BA-10 has a 45mm gun turret which makes it kind of overpowered against other APCs. 

I have ordered the PSC Soviet infantry box and the next week is holidays so I will see into reducing my painting stash.

Zvezda Soviet Heavy Tank Company (KV-1&2)

I bought a bunch of Zvezda Art of Tactic vehicles on Friday and painted them on the weekend. I have bought the KV-2s earlier but figured I had not posted them yet. 

All three have winter camo in different states of deterioration, the KV-2s are obviously more weathered.

Some terrain pieces and other things

First, the whatever-these-are called things you put before your guns - we call them 'baskets' which is quite close to what they are. Made of greenstuff, plasticine, sand and 9mm pistol cartridge shells.

Here you can inspect the bottom of one.

Tiger Hunt

Brought the freshly painted Tigers to battle against a Russian tank column. 2 Tigers vs. a KV-1, a T-34/76, a T-26 and a BT-5. One Russian tank actually survived.

The Tigers were looking for positions when the T-26 intercepted them. Caring little about it the Germans pushed forward and engaged with the main Soviet force. The first casualty was the BT-5, it went out with a large boom.

The Tigers changed positions quickly and took out the  KV-1 as it was too slow to turn and was caught in its rear. The remaining two then failed the morale test and then the re-roll. 

The T-26 was lucky enough to get off the table but with a long shot one of the Tigers destroyed the T-34. Was it Tiger Hunt or Tigers Hunt now?

Plastic Soldier Company Pz.Kpfw. VI 'Tiger I's

Thes, upon my call to help me out growing my 15mm WW2 arsenal, were generously sent by Mr Andrew Saunders from Loki's Great Hall; I do owe him one for this. Supposed to be the early version Tigers but I was sort of deliberate with some details. 

With the Zvezda kits I have obviously became too comfortable. Fitting pegs and holes everywhere, one-piece tracks and so on. Now these are only one step more difficult so assembly took a little more time but everything went OK. The tracks'n'wheels are made of 4 parts so there had to be a little sequence undercoating each part one after another but with that the hardships were over.

On to painting: a black undercoat, mixed earth brown and yellow basecoat, brown and green camo as on the kit box; then a drybrush of gunmetal on the necessary parts and medium gray on the hull. Then came a finish of quickshade and a wash with the Vallejo pigment plus extra weathering on the tracks. They look worn and war-torn and beaten by weather and that is how I imagined them. Success. 

Zvezda Sd.Kfz. 251s

These little (not so little in real life I assume) APCs were used by the German army. Produced by Zvezda in their Art of Tactic range, scale is 1/100. The details are more than ideal with the MGs on top, exhaust pipes (or fire extinguishers? looks like that on the box art) near the front wheels and so on.

Assembly took no more than 15 minutes per model (including one broken front axis and pegs breaking on the track part which required some gluing); then a black undercoat, dark grey basecoat and the standard two sessions of drybrushing. I was more careful with weathering this time and it has obviously paid off.

Bases are cardboard as I've underestimated the number of my forces and had ordered too few MDF bases. Things like that happen to all of us. 

Weathering experiments

So I have bought some Vallejo pigments which is fine, but I had no idea how to apply it properly. I mean OK, put it on the tank but how much and how dry etc. Here are three AFVs which were not weathered before (the others made after these have a strong drybrush on the tracks/lower hull) so I experimented on them a little.

The first one was the KV-1. The one which the Revell enamel paint ruined pretty much. I started the work at insufficient light and it looked all right until next morning when the pigment fixer dried completely and left an enormous amount of dust and mud on the poor vehicle. Fortunately a layer of varnish removed most of it, and it's still better than it was before.

Now the other two are a tad different, I was more careful with the amount of pigment used (the 38t still looks like a mud wrestler though). I also applied a wash made of water, pigment and pigment fixer which in the end looked just the way I wanted - dust settled on the AFV. 

I have spent all the weekend painting vehicles so these will be featured during the next week.

Zvezda 1/100 AFVs

These vehicles are, again, from the 'Art of Tactic' range made by Zvezda. Quick assembly plastic models: a Russian T-26, and a German Panzer II and StuG III.

The Germans. This shot was taken earlier the day and light isn't that good. Still trying to configure how to take better shots.

Painted Zvezda T-34 (+ more of the PzIV)

Finished the Zvezda Art of Tactic T-34 during the weekend and thought I'd include the Panzer IV too as the latest photos weren't the brightest. 

An easy way to paint it again, black undercoat, sea green with a bit of yellow added then two brighter green drybrushes and one drybrush with gunmetal around the edges, still not entirely content with the green. A clever 'Za Stalina!' lettering is added to the turret.

Finished PzIV

Here is the final product, quickshaded (the room is still full of poisonous fumes). Great quality overall.

WIP - Zvezda 1/100 Panzer IVD

A quick one to let you know I'm still alive and fighting the unnamable horrors of studies. Picked up this tiny Panzer for a sort of relief between two exams and now all it lacks is a layer of the quickshade+finish combo to begin full service. The photos are generously provided by my roommate and his cell phone camera, I think they aren't that bad. 2 of 10 actually made it worth posting.

 

This is an early version of the Panzer IV so I went on with the bluish grey camo I found somewhere googling 'panzer IV d camouflage'. Black basecoat, dark grey then drybrushed with two lighter tones and a 'Dark Earth' brown on the tracks and lower sections of the hull. I will post more when it's done.

Other news: I couldn't find the Peasant Army so I bought some Janissaries and that immediately launched a chain of ideas,  maybe it's time for heavy conversion work and making some Hungarians to oppose them.

Here's a welcome to James Brewerton, proud owner of Exiles Wargames Painter. Hope you enjoy your time here.

Finished - 15mm 30YW

So my first 15mm figs are based and complete. I chose the coin bases again because I could still put them on trays later and this is what fits my homegrown rules. It was finally sunny on the 27th after a joyful but dark Christmas time, and while working with artificial lights the photos of the figs were real bad, the sunshine helped me take some good ones.

Close-up on the musketeers.