A German Stormbird: Me 262 A2a 'Sturmvogel'

Hello there! I want to show you my early christmas presents: the Sd Kfz 234 and the German Stormbird, Me 262 Sturmvogel. Both are from Battlefront.

But for the main thing in this article is to show you a step by step guide on painting 'scribble' camouflage pattern used by some reconnaissance squadrons. The reference I'm using is from Battlefronts article "Stormbirds: The Messerschmitt Me 262 'Sturmvogel'".

For the color I'm using the once mentioned in the article: Vallejo Brown Violet 887, Luftwaffe Camo Green 823, Pale Grey Blue 907 and for the basecoat I'm using Light Grey 990.

Light Grey 990 added

First of course I had to clean up the model which was very easy as there was very few flash.

Then it was time to start with the painting. I first made a moderate brushing with Light Grey 990 to get a light surface where to add rest of the colors.

I then painted the whole model with Pale Grey Blue 907. This will give me an even lighter base from where to start and it will also serve as the under side of the plane.

Pale Grey Blue 907 added

The next step was to add uneven curvy lines of Brown Violet 887 and Luftwaffe Camo Green 823 to the top side of the plane. For this stage I used a drybrush with a moderate amount of paint on it. Intension was to leave some spots with Pale Grey Blue 907 visible.

For some stupid reason I wasn't paying enough attention to my reference pictures here as there seems to be a coat of Middlestone under the camouflage. I fixed this by drybrushing some Middlestone over the already painted camouflage but leaving some still visible. I then repainted the camouflage using Temperas size 3 brush and doing a mixture of curved lines.

After this I fixed some mistakes made during camouflaging stage on the underside of the fuselage with Pale Grey Blue 907. Then it was time to add some wash to the recess, for this I used Citadels Nuln Oil and Temperas size 3 brush.

Finally I did the markings, bombs and the canopy. For the markings I used Vallejos Black and Citadels Red Gore. The canopy was also painted black. I tried to do some reflection lines but wasn't satisfied in the result. The bombs were painted with Vallejos Hull Red and washed with Nuln Oil.

Finished Me 262 A2a 'Sturmvogel'

Finished Me 262 A2a 'Sturmvogel'

Here we are, all done and ready. Not as good as I'd hope but a lot better than I expected. This is my second plane ever painted for Flames of War. The other is my IL-2 Shturmovik for the Soviets.

Please leave a comment or a thumbs up.

Stonebridge

Last year we decided to play a Market Garden game, so there had to be bridges for it. I made couple of simple wooden bridges out of hobby sticks and matchsticks, but the stonebridge wasn't as straight forward as those "daycare-centre-glue-the-sticks-together" -bridges.

From the start I decided the stonebridge to be modular or in three pieces. That way I could field it in full 40 cm (16'') length or in shorter 20 cm (8'') length, considering the width it is supposed to gap; or I could just use the central piece between terrain features. There remains a possibility to build a piece under it if needed (which I will do, as long as I get around building that hill-top village I have planned).

I started by cutting the pieces out of styrofoam. I measured the width of the bridge to be wide enough for Tigers.

The centre piece in plain styrofoam.

Next, I used renovation filler for about a 1 mm  (1/25'') layer that I textured with a toothpick. The toothpick needs to be wet or moist so that the filler doesn't clut on up it.

The texturing in close-up. The stones could have been smaller in size.

I used normal corrugated cardboard for the sides. I cut them higher than the body of the bridge so that they form railings.

Jagdtiger for size.

All the three pieces.

I repeated the filler and texturing for the sides.

The whole bridge textured.

The pieces did't fit exactly, so there remains little gaps.

When everything had dried, I sprayed the bridge with hardwarestore "Gray" that is sort of dark gray and gives also a great base for German Feldgrau. I dry brushed the bridge with lighter gray.

The painted bridge.

In the foreground a matchstick bridge, also painted.

Add some flocking for moss and grass and Gandalf, and I'm done.

Like honey with the bees the bridges draw the Istari.

The bridge was used in the Market Game for our Band of Brothers Total War Campaign that will be addressed in a future post.

"I've had enuff of this, guv'nor!"

Tactica Jagdtiger Chapter 2 - Reluctant Trained

Previously...

We took a look at reluctant veteran Jagdtigers and some ways to use them and lists for 1650 and 1780 points.
...Tactica Jagdtiger Chapter 1 - Reluctant Veterans

Reluctant Trained

In this second chapter we're going to take a look at the 2./512.sPzJgAbt from "Bridge at Remagen". As mentioned before I wont look at the confident veteran list as I have no clear mind over it as of now and no games played with that list. 2./512.sPzJgAbt differents from the reluctant veteran list from "Nuts!" in quite a many ways.

First and the most obvious is that it will get hit easier, a lot. Only being trained you get hit with 3+. Secondly it only requires compulsory sPzJg HQ and one compulsory sPzJg platoon of one Jagdtigers each. That means you'll only need minimum of two Jagdtigers. And thirdly, but no means the worst, you can get Otto "The Laser Beam" Carius!

As with reluctant veterans you need to avoid getting into assaults as you will most likely get into trouble with reluctant rating and eventually get your platoons ran down. And you don't want to waste your platoons in assaults with lists that I have planned.

These lists are made to soak up as much fire as possible and at the same time deliver as big punch as possible. This leads to having a lot of heavy armor which costs you a lot of points but it keeps you alive quite long. Just remember that again you need to work together with your infantry and tanks. Your tanks can't handle assaulting infantry and your infantry can't handle assaulting tanks. And remember to use Carius, get him with a clear lines of sight, just keep him near a forest or house to force those planes to range in on you!

HQ
Compulsory sPzJg HQ 1* Jagdtiger 270
Replace CinC with Carius 85 reluctant veteran

In my lists Carius is a must. With mere 85 points you get to hit everything with their base value at any range up to 120cm/48". You get to ignore concealment and +1 to hit for targets over 40cm/16". And as you ignore concealment your enemy can't benefit of having +1 from Gone to Ground either. This works also inside smoke but here the smoke limits your range to 40cm/16".

He's the ultimate sniper and his primary targets are gun teams and tanks. Also Carius is very useful on taking down enemy artillery.

Combat
You must have one platoon equipped with Jagdtigers and you may have up to two platoons. Al these are reluctant trained so you'll get hit easier but unless you expose your side armor, you'll be fine. Just take a look at enemy artillery and planes.

Compulsory sPzJg platoon 1* Jagdtiger 270 reluctant trained

One individual Jagdtiger can be used to protect one flank with infantry or it can be your platoon in reserve. Won't be nearly as good as Carius but it will still be an asset you can use to channel your enemies movement. Again, remember to use houses and forest against planes as this is just one tank and then the platoon is gone!

Weapons
Here you have an option to get some AAA in a forms of Wirbelwinds or Ostwinds. Ostwinds would be better for their longer range and higher AT and better FP but at the cost of RoF. I think here it's a bit "take what you like" situation so I won't be going any deeper.

Panzer AA Gun platoon 3* Wirbelwind 110 reluctant trained

With mere 110 points you get a good anti-infantry and anti light vehicle unit. But again you need to remember that these have FA 3 and won't stand a chance if put against anything with a big gun. Also use these to limit the places where your enemy can put his AOP or plane. With RoF 6 per vehicle, they are able to take down a full flight of three planes with ease.

Support

Support platoons will give your force some diversity and serious punch. With 6 boxes of options from reluctant conscript Volkssturms to reluctant veteran King Tigers you have the options to give your Jagdtigers a screening force or add more high anti tank, smoke or AA or even the latest Wonderweapon, the Arado 234 B.

sPz platoon 2* Königstiger (Henschel) 600 reluctant veteran
Panzergrenadier platoon 7* panzerfaust/MG, 4* Sd Kfz 251/1 215 reluctant veteran
Air Support Sporadic FW 190F 100

I've chosen to have a bit of all in my list to cope with different situations.

First I've taken Panzergrenadiers as a screening force. They have MGs and half-tracks to stop enemy infantry from assaulting and panzerfausts to stop those tanks even before they think about assaulting. Half-tracks also helps to redeploy if needed and gives me the option to use mounted assault. As veterans these are hard to dig out but as reluctant you may want to stay out of close combat unless you are 100% sure of winning.

My second option is to have some more AT with two King Tigers. With TAS these guys can be a real pain in the ass and can hold out their own on one flank until reinforcements arrive. Also against Soviet tank hordes it helps to have some impenetrable hulls, even SU-100s will have a hard time against these. Just stay near forests and houses and try to position them so that enemy spotters can't get a clear line of sight on you without moving.

With only 100 points left I've opted to take some indirect fire from Luftwaffe, FW 190F. This will force my enemy to spread out and it can be sent after artillery batteries to give them something else to think about. It will have a really free time operating as my forces will most likely not to attack with Defenders of the Ruhr special rule so I won't be going to end up to close to it to stop it from doing its job.

There you have a 1650 points force with 4 platoons and air support. It can assault but it must be done very late in the game. It can dig out guns and infantry and defeat tank hordes to some degree, 20+ T-34s and long table edges deployment would be a very bad thing though.

Up to 1780 points
Now lets take a look at on one way of upgrading the list to 1780 points. 130 points more to use, you could take one more platoon to get 5 platoons. But as with most of the missions the defender has reserves in many of them and that makes having 5 platoons a bit bad thing.

Instead what I've opted to do is, I dropped one Wirbelwind and the FW 190F air support to get one more Jagdtiger and opted to have it as 2iC. This way I will always have two Jagdtigers to put on the field (enemies be afraid!).

I can now have 4 (or 5 if I like) tank killers on the field when facing tank hordes with 50/50 missions. The other options are all good but very dependent on the enemy. For example 5 tanks on the field against combined arms may be a bad idea.

And there you have it, 1780 points and still with 4 platoons.

Thanks you for reading and as always comments are welcome.

15th Panzer division, 8th regiment, 4th company. EW

Here a quick photo about my EW lists. Will do more about this, but these are mostly from gamodls. 8-rads BF.

The List will have 88's with Huebner plus what you see here. Gotta love the compactness of the EW Panzer, now let's meet those T-34's :) And not meet those unarmed sappers. :)

German Mittlere Panzer

Tank Company, from Hellfire and Back, page 62

Compulsory Mittlere Panzerkompanie HQ (p.63) - CinC Panzer IV D, 2iC Panzer IV D (300 pts)
- Sd Kfz 9 half-track (5 pts)

Compulsory Mittlere Panzer Platoon (p.63) - Command Panzer IV D, 2x Panzer IV D (450 pts)

Light Panzer Platoon (p.63) - Command Panzer II C (late), 2x Panzer II C (late), 2x Panzer I (245 pts)

Heavy Panzerspah Platoon (p.73) - Command Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad), Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad) (95 pts)

Luftwaffe Heavy Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon (p.89) - Command SMG, 2x 8.8cm FlaK36 gun (390 pts)
- Replace 8.8cm Flak36 gun with Arnold Hubner (60 pts)
- Kfz 15 field car, Sd Kfz 7 half-track per gun (5 pts)


1550 Points, 4 Platoons

Tactica Jagdtiger Chapter 1 - Reluctant Veterans

Prolog

Hi all!

Now I have been a big fan of Jagdtigers for as many years that I've know these Kitty-Cats and once they were introduced into FoW in "Nuts!" I knew my time had come.

There are only two books which lets you to field these mighty Kitty-Cats on the fields of battle, in "Nuts!" and "Bridge at Remagen". In these books you have many ways to field the biggest FVs of the history, be that a schwere panzerjägerkompanie or infantry company with Jagdtigers as a support choice. Many of you have also read different articles on using and building lists with Jagdtigers in them.

As a fan and keen to help fellow gamers I want to bring to the light some formations and tactics of mine when using Jagdtigers in a schwere panzerjägerkompanie. Now there are three possible variants, reluctant veterans from "Nuts!", and confident veterans and reluctant trained versions from "Bridge at Remagen". I only have experience with reluctant veteran and reluctant trained versions of these so I'll stick with them here.

Further more I'll divide this tactica into two chapters so it'll be easier to follow.

This first part will concentrate on reluctant veteran version from "Nuts!".

Reluctant Veterans

 

For reluctant veterans I have two different lists. We're first going to take a look at the 1650 points list and how to use it. And finally we'll take a look on how to upgrade it to 1780 points.

As your force has been rated as Tank Company, you'll be attacking a lot. You'll need to have assets that can pull that off while still being able to defend your own end. Jagdtigers are a good force to pop dug in infantry and guns with their long range and breakthrough guns before your infantry assaults them. Just be careful with flanking TDs and tank forces as your Jagdtigers will get beaten badly from side shots. Take them out first or block their movement with your infantry.

In Nuts! you'll have to have HQ and 2 compulsory platoons with Jagdtigers. Minimum count for FVs in HQ and platoon is one so that gives us 3 Jagdtigers minimum.

HQ
Compulsory sPzJg HQ 1* Jagdtiger 345

Combat
Compulsory sPzJg platoon 1* Jagdtiger 345
Compulsory sPzJg platoon 1* Jagdtiger 345

This gives us a good start for long range anti tank work. But the cost is great, 1035 for three Jagdtigers, so we'll need to keep other platoons cheap.

Weapons
PzJg AA gun platoon 2* Wirbelwind 100
 
Next up is the weapons platoon. What I've though is we need some cover from all of those AOPs and tank hunting planes so I've invested into two Wirbelwinds for 100 points. This unit can also be used against light vehicles and infantry who are trying to harras my Big Cats. Just try to keep them out of the line of AT fire.

Support
Last we have our support options. You can have two infantry platoons in your force. These include Volksgrenadier Sturms, Volksgrenadier Schützens and Volks pioniers, both as confident veterans and reluctant traineds. And SS-panzergrenadiers and SS-panzerpioniers as fearless traineds.

You have one box for artillery. Here you have a wide range of options from 10.5cm leFH18s through 15cm NW41s to 15cm sFH18s. These come as infantry RT, CV or FT Volks troops or SS troops.

Then we have some more AA in a form of FT SS 3,7cm FlaK43s or 2cm Flakvierlings 38s. And last but not leas we have either FW190 or Sturmvogel as Sporadic Air Support option.

SS-Panzergrenadier platoon 225
SS-Panzerpionier platoon with supply truck 220
Volks Rocket Launcher Battery 3* 15cm NW41s 70

For my list I've gone for SS-Panzergrenadiers for their possibility to use as an assault force and thanks to their MGs for defensive work. In offence you'll need to be careful because your being only trained but in my view it's not that bad on defence.

For my second infantry platoon I've gone for SS-Panzerpioniers with a supply truck. This gives me barbed wire or a minefield and an option for flamethrowers which are always handy if needing to attack.

Last I've filled my list up with some ever usefull nebelwerfers. These are to block LoS from enemy AT assets or some other threats or to rain HE shells into the mids of infantry.

That's it, 1650 points on a nose and 6 platoons.

Up to 1780 points
So what would I change to 1780 points. Not much as with 130 points more to use I'd not take a one full platoon as that'd take me to 7 platoons which is not preferred with this list.

I'd either think about upgrading SS-Panzerpionier platoon to CV Volks pionier platoon to have more assaulting bodies. This would then come my primary assault force.

Second upgrade would be SS-Panzergrenadiers to be upgraded into CV Volksgrenadier Sturm platoon. They'd be my close support unit for Jagdtigers with their assault rifles and panzerfausts.

And here we have 1780 points.

Hope you like it.

In Chapter 2 we'll take a look at reluctant trained version of 512. Schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung.

There's something rotten in the State of ...

Well, Denmark! :)

The local flames of war community has an idea of how the game from NZ should be played, and ask the Global Community for clarification. Friendly Global Community clarifies.

Does it end here?

You can't really trust that the way the games been played for a decade or two has been right, can you?

Then you get supplied a reply to Canadien Local Group who asked this in 2012 by Blake from BF, and is this enough?

So, in order to fix this, the Single Point of Co(mmand)ntact, Phil needs to chip in to satisfy the suspicious Danes.

[quote]
Posted By Phil at Battlefront on 09 Oct 2014 09:44 AM
[quote] 
 Posted By xxxxx on 06 Oct 2014 05:33 AM 
 Well as the topic says. Can they? On page 241 it says "Any German platoon, with a Platoon Command team may attempt a Stormtroopers move in its assault step". Warriors are not platoons and so can't have platoon command teams, but can they do it anyway?[/quote] 
 By the same logic, they can't move either, or be shot at. 
  
 Warriors are platoons in their own right when they haven't joined another platoon, so yes they can make Stormtroopers moves 

 Cheers
[/quote]

The amount of frustration and futile tries to help it took, was nothing than astounding. Also quite a few replied that rule-hunting at this level, is one main reason they don't want to go to tournaments outside their own neighborhood.

Next time, people, just send mail to Phil, and wait for an answer, you'll save a lot of time for everyone, including you.

Kind regards,

Mikko

1250 points Panzerspäh take 2 to a tourney near you.

I took 1250 Späh to tournament last year, and los every single game with it. Had StuHs and Air, but no real assault power besides the StuHs, which was not enough. Also, not having any infantry wasn't too nice when defensing.

So, another list for next tourney, with two big platoons to attack with, enough recon, no AAA, no Smoke, but lot direct fire and infantry platoon that can do everything and stay there for few turns while doing it.

Pak40's, PZIVH's and Lehr Platoon should be enough to defend against most lists, while in attacking the big platoons should work together, assault first with the Panzers, then take the objective with Lehr.

6 Platoons, 1250 points, 7 AT9 guns, 5 AT11 Guns, 3 AT12 Guns, 3 Schrecks, 1 Faust, MG teams.

Heavy tanks are scarce in 1250 points games as are Air support, so will probably take my chance with this.

506. Schwere Panzer Abteilung at 1650 for a spin.

Was going to go with my FJ's/Westfalen to defend in the next game, but, let's try this first. 6 StuGs, 2 KT's, MG teams with HT's, AAA, decent artillery and Sturmvogels to go with. Can have 1-2 KT's, AAA, Artillery on board if no delayed reserves, or maybe 3 StuGs, Artillery, AAA and CiC KT if opponent has AOP or air support. Or all StuGs, or this and that, lots of options depending on enemy. The FA7 of Stugs and the veterancy of the list in general, should make it pretty hard nut for any list.

Easy bocage

I think it has come across, that I like to play Normandy battles, so there has to be bocage for those games. I started the project last year, have played almost every homegame with them, and today I finished. I think.

I bought two kinds of wood profile, triangle and half-round, for about 6 metres of 20 feet. Yeah, it was a lot, and theres still half of them in the first and second stage... But the half of it I finished.

At first, I drilled holes in the half of the profiles and then stuck a bamboo barbeque sticks in those holes. These would be the tree-trunks, because some of the bocage have, not only bushes, but trees too. Then I added some various grains to make the stones.

On the foreground, adding tree-trunks; in the background, stoned bocage.

After that I sprayed them brown.

And had a beer.

(Yes, it's lite, deal with it - even Homewargamer should look fabulous)

Next I forgot the sprayed and dry-brushed bocage outside - as I had sparayed them outside - and  came to realize, that birds don't mind if the grains have poisonous paints over them.

Notice the absence of stones.

 I didn't mind much about eaten stones, because I was going to add the bushes and it would not show.

Just turfed.

The only problem - that I later learned - was that I had used turf, that made really cool looking bushes, but all the loose turf fell off, leaving only a thin coverage.

Turfed bocage.

Notice the big clump of turf, that - and it's kind - lead me to believe it was okay.

It wasn't.

After a year of gaming, the turf had come to a really thin layer. The bocage didn't look like bocage. So this, time I added clump foliage.

Lots of PVA before adding clump foliage.

Finished. Looks a lot better.

Fallschirmjäger from Bridge by Bridge at 1650

After beating my friends US lists black and blue with attacking forces, he's adamant in thinking that attacking is the key to do well in the game, which might not be too far from the truth. 

However, even though I told him to try out mech/tank options if he really wants to attack that much, he insists on wanting to attack with infantry. So without further ado, I'll use next time what I've used before and though originally was thinking of trying out the new FI iterations of FJ's, the BBB boys fit better thematically as they were historically very much in close relations with US Paras.

Here's my take on the 6th FJR at 1650 points, I would be pretty comfortable defending against anything with the list and opted for 4 Stugs in favor of 3 StuHs this time, although the swap is tempting to say the least, could probably go with 4th Pak and 3 StuHs.

4 Stugs

Stuhs, 4 Paks, Faust for CiC and 4th trap added, I think this wins...

I rather dislike the FV infantry vs. FV infantry fests, but we'll see if can make my point with this piece of nastiness.

Fow bloggers of Finland Unite and take over!

We have now 3 active bloggers here, 1 not so active :). Collaboration is good for heart and makes more stuff to any readers we have here. Anyone who wants to put there ideas, minis, AAR's or whatever that is about FOW or similar is welcomed here.

Basically, everyone, you don't need to be Finn to post here.

Kind regards,
Mikko 'Vonrichtofen' Hellemaa

Sound off like you got a pair!

Would you read tutorials written by this man?

I am Pete Pelkonen and I am a new contributor to this blog.

I first started modelling when I was a boy, but in my teens I found another hobbies, but every now and then I turned my thoughts on returning to the hobby. Years went on, I bought a lot of models for Normandy landing diorama in 1:35, but it didn't catch on. Yet.

In the year 2010 I bought a 1:48 Tamiya model of North American P-51D Mustang (Chuck Yeager) that I built and wrote an article of the process to Finnish modelling magazine Pienoismalli (2/2011). The real itch had begun.

In 2012 I happened to walk in a gaming store ("I'm just looking") my eye caught a starter set of Flames of War. The box included two StuGs and three Shermans. The same summer I ordered Tigers March and Panzergrenadier company. Since then, my armies have grown to include two companies of US paratroopers, an US beach assault company, an armoured US company, an SS company with strong support platoons... and in the boxes awaits a German armoured company and Soviet armoured battalion.

I am not a competetive player, but a recreational player. I like small games, but I love huge Total War games. I like the games to represent the true history and therefore I have played with few of my friends the Normandy landing and later the Market Garden. Still to come, the Bastogne. In talks are the Kursk and Berlin. The thing in common with all of these games is, that they were played at home. Hence, Homewargamer. Hence, lots of terrain at home.

Some scratch built nests.

My contribution to this blog is mostly going to be easy building tutorials concerning terrain features, but I will also write out our 5000+ point Total War games.

Why I like to stay at home? Wife, two kids. Questions?

Also, I'm trying to raise a next generation of wargamers.
Pictured the Normandy anniversary game, that my kids started to play,
but I ended up finishing with a friend.

Incoming! - Homerwargamer infiltrates the trenches

Mikko asked me to contribute to this blog and every now and then I will share something from my own blog - Homerwargamer - in here. First, I would like to write about making trenches. So here goes.

I didn't take pictures of the earilest stages of the making - that's something I will revisit when I get around making intersections and shorter trench pieces - but can still describe how I did them.

At first I thought about the trenches a lot. There is a thing that cannot be overlooked, the mindwork. Don't just make them, think about it first, especially when making modular elements as my trenches: will it work compared to other pieces of the modularity; what if I put this piece backwards, would it work; etc. After I had stumbled through these things I was ready to go.

I had decided to make three triangle corners, four square corners, five pentagon corners, nine straight trenches measuring 20 cm (8'') and four gun pits that could join the trench system. From early on I had decided the trenches to have back wall too, because that models the trench being dug better than just the front - at least I think so.

I started by sawing the bases for the trenches out of hard board (recycled old table pieces) and made them 10 cm (4'') wide, which is almost 7 cm (2 3/4'') wider than the medium base. This way, I had enough room to slope the sides and fit the logs inside the trenches.

I glued the logs first. I put four bamboo barbeque sticks on the table vertically, spacing them so that the outmost sticks were 20 cm (8''), the length of the trench section, apart from each other. Then I glued four sticks (already cut to length) side-by-side horisontally. I left a small space and then repeated this as many times as there were room or when I had enough loggings (sic? - not Kenny, though, younger readers, ask your dad or watch Top Gun). After the glue had dried, I cut the log elements out with pliers. (This whole paragraph is hard to describe in words, but as said, I will revisit the subject.)

Next I cut styrofoam to about 1 cm x 2cm strips that I glued to the bases (I had carved the the edges of the bases with my Sissipuukko - google it) so that there were enough room for medium base and log elements. Then I glued in the log elements. For corners I did not make the log elements, but glued the sticks straight to the styrofoam.

Finally, a picture!

I carved the rectangular styrofoams edges off. The coarser the styrofoam and duller the knife, the more uneven and therefore more realistic did the slope end up.

When cutting styrofoam, have the vacuum cleaner standing by. If you don't and The Wife walks into the mess, they will never find your body.

Added some sand to the slopes and to the bottom of the trench.

Sand added, stolen from the kids sand box.

I thought about the painting and ended up taking the easy way: I sprayed the trenches first with hardware stores "brown" (gloss, damn them) and went over it with Mil-Tec's Dunkelgelb. That's right, Dunkelgelb.

Dunkelgelbed. No - coyote browned. No - beiged. No - sand browned. It's  light brown, fellows.

I also painted some gauze bandage with olive green, so I could cut it to desired size, soak in watered down PVA and mold in place.

"I think these bandages are past 'best before' -date..."

 In total, I made 180 cm (6') of straight trench, add corners and that comes to total of about 340 cm (11' 2'') of trench. Plus the gun pits.

Stacked trenches.

 Of course I had to recreate a scene from a TV show on our kitchen table...

Not Sponge Bob Squarepants.

...And then I had to play the scene from a TV show with a friend.

This time around, Lipton actually blew up a gun.

As said, I am forced to revisit the trenches when I make the intersections. Maybe foxholes, too.

-Pete

Brainstorming German Mech - 1650 punkte.

So, the hunt for mech to train with goes on.

First one is your bog standard Atlantic wall - Panzer Lehr. This should attack infantry pretty well, due the ample recon and some digging power as well. Defending versus tanks would be doable as well.

Second one would be da Puma horde, likewise from AW. I kinda like this one, myself, Pumas, strong infantry platoon, Panthers/Pak40s.

Third one is geared towards getting there fast, and holding the objective long enough, all the while limiting risks with smoke. The mortar wagons double as digging tools.

4th option doesn't lack speed, either, and has my new favorite tool, StuHs on top, this might lack some staying power though.

Sharing is caring, people, let me know if you prefer one, or if you think they all suck, let me know as well. I'm gonna pick one of these to start getting good with. And promise to do a show and tell afterwards. :)

Looking at the lists, Halkomahooli is producing, makes me wonder a bit...

2./506. Schwere Panzerabteilung reinforced!! UPD. Now also 2./512. Schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung reinforced!

"Sir, we have replacements. Two PzKpfw VI Ausf. B "Tiger"s has just arrived from maintenance. Company is now at full strength."

Old KT in the middle, new KTs on the sides

This means my troops for Oosterbeek are now ready. Let those British and American dogs walk straight to our trap!

My oldest KT was made long ago and you can tell. But somehow now that all the KTs are ready and I put them side by side, I like the camouflage on the oldest KT is the best... strange! I thought I'd have learned to paint better by now. Perhaps I need to redo some of the camouflage on the new KTs. Perhaps some fading is in order.

Anyhow I wanted these to look that they have had some repairs in the rear areas and hastly sended to aid in the defense of Oosterbeek. That's why there are replaced guns and turrets etc. without camouflage paint (though should have bought the non-zimmerit ones, these look awful with zimmerit!).

Now to finish some Jagdtigers(done!) and 3,7cm FlaK43s!

UPDATE: 2./512 Schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung

Carius with his company

Now we have more Jagdtigers to deploy to the fields of battle. Their leader is the most famous Otto Carius, better known for his actions leading a Tiger I E tank.

My Carius' model is not the BFs Carius but rather a normal Jagdtiger that I use as Carius. No need to buy one more Jagdtiger when I have 3 already!

Here again, as with KTs, I went with a worn look. Also some fuelcans and other stowage was added to personalization.

Enjoy!