Flames of War: Panzer II "whitewashed"

 Hello guys!

It has been a long time since I last updated this blog... I had some health (eyes) issues, and thank God, everything is fine now, and I was able to finish some  painting projects I had unfinished, like a 1/35 model diorama (not gaming stuff) and some ancients in 28mm , as well as some Flames of War miniatures like these here.

This time I painted 3 Zvezda plastic 1/100 or 15mm Panzer IIs for my Stalingrad project.

The detail of these little tanks is decent and good enough for gaming purposes, and they are quite light and small.  I really enjoyed painting them in winter camouflage, with the white wash over the panzer grey paint.  

By late 1942 (and almost 1943) Panzer II were clearly outdated and outgunned by enemy tanks, but they were still useful as rear guard actions or airfield protection.  As I am buillding a small airfield , inspired in  Gumrak airport in Stalingrad, or something similar, with a 1/100 Junkers 52 in the airstrip... I wanted to have some Panzer II as the defense force against Soviet hordes in my games.

I used  Ammo Mig Chipping fluid over the panzergrey paint, and the white paint over this fluid... then just brushed on some water, and the white paint began to tear off or "chip".

Then I applied the usual weathering on the tanks as follows...

Gloss varnish, decals, more gloss varnish to protect all the previous work... filters, oil dots fading,  pin washes, chipping, dust & mud, and matt varnish!

I hope you like these small tanks!

Flames of War: PaK 40 team

 Hello guys, 

I bring you just a quick update of last month's painting, a couple of German WWII anti tank guns, 7.5cm Pak 40,  in plastic, from Flames of War, these are from the old set "Open Fire".   I don't paint 15mm miniatures quite often, but these were fairly easy to paint, although they are not my best paintjob, as I prefer to paint vehicles.

I used an airbrush to paint the guns, using Ammo Mig paints and products to do the weathering, later  I used beach sand and static grass to make the bases.

I painted them in panzer grey, although at the end of 1942 it was about to be changed by the famous dark yellow used by the Germans from mid war until the end of the war... this limit a little bit the useage of this guns... but as my friend and me are not "button counters" I will probably field them in games set in later stages of the war.

This summer I played several games of Flames of War with a friend, mostly battles set in 1942-43 in the eastern front, so I needed heavy AT guns to counter the waves of Soviet  T-34's fielded by my friend... My panzers III and IV (short barrel) were not enough, so a couple of brand new (at least in 1942) Pak 40 will bolster my Wehrmacht forces during Fall Blau offensive.

I hope you like them!

More 3D printing beauties: World War 2 tanks

 Hello friends, It has been a month since my last post, I will update the blog soon with some painting minis, but in the meantime, in this little summer entry, Let me introduce to you some vehicles in 28mm and 15mm, for Bolt Action and Flames Of War respectively.

A hobby colleague is very well equipped with 3D printers, and he has brought these WWII vehicles 3D printed for me. For my German project (1944 and 1945), and for my ambitious Far East project of Japanese, Chinese, and Manchukuo armies/vehicles. 

The vehicles I have ordered are practically impossible to get them from the main manufacturers in plastic or resin, because no one seems to produce them, so I finally opted for this fantastic technology, as I have done earlier with XVII c. stuff.

The first of them is a 28mm  Jagdpanzer IV L/70 Alkett, a vehicle that I have always liked, and that I was lucky enough to see in the tank in Saumur tank museum, in 2015, the only one left in the world of this variant.

In my opinion the model has a pretty good quality, the only thing that seems poorly designed are the tracks which I will have to cover with mud, and I also will add some stowage  and plastic parts of other kits in order to give it more flavour and improve the general looking.

The second vehicle is a 28mm 6 ton  Vickers tank, used in small numbers by the Nationalist Chinese army in 1937,  It is an odd vehicle that I loved when I saw it in action during the battle scene of the most excellent film "Nanking Nanking" (2009). 

the third tank is a Japanese Type 89 medium tank of the early thirties, that fought on Manchuria and Shanghai in 1931, and then in China, Mongolia, Malaya, Philipines....  the model is in 28mm and In my opinion, the best detailed of all, specially the tracks!   I got 2 versions from different sculptors.

later model (best quality)

Earlier model (worse quality)

And finally, the two antagonists in different scales :)

I hope you like this little post, I am looking forward to paint them as soon as I come back home from my holydays!

Flames of War: Stalingrad Panzers

Hello guys! 

It has been a month since I last updated the blog... You know, summer , holydays and those things that prevent you from painting. So now, after a few days off, I bring to you some Zvezda 1/100 Panzer III and Panzer IV, for my Flames of War Stalingrad project.

Last month I was painting more XVII c. stuff but I stopped without finishing my French petard team (but I will finish that soon) because I had several games of Flames of War with a friend at home, and my mood/interest switched from baroque period to World War 2, so I finished my half painted 14 Panzerdivision for Stalingrad.  I also bought Flames of War Scenery and some candy like a 15mm Junkers 52 for scenery purposes, also 3 Opel Blitz, 3 sdkfz.10 with flak, a couple of Stuig 33 and so on.

The Panzers are all Zvezda with some battlefront plastic and metal add ons, like stowage, tracks, guns (in the panzer IV).   Panzer III are of early type of shorter gun, for longer 50mm guns I will use Battlefront's plastic set of Panzer III.   And Panzer IV are D. version, I know they should be F1 models for Stalingrad battle, but I had 3 Zvezda nice Panzer IV D and "converted" them with F1 metal guns from Battlefront and turret rear boxes also in metal.

I painted them as If they were display models, so a lot of weathering. In the future I think I will put less dust and paint less chipping in the vehicles, because in this scale I prefer cleaner tanks (just a personal preference), but I am very pleased with the result of the unit.

As they are 2 platoons of 3 models, I will add a company HQ of a Panzer III ausf J and Panzer IV ausf F2 or even a captured T.34 mod.41 from the Stalingrad Starter Set of Flames of War.

I also have been inspired by the brand new Ammo Mig Stalingrad colors book :) very interesting and full of color profiles of tanks and vehicles of both sides:

https://www.migjimenez.com/es/publicaciones/4864-stalingrad-vehicles-colors-camuflajes-de-los-vehiculosa-alemanes-y-sovieticos-en-la-batalla-de-stalingrado-multilingue-8432074061465.html

Panzer IV platoon:

Panzer III platoon:

Again 2 platoons photo:

                                        

I hope you like them!

Summer painting: Flames of War Sturer Emil (Stalingrad)

Hello guys,

Since late June I have not been painting too much, you know, summer in Spain is warm and it is beach time, also going out with friends, practice some sports... all that real life stuff that interrupts our hobby.

Nevertheless, I have been painting some random World War 2 stuff like this German tank destroyer, the "Sturer Emil" from Battlefront's Flames of War game,  I am slowly building a 1942 Panzerkompanie for Flames of War, Stalingrad themed, I also own a late war Panzerkompanie and an American and Russian armies.

I like to paint wargames tanks as If they were true scale models; with airbrush, oil washes, enamel washes, pigments, etc. I really enjoy weathering vehicles, I usually overdo this, but  mono colour tanks like this would be very boring with just its panzer grey paint applied.

For this one, I used paints from Ammo Mig range, very good quality products, I highly recommend them.

Sorry for the quality of the pics, I have a new iphone and I don't know how to use proper light for the photos with the new camera.

I have included a photo of me with the real vehicle in Kubinka tank museum in Moscow, in 2019.

Two prototypes of these tank destroyer (named after Max and Moritz) were built, both of which served on the Eastern Front. One vehicle was destroyed, the other captured at Stalingrad in January 1943, with 22 kill marks painted on the barrel (the one of my photo).

I hope to update soon again the blog with a Bolt Action tank (Manchukuoan Army) and Kriegsmarine stuff in 1/700 and Cruel Seas from Warlord games.

Cheers!

15mm Stalingrad Panzer III

Hi all!

Sorry for this month without activity! I have been travelling for 2 weeks, in Russia... Moscow, Tula, Orel, Kursk (including Ponyri and Prokhorovka) and Volgograd (aka Stalingrad), so I have come back to my dear España in a WW2 mood... I have painted a test model of Zvezda Panzer III model for my Flames of War armies.  

I am building a small Panzer force for Stalingrad, with a dozen Panzers and some infantry and artillery. 

The rest of the panzers are mostly basecoated and highlighted with the airbrush, but a I wanted to finish a model as a test... here is the result after all the weathering part using filters, oils, pin washes, chipping paint, streaking grime with oils, dust and earth enamel washes and pigments :)

In my opinion, I have weathered it too much... In the next models I will not chip them so much. The panzer is from 14 Panzerdivision, which fought in the battle along the better known 24 Panzerdivision... It is so dirty because of the dust and mud of a destroyed city during the autumn.

What do you think ?

Cheers!

pd. Off topic: I put here some pics of my trip to Stalingrad!

 Grain Elevator

 Panzer III in Vadim Zadorozhny Museum

 Fountain at Stalingrad Train Station

 Univermag Department Store (Paulus HQ)

 Ruined Mill 

 Pavlov's House

 German equipment at Panorama Museum

 Red October Factory

 Volga River

 Battle damage in houses near Barrikady Factory

 Ruined HQ of Gen. Liudnikov

  Ruined HQ of Gen. Liudnikov

Paulus HQ