Sunday 17 July 2016

Finished! German 88's, Nebelwerfers and Fusilier Platoon

Hi Folks,

With the end of the June challenge and the huge number of figures I finished over the two months, I took my foot off the pedal painting wise. However I have remained focused on getting this German list built before moving on to something else (probably a veritable horde of Shermans and Cromwells). Unfortunately I still had infantry figures to paint, but thankfully not too many of them. To round out the list I had a unit of 2 x 88mm AT/AA guns, 3 x Nebelwerfers and a small platoon of infantry (an infantry recce unit). I've still got a few bits to do, but at this point it's all vehicles.

So first up, the 88's. Going by the list in the Atlantic Wall book, these guns should probably be Luftwaffe guns. However, as the 89. Infanterie Division had two of it's artillery units equipped with 88's, I've painted the crew as Heer.

Each gun consists of the gun itself, an optional loader team (which increases the guns RoF) and the wheels for the guns. I painted the whole lot for both guns, plus scrounged up a command team. I worried for a bit about the paint scheme for these guns - but I couldn't find any references for possible camo on 88's in Normandy. I finally found some pictures of 88mm wheel units in a quarry during or after the Totalize battle, and there was no sign of camo on them - so i went with straight Middletone.








Next up the Nebelwerfers! Now given that this list was as much a focus on iconic German weapons of Normandy as it was on 89. Infanterie Division, I felt I just had to include these. The division itself didn't have any of these weapons on it's own strength, but was backed up by a Nebelwerfer Brigade which was in the area.

This unit is 3 x Nebelwerfers with command and spotter team. I still have to paint the Kubelwagon for the spotter unit, but other than that this unit is done for now. I might increase it to full strength with another 3 rocket launchers in the future.






Lastly we have the infantry Recce platoon. This is a small rifle only unit with no machine guns - only the command team is anything different being a SMG Panzerfaust team. These are all Battlefront plastics - nice models once painted but still some significant areas on each one which lack detail. Too much detail on the sides and rear of the models just blends in without any definition. Metal models and much better than this. These pictures have come out a little darker for some reason:






Next up on the painting table are the 3 StuGs and 2 Tigers. The Tigers from Lee are painted and just need tidied up to fit in (highlights, radio arials, bases, etc). the StuGs I'm a bit nervous about as they will be my fist attempt at painting German armour from scratch...








12 comments:

  1. Beautiful infantry and very impressive artillery, great job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just slow down, will you ? I can barely keep up....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can't stop, I might not get started again! But I have slowed down compared to what I was doing during the challenge months. Too warm at the moment for much more effort!

      Delete
  3. Impressive looking 88's! I have found that a VERY thin brush of vallejo sepia ink over Middlestone really adds depth and shade to the tone, I use it on all my German armour now as it tends to bring the cammo pattern together tonally, but your stuff looks great :) Bases as always are perfect in making the models stand out.

    James, take a look at the Forged in Battle site at the 'German infantry platoon' pack, if you think they will work as late war infantry you are welcome to them for free, I'm just clearing out any distractions as I start my French Indian War project!

    Look forward to seeing the two tigers on your basing :)

    Lee.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Lee - I did use some Army Painter wash on these, a mix of soft and strong tone I think. But the edge highlights is in a much lighter shade to make them pop. I wasn't sure about the yellow myself, but feedback seems to be that it works OK and it looks fine at the usual distances.

      Had a quick look and the figures look fine - happy to take any and all contributions towards the project!

      Delete
    2. Hi James,

      Glad you can make use of the FiB Germans, I'll get them off to you with pleasure :) I keep meaning to try the Army Painter shade products, they seem to work very well.

      All the very best mate,

      Lee.

      Delete
  4. Replies
    1. Thanks Cameron - been thinking about putting some foliage on the gun shield, but still not sure!

      Delete
  5. Great work James, it would be great to see them on a table one day when we fight out Operation Totalize! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. All looks fantastic Jamie. I thoroughly enjoyed painting up the 88 for my mate, it's a smashing model.

    Your German uniforms are getting better with every preview mate, keep it up!

    ReplyDelete

If you follow my blog, please feel free to leave a comment - it will appear once moderated!