Finished!: A Gaggle of 88's and the AHPC VIII Challenge!

Hi folks,

I hadn't realised I'd fallen so far behind with the blog posts. The last couple of weeks were a bit of a blur as I tried to get everything I wanted done for the challenge ending on the 20th.

My final two weeks of entries were 4 Luftwaffe 88's, 2 Heer 88's and 2 SS 88's...

My 3mm Sci Fi stalkers also achieved 4th place in the voting, so thanks to those of you who took the time to vote for me! I also completed just over 1000 points worth of entries, against a target of 700!

Luftwaffe 88's:

These are painted up to be troops from III Flak Corps, who provided in depth AA defences for German forces around Caen. Some of these batteries would have been encountered as the Polish and Canadian Armoured Divisions penetrated the German defensive lines. I've a long term plan to have an ability to field a III Flak Corps army, using AA guns as troop choices and support from lots of Reluctant Trained rifle platoons (Cooks, clerks, gunners with no guns, etc).

Models are the plastic 15mm scale 88's from the new range of Battlefront plastics. This means that one of the crew figures on each gun is in shorts... but it's not too noticeable. No loader teams or anything for these guys, as the figures don't come with the models.

Next up, some more Heer guns:

These are for my 89.Infanterie-Division troops, and compliment the other 2 guns I have painted for them already. I've not quite finished with them, having some loose ammo and shell casings to add, and shoulder tabs to paint. But they are 'table ready' so counted for the challenge!

Various sources I have indicate that the division had a battery of 88's instead of one of the regular artillery batteries. So these would be used in an artillery role as well as a direct A/T role in some of our bigger games.

These are 15mm scale metal guns from Battlefront, which come with loading teams and the wheels for the guns.

Lastly, some guns from 12th SS Panzer Division:

Similar to what I did with the Nebelwerfers, I did some light conversion work on the crew for these guns. Trimming off shoulder tabs on the ones with camo tops on and adding green stuff helmet covers to them all. I then used the same idea of having very mixed camo clothing, with three different types (roughly) present and no 1 man wearing a full set.

These were 2nd hand (at least!) guns I bought at the Stockton wargames show last year, and were missing crew and some other bits. One of the guns is lacking a sitting figure, but he's just out of his seat.... I replaced the man with another standing figure so the crew is the correct size. I scrounged the figures to make up the loading teams, but no wheel sets for these. I also tried to go heavier on the camo on the guns, again to match in with the Neberlwerfers i had done for the SS.

I've also still got shoulder tabs to colour for these guys, and ammo boxes, loose ammo and spent shell cases to add.

So, with these guns done, that puts my total number of guns painted since December as 35!

I also painted a fair bit of terrain during the challenge, which isn't pictured above. I'm pretty happy with my output, but then it's a case of one step forward, two back. I've made a lot of Ebay purchases recently thanks to a gentleman called Pete who was selling off his collection of FoW stuff - most of which fitted with the Normandy time frame I focus on. As such, I have substantially added to my unpainted collection. If I vanish, it's because Amy has found out and I've become part of the garden.

Now the challenge is over, I'm into a bit of a planning stage. I'm currently thinking that I'm going to focus on some German armour for my SS force. First step will be to make a 'Admiral Drax' painting chart, and see where I go from there!

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...