These eight plastic 15mm miniatures are sold by “Battlefront Miniatures” and can be found inside the company’s “Hit The Beach” starter set for “Flames Of War”. The figures consist of a non-commissioned officer (NCO), a machine-gunner, his loader and five riflemen. Together they form two of the six MG34 and K98 Rifle teams required for my German Panzergrenadier Platoon.
All of the figures were initially super-glued onto three wooden strips for ease of painting, and primed in “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII. The soldiers were then shaded using “Citadel” Nuln Oil, and roughly dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII using a small make-up blusher brush. Before picking out all of the models’ details I ‘boxed off’ their boots, ammo pouches, braces, equipment and weapons with “Citadel” Abaddon Black. Some of these areas, such as the rifles, the odd backpack and their firearm’s straps were later pigmented in Vallejo” Heavy Sienna, and washed using a mixture of “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade and “The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade.
In addition, the Panzergrenadier’s rifle tops, general-purpose machine gun, water flask stoppers were given a combination of “Vallejo” Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil. Whilst the odd camouflaged helmet covering was treated to some “Vallejo” Heavy Brown, Luftwaffe Camouflage Green and Heavy Sienna. Such headwear was then washed with “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade, before being highlighted back up with (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Brown, of Luftwaffe Camouflage Green and Heavy Sienna.
Perhaps a little controversially I decided against applying my reliable ‘camo mix’ to a pair of smocks I spotted the odd Panzergrenadier wearing. This choice was certainly motivated by my desire to get the soldiers finished as quickly as possible, but also influenced by my desire to have my Beach Defence Grenadier Company appear as ‘drab’ grey as possible, so any subsequent Waffen-SS or Fallschirmjager units (which I plan to paint in predominantly camo) will stand out all the more on the tabletop.
The second medium-sized base of Germans also successfully brings to an end the first of my weekly painting challenges, and means that I now need only complete a fourth similarly-sized base of soldiers to field enough MG42 Teams, including its Unit Leader and accompanying Panzerschreck Team, for a minimum-strength Platoon – and that is already in the flock tin drying. As to the future, I’m going to try to push through another eight figures to bring the force up to full-strength, and then consider either adding 8cm Mortar Platoon, a Panzer IV (7.5cm) Platoon or a 7.5cm Tank-Hunter Platoon…
Lastly, I have been focusing a little hobby-time upon three of my “Battletech” 1:285 scale plastic models by “Catalyst Game Labs”. I’ve now finished adding some green and black to my Griffin mech, so as to better represent the colours predominantly used on the old Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" aircraft, as well as made some minor in-roads on a Wolverine and Mongrel.