2.SS Panzergrenadiers

Today I shall display my work on my integral part of my 2.SS Panzergrenadierkompanie army. Without a doubt, these are the panzergrenadier infantrymen. Forming the 'core' of my panzergrenadierkompanie, they hold the center line and engage in bitter close assaults against the enemy.

Compared to other armies in Flames of War, the SS are expensive in terms of points, and thus less numerous. What they make up for the point cost, they make up in zeal and fanaticism. With each stand being an MG team, they also spit out attacks with a rate of fire of 3 when static. Thus, it is a no brainer that these guys are ace at defense and counter-attacks.

The last game I had with my army, one platoon of panzergrenadiers managed to seize a small village, held off an attack by an advancing 3 platoon of US infantrymen, before proceeding to counter attack and destroy 2 platoon, and leaving the third badly mauled, exposing the enemy's left flank. Meanwhile on the right flank, my other platoon of panzergrenadiers stopped an incoming 2 platoons of US infantry in its tracks before reinforcements arrived in the form of a Sherman platoon - and with combined artillery fire withered away my panzergrenadiers.... not before its platoon leader charged up (by himself, no less, as the rest of the platoon was KIA) to the incoming Sherman platoon and destroying one with a Panzerfaust. This gave me enough time for my Marder IIIs to get into position and to destroy two more Shermans, forcing the Allied commander to rethink his tactics.

Hard as nails with a vicious bite, these SS-Panzergrenadiers have won glory and respect in my games so far.


Painting them too, its a pure joy. Though I've tried my hand at pea-dot, I find it extremely difficult to get it right, so I might try pea-dot camo with the next platoon of SS-panzergrenadiers I may purchase. But for these guys, who were also the very first component of my army, were entirely painted in oak leaf camo - with a mix between spring/summer oak leaf and autumn oak leaf, to give them a Normandy/Market Garden era feel. The models are beautiful, and the dynamic plus static poses of the individual models made them very enjoyable to build and paint. Of course, as these were the first models for Flames of War that I painted, most of the techniques I learned were applied to the subsequent models, and as such my Flak 88 team for example, contain models with the same camo technique I utilized.

SS-Hauptsturmführer, company commander

Panzer IV H and a Workshop Objective

Today I present you the Panzer IV H - as one of the most common tanks used during WWII, they are incredibly versatile and well rounded. Efficient and trustworthy, they were the basis of quite a few modifications such as the StuG IV and Hummel, to name a few.

In Flames of War, these tanks present a well rounded armored component to any German army. Equipped with the 75mm KwK40, a Sherman must roll a 6+ on a D6 to survive a shot from the front, and a 5+ to be bailed out. Also equipped with two machine-guns (one hull-mounted, the other co-axial), it can also do some serious damage against infantry in an assault. I suppose then that it would come to no surprise that I own ten of these Panzer IV H (one for my panzergrenadierkompanie, and the other in my panzerkompanie along with Panthers).

The painting itself was rather simple - using the experience I had gained from painting Panthers, I stuck with my 3-color scheme to fit in with the rest of my army, though I made sure to leave out some of the dunkelgelb (the yellow/tan color) to be showing more, as opposed to my first batch of Panzer IVs that have a little more of a brown town, as opposed to the second batch ones pictured below.

What my initial batch of Panzer IVs didnt have, I added to these - mainly battle damage. I wanted the tanks to be more battle damage, and so I used the opportunity to remove the various pieces of schurzen spaced armor in the odd places to make them appear blown off and requiring repair. Overall, I'm quite happy with these, and they fit with my Panthers perfectly.

I've also added a picture of my finished Barkmann's workshop, that can also work as an objective point for when I'm not using Barkmann. The piece itself was quite daunting as it's a very complex model, and there's a lot of details - that someone would call it a painter's overload when there's so many tiny details, that you dont know where to begin. I felt that the camouflage drape would be the hardest to paint, and I wasnt quite sure what camouflage to use at first. Feeling that making yet another oak leaf drape would be rather boring, I went ahead and gave a shot at the Fallschirmjaeger's splinter camouflage. I added miniscule lines and I'm quite pleasantly surprised how that came out.

leFH 10.5s and 2nd Armored ?!

Lately I've been working on my SS Motorized Artillery Battery, consisting of leFH 10.5cm howitzers. Why do I need these when I already have two 1750 point armies (SS Panzerkompanie and SS Panzergrenadierkompanie) you ask? Well, because I thought they looked cool, nothing more. I was quite impressed with the individually sculpted bases that the Flak 88s had, and I was looking forward to these, and oh my, I'm not disappointed. They look *fantastic*.

So once more, using the Flak 88 painting scheme of mis-matched camo (the SS picking up whatever they could find after fighting in Kursk and being refitted in the south of France), I painted these in various camo smocks. Its a pity that Battlefront doesnt sell SS artillery crew in addition to the regular Heer artillery crew.

I've also decided to start working on my US 2nd Armored Division. I was quite undecided whether I wanted to paint the black camo stripes on my Shermans in case I wanted to play another US division, but in the end I feel that I had made a good choice to use the camo stripes. They really are quite unique, and I went with using a different basing, compared to my SS guys. I'm not quite decided on whether summer flock would look better or not. As it stands, the summer flock on my Waffen SS makes them look very rag tag and "camouflaged" with their oak leaves camo, while with the Shermans so far, the dead winter grass makes them stand out.

It certainly works to tell my German and US armies apart, but I think it works in making the Germans more rag tag and more "defensive", while the Americans being more aggressive and "newly arrived", compared to the 2.SS that have been fighting since Kursk. But I'll let the reader judge for himself.

Dabbling in a little Epic: Armageddon again

Been a while since I've updated the blog. Summer holidays, trip to Italy, wine, food, back to work and such... has all kept me busy. Plus, I've been having one of those painter's brain deadness when I just don't feel like painting nor doing anything productive when it comes to miniatures.

That said, lately I've been becoming intrigued once more by Epic Armageddon. It could be due to that I've been painting Flames of War miniatures non-stop since last year and I need a change of pace. So anyhow, I've started on my new E:A army. I haven't quite decided what to call it, but it's planned to be a Motorized Mountain Light Infantry brigade - a mix between the Russian mountain troops equipped with BTR-80s, and the French Chasseur Alpin with their snow-woodland camo and large berets.

I hear u liek mudkipz?

There are rumors abound that surely, I must paint other things other than Flames of War?

It's true that I do.... to an extent. I used to paint Warhammer 40k exclusively back then before starting on my Epic: Armageddon army. Speaking of which, please will someone remind me to make some posts about my Epic: Armageddon army? I'm afraid that similarly to my Flames of War army, a 6,000 points Epic army would be rather difficult to capture at once on my desk.

Anyhow, this is an old old project that I had started but never completed. I really should work on it again... it's quite a nice model being a limited edition Space Marine veteran, and while the two-tone designs for a squad, let alone an army at 28mm is a pain, for single models it does look rather good.

Flak 88

88's, perhaps the most well known and iconic gun of WWII, it had a nasty reputation of not only being an anti-air gun meant to shoot down bombers, but able to destroy tanks with a ground range of up to 14km. Eventually being mounted as the primary weapon on the Ferdinand/Elefant and the Jagdpanther tank destroyers, it made its way to become the primary weapon of the Tiger II.

It was only natural that I get myself one of these for Flames of War.

There are two iterations of these in Flames of War - bearing in mind that I use the Waffen-SS army list, specifically the 2.SS "Das Reich", they come in two flavors: Cobra and Earth & Steel. The main difference, other than that Earth & Steel was released in December 2010 compared to the older Cobra book,  is that in the Cobra book, the Heavy SS-Anti-Aircraft Gun Platoon with the 8.8cm Flak 36 gun runs at 235 points for two guns, with the option for them being crewed by Luftwaffe field troops with a noticeable price drop of 130 points for two guns and being able to bombard positions as artillery, though they are rated as Reluctant Trained instead of the normal SS stats of being Fearless Veterans. In Earth & Steel however, there is no more option to deploy them crewed as Luftwaffe, have the only option to be deployed as SS, however their points rating has dropped to 190 points for two guns. Both variants (Cobra and E&S) have the possibility of adding additional crew for +10 points to increase its rate of fire from 2 to 3.

I've actually already used 88's in a game prior to buying them - borrowing them from another player for my game. As expected they did what they were designed to do: shooting down a pesky P-47 and blowing a hole through oncoming tanks. Having put them in the center of my deployed army, they created the perfect stop-gap to any enemy central movement, and force the opposing player to attack the flanks where I had laid stronger defenses using infantry and anti-tank weapons. All in all, for a mere 190 points, the Flak 88 really created a keystone to my defenses.

Having ordered from my usual online retailer, Wayland Games, I got myself the Flak 88 battery for £34. The box itself contained the two guns, the additional crew, but to my pleasant surprise, it also contained a field car and two Sdkfz 7/1 tractors along with the carrying carriage for the 88s. Granted, in the actual game the field car, tractors and carriage does absolutely nothing (not like you can throw the carriage at incoming Americans nor 'jihad-jeep' the field car...) they do add an element of a diorama feel, making them really pleasant to look at.

For the guns themselves come with individually sculpted scenic base, and I have to say that these are fantastic. They add so much character, and I know that the 10.5 leFH 18 artillery battery that I ordered (and haven't built yet) contains those too, so that has me excited. These scenic bases are modeled with logs, shell casings, extra shell cases and are made in a way that the 88s, once placed, appear to be in a properly prepared firing position in a makeshift trench. As a centerpiece for any decent defense, these really fit the bill, and would certainly recommend this product to anyone that enjoys painting WWII equipment like Flak 88s, even if they don't play the game.

Painting wise, as I was going to use them as SS, they were painted mainly as SS, but noticing that they were equipped with the standard metal helmet (Battlefront doesnt sell 88s with SS crew, so its up to the player to model them appropriately), I decided to try something else. Using some inspiration I had gathered from the Flames of War forums, I wanted these guys to look a bit more rag-tag 'Ostfront Veteran'. While my SS infantry are all equipped with the snazzy spring/autumn leaf camo to the brim being lavishly equipped by German high command, I wanted the 88 battery to be a bit more "forgotten" compared to the high profile infantrymen. Therefore they are painted with mixes of regular German uniforms from the 1942 Russian front, along with some odd equipment that can be found from nearby 21.Panzer division and Panzer Lehr units. Sharing some of the colors of the Nebelwerfer battery that are entirely equipped as the standard Heer army units, it adds a nice feel of having the fire support element of the army being a little more rag tag and less "prestigious" to German high command compared to the glory-hunting rifleman and panzers. I felt this added a nice theme to my army in general.

 

 

 

 

Nebelwerfer Day!

I have been painting like a mad man lately and besides, it is time that I slowly start showing my collection. Therefore, today's post has been dubbed Nebelwerfer Day as it'll focus on the Rocket Launcher Battery for my main 2.SS "Das Reich" Panzergrenadierkompanie list.

The standard SS-Panzergrenadierkompanie found in the Earth and Steel rule book for the Normandy theater contains several options for fire support. First - your standard 105mm and 155mm artillery batteries, and secondly, rocket artillery options coming in the form of 15cm and 21cm Nebelwerfers.

Nebelwerfers in Flames of War are arguably one of the most cost-effective pieces of artillery that the German player is able to purchase - and in already 'expensive' list when using the SS, cost-effective artillery that can lay down the pain without costing an arm and a leg (or monocle) is quite the welcome addition. In terms of the SS, the SS army list is able to either have the SS-Rocket Artillery Battery (in both 15cm and 21cm version), and regular Heer-crewed Rocket Artillery Batteries, also in 15cm and 21cm version.

Now one of the main perks about using the SS in Flames of War, is their staunch Fearless Veteran status. Veteran makes them hard to kill, but when it comes to artillery, having Veteran skills makes the artillery equally dangerous to when they are on the field. Fearless on the other hand is usually seen in elite paratrooper units such as the US Airborne and the German Fallschirmjaegers. The SS too, have this Fearless status, meaning they pass all morale tests on a 3+. This makes them machines of death especially in an assault and prolonged firefights.

That said, I saw little need for the Fearless status in artillery - after all one would hope that artillery will never be caught on the front lines, least of all in an assault. Granted the fearless status would mean that pinned crewmen from counter-battery fire or from being shot at will be able to sort themselves out and start readying the artillery again, I found the additional points from having this being too costly for what it's worth...

And so rather than spending 120 points on Fearless 15cm Nebelwerfers, I opted out for Confident Veteran Heer-equipped 21cm Nebelwerfer launchers instead. I lose out on the needing a 3+ for morale checks (Confident gives me a 4+ to morale checks instead), however I gain an additional 20cm range and a 3+ firepower test compared to 4+ from the 15cm - meaning I'll be killing things more from further away. For artillery, this is incredibly useful.

Now for the painting aspect, I had to find a way to tie in these nebelwerfers to my army without being too different. In order to do so, I went with my current standard 3-color camo on the launchers, and with standard Heer grenadiers colors for the actual crew. To spice it up a little more, and keeping inline with the Normandy theatre, the crew were painted similar to the Panzer "Lehr" Division and to the 21st Panzer Division, whom were also present in the Normandy theatre. I felt that the camouflage smocks added not only more color to the unit itself, but made them worthy of their "Veteran" status, compared to other more "grunt" infantry in the form of grenadier division that are rated Confident Trained.