All,
Hey everyone, here are my WWII Germans for the early war period, which I'll count all the way up to the beginning of 1943. As usual, they're not strictly historically accurate; I think the biggest problem purists might have is that true early war Germans should have a reed green blouse over stone gray trousers, but I just went and did the blouse and trousers in Field Gray. As usual, I used Contrast paints, with a slight variations; I used a mixture for the first (and perhaps, only) time. I don't recall whom or where exactly (I humbly apologize), but I was looking at 'how to paint' stuff on Youtube and found a guy that was mixing Contrast paints to make Field Gray. He used Basilicum Gray and Creed Camo, in what I seem to remember as 3 parts to 1, but I can't promise, I just don't remember. In any case, I think the uniforms turned out pretty nice, and everything else was pretty basic stuff using other, non-mixed, Contrast paints.
They're really great figures, went together easy, lots of options, lots of combos, and really look sharp, with good weapons and proportions. The only complaint I have about them is that every single one of them has some sort of gear pouch on his chest (EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!). I believe it is to hold a gas cape, but I'm not really familiar with that, and I sure as hell don't recall seeing pictures of early war German infantry units in Poland, France, Norway, Holland, Denmark, Greece, Crete, or Russia with those things hanging on everyone's chest. I could be wrong, but I'm just used to the cylindrical, metal gasmask cannister. To be clear, I'm not doubting that it's a real piece of gear, or that some guys wore it on their chest, but every single guy in the unit? How have I missed that my entire life?
The whole mess, with three officer types, six MG-34s on bipod, and one MG-34 on tripod, two 50mm mortars and one 80mm mortar, two anti-tank rifles and one PaK-36 anti-tank gun, sixteen guys with MP-40s (too many, but that's my fault for building them that way), and 18 guys with KaR-98s (not including various weapons crewmen).
The three officer types, two with barracks covers on and one with a service cap (piss cutter). You can clearly see the gas cape carrier on each of their chests...
A close up of one of the officers, field glasses in hand, signaling the troops with the other.
Reverse, showing a map case, pistol holstered, and hand grenade tucked into his boot. What do you think of the paint mixture for that Field Gray?
The next officer, with Luger in right hand and knife-handing someone with his other.
Reverse.
And the dude in the side cap/overseas cap, actually using his field glasses whilst signaling with his other.
Here you can see he's go this steel helmet hooked to his gear.
My bevy of troopers armed with MP-40 submachine guns.
Three leader-types, signaling their men, with a good look at them and their gear.
Another look.
Let's toss some potato mashers.
Again.
Leaning into that recoil.
Again.
Sidestepping while brrrrrrrping...
I like the fella that's lost his hat.
Trundling forward, grabbing a new magazine. I think these arms are from the Afrika Korps box.
Again.
And going away.
Two dashing ahead, one firing and one hauling a few grenades.
Reverse.
A couple more knife-hands. Not my favorite arm in the set...
Reverse.
A couple more one-off poses with MP-40.
Reverse.
A couple taking a knee.
Reverse.
All the riflemen armed with KaR-98s.
Four of them tossing grenades.
Closeup.
Again.
A couple searching and assessing.
Again.
A couple cautiously moving through the wreckage.
A couple wondering what the heck is going on (at least the dude on the left).
Moving up with a frag in his hand.
Again.
A couple firing poses, one with scoped rifle (no idea how you fire with a scope that far forward, how the hell do you get proper eye relief?).
Reverse.
Well, I screwed that up, should have paired the dude on the left with the dude on the left from the last photo... Anyway, kneeling dude with a scoped karabiner.
Six MG-34 teams, three running and three prone, with the prone teams having three figures and the running just two.
A running LMG team.
Another gunner, sans helmet.
A closeup of an A-gunner.
A pair of anti-tank rifles (from the Afrika Korps box).
A pair of 50mm mortars (also from the Afrika Korps box).
The flammenwerfer team, with red just to church it up a bit.
A metal MG-34 team on tripod, from Artizan Designs (or maybe Crusader, can't remember).
A metal 80mm mortar team, same as before (either Artizan or Crusader).
Closeup of the gunner.
And of the team leader.
A plastic 37mm ATG from Rubicon. The figure at left is Rubicon, but the two at right are metals from Artizan or Crusader.
Reverse.
And there you have my early war Wehrmacht troops, who will soon be getting up to all sorts of no good.
V/R,
Jack
EDIT:
The two soldiers at center top right and top right have gas capes on their chests, the two other visible chests do not.
Lots of visible chests, not seeing any gas capes.
They look really good, Jack. Looking forward to seeing them in some games.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steve, working on it.
DeleteV/R,
Jack
Excellent poses, painting and shading. I like the guy with the helmet at his feet - very inventive.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Norm, I appreciate it. With Contrast paints there’s no build up and shading, just prime and paint one coat.
DeleteV/R,
Jack
Nice work a good looking force, I’m not a purist but my Germans are green and grey and also use them up to Sicily
ReplyDeleteThanks, Matt! Yeah, I don’t mind using these guys later in the war, it’s not the uniforms that bother me, it’s the boots, but even then it’s not a big deal at playing distance.
DeleteV/R,
Jack
They look great, some lovely poses too. The Field Grey uniform mix looks fine, it is a very variable shade. Green/gray or grey/green? The very early war guys had field grey jackets and stone grey trousers, the contrast makes the jackets look a bit greener. I usually do my early war guys in field grey, but mix in the odd pair of grey trousers for some variety.
ReplyDeleteThat pouch on the chest is indeed for a gas cape, the real ones are lot smaller than the ones cast on those figures.
Martin, thanks, I’m very happy with how the uniforms turned out. I thought about doing gray trousers but I like this look better and it takes them deeper into the war being all field gray, I suppose.
DeleteThat gas cape thing is really throwing me. It’s very prominent on their chests, and I just can’t think of having ever seen that before.
V/R,
Jack
We must have been living in different universes, because to my mind the chest pouch is as iconic as stone grey trousers and jackboots when it comes to the early war period (a time when the y-strap was a rarity, come to think of it)!
ReplyDeleteInteresting! Great point about the Y-harness, but the chest pouch for the gas cape is still killing me. I added some photos at the end of my post (see above). I looked at hundreds of photos from Poland and only found two that showed gas cape pouches which, to be fair, I’d never noticed before, but…. there are tons of photos where I’m not seeing any.
DeleteV/R,
Jack
Ahaha, I'm pretty sure we could go on disputing this ad nauseam beginning with me pointing out examples in the Bundesarchiv, which I'm sure also houses many counterexamples. Regardless, your figures look good, even if I would have gone with greyer trousers!
DeleteSorry man, not trying to be combative, was just posting pics of what I’ve been seeing my whole life (more than a passing interest in WWII since I was a small child, like most WWII wargamers, I’d imagine), and pointing out that even the few times I might have seen them I didn’t recognize them for what they were.
DeleteV/R,
Jack