28mm WWII Early War German SS from Crusader

 All,

This is from the wonderful Mr. Nick over at Northstar, who hooked me up with a platoon deal to serve as the core of my early war Waffen SS force.  Specifically, these are metal figures from Crusader, and they're lovely.  Nice and hefty, great detail on weapons and gear, great proportions, and though I love my Warlord plastic figures, it was such a blessing to not have to build all these guys!!!

I bought a regular rifle platoon, then augmented with some weapons teams and engineers.  I wanted the early war force to have a uniform look, so I painted the rifle platoon and some of the supporting weapons teams in Oak Leaf pattern camo, and I painted the engineers and ATG crew in Plane Tree camo, just to set them apart a bit.

These guys were NOT done using Contrast paints.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to do SS camouflage using Contrast paints (not sure if it's possible or not, but I didn't experiment with them as I've done quite a bit of SS camo and I know exactly how to get what I'm looking for with acrylics, so I was looking to use Contrast paints for everything except the camo smocks and helmet covers, but then I messed it up when I was doing the base layer of the camo smocks and helmet covers (got it all over the place, on stuff I wasn't supposed to), so rather than go back and fix all of that in order to be able to use Contrast paints, I just charged ahead and used acrylics for everything but the flesh.  What can I say, it was NOT a pleasurable experience.  I'm so used to how quick and easy Contrast paints are that it was really a pain in my ass going back to acrylics; I'm sure some of it is just in my head, but I'm telling you, it takes so much more time.  With Contrast paints you just open the pot, dip the brush in, and lay it on the mini.  With acrylics you're having to shake them for quite a bit, get the on the pallet, get them mixed to the right consistency, brushing them on (a lot more time brushing than with Contrasts, which you just drop and pull), having to do multiple coats because certain colors won't cover over certain other colors, paint on the pallet and on the brush getting gummy, wiping it out, re-shaking, re-shooting, re-mixing, cleaning the brush, painting, and then getting to go back over all of it with a wash. I love my Contrast paints!  Give it a quick shake, dip it in, slap it on, and done.

My only complaint on the models is that the MG-34 LMGs don't have bipods molded on; it doesn't really bother me that much, but the early war Fallschirmjager are done the same way and several people commented negatively on it.  And I broke a barrel off, somehow...

The whole mess: a rifle platoon (with 50mm mortar and anti-tank rifle), MG team, mortar team, ATG, and some engineers.

Platoon leadership types, the Lieutenant on the left and his Platoon Sergeant.  Pretty happy with how the camo turned out.

Reverse.

Six dudes with MP-40s.

First pair.

Reverse.

Next pair.

Reverse.

Last pair.  If the guy on the right looks like he has an M-3 Greasegun, it's becuase that's the barrel I broke off, and I tried to replace it with a piece of plastic sprue, but it's a little too long and doesn't have a sight on it...

Reverse.

Three MG-34 LMG teams.

The gunners.  As mentioned, no bipod.

And the A-gunners.

Twenty-four riflemen armed with KaR-98s.

First pose.

Next.

Third.

Fourth.

Fifth.

Sixth.

Seventh.

And last.

The ATR team.

Again.

Another.

And one more.

The 50mm mortar team.

Again.

Another.

And once more.

MG-34 on tripod.

Again.

Reverse.

And once more.

The 80mm mortar team.

Again.

Another.

And once more.

The PaK-36.  This is the plastic gun from Rubicon, and all four crew members are plastic from Rubicon as well.

Again.

Another.

Closeup of the Plane Tree camo.  Much faster/easier than Oak Leaf...

First two engineers, one on right has the flamethrower.  I have no idea what the dude on the left has in his hand; is it a flare pistol of some sort?  It looks like a pistol with a rifle grenade attached to it...

Reverse.

The other two engineers.  Dude on left looks to have a plunger for explosives, dude on right is sweeping for mines.

Reverse.

Pretty cool little unit.  And if I've got early war SS, then you know what's coming next.

V/R,
Jack

28mm WWII Early War Fallschirmjaeger from Crusader Miniatures

 All,

Greetings, still rolling!  Continuing with the forces I bought from Nick at Northstar, I present my Early War Fallschirmjaeger by Crusader Miniatures.  Once again Nick did me a solid by hooking me up with a platoon deal, allowing me to get the discount while also allowing me to hand select some specific figures in the deal, which he has now done four times!

This post is titled “Early War” because yes, of course, I also have mid-war FJ for North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, and mid/late war FJ for for Eastern Front and NWE (all coming in future posts).  Just need to get some winter figures!  In any case, these guys are great, looking exactly as I would expect them to for Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Holland, Greece, and Crete in 1940 and 1941.  The weapons are appropriate and look good, the uniforms look great, and the poses are many and proportioned well.  The last piece is that they painted up in a jiffy (no camo yet), all using Contrast paints.

The whole mess, about a platoon's worth of infantry with an ATR, 50mm mortar, MG-34 on tripod, 80mm mortar, PaK-36, and even a team of engineers led by a couple officers.

Another look.

A quick aside: these are early war FJ, no helmet covers, so I decided to throw some decals on.  I had these lying around from some Warlord FJ; each helmet should have the national colors on right side and an eagle on the left side.  No big deal, right?  Well, please take note of the color of the eagles on the decal sheet...

The national colors on the right (apparently I scraped the decal a bit on the top left corner), looking good.

And the eagle on the left.  That ain't gonna work...  Seen from a distance (in real life), you just the white of the eagle, essentially a silhouette, nothing like what you're looking at above.  

Here's what they look like in real life.

I was so aggravated; what to do?  I kept putting the eagles on a few more guys, as on my first figure, thinking I would then go back over them with white paint, covering the entire thing, but then I had a stroke of genius (I think)... 

I'll just put the decal on backwards!  Then I get the correct look from afar, with the bonus of putting their stupid swastika backwards ;)  Good enough for me!

So with that in mind, let's get to it!

Our first group of hunters from the sky, with Mausre K-98s.

A closeup.  Here you see my super basic paintjob.  I primed in dark gray, then hit the smocks with Aggros Dunes, the helmets and trousers with Grey Wolves Gray, Gore Grunta Fur for all the wood, Snakebite Leather for all the gear, Basilicum Gray for the boots and anything metal (with some Lead Belcher on the metal as well), then Gulliman Flesh over matt white paint for the flesh.  The bases are, as always, Skeleton Horde.

Reverse.  Yeah, super lazy, just painted the shelter half brown ;)

Next pose of three riflemen.  I really like this one, nice and nonchalant but still alert, like right after a firefight, making sure it's over.

A closeup.

And reverse.

From the front quarter.  Nice mug, great heft and proportions.

Next rifleman pose.

A closer look.

Reverse.

From the side.

Next rifleman pose.

Closeup.

Reverse.

From the front.

Another rifleman.

Closeup.

Another look.

From the side.

A rifleman firing from the off-hand position.  This is the only pose I find a little wonky, he's face is too far out over the weapon, can't align the sights.

A closeup.  See what I mean? ;)  Again, just a little joshing here, it's really no big deal and you don't even notice it on the tabletop, just in these super closeup pictures.

Reverse.  This cat has managed to scrounge himself a sidearm!

Next pose, tossing a potato masher.

Closeup.

Reverse.  I love the variation in gear these guys have.

Front quarter.

And the last rifleman pose.

Front.  Look at the mug and tell me who he looks like.

Reverse.

Looks like the damn fuhrer himself!

A trio of machine gunners with MG-34s.

A closeup.  You can see I put some rank insignia on these guys' sleeves.  I think they're Lance Corporals?  Sorry, not really knowledgeable of German ranks, and not bothered enough to go look it up.

Reverse.

Front quarter.

Rear quarter.

And I've got one more MG gunner pose, this one with belted ammo around his neck.

Reverse.

A pair of assistant gunners, in two different poses.  They're both good, but I'm really taken with the pose on the left, just looks like a tough bastid...

Reverse.

Side.

How 'bout some MP-40s?  Five of them, each a different pose.

First up, a Platoon Sergeant-looking kinda guy.

Front quarter.

Reverse.  See there, you don't even notice the eagles are on backwards now, do ya? ;)

Dude moving up.

Reverse.

Backside.

Dude looking like he's trying to creep up and peek around a corner.

Reverse.

Side.

Dude just hanging out, looking tough.  Another of my favorite, tough guy, poses.

Reverse.

And a dude moving up, looking like he's about to stick the muzzle of his weapon into a window or firing slit of a bunker and spray everything inside.

Reverse.

Another leader-type dude, I gave him Sergeant chevrons.

Reverse.

Side.

My two officer types, both with pistols.

Reverse.

Side on one...

And front quarter on t'other.

A prone anti-tank rifle team.

Again.

One more time.

The 50mm mortar team.

Again.

From the rear.

One more time.

The MG-34 team with gun on a tripod.

Another look.

And once more.

The 80mm mortar team.  

I think I messed up; I think the dude on the stand with the mortar is actually from the anti-tank gun crew...

Again.

And the PaK-36 37mm anti-tank gun crew.  The gun itself is a plastic model from Rubicon.

And reverse.  

If you noticed, the MG team, Mortar team, and ATG crew all have a kneeling dude with MP-40 as their team leader (bottom left in the photo); I really fancy the pose and have three of them, so I may just use them as squad leaders.

Oh, and before we close this out, there's one more piece, but these guys are not from Crusader, they're 3D prints from a dude off of Ebay.

A five-man team of engineers.  Really nice models, with more realistic looking proportions (perhaps), but looking a bit frail next to my hardy paratroopers from Crusader.  I prefer the robust troops from Crusader, but they didn't have any FJ engineers and, to be fair, these are really nice models as well.

There's a team leader-type at left with an MP-40 and a dude hauling two mines at right.

Reverse.

Side shot of the dude humping the mines.

Two more guys with mines, one moving up with K98 and the other kneeling with an E-tool.

Reverse.

Side shot.

And the last figure is the flammenwerfer!

Reverse.

So, there it is, another great force from Nick at Northstar, ready to rock'n roll, ready to cause some mayhem on the gaming table.  I hope you like them, and stand by for more German paratroopers.

V/R,
Jack