15mm WWII German Fallschirmjaeger for North Africa, Sicily, and Italy

 All,

So yesterday I showed ya my dogfaces for North Africa, Sicily, and Italy.  I hope you were sufficiently joyed and awed at the sight of them, and surely you found yourself wondering, just who might they be facing off against?

Well, I do have a few Germans for North Africa...

And I have added to them a bit.  I still have a lot more lying around unpainted or primed, waiting to be finished, but I've got a little something ready to kick off the festivities.

And this is them, a three-battalion regiment of Fallschirmjaeger, ready to rock and roll in the dusty, arid environs of Tunisia, Sicily, and southern Italy.  As with my British, Germans, and Americans, this regiment is built out in accordance with the tables of organization for Rapid Fire Reloaded.  

Each battalion consists of a command stand, a 50mm mortar, five rifle stands, two machine gun stands, an 80mm mortar stand, and a 37mm PaK-36 anti-tank gun.  My Afrika Korps force already has 50mm PaK-38 ATGs and 88mm Flak-36 dual-purpose guns, as well as various trucks, armored cars, and tanks,  I can press into service in support of these German hunters from the sky.  There is also a single forward observer stand (bottom right).

And Martin, please don't hate me/beat me up, these guys are anything but uniform, I went full 'band of gypsies' on them.  Hardly befitting an elite fighting force, but I just couldn't help myself ;)

So, I acquired these FJ thusly:
-All the rifle stands and a couple command stands were bought off EBay, painted and based for early war in gray-green.  I pretty much repainted the figures and bases completely, just leaving some of the gray-green showing on some of the figures.
-Four MGs, two PaK-36s, and a command stand were bought from a different person off EBay, painted and based for the desert.  I barely had to touch these guys, they were already beautiful.
-Two MGs were bought new from Miniature Market then painted and based by me.  They are the new plastic figures and much bigger than the older metal figures making up the vast majority of the rest of the force.
-The three mortars were bought painted in late war winter colors from Gajo Minis, then I repainted them and based them for the desert (I had them as left overs from my Battle of the Bulge project).
-One of the PaK-36s I had lying around from a Plastic Soldier Company early war heavy weapons set, so I painted it up and based it.  It doesn't look too bad, but the figures are much smaller than the rest of the force (and particularly the new plastic MGs).

So let's start with the FO stand.  Here you see a couple fellas that were bought painted up in early war gray-green (like the tunic of the guy on the left), and then I went crazy on the rest of them, painting various shades of yellows (like the left-hand guy's trouser and bare metal helmet), some camo (as in the right-hand guy's tunic and helmet cover), and even tossing in the occasional gray (like the right-hand guy's trousers).

Another look at the FO stand.  I know the camo isn't perfect, certainly too dark (I used the Battlefront Vallejo beige, green, and brown), but I don't mind it.  Oh, and I had to scrape some grass off the bases, paint them yellow, and add some clump foliage to most of the stands.

A look at one of the command stands.  Hmmm, guess I forgot about another source of acquisition: these were guys I had lying around for years and conscripted into service here when I found I was a few figures short.

A 50mm mortar.

Some rifle stands.

More rifle stands.  I really love the character of the old Battlefront metal figures.  On a side note, you can actually see a chap carrying an anti-tank rifle on the stand at top left center.

More closeups of the FJ rifle stands.

Another.

And the last of the rifles, with a couple MGs visible at far/top left.

The two MG teams in the foreground are the new plastic Battlefront figures I did myself.

While I pretty much didn't have to even touch these four MG stands.  I love the rocks and flowers on the bases, and I really love the posing of the figures.

The mortar teams.  Again, these guys were painted by Gajo Minis for the snow, and I just kinda dabbed'em up a bit for the desert ;)

The Plastic Soldier Company PaK-36 ATG I did myself.  Serviceable, but certainly not winning any awards.  I had some rocks lying around for the base, but stole the flowers off some of the other bases I bought off Ebay!

Here's one of the ones I bought off Ebay, looking really nice.

And here's the other, with the little rocket projectile on the barrel (sorry, should know what this is called but I'm too tired to look it up right now).

And to close it out, one more closeup of an early war command stand that I modified for the desert.

And their backsides.  Now I guess I'll have to get some early war FJ that I'll actually use as early war FJ, but then I'll have to buy some Dutch, some Belgians, maybe some French, too ;)

So there's my FJ set to face off against my Yanks, need to get off my butt and finish up all my Western Desert stuff.  But one more giant force to post up and show off, which I'll post tomorrow.  I believe (hope) you'll be duly impressed ;)

V/R,
Jack

15mm WWII US Forces for North Africa, Sicily, and Italy

 All,

Alright, enough of Northwest Europe already, right?  Yeah, me too, so I painted up a bunch of stuff for North Africa.  Yeah, I know, I still haven't finished up my Western Desert Commonwealth, Italian, and German forces, but I'm working on it, and still, it's no reason to ignore the Yanks! ;)  So that's what we're looking at here; I'd previously run an abortive attempt to do Americans in Tunisia, but it was a skirmish project and didn't capture the grand sweep of what I really wanted to do, so I halted, backtracked, and worked up a new course of action, and here you see the fruits of my labors.  As with the British and German forces I posted, quite a bit of this stuff was bought, rather than painted, but I'm posting because I still put quite a bit of work into it and I'm looking forward to getting them on the table.

Here's the whole mess, a Regiment of infantry with organic support, plus a boatload of arty, transport, recce, and armor.  Oh, and even some air support!

The infantry regiment, set up as leg infantry under the Rapid Fire order of battle concept.

Each rifle battalion has eight rifle stands, a command stand, three bazooka stands, a 60mm mortar stand, an 81mm mortar stand, two machine gun stands (I'll only use one of them for leg infantry, both for armored infantry, but drop some rifle stands), and an M-1 37mm anti-tank gun.

They've also got a battalion command stand (right), even though Rapid Fire doesn't use them, and a Forward Observer stand, each.

A look at some rifle stands.  Almost all the infantry were painted by buddies at Gajo Minis, who always do a great job for me, I just have to do the basing up myself.

More doughboys/GIs/dogfaces.

And again.  Yeah, you see some bazooka figures on regular rifle stands because I didn't have enough riflemen and the damned Flames of War company box gives you something like 18 two-man bazooka teams, which is about fifteen more than I actually need...

The bazooka stands.

The mortar stands, with 81mm tube on the left and 60mm on the right.

The machine gun stands.  I wish they were water-cooled M-1917s, but oh well...

The M-1 37mm ATGs were actually painted and based by my buddy AJ.  I bought a lot of infantry from him based for a temperate climate, then decided to steal these for North Africa, and just sort of painted over the basing.  Doesn't look wonderful, but good enough for me.

Another look.  Nice figures, they are old Battlefront metals.

A look at some support elements.

To include three beautiful M-7 Priests painted up by AJ.

A couple 105mm howitzers painted up by yours truley.

A quad-.50 cal painted by AJ and a 37mm AA gun painted by me.

A closer look at the quad-.50, which was also grassy based for more temperate climes.

Some M-3 Scout Cars, two of which I bought painted (the two with stars, though I had to repaint the figures to match my stuff) and two of which I painted myself.  

A closer look at one of the Scout Cars I painted up; I'm pretty happy with my dry-brushing job using the lady's makeup brushes ;)

Painted myself up a bevy of jeeps, heavily dry-brushed.

A closer look.

More supports.

I actually bought these painted, then didn't like the dark green color so repainted them, then dry-brushed the hell out of them (and re-did the bases).  I hate having my 15mm vehicles based, but so many of the old Battlefront vehicles have them molded on.

A pair of M-20 Utility Vehicles, painted up by AJ.

And a pair of 75mm armed M-3 Gun Motor Carriages/Tank Destroyers, also painted up by AJ.  I probably need another one or two of these, actually...

I know they were near useless in real life, but I just love them!

American metal for North Africa.

Much like the near useless M-3 GMC, I love the M-3 Stuart.  These are absolutely gorgeous, painted by AJ.  Hmmm, not sure why I didn't show all five of them...

And some beautiful M-3 Grants, also by AJ.

So cool!

And look at that stowage!

Four M-10 Wolverines, some of my favorite WWII vehicles, just cool looking.  These were bought already painted off of someone a couple years ago, from TMP if I recall correctly (and sorry I don't rememember who it was).

A closeup.

A gaggle of halftracks, painted by yours truly.  I showed these off previously, for my Battle of the Bulge fights.

A closeup.

And another.  I'm pretty happy with my handiwork.

Then I've got a boatload of Shermans, both 75mm and 76mm-armed versions.  These should be able to take me into Sicily, Italy, and the rest of Europe, maybe even support my Marines on Peleliu or Okinawa, in a pinch.

A closer look.  They are a mix of metals, resins, and plastics, from at least Battlefront and Plastic Soldier Company (possibly others).  I don't mind that they're different shades of green, that probably makes them look more authentic.  These were gotten from the same gentleman as the M-10 Wolverines.

A look at one of the fully-metal Shermans, with hand-painted star.

And how 'bout some early war air support?  In the form of some P-40 Warhawks, of course.  I bought a pack thinking it had two aircraft in it, but it only had one, so then I had to go get another one off Ebay, but I got it secondhand, so I only had the one set of decals and had to stretch it to cover both planes.  I'm such a cheap, impatient bastid...

Coming and going.

And one more look.

Overall, I'm quite pleased that these are finished and ready to hit the table.  Who shall they fight, you ask?  Well stand by, I shall show you tomorrow evening!

V/R,
Jack