German artillery, Airfix 7.5 cm Pak 40

Hi, here's the last gun for my German Artillery park! This time I've built and painted an Airfix 7.5 cm Pak 40. This gun came in a set together with an opel blitz and some crewmembers. These crew members however were to big to be used with my other 20mm miniatures and so I ended up using Hät crew members. This 7.5 cm Pak 40 will give my earlier war Germans the much needed ability to destroy some allied medium armour!

Development of the PaK 40 began in 1939 with development contracts being placed with Krupp and Rheinmetall to develop a 7.5 cm anti-tank gun. Priority of the project was initially low, but Operation Barbarossa in 1941 and the sudden appearance of heavily armoured Soviet tanks like the T-34 and KV-1, increased the priority. The first pre-production guns were delivered in November 1941. In April 1942, Wehrmacht had 44 guns in service. By 1943 the PaK 40 formed the bulk of the German anti-tank artillery.The PaK 40 was the standard German anti-tank gun until the end of the war, and was supplied by Germany to its allies. Some captured guns were used by the Red Army. Source wikipedia

I hope you enjoyed this post! And welcome to the new followers enjoy your stay!

Greets,

Wargame news from Perry Miniatures, Foundry, ...

Hi, here's another round of exciting wargame news! Way too many so this will be a very long post, grap some popcorn and check these awesome products! First of all we have the preview of the Defiance Games bugs. These fearsome critters will be the all-round opponent of the different humanoid factions of the "Alien War" universe. The miniatures will be made out of hard plastic and will come in multiple parts so you can make multiple poses. These swarms of bugs will be the ideal proxy for some "Starship Troopers" warrior aliens or some sort or lesser species. I can easily find dozens of different settings for these beasts, so were are you waiting for?

Secondly we have some new releases in the "Condottiere" range from Foundry Miniatures! This new Condottiere collection features the Spanish; tough and experienced professionals, both as mercenaries and fighting for the Spanish crown. They would also make great additions to your Conquistador forces! This collection includes; Spanish Pikemen and Crossbowmen, Stradiots, Ginetes, plus a Demi Cannon and Artillery Crew!

Next their are the greens of the Mantic Games, Corporation faction! But first of all some more information about the massive Corporation faction. "The galaxy is burning. The malevolent Corporation is ever expanding its sphere of influence, annexing more and more star systems. Their strategy is to make contact with alien civilizations, dazzle them with a few gifts of techno-bauble and then offer membership ‘as equal partners’ in the Great Galactic Co-prosperity Sphere. In the space of a few years, of course, the governments of those worlds will be changed by bribery, corruption, political intrigue, blackmail, threats and assassination, into puppet-states. They will devote all of their planets’ resources to enriching the Corporation and the few local bureaucrats that ‘run the business’ for it, while their populations plummet into a state of poverty and servitude.." Here's an awesome green sculpted by the talented Paul Muller and the magnificent artwork. I really love these grim futuristic foot soldiers pressed into service for the Empire, euh ... Corporation! It's a pitty that they will be released in plastic resin as the waiting queue at Renedra was too long.

Other new releases can be found on the massive online store, Northstar Figures distributor of dozens if not hundreds of manufacturers! The first new releases are from Trent Miniatures, which manufacturers an amazing range of rather unusual subjects such as the Hawain Rebellion, Irish insurgents for the 1796-1800 French Revolutionary Wars and many others. The new releases exist out of seven packs of Irish Militiamen for the French Revolutionary Wars which are beautifully sculpted, check the picture!

Another release that can be found on the Northstar Figures website is made by North Star Miniatures themselves as they own an own range of miniatures! You can never have enought Tarzan's and Jane's! Not mentioning the chimp and little savage! These miniatures can be bought as a pack here!

Another bunch of new goodies is avaible for preorder at Wargames Factory! The first set is the 16th Century Ashigaru Warriors Set is made for model builders and war gamers interested in warfare during the Warring States Period of Japanese History. There are 25-multipart hard plastic miniatures in this set which can be assembled into Ashigaru with bows and arquebus. Up to 20 arquebus soldiers and 5 bowman or 20 bowman and 5 arquebus soldier. Models require painting and assembly to be completed.

The second set is the 16th Century Ashigaru Yari Spearmen set is made for model builders and war gamers interested in warfare during the Warring States Period of Japanese History. There are 25-multipart miniatures in this set which can be assembled into Ashigaru with Spears. There are also provisions for Standard Bearers, Musicians (both the conch shell horn and signal drum with drummer) and (non-Samurai) unit leaders. Models require painting and assembly to be completed.

But the coolest releases must be the new carts from Perry Miniatures! These carts and their handlers are intended to be used for the War of the Roses range but can be used for more settings if you change the handlers and some of the carriage! As a bonus you can buy the oxes and horses seperate, so you can easily use them for other purposes or enlarge the amount of draft animals! Sounds good!

I especially love the oxe wagon filled with baggage! So I will probably end up buying some of the oxes. The other set is a horse drawn covered wagon.

The last release is from Warlord Games ,their magnificent Light Brigade lancers! What could be finer than the 17th Lancers making their ill-fated charge into the Russian guns at Balaclava? Nothing – that’s what! They couldn’t do the Light Brigade (yes, the Hussars and Dragoons are already being sculpted…) without casualty models could they? So they are also avaible for purchase.

I hope you enjoyed this large post! So what will you buy?

Greets,

German artillery, 3.7 cm pak field battery

Designed by Rheinmetall in 1924 and first issued in 1928, the 3.7 Pak36 was first intended to be drawn by horse. As the German Military decided that motorised warfare was the way to go, the wooden spoked wheels were exchanged for modern wheels. During the Spanish Civil War, the German Condor Legion made great use of these guns as the armour on tanks was still weak.

The Pak 36, being a small-calibre weapon, was outdated by the May 1940 Western Campaign, and crews found them inadequate against allied tanks like the British Mk.II Matilda, and the French Char B1 and Somua S35. Still, the gun was effective against the most common light tanks, such as the Renault FT-17 during the Battle of France and the T-26 during Operation Barbarossa. The widespread introduction of medium tanks quickly erased the gun's effectiveness; miserable performance against the T-34 on the Eastern Front led to the Pak 36 being derisively dubbed the "Door Knocker" (Heeresanklopfgerät, literally "army door-knocking device") for its inability to do anything other than advertise its presence to a T-34 by futilely bouncing rounds off its armor. The addition of tungsten-core shells (Pzgr. 40) added slightly to the armour penetration of the Pak 36. Despite its continued impotence against the T-34, it remained the standard anti-tank weapon for many units until 1942. Source: Wikipedia

My 3.7 cm pak 36 field battery exists out of three Hät guns and their crews. I decided to make a three gun battery as this is the standard size for artillery batteries in Rapid Fire and I only had three guns left. The guns and crew were painted using vallejo's German Field Grey as main color.

I hope you enjoyed this new update!

Greets,

German artillery, an 88' battery

Hi, here's some more progress for my Operation Sealion project. This time I managed to finish an 88 gun battery for my German forces. The Flak88 was one of the best artillery guns during the Second World War as it could be easily transported and could be used as both anti aircraft and tank gun. During the Spanish Civil War, earlier versions of these guns were succesfully used against tanks. Also during the invasion of France in 1940, the gun proved a powerful weapon capable of penetrating the armour of the Char B1 Bis and Mathilda II. During the invasion, the guns were able to destroy 152 tanks and 151 bunkers.

For my wargames I decided to built a battery of two gun as more would take too much place on the tabletop. Building and finishing these guns also triggered me to finish my other German artillery pieces. One of the guns is made by Airfix and came in a boxed set with a tractor and a limber, the other gun is of an unknown manufacturer but was easier to put together.

A view of the entire 88 gun battery, the towvehicles will follow in the future.

A close up of the limber

I hope you enjoyed the battery! And a Merry Christmas to you all!

Greets,

Operation Sea Lion, German supply issues

Hi, I've finally managed to do some more research for my Operation Sealion 1940 project. This time I decided to research some more about the German supply lines as these would be of vital importance for the German army and their possible victory. Surfing on the internet I've stumbled upon a huge amount of documents which contained lots of useful information. To make it possible to research the supply issue I narrowed the research to the ports of Dover, Ramsgate and Folkestone as these were some of the main objectives because of their proximity with Calais.

Dover, 1940

First of all I estimated the number of used German divisions for the 1940 invasion. These numbers were gathered from a number of sources including the internet and some publications. The first assault wave would probably exist out of eleven infantry division supported by a fallschirmjager division. The second wave would exist out of eleven divisions including four panzer divisions and one luftlande division. The third wave would exist out of six infantry divisions.

Another number I found was that an ordinary German division would use up to 300 tons of supplies a day including everything from fuel to ammunition. A Panzer division would probably need more so I roughly estimated 500 tons! So the first wave would consume 3600 tons, the second wave would use 4100 tons and the third wave would consume 1800 tons! The total of needed supplies for the entire invasion force (not mentionning reinforcements) a day would be 9500 tons a day!

Where would they unload these huge quantities? I found a short list with some of the British ports within the reach of the invasion forces. The numbers used are when the ports are fully operational but when the Germans would invade the ports would be destroyed together with the storage facilities, derricks and docks. These damages would probably cause that only 30% of the shown tonnage could be unloaded. The ports marked with a (*) are ports which are already partially destroyed by British engineers.

The ports of Folkestone, Dover and Ramsgate would be the primary targets of the first invasion force as these would enable the Germans to unload heavy equipment such as heavy artillery (such as 88's) and some much needed tank support (second wave). These ports however would not be sufficient to supply the invasion force so beaches would also be used for unloading supplies. The next picture shows some more number about the German capacity of unloading supplies.

The first wave would consume 3600 tons a day, the Germans would be able to unload 5200 tons (under perfect circumstances). The second wave would probably land within some days after the first wave so the total of needed supplies would be 7700 tons. As you can see there's already a shortage of 2150 tons! The third wave would probably land after a week, the total of needed supplies would be 9500 tons, the unload capacity would be 8400 tons. Again there's a shortage of 1100 tons! There's a small possibility to fly in some supplies using the Junkers but it would not be sufficient to fulfill the needs.

Edit, Thanks to the Angry Lurker, there's also the idea of Germans living off the land. As I don't think there was some sort of full scale scorched earth policy in Great-Britain. I guess some installations and supply depots would be destroyed but not all of them because of the surprise element of both fallschirmjager and some Brandenburg units.

I hope you found this an interesting read as always this "research" is purely made to be used as a base for my wargames. So there's the possibilty that the numbers aren't correct.

Greets,

Operation Sea Lion, British Army

As the start date the Analogue painting contest comes close I decided to start preparing both of my Operation Sealion forces starting with the British units. The first unit will be a regular infantry battalion with some support such as Piat's and heavy machinguns. This unit will probably take some days to finish but won't be too much of a hassle. The paintjob will be quite forward with a lot of drybrushing and maybe some washes.

The rest of the army will exist out of a pair of Bofor guns and their tractors. As I haven't managed to collect a lot of british equipment at Crisis as there weren't much 20mm kits that I liked. These guns will be a real nightmare for my German Paratroopers and the German light armour units! I hope to extend the army with some proper transport, homeguards, some tanks and some AT guns. But that won't probably happen during the painting contest!

I hope you enjoyed this small post.

Greets,

The 2nd Annual Winter Painting Challenge!

Hi, finally I found some time to post a new post! No painted miniatures however but those will follow soon as I joined the 2nd Annual Winter Painting Challenge! This contest is organised by Curt from the Analogue Hobbies blog!

The goal of the contest is to paint as much miniatures as you can between 20/12/2011 and 20/03/2012, the only rule is that painting the miniatures may not have been started before the start date except for the basecoat. When I saw the contest I thought why not? I have just basecoated a whole bunch of zulu warriors by hand, have lots of 20mm World War Two battalions eager to receive some paint! The points given for painted miniatures dependent on their scale and what they are (for example a painted 20mm is worth 4 points, a 28mm is worth 5). The best bit is that wargamers from all corners of the world joined and that the three best scores win prices from an online store!

The final goal, paint some miniatures as my leadpile is really starting to take epic measurements!

What will I try to paint?

- Four battalions of 20mm Germans

- One battalion of 20mm British

- Two Flak 88 with crew (20mm)

- Three Pak 36 with crew (20mm)

- One Pak 40 with crew (20mm)

- Forty Mahdists painted as arabs

- Twenty Zulus

- ...

Greets,

On the paintingtable, more Foundry!

Hi, here's another post about my painting progress! I'm currently painting up several miniatures for my Victorian colony such as a small colonial police force and some civilians. All the miniatures are made by Foundry and were purchased at Crisis. The policemen already received a basecoat of chaos black followed by another basecoat of regal blue (this is not shown in the pictures). The civilians will be painted in several fancy colors except for the woman with the rifle as she will receive a more khaki color scheme.

Here's a picture of the civilian lot I've purchased at Crisis both from the B&B and the Dave Thomas stand. You may also notice a lone african scout in the lot, this miniature will be used as guide for my colonial British.

There are many more miniatures on the paintingdesk which are not shown but are all basecoated and ready to be painted! A large bunch of zulu warriors, a zulu command stand, some members of the Foundry Juno crew, some inuit warriors!

Greets,

Victoriana, Edward station

Hi, finally I've managed to scratchbuild another building for my Victorian wargame table! This time I decided to build a train station which also can be used a some sort of warehouse or trading station with a loading dock. The building was build by constructing a cartonboard structure and then I glued some different sorts of textured wall paper on it representing brickwork. The windows and doors were made by using bits of cartonboard and wood. The building only took some hours to construct and the painting took about half an hour!

The building was based upon an old of hardboard wood that I had found earlier this week! I've also added a signboard which could be removed as it's attached with some cheap magnets. I'm really pleased with the building and I'm looking forward to build some more houses which can be used for some Victorian wargames and VBCW wargames!

I hope you enjoyed this post!

Greets,