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,

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The Pak 36, being a small-calibre weapon, was outdated by the May 1940 Western Campaign, and crews found them inadequate against allied tanks like the British Mk.II Matilda, and the French Char B1 and Somua S35.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,

German paratrooper battalion support

Hi, here are some pictures of my Pak36 support unit for my Fallschirmjaeger battalions. Both gun and the crewmembers are made by Hät in an annoying soft plastic which makes it difficult to construct the Pak36. However the price of these guns and crewmembers are low, the soft plastic is a real disadvantage compared with Italeri gun sets such as the Pak40 and Soviet Zis gun.

A picture of the gun and crew based on the usual hardboard base.

If the gun would be used against a British Crusader Tank MK I's hull during the fictional invasion of Great-britain. The Pak36 would be capable of penetrating the hull with relative ease in the red areas! These sorts of results can be calculated by using the following online calculator: http://www.wwiiequipment.com/pencalc/

Greets,

German paratrooper battalions finished!

Hi, here are my finished German paratroopers ready to jump above Great-Britain during operation Sealion or to defend the dense bocages of Normandy! All the miniatures are Airfix or cheap reproduction of these.

The basing is done as always,

1) Base the miniatures on a harboard base.

2) Smear some filler on the base for some texture.

3) Add some sand for a fine structure, with PVA.

4) Paint the base in a brown tone.

5) Drybrush the first layer with a lighter brown tone.

6) Add some static grass with PVA.

Here are the pictures,

The two battalions with their commanders on the left side, next to the commanders you can see the three american snipers for my AA battalion.

A close up, they won't win any contests but they're ready for some gaming.

Greets,

German paratrooper battalions

Hi, here are some pictures of my newly based German fallschirmjaeger. Today I managed to base up the two German paratrooper battalions which I painted some months ago. The bases are still drying as I speak and are waiting for a final drybrush and some static grass. I've also managed to base the Pak36 crewmembers which are now waiting for their Pak36 to be attached to the base.

The two battalions plus the Pak36 crewmembers and three bases for my American Airborne Troops.

A close up of some bases.

Greets,

German paratrooper battalions

Hi, here are some new painted additions to my 20mm collection. This time I managed to paint up 2 german paratrooper battalions which completly exist out of Airfix miniatures and cheap chinese copies of these. When using these cheap alternatives, I stumbled onto the problem of lots of identical poses. This problem was however quickly solved by cutting of some legs to convert charging miniatures into kneeling ones.

The 2 paratrooper German battalions each exist:

- 1 commander (1 figure)

- 4 squads of 4 bases (32 figures)

The most left white circle indicates the original charging miniature, the second white circle shows the converted miniature. The other converted miniature is shown by the grey circles, the lowest one is the original charging miniature.

Here's another shot of the battalions, waiting for the finishing of the basing. I'm hoping to finish these battalions and their Pak 35 support gun as soon as possible.

Greets,

German Battalion

Hi, further progress is made into 1/72 wargaming. Yesterday I based an entire German battalion with some supportunits. The figures were manufactured by Italeri and were again bought from the secondhand dealer but this time the figures were still boxed! So I bought this box which actually value is 7 euros for 4 euros almost twice as cheap!

Battalion exist of

- 1 commander (1 figure)

- 4 squads of 4 bases (32 figures)

- 2 mortar bases (4 figures)

- 2 "standing" mg40 bases (4 figures)

- 2 "crawling" mg40 bases (4 figures)

One of the "standing" mg40 bases.

The other "standing" mg40 base.

All the supportunits together: 2 mortars and 4 mg40.

The entire German Battalion, the actual plan is to field 3 of these battalions against Americans or the Russians.

Greets,

German Army (15-20mm)

Here are some pic's of my 1/72 airfix German infantry. These units were based for rapid fire rules. Every single unit was based on a 1 eurocents and the machineguns and mortar were based on plastic card. I hope you enjoy the photo's.

Some of the ordinary German infantry with a medic, flamethrower in the back and Rommel's dog.

Close up of Rommel's dog, the dog was from the airfixkit "bristol rocket" or such.

The German officer this unit was based on a 5 eurocent piece. Just to see that it's an officer!

The medic, this was a ordinary infantryman that was promoted to medic by painting his helmet white. The poor medic running with a white helmet in the frontline,...

A sniper this was an old "micro machines" model, I painted to fit with the airfix ones.

Machinegun unit based on plasticcard.

Heavy mortar unit based on plasticcard. The mortar is also an old piece of "micro machines" I bought 7 or even 9 years ago.

3 machinegun units and 1 heavy mortar unit.

Stay tuned more 1/72 units will follow suchs as my cheap, russian horde for WW II,