Amidst my Tolkien-inspired efforts of late, I took a small sideroad to get a start on a German early WW2 force in 15mm to oppose my Soviets.
These three models are by the Russian manufacturer Zvezda, sold as part of their Art of Tactic series. They were kindly given to me by Steve Whitesell, the proprietor of an excellent blog with a WW2 and WW3 theme.
Zevezda kits are compatible with other 15mm models, and while they are less detailed, they are easy t assemble. For these two tanks, the track and road wheel assembly is all one part that glues onto the bottom of the hull. Easy peasy.
These two PZ 38s and the tiny tank (sorry, the SdKfz 222) armoured car make the nucleus of a recce unit (sorry, aufsklarungsgruppe) suitable for early war. I was pressed for time, as I wanted to get an entry into the Armor theme bonus round of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. There were some fifty entries riffing in various directions on this theme, and it is well worth your having a look here. If you look at nothing else there, go admire the talented Michael Awdry's wonderful Grail Knights homage to Monty Python.
My effort was paltry by comparison. The German Gray is a base of a Vallejo primer, brushed on as I did not have time to break out my airbrush. When dry I hit them with Citadel Nurn Oil or whatever it is called (I far prefer Army Painter Strong Tone but am currently out) and then did some rust and chipping. Most of the weathering got obliterated when I drybrushed on some craft store tan paint to suggest the dust of the Russian roads. Bases are MDF, handcut, with some plastic wood texturing and then flocking. The crosses are by Battlefront and the Pz38 turret numbers are by Dom's decals.
I have five Plastic Soldier Company early model PZIIIs assembled and painted, another pack of five PZ38s with the option to build as the Marder variant, also from PSC, so I may build a zug of three Marders for later war and give two of the 38s to this unit.
It's a start.
These figures bring my 2017 totals to:
15mm: Vehicles and AFVs: 3
28mm: Foot Figures: 29; Mounted Figures: 2
