Monthly Archives: October 2021

August 2021 – Personal Painting Round-Up

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Plastic Soldier Company Battlefront 15mm Panzer III IV Tiger Company - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War 1/100 1:100

Here’s my belated painting round-up for August. Sure, it’s the last day of October, but you get what you pay for here at the Bitz Box. As you can easily see here, everything I painted in August was either a vehicle or terrain, and so it all counts (due to a generous challenge runner) towards Dave’s Season of Scenery challenge. I’ll have another round-up for Dave’s challenge tomorrow or the day after (I need to edit the photos and do all the typing, and it’s getting late).

Plastic Soldier Company Battlefront 15mm Panzer III IV Tiger Company - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War 1/100 1:100

These models represent the second major chunk of my Afrika Korps force, (as well as a couple of late-war models). Looking at things now, in Oct/Nov I see three more major(ish) updates for the DAK. Another chunk of armoured vehicles – though not as many as seen here – composing the scout section and a few more tanks to shore up these platoons, then some artillery/field guns/PAKs as well as a few more infantry to round things out to the current FoW rules, and then stuff that’s not readily available – which will be really when I get them and paint them, though I am keen to finish this force and add the full stop at the end of it, rather than leaving it to be an open-ended prospect as we wargamers so often do. I guess I’ll also decide whether to paint all those halftracks that I picked up when I was looking at an earlier Panzergrenadier list, so possibly four major updates before completion then. But in the meantime, I’ve switched projects slightly, so no more Germans for a little while…

All up, I painted 30 complete models, plus the two extra upper hulls/turrets of the Jagdpanthers/Panthers, so I’ll call them worth 1/2 each for a total of 31 for the time being. Due to all of those tiny 15mm infantry, I had 324 models painted at the end of July. Adding these August models in takes me to 355 for the year to date (as of Aug 31st, anyway!)

Next post, Dave’s Round-Up, and then onto September’s models I promise I’ll catch up to October’s models quickly!

Battlefront 15mm Panzer IV Company – Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War

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Battlefront 15mm Panzer IV Company - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War 1/100 1:100

Nope, it’s not a repost of my most recent post. It’s another bunch of Panzers for my Afrika Korps force. I could have combined them all into one post, but I’m doing them in two posts to split them so they’re easier for me to find. And yeah, I’m well aware that they look very similar, but it’s really not that different to having two posts for two different Warhammer units from the same force in two posts.

Battlefront 15mm Panzer IV Company - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War 1/100 1:100

Battlefront 15mm Panzer IV Company - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War 1/100 1:100

I had to pick up a box of Panzer IVs to make up the numbers I needed to have the legal tank company, but I was okay with that. I went with a very similar breakdown to my Panzer IIIs. Two platoons of three Panzer IVs – which should be Ausf. G, all armed with the long 7.5cm KwK L/43. Same painting technique as the Tigers and Panzer III, right down to the chipping. The main difference on these is that I used (most of) my remaining red turret numbers. You might think that Battlefront’s actual Boxes of Afrika Korps tanks with red numbers on the turrets would have red number decals, but no. That’s bloody useful, isn’t it?

Battlefront 15mm Panzer IV Company - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War 1/100 1:100

Battlefront 15mm Panzer IV Company - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War 1/100 1:100

Also similarly to my Panzer III Company, I was happy enough to leave these units “as-is” when I built, painted and finished them, but I’m now thinking I may circle back around to them and add a few more tanks with other options. They were pretty fun to paint, but unfortunatel;y I didn’t write down all the steps as I did them, so if/when I get to more DAK armour I’ll have to ensure that I document the process properly.

Battlefront 15mm Panzer IV Company - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War 1/100 1:100

I did something a little different for the company HQ – a pair of Panzer IVs, but this time keeping the short 7.5cm KwK 37 L/24 as they work in FoW as an fire support tank with the abiulity to fire as artillery or drop smoke rounds. During assembly, I also found that the Plastic Soldier Company really work so much better aesthetically to my eye on tanks. I don’t mind the dumpy/”heroic”/squat proportions of the Battlefront models on infantry, but some of those watermelon-headed doofus’ sticking out of the turrets really looked bad, and I decided to start substituting the PSC commanders in (and yeah, I tore the BF commander out of that second turret!)

Battlefront 15mm Panzer IV Company - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War 1/100 1:100

That’s all of my German armour for the time being, and the final models I painted in August. With the addition of these 18 Panzers I painted and have shared over these most recent three posts, I’ve certainly bumped up the scope of my DAK force, and with that, the Stug III Gs are certainly going to be diverted into a different German force for the future.

These Panzers were also painted in August, and so add another chunk of heavy metal that will qualify for Dave Stone’s Season of Scenery Challenge . My next post will be my August wrap-up as well as my Season of Scenery wrap-up – though I do need to take the photos still. I’ll then get to September’s posts! I’m also going to have to take an updated photo of my Afrika Korps force with the armour addition!