Following on from the trio of 28mm Warlord Valentine tanks I finally completed in July for Bolt Action, then the trio of 15mm Battlefront Shermans for TANKS! and then completing my OG 15mm DAK force for Flames of War 1st Edition, I was still keen to work on more of my 15mm models that have been sitting around for ages, and so I pushed on with some renovations to my German Armour as well as assembly and painting of some of the models from the TANKS! starter set (notably the Panther) as well as the Panther expansion set I’d picked up some time ago.
The models (Panther Gs) come with two different sets of skirt armour, though frankly one of the sets is unusable (IMO) unless you’re removing panels to represent damage/wear due to the very visible sinkholes on them or willing to spend the time to model the mess away. Poor form there on an otherwise nice little gaming kit. I (obviously) just added one set to my two Panther chassis.
With the slight variation in painting each model, I did have to make sure that each of the chassis matched up with one of the turrets properly in terms of the stripes.
The alternate build from this particular Panther kit is the Jagdpanther. and well, I wasn’t going to throw half of a perfectly good assault gun or tank into the bits box, so I built and painted them as well. As you’ve no doubt seen, I painted all four of the vehicles in the “dot” version of the Ambush Hinterhalt camouflage pattern.
Not being at all competent with an airbrush, and not having the right physical setup/space combo to be able to use one easily, I went for a brush implementation attempt to somewhat mimic the feathered effects of sprayed camo. Since the Germans in WWII field-applied their camo in many cases using anything from spray guns to rags dipped in paint, there’s a huge amount of variation even among “established” patterns.
For a first try especially, I’m pretty happy with how the camouflage patterns came out. I know there’s more of this stuff in my future, so we’ll see how well it goes next go round!
Oh, and here’s how I put these four together. Rare earth magnets and plastic struts and greenstuff. The numbers on the chassis undersides go with the turret numbers (211, 212) so I know which ones go together. At some stage, I’ll have to get hold of some 3d printed lower hulls somehow so I can turn these models into four permanent armoured vehicles. I’m not sure why, but these kits and their “proper” box set appear to be discontinued at this point in time. Maybe they’re in one of the army sets perhaps?
As I noted in the DAK army post, I did a bunch of work on my never-fully-completed old-school Tiger I to make it fit in with the colour scheme used by the other armoured vehicles I was finishing at the time. When it came time to take those photos, I found that my pair of Stug IIIGs annoyed me in how they stood out with a different, much paler finish – so I created some paint filters and went back over them with those (as well as washes) to get them to a better place.
Since then (early August) I’ve come up with some other ideas for these models, so they may make yet another appearance here down the line with a new(er) look. But for the time being, this update is how they look right now….
So here we are with the post for August Part One. With four… erm… six… um… The Panthers/Jagdpanthers are more than an optional turret in my opinion. They’re neither a single model, nor two models. I think I’ll call them 1.5 each – that’s what “feels” right to me anyway… And while I’m posting these WAY late, they were also intended to count for the 2021 edition of Dave Stone’s Season of Scenery Challenge.
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
They are looking great mate! Love that Hinterhalt camouflage 🤘
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Thanks Alex! Glad you like it! 🙂
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I like these – really nice! 🙂 Good idea finishing the alternative upper hulls – I’d rate them at 1.75 each at least, since painting upperworks is a lot more demanding than chassis! And I like the plain sand StuGs – don’t often see them like that!
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Cheers, John. OK, I’ll go with your suggestion – it’ll really come into it’s own if/when I get to painting more models down the line with swappable top ends. Though setting all of that up was *not* fun – alternate turrets are *much* easier!
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Agree with John that they should count for 1.75 as the top half involves a lot more work.
Great work on all, don’t worry about posting them up late for the challenge as I will be doing an update post for the challenge, once you’ve posted up all your entries mate.
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Alrighty Dave – and thanks for that as well. I’ll make my way out there again in the next couple of days to take the next batch of August photos, which once again feature Challenge stuff! 🙂
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That camouflage looks spot on. Great work on the Stugs too.
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Thanky mate 🙂 I wish the Stugs werein their final form, but with the DAK only having seven of them in total throughout the desert war, I feel that these two will probably have to be reassigned to the Eastern Front at some point…
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Stug’s were my favourite combat vehicle in War Thunder.
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I keep meaning to try that game out. How is it? (and how grindy/P2W?) I’ve got WoT running again at least…
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Absolutely top notch camo there mate!
Cheers Roger.
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Thanks Roger! I appreciate it!
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Those are brilliant- really like those. Especially the jagdpanthers.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Cheers Pete – yeah, how could I *not* build the Jagdpanthers from those kits, right?
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Wow man the camo looks fantastic
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Thanks IRO! I’ll have to start documenting these things as I do them to make it easier to go back later when I want to add more models painted in a specific way…
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There is a special place in my heart for German Armor, these look fantastic!
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Thanks Eric! There’s some more stuff coming soon that I hope you’ll like as well! 🙂
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No airbrush needed as it turns out! These look very nice and realistic to my untrained eye. I figured John would like this post and if they look good to him, then we know you were on the right track with these. Looking forward to seeing what you get done next! 🙂
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Thanks Kuribo. I have to admit I still *really* like the airbrush effect, and I may one day have to figure out how to do those fine, thin, light lines of camo. Won’t be for a little while at least, though – but hope you enjoy the next things that go up!
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Very nice work mate.
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Thanks mate – very much appreciated! 🙂
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Exceptional! I only achieved that late-war German armor look (well close) with a .18mm airbrush that set me back $500 US. Yours are sooo good! The StuGs are great too, and congrats on the historical point about the rarity of StuGs in North Africa, most people don’t realize that. Interestingly as well your adaptation to the hulls. My fave is always the Jagdpanther- such a cool – and historically effective -tank destroyer. And not for nuttin you can use all these for WaT too!
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Cheers Mark! I’m looking forward to my next late-war German armour being a step up from these ones as well, though I may have to try to ape these as closely as possible for unit coherency, though given the way German supply worked towards the end of the war – maybe not!
Yeah, with only 7 Stugs sent to North Africa, it’s feasable to include these in games even though they’re not in the official FoW DAK army book, since FoW allows for the singular Super Pershing and the singular ISU-152 that was put into action against the Soviets (from the two captured).
Still, having said that, the fate of these twqo Stugs is going to be a(nother) repaint and possibly a refit before they’re sent up North from Afrika…
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While you are at it, you can consider that some Vichy French armor and Free French armor served on both sides in NA. from https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/france/ww2_french_tanks.php “The fact is that the French empire still possessed territories and powerful military assets in its hands, especially the Fleet, that interested or threatened the Allies in their reconquest plans. The French colonies in North Africa still possessed armored vehicles, mostly obsolescent models, like Renault FTs, a few Renault D1s, some Hotchkiss H35/39s and Renault R35s, alongside many armored cars. These vehicles were committed in various engagements against Allied troops, like against the Australians in Syria-Lebanon and the US and British troops during operation Torch. In French Indo-China, in 1941, the few FTs still operational were used against a Thai invasion supported by Japan. A few AVFs saw action with the Free French under Gen. Leclerc (Koufra raid).”
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Cheers Mark. I’m unlikely to do too much with French (or Italians), largely to do with a lack of readily available kits (especially in plastic) and a desire to move onto forces in Sicily and the Eastern Front once I get the Allied half of my Torch forces built and painted, though if models turn up somewhere for a reasonable price I certainly won’t be opposed to adding a few of each as supplements to the three main Desert forces I’m working on.
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brilliant mate ! the lads have said it all! As my camo on tanks was always shit I decided to purchase a little airbrush to see if I can improve my efforts as I need to paint some little Japanese one for an up coming show! fingers crossed!
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Thanks Pat. At some stage I may be forced to try and use my dust-covered airbrush again, just to paint a whole lot of squiggly thin lines on a bunch of tanks. Unless I can figure out a good way to avoid doing so at least! 😉
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