Battlefront Marder (7.62cm) Tank-hunter Platoon (GBX101) – Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War

Battlefront Marder (7.62cm) Tank-hunter Platoon (GBX101) - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War, Battlegroup, What a Tanker, 1:100, 1/100

So I was thinking to myself, I’ve been painting way too many Middle-Earth and Fantasy models lately. I really need to get back to the 15mm WWII stuff before Kuribo loses patience with this blog completely. So with that, a couple of weeks ago I got started on two boxes of German stuff that I’d wanted to get done for a few months now. The first one of those boxes was this one – a platoon of Marder III artillery pieces for my Afrika Korps force.

Battlefront Marder (7.62cm) Tank-hunter Platoon (GBX101) - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War, Battlegroup, What a Tanker, 1:100, 1/100

These weren’t too bad to paint – the biggest issue actually being all of the crewmen, since I really don’t enjoy painting 15mm infantry models.

Battlefront Marder (7.62cm) Tank-hunter Platoon (GBX101) - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War, Battlegroup, What a Tanker, 1:100, 1/100

When I was almost done, I realised that I’d not added any additional stowage to any of these kits, and that all four crews were identical. I passed on adding any stowage, but did pry off the gunner of the lead Marder to replace him with a spare (metal) standing artillery crewman, just to help distinguish the lead model a little more easily that squinting at the numbers on the sides of the models’ hulls.

Battlefront Marder (7.62cm) Tank-hunter Platoon (GBX101) - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War, Battlegroup, What a Tanker, 1:100, 1/100

And that’s pretty much it. The other kit I started alongside have turned out to have an unforeseen issue, so I’m waiting on an ebay purchase of some teeny-tiny ball bearings to rectify the problem, so I’ll get those finished up whenever my small balls arrive in the post!

Battlefront 15mm Sd.Kfz.221 & Zvezda Sd.Kfz.222 – Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War

Battlefront 15mm Sd.Kfz.221 & Zvezda Sd.Kfz.222 - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War. 1/100, 1:100, What a Tanker, Battlegroup.

As I said the other day when I posted my 8-Rads, I always loved the look of WWII German half tracks and armoured cars since I was a kid – the “futuristic” look of them really appealed to me. Today we have my favourite of them all – the Leichter Panzerspähwagen Sd.Kfz 222.

Battlefront 15mm Sd.Kfz.221 & Zvezda Sd.Kfz.222 - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War. 1/100, 1:100, What a Tanker, Battlegroup.

As usual, I’m following the Flames of War Afrika Korps list options for my building, though of course I can then use them in any approriate game. As such, we’ve also got one 221 in this little unit, armed with the 2.8cm PzB.41. I used a Plastic Soldier Company tank commander on the 221 as the much finer (and to scale) detail on the PSC commander works much better on these smaller vehicles than a boofheaded Battlefront one would have.

Battlefront 15mm Sd.Kfz.221 & Zvezda Sd.Kfz.222 - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War. 1/100, 1:100, What a Tanker, Battlegroup.

As with the 8-Rads, these were started and then sat for a few months before completion as I needed to wait on the Skytrex decals. I’m pretty happy with these 1:100 licence plates. Are they absolutely necessary? Of course not, but they do add a nice little bit of small detail to these tiny models.

Battlefront 15mm Sd.Kfz.221 & Zvezda Sd.Kfz.222 - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War. 1/100, 1:100, What a Tanker, Battlegroup.

As usual, these models were all painted in the same manner as my previous Panzers, with a little of the milliput stowage added here and there to make the models a little more distinct. No unit numbers or designations again – I guess the licence plates take care of the identification task on these!

Battlefront 15mm Sd.Kfz.221 & Zvezda Sd.Kfz.222 - Deutsches Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika for Flames of War. 1/100, 1:100, What a Tanker, Battlegroup.

The scale shot shows how small these are copmpared to a reasonably small Panzer III and the 231. I should have put a small coin next to them, but I guess it’d only be truly useful for the other Aussies on here! With the Panzer IV’s shown the other day, I’m pretty sure I’m now complete with my DAK tanks, and these wrap up my armoured cars. I’ve still got a few more vehicles to add – Marders, Sd.Kfz.10/4 Light AA, perhaps some Dianas (the only thing I’d need to purchase) – then some Field Guns/Artillery, a mortar platoon and some extra infantry stands to clean up my options. (and then decide if I want to add enough half-tracks to turn the Grenadiers into Panzergrenadiers!) It’s certainly a large enough and very playable army right now, but I want to add those last options so I can play overly-large games or have the flexibility to really change up the force from game to game.

These were painted in January, (as are the next couple of posts’ models) – so they’re another submission for Dave Stone’s current Paint Wot Cho’ Got Challenge that runs until the end of January. I’ve got… 1 more post already written and queued up, and then I need to take pics for the final two posts of January’s models. Then my January (and Dave) round-ups (which will need to be photrographed and written up. I’m setting these two days apart so as to not be too spammeriffic, so that’s 8 days from when this one goes live. (It also lets me keep a reasonable posting schedule while I’m at work most of the week!)