28mm German WWII Gebirgsjäger

These are mostly Warlord figures with a smattering of other figures from my dead lead box. With my recent completion of my Finnish army, I'm looking to play more historical games representing fighting during the Lapland war. The German army in northern Finland contained a large number of Gebirgsjäger. They likely were sent there due to their cold weather training and ability to ski. 

These figures are the second installment for me to augment my German army for the Lapland war. The first being my captured French H-35 tank. Many of which were used in Finland right through the end of the Lapland war. 

The only complaint I have with the Warlord figures are with the MG-34 gunner. His arm blocks the ammo belt feed orifice. This makes a realistic positioning of the ammo belt impossible. I've done my best to make it look as good as possible.  Other than this minor gripe, these figures are fabulous. They're properly equipped, unique and well sculpted.

 

I leveraged the strength of Vallejo's new wave of Xpress color 'contrast' style paints. The canvas jackets use Khaki Drill. The German field grey pants, caps and jackets are two parts grey, one part green Xpress color with a touch of model color field grey for opaqueness. 

Xpress colors were also used on the packs, ropes gaiters and my favorite 'Dwarf Flesh' for the faces and hands. I may paint more Gebirgsjäger in the future, but as of now I haven't acquired any additional figures for them yet.

Captured French Hotchkiss H-35 in German Service in Finland

This is a captured French Hotchkiss H-35 tank painted up in German livery. During the continuation war this was the most numerous tank type in German service in Finland. Even during the Lapland war many were still available. Dozens were also buried for use as pantherturm bunkers.

 

This is a 3D print from 1:100 scale files, scaled up to 1:56. There are scant few historical photos of these in use in Finland. Best research I could find suggested that Panzer grey was used in Finland exclusively as whitewash over it was used each of the long winters. Although some H-35s were used in Normandy in three-color dunkelgelb pattern, I could find no evidence that this was used in Finland. To support the all-grey scheme, police duty H-35s used in the east were fielded in all grey. There are numerous photos supporting this.

The STL files come with both French and German-modified turrets in both short and long barrel versions. I've chosen to paint up the German-modified turrets. The French ones may end up being turned into pantherturm bunkers later on.

Weathering on this model was by sponge chipping techniques, dry brushing and liberal coats of Vallejo European dust acrylic wash in multiple coats. Turrets are magnetized for ease of use.

28mm Finnish T-26 M1932 / M1938

This is the 1:56 scale Rubicon T-26 plastic kit. The kit comes with the ability to be built as any variant of the T-26. I chose to model the quite plentiful T-26 M1932. A side benefit of this is the kit's multiple variants allow for a reasonable proxy of the M1938 variant by using that turret on the nearly identical M1932 chassis. Close enough for our gaming group at least. I'd guess most of the time I'll be using it at a M1932 though. 

 

Here is the reverse profile with the M1938 turret on it.  I've chosen the more coarse Finnish 3-color camouflage scheme based on this museum example in Finland as well as this historical photo. There are plenty of historical photos of these in action in plain Russian green paint schemes with only Finnish markings on them, but I have leaned on that crutch a lot in this army and for this tank I wanted to do a bit more. I'm glad I did as the effort was worth it.

 

At this photo appears to ride off into the sunset, I'm reminded that this 'completes' my Finnish WWII army. Sure armies are never really 'done', and I'm likely to add more in the future, but for now, the Finnish army is done. I have no more unpainted figures or vehicles to paint for this army. 

 

Upon researching the Lapland war, I did however find out that the Germans used a lot of leftover captured French tanks all the way to the end of the war in Finland, so there's some opportunities to add a tank or two to my German army. I also have picked up a couple units of Gebirgsjäger which my German army needs to truly represent a proper Lapland war force. There's always more to to. 

This adds a single 28mm vehicle to this year's painting totals.

Two 28mm Finnish Komsomolets Artillery Tractors

I previously posted two Komsomlets artillery tractors that I painted up last August.  One of these was an FDM (filament) print from my friend Mark D. and the other was a resin print printed by myself. After visiting my friend Scot and comparing these to his Warlord model, I discovered that both of the previously-painted models, which were printed at 100% scale from the STL file Mark and I used, were 'true' 25mm and not the 1:56 'heroic' 28/32mm scale that Warlord uses. All of my 28mm WWII vehicles and figures are either Warlord brand, or brands/prints scaled to match Warlord's 1:56 scale. The previous two tractors were too diminutive in size and were dwarfed by my figures and other vehicles. 

These two models were printed at 110% scale from the same file that Mark and I used before. As you can see compared to one of my Finnish engineer figures, the scale is much better. It's not impossible to imagine a figure-sized 'person' inside driving this tractor now. 

I've gone with a dirty look but this time I opted for less mud on the tracks. The mud was mostly to compensate for the FDM print's layer lines.

Here in the foreground, the old resin print with the newer, 100% scale one behind it. Not only is the scale of the newer print better, but since I've learned more about tuning my resin 3D printer, you can notice that the newer print is much smoother with no real visible layer lines. 

These will count as two painted vehicles for my 2023 painting totals.

28mm German Pioneers and Tank Hunters

These two groups of figures I've recently completed in order to enable me to run Chain of Command games with my Finnish and German armies for the Lapland War conflict in Finland. Although I've considered my German army more than complete for quite some time, Chain of Command requires pioneer teams and squads as support options. I had a flamethrower team in my collection, but I lacked proper German engineers with wire-clearing tools, explosives, etc. 

I considered getting the Warlord Plastics, but that was a waste considering I only needed a handful of figures. I also wanted whatever I purchased to be able to have some figures able to be re-purposed as German-equipped Finns. The pioneers in this group are Black Tree Designs pack WW2241 - Wehrmacht Engineers. Excellent figures with just the right equipment for my needs. I list the exact pack because finding such figures using Internet searches proved challenging and consumed more time than I'd like to admit. Hopefully Google will index this blog post and that might help someone with this same challenge in the future. I have no relation with Black Tree Designs other than being a happy paying customer.

The four engineers. I will add appropriate infantry to these to make up a full squad. They'll need an LMG and loader and an odd rifleman or two. Left to right, a wire-clearer with cutters and explosives, a grenadier with bundle grenades, an NCO with supply pack (satchel charge?) and an engineer carrying a mine. All in all a fine selection able to pose as any Chain of Command removal team as needed.

The 'tank hunters' are from Black Tree's WW2043 - Tank Killers pack. Some of these figures, primarily the ones with bundle grenades, were re-purposed as part of my Finnish pioneers. 

Seven painted 28mm figures for my annual totals. I have to admit, this year I'm definitely going to fail my goal of painting more figures than I purchase already painted, but this small effort helps towards that goal.

Last of the 28mm Finnish Infantry

I'm starting to come to the end of my 28mm Finnish Continuation War / Lapland War project. These are the last 'infantry' figures, including the gunners for the captured Russian 45mm AT gun. 

Remaining on the project are four vehicles, a T-34/76, a T-26 and two Komsolets artillery tractors. The latter 3-D reprints to replace the under-scaled ones I've already finished. 

 

This is a captured 45mm Russian AT gun. The Finns received a batch of these from Germany. Ter German designation was PaK 184 (r). Finland also captured several in the continuation war. I've painted this in flat green without the characteristic Finnish camouflage, as a majority of the in-theater historical photos appear to show it being used this way. The gun and crew are by Great Escape Games from their Iron Cross figure range.

Five Finnish combat engineers. These are converted Great Escape Games German engineers. I've done some head swaps and cherry-picked the figures with the least amount of characteristically German kit that wasn't given to the Finns. Helmets of course were donated in huge quantities.  These could also fit in as 'tank hunters' easy enough as most are carrying bundle grenades and panzerfausts. One figure also has an anti-tank mine. These will be augmented by my already painted flamethrower team.

I needed an engineer squad so I can use this army for Chain of Command. The CoC support points include flamethrower teams, engineering squads for tasks such as mine clearing and barbed wire clearing as well as full engineering squads.

 

Finally, the last dregs of the 'dead lead' box. This handful of infantry figures comprises the absolute last of the unpainted Finnish infantry figures I had. I was saving these few in case I needed an odd crew for an AT-gun, etc. While I was painting the AT-gun crew and engineers I figured I'd take advantage of economy of scale and get these finished up.

Total figures for the project - 13 figures and the AT gun.

 

28mm Minefields for Chain of Command

These are three 6"x6" minefields for use primarily with Chain of Command, which prescribes minefields of this size. They can also be used for other 28mm WWII games as well. While mines might not typically be visible, I find this representation to be quite recognizable by the players on the tabletop. The mines are 3D printed. Two of the bases are turfed MDF bases and a third, on thin clear acrylic for placing minefields across roads, or in urban areas.

These are minimally populated with terrain decoration to allow infantry figures to be placed on them. This would be appropriate should the mines represent anti-armor mines, or for engineering teams during the mine clearing process.

Still to come, barbed wire emplacements and road blocks also sized appropriately for Chain of Command.

28mm Finnish BT-42 Assault Gun

This is the Warlord resin model for the uniquely Finnish BT-42. This vehicle was made by adapting a captured BT-7 chassis by making a custom box turret large enough to hold a pre-war British 4.5" howitzer. 

Although intimidating in looks, in practice the overloaded chassis proved anemic in power, and the howitzer under performed in it's intended role. Also when pressed by armor, the HE gun was unable to take out enemy armor. Many of these were lost in 1943, with the remainder fighting on to the continuation war in 1944. Eventually all were replaced with German Stug-III and Panzer-IV tanks. 

I know these are of dubious value in a historical force, but I couldn't resist having one of these uniquely Finnish vehicles in my collection. 

 

28mm Finnish WWII Reindeer Pack 'Mule' and Driver

28mm Finnish WWII resin print of a reindeer 'pack mule' and driver. I purchased these pre-printed before I owned a 3D printer. I just finally got around to finish painting them up. 

 

 

 

 

 

28mm WWII Finnish Infantry

 These are twelve 28mm WWII Finnish infantry that I recently completed painting and are ready to base up. They are a mix of Artisan and Warlord figures. The SMG-armed figures are Artisan while the others are Warlord figures. I painted these in two two-hour streams on my Twitch.tv channel. Total time four hours, or 20 minutes per figure. 

These figures will be used for both Continuation War and Lapland war using Iron Cross, Chain of Command or Bolt Action rules. I'm still unpacking from moving this summer, so my laser engraver is still out of commission. As soon as it's back on-line I'll be cutting up bases for everything that I've been painting recently and I'll have a giant basing party for all of these recent projects.

Next up on the painting table will be some Lugurian ancient infantry for Saga "Age of Hannibal"