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.

28mm BM-13 Katyusha Rocket Battery

A 'battery' of two 3-D Printed BM-13 Katyusha rocket trucks. These are more vehicles for my all-3D-printed defense of Stalingrad army for my friend Scott's campaign. I'll likely sell one of these after the campaign as I really don't need two. Printing and painting two at once took advantage of some economy of scale. Hopefully selling one can help defray the resin cost for this army.

This adds two more 28mm vehicles to this year's painting totals.

28mm 3-D Printed Aufklärungspanzer 38(t)

 Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a sucker for all variants of the venerable Czech Panzer 38(t). I've been wanting an Aufklärungspanzer 38(t) to add to my collection of other 38(t)-based variants for a long time. I've considered scratch building one as I did my Flakpanzer 38(t) but I never got around to it. Thankfully there's now a great model of it in STL form on Wargaming3D from Night Sky Miniatures. I cannot recommend this model enough. It's dirt cheap and quite accurate. It comes in high-detail and low-detail. This is the high-detail print with open turret. 

Although the closed turret version is likely more durable, I couldn't resist the open turreted option with it's included crew. The turret magnetizes easily to make tabletop use easy. I printed this using some 'tough' resin which I hope will help with durability. 

One more AFV scratched off my bucket list and put onto the annual painting totals.

3D-Printed WWII Soviet 'Army'

My friend Scot has organized a defense of Stalingrad campaign with a bunch of his gaming friends and I was invited to participate. Since I don't yet have any Soviet WWII troops and they make for excellent enemies for both my German and Finnish forces, I chose to be on the Soviet side of the campaign.

I thought this would make for an excellent opportunity to see if I could 3-D print the entire army while also trying out the 'slap chop' painting method to paint them. Painting has been going fast and furious in order to get my 500 point force ready for the first game. There were some hiccups in my understanding of which troops would be acceptable for the first game, so I'm about 1200 points in to field my 500 point force for the game. This dark photo is the army so far sitting in my figure case. Detailed photos below of each unit.

Two nine-man infantry squads of NKVD infantry in their khaki uniforms and sharp blue caps. Each squad with an LMG, an SMG and seven riflemen. 

Below a close-up showing the LMGs, SMGs and a great figure carrying a grenade. 

The weapon teams. An 82mm mortar left and a Maxim MMG team below.

 

Command and specialist teams. Lieutenant and his runner to the left. Below a Commissar with assistant and a sniper and spotter.

Twelve-man 'factory worker militia' squad. Bolt Action allows the Soviets to get a free 12-man inexperienced squad as part of their national characteristics. Quantity has a quality all its own I guess. These are a mix of figures from two different sculptors and I love all of the sculpts and how they work together. Favorites are the guy in the back smoking and the guy in the front with the sawed-off double-barrel shotgun!

Support vehicles: a Gaz truck with quad Maxim guns on an AA mount and a BA-64 light armored scout car with LMG/MMG. 

A squadron / platoon / 'zug' of three T-60 light tanks. Many people know about the T-34 factory in Stalingrad that was making tanks and sending them directly into battle un-painted or in primer. There was also another factory doing the same for T-60 light tanks. These will be part of my 'tank platoon' when we do the urban Stalingrad games.

These and everything above amounts to a total of 45 figure and five vehicles painted in the past 5-6 weeks since planning for the campaign has begun. Not bad starting with liquid and ending up with a sizeable army in that amount of time!

This squad of eight SMG-armed infantry and a converted Flamethrower figure I purchased off of Ebay when I thought I might not make the deadline for the first game. I'll still include them here, but they are not part of the 3D printed figures. I believe these are Warlord plastic figures. 

The 'flamethrower' is an MG ammo box on the back of that figure. I WILL be replacing it with a proper 3D-printed replacement.

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.

3D Printed 28mm Small Italian Farmhouse

Quick 3D print and paint of this small Italian house. I intend to use it as a small farmhouse. I purchased the STL files for this as part of a larger set and I'm very happy with the purchase. More from this set to come.

One terrain/misc added to the annual painting totals.

 

Three 28mm German SdKfz 251 WWII Halftracks

These three German SdKfz 251 half tracks were 3D printed from free files I was able to find on the Internet. I printed them up on my resin 3D printed and got them painted up in a couple of evenings. The stowage is comprised of additional free STL files I also got on-line (search 'stowage project'). I absolutely didn't need these, but I found the excellent STL files and I'm TRYING to have a personal goal of not 3D printing stuff that I'm not also painting, so here we are.

There are two standard 251 Hannomag troop transports and one 251/9 'Stummel' with the short barreled 75mm gun. Cammo was airbrushed on with the remaining details brush painted and then the whole group was doused in Vallejo's excellent European Dust wash - my new secret weapon. This stuff gives a nice durable 'dirty and dusty' look with very little work.

Three more 28mm vehicles for this year's painting totals. Honestly I'm finding this resin 3D printing to be quite the 'scam'. You can go from liquid to tabletop in a couple evenings in the hobby room.

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.