Blitzkrieg: Dutch Infantry Platoon

As you will have seen from earlier posts this month, I have recently painted up a Dutch Infantry Platoon for Chain of Command. This is not my first stab at the Koninklijke Nederlandse Landmacht (Royal Netherlands Army) of 1940, but this time, with the CoC weekend event to get ready for, I managed to paint up a usable force!

The majority of models are from May '40 Miniatures which I picked from Great Escape Games. I used May '40's painting guide for the infantry uniforms and AFV's.

Dutch Infantry Platoon for Chain of Command with supports

Dutch Mitrailleurgroepen (infantry section)

Dutch Schwarzlose M.08 MMG and crew

Chain of Command requires five crew for the MMG so I enlisted a couple of Great Escape Romanians, which are, with some minimal conversion to their kit, are pretty much identical to the Dutch, to make up the numbers.

Dutch 47mm Bohler PAG AT gun with crew and Junior Leader

I needed to do the same with the AT gun. Fortunately Great Escape sell Romanian gun crew in separate packs.

Dutch Forward Observer with 80mm mortar

Although medium mortars are off table in Chain of Command and I only needed the FO, May '40 sell them as one set. It is a nice model to paint and I'll probably put it on the rear table edge when employed in games.

Dutch "sniper"

I'm sure I read that a sniper was a support option in one of the Dutch Chain of Command lists - it wasn't! :-)

Dutch Engineer Team

Engineer Teams are a useful List One support in CoC if you have a support point over. Given some of the Blitzkrieg handbook scenarios utilise them I thought it would be a good idea to paint up three figures to represent engineers. Unfortunately I had run out of May '40 Miniatures (and Romanians!) but I did have some old Gothic Line Dutch I had bought a decade earlier, so three got repainted. They are not as nice as the May '40 models but they were what I had to hand.

Dutch S Type Kazemat

It seems the Dutch like their bunkers so I had to have at least one. My attempt to make an S Type Kazemat out of foam was a messy disaster so I converted an MDF Sarissa Precision British Pill Box which provided a reasonable facsimile if not 100% perfect one.

Dutch Carden-Loyd Mk VI tankette

The Dutch had five Carden-Loyd carriers, Mk VI versions with closed roof, which made it a bit harder to source but I found a 3D printed one on Etsy from MiniGeneral. It should have a shield on the MG but I haven't got around to making one for it yet.

Dutch M.36 Pantserwagen (Landsverk L-181)

The M.36 Pantserwagen was used by the Dutch cavalry so my infantry platoon had to pay an extra point to have one as a support option, but I really, really wanted one! The May '40 resin model is lovely but the decals that came with it fell to pieces in the water. Fortunately I had some I-94 Enterprises 1/144th aircraft ones which I was able to use on both AFV's.

This turned up to be quite a useful force at the event, even with restrictions such as the Mitrailleurgroepen Lewis gun not being able to move and fire, or the section itself operate as teams like other armies. There are a few things I'd like to do to expand it, some entrenched troops for one - and May '40 have just released a Ford DAF 01Y PAG-trekker artillery tractor which would be really useful for the Bohler AT gun but I'm going to have to hope Great Escape Games get a stock in as I can't justify the shipping and potential Brexit fees sting just for one truck...

Blitzkrieg: Danish Infantry III

It's been a few months since I converted and painted the last batch of 1940's Danish infantry, but I have now managed to finish the lmg team.

Looking at the photo I'm going to have to trim a couple of mm off the Madsen's magazine, it is big, but not that big. I converted the lmg out of a Warlord plastic Bren, the two figures being converted Warlord Blitzkrieg Germans. Three more to go...

Painting Target: 642/1000

Blitzkrieg: Kriegsmarine V

I finished my Warlord Kriegsmarine section today, completing the lmg team...

As stated previously, the box set comes with an MG42 team, which restricts the units use, so I chopped off the barrel and replaced if with a plastic one from the Warlord Blitzkrieg set. I'm pleased the end result.

Here's a photo of the complete section, I'll keep a lookout for a miniature to replace the U-boat commander, but now I have a unit that can be used from 1st September 1939 in Danzig to 8th May 1945 in Berlin.

Painting Target: 640/1000

Blitzkrieg: Kriegsmarine IV

Unfortunately no wip pictures of the first Firefight Burma figures as I decided to revisit some of the converted poses, then spend more time researching the "look" of British troops in Burma in 1944. I am now happy I am on the right lines and will be digging out the liquid cement again later this evening.

I did however finish two more of the 28mm Warlord Kriegsmarine. Whilst I would have liked all my section to be wearing sailors caps, there aren't enough to do this, so three figures have had to wear steel helmets.

The helmet is the same as that worn by the army, the only difference being the decal on the left hand side of the helmet is gold, not silver as with the army (you can't see this in the photos but I did dab a minute bit of gold paint on the Warlord decals - honest!)

The third figure is part of the lmg team which hopefully will be finished tomorrow.

Painting Target: 638/1000

Blitzkrieg: Kriegsmarine III

The only figure in the Warlord set that I could not paint up or convert to fit in with the rest of the unit was this figure, as it is wearing the distinctive U-Boat battledress.

Whilst a nice figure to paint, it looks a bit odd, the MP40 seems a bit overly large and I think I should have done something about his lack of neck...

Painting Target: 636/1000

Blitzkrieg: Kriegsmarine II

Continuing with the Warlord Kriegsmarine, these three figures have been painted up as wearing the other ranks pea jacket (the Collani) to make them suitable for early war use. For other theatres they could be painted up in back or grey leather jackets.

Painting Target: 635/1000

Blitzkrieg: Kriegsmarine I

I managed to finish the first two of my Kriegsmarine section today. As previously explained, the Warlord set contains a few figures with specific late war weapons, so I have had to employ a sharp knife and some Green Stuff to ensure their usefulness in the Polish and Norwegian campaigns.

These two figures are modelled in the traditional pullover shirt with kieler kragen and matrosenmütze sailor's cap, one had a slung panzerfaust which has now been removed. Nice figures and fun to paint (except for the white borders on the kieler kragen!). More tomorrow, hopefully...

Painting Target: 632/1000

Ostfront: Hungarian Infantry II

I finished the section of Hungarian infantry this morning, using German infantry miniatures from the Great War Miniatures range. As with the Brigade Games models, not all were suitable for Hungarians (with major conversion) so I have a fledgling 28mm late WW1 German force now!

A lot of the miniatures have stick grenades which may be inaccurate as (AFAIK) the Hungarians used a Mills Bomb style called the M1936 and a stick grenade (with a shorter handle than the German) called the M1942. This said I'm not that fussed, it would have been a right pain trying to remove them all (they are quite loaded up with them) and I like the red strips on the grenade heads!

The most major conversion was the NCO with the M1939 Király SMG, this looks like a US M1 carbine with long think stick magazine. I converted one of the riflemen by trimming the length of the rifle and adding a magazine. Not quite sure it looks right, but it is passable. I bottled trying to convert a Solothurn LMG for the section, but have a Schwarzlose HMG to paint up as a support weapon.

Here is the complete 11-man section mixing the Brigade and Great War figures.

Painting Target: 629/1000

Ostfront: Hungarian Infantry I

Having helped fund Bob Emerson's Hungarian AFV Kickstarter I thought I better sort out some Hungarian infantry! Having sorted out some useful proxies for WW2 Hungarians, I have now managed to paint the first four...

These are Brigade Models WWI German Infantry and it is a simple paintjob to convert them from 1918 Germans to 1941 Hungarians. Of the four poses in the Brigade pack, I have only used two as the others has ammo bandoliers that would required substantial work to remove. The remainder of the section will come from Great War Miniatures and will hopefully be finished tomorrow.

Painting Target: 622/1000

Blitzkrieg: In the Kriegsmarine...

The other week John Lambshead posted a review of the new Warlord Kriegsmarine Squad on his blog. Despite the fact John said the "section represents the period at the end of WWII" I was hopeful that they would be just as suitable for other times, especially the Blitzkrieg era when the Kriegsmarine took part in shore actions in Poland and Norway.

In part they are. Two of the figures are immediately of no use as they are carry panzerfausts across their shoulders - a bit of a disappointment this as they could easily have been sculpted with separate weapons to allow for more use. Similarly the section lmg is an MG42 - again why not the more universal MG34? - but this is a simple conversion job using a spare barrel from the Warlord plastic German infantry set.

Uniforms are a bit of a mix on the remaining figures. The officer is in the British style U-boat battledress, but there is another figure in a reefer jacket (which can be painted dark blue, black or light grey) which can be used as an officer. Two of the other figures have short waited battledress tunics but they can be converted into reefer jackets or the pullover shirt if a Kieler Kragen is added. I am going to have a play around with them and see if I have any Heer figures that can pad out the section with minimum effort for early war use.

I was concerned that uniform research was going to be a bit of a bind as most books on Amazon seemed horrendously expensive, however the Osprey Elite U-Boat Crews 1914-45 is fantastic and contains uniform details of the Kriegsmarine as well as specific U-boat kit. Well worth picking up if you are interested in German naval troops.

Bolt Action: Winter War Soviet AFV's

I know I have decided to wait until everything was available from the Baker Company Winter War Kickstarter before receiving anything, but I am tempted to sneak a little order in for some of the new Soviet APC's, I so want to paint that little T20!

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry V

The last two Poles for the infantry section are now painted. The Sergeant was a straight forward paint job, although the collar mounted rank badge is not as fine as I would have liked.

The section support weapon is the wz. 28 HMG. The one Warlord supplied in the box was prone and I'm not keen on prone figures for skirmish games so I decided to convert one of the duplicate riflemen. Luckily the wz. 28 is a licensed copy of the Browning Automatic Rifle so I borrowed a plastic one off the US infantry sprues I bought for the Tunisian project.

That's the Poles done for now, here is a picture of the completed section off to hunt some Fritzies!

Painting Target: 229/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry IV

I finished the last batch of Polish infantry riflemen yesterday evening, bringing the total painted to sixteen...

Just the section commander and support weapon left to finish today.

Painting Target: 227/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry III

I had hoped to finish all eight remaining Polish riflemen today but no plan survives contact with HR! So here are the next group of four Warlord Poles, hopefully I finish the last details on the remaining four this evening.

It struck me painting these, how much more modern the Poles looked to their 1939 friends and foes, the whole look is very similar to the later war US army.

Painting Target: 223/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry II

The Poles are progressing nicely now with the second group of four finished last night...

Painting wise I painted the base coat before washing the figures with an Army Painter brown ink, then drybrushed with a loaded brush over the uniform and webbing and adding some highlights on the rifles and flesh. Quite straightforward, but a nice end effect that provides effective shading very simply.

Painting Target: 219/1000

Blitzkrieg: Polish Infantry I

First off thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes - I have performed an outflanking manoeuvre 2014 on SWMBO and bought some of North Star's 1672 range to use with Donnybrook from some money I was given! :-)

I have managed to finish the first of the Warlord Games Polish infantry, which, despite the amount of duplicates, were really enjoyable to paint. The 1939 Polish infantry section is much larger than those of other countries such as Germany, Britain and France and having got all eighteen to a basic stage I have now split them into smaller groups to finish off with the detail work. Here are the first four...

Painting Target: 215/1000

Blitzkrieg: First to Fight!

I made considerable progress with my Poles yesterday and today, but have been forced to break off as it is my Mum's 75th birthday so the family is all off to a party this afternoon. Hopefully the first should be finished tomorrow or Tuesday. Despite the duplication of certain miniatures (and my picture was wrong I have five infantry running with rifle not three!), they are lovely figures to paint.

Of course, as usual, researching the infantry uniforms has led me down distracting paths and I now want to raise sections of the Polish 10th Mechanised Brigade in their black leather coats and German helmets, and the Highland Division with their feathered felt hats as part of this project.

I have found 28mm figures for the 10th from Gorgon Studios in the States (I might have to bite the bullet on postage as they do some lovely Norwegian campaign figures too) but have only found the Highlanders in 15mm. If anyone knows of a 28mm source please let me know...

Polish 10th Mechanised Division (photo Gorgon Studios)

Blitzkrieg: Clones of Poland?

I started work on my Early War Polish boxed set from Warlord and must say I am very disappointed with the contents. The figures are decent enough, but the amount of duplicated figures in the 24 miniature box really sucks. I wasn't overly happy with the amount of duplication in the French box but this takes the biscuit...

Looking at the picture of a Polish section taken from their website above, you can see that not only do I have six of one particular miniature and three of two other, but there are different figures I don't have any of. I appreciate that with a large section like the Poles had there will be some duplication of miniatures, but to throw in six of one and none of others I don't have does not make for a happy Steve!

Suffice to say I will not be buying any other boxes of WW2 miniatures from Warlord where I cannot see the contents...

Blitzkrieg: Fallschirmjäger IV

Despite missing the alarm going off and having a very late lie in(!) I roused myself to finish off the two Fallschirmjäger NCO's to finish off the section using the pesky Warlord Decals.

The Felbwebel (with MP40) is a Crusader Miniatures figure, the Obergefreiter (with Kar98) is from Black Tree Design.

Here is the complete Fallschirmjäger section...

2014 Painting Target: 211/1000

Blitzkrieg: German General

Despite my get up and go seemingly having got up and gone, I forced myself away from watching The Lord of the Rings on the TV and to the painting table, working on the last two Fallschirmjäger and this ex-Harlequin (now BTD) German General I've had for donkeys years...

I've just got the decals to do on the Fallschirmjäger which I'll do this evening or tomorrow morning before starting work on the Poles (or maybe the Danish lmg team).

2014 Painting Target: 209/1000