So, not content with hordes of Middle-earth minis, a couple of years ago I found myself reading more and more World War 2 information online, and going back over some books at home... one thing leads to another and I watched reviews and articles on Warlord Games and Battlefront and Plastic Soldier Company, Perry's and others. WW2 plastic kits, toy soldiers, Britain's and Dinky metal vehicles were where it all began for me. Beasts of War, Model Dads and others do excellent reviews and BOW especially have some great game videos, so I ordered a few books, and a few boxes of troops, support weapons and vehicles.
And I am in the process of assembling them in preparation for serious gaming (obviously I have a little bit of painting to do first but I have managed some all-tank battles already).
First up: Warlord Games (28mm) Bolt Action
All plastic apart from the extra parts on one Sdkfz - I couldn't locate the 37mm cannon quickly. The halftracks are Sdkfz251 and the tank is a T34/85. I have not added the stowage yet as I want to get some other bits and 'arrange' it with some degree of realism. The ruined building is parts of one of Warlord's plastics with some bits of rubble - I will be adding talus and so forth later.
For the sake of comparison, a 28mm halftrack (Warlord) alongside a 15mm version of the same thing (Plastic Soldier Company with stowage added)
And there were many variants of the Sdkfz 251 - here are a few (all PSC) again with the 28mm for comparison. All those on the right are based on the D series.
From the back 251/10 with 37mm cannon, 251/1 standard infantry carrier, 251/9 Stummel with 75mm cannon, 251/2 mortar carrier (81mm mortar) and 251/16 flamethrower.
While Bolt Action is a skirmish game (it can scale up a bit but usually you are looking at platoon plus some support on each side), Flames of War and Battlegroup Kursk are larger forces games, featuring entire companies, battalions or regiments of vehicles, artillery and troops plus a host of support vehicles and the occasional aircraft. I want to be able to cover North Africa and Europe (basically 1941-45 eventually) hence the range of vehicle types in evidence in the images below.
The first box has most of a company of Panthers, a Tiger platoon, most of a company of Sdkfz 251's, a few StuG's, Panzer IV H and a single Panzer IV F1 refugee from my Africa Korps cunning plan....
Box number Two has the rest of the Afrika Korps - a company each of Panzer IV F2/early G and Panzer III H, more StuG's and the obligatory early Tigers (for Tunisia). Behind those are a mixture of M4 Sherman variants plus an M3 halftrack, an M5 light tank and 5 Cromwells.
Box Three has the Bolt Action stuff at the front plus the rear box has a T34 battalion (turrets for T34/85 or T34/76 available) plus 5 T70 light tanks, 4 45mm anti tank guns and 12 ZIS3 divisional 76.2mm guns.
Why so much unpainted stuff? I am bringing it en masse up to ready-to-paint status as I am planning a bulk purchase of Vallejo paints for both this lot and Middle-earth (and Dreadball and Dreadzone and AvP), and I find assembling tiny tanks strangely therapeutic.
And this is not all of it... but that can wait until later. Updates to follow as and when folks - I am going to need a lot of paint
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