This plastic 15mm 7.5cm Anti-Tank Gun team is sold by “Battlefront Miniatures” and is one of two eight-piece sprues (not including crew) which can be found inside the company’s “Hit The Beach” starter set for “Flames Of War”. The models consists of a single Panzerabwehrkanone 40 gun with four soldiers, and is the second of three stands I aim to field as part of a full-strength 7.5cm Tank Hunter Platoon for my German Beach Defence Company.
Initially undercoated using a double-helping of "Vallejo" Dark Yellow, the gun was washed with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade and heavily dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Dark Yellow. I then applied some sporadic patches of camouflage across the weapon, using a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Brown, Luftwaffe Camouflage Green and Heavy Sienna. All of these areas were subsequently washed with “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade, before being highlighted back up with (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Brown, of Luftwaffe Camouflage Green and Heavy Sienna. Lastly, I applied some "Citadel" Abaddon Black to the Pak 40's rubber tyres.
With the Anti-Tank gun finished, I turned my attention to pigmenting the crew. The majority of these figures were painted in situ. But I quickly decided to paint the team's NCO whilst he was temporarily super-glued to a wooden stick. As with all my other “FoW” German soldiers, the miniatures were primed in “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII, shaded using “Citadel” Nuln Oil, and dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII. Their details were then ‘picked out’ predominantly using “Vallejo” Gunmetal, German Camouflage Dark Green, Heavy Brown and a series of “Citadel” Shades.
In addition, the crew's fully-open shell box was quickly treated to some "Vallejo" Buff and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. Whilst it's contents were given a lick of "Vallejo" Brass, a dash of (more) "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade and a smidgeon of "Citadel" Abaddon Black to their tips. This colour scheme was then also applied to the two large projectiles which the soldiers were in the process of loading into their weapon...
Having completed the latest addition to my German D-Day Defence Grenadier Company, I have started assembling a half-dozen German Infantry (1916-1918) by "Wargames Atlantic". These multi-part plastic soldiers will form the start of a potentially rather large Weird War One project using the Early Great War Conscripts detachment list found towards the back of Daniel Mersey and Richard Cowen's science fiction wargame battles rule-book "Xenos Rampant". But for now I'm simply aiming to get a few of the figures tabletop ready.
Furthermore, I'm planning on using the miniatures as some test pieces for a monthly personal challenge where I spend twelve hours (spread across a few consecutive evenings) tirelessly putting a brush to just my select few models - as opposed to moving from different scales, genres and manufacturers multiple times throughout a single hobby session. I'm hoping this approach will help me quickly paint a core unit for various game systems, which I can then simply add to a bit more haphazardly as time goes by...
Great work on the Pak 40. It looks more like a vignette than a gaming piece. Fabulous but if painting as it looks incredible.
Those WW1 Germans look really good. The detail looks excellent. I will be very interested in how your proposed 12 painting technique goes.
Excellent work on the artillery piece Simon, must be good to finally get this one done, some nice looking models you have to start working on, and hope the new tactic works for getting the models done quicker.