Kradschutzen Squad

More items from the dead lead pile all finished up.  This time we have a German Kradschutzen squad for Bolt Action.  I bought these figures at least 12 years ago and they were in the same box as the cavalry figures I finished the other day.  Don't ask me why it took so long to finish these, I really have no idea.  The figures are from Black Tree Designs, which I guess has been renamed again.  They are pretty good game models.  I am really looking forward to trying these on the table.

Can It Be? More Fallschirmjagers!

I just finished up another 23 28mm Fallschirmjagers.  This is in addition 12 I did a couple of months ago (and failed to photograph and post).  This brings the collection to more than 100 of these guys!

These figures are a mix of Foundry, Black Tree and Crusader.  This addition brings me to 6 full squads and a couple of dozen extras.  I have lots of support options done now but I still have a few team left to paint.  I still need to add a PaK40 and maybe a Nebelwefer.  I also want to add some motorcycles and a kettenkrad.

Stuck in a Fallschirmjager Rut

I have come to the conclusion that I am stuck in a bit of a rut when it comes to my World War II projects. It seems that I am painting the same Fallschirmjager force, for the same period of the war, in 15mm and 28mm. I am not sure how that happened.

he good news is I have added a fourth manufacturer to the collection - Artizan. I only have the four figures with MP44 pictured below. Artizan makes very nice figures and I know lots of people who really love them but for me there is something a little off with them. I am not sure what it is.


Next is a batch of the old Foundry Fallschirmjagers by the Perry brothers. The are nice figures but are showing their age.


I have added a bunch more Black Tree Designs Fallschirmjagers to the collection. These are mostly pioneers. This is another line of figures that is nice but a little off. The faces are scary.


Finally we have some Crusader Miniatures Fallschirmjagers. These are probably my favorite FJ figures so far. I am really going to miss adding these to the collection. With the closure of Crusader USA there is very little chance that I will be adding many more of these to the collection.

In all I have added another 45 figures to this army. Not too bad. I still have about 25 figures left to paint so keep your eyes open for more.

Fallschirmjager Splittermuster 41

Just in case you were wondering if I was painting anything or just uploading a bunch of old stuff, I am actually doing both. This batch of 14 Fallschirmjagers is painted in the splittermuster 41 uniform, or at least my version of it. Turns out German camo is a pain. In fact I tried to paint this pattern a few months ago and it turned out so bad I painted over the figures. I will do a tutorial on this pattern in a future post.

This batch takes my FJ collection to about 36 models. That is about half way done.

More Fallschirmjager Progress

I had not intended to start working on this project. I have tons of other things I need to do but my comparison figures I did a couple of weeks ago were so fun to paint I couldn't stop. I thought, well, I'll just paint up the company command and then get back to important stuff.


After finishing the Company Command I thought, well, that was fast. I'll just paint up a squad.

Before I knew it I had 24 of these guys painted. As you can see I used my speed painting technique of blocking in the base colors and the using the 'Dip'. This works good but on some of these guys I don't like the flesh tones. I tried a different color for the flesh than I normally use and it is too...yuck...with the dip. Some of these will need to be touched up.

On a side note, these figures put me over 200 figures painted so far this year! Since I actually painted them about a week and half ago I already have about 40 more figures painted for other projects.

28mm Fallschirmjager Figure Comparison Part 2

Here is a follow-up to my previous post comparing different Fallschirmjager figures. Sometimes it is tough to see how well figures work together by looking at the bare metal so I thought I would paint the same three figures to see how they look. I think they look even better together painted.

28mm Fallschirmjager Figure Comparison

My friend Tom was curious about how different brands of fallschirmjager figures looked together. Here are a couple of shots. From left to right we have Crusader, Black Tree Designs, and Foundry.

While there are some stylistic differences I think these three brands look fine together. The problem is now I want to paint them.

Soviet 57mm Anti-tank gun - Complete

Correction: These are actually 57mm AT guns from Black Tree, not the 76mm as I thought.

I have finally completed Tom's Soviet 57mm AT guns. These are the Black Tree Designs models that I did the how-to for building.

The models have been placed on a hard-board base. The models are so soft and fragile that they must be on a base.

All in all these are not bad models. They turned out much better than I expected.

More Germans

The latest installment in my therapy. I am working on adding more to my WWII German army. I have been a little short on infantry so it was time to get painting. First up is some command figures and other miscellaneous stuff. I particularly like the Medic.

Next are the Panzerschreck teams. I really hate these figures but they are all I have.

Last up is a complete squad of infantry. If you look closely there are a couple of cool helmet covers.

All of these figures are from Black Tree Designs. I really like the early sculpts for this line. The later stuff is by a different sculptor and they are not as well done in my opinion. I have about 25 more infantry to paint and then I can start working on the motorcycle scouts. Then it will be about time for a bunch of new stuff from Crusader to be delivered. I will be working on Germans for a long time.

Black Tree Designs Soviet 57mm AT Gun Build-up

Correction: This is the 57mm AT gun by Black Tree, not the 76mm as I originally thought.

I am building a couple of Soviet 57mm Anti-tank guns, from Black Tree Designs, for my friend Tom. These guns came in a blister pack with two guns and no instructions. I couldn't find any instruction on the BTD site either. It took several days of looking at the parts to get an idea of how they go together. I figured some one else might need to build these so why not show how I did it. Below are are the tools needed for the build. Not pictured is some 'green stuff' as mounting the gun to the carriage can be tricky.


The parts, as I mentioned, came jumbled up in a the pack. After I sorted through them I was able to determine which ones were needed to build a single gun. The picture below shows the parts in the out of box condition. A lot of cleaning and straightening was required.


Once cleaned you should have parts that looks like below. The gun barrel is fiddly and I had trouble getting it straight.


The next step is to mount the wheels to the axle. It does not matter which wheel goes to which side.


Once the wheels are on you can mount the trailing arms. I mounted these so that the arm with the ring around it was on the left (as viewed from the front of the model). I have no idea if this is correct, it just looked good to me. Make sure that when you mount the arms you have the axle turned so that the shield is near the ground.


After mounting the trailing arms, I mounted the gun mount. This piece has a shaft on the bottom that goes through a hole on the axle. The piece is off center and I mounted it with the longer portion to the front of the carriage. There are two raised tabs on the mount. This is where you will attach the gun assembly in a later step.


With the carriage assembly complete I set it aside to work on the gun. There are two brackets that go on either side of the gun. These brackets are different for each side. I started with the gun sight bracket. This piece is mounted to the left side of the gun. The sight is the two tube looking pieces at the top of the bracket, one is level with the gun and the other is angled up. Right below the sight is a hole for one of the control wheels. It is hard to see in the picture below.


You can see in this picture where the control wheel is mounted.


I flipped the gun over and mounted the bracket on the other side. You can see that there is an angled slot on this bracket and on the gun sight bracket. This is important when you get to mounting the gun shield later on.

Now that the gun is assembled and the glue has cured (thanks to our Insta-set) we are ready to mount the gun assembly to the carriage assembly. I first mounted this with just CA (super) glue, but the first time I touched it after it had set the gun just popped off. I then mounted the gun with a tiny amount of 'green stuff' at the bottom. This is a must as the gun is too long and too heavy for just super glue to hold it.


Now that the gun is securely mounted you can add the final piece - the gun shield. This is mounted at an angle and slips into the slots I mentioned in the sides of the gun brackets.



Here is a size comparison with a 28mm BTD German.


This model turned out much better than I was expecting. It seems to be about a 1/48th scale piece, which is a little big but it works fine for war-gaming.