Chema WWII gallery : 3/5/2023 Panzer II winter camo

[Keith]

Lovely job on these. That Rubicon H39 is a great kit.

[Hang Tuah]

Very inspiring. I for one would love it if you could produce a step-by-step tutorial for us lesser mortals to follow. Or at the very least explain how you did the flag!

[chema1986]

Very inspiring. I for one would love it if you could produce a step-by-step tutorial for us lesser mortals to follow. Or at the very least explain how you did the flag!

Thanks mate!  You have a little step by step in the blog:
https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2020/09/bolt-action-normandy-44-panzer.html

The flag is printed from the internet, and then glued the two parts together with white glue and while it is still wet, fold the flag into the desired shape, it is quite easy

Cheers

[Hang Tuah]

Thank you, but what I actually meant was one with pictures for each step, haha.

Was the flag given a wash, or is that just a trick of the lighting?

[chema1986]

Hi guys, I have just updated my blog with a new thread on Axis tanks in Sicily 1943:

https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2021/03/bolt-action-italian-tanks-in-sicily-1943.html

I needed a rest of XVII c. painting, so I took a couple of kits from the pile of lead (or resin, or plastic) for my Bolt Action growing collection.  As an ex modeller and current wargamer, I love painting WWII tanks and planes, and I am also a fan of rare vehicles or not so well not tanks, so here you have my Italian tank force for operation Husky,  Sicily July 1943.




left: Semovente 90/53  right: Renault R35


I have built a small force of German Panzer force of Hermann Göring division (Panzer III and Panzer IV in plastic, Warlord and Rubicon) and now I need some Italians.   Italian armoured forces in Sicily in 1943 were very weak after their defeat in Africa, and most armor was in the Italian Peninsula, with their amoured divisions being rebuilt... So no M13/40 or Semovente 75/18 medium vehicles in Sicily, just light tanks and obsolete vehicles like old vintage Fiat tanks from 1920's or ex French  Renault R35, but also brand new Semovente 90/53 tank hunters.

 I have used both R35 and Semovente 90/53,  Warlord Games and Blitzkrieg Miniatures respectively. None of them is of great quality;

R35 from Warlord is just ok, it does its duty, not a bad model but not great either.  But I expected more from Semovente 90/53 from Blitzkrieg Miniatures, is my first vehicle from this company, and in the web I saw a nice render with smooth finish and crisp detail.... It was not like that in the flesh, although it had no flash, the sculpting was a little crude, and the gun shield seemed 3D printed in resin but the rivets were not properly printed so I had to clean and remove some of them    anyway, and despite those setbacks, both models were nice enough for me and when painted, they look good in my opinion.

The semovente 90/53 was a 90mm gun mounted on a tank hull, basically. 24 Semovente 90/53s saw service against the Allies in the 10° Raggruppamento Semoventi, which was stationed in Sicily during the Allied invasion in 1943. Following the Italian surrender in September 1943, the few surviving Semoventi da 90/53 were seized by the German Army, but were of little value in the mountainous terrain of Northern Italy where they operated. As a result, most finished their careers as long-range artillery.










French Renault R35 light tank was captured in huge numbers by the Wehrmacht in 1940, as it was considered obsolete by 1941, The Germans sent the Italian Army 124 R35s, with which the 4th Tank Infantry Regiment formed two battalions. The two battalions were assigned to the 131st Tank Infantry Regiment, which was deployed in January 1942 to Sicily. There, the regiment's CI Tank Battalion "R35" was assigned to the XII Army Corps defending the island's West, while the regiment with the CII Tank Battalion "R35" joined the XVI Army Corps defending the island's South. It used some of its R35s in defence of Gela on Sicily against US Rangers and British troops, with little success.













The painting process of both was the usual with tanks: airbrushing the colors, giving them some cenital highlights, then gloss varnish,  decals  (Warlord Games), and varnish again in order to protect the previous work, and then all the weathing with enamels and oils from Ammo Mig or AK interactive; filters, oil dots, pin washes, chipping, rust, streaking grime, dust effects, mud, and then matt varnish, spilled grease/oil and finished!

I like to base my tank models in order to give them some protection when using them on the gaming table.



Finally, although they were featured in an other post in this blog, I want to show you my full Axis tank force in Sicily.

https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2018/07/ww2-mood-panzers-in-sicily-43.html





My Hermann Göring division Panzer III ausf.M and Panzer IV ausf.G from Warlord Games and Rubicon Models respectively!




Cheers!

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice work - though I keep thinking that R35 has a droid onboard.

[Gunner Dunbar]

Very nice thread, quality work there.

[chema1986]

Many thanks guys!

Nice work - though I keep thinking that R35 has a droid onboard.

hahaha a droid ?

[Bearwoodman]

Lovely painting! And it is always interesting to see the relative sizes of the tanks in your collection.

Many thanks guys!
 hahaha a droid ?

I think it is a reference to the white cupola looking like a Star Wars astromech droid.  With the Commander having to also fulfill the role of gunner and loader I would have though an R2 Unit would be really useful.

[Digits]

It really does! Ha!

None the less, nicely painted tanks fella.

[Ballardian]

Lovely paintwork, I look forward to seeing more of this project

[MaleGriffin]

Lovely work!

[chema1986]

Many thanks guys for the kind comments.

[meyer]

Beautiful Tanks!

[chema1986]

Hi guys!

I have updated my blog with this new post :

https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2021/07/flames-of-war-stalingrad-panzers.html

I have painted some WWII stuff after a few days off, a bunch of Zvezda 1/100 Panzer III and Panzer IV, for my Flames of War Stalingrad project.






Last month I was painting more XVII c. stuff but I stopped without finishing my French petard team (but I will finish that soon) because I had several games of Flames of War with a friend at home, and my mood/interest switched from baroque period to World War 2, so I finished my half painted 14 Panzerdivision for Stalingrad.  I also bought Flames of War Scenery and some candy like a 15mm Junkers 52 for scenery purposes, also 3 Opel Blitz, 3 sdkfz.10 with flak, a couple of Stuig 33 and so on.

The Panzers are all Zvezda with some battlefront plastic and metal add ons, like stowage, tracks, guns (in the panzer IV).   Panzer III are of early type of shorter gun, for longer 50mm guns I will use Battlefront's plastic set of Panzer III.   And Panzer IV are D. version, I know they should be F1 models for Stalingrad battle, but I had 3 Zvezda nice Panzer IV D and "converted" them with F1 metal guns from Battlefront and turret rear boxes also in metal.

I painted them as If they were display models, so a lot of weathering. In the future I think I will put less dust and paint less chipping in the vehicles, because in this scale I prefer cleaner tanks (just a personal preference), but I am very pleased with the result of the unit.

As they are 2 platoons of 3 models, I will add a company HQ of a Panzer III ausf J and Panzer IV ausf F2 or even a captured T.34 mod.41 from the Stalingrad Starter Set of Flames of War.

I also have been inspired by the brand new Ammo Mig Stalingrad colors book very interesting and full of color profiles of tanks and vehicles of both sides:

https://www.migjimenez.com/es/publicaciones/4864-stalingrad-vehicles-colors-camuflajes-de-los-vehiculosa-alemanes-y-sovieticos-en-la-batalla-de-stalingrado-multilingue-8432074061465.html



Panzer IV platoon:









Panzer III platoon:












Again 2 platoons photo:

                                       


I hope you like them!