Flames of War: 21. Panzer

A while back ago, I posted a showcase of my 21. panzer army. For whatever reason, the pictured ended up being distorted and low quality. I decided this was a great opportunity to try out my new lightbox on some older miniatures. Battlefront also released a new 21. Panzer book for 4th edition so I've been thinking about how bring this force up to V4 standards.

Several things are no longer available to 21. Panzer in the newer book.
1x King Tiger
3x Panzerwerfer
2x 8-rad [maybe run these as Sd Kfz 234 with 2cm guns?]

The inventory is that can be used in V4:
7x 7.5cm Hotchkiss Assault Gun
4x 105cm Hotchkiss Assault Gun [can only field three in a Unit in V4]
1x Observer Hotchkiss [could field as the Sd Kfz 250 observer]
2x Armored 2cm AA half-tracks
7x MG teams [used for all sorts of infantry units]
4x S307 half-tracks [Counts has Sd Kfz 251]
3x 155cm Lorriane Schlepper

Several others may see use, but probably won't...
5x softskin transports
2x command teams [can be used as panzergrenadier company commanders if I add another infantry Unit in the future]
1x staff team & radio truck [Make it into a third objective marker?]
2x observer teams [not sure what to do with these]

Command vehicles. In V3 you had the option to replace the command 7.5cm Hotchkiss with an observer armed only with an MG. I guess I can still use this as a Sd Kfz 250 observer.

7.5cm Hotchkiss Platoon. These form the core of the force.

7.5cm Hotchkiss Platoon. These were done in a different camo scheme to help tell units apart on the table.

105cm Hotchkiss. In V4 these only available in units of 2-3 and went from ROF 2 to ROF 1 with Slow Firing. If  that weren't painful enough, there also the change in rules to Brutal and stat changes to assault. OOF. Wouldn't have been so bad if they were cheaper. At least they picked up HEAT.

8-rads

Armored AA half-tracks.

First objective using the hotchkiss hull I stole the treads from.

Hiding out and waiting for rescue.

Objective B. I used this as a test piece for the camo patter on the Lorraine Schleppers.

Scorch mark effect is simply airbrushed on with black paint as the final step.

Pioneer half-tracks. These are actually not in V4. They are S307(f) half-tracks - not U304(f). The main difference is they are "full size".

Panzerpioneer platoon.

Hail to the king baby. Silly putty was placed over a green basecoat, then sprayed dunkelgelb. Next I spread the putty out just a little, and sprayed brown. This is how I got those nice, thin lines.

My favorite unit. I love how the camp pattern on these turned out.

An all-round view of these. I used small bits of masking tape for the camo pattern on these.

Panzerwerfers. These are not available in V4 yet and may not ever be available for 21.panzer.

 Some things have ended up being useless in V4 so far.

I created the extra crew option (from V3) as separate bases. This made them optional.

Transports for artillery spotters and command teams along with the pioneer supply vehicle. I suppose these can be used as softskin transports, if you're into that sort of thing.

Spotters, command, and staff teams. The staff team and radio truck could be converted into a objective I guess.

LW Germans (Winter) Part II

Throwback Thursday

Everyone loves big tanks.  I added some heavy armor to my German collection so I could run a heavy tank list.

went with a slightly different camo patter on these to mix it up a bit.

A pair of whirblewinds give me some more options.

Volkssturm

Panzerrenadiers

On these and the whirblewinds I left them plain dunkelgelb under the winter camo.

These AA guns were made to be interchangeable with future 2cm guns as well.

I magnetized the AA guns to make them fully traversable.

I added another recon unit.  These would give me recon options in more lists.  In particular, I was interested in running 3x patrols with the PaK40-armed 234.  I acquired them, but never got around to painting them yet.  

I was please that Battlefront included both turrents in the kit.  A little less please they release a plastic box set just after I finished these.

Here's the list I used in that years tournament season.  It did pretty well.

LW Germans (Winter)

Throwback Thursday.

Back when I decided to attend Wolfkrieg 2014 I ran into a problem immediately.  It would be a themed event eastern front event, but I had only Americans.

Desperate Measured had just been released.  I chose Germans and began assembling a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude.  I managed to get the whole thing down during the winter.

Here's the list I ended up taking to Wolfkrieg 2014.

Luchs and Hetzers.  These were the first units I finished and my first time trying the "hairspray technique" for paint chipping.  I gradually got a little better at it.

Panzer IV Js formed the core of my force.

I added tank riders to one platoon.  This was mostly to make it easy to tell one platoon from another

I liked how these came out.  I placed riders on the hull and turret of four tanks.  This allowed be to swap turrets around with the riderless hull and make from 4 to 8 tanks with riders.

Good 'ole Rudel.

Some cheap artillery.  The tree added to the observer's base made them less likely to be forgotten on the table.  Does that happen to anyone else a lot?

Armored AA platoon.  Just in case.

I decided to replace the hetzer platoon with a king tiger just before Wolfkrieg 2014.

This was more of a test piece for the snow effect.  I used drywall spackle, going for a "spring snow" look.