Motorbikes and Caeser’s WWII German Paratroopers (Fallschirmjäger)

I’ve finished my 40mm x 40mm base of motorcycles, which are part of my recon force’s HQ. These are all from the Italeri WWII German Motorcycles kit.

The artwork for the box and the uniforms of the figures show that they are meant to be down in Africa, as part of the DAK. To make them Eastern Front, I’ve painted them as wearing the “reed green” summer uniform, which was also known as HBT or herringbone twill. They’ve come out really well (except I don’t have much evidence of troops in the HBT uniform wearing that type of cap in that colour…that cap was very much a DAK item. Ah well, it’s just a game – and an abstract one at that. So a little artistic licence here and there is OK.

This means the oft-talked-about game on this blog for the last three months or so can finally happen.

***

In other news, the wonderful Paul who runs the brilliant “Plastic Warriors” blog passed along some vital news that I’ll share with you all – he’s found a link where you can go have a look-see at the new Caeser WWII German Paratroopers (why aren’t they called Fallschirmjäger?)?

It comes from Bunkermeister’s Bunker Talk blog, and here’s the link to the post you all want to see! Thanks Paul for the tipoff, and thanks Bunkermeister for making some photos so speedily available!

“Caeser, Caeser…” “Ah, it’s Stommachus Grossus!”

NEWSFLASH!

Caeser have finally released their second set of Panzergrenadiers but have also, completely from out of nowhere, released a set called WWII German Paratroopers!

The Paratroopers release has caught many in the hobby completely unawares! It’s code is  H068.

I’m going to wait this time before ordering – I want to see what Plastic Soldier Review have to say about them.

Inspecting the troops

In an earlier post, I expressed my interest in a new 1/72 scale set by Caeser Miniatures, WW2 German Panzergrenadiers set 1. Clicking on the link shows you the box art as well as a photo of the poses included.

I ordered two boxes of these figures and have had a good look at them since they have arrived. Here are my thoughts about them, both as miniatures in general and as miniatures for wargaming.

This set of figures is usable and workable with fairly good sculpting. I have very little exposure to their other figures, apart from what I’ve seen and read over at Plastic Soldier Review. I have bought and used Caesar’s now-discontinued WW2 German Infantry in Winter Gear, and consider that a superior set to this.

There are three things that I feel could have been re-done with this set. Firstly, the rifles in this kit are thin. Very thin. I found a number of them were bent, probably incurred during transit. They may be a little more realistic in dimensions to those from the Winter Gear set, but I think in the moulding something has been lost…at this scale, I think figures need slight exaggeration so that what they represent is clearly grasped, especially from a distance. I think that I’ll find painting these rifles much harder than those carried by the Winter Gear set!

Secondly, some of the poses have extra flashing/moulding that cannot be removed, and was not present in the Winter Gear set. The soldier standing and firing his MP-40 from the shoulder has extra moulding approximately 2mm thick between his gun and his arm – in the “crook” of his arm. The soldier stalking forward with his MP-40 has the same excess plastic. A shame, because this wasn’t present in the Winter Gear set. The space was empty between their arm and their weapon, so you could slide a toothpick or paintbrush between them. With this set, you’ve got this extra stuff just sitting there, looking a bit unnatural. This extra plastic is going to have to be somehow “hidden” by painting – perhaps painting the excess plastic with black…. This may be a moulding limitation, but I’m not sure why it would be if they were able to avoid this in a previous set.

Thirdly, everyone is wearing the same type of boots – and they seem to be mid-thigh boots. I thought that by that time (1943-1945) they were wearing ankle-high boots with gaiters?

Let me discuss the poses – you can see these in the photo over at Caeser Miniatures’ Australian website (use the first link in this article). There are 12 of them. Of the twelve, only 3 are firing a weapon. Two are throwing grenades. Discount one who is an Officer commanding his troops – that leaves 6 whom are doing something else.

The chap kneeling and waiting with his MP-40 (maybe in ambush?) is for me the highlight figure of the whole set. It’s a very natural pose and very useful for wargaming.
The chap mentioned earlier, stalking forward with his MP-40, is almost the same pose from a figure in the Winter Gear set. Well done, but not too original…some sort of variation in stance – perhaps running rather than walking but still with his gun in a similar position would have been nicer? Pressing forward the advantage?
The chap kneeling and waiting with his rifle is well done – another natural pose and another useful one for wargaming, rather than someone running forward with a rifle.
The officer is holding an MP-40, wearing a helmet and pointing forward and upward – in a general sort of direction. Perhaps he’s bellowing out someone about which direction the enemy is in? I think this sort of pose is much more useful than the older / more traditional one where the officer is looking through his binoculars, or just holding a pistol.
There are two grenade-throwing poses. One is carrying his rifle in his other hand and is using it as a counterweight as he throws his grenade. This is a pose that we’ve seen before, but it’s nicely done here. The other looks as if he has just pulled the primer – he hasn’t brought his throwing arm back yet and his other hand is empty. Of the 3 copies of this pose in one box, the grenade warheads had broken off in transit – a shame. Why a shame? Because the grenades here are certainly more to scale than in the Winter Gear set which I felt were over-exaggerated. Perhaps the pendulum has swung too far to the other side and now they are too flimsy?
There are two firing their rifles – one standing, one kneeling. While they look fine, they don’t look too worried about any return fire – perhaps they are at a firing range? They look too casual. They aren’t even leaning forward on their left foot as they shoot, which would provide more balance – the ESCI/Italeri German Infantry figure is better and more realistic in that regard.

The chap firing his MP-40 from the shoulder (mentioned earlier) IS leaning forward on his front foot – which makes me wonder which pose was done first and why was consistency forgotten?
There is a chap holding an MP-40, slightly crouching (or at least he’s partially bent his knees) and looking to the side, as if he’s listening to instructions and then will race off to carry them out. Another good, natural pose – but not useful enough to warrant 4 of them, in my opinion. Still, better than just standing and holding is MP-40 in a forgettable or non-combat way.
The second-last pose to mention is a chap holding his rifle diagonally across his chest while his attention is focussed on something else. I recall this sort of pose, but rendered as if the troops held their rifles like that while they ran or jogged forward into battle. (Maybe they were US Infantry by Airfix? Russian Infantry by Airfix?) I think that for a set like this, where the troops were fighting desperately, that he could have been doing something different.
The last chap is holding his rifle horizontally across his waist while he looks to the left. Natural, and more useful than the previous pose.

All seem to have the exact same kit (breadbag, entrenching tool etc.) and overall the sculpting is of good quality.

Something that struck me about this set after thirty minutes of examining them is that no-one is carrying or using: MG-34/42s, Panzerfausts, flamethrowers, radios or anything else. Perhaps they will surface in Panzergrenadiers Set 2? They are sorely needed for this set of troops and time-period…

A completed piece of wargaming terrain and a snapshot of Winter camouflage for the Opel Maultiers

Two things to cover in this post – A) the thicket that I made using sheet styrene, lichen, talus and flock are finished, and B) I’ve got enough fiddly stuff done on the Maultiers to begin the winter/snow camouflage pattern on them.

Here’s a photo of the thicket in play but without a unit in it/entering it:

and now a photo of the thicket with a Marder III(h) moving through it:

As you can see, when something moves into, across or is revealed to be hidden in the terrain, simply lift off the beautifully made modular piece and there is still the template or base below (as you can see, painted to exactly replicate the bushes and rocks above it) so all know that it is abnormal terrain.

Because this is a small piece (about 5 inches by 3 inches), I only made the top in halves. Previous projects have involved the terrain piece being cut into thirds or fifths (the one into fifths was for 28mm fantasy wargaming).

However, you get beautiful terrain which never gets damaged in play.

On to the Maultier – I’ve opted for a hasty, streaked pattern (deliberately not going over the GrossDeutschland stahlhelm on the cabin doors). I won’t even give the pattern a second coat…I want it to lookquickly done with watered-down whitewash. I’ll do the tray sides and rear plus completely do the tarpaulin.

Oh, and those Caesar Panzergrenadiers have arrived! Overall, a good set of figures. Full review to come very soon.

“Ave, Ceaser. Cave! Here comes another Charlie Britannicus!” – The Goon Show

A Taiwanese vendor whom sold me those wonderful Caeser WW2 Germans in Winter Gear has alerted me (as he does regularly via e-mail, a wonderful little idea to keep him in my mind), to the fact that Caeser now have for sale product H52, WWII German Panzergrenadiers set 1! Great!

On the drawing board and modelling benchtop, I’ve been crunching the numbers of figures I currently have, in order to begin an assault on purchasing and painting up company B, Panzergrenadiers (1943-1945). I need less figures for them, as their sections were only 8 in strength, not 10. I had been counting all the Revell WW2 German Infantry Ardennes that I’ve acquired (8 boxes worth!) and could do it, but the bases of soldiers will look mightily uniform…not good. The same set poses over and over. Dull. This Caeser release will provide a heap of diversity and depth.

Ah, but to purchase now, or wait until product 53, WWII German Panzergrenadiers set 2, is released???

“That crazy Mulligan, he’s dropping them all over the place!” – Crapgame, “Kelly’s heroes”

The 81mm mortars were finished with a touch of Testors Dullcote for protection and the blacking-in of the mortars’ mouths. They too can now hit the table for a game of Panzerfaust. Two small hills were also finished – because of my interest in building them to be modular, they can stand alone or be placed on top of the hills I created back in October. I now have enough hills, but my addiction to hill-making fought hard last night, and I nearly asked around the club if anyone had some spare polystyrene they don’t want so I could make more hills…that creative urge, it’s a tough one to battle!

Working on the vehicles is continuing in fits and starts – a bit like German machinery during the Winter months on the Eastern Front (many of them froze over or seized up). I’m working with weak washes to bring about the appearance of oil staints and mud stains.

The two 251/1c’s are going to be used as mobile FAOs, with the ordered 251’s to be the “good” ones, used as APCs in-game (their proper role ^_^). Tonight I’ll boil and clean some cavalry FAOs whom I have gathered using leftover Russian horses, leftover troops from the 251’s and rifles cut off the hands of the Caeser infantrymen who were too defective for me to paint.

I want these 3 vehicles finished really soon, as I want to start work on something directly useful, the Marder III tankhunters I got in my order.

One battle is won; Tankoberg gearing up

…done.

A whole platoon and the platoon HQ are now based. All that remains is to paint the bases a nice earth colour, glue on some flock to represent grass; glue on some model bushes, and they can be played with.

I’m very happy with the colouring, the uniforms and the amount of detail. They look far better than my Russians.

Both sets of mortars are done, too – 1 section of 81mm mortars and 2 bases of 120mm mortars. The realistic poses of the crews mean I’ll be buying more, if just to use unused crew figures to man the PaK 38’s and PaK 40’s I got in my HobbyTerra order last month.

Over in Tankoberg, I decided on the outcome of the Doug Chaltry technique on tracks painted Codex Grey compared to the outcomes on the painted Chaos Black or my Panzer Grey blend. I had bought two secondhand ESCI SdKfz 251’s, so I’ve begun applying the technique to the tracks on those, to see a working sample. I can always (and probably will) buy more 251’s…especially since Caeser Miniatures have indicated they are working on a range of 1/72 PanzerGrenadiers.

Ready the men 3

The uniforms are now done. As a historian, I decided to doublecheck my understanding of winter uniforms issued 1942+.

…

…am I glad I did! In 1942, the winter uniform was issued – it was mouse-grey on one side and reversible to snow-white. This reversibility was essential on the Eastern Front. It was in 1943 that they were issued the more popular winter uniform, which was splinter cammo on one side and snow-white on the other.

So, I had a choice. The Caeser figures had to be one or the other. Now, I already have a few sprues of Revell’s Late War German Infantry whom I’ll work on once I’ve got one company done. Since they are much more deserving of cammo (which was uncommon, unway) then it makes sense to do my Caeser figs with the mouse-grey reversible.

After some reading of books and researching of WW2 re-enactor websites, I had the two firmly in my mind – the M42 mouse-grey reversible winter uniform and the splinter cammo. So, since I’m going with mouse-grey, I had to find matching colours.

It was actually fairly acurate and practical to use another coat of Codex Grey on the Ceaser figures, then do a highlighting drybrush with a mix of Codex Grey and Space Wolves Grey. When dry, I placed the two lots of troops together, and checked.

Here are the results for you to look at, over at my Flickr acount.

Those on the left are the ESCI figures, wearing the greenish-grey uniforms already mentioned. There on the right are the Caeser figs in the mouse-grey winter uniforms. They look more ash-grey, which means I did it.

To relax, I distracted myself by working on some hills and a nice captured BZ-35 for them to use to refuel their Marder III H’s with.

Ready the men 1

Using an Olfa cutter and two scalpels, I spent the evening removing flash from the Caesar Miniatures German Infantry in Winter Gear. The Plastic Soldier Review is correct – great sculpting, great detail and almost no flash left over from the moulding process. A joy to prepare because they took so little time.

Then using model clippers, I cut a few Esci German Infantry off the sprue.