Although my current focus is painting
Irishmen for Dux Brittaniarum, I really like the idea of running mini projects
along side the main campaign. There are two advantages of doing this; firstly,
it keeps background projects ticking over and moving forward and, secondly, it
adds a bit of variety which is a definite painting motivator.
I’ve had a squad of Warlord German
infantry painted for some time now, which will eventually be opposition for my
Soviets and decided that my next mini project ought to be painting up the
Platoon HQ. The Chain of Command German HQ is made up a Senior Leader
(Unterfeldwebel) and a two-man Panzerschrek team. The Unterfeldwebel I decided
to make up from the Warlord plastic grenadiers sprue:
As with all good World War Two senior non-commissioned officers, he has a map, a pair of binoculars and an SMG. He's also wearing the zeltbahn and I will need to do some re-research, as I have completely forgotten which colours I used when I painted my first squad!
The business half of the Panzerschrek team is a metal
figure from Warlord, but I have given him a head from the plastic grenadier set
and some plastic kit. The figure has a big hole in his back, as he is supposed
to carry a rack of ammo for the Panzerschrek but, I preferred to have the
Number Two carry the ammo, which meant coming up with a plan to disguise the
hole! The back pack was super glued into place and a small amount of Green Stuff was also needed to finish off the job.
The Panzerschrek ammo carrier is another plastic
figure from the grenadiers box, as I wasn’t keen on the metal one that comes in
the metal figures pack. The ammo rack had to have a lug removed from the back (the one that
fits into the hole in the back of the other figure) and was then super glued
into place. I gave him a rifle, glued onto one of the carrying arms and his
right arm is the one with a grenade, which was simply lopped off and tidied up.
The finished Headquarters, painted, varnished and based, ready for action. I've really enjoyed doing these and the trick now will be to push on with my Dux Irish and not get diverted into painting more Germans!
Thanks to people on the Chain of Command Facebook page who suggested colours for the Panzerschrek. I finally decided to go with a base coat of Vallejo Middlestone and a bit of highlighting with Iraqi Sand.