Achtung!

For Project Platoon I elected to go for German Panzergrenadiers. There was a fair amount of discussion and ideas banded around before we came to our final choices. Initially I had been keen on converting and painting a partisan unit. In the end however we decided that we wanted to keep all of the units we would be collecting as regulars and loosely theme them around Operation Market Garden.

Over the Summer I painted up an understrength platoon of US Airborne troops for the WS&S Brecourt Manor game at the Other Partizan, and was keen to paint something a little different from the Yanks. While I already have some Germans in my collection they are looking a little rough around the edges now after many years of use and I was keen to provide an opponents for my paratroopers that would look just as smart.

Everybody taking part in Project Platoon has their own personal challenge. For me it will be attempting to collect the force on a budget. Times are tough for many of us and it seems to make sense to try to come up with ways to try and keep the costs down. To that end I will be looking out for bargains, scouring e-bay and the bring and buys to get my hands on the figures and vehicles I need. Guy has already given me a tip off regarding where to get cheap German armour from, and I suspect I will end up using a wide variety of different manufacturers to meet my final requirements. So if you see me sweating it out on the Warfare bring and buy in Reading in a few weeks time please say ‘hello’ and point out any bargains I have missed!

As a starting point for the project I have had a rummage in the lead mountain and found some old Artizan late war Germans that I purchased from a bargain box at Colours two or three years back for the princely sum of 50p each. There are only 12 of them and I seem to have selected some of the  more specialist figures such as MG42 gunners, a few anti-tank hand held weapons, an officer and a radio man. My aim over the next fortnight is to get some of these looking ship shape with a lick of paint, and then my focus will be to look for the rank and file to fill the gaps.

I am a fairly competent painter and will enjoy the challenge of trying to make my force into a coherent body of men using a similar palette of colours and the same basing methods. One area where I lack experience is in painting German vehicles and tanks. This will be quite a hurdle as I am planning to include a number in my force. I hope to borrow a friend’s airbrush and attempt the 3 colour camouflage with this. As an airbrush virgin this seems pretty daunting at the moment! Any tips or suggestions either on painting up my force or on historical organisation will be gladly received over the next couple of weeks.

Cheers

Mark