1943 German Division

Division of the Day

Some first prototype units for 1943(?) German Divisions.

Just playing around with ideas, using 2mm Irregular figures from Eureka.

Seeing what works, and what doesn't work so well at this scale.

Medium Pz Bn, on 30x20mm base. 2 PzIII (or possibly PzIV), with some supporting PzGrenadiers.

The infantry are a nightmare to paint, but the tanks come out OK. They respond well to some dry brushing in a heavily lightened tone to bring out the edges.

PzGren battalion. 2 x Hanomags, and dismounted PzGrenadiers.

Another PzGrenadier battalion. 2 Hanomags, and a mix of mounted and dismounted PzGrenadiers.

The mounted 'figures' are actually greenstuff carefully sculpted into the original model.

A closer shot of the sculpted PzGrenadier greens inside the Hanomag.

A StugIII battalion. 2 Stug IIIs and supporting infantry. In my own home-brew rules, Assault guns are not treated like tanks, they are a special unit that are used for close assault support.

They are great for assisting infantry units who move in to take out defended positions. When fighting as tanks in the open however, they are pretty useless.

Stugs again. Painting these is interesting in the extreme. It is not like painting 15mm/20mm/28mm units, where the figures themselves are the important factor.

When painting 2mm troops, you make up a mini diorama, which includes modelling the terrain, and the figures are just part of that diorama.

Here I have used modelling paste to make the muddy terrain, and then painted the whole base from the ground up. Adding details to the figures is the final step of the process.

So you can see here the lovely little tracks in the mud - I like that effect. Havent painted the infantry on this base yet ... later.

Also, since it is so difficult to identify the individual 2mm models when there are heaps of them on the table ... I think I will try this approach, where each base gets a sort of camo scheme in keeping with the type of troops represented. Pea dot style camo bases here for those fanatic german extras that appear on the battlefields of Russia.

Even though the infantry bases in this scale are ultra thin, still need to sink it into the 'mud' to avoid this effect here - a clear raised ring is seen around the infantry base.

Bit hard to fix after the base is painted. Will experiment with some other approaches to that.

Armoured recon company. In my 2mm armies, the main combat units are on 30x20mm bases, whereas Divisional support units, such as HQ, recon companies, Mortars, etc .. are on 20mm round bases. Works for me, as its important to get an idea of individual unit funtion when l.ooking at a large mass on the tablettop.

If they all looked exactly the same, I think you would quickly go nuts.

Some german infantry (cant you tell).

Got to admit - these guys are teeny weeny small. Keep in mind that this is a shot from a camera with an zoom lens on macro mode, so you are getting more detail here than you would with a human eye looking over a table top.

Each of these guys is about the size of a shoe on a 15mm napoleonic figure.  Still, I have gone for a 3 colour paintjob on these - Feldgrau, a hint of black on the boots, and the smallest dot of flesh I could manage to add in for the suggestion of faces.

Linzen on the collar tabs, insignia on the helmets, chinstraps and other details .... ahhhhh, I dont think so :)  Not in this lifetime anyway.

Thats more like it - block of infantry battalions on a 3km frontage.

Again, I think its a good plan to give each nation its own 'camo scheme' sort of - when it comes to painting the whole base. Its very difficult to tell the nationalities apart otherwise.

Another shot of the Armoured Recon company. Damn its hard to photo in this scale. Fun when it works out though.

A Divisional Heavy AT battery (88mm)  Nice little diorama, 2mm scale starts to make a lot more sense when you stick a lot of activity on a base.

Divisional artillery Battery. Another mini diorama with a suggestion of activity in it.

Divisional HQ stand. Yet to paint the officers here :(

Note the Horch staff car, and the sandbagged AA position .. in the gaming rules, HQ bases are assumed to have all of the Divisional AA assets on board.