Panzergrenadier platoon for my mid-'90s Bundeswehr

These are among my first ever painted "moderns" after years of GW related stuff. I used Revell kits and boxes of infantry for those mid-'90s Bundeswehr Panzergrenadiere (all plastics in 1/72). For some reason I have never shown my early works, but as I never tossed them away and recently stumbled over the box they were in, I thought I might as well share them with you. :-D

For the pic above I cheated - the Marder IFV isn't this command squads' vehicle. I have to admit the one for these guys up to day has not even been built, although I have it sitting in my shelf for years (maybe I should finally do that *doh!*)
The whole platoon - minus its command squad.

Six Grenadier dismounts and their dedicated transport: Marder 1A3 from Revell.

The dismounts, to include squad leader, 40mm grenader launcher, MG3 gunner, dismounted MILAN ATGM starter and assist. gunner.

FlaRakPz Roland for my mid-'90s Bundeswehr

A pretty simple conversion. A Revell 1/72 Marder 1A3 was combined with the Roland missile turret of a Rocco Minitanks Roland.

Although the turret is 1/87 it doesn't look too small in my opinion.

A GW 25mm base does the trick: I used it to increase the height of the turret.

Looking at it from this angle shows that you can actually mix some different scales on some models. ;-)
I have a platoon of mid-'90s Panzergrenadiere that I never showed in my blog. I will take some pics the coming days and post them too.

A word on the things to come

I thought I just give you guys a heads-up about what will be on the painting table next.

1. I received some S&S modern German Army soldiers that will act as my dismounts for a KSK Serval - they'll get head-swops for having the look of soldiers covering their faces with a Shemagh.
2. I have some elhiem Figures inbound to cover the missing positions of medic (US Army and one for the USMC), a point-man with Shotgun (one Army, one USMC), a sniper team for my German Bundeswehr (Shooter and Spotter), TOW Gunner (for some HMMWVs), gunners for .50cal (HMMWVs) and some other stuff that still needs to get finished for Iraq 2003+.
3. Finally - the decals have arrived for House Davion and House Kurita. The already finished models will get those applied soon.
4. The "Rifleman" is almost done, pictures to follow soon (weekend maybe, if I am quick).
5. Two HMMWVs for the USMC and one for the US Army will be finished soon. Pics to follow.

Other than the above list of the very next stuff to arrive for painting, I am very happy about the increase in "hits" onto this tiny little blog. When I wrote my new year's greetings the page had 19.800 something "hits".

We are not yet in February of this year and I just broke through 24.000 !!! That's 4000 times people visiting my blog in less than a month. I am speechless and feel honoured.

Please, keep your comments coming. I share my work to receive feedback. Thanks, to all of you.

Bundeswehr ISAF: Waffenträger Wiesel 1 tanks with 20mm MK and TOW

After a whole afternoon of work my two Waffenträger Wiesel 1 light tanks are ready for gaming. They were painted in standard Nato 3-tone camo with Tamiya's Acrylic paint. Once I was done, I washed the whole vehicles with some thinned Devlin Mud (GW) and let it dry.

The ISAF decals are from Peddinghouse Decals and I carefully applied a few here and there. The Wiesels I have seen on pictures are all really dirty and dust covers every inch of them, hence I drybrushed the hull and tracks with a lot of Vallejo Iraqi Sand for a worn look.

The crew was painted the same way as the rest of my modern Revell Germans. For the small flags attached to the antennas I simply used MS paint and then printed them, cut them out and glued them into place.

A little in-between WIP: German Wiesel 1 tanks for ISAF (dedicated to Shaun!!)

These models I got from Shaun (S&S models) - he made them after enough people were begging for them. :-)

That's a German light tank Wiesel 1, one with 20mm MK and the other with TOW launcher and MG3. Shaun is the only one selling this vehicle in braille scale.

They are simple 1/76 scale resin kits with a few pewter parts. However, that was too simple for me - conversion madness here we came and what you see is the effort of 8 hours of work.

I cannibalized an old Revell Luchs kit for the MG3 and other bits like the headlights or the spade seen on the side. Crew came from MIG Products and they are made out of resin. Cupolas I had to drill out first and then add hatches made from thin plastic card (~0,5mm). I have added a Revell Bundeswehr soldier for scale to my pictures.

Now I only need to paint them for ISAF in Afghanistan.

Bundeswehr ISAF: A first try - 10 men

These are my first steps in painting some German Bundeswehr for ISAF in Afghanistan. They came from various sets of Revell 1/72 scale plastics. Normally no soldier would go to a mission without his helmet, but I use the guys wearing berets for squad and fire team leaders.

Typical loadout for a mission; to include P8 pistol, G36 (flashlight attached on some) and MG-4 light machine guns as well as AG36 under-barrel grenade launchers. They also have a map and radios.

It was tricky to add the German flags and ISAF symbols, but given their small size I think it turned out well.

I will paint up some more of them, maybe even snipers, K-9 team and some vehicles in desert camo for Ambush Alley and Force-On-Force.