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Col. Voss:

So while trying to hoc my fallschirmjager, Job came to me with a little proposal to start early war armies and he'd help me fund things. So this past Friday the first wave of Germans have arrived.

Originally I had planned a different force but when Job announced that he would be the Frenchies and being a recce force, I changed and went with 7. Panzer Division, AKA, the ghost division. Made a lot of sense to me. 7. Division was always the furthest ahead and nobody knew where they were. So a French recon force happens to run into them and have a nice little scuffle.

My forces will consist of a company from 25 panzer regiment, a platoon from 7 motorcycle battalion, and 2 8-rads from 37 recon battalion

Sorry, Colonel, I thought our project might best fit the "Hobby logs" section.

As the good Oberst Voss has stated, the two of us have started an early war project. I've resisted taking the dive into EW, but Voss has been so enthusiastic for the era and determined to go it alone if need be, I've decided to join him.

The challenge we've set ourselves is to paint a 1000 point list over the next eight months or so. We will divide our lists into four portions with each section needed to be assembled and painted within a two month span. The painting standard is to our own liking, but loosely it should be "table top" level.

Also as we create our lists we've decided to post our progress and write about our thoughts as we proceed.

Thank you if you follow us and decide to comment.

Our first mission is due sometime in early December. The two of us have decided to go light at first and Voss says he'll be taking on the biggest chunk over the winter break, so I guess we've got to get rolling on this project!

To introduce my list, I'll be working on the Escadron de Reconnaissance from Blitzkrieg. I'll be building:
10 Panard AMD-35
3 Somua S-35
A Fusiliers Portes Platoon with transports
and either a battery of 105 mm C mle 1935B
or
a battery of the famous 75mm mle 1897


Tonight I had the first opportunity to model in awhile so I decided to set out. First I took a pic of the stuff before.


After opening the boxes I found the models were fine overall. I washed the excess off the parts and then began to remove flask. Getting to a fairly happy place I began to glue and assemble. I then discovered one of the resin turrets needed a little bit of filing and another gun mantlet needed some filing and cutting before it fit the turret.

Afterwards:


Here the French Somuas come to avenge history!

Today I accomplished a lot more than I originally set out to do.



I was able to prime the models, using the south balcony to avoid the gusts, base coat it all with Gunship Green, then added Flat Brown in patches, followed by Green Ochre which was laid as a base for Yellow Tan. I also hit the tracks with German Camo Black and then a second time with a mix of German Camo Black, Gunmetal Grey and Smokey Ink. I was also able to put some basic paint on the lieutenant on the back of one turret and finally added Nuln Oil black ink to the vents on the back of the tanks. I feel pretty good about the progress.

Well Joe has a head start on me. Here is a picture of my vehicles fully assembled with a few size comparison tools to help those who don't play and even those who do, what I've got.



When I first put together the panzer 1s I was completely shocked at their size. Yeah I knew they were small. But look at them compared to even the recon vehicles let alone the Konigs tiger! And this was the most common tank used for both Poland and Fance. Talk about having a brass set when going against those Chars!

For painting, I haven't settled on which grey I will be using. You'll note that the 8-rad in the back has a bit thicker white. That is because I have tried a few colors so far and decided against them.

Hey, nice post man! Now slap on the grey!

Some suggestions from BF:
http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=2118
If you are using Tamiya, I do like their German Grey. It looks right in my opinion.

Also I was thinking our project will end in May! That is in time for the actual period the German Blitz entered Belgium and Holland and rolled across France! What nice coincidence!

[BTW, is the Old Spice for that Jack? ]

Last night I had some time to add the black lines about the camo patches that appeared on some, usually early, Somua S-35 schemes. I like the look so I put them on even if it took time. I also painted the exhaust pipes a mix of calvary brown, gunmetal grey and a bit of flat brown. Then, this morning I added the number decals. At some later time after the trip to Hokkaido I hope to get to the other decals I need to put on.

After running through all my browns and greys, I finally settled on my colors. I spent a great deal of time watching both color and black and white video of the invasion of France. While the colored ones usually put the tanks and infantry in similar enough grey that you can't distinguish well, the black and white show that the infantry was a lighter grey. So I wanted that to be represented going forward. As for brown, Flames of War suggests Chocolate Brown as the color. Sorry, but any chocolate around here is going to be eaten so forget that color. Instead I went for a dark Umbreal Umber color from P3. I think it sits rather nicely on my vehicles.

Of a special note, I've found the 8-rads to be a challenge to paint the colors on right. The contours are not what I'm use to, having done so many imperial guard tanks and late war tanks. Next up the treads and tires. Then I have to find out what color the recon commander's uniform should be.

For the past week I've added to the tanks. I finished the decals on Sunday, deciding to go with clubs for the 4th platoon. I also added numbers to each side of the turret and the tricolor roundels to the back of the turret and the chassis. I then put another coat of gloss varnish on the decals to seal them. Today I painted the antenna cover I forgot about and then washed them with devlan mud. Next I added a second coat of paint on the camouflage on upper surfaces and on the driver. I also finally painted the goggles on his hemet. I guess I will do highlights next.

Finished! Last night I worked on adding highlights to the tanks by mixing the various paints with Offwhite and Yellow tan in the Flat Brown. Then I used Tamiya Weathering Stick lightly on the tracks for mud effects and then used another Tamiya product, Weathering Master to add soot to the gun muzzle and mud to the track, suspension and undercarriage.

Here they are, lined up and ready to roll out and take on the Bosch!

Oberest Voss and I had a talk about a week ago or so and decided to amend the course of this project. In consideration of his financial situation, we decided to avoid purchases for his German army and use models from considerable collection. Instead of a Chech Panzerkompanie, it will be a Militre Panzerkompaine. I also have some German stuff so I'm preparing the Panzer III F tanks I own to serve as the mainstay for the German force.

The models are Forged in Battle miniatures. They are caste with a base from single piece of resin with exception of the peuter-metal turret. The resin is a bit more brittle than BF's and there are places the detail might be less also, but overall it is nice and there is a lot of stowage molded onto it which makes it look cool in my opinion.


Next step is to add the decals and then proceed to highlights.