At the weekend I finished off my first of two packs of German Begleit Tank Escorts, or Tank-riders to go with my StuGs;
The pack comes with sufficient foot figures to represent a short squad of dismounted troops.
Even if not used as the 'Begleit' troops, they would be perfect as Assault rifle armed scouts..
And then obviously the tank rider models themselves... 12 single figures in the packs give me enough for 4 groups of three figures, sufficient to go on 4 tanks. I didn't want to glue them to the tanks permanently as the StuGs wouldn't always get used with tank riders... so I decided to base up the figures on a small piece of plasticard which was painted to match the colour of the StuGs camo 'dunkelgelb'
This little 'base', easily sits on the rear deck of the StuG, or StuH... blu-tac can hold in place temporarily.
And both together, foot troops and Begliet Escorts working together...
I believe the Germans learned this tactic from the Soviets who became renowned for having their infantry clinging frantically to the backs of their tanks as they roared towards to German lines...
I'll have to try them out in a game sometime. I hope they will fair better than their halftrack bourne counterparts.. a StuG is a far bigger piece of metal, than the thin armoured hulls of the SdKfz halftracks...!
Will this be the new wonder weapon of my forces, ... or will my 'tactical finesse' doom them to obscurity after their first outing... time will tell ;-)
Showing posts with label 15mm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 15mm. Show all posts
Sunday, 17 November 2013
Sunday, 20 October 2013
Bergepanzer III
This last weekend I hosted a mini Flames of War Get-Together; a LateWar 1350pts singles.
After a little umming and arring, about what force to take, I decided to keep it simple and run a Tank Company. More about the 'tournament' in a following blogpost...
After sorting my force, I had a spare 10pts to use up, and just about the only thing I could add was a Bergepanzer III recovery vehicle to the HQ... but I didn't have a suitable model...
A quick look on the BF website, and I couldnt find one there either? So I decided to try and knock one up myself...
A quick bit of googling later I had found that the Bergepanzer III, was based on a Panzer III chassis/hull, with the turret removed and an open topped compartment mounted on the superstructure. Several images from the web gave me enough to work with...
So...
I took one of my existing Panzer III's ( from Plastic Soldier Company), and lifted off the turret and set to work, with plasticard, plastic rod, left over stowage bits and bobs, spare wheels etc from other plastic PSC kits, and some fuse wire, and matchsticks...
The recovery structure lifts off so the turret can be replaced if I still need to use the tank properly, though with a total of 15 Panzer IIIs in my collection I am not sure I will ever need that many...
So the Bergepanzer gives me a useful tool, if I get other tanks bogged down... and its also a medium tank hull with a machine gun. It is classed as an independent team, and cannot assault and must break off if assaulted. Nor can it take or contest an objective...
Still, not a bad little addition to my force...
After a little umming and arring, about what force to take, I decided to keep it simple and run a Tank Company. More about the 'tournament' in a following blogpost...
After sorting my force, I had a spare 10pts to use up, and just about the only thing I could add was a Bergepanzer III recovery vehicle to the HQ... but I didn't have a suitable model...
A quick look on the BF website, and I couldnt find one there either? So I decided to try and knock one up myself...
A quick bit of googling later I had found that the Bergepanzer III, was based on a Panzer III chassis/hull, with the turret removed and an open topped compartment mounted on the superstructure. Several images from the web gave me enough to work with...
So...
I took one of my existing Panzer III's ( from Plastic Soldier Company), and lifted off the turret and set to work, with plasticard, plastic rod, left over stowage bits and bobs, spare wheels etc from other plastic PSC kits, and some fuse wire, and matchsticks...
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| Panzer III H, Plastic Soldier Company |
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| Lift off turret... |
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| Add recovery vehicle superstructure... |
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| And paint it up... voila! |
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| A blob of blu-tac holds structure in place... |
The recovery structure lifts off so the turret can be replaced if I still need to use the tank properly, though with a total of 15 Panzer IIIs in my collection I am not sure I will ever need that many...
So the Bergepanzer gives me a useful tool, if I get other tanks bogged down... and its also a medium tank hull with a machine gun. It is classed as an independent team, and cannot assault and must break off if assaulted. Nor can it take or contest an objective...
Still, not a bad little addition to my force...
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