Gott Mit Uns: WWII German Infantry in 28mm

 

Those of you who follow the blog know that these Germans have already made appearances in several games, ranging from wholly unpainted to partially painted to fully painted with bare bases. While the Soviets I finished off recently were some of my older models, the core of this platoon are actually the first models I ever bought. So their completion marks something of a hobby milestone, especially when paired with my Soviet platoon.

Here's a photo from 2018 of my first batch of built figures, hanging out on top of my copy of Enemy at the Gates. As you can see, most of these guys are still around, reinforced with some figures using various kitbashed poses. The prone machine gunners have been repurposed for a project you'll see sometime in 2022...

These guys are set up for Chain of Command, with two Senior Leaders - a leutnant and a feldwebel - a 3-man 50mm light mortar team, and four squads with a SMG-armed Junior Leader, a 3-man MG-34 team, and a 6-man rifle team.

Although historically the Germans quickly run out of manpower to field these sorts of units, this gives me the option to field the best of the best for the Germans in the early war. These figures are more geared toward Operation Barbarossa, but I think they'd work just fine for Poland 1939 and France 1940. If you want to get pedantic, the stone grey trousers are more fitting for '39-'40 while the lack of helmet decals make more sense for '41. But even I can't justify making different platoons just based on trouser color, and I think the contrast of the feldgrau jackets and grey pants look nice.

Dashing platoon leader backed up by his hard-working veteran platoon sergeant, armed with a Bergmann MP-28 from the Warlord Pioneers set.

The light mortar is very anemic in Chain of Command, but it's still nice to have a little extra HE. These are Warlord plastic Blitzkrieg figures with some kitbashed bits from the Afrika Korps sprue, which is a must-have for kitbashing.

This fourth squad's rifle team is made up of metal figures from Crusader. I've had them for ages and I don't like the sculpts as much. For whatever reason, they chip far far more than my other metal minis. I probably didn't prep them very well before priming. They may eventually be replaced with plastic figures, but we'll see.

Now, on to support options, starting with my absolute favorite: the pioneer squad. I love the Warlord pioneer accessories. There's so much cool stuff in there, even if the metal bits can be hard to work with.

With this squad, I focused on all of the main teams used for Chain of Command - wire-cutting, mine-clearing, demolition, and flamethrower.

Returning to pants talk, these figures have the slightly later full feldgrau uniform. While they will certainly be used in France 1940 games, this puts them most accurately in the late '41 into '42 range. Especially with the camo helmet cover on their leader.

A couple guys with SMGs. The flare gun in the front is from the Warlord winter German plastics. The guy on the right, with the black gloves, is loosely based on the captain from 1993's Stalingrad movie. With all of these guys, I gave them the black piping for pioneer troops on their epaulettes, but it really doesn't show up like the white piping on the regular infantry up there.

In the middle we've got some of the specialty tools - a wirecutter, a minesweeper, and of course the flamethrower.

Finally, some guys with satchel charges and demolition charges. I really like the figure in the front a lot. With his wirecutters and bags of grenades under his arms, he reminds me of the stormtroopers of the last war.

Of course I needed some suitable effects for my flamethrowers. These are pieces of wire with a small metal washer as a base, with clump foliage built up and painted as the jet of flame. I made them in 3 inch sections for ease of use and storage.

Usually, I paint lenses on googles and binoculars grey-blue with a white specular highlight. But here, I tried out grey and orange with white, to maybe make it look like the flames are reflecting off his lenses ominously. You judge how successful this has been.

Next, kradschutzen. Of course, I'd like to have a full squad of these, but the bikes are quite expensive compared to their on-table usefulness, so for now it's just this pair.

The front bike is Warlord's although the driver has been kitbashed quite a bit and the guy riding on the back is from the Afrika Korps motorcycle, I believe.

These guys are from Wargames Foundry, and I snagged them for cheap on eBay. I like that they're in the proper kradschutzen coats (though these weren't always worn), but I think the poses are a little static. Also, the hands and handlebars of the driver were missing, so I had to improvise. It's built around a paperclip with some greenstuff.

Next, some AT rifles, probably effectively useless for the 1941 and on games I typically do. The prone figure is a plastic kitbash, again using the essential Afrika Korps box, which includes a PzB 39. His assistant is the same figure used with the light mortar from the core platoon. The others, who are standing around and having a cigarette, are older Warlord metal figures.

Then, some extra figures - in the back, two spare Crusader riflemen and a figure in a Soviet fur cap with a panzerfaust. I've yet to use him for anything, more of an early kitbash experiment.

In the front, a soldier with a captured SVT-40, two with captured PPSh, and one with an MP-40. The SMG men could be used for spare leaders, or to give the force a more veteran feel, or just to pack more of a punch in close combat.

Finally, while I don't have much heavy support for my early war Germans yet, I do have this PaK 38 I can show. It's the wonderful Rubicon plastic kit, with crew made from Warlord plastic figures. I find the Rubicon crews very soft in detail and lackluster, even if they are more realistically proportioned. Also I think they were wearing camo smocks, which just won't do for the period of the war I want.