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PAINTING GUIDE: TM

BLITZKRIEG GERMANS The German war machine had been growing for sometime, and Europe had been divided on how to deal with the growing threat of National Socialism. In 1939, however, as the Germans annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia, and then invaded Poland, her neighbors could no longer stand idly by. They were ill-prepared for the speed with which the German forces could move: Panzer Divisions manouvering swiftly to take key objectives, followed closely by mechanized infantry to exploit the gains. Blitzkrieg was the term applied to this rapid and fluid form of warfare, so very different to the static trench warfare of the Great War. This Painting Guide will provide you with a stepby-step guide to painting the basic infantryman of the German Heer and one of the most-recognizable vehicle silhouette of WWII - the Sd.Kfz 251/1 ‘Hanomag’ half-track. These models are painted for the early war period, representing the Blitzkrieg forces that invaded Poland, France, and even the early stages of the Russian invasion. Following the step-by-step painting guides, you’ll find a collection of other units from the German early-war forces that display the variety of painting possibilities when collecting these models.

There are many paint ranges available for painting up your miniatures, and it doesn’t really matter which paints you use. That’s completely up to you. We used a variety of paints in preparing this guide, and named them with abbreviations. These can be deciphered below: VMC = Vallejo Model Color AP = Army Painter

www.warlordgames.com Copyright Warlord Games Ltd, 2015. Warlord Games, Bolt Action, and the Bolt Action logo are trademarks of Warlord Games Ltd. All rights reserved.

Painting your Blitzkrieg Germans 1

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The first step is always to prepare your models for painting. After assembling a squad of five models, we applied a layer of fine basing grit, and let the glue dry. Many people undercoat their models with black or white sprays. We chose to spray each model with AP Uniform Grey spray as sometimes a black undercoat can mean you have to apply multiple coats of your other paints, and white can leave the colors appearing much brighter than the desatured uniform colors of WWII.

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The next step includes painting the basecoats over the largest areas. We started with VMC German Fieldgrey WWII over the uniform tunic (leaving the trousers grey). This was followed by VMC German Camo Dark Green for the helmet, gas cape pouch (on chest), and gas mask cannister on his back. We then painted his face and hands with AP Tanned Flesh, a good base colour for Caucasian skin.

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Then we moved on to the wooden stock of the rifle, painting it VMC Beige Brown. The next step was to paint the bread bag with VMC German Camo Beige, followed by painting the canteen and rifle strap with AP Oak Brown. If you are painting a lot of models at once and are on a tight timeframe, you might also choose to paint the black and silver areas (covered in Steps 7 & 8).

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We followed up Step 3 by painting a layer of AP Strong Tone Wash over the entire model and let it dry thoroughly. If you are painting a lot of models at once and chose to paint the black and silver areas before the wash, you could finish your painting here, although your models would like quite dark and not quite as nice as they could if you decided to push on.

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While the wash adds great shadows to your model, to make it really pop you need to go back and add some highlights. We started by highlighting the uniform tunic with VMC German Fieldgrey WWII, then the helmet and gas mask cannister with VMC German Camo Dark Green. The uniform trousers were highlighted with VMC Basalt Grey. Finally, the skin was highlighted with a 50/50 mix of AP Tanned Flesh/VMC Flat Flesh.

In order to help them stand out a little more from the equipment, the uniform was highlighted again with a 60/40 mix of VMC German Fieldgrey WWII/VMC Pale Sand, and the bread bag was highlighted with VMC German Camo Beige. Finally, the skin was highlighted with VMC Flat Flesh.

www.warlordgames.com Copyright Warlord Games Ltd, 2015. Warlord Games, Bolt Action, and the Bolt Action logo are trademarks of Warlord Games Ltd. All rights reserved.

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The next step was to paint all the webbing and metal areas with AP Matt Black. At this point we painted the eyes and the fine piping on the collar and epaulettes with VMC White. Epaulette piping would be a specific colour depending on which part of the military the soldier served in. For the humble infantryman this would be white. The collar tabs would have a background in the same colour although for infantry this would be the standard dark green of the collar itself.

We highlighted the areas with a 50/50 mix of AP Matt Black/ AP Gun Metal. The webbing and boots were given a quick highlight with VMC German Grey.

Top Tip

Decals If you feel like adding more detail to your German infantry models, we make a range of great waterslide decals covering a variety of the units that were part of the German war machine.

Early in the war, the German forces applied unit decals to the sides of their helmets to more easily differentiate them in the field. Over time these decals would become obscured or damaged and, by the middle of the war, they were rarely replaced.

Basing

Basing is the thing that really helps tie your army together. There are many, many ways you can do you basing, depending on where you want your troops to be fighting, and what your gaming table looks like. For our purposes, we painted the base completely

with VMC German Camo Brown-Black, drybrushed the grit and painted the edge with VMC Beige Brown, drybrushed the grit with VMC Dark Sand, and then glued down different flocking materials to give a variety of colours and textures.

The Completed Blitzkrieg German Heer Squad

This completed Heer Infantry Squad (using the squad listing on page 20 of Armies of Germany), has the minimum five men, including an NCO with a submachine gun and a soldier with an MG34 light machine gun.

www.warlordgames.com Copyright Warlord Games Ltd, 2015. Warlord Games, Bolt Action, and the Bolt Action logo are trademarks of Warlord Games Ltd. All rights reserved.

VariAnts of blitzkrieg Uniforms qThese German command models are painted in much the same way as our infantry. Note, however, that the officers’ caps, greatcoats, and occasionally trousers are VMC German Fieldgrey WWII - as the war progressed grey trousers would be replaced by field grey versions completely.

tThese soldiers of the German Heer are dressed in early war uniforms, and have been shown a little more attention. The 5 o’clock shadow can be recreated by mixing grey into your base flesh color.

uThe German motorcycle troops (Kradschützen) wear uniforms indentical to our step-by-step example. Their motorcycle is painted in VMC German Grey and highlighted with VMC Basalt Grey.

tThese Feldgendarmes, distinguished by their silver and brass gorgets, were the uniformed military police of the German wehrmacht. Their uniforms differ in small ways, including the fieldgrey trousers (instead of the grey), and red epaulets.

pEven from the outset of the war, the troops of the Waffen-SS were some of the best equipped in the German armed forces. These early war SS soldiers are wearing fieldgrey trousers (instead of grey), but retain the black leather jackboots (that would be later replaced by regular boots. All are wearing plane tree pattern camouflage helmet covers and camo smocks.

www.warlordgames.com Copyright Warlord Games Ltd, 2015. Warlord Games, Bolt Action, and the Bolt Action logo are trademarks of Warlord Games Ltd. All rights reserved.

Painting your SD.KFZ 251/1 AUSF C Much like the infantry, once the tank was assembled we undercoated it with AP Uniform Grey. German vehicles were all painted in a mid to dark grey during the early war period, so this was a perfect starting point for us.

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We painted the wooden slats on the seats in the rear of the half-track with VMC Beige Brown, and the padded cushions behind tem in VMC Red Leather.

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We then gave the entire half-track a wash of AP Strong Tone. This cover the exterior and interior, adding extra depth to the shadows.

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Once the AP Strong Tone wash was thoroughly dried, we took a large brush and drybrushed VMC Basalt Grey over the half-track. particular attention was paid to the top edges and corners.

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We decide to add a little more contrast to the model by highlighting the sharp edges with VMC London Grey and shading particular panels with another wash of AP Strong Tone.

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The next step was a fairly simple one, paint everything that won’t remain grey with AP Matt Black.

For this German half-track we chose this stage to affix the decals to ensure that any weathering we applied would be applied to the decals too. During the invasion of Poland, German vehicles used a solid white or yellow “Balkenkreuz” as a national identifier. This evolved to the symbol we have used here (the open white cross) for the invasions of both France and Russia.

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The next step was to apply a bit of “chipping”, areas where the paint has been scratched or worn off and reveals the original primer coat . For this we simply sponged on VMC Hull Red using a folded piece of sponge from a Warlord Games blister pack. Be careful to apply the chipping in areas that would see the most wear and tear.

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Of course, if you want your tanks to be factory-fresh, you can skip this step.

At this stage we took the opportunity to paint up the accessories we added in the build stage: a couple of spare helmets, a tarpaulin, and the tow cable (rusty, of course) at the front of the vehicle.

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The Completed SD.KFZ 251/1 AUSF C HALFTRACK And finally... To give it the “slogging around Europe, seeing lots of action” look we drybrushed a few different browns onto the tracks, wheels and undercarriage to simulate mud and road dust. We also added a gunner with an MG34 and another MG34 at the rear on a pintle mount.

www.warlordgames.com Copyright Warlord Games Ltd, 2015. Warlord Games, Bolt Action, and the Bolt Action logo are trademarks of Warlord Games Ltd. All rights reserved.

VariAnts of German Vehicles tFollowing the annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, the German Panzer Divisions adopted the Panzer 35(t) and 38(t), such as the one shown here. They were repainted in the dark grey and German markings were applied.

uAlthough it was essentially obsolete by the beginning of the war, a number of Panzer Ia tanks saw service in the invasion of Poland. Most were withdrawn from service by the time the Germans invaded France. Note the black uniform on the tank commander.

tPanzer II tanks were the mainstay of German panzer units from the invasion of Poland through to the invasion of Russia. While this tank sports the same simple grey color scheme, there has been recent conjecture that German vehicles involved in the invasion of Poland had dark brown camouflage patches too.

uThe Sd.Kfz 231 heavy armoured car (6-Rad) was used during the early years of the war in reconnaissance roles, and during the later years in policing and anti-partisan roles. This once has recently seen a bit of service as the road dust around the lower half would suggest. qEven the motorcycles and sidecars of the Kradschützen platoons were painted in the same German vehicle grey.

uThe Kfz 13 ‘Adler’ armoured car was designed in the early ‘30s, and really only saw service during the invasion of Poland. Note the early, solid white ‘Balkenkreuz’ and the white-trimmed wheelguards.

www.warlordgames.com Copyright Warlord Games Ltd, 2015. Warlord Games, Bolt Action, and the Bolt Action logo are trademarks of Warlord Games Ltd. All rights reserved.