Painting German LW infantry, Halkomahooli-style

Hi there!

After I posted some finished pictures of my LW German infantry for the two unfinished objectives I'm currently building, I've been asked on how I did that part or this. So I thought I should propably collect it all under one headline. Here I give you, fellow gamers and painters, a painting guide on how I painted my German troops, Halkomahooli-style.

Helmets are a mix of unknown portions of VMC Light Grey, VMC Black and VMC Cam. Olive Green. Likely the mix is as follows: 6:1:3. It can also be a bit lighter in which case add more Light Grey.

After applying a few coats of this mix, washed with Nuln Oil. First highlight added with the original color and top highlight with pure Light Grey.

Uniforms are a result of Basecolor VMC Black followed by VMC Luftwaffe Cam. Green. Next added VMC Cam. Olive Green and VMC Russian Unif. WWII.

Final highlight was a light mix of Cam. Olive Green and VMC Pale Grey Blue. It's quite light color that I use, the mix is something like 5:2 which is enough to get it very light.

After this I washed the uniform with watered down Cam. Olive Green (CAUTION! Use very little amount of this green wash and wipe 95% or more of it off or you'll lose the initial highlights!) and after that with Nuln Oil. Then I re-highlighted the uniform with the mix I had created before, first with a bit darker tone (add 1 or 2 drops of Cam. Olive Green) and then with original mix.

MGs, and other metallish parts were made NMM (non-metallic metal) with Light Grey as a base, washed with Nuln Oil and highlighted with Light Grey.

Bags, straps and pouches were made the same way as the MGs stocks. A coat of Chocolate Brown followed by a coat of Beige Brown. After this washed lightly with Nuln Oil and highlighted with Beige Brown.

Gasmask canister and the tent mattres were first painted with a mix of VMC Middlestone and Beige Brown, the mix was about 3:2. I then washed with them lightly with Nuln Oil. Highlights were made with the basecoat mix and extreme highlights with pure Middlestone.

Faces were painted Dwarf Flesh (GW), and highlighted with it after a Nuln Oil wash.

The boots were left Black.

So here you you have a nicely finished LW German troops. It took me 6 hours to just do these 4 guys so it might not be a way to quickly get your minis painted. Though I'm not the fastest painter around :)

See you around!

My sons first own tank and some other news!

My 3 years old son has wanted to have my tanks as his toys so I bought him one (not to use as a toy though!). Just built it with him and now I will teach him how to paint it.

This serves in two ways:
1. I may one day have a gaming buddy without leaving home.
2. As I'm a trained to use AT weapons in military, I may start teaching him some tricks and to identify different tanks and types.

He's so going to grow to be a good panssarintorjuntamies!
*Proud father*

In the other news!

I today got my order of fourth Jagdtiger and a Begleit Assault Platoon. This one I'm going to build to be my Carius so I'm going to give it some extra touches that will give him off at the battlefield.

Planned modifications are quite straight from the "Bridge at Remagen" -book, an MG to the back deck for AA usage and partial removal of side skirts. I may do some other modifications too but I haven't desided anything yet.

Also I'm quite not sure how I can do a camouflage that I've chosen with normal brushes, I don't have airbrush at my disposal nor do I have an access to use one. The camouflage has been chosen deliberately to be very different from my other tanks.

Pre-planned camouflage for Carius

One idea for the Begleits, though I may not use as many as four.

Hope you like the ideas. All comments and helps regarding painting, and conversion ideas are more than welcomed!

EDIT: Current stage of Jagdtigers conversions. Some changes possible. All ideas are welcomed!

Bridge by Bridge - 2./506. Schwere Panzerabteilung in Oosterbeek

Lately I've been thinking heavy, and I mean German heavy. I have a lot of planned lists of German Heavy Tanks that I'd like to run given enough heavy tanks (right now not nearly enough).

One of these units is the Schwere Panzerkompanie from Bridge by Bridge. It's currently the only heavy tank kompanie that I've planned with full King Tiger (another list that I have King Tiger is Schwere Panzerkompanie from Atlantik Wall with one KT).

With only four platoons and such a limited numbers I'll be always outnumberet and outgunned. But what this list gives me is heavy anti-tank weapons (88mm KwK43/L71) with excellent armour with infantry support that can scare a s**t out of enemy armour trying to flank my Big Cats. Lastly there is my Coup de Main, 3 StuH42s ready to take out any gunteams or soften up dug in infantry before my pioniers or King Tigers make the assault.

I didn't take recon as four fearless veteran teams for 155 points is kind of a lot. Also no artillery as not enough points, but for that I've my StuH42s.

Lastly with points limited and after checking multiple times that I couldn't get anything else useful, I took Bergepanther. No obvious use for this but it nicely works as a bullet-magnet, and it has AA MG.


This all drops me few points short but I think I can manage that. All in all this list needs to be played in concert, each element supporting and protecting the other (an obvious thing!).

All ideas and comments are welcomed.