Friday, 19 June 2015

Mid War Panzer IVs - The Road to Sturm Uber Afrika 2015

 Usually my prep for a tournament involves a few months of frantic painting trying to get a new force ready, however this time I opted for something a bit different, just five tanks. The list I'd decided on wasn't really much different from my early war tournament list from earlier in the year, yet more Italian tanks but this time we brought along some Panzer IVs!
I had a couple of boxes of the Plastic Soldier Company Panzer IVs in the Crate-O-Models, so i broke one out and started putting them together. I decided that as the PSC were generous enough to give me all the options for my mid war Panzer IVs, (the kit can be used for F1s through to Hs marks) I'd give magnetising them a go. It was fairly easy, using smaller magnets on the gun barrel and mantlet parts and large magnets inside the turrets. This means that I can choose between F1 (short barreled 7.5cm gun) and F2 (long barreled 7.5cm gun) variants.
I base coated in Vallejo desert yellow using the airbrush in a few light coats. I thought about going for a lighter shade more typical of the Afrika Korps however this darker shade means I can use these tanks for the eastern front just as easily as Africa if I want to and to be honest it doesn't stray far away from any historic colour examples I've seen. I did my normal thing of looking over loads of reference photographs to try to capture the feel of the original units. The answer seemed to be in plenty of baggage, especially jerry cans!

Fuel and water (the Germans marked cans for water with large white crosses) being the most important things in the desert! I ended up plundering the stowage from sets of PCS half tracks to get enough. Oddly enough the PCS have release a stowage set which I really could of used! Oh hum, i'll grab one for my next projects! I pin washed using brown wash for Afrika Korps by MIG productions, another great product that really made the tanks fine detail pop nicely. Finally i sealed the miniatures using the tried and tested Testors spray lacquer. Next stop: Sturm uber Afrika!

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