High Command

Just finished my latest Megablitz unit. This time it was the XVI motorized corps troops. I particularly like this unit because of all the interesting units that usually don't show up in a regular miniatures game. Let's take a look.

 

First off we have the the commander with his staff car, as well as the 62nd corps signal battalion. Behind them are the II/23rd and II/Lehr flak battalions. These units were attached Luftwaffe units hence the blue uniforms. The camera flash has made the blue look a little too bright, it's actually much darker. Speaking of the Luftwaffe I also painted up another Ju-87 that you can see in the background

 

Now we have the combat support elements. The two in the front are the 9th machinegun battalion and the 654th panzerjager battalion. I read that the 654th actually had towed 37mm AT guns, but I decided to give it a JgPz IB instead. In the back is one my favorite stands in this unit the 62nd bridge battalion. Next to the bridge battalion, is the corps artillery with a heavily camouflage 150mm howitzer and sd7.

 

Next up we have the rear support which include the 473rd corps supply battalion which is carrying a lot of parts for the panzer division including a spare turret. Next to it is the 542nd transportation battalion. This is an army level unit so it has a different tactical marking. While doing my research for this unit it seem that the German army corps usually only had one supply unit. The rest of the upper level supplies came from army level supply units. Behind the supply units is the 83rd medical and 83rd workshop battalion with a Pz III ARV. Both these battalions actually belong to the 3rd panzer division, but I'm keeping them at the corps level for now.

Finally the whole unit together.

 Anyway that's the new unit. I've only one more unit to finish as well as some terrain items and I'll be ready for a game. As for my other projects I'm going to try to do a game of Shipwreck next week; so hopefully I'll have an AAR for you next time.

Ships and planes.

Well I finished the ships. Unfortunately no one took me up on my challenge, oh well. Here are the answers.

Number 1 a Russian Krivak I class frigate. Number 2 a British Type 22/2 frigate. Both were made by Navwar.

Number 3 was a Norwegian Oslo class frigate. Number 4 was a Charles F. Adams DDG. Number 5 is a French D'Orves frigate.

Now for the harder ships. Number 5 in the back was a Russian Berezina AOR. Number 6 was a Spanish Baleares FFG. Number 7 was a Dutch Kortenaer frigate.

Finally the hardest, the aircraft. 1A was a Wasp helicopter. 2A was a Lynx helicopter. 3A was a Buccaneer bomber and 4A was a Gazelle helicopter. I wouldn't blame someone for not guessing the helicopters they're practically blobs.

Here is all the ships together.

I now have everything done for the Baku scenario. I've also finished the computer work for the Russian verses Japanese scenario. Finally here's a preview of my next Megablitz unit.

Update and a little game

I've started getting some ships ready for my next Ship wreck game.

As you can see some of them are just being based to my current basing system.

Now for the game part. There are eight ships in the photo and four different types of aircraft. How many can you identify?

I'll post the winner with the most right and answers next week once I finish painting them. Good Luck.

Update and the Imperial War Museum

Hello all, not much has been happening this week. I finished the Baku scenario and I'm starting to collect up the ships needed for it. I've also started getting stuff together for my next Megablitz unit. Since I don't have any new pictures this week; I've decided to share some of my past adventures. Back in 2005 when I was deployed to Iraq, I spent my 2 week leave in England. One of the places I visited was the Imperial War Museum in London. Here are some of the photos I took.



The entrance guarded by a pair of 14" battleship guns. Over to the left you can make out a section of the Berlin wall.



What a horrible thing to do to a tank!

A Matilda II tank.

A miniature submarine. It's missing the torpedoes.

Part of a very large trench warfare model.

...which was followed by a trench you could walk through.

A model of the Berlin wall.

Finally a LRDP Chevy that had recently been found buried in the desert.

Hopefully next week I'll have some painted models to show you.

2nd DLM

Things have started back up at work and it's been a while since I've posted anything. Here is my latest Megablitz unit, the 2nd DLM. This one didn't take as long as the other division. I decided to try out a new way of painting the windshields, tell me what you think.

First up we have the 8th Cuirassiers with two recon battalions, each having an armored car company and motorcycle company. Both the armored cars and the motorcycles are H&R.

Next up we have the 13th and 29th Dragoons regiments. Each with one S-35 tank battalion and one H-35 tank battalion. Once again all models are H&R

 

Next we have the 1st Motorized Dragoons regiment, with 3 motorized infantry battalions. Like with the 3rd DLM I represented them with 2 battalions of infantry in light trucks and 1 battalion of motorcycle infantry. I also made a stand of AMR light tanks to act as infantry support. All the miniatures are H&R, except for the motorcycle with the sidecar, its made by Scotia.

Now we have the division support. This includes the division HQ, signal battalion, supply troops, 71st artillery regiment, and 38th engineer battalion. The trucks, gun, and figures are H&R. The command car, radio truck, and Souma AVLB are Scotia.

Finally we have the whole division together. I manage to find a picture of the 2nd DLM unit crest so I used it as a marking instead of the questionable tactical marking I used on 3rd DLM.

Anyway that's the painting I've been doing.  Just two more units and I'll have enough for a good size game.You can probably guess which battle I planning to do by now. I'm also still working one those two shipwreck scenarios.

The Bears

Finally I finished my 3rd Panzer division. It's taken me three weeks to finish this unit, mostly due to procrastination. My microarmor painting skills have been slowly coming back and this is one of my best units yet. I've now started adding more details like tactical symbols and air recognition flags. Here's some of the pictures of the new unit.

The two tank regiments. These are all GHQ miniatures except for the PzI which is Scotia. If you look closely at the Pz IV's turret you'll see my crude painting of the Berlin bear.
 

  

The Infantry consisting of two infantry regiments, one with halftracks, and the motorcycle battalion. The infantry is GHQ. The halftrack and motorcycles I believe are H&R. The trucks are GHQ and Scotia.

The recon battalion with 2 armored car companies and a motorcycle company. These are all GHQ miniatures.

The division assets including the AT battalion, Engineer battalion, and the artillery Regiment. Most of the equipment is GHQ. The Sd251/7 is Scotia.

The division HQ including the commander's PzBefWg I, signal battalion, and the supply battalion.

Finally the whole unit together. Note note all of these will be used at one time. For early 1939-40 games one of the infantry division would be removed. For games 1941 and after one of the panzer regiments wouldn't be used.

Anyway that's what I've been doing the past week. I'm also still working on a couple of Shipwreck scenarios. Till next time.

Update

Just to let you know what I've been up to the past few weeks. With my family BBQ and trying to train up for a possible new position at my job, I've had little time to do anything. I've only just started a new unit for Megablitz and some computer work for Shipwreck.



...that and destroyed a burrito!

Anyway here's a look at the new unit I'm working on. When it's done it'll be the 3rd panzer division.

This unit is a real grab bag of minitures with units from GHQ, Navwar, Scotia, and the old In Service Minitures.

Hopefully they'll be done by the end of the week. As for ship wreck I've started doing the ship forms for two scenarios. One involving the carrier Baku and the other between Russia and Japan.