Panzer Replacements - 2nd Company

The last of the replacement early war panzers, another light panzer company. More 3D resin print models from Battlefield 3D.

A couple of Panzer IIIs and a Panzer II.

We've seen a Panzer II F before. To mix things up a bit I did this one in grey and brown camo and just put an engimatic 'A' on the turret along with some tiny balkan crosses on the hull. 

A plain grey Panzer III H, numbered '6'. We've seen one of these before as well. 2nd Company have black turret numbers outlined in white. 

Just for a change I repeated the number on the turret bin too, and added a moderate amount of stowage - two jerrycans, a box and a tarp. They were were all washed after painting along with the vehicle tools and front mounted spare tracks.

The exciting vehicle in this lot is a Panzer III F. Essentially an upgunned E with a 50mm gun, but this one also has wider tracks, some spare track slung off the hull front, very jazzy criss-crossed pattern mudguards and supposedly a bit more armour on the hull front. The vision port arrangement on the turret looks slightly different too. It is very much a transitional vehicle between the E and the H and feels very business like.

This was a three part print, the tracks and hull/turret. In one of those 3D printing miracles, the turret is printed onto the hull, but still rotates! There is a sort of inverted plug holding it in place, so the turret can't be removed. Tbh it is a bit annoying, as I like to take turrets off for painting, and I'm sure I could have carved the plug back a bit, but it was buried in the depths of the hollow hull and hard to get at so I left it. I wonder if it is a design error in the STL as Ive never had a model like this before? 

I did the commander in an early war panzer beret (he is actually a Peter Pig british tank commander painted in a black uniform) but I did the vehicle in plain grey as when the older 37mm armed ones were upgunned prior to the Balkan or Greek campaigns they were often repainted.

 

I added a fair bit of stowage, including a fuel drum. This vehicle is likely to be driving a long way, down to Greece then off to Moscow.

2nd company has black numbers outlined in white, so this is 24. These all got the same basic scheme as the others, base coat of Sea Grey or Uniform Grey, washed with Vallejo Panzer Grey, followed by various layers of drybrushing. 

A fine looking vehicle which I can pretend is an E at times as well, as the two guns are almost indistinguishable. The lack of a turret bin is the main thing which stands out. 

I really enjoyed painting all of those, and the old metal vehicles they are replacing are safely stored in a different box now.