German armoured cars 1 - Forged in Battle Sdkfz 222

Some months ago, I had a donation to my 15mm forces from Tim, some Forged in Battle Sdkfz 222s. I've never had any FiB stuff before, had a look at them at shows a few times, but they never really seemed to have anything which I didn't already have in quantity anyway and all their stuff seems to be in multi-pack blisters.

Anyway, I had been thinking about a certain lack of armoured cars so these came along at a timely moment. Having left them to stew for a suitable interval (umm, it may be well over a year), I set to work.

These chaps came in a pack of three. Nice crisp resin mouldings with metal turrets. The spare wheels are moulded with covers on, which provides a bit of contrast, particularly on the grey one.

A slightly closer look at the side.  The shovel stands out very well and the jerry cans are moulded on. The only fiddly thing was seperate metal guns to stick into the turrets, which I had to hold on with Blu Tak while they dried.

Rear view. The turret crew come moulded in, which is a nice touch. One them them is wearing goggles, you can see the strap on his helmet. One thing evident in this picture are the pre-moulded bases, which unfortunately mean the models end up standing on little rocky hills. I could have just used those, but I prefer to use my own base sizes. Just something I'll have to live with.

I did one in Panzer Grey to go with my QRF Sdkfz 221s. The other two are done in the same scheme as my Sdkfz 2341/1s so they can join my late war panzer recce battalion. My early war panzer recce Bn is still short of Sdkfz 231s, but more on that anon. Didn't have any problems with painting them, the resin didn't seem to be greasy so I just painted right over it (I wonder if it isn't resin but that plasticised plaster the Timecast terrain is made from? the texture seemed very similar).

So there we go. These are nice little models which I'd recommend to anyone, the only thing to watch out for are the pre-moulded bases. If you want bulk purchases, they are relatively inexpensive, certainly compared to BF, and I have a project in mind where their truck packs may come in quite handy.