Panzer Replacements - HQ Company

 Next up for the new 15mm early war German armour is the replacement panzer 'battalion HQ company', as before, all the models are from battlefield 3D.

A recce Panzer II and a command Panzer III.

This is a Pz IIIe command tank with a bedrail aerial. I've wanted one of these for years and even contemplated trying to convert one, but coming up with a workable design for the aerial (in 0.5mm brass) defeated me. This one is based on the Pz IIIe model I showed in a previous post, but has the turret moulded in place. The aerial is quite fine so I stiffened it up with some PVA. Otherwise, the tracks are separate.

I went for an open hatch option (much easier than trying to cut down the Zvezda cupolas and adding hatch covers!) as it is a command tank, and loaded up the rear deck with stowage - some cases and an oil drum, all Skytrex. Loading the deck up seems to have been a popular past-time with command tanks.

I gave it HQ markings in red and white but didn't bother with balkan crosses as they are virtually inaccessible behind the  additional aerial rails (beautifully printed as always on a resin 3D print with nice separation). If you look carefully you can see that even the grab handles on the turret top have gaps under them.

I did this in grey/brown camo based on the famous colour photo of one of these crossing a river in Russia in 1941, you can see bits of the camo on the mudguards etc. I expect it will get used as a normal gun tank in early war games, and it can join my very old SDD Panzerbefehlswagen 1 as a dedicated command vehicle as required. 

The 'recce platoon' is a Panzer IIa, and what a beautiful little model it is. A two piece print, hull+turret. The 20mm cannon is a fair bit smaller than on the II F, I wonder if it was just mounted differently with more of the weapon inside the turret, or if it really was shorter?

It is a fair bit smaller than the Pz II F, and from the back looks more like a Panzer I. I did this one in grey/brown too and for both vehicles did pinwashes on some of the details after the main paint job.

You can see the lovely track and other detail on the side. It has a very pre-war feel to it, the Pz II F looks far more modern. It reminds me a bit of a Renault 35. As the hull sides are so low it was common to put all the markings on the turret, so I put the crosses and turret numbers on there. Strictly it should be a solid cross for a very early vehicle, but I don't have any solid decals and I didn't fancy painting them.  

Here it is next to one of my (QRF) Panzer Is, you can see how small the Pz IIa is but still a bit bigger than the Pz 1. Having done these new vehicles I'm minded to go over the Panzer Is again with a new paint job. I'm not planning on replacing those at the moment.