Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Happy Halloween (and please vote in my poll)


Happy Halloween! (for this weekend at least). Above is the Blitzhund model from Grindhouse Games' Incursion range of miniatures. Much more on these guys next week in the lead up to the next set of charity auctions.


So I decided to scour the Flames of War website to track down as much info as possible before I started on my Light Panzer Company. There are a number of cool pages, and some very interesting information as far as the color scheme for my army.

Of course, I figured that I would have to stick to the historical color scheme for my army. But which one to choose? Apparently the German Panzer divisions had orders to paint all of their vehicles with a two tone grey-brown camouflage scheme prior to the invasion of Poland. They were later ordered to repaint their tanks to an all grey scheme (the one that most of us with "Western European" schooling would most quickly identify) prior to their invasion of France.

So, would I want a Polish invasion army? Or a French invasion army? With the cool Polish armored train coming next year I figured that would be good, but a little more work.

At the same time, I'm keen to see how those Bunkerflaks do against the tough French tanks, so should I go for the easier scheme?

Then I read this article on the FOW site, and all bets were off. What do you mean there is very little photographic evidence that the two-tone camo scheme was widely adopted for the Polish campaign?

As I'm going to be off at Fall-In! this weekend, I won't have time to work on them either way, so I'll leave it up to you, my faithful blog readers.


Should I paint up my Light Panzer Company in this grey scheme? (tank painted by Chris Townley)


Or this two-tone scheme? (Tank painted by Mike Haycock)

The poll is on the right, have at it. You have until Monday.

Cheers
Dave

10 comments:

  1. Great stuff dave, and as per the campaign well you have to ask yourself what you would find more interesting to play with. Remember historicals can be fussy as most people like to play in the western theather in the early part of the war because that is where the most action was. The Alliance with Russia in the early years only made the Polish campaign last a month. Heck Denmark feel in 7 days!!!! Franch you can have fun with the maginot line and dunkirk as the Maginot held out till they were forced to surrender by the Vichy Gov't. Their is a ton of details I can swing into but I honestly would go for the western front. Just remember if you do infantry... THE WERMACHT DID NOT WEAR GREY TOPS!!!! You know me I am a anal stickler when it comes to my historical uniforms:).

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  2. Simple grey, both not really simple if you catch my drift
    I'd airbrush dark grey basecoat and using the fine tip airbrush lighter grey in the center of panels just like you do with AFV.
    Then I would hit it with an Burnt Umber Oil pinwash finshed with MIG powders.

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  3. The grey looks much nice I think. And not just because it's what I'm used to seeing. So I'd go with that.

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  4. Dave,

    My vote would be for the Grey scheme. I like the fact the Battlefront posted this article because ever since they announced the Early war stuff they have taken flak for the camo scheme.

    So I say go with the Grey.

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  5. Go for grey. All the photos I've seen of early war show everything grey and its valid on both fronts, a catch all if you will.

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  6. Hi,

    I'm not too keen on historicals, however I live in Lancaster, PA and I will also be at Fall In! I'm meeting someone to complete a trade, and taking a look around for fun. I've always been a huge fan of your work, maybe I'll get a chance to say hi.

    Take care

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  7. I'd say grey. Contrast-wise, that brown and grey is just too close. Across a table, I would bet that it just looks grey. Since the schemes are so close, if you did decide you wanted to go with the camo scheme rather than the solid color, you could just add the brown later.

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  8. Thanks for all the comments guys! I'm starting to lean towards the grey scheme myself. I don't think I'll be doing too much airbrushing this time around, but it should still be fun.

    Cheers
    Dave

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  9. I initially voted for the grey and brown, but having looked at it some more and having done a bit more research, I've got to say go with the grey.

    Having said that, I'd also say to go with breaking it up a bit - using things like two tone grey streaking and then bringing it all back together with a semi-transparent coat of the base grey to mute down the other ones a bit (referencing pp115 of "Armour Modelling" from Osprey Masterclass series). That way you get a bit more interesting appearance than just a flat grey, and each tank is different without taking up much time at all.

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  10. Dave, if you have more than a passing interest in history, the fact the panzer Gray scheme is used from 1939 until nearly 1943 should factor in. The when you go to use some of the vehicles for later periods, you aren't bothered by incorrect color scheme.

    My panzer gray vehicles have rapidiograph blacklining and several shades of highlighting on all the edges, to the tiniest white on the smallest corners- they look very cool without another color.

    Most of the tanks in 40k have one base color.

    For those that say they aren't into 'historicals', BS. As a gamer you should be in to the most balanced rules that are the most fun to play. Imagine you learn something as you go as well. FOW excels at that. As a hobbyist, imperial guard anyone? FOW players in denial.

    Good luck on the new army.

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