Tuesday 22 December 2015

Operation Winter Storm: Panzergrenadiers 11 – Sd.Kfz. 10/5


Well, this is it – the final German entry for the Operation Winter Storm project. It feels very nice indeed to have the first stage of the project finished.

For the finale you would have thought I'd painted something fitting, like a Tiger or perhaps a StuG, or any other iconic German WW2 vehicle. Instead I've gone the eclectic route and present to you the Sd.Kfz. 10/5.


The Sd.Kfz 10 was a half-track vehicle that was primarily used as a tower for smaller guns such as the 2 cm FlaK 30, the 7.5 cm leIG, or the 3.7 cm PaK 36 anti-tank gun. As with most WW2 vehicles, there were numerous variants produced throughout the war.


The Sd.Kfz. 10/5 carried the 2 cm FlaK 38 anti-aircraft gun on a special platform with fold-down side and rear panels. It had magazines for the gun fastened to the panels and usually towed an ammunition trailer (Sd.Ah. 51) with 640 more rounds, the gun's sights and its rangefinder.


Though the FlaK 38 was designed as an anti-aircraft gun, it was also used against ground targets.

The model is from Battlefront and required a fair amount of cleaning up, especially on the resin main body. The other parts were in metal and while the cast was clean, the tracks once again suffer from the softness of details which seems to be prominent on most of Battlefronts vehicles. The gun barrel is also very soft, and bends easily, which of course is very annoying. Other than that, it's a nice little kit I think.



Rather than paint the vehicle in winter camo, I decided to do it in Panzer Grey with the crew in regular Feldgrau uniforms to make it a bit more versatile.


Now with this stage finished, I'm going to let the Operation Winter Storm project rest for a while. But I've already thrown myself into the next project for which I'm frantically painting at the moment. Stay tuned for more about this.

As always, thanks for reading!

20 comments:

  1. Exellent!!! I really like the look if the Vehicles and the Gun are perfect to shoot-up advancing russian infantry.

    So back to the painting table you are running late i heard from a good source ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Michael! Will be interesting to field this gun against the Soviets when I eventually get round to doing them.

      Now I'm going back to the painting table as you command ... ;)

      Delete
  2. You really have momentum on this project! It looks great btw!

    Christopher

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Christopher! Yeah, it's been great fun and I'd love to continue with the Soviet side to take advantage of the momentum but I've got some other stuff I need to do first.

      Delete
  3. I found that when you have soft barrels, a solution of water/glue helps to strengthen it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the tip! I might have to try that ...

      Delete
  4. This has been such a great project to watch develop Jonas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Michael, much appreciated. There's still much to do on this project: the Soviets of course, and also a fair amount of terrain. I'm very much looking forward to setting up the first game in 2016.

      Delete
  5. Great work and looking forward to info on the new project:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Steve! I will post a teaser of the new project sometime after Christmas. Stay tuned!

      Delete
  6. What a neat little model..great painting yet again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers! Yes, despite some problems (described above) it's a nice little kit.

      Delete
  7. Beautiful addition! A good choice aswell, we see enough Tigers in wargaming as it is. :-)
    /Mattias

    ReplyDelete
  8. A great project and a fantastic job Jonas, congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oups...and Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Phil and Merry Christmas to you too!

      Delete
  10. Been away for a few days to Dalarna, and just realized I missed all these wonderful additions to your Winter Sturm collection. Absolutely brilliant work Jonas - the rust effects and subtle highlighting is just sublime! Can't wait till we get these on the gaming table - keep me in the loop when its time to throw some dice. Happy 2016!

    ReplyDelete