Unboxing the Germans

The German force was a much more automatic decision, allowing my inter painter painter and modeller to take control, rather than my gaming side.

WW2 Late War German Panzergrenadier Company Deal

Three boxes of German SdKfz 251/1/D halftracks and one box of German infantry, making 130 infantry and 15 vehicles for them to ride in. All for £57, a bargain for the sheer number of vehicles, but not a very scale-able force for reasons I'll come to later.

WW2 Late War German Infantry 1943-45

 One sprue from the Infantry box. Slightly better than the Russian infantry with more options, fewer duplicates and the same number of men.

 I still note a few who have swapped their hats, but done little else.

The Gamer complains that for a proper Panzergrenadier force we'll need more light machine guns than are in this set, but the Modeller has a cunning plan

WW2 German SdKfz 251 Ausf D Halftrack

 
The Halftracks make my inner modeler jump for joy thinking about all the conversion possibilites, and my inner painter is going to love doing some interesting camo schemes on these babies.

The inner gamer keeps complaining that this force will need additional halftracks every time we buy more units.

And we will need more units as this force only works out at 750 points compared to the Soviet 1000.

The historian wishes there were an option in the deal to replace SdKfz 251/D with SdKfz 251/C, as the D was only produced from late 1943, while the C was around from the start of the war.

This restricts the set to the Flames of War late period, unless I'm feeling a little unscrupulous

 The Vehicles each come with a solid set of occupants allowing some excellent opportunities.

There is the option to have the forward MG manned or unmanned, and the Modeller plans to use the spares to bulk out the infantry squads.

There are also tons of stowage options to add variety to the rather bare exterior of the vehicle

The assembly plans are a little over simplified, it would help if PSC made it into a step by step, but I have enough knowledge of the vehicle to get things right.

All in all rather nice deal, it can form a solid basis for a panzergrenadier company, but on it's own it lacks the support options to make a viable gaming force.

~ Bob