Little Tanks & Tiny People

Bit of a longer post this time, as I painted up an entire Cold War Dutch army for Team Yankee! The army consists of five Leopard 1Vs, five Leopard 2s, two PRTLs, two F-16s, two West-German Tornados and a set of Dutch mechanised infantry.  Leopard 2 Team Yankee is set in the mid 1980’s, at which time the Royal Netherlands Army was in the process of replacing its Leopard 1V’s for Leopard 2’s. Delays meant that this process took quite a long time. In fact, there had also been severe delays in procuring the Leopard 1, which meant that there were even some old 1950’s vintage Centurions left in service!   Leopard 1V For a bit of variety I picked up a set of Leopard 1Vs and Leopard 2s, but for gaming purposes I’ll run both as the more powerful Leopard 2’s. I also bought two Cheetah PRTLs (Pantser Rups Tegen Luchtdoelen = Armour Tracked Against Aerial Targets). This vehicle is derived from the German Gepard and is basically an anti-aircraft turret on top of a Leopard 1 chassis. Ch...

As promised in my last post , here are my 15mm German tanks. I left most in their dunkelgelb basecoat, although the gelb I used may be slightly dunkler than the actual colour was. As a side note, I used Vallejo English Uniform for this, which is perhaps a little ironic.   The Panther and Maus are inspired by the paint job on the Panther at the Tank Museum at Bovington. At the end of the war, tanks were no longer painted in the factory but were shipped to the units in their red oxide primer. They were then camouflaged by the crews, who sometimes left some of the primer uncovered. Panther and Maus P zKpfw V Panther ( Gale Force Nine) P zKpfw VIII Maus ( Gale Force Nine) Base coat: Hull Red 70.985 Camo: Desert Yellow 70.977 and White 70.951 Tracks and tools: Black 70.950, Gunmetal Grey 70.863, Flat Earth 70.983 Wash: Umber Wash 73.203 Dirt Drybrush: Flat Earth 70.983 followed by Bonewhite 72.034 Tiger, Panzer IV and StuG III PzKpfw VI Tiger (Zvezda) PzKpfw IV  (Zvezda) St...

Back in 2020 , I painted up some tiny 15 mm or 1:100 scale tanks. If I may say so, I think I’ve gotten a bit better at painting in the last four years, so I thought it was time to redo them. I couldn’t resist buying some extra as well, of course. I’ll start with the Allies, the Germans will follow in the next post. Brits (NW Europe) British Cromwells (Gale ForceNine) British Sherman Firefly (Gale Force Nine) I used a much more acurate green than last time. As you can tell, the yellow diamonds aren't perfectly symmetrical because I did them by hand. Base coat: Refractive Green 70.890 Drybrush: Khaki 70.988 Tracks and tools: Black 70.950, Gunmetal Grey 70.863, Flat Earth 70.983 Wash: Umber Wash 73.203 Chipping: Khaki 70.988 and Gunmetal Grey 70.863 Dirt Drybrush: Flat Earth 70.983 followed by Bonewhite 72.034 Brits (N Africa) M3 Lee's (Zvezda) These M3's are technically American Lees, not British Grants, but I don't mind. I really dig the camo. Matilda II (Z...

A while ago I bought the starter set for GaleForce Nine ’s game Tanks, a skirmish game that uses these tiny 1:100 scale tanks. The starter set comes with three models (a Panther and two Shermans) and over the last few months I have slowly been adding a couple more. I didn’t document the building and painting of these little tanks, but I can at least show the finished product. I decided I wanted a German and a British force. To start with the German tanks - because I think they turned out the best - I painted three vehicles in the famous Hinterhalt Tarnung (ambush camouflage). From left to right (on the first picture) these are the Panther that came with the starter set, a Panzer IV Ausf. H made by Zvezda and a StuG III Ausf. G made by the Plastic Soldier Company . The decals are by  Victrix and are meant for their 1:144 scale vehicles. I think they look pretty good on these 1:100 vehicles as well, though. StuG III Ausf. G, PzKpfw  IV Ausf. H and PzKpfw V Panther. I also boug...