Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. F2, finished!

I have been busy painting my Panzer IV's from Plastic Soldier Company this week. After painting the first I wanted to finish the other two while I was on a roll -- and while I was remembering what paints and what techniques I used -- and get them all based and ready for varnishing.

You see, I have lots of Vikings vying for my attention and I'm yearning to get a test game of Saga in. At the same time I needed to get the Panzers finished for a convention game in two weeks and didn't want to get sidetracked and leaving the project half finished. I'm pleased to report that I did indeed finish them on saturday and managed to base and photograph them today!

Panzer Vorwärts!

I will let the pictures do most of the talking, but if you want a run-down of how I painted the first tank it's here and you can follow the build here, here and here.

A Panzer zug on the advance with the tanks covering different angles of attack.

After painting the tanks were mounted on plastic card. I actual used real credit cards, they make excellent bases, just make sure that you take some without any money left on them. The cards were covered with Vallejo textures base gel and painted with GW Khemri Brown first. I then dusted the bases and the tanks at the same time with various MIG and Vallejo pigments to tie them together. I concentrated on the tracks and fenders but also dusted the upper hulls and the bottom of the turrets lightly. I varied the amount of dust a bit from tank to tank to avoid a too uniform look. A couple of grass and flower tufts completed the bases.

The numbers on the back of the turret show that the tanks are part of the same platoon.

I used decals from Skytrex to do the turret numbers. I only put them on the back of the turret bins, partly since I didn't have enough numbers to do put numbers on the sides as well. The numbering system was standard throughout the war, but actual placement, size and colour varied hugely between different units and fronts. The first digit denotes the company and the second digit denotes the platoon the tanks belong to. Last digit is the individual number within the platoon. So these tanks belong to first platoon in the eight company in the regiment, and are number 1, 3, and 4 with number 1 being the platoon leader. Tanks number 2 and 5 are missing, perhaps they have been knocked out. I didn't have any german crosses, as soon as I find some I will put a couple on the hull of each tank.

Have you seen my little tank?

Just enjoying the ride...

For some reason the colour looks much bluer in this shot.

The sharp-eyed of you might notice that the tank I started painting now has a tank commander in the turret, while in my previous guide I had the hatches all closed. The truth is that the turrets are interchangeable and weren't mounted on the tanks when I dused them. So when I photographed the tanks it just happened that I put another turret on that particular hull.

Death to all communist flowers!!!

Love that track sag.

This angle shows how the pigments settle in the nooks and crannies of the tank like real dust.

I took pictures of the various steps when I applied the pigments. At first I intended to do a guide on using pigments -- not that I'm an expert -- but I figured you'd rather see the finished tanks instead. So I have saved those photos and might write it up some other time, when I don't have anything new to show.

Get out of the way!!!

"Russische Panzer links, 300 Meter, Feuer!"

I really love the look of this commander, just peering out of the hatch.

I chose to use the two commander figures included in the kits, but I didn't like the pose with the commander standing in his cupola with hands resting on the hatches; to me it looks like he's either on a parade ground or on transfer behind the front. So I chopped of the arms and lower abdomen and pushed him down into the cupola until just the head poked out of the hatch.

The commanders were painted black, and then highlighted with Granite grey. To darken it down again it was washed with GW black ink. The skin was painted with Vallejo Sunny Flesh and washed with GW Gryphonne Sepia, and then carefully highlighted with Sunny Flesh again. The piping was done by mixing Terracotta with white, since I didn't have any pink. I don't usually paint pink stuff you know.

And there you have it. A small Panzer IV platoon ready to take on the vile bolshevik forces and push through their lines for glory and the fatherland. Stalingrad looms on the horizon...