The wheels and tracks of the Afrika Korps

I almost called this blogg post "Dune buggies". Anyway here are the Afrika Korps vehicles I did for the convention this easter.

My platoon commander and his second in command.

 If you missed the infantry just go to the previous post or click here.

A captured Bren Gun carrier in gerrman service.

More pictures after the break.

Turning the other cheek doesn't really work against AT guns, does it?

I like Bren Gun carriers. Too bad the Warlord plastic kit is an upscaled PSC 20mm kit. However, if you fit metal crew it looks a bit better, and even better if you hang lots of stowage on it. I did a proper review of one destined for Normandy a while ago.

Out cruising for some fun on a Saturday night in the motor?

This conversion is a kit that Warlord sells, which you can order. You get two crew figures and the gun from Warlord's SdKfz 251/7 kit as well as replacement heads for the two front figures -- just painting their uniform in German colours and using German heads is enough to hide their origin.

Most of the stowage is from the Tamiya drums and fuel can set. You also get some useful bags and rolls in it.

The gun is really a 2.8 cm schwere Panzerbüchse 41 squeeze-bore gun, but Warlord says it's a PaK36 37mm gun. I guess it's close enough, but I have magnetized it anyway so I can change it as soon as I can lay my hands on a proper PaK35. I'm not sure the Afrika Korps had any squeeze bore guns, but wikipedia says they apparently did.

I'm quite satisfied with how it looks really. Only needs some dusting and perhaps German crosses on the sides.

Next up is a SdKfz 222 light armoured car. I actually painted this during the christmas break last year, but I have included it here for completeness sake.

I messed up with the name on the side, it should say "Siegfried" really.

I posted some thoughts about the model along with some ramblings about scale about a year ago. Naturally I later upended everything I decided to do in that post :-)

At least it got license plates.

So if we are talking dune buggies, we have to have a Volkswagen, right?

The original Dune Buggy. Yes, really!

From Wikipedia:
"Dune buggies are usually created using one of three methods.

The first involves alteration of an existing vehicle, most notably the original car or chassis, often a Volkswagen Beetle or a purpose-built chassis. The model is nicknamed Bug, therefore the term "buggy". The Beetle automobile platform is preferred for a variety of reasons. Most significant is the position of the rear mounted Volkswagen engine, which with removal of bodywork transfers a high proportion of the weight to the rear driven wheels for extra traction. The engine is air cooled, simplifying engine modification, and the absence of a radiator eliminates a source of failure. The low price, robustness of the front suspension, and the sizable quantity of spare parts from other VW Beetles and Type 2 (Microbus) are a further advantage."

This one didn't get a license plate. I did fix a piece of clear plastic as the windscreen.

The model is a Perry Miniatures resin model with metal crew. You can read my review here.

Let's go that way.

As with the Carrier it needs decals and some pigments. I didn't do any chipping on it because I thought that with all those lines along the side the paint job would get too busy.

On second thought let's go that way instead.

Last, but not least, we have the SdKfz 232.

If bigger is better, eight wheels must also be better than four, right.

This is a Tamiya 1/48 kit. Despite what I said earlier in my post about mixing 28mm figures with 1/48 kits, I think it looks ok. It's a bit large yes, but these things are huge. (If you do the math it's about 10 percent too big.)

The top of a man's head is about level with the base of the turret. (As you can see I need more stowage.)

Size comparison with 28mm figures. The bases make the figures almost the correct height. (Lots more stowage needed.)

I bought it just because I have always liked the funky German eight-wheeled armoured cars, and I wanted to build a proper kit. It's a very good kit, with excellent details and perfect fit. And it's not that complicated unless you have are extremely butter-fingered. To ease storage I made the frame antenna removable by using magnets.

I used a Perry helmet on the crew figure which is the original Tamiya figure included in the kit.

I painted the Sd.Kfz.232 in the same way as the smaller four-wheeled Sd.Kfz 222, mainly with GW foundation paints using darker paints on the lower hull to simulate shadows. To add interest to what would otherwise be a monochrome model I painted the side guard rails and the large frame antenna metal and the wooden supports as bare wood (usually they would all be the same colour as the rest of the vehicle).

The bucket is mandatory!

Despite being used on the gaming table I can't really claim that the eight-wheeler is finished. It not only needs decals but also lacks the final panel highlight and could really need some chipping to accentuate the sharp edges of the hull. And some pigments to represent the dust of course.

A group shot reveals that the Sd.Kfz.232 really needs a final highlight. Also note how small the kübelwagen is.

So is my DAK finished? Nope, I'm currently working on some engineers, converting Perry figures using Warlord Games parts. Also a Panzer IV and a Hanomag are in the works, currently waiting for some paint.

Next time though I'm showcasing the Brits and some terrain. Happy gaming!