Day: September 29, 2020

Finished a Platoon of German WWII Infantry in Winter Kit

Many moons ago, my friend Greg game me a couple of extra sprues of German WWII infantry in winter dress. It was enough to make two squads. So, I ordered a box from Warlord so that I could make a full platoon. As with all these plastic sets of Germans, there are never enough rifles and too many assault rifles and submachine guns. I wanted the Germans to fit from 1941 to the end of the war.

A view of the reinforced platoon.

I had barely enough rifles to make four normal ten-man squads, and I had to use a couple of semi-automatic rifles that will mostly go unnoticed on the tabletop. I also used a few extra rifles from the later war Panzergreandier set. Each squad has one machine-gun, a squad leader with a submachine gun, and an assistant squad leader with a rifle or submachine gun. The rest of the men are riflemen.

Another view of the platoon. You can see four squads in the front, three extra machine-gun teams and two leaders.

There were enough figures and parts to make three more machine-gun teams. So for late war, I can swap out two riflemen in three of the squads for a gunner and his assistant gunner. As the quality of their infantry deteriorated, the Germans sometimes put extra machine-guns in their squads to compensate.

A close up view of the squad leader and machine gunner in one squad.
Another view of some of the soldiers.

Some of the heads came with cloth covers on the helmets, so I painted them in white.

The two leaders, two extra riflemen with Panzerfausts, and three machine-gun teams.

I have a bunch of Russians in winter kit for my Winter War games, so I am looking forward to putting these on the table when the plague subsides. I also have a couple of squads of American infantry in greatcoats, so there might be a 1944 Western Front game in my future as well.