Here is my third entry to this year's Lead Painters' League, a section of late war Panzergrenadiers, all festooned in winter camo, StG 44s and riding a hastily whitewashed StuG III.
For some reason I've always been impressed when seeing photos of infantry riding tanks. It always looks so incredibly hardcore seeing infantry precariously perched upon multi-ton armoured fighting vehicles, heading off into battle. (Cripes, I get skittish when city road equipment rumbles by my yard when I'm mowing the lawn...)
These 15mm figures and the assault gun are from Battlefront. Very nice models all around. The StuG was a breeze to put together and I quite liked grenadiers as well. They were cleverly posed so that you could easily place them in a variety of positions so no two groups would look alike.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that these guys got the nod from League voters, especially as they were fairly monochromatic and in a relatively small scale. I was delighted by the positive response.
I should have my 4th entry posted here soon as that round is concluding in the next day. It's a bit different but members of the 'Wild Bunch' will see my homage to our recent Painting Challenge.
Thanks for dropping in for a visit!
Looks absolutely fine to me.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with round #4!
Cheers and happy Easter
Stefan
Thanks Stefan and the same to you!
DeleteExcellent! Nothing can beat grenadiers riding on a StuG.
ReplyDeleteCheers Nick!
DeleteNicely done Curt :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Tamsin!
DeleteAn excellent piece Curt!
ReplyDeleteChristopher
Thanks very much Christopher!
DeleteNice work Curt. Festooned is a terrific word. I've only stood in the turret of a moving tank, and that was terrifying itself, as is climbing on and off one of the stationary beasts. I can't imagine clinging to the ouside of a lurching, moving one.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree and I'm sure during combat the idea of 'safety first' is, well, not first thing on the list for the tank crew.
DeleteVery nice, Curt! You won't catch me hitching a ride on an armored Beastie! I have located targets for armor in practical exercises, nothing quite like saying" see that bunker at grid coordinate X? It irritates me, make it go away!" ;)
ReplyDeleteYes, I would imagine that would be both a thrilling and chilling experience to say the least.
DeleteCheers Loki, much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteVery nice indeed Curt. Gave me the shivers!
ReplyDeleteCheers Millsy!
DeleteExcellent work, especially the white wash on the tank. You do seem to be frozen into a theme lately.
ReplyDeleteHow do you do the black background photography? It looks like a good way to highlight the miniatures.
Thanks for your comment Robert! Yes, this past winter seems to have rubbed off on me BUT I do have a desert theme that I just posted above!
DeleteYes, I quite like the black background as it usually sets off the miniatures quite nicely. I remember being quite taken by the effect when I visited Carmen's Fun Paintytime blog.
For my photography I use a black velvet cloth draped in a cheap lightbox. I don't use any lights or flash (just natural daylight - cloudy being best). I set my camera at ISO 400, auto white balance, with a 3.3 f-stop. My shots usually come off at 1/10 sec. shutter speed. Sometimes I have to do some tweaking in Photoshop if the day was too cloudy or sunny but usually this setup gives me pretty good results.
I hope this helps!
Very nice, Curt. Excellent work in the composition, painting and pictures!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Juan!
DeleteCracking job on this one. Great winter camo and yeah riders makes it look very warry.
ReplyDeletecheers
Thanks Kiwi! I'm delighted you like it.
DeleteLovely stuff dude - another great bit of reinforcement for your winter Germans.
ReplyDeleteThanks Greg! Yes, some more lads for Der Oberst to lead out of the Kessel.
Delete