Mid/Late War FlaK 36 88s!

It is pretty hard to believe that I have been playing Germans in Flames of War for this long and never put together any 88s. I have always liked the models and have seen some really cool examples both in-person and on the Interwebs. I was lucky enough to find an old box suitable for Early, Middle and Late War in the Flea Marker at Cold Wars this past year. I think they were $25. Also, I got the REALLY old version that came with transport options and basically enough parts to make FOUR guns! I decided not to do four 88s (I have ANOTHER of the later boxed set) and to go ahead and make the transport versions later. Version 3 has made transports worthwhile and I wanted them available to me limbered.

The really cool thing about this platoon is that almost every list known to man can take them! Now, in Early War, 2 of these guys Confident Veteran can run you over 400 points - ouch! As you get in to Late War, the same thing can be had for under 200.

The Germans produced many thousands of these guns for the war, so it is about time I started learning how to use them!

I had to pick a time period for the guns. I figured that I would mostly use these guys for Mid War and Late War, so I decided to do them in a Dark Yellow without camouflage. I think that German Camo just screams LATE WAR, so I left them without. I will possibly do my other set in Grey.

Assembly/Painting
I had to really plan this out. The gun models and bases are very detailed and hard to paint if completely assembled. I put the crew on popsicle sticks and painted them up (...though I forgot to do shoulder stripes - damn!). I assembled the guns completely (minus the gunner) and painted those up. The cruciform mount is part of the base, so I just went ahead and painted the entire base too. I used a red-brown primer for the base that just felt weird the whole time, but I think these turned out ok. I was thinking the brown would save me time over black.
I decided to do a full crew -- if you have an 8-man crew and pay the points, you get ROF 3. Why yes, thank you! I very carefully plotted the layout of the crew by looking at the box for a long time. The crew would have to go on together -- minus one guy in the back -- then the guns. I then took a large amount of super-glue to the bases and mounted the infantry. I quickly used brown ballast to make the bases blend. This worked ok, but I usually paint this stuff - verdict? I then went ahead and used the Sepia Wash on the base without the gun in the way. The last basing step was to apply some flocking from the Perpetual Bag of Flocking. I put the gun on and was done!

I think these turned out pretty well. I cannot wait to get these guys on the table and figure out how to use them. Thanks for looking!