Tale of Two Cities Week 4: Tom's PzG Lehr

Tom's Panzergrenadiers Lehr

Week Four: Half-Tracks and Such.  Editor's note: Sorry for the delay on this post!  Historicon was a slight diversion!

It's time to finish up, and that means the half-tracks.  (And a Kubelwaggen.  Isn't there a Kubelwaggen in there somewhere? Whatever.)   

For the half-tracks, I will apply all the techniques for tanks on the tracks, and all the techniques for vehicles on the passengers.  The key here is endurance, since the army has over a dozen light vehicles to paint.



I select a mix of different half-track models.  Early war and late war tracks had slight differences, mostly around the rear hatch.  Once again, I mix these up to give the army a ragged appearance.  You might care to add a captured US half-track or two.

The first step is trimming and assembly, followed by an undercoat and a layer of very dark brown.  I then drybrush the tracks with my dark yellow.  I paint the uniforms of any passengers or crew at around the same time as I add the first camo layer, and paint their flesh at the same time.  That way, the crew and their flesh benefit from the ink layer.

I highlight the camo as for vehicles, and paint the helmets of the crew at the same time.  Last up are spot colors, and German crosses.

From Here

Playing the Lehr is pretty straight-forward.  The big resilient Panzergrenadier platoons form the heart of the army.  Dug in and gone to ground, they can hold quite well against either armor or (thanks to their vehicle MGs) attacking infantry.  The Panthers and Jagdpanzers are sniper tanks, best used playing hide and seek around terrain, and destroying enemy tank and gun assets.  On the advance, the Panzergrens are well-suited to assault.  The tank platoons are a bit small for attacking duties, but can do so in a pinch.  In either case, you'll need to find the right combination of caution and decision.

As you play, you'll find there are plenty of fun things you can add to this list.  First up, for me, would be a third Panzergren platoon.  The Weapons Platoon has a lot of options, such as HMGs, Half-tracked cannons, and so forth, which can be fun to model and to slot in and out of the force as mood takes you. Other enjoyable units include the half-tracked flame throwers (how can you not like setting things on fire?) and armored rocket-launchers, artillery and such standard German support.

If you can stand to give up the Panthers, those points can buy a goodly number of Panzer IV Hs, or Tank Hunters.  You could also mess about with a Tiger or three.  When you're bored with the Panzergren list, you can take your tank collection and use it to form a Panzer Lehr Panzer company, and from there, the whole range of late war German lists.