PANZERS PAINTING

Generating Grenadiers

Paul recently showed us some of his ECW and horse painting. Now for something completely different! Ed.

INTRODUCTION

Back in the October 2022 issue we were provided with a free sprue from Wargames Atlantic of their then new Panzer Lehr. I will not go over any uniform or history information about this famous unit (as it was covered in that issue) other than to mention they are equipped with the M1940 field grey uniform issued to all Panzer Lehr soldiers not entitled to wear the black Panzer uniform. Other hints and tips to make these authentic to this Division will be covered in my guide. Although my article is obviously aimed at the

Panzer Lehr many of my comments will hopefully prove useful for painting any mid to late war German grenadiers.

FIELD GREY UNIFORM

Firstly do not let anyone tell you the field grey that you have chosen or have available is the ‘wrong’ colour. If you look at surviving period uniforms many have very different interpretations of what field grey should be. I simply used the paints I had available at home and did not buy any paints specifically for this article. Try to match what you have and I always in my guides would never for example specify what manufacturer’s black or white is ‘correct’. Although I have a few German WWII books at home a quick Google search for Panzer Lehr uniforms was far more useful and enabled me to produce a result that I was happy with.

PAINTING THE MINIATURES

The first figure I have chosen carries an MG 42 and I have deliberately illustrated this part of my guide with photographs showing a rear view. Often photographs/paintings for all periods produce great images you can work from but then leave you in the dark for painting the back of your miniatures.

The miniatures were undercoated with a white rattle can spray paint and I used Army Painter Field Grey for the jacket and trousers. The webbing, top of the canteen ammo box and MG42 were all painted with Scale 75 Petroleum

Grey (just use black if you have not got this or a similar colour). The bread bag and gaiters were then done with Zandri Dust from Citadel. I also saw several images of the gaiters being more of an olive drab colour rather than the ‘khaki’ I have used. The boots and wooden parts of the weapons were painted

GW Throndia Brown. With the flesh also painted that’s all the main colours blocked out and if you wished you could just stop here.

The figure was then washed (not the flesh or weapons) with two coats of undiluted Agrax Earthshade from Citadel. The second was a far more controlled application and make sure you do not allow it to pool where it should not be. If you are not sure about this hold the model from where it would be viewed if you were applying a zenithal spray from above. The wash should be below creases in the cloth not sit above them. Again, with a varnish and base completed this will result in a nice table top mini. The original colours are then used to produce a cleaner result and the Agrax is only left in the shadow areas of the uniform.

The water bottles, boots and laces are highlighted with Leather Brown from the Army Painter. The highest creases of the jacket and trousers are painted with an equal mix of the Field Grey and Uniform Grey also from the Army Painter. As with shading a miniature make sure you are not just highlighting raised areas but where the light would actually hit the figure. The machine gun, top of the canteen and webbing are highlighted with Scale 75 Rainy Grey (although any grey will do) after previously being washed with a diluted black ink (take care here not to flood other areas of the uniform).

The model is varnished (I like to brush varnish using Vallejo Matt) and based. Metallics (I used GW Leadbelcher) are applied after the varnish to the belt buckle and buttons etc on the bread bag. The varnish obviously will protect the model on the table top but it will give the miniature a more uniform appearance as the wash is quite shiny and the Army Painter are more satin in appearance to the Scale 75 paints matt finish.

CAMOUFLAGE

The helmets appear to all have camouflage covers moulded on them and – for a bit of variety – I painted one of the jackets and one of the trousers with the same pattern. I again used images I found online and did not worry about the end result being completely historically accurate.

The helmet and uniform is base coated with GW Zandri Dust. Irregular patterns are then made with Mournfang Brown from GW. I just copied images I found online.

I used a mix of equal parts of Citadel Death World Forest and Vallejo Deep Green for the next part of the camouflage

effect. Here the green is applied more sparingly in terms of area covered and appears both inside and on occasion alongside the brown areas.

This is the model washed with Agrax the result is immediately more pleasing to the eye.

With the base colours reapplied this results in a far cleaner appearance.

Ushbati Bone from Citadel is used as an extreme highlight as has a light green and brown on those areas of the camouflage pattern with that colour.

OTHER & NOTES

The figure’s shirts have been painted with Field Grey and washed with Agrax before being highlighted with a light grey mix. You may just want to ignore this and paint yours with the main jacket uniform colour. Rhinox Hide is used to outline areas of the miniature chiefly where the hands and face meet areas of cloth. The shoulder boards and trim on the officer ’s cap were painted a dark green and this was then trimmed with a light green. I then used a green and yellow mix. Fine details on caps, wood grain, scratches on the ammo box etc were then picked out.

Below is a size comparison between Wargames Atlantic’s and Warlord Games’ German Infantry.

CONCLUSION

I have deliberately written this piece so that you can pick and choose the end result that suits your chosen style of painting whatever stage you are at in your hobby journey and will result in either a basic tabletop or higher end finish. Next time I’ll be painting Napoleon!