German reinforcements

 It's been a couple of months since my last post, apologies for the lack of content.  Things have been busy.  Painting and gaming have been on the back burner, but still slowly progressing.

First up, a German command pack from Warlord Games!  Naturally, there is the stern commander, complete with monocle, who will is a fantastic looking figure but will likely only take part in a pulp-style adventure game!  Of more practical use are the medic and the forward observer/radio operator.  And of course, one more tough, veteran NCO with MP40.  He certainly looks the part, but I really have more of these SMG-wielding NCOs than I have need for!

In the Chain of Command Blitzkrieg 1940 book, some German platoon are allocated 4 squads, and on most lists even for the 3-squad platoons, a fourth platoon is a support option.  Accordingly, I decided I needed another squad, "just in case".  These troops are from Artizan Designs.  Although the other troops in the platoon are from Crusader, I wanted to add these Artizans for the fourth squad, partly for variety and also because Mike Owen, Artizan's owner and sculptor, actively collaborated with Mark Sims of Crusader to ensure the figures would be compatible.  Strictly speaking, the Artizan figures are designed for 1942, so there are some minor uniform differences with the 1939/40 uniforms of the Crusaders.  I'm not sufficiently educated in these details to spot the differences, though!

Another option from the Blitzkrieg book is to field Germans with antiquated, World War I era equipment.  To allow for this option, I picked up some Great War Miniatures Germans armed with MG08/15 machine guns.  In this case, I CAN spot some of the differences with the WWII uniforms!  I did minor modifications (scraping away the puttees and painting them to look like boots), but at arm's length, they will serve just fine, and will show which squads have the obsolete machine gun instead of the MG34.

I also procured another Panzer IV for my German forces on Sicily.  I did this as I volunteered to host a game of What A Tanker at the Trumpeter Society's annual Trumpeter Salute convention next weekend, and I wanted 4 German medium tanks to counter the 4 Sherman tanks that I've lined up to face them!  This tank is a Warlord Games model, painted to match the other German armour I've already got.