Clever Hans - part 8 (Winter Grenadiers squad compete!)

These nine Grenadiers are from a project last visited in 2018 (!!!) and their completion finishes up a 10-man squad for my WW2 Winter Germans for Bolt Action project. My main hobby goal for the first half of this year is to get my German force painted and ready for play before the Summer so that I can have two fully painted armies (My WW2 Soviets are already done) to run demo games for mates. 

The sculpts are all Warlord Games from their metal Winter Grenadiers Squad set. Very well detailed miniatures with most of them featuring separate heads which I liked playing around with to get the best looks possible. The only negative aspect is the sculptor's choice of equipping so many Assault Rifles and Panzerfausts - Regular Rifles were far more common in general and I prefer the look in general, but that's a personal preference I guess.

Painting German troops in WW2 is a different beast compared to my previous Canadians and Soviets in that they have SO MUCH KIT and each piece is a flippin different colour which took ages to pick out! But other than that, they painted up nicely and I really like the finished results. Per my previous Winter posts, these fellows got some red/pink added to their faces and hands to represent the cold they are supposed to be fighting in and I managed to get eyes on all but two who's headgear made that effort impractical. (Not all eyes were done "well", mind. But I just wanted these finished so after a couple attempts left them as-is on some.)

Here are some individual pics highlighting all the mess-ups and crappy eye-jobs. :)

This bloke is a prime example of where I just couldn't get the eyes right. Good thing he's looking down a bit to read the instructions on that Panzerfaust so on the table you can't see his peepers.

All of these mini's bases snow effects are still drying in these pics. For those wanting to know, it's Games Workshop's snow effect product - Vallhallan somethingorother.

Aforementioned bloke who's cap is pulled down too low to be able to attempt eyes. yay.

Liking his helmet hooked onto his belt.

Cold effects on this one's face are a little too "rouge-like", but they'll look fine on the game table. 

Added a little snow to the bottom of his boot - it made sense at the time

This guy has a bit of a googly-eyes syndrome. 

The squad's Light Machinegun team in the classic, "Here, rest the weapon on my shoulder and deafen me" pose.

Actually I'm a big fan of this duo. They just look cool.

Managed to give the bloke in the foreground a fun "This sucks" expression, which I thought was rather appropriate.

Another face I'm rather happy with. He has the "100 yard stare" that you see in many photos from the war.

Must have tried to get this bloke's left eye (Viewer's left, not his) done four times before I just gave up. I also neglected to paint the strap on his helmet (Bugger!) so I'll have to go back and do that later.

The last chap in this squad and he's about to let go of that potato masher, or at least I hope he does. 

So that's my effort at "Batch Painting", something I've long avoided in the past, but getting these 9 figs done was a satisfying endeavour and not as bad a challenge as I'd feared once I'd gotten past the base colours stage. 

Next up I'll be tackling the remainder of this Medic (Pictured below) and a Sniper Team (Not pictured below), then a Hanomag halftrack and the last outstanding squad of VolksGrenadiers to complete the initial list. There will still be a few more options to be painted (Another squad of Winter Grenadiers, Flame Thrower team, MG42 team and a Panzer IV), but they'll be saved for when I feel up to it. 

So as these partially painted fellows limp off painfully into the snowy hell of the East Front, I'll end this post here.

Hope all are staying safe and well out there,

- Dai