"Painting a Grenadier/Waffen SS force for BA to later sell" Topic

So I bought the plastic set of that comes with 30 Late War German Grenadier set. It appears that these could also be used for Waffen SS by just a change in cammo pattern instead of the "splinter" cammo on the smocks and zetbamm(sp?). Of course the plastics allow for you to up gun the units with Sturmgewehr 44s and up to two MG 42s. So my question is before I put a lot of time in just assembling the lot should I go for trying to maximize the firepower;or do I go for something a bit more reasonable in terms of how the squads are set up?

Thanks and keep it polite please.

If you have 30 figures, that equates to 3 squads.
Personally I would paint them up as Panzergrenadiers.
Each squad with 2 Gewehr's , 2 MG42's and the rest Mausers.
SS are too overdone.
JMHO

I don't know what you mean by "something a bit more reasonable".
It was common for panzer gren. squads to have 2 mg42's.

The list for Grenadiers or Waffen SS allow for a squad to be equipped with up to nine assault rifles i.e., Strumgewher 44s. Of course the sprews only have three each so you could only do this with one squad out of the box set. Personally I think having an all assault rifle squad would be a bit over the top but it is allowed under the rules. And yes I know that Grenadiers traditionally had two MG 42s per squad.

Well, there were also late war "sturm" squads that were all armed with the stg…

Fair point John there were Sturm Squads and you could concevily do those with the sprews and buying some extras in order to create a Sturm platoon.

These are late war (1944-1945) Germans with smocks and zeltbahnen, so personally I would build them as standard late war panzergrenadier squads each with two NCO's (squad leader and asst. sqd ldr) armed with MP40's, 6 with rifles and two with MG42's. It may seem overkill ("unreasonable") with two LMG's per squad but that's how it was at the time and you have to be historically accurate when it comes to squad composition.

As for full assault rifle armed squads, they're fairly rare and expensive in points so I would not do one, but it's up to you of course.

Waffen SS over Heer/Wehrmacht is fine. Their unique camouflage patterns (spring/fall oakleaf and peadot) always make them a popular choice for gamers.

I am going with the squad leader and assistant squad leader having StG-44s and of course the two MG-42s with loaders and the rest of the squad with Kar-98s. I have not decided if they will be Wehrmacht/Heer Grenadiers or Waffen SS. I think the SS camo pattern is cooler and actually easier to do. Others think the other way. First there is all the assembly and cleaning up of mold lines and sprew nobs. Then I will see.

In Chain of Command, the Squad/Platoon composition are given for historical platoons to include Panzer Grenadiers.

For painting the various Waffen SS camo patterns, I used the book from Osprey, "Modeling Waffen SS Figures". They give a really good breakdown of paint colors and application…worth a look:

link

Good luck!

P.

It may seem overkill ("unreasonable") with two LMG's per squad but that's how it was at the time and you have to be historically accurate when it comes to squad composition.

That's right,but remember that in action, the only ones doing any fighting most of the time are the two MG42 gunners. The MP armed NCO's are directing the fire and maybe one or two riflemen are out providing flank security but everyone else is feeding ammo to the ravenous MG's.

The sturm squad is a different animal altogether: armed with MP 40's and as many Sturmgewehrs as it can get it's hands on (no LMG), it's the offensive arm of the platoon. Two such squads were supposed to be paired with a conventionally armed third squad with standard rifles and an LMG. These platoons were usually found in the Volksgrenadier divisions.