"My 10mm Basing Solution, Ready for Operation Barbarossa!" Topic

All,

I've been hard at work getting Kampgruppe Klink, fresh from their victory in Greece, prepared for Operation Barbarossa. On the one hand, I needed to pick up some additional vehicles, troops, and buildings, while on the other, I wanted to re-base my Germans and Soviets as I was tired of them looking shabby and not uniform.

Along the way I stumbled a bit while looking for a basing solution that would allow me to use the same vehicle models for both summer and winter (snowy) fights. I had based my vehicles and was looking for the best way to transition back and forth; I'd posted earlier asking for help, and I appreciate everyone that chimed in. Here's what I came up with.

The whole mess, with Germans on left and Soviets on right. I haven't finished the winter infantry and guns, but when I do these forces should be able to take me all the way through the 'gray' period, up to about summer of 1943. The forces are a mix of Pendraken and Minifigs, with Minifigs making up about 90% of the infantry and Pendraken making up about 98% of the vehicles and guns.

Here's what they look like on the table, at gaming distance.

A closeup of the German stands, consisting of an MG squad, a Pz IVG, and a Flak-36 88mm ATG. Astute observers will note that the infantry and guns are based differently than the vehicles; this is because I have separate infantry for summer and winter, but the vehicles will pull double duty. The only change I made from my previous pics of the vehicle basing was that I put a dark inkwash on the vehicle's base and I added some clump foliage. I think (hope?) this makes the vehicles blend well enough with the infantry and guns, but then for winter all I have to do is pop the clump foliage off and paint them white. We'll see…

To see a bunch more pics and descriptions of what I've got, please check the blog at:
link

So, there they are, all set for Barbarossa. Let me know what you think.

Regarding Panzergrenadier Brigade Klink's (AKA, "KG Klink") route, I'm looking at Minsk to Smolensk, then getting called back to Kiev, then back up through Smolensk to Vyazma, which should take me all the way to Zhukov's counteroffensive in December 1941. What I have to do now is make up campaign maps and counters, and that's proving a bit difficult. I don't have detailed maps or unit data, so everything I draw up is way out of scale; hell, it's proving hard to get anywhere near to scale! How do you follow a brigade-sized element on a front that swallows up whole divisions every day!!!???

So I need help; if anyone can help me with simplified maps that make sense to take KG Klink from their starting positions in Army Group Center to Minsk, then from Minsk to Smolensk, then from Smolensk to Kiev, then from Smolensk to Vyazma/Briansk, or can point me at something that helps me do that, I'd be greatly appreciative.

The sooner I get that squared away, the sooner I can get this party started. Personally, I'm shooting for 29 May to be my D-Day for Operation Barbarossa. Just gotta get this figured out first!

V/R,
Jack

Sssshhhhh! If you blab about the date, the Soviets won't be surprised!

- Ix

Great pictures. They look really like, as if they had modern drones with cameras back then.

Actually, they did have aerial photography and the buzzbomb, so …

Nice !

Phil

Jack, Just a fantastic collection!

A couple baseless thoughts you can consider –

I found that a green, color matching paint for each stand's sides helped blend them into my fur mats.

For winter, I left my snow-painted vehicles un-based, even though I could since they're solely for winter actions, but found that they look good this way on my flattish-snow mats. (I'm assuming you're trying to avoid remounting you vehicles with magnets – it is a lot of work, and expense).

A possible addition to your winterizing plan – experiment with some snow flocking (as stand scatter)? Mark Luther uses scatter on his fabric mats to blend and add terrain detailing to them, so I wonder if a temporary lt.-colored flocking (a winter dusting) might work to modify the look of your stands for winter games (w/o requiring repainting them)?

FlyXwire – who made your snow mat? Thanks!

Lucius, I digitally textured that myself (it's a heavily modified version of an originally green-colored Wargames Print image).

Yes, YA, my OPSEC sucks ;)

Thanks, Phil!

FlyXwire – Thanks man! I actually put a green on the sides of the bases, but it's showing up pretty dark in the photos… It's looking like I won't re-base, just paint the base white instead of brown.

V/R,
Jack