Mark's Miniatures & RPG Blog: October 2020

Wednesday, 28 October 2020

1/72 (20mm) WW2 Russian Armour: T-34/85 and SU-122

I finished building and painting two pairs of T-34/85 medium tanks and SU-122 assault guns. The T-34/85s are produced by Italeri and the SU-122s are produced by Pegasus Hobbies. I have built and paint both of these kits previously (please see T-34/85 and SU-122 posts for more details).

1/72 Italeri T-34/85 tanks & Pegasus Hobbies SU-122 assault guns

T-34/85 Medium Tank. The T-34 is the most mass produced tank during the Second World War, with some 84,070 T-34s produced. The T-34/85 is distinguished from the original T-34/76, with a larger turret and a more power gun (the T-34/85 is armed with a 85mm ZiS-S-53 gun, whereas the T-34/76 is armed with a 76.2mm gun). Moreover, the larger turret in the T-34/85 allows the tank to have a crew of 5; the T34/76, in contrast, has a crew of 4, whereby the tank commander also serves as the gunner. 48,950 T-34/85 variants were produced.

The T-34/85s are part of Italeri’s ‘fast assembly’ line of products. The T-34/85 tanks are an easy to assemble 14 pieces set and includes Soviet vehicle decals.

Italeri ‘Fast Assembly’ T34/85 sprue: side 1

Italeri ‘Fast Assembly’ T34/85 sprue: side 2

I have added air recognition markings to the T-34/85s; this was accomplished through a combination of using the decals found in this kit and by painting white stripes on the turrets. As well, as a way of making the T-34s look distinct, I added Russian tank riders to one of the tanks.

T34/85 (1) Medium Tank: side 1

T34/85 (1) Medium Tank: side 2

T34/85 (2) Medium Tank: side 1

T34/85 (2) Medium Tank: side 2

SU-122 Assault Gun. Built upon the T-34 chassis, the SU-122 (Samokhodnaya Ustanovka 122 mm) Assault Gun is named after its main armament, the 122mm M-30S howitzer. The inspiration for designing the SU-122 came from the Red Army’s first encounter with the German Sturmgeschütz (StuG III); an assault gun built on the Panzer III chassis. Pegasus Hobbies produces an ‘E-Z build’ 1/72 scale (20mm) SU-122 Assault Gun kit, which allows you to build two models.

Pegasus Hobbies SU-122 sprue (side 1)

Pegasus Hobbies SU-122 sprue (side 2)

While I painted Soviet tank slogans on the previous group of SU-122 assault guns, I applied the decals from Italeri’s T-34/85 kit to these models. As well, I added Russian tank riders to one of the SU-122s.

SU-122 (1) Assault Gun: side 1

SU-122 (1) Assault Gun: side 2

SU-122 (2) Assault Gun: side 1

SU-122 (2) Assault Gun: side 2

The Russian tank riders added to two of the models are produced by HaT Toy Soldiers. The tank riders are sold in a set of 44 miniatures (the set includes four identical sprues of 11 figures per sprue).

HaT Toy Soldiers Russian Tank Riders

The below photos are test shots for my upcoming World War 2 miniatures website featuring the T-34/85s and SU-122s featured in this post.

Tuesday, 27 October 2020

1/72 (20mm) Roden German Sd.Kfz 234/2 ‘Puma’ & Italeri German Infantry

1/72 Roden 'Puma' Armour Car & Italeri Elite German Infantry

I finished building and painting a German Sd.Kfz 234/2 ‘Puma’ armoured car and 31 German Infantry. The Sd.Kfz 234/2 ‘Puma’ is produced by Roden and the German infantry are produced by Italeri. Both sets are in the 1/72 scale (20mm).

The Sd.Kfz. 234 (Sonderkraftfahrzeug 234; translation: Special Purpose Vehicle 234) is a family of eight-wheeled armoured cars produced by Germany between 1943 to 1945. There are four variants of Sd.Kfz. 234: The 234/1 (open top turret with a 2cm KwK 38 L/55 autocannon), the 234/2 (enclosed turret with a 5cm KwK 39 L/60 gun), the 234/3 (open top superstructure with a 7.5cm K51 L/24 gun) and 234/4 (open top superstructure with a 7.5cm PaK 40 L/46 gun). The Sd.Kfz. 234 variant I built is the Sd.Kfz. 234/2, known as the Puma.

Sd.Kfz 234/2 ‘Puma’ Armoured Car sprue: side 1

Sd.Kfz 234/2 ‘Puma’ Armoured Car sprue: side 2

As a novice model builder, I ran into some challenges as I was building the Puma. I broke a few of the smaller pieces during the assembly process. Thus, I decided to take some ‘short cuts’ in building this model, by omitting some of the smaller details from the kit (i.e. the smoke launchers).

Sd.Kfz 234/2 ‘Puma’ Armoured Car: side 1

Sd.Kfz 234/2 ‘Puma’ Armoured Car: side 2

Italeri produces a soft plastic set of Elite German Infantry. These miniatures represent German infantrymen in the later years of the war, as reflected by the StG 44 assault rifles, the Panzerschreck and the Panzerfaust. There are 16 unique figures per sprue; the miniatures are sold as either a three sprue set (48 figures per set) or are included with the Battle of Berlin set (32 figures are included with the set). The miniatures I have painted are from the Battle of Berlin box set. Each sprue contains the following miniatures:

Four soldiers with Karabiner 98k rifles (one soldier has a scoped rifle)
Four soldiers with MP40 submachine guns (one soldier is wearing a peaked cap and a Fallschirmjager smock)
Three soldiers with StG 44 assault rifles
Two soldiers with MG 42 machine guns
One soldier operating a mortar
One soldier with a Panzerfaust
One soldier with a Panzerschreck.

Italeri Elite German Infantry sprues

There was a minor defect on one of the sprues, whereby one of the figures was missing a hand. Thus, I painted 31 figures (instead of 32). I painted the previous group of Elite German Infantry as Waffen-SS troops, by using Eichenlaubmuster (Oak Leaf A) camouflage; a camo pattern exclusive to the Waffen-SS. For this group of figures, I decided to paint these soldiers as belonging to the regular German Army (the Heer). Therefore, I used a combination of solid German military colours (German Uniform Green and Luftwaffe Grey) and Splittermuster (Splinter pattern) camouflage for the uniforms.