Friday 10 March 2017

Kampfgruppe Nordland part 1

Hi all


Chris "Naps" Thorne has kindly updated us with his progress on his Bolt Action project in building his Kampfgruppe Nordland, the intro to which you can find here.

KAMPFGRUPPE NORDLAND 

Well it's been a manic few weeks of painting and basing in my lair. The wife is still talking to me....... I think ....... So here is the first unit for the Kampfgruppe. A dreaded 88mm Flak manned by a not so impressive Volkssturm crew and led by a Luftwaffe NCO. Anyone who has seen the brilliant German film "Downfall" will remember this scene.




I wanted to try and recreate this if possible. In the end I settled for a Volkssturm crew manning the gun due to a lack of suitable miniatures. Hitler Youth had been used since 1943 as Flakhelfers with the Luftwaffe. Whether Volkssturm were crewing weapons of this calibrate/complexity in Berlin I'm unsure. There was certainly an 88 in the vicinity of Potsdamer during the fighting, photographed after the battle, and as most appeared to be employed without the characteristic gun shield, that's how I've chosen to portray it.



Figures are by Empress Miniatures Spanish Civil War range and it is a beautiful big beastie......the base is 6 inches square and I've added on a dice tray for orders, wounds and pins for Bolt Action.



Thanks to Rich for taking the photos.......really appreciated mate.

What a cracking piece, thanks Naps.

hope you enjoy
dGG

13 comments:

  1. Looks brilliant ! All about the photographer of course !

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  2. Steady N4L.........but cheers mate. Will need some more photos soon.
    I should have added on that I was going to have the gun behind a barricade/sandbags. However the base size was simply getting too big and unwieldy.........realistic maybe as these were big bits of kit and I hate seeing them squeezed onto tiny bases for "playability". So I will be adding a roadblock type base to place in front of it when required but that's last on the list of things to do.

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  3. That looks absolutely stunning, what a great piece of kit.

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  4. Really nice piece looks like a mini diorama that tells a story, great work

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  5. That's some really nice work!

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  6. Well made, well painted and well photographed. Well done!

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  7. Thanks all......lots more to come

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  8. Hi Chris

    I've been looking forward to the next part of this, as it's clear that you have a real interest in this particular era, so anything you do for this project will not only be as accurate as you can make it, but also accompanied by factual information. I have to say it was definitely worth the wait and I can't wait to see more.
    And well done to Andy for allowing you the opportunity to share your passion.

    Regards

    Jez

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  9. Most impressive job, excellent!

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  10. When manned by kids, that gun looks really huge.

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