German Panzergrenadiere 1944 for TT

[GumSmith]

Hi all,
sice spring of last year im interested in WW II tabletop, ("Behind Omaha", free download rules from some german ethusiastics) and i`m doing a lot of stuff for it since then.

Her is a group of german Panzergrenadiere, build out oft the Cäsar set CM 7716, Dragon heads, helmets and weapons.





















and in action:









cheers Oke

[Panzer_Grenadire]

Wonderful work and convertions and I particularly enjoyed the images "in action"... I also enjoyed your atempt on dials and buttons on the radio...

[SKORRA]

Hi,

Look nice, I couldn't imagine how they're ok before seeing them painted. Caesar Multi part kits are not said to be great.

Where did you get the STG 44?

[GumSmith]

Hi Skorra,

Caesar Multi part kits are not said to be great.

Heard that ,too. And when i received 3 of the sets from a friend i took a short look and thought "Uhh, what a crap..." and stowed them in the deepest, darkest corner of my stash.
When i started with tabletop i remembered them and thought they could be useful for conversions.
So i took them out and started.
Heads, helmets,weapons and equipment are not really diorama quality. Especially heads and helmets are crap in my eyes.
But as i have tons of Dragon paras out of King Tiger "222" sets i have enough heads and helmets for swap. And when my stash of heads and helmets is empty i can copy them in resine.

Most of the small arms are Dragon, StGw 44 is a mix of Dragon, Preiser and resine ones.

On my homepage you can find much more pics of all Caesar multipose infantry sets i used until now: http://gumsmith.jimdo.com/behind-omaha- ... nfanterie/ .

cheers Oke

[MikeRC97]

Fantastic work GunSmith. You did a great job with the poses of the multi-part Caesar figures, there a some poses that look slightly awkward but most look vert natural. The most common complaint I have read about the Caesar multi-part figures is that when assembled the poses are usually stiff and unnatural. I have the Caesar sIG33 kit and I agree that the weapons and kit are poorly done - soft and lacking details. But I like how Caesar sculpts clothing, the deep folds take washes and highlights well and you have done an excellent job in the painting.

My only observation is that I think you painted the tarnhemd (smock) in splittermuster but for Normandy I would expect sumpfmuster (tan and water) tarnhemds. Still I commend your painting of camouflage. I don't think Caesar did a good job with the tarnhemd - they sculpted it open as it was commonly worn but then they sculpted the laces below the opening so the bottom laces are almost at the waist. The crossed laces should have been sculpted on the opening as they were on the real smock.

Questions - where did you get the panzerfaust and panzershreks? Are they resin? Also are the sMG teams the Zvezda winter greatcoat figures converted to figures in zeltbahns? If so that is a suberb conversion.

Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[GumSmith]

Hi Mike,
you`re right, the smocks should be water and tan. I`ll do my very best, but it is not quite easy to paint camo shemes on 1/72 smocks in a way that you can clearly see if its splinter or water and tan. I`m still trying.
The heavy MG -teams are Caesar, too. I only used the sMG from Zvezda 6106 http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1931
changing the barrels against resine MG 42 ones.

Panzerschreck are a mix - some are old SMA white metal with resine shields and some are homecasted resine (master by Peter Kuonen, MK72 / MPK-Modellbau, a friend of mine) and Panzerfausts are homecasted in resine, too. Masters i made myself.

I like the Caesar multipose bods for my TT-Army because it is easy to build all figures you need.
From a pack of 16 figs i all i need for one squad of infantry, only parts for one bod are left. And it is quite easy to build all specialists i need in the numbers i need.
I have 4 squads of infantry, each has one flamethrower, 2 Panzerschreck, 4 x Panzerfaust (and 4 bods with the same smallarms to change when Panzerfaust is fired), a radio operator, 8 cm mortar and officer. How much normal infantry sets would i need to get this number of Panzerfaust, Panzerschreck, flamethrower etc. ... . And also gunners for Flak, Artillery, Pak - no problem.
I find them very useful for tabletop, but for diorama building i think quality is not the best.

At the moment i`m painting the heavy squad with Flak and IG 18 and some Fallschirmjäger (with Puppchen). I hope i`ll get them paintetd until friday because i want to show them some frinds next sunday on Hamburger Tactica.





cheers oke

[TinPusher65]

These Soldats are excellent! Thanks for the info on the Caesar kits - I haven't personally seen them and have thought of picking some up for the Gear like Weapons/Helmets. Would the figure pieces like arms be suitable to use in conversions with other figures? Which set is the best in terms of equipment and figure sculpts? Action pics are a nice plus!

[MikeRC97]

GumSmith I only noticed that camo scheme on the smocks because I've been thinking of starting a 1944 project and when I looked into options in 1/72 plastic the Caesar multi-part kit are the only figures that come with the Heer hooded smock (all the other late war sets with smocks are hoodless, so SS sets really). Your figures have given me some ideas and your camo painting is excellent.

I also love your vampir night vision scope conversion.

Are the fallschirmjager caesar mulit-part as well?

Oh and tell your friend Peter he needs better distribution in the United States, I've been waiting for his plastic sd.kfz 250 kits to show up here in the states for ages!

[Ochoin]

I think your conversions have made good figures better. Very dynamic: especially love the radioman.

donald

[GumSmith]

Hi Ochoin,
thanks a lot.

@ MikeRC97:

Oh and tell your friend Peter he needs better distribution in the United States, I've been waiting for his plastic sd.kfz 250 kits to show up here in the states for ages!

I called him yesterday evening and told him about this problem. They`re working on a clompletely new distribution system at the moment, so maybe it will be better in the future.
Maybe you like to contact him by e-mail: mk72-modellbau@gmx.ch

And yes, Fallschirmjäger are Caesar multi-part, too. Heads and Helmets are Dragon, FG 42 is Caesar from the multi-part set.
The Vampir night vision set is a mix of parts, StGw.44 Dragon, Night vision Cromwell, battery pack scratch.

cheers oke

[GumSmith]

Hi DeathDealer65,
i first had to take a look to answer your questions. As Caesar figures are small (more 1/76 than 1/72), they don`t really mix well with other polystyrene / multipart figures like Preiser, Dragon or Zvezda AoT. Maybe the arms of some sets could be used with Preiser figs, but im not sure. One set the figs are taller than the others, the german Arika Korps, so maybe they could be mixed /parts changed with other 1/72 figs.

From the detailing of the figs all sets are ok without the german Panzergrenadiere 1943, they have to small legs for their bodies.
The Fallschirmjäger all wears the knee pads, they normally where put off after the jump and landing, so this figures are mor useful for scenes playing directly after an airlanding.
I especially like the Infantry with Zeltbahn and the Panzergrenadiere 1944 with Heeres-Tarnschlupfhemd (camo smock), the infantry with winter uniform looks good, too, but i just had a short look at them.
Weapons and equipment looks like a poor copy of Preiser ones, especially Kar 98k is to short, MG 34 is a little bit rough. I try to make some detail pics the next days.

cheers oke

[TinPusher65]

Thank you for the concise review of the Caesar sets,my intent was to pick up a few for the Weapons and Gear to add to figures or vehicles. But with the poor detail and other issues I may have to pass. Fotos of the Caesar kit sets on the net are not good,it would be very nice of you to take the time to foto a few kits.

[Beano Boy]

Nice work.Yes indeed. Conversions too,Great Stuff. BB

[MikeRC97]

There is another good review here:

www.1-72depot.com/miniatures/1-72/caesa ... 7217-7215/

GumSmith's website has the most pictures I have seen of these kits so far.

The legs on the 1943 grenadiers are really undersized compared to the rest of their bodies, they look so odd.

The figures with zeltbahns look the best to me, GumSmith has done a great job with the poses.

The fallshirmjager posted above do not look bad at all, I wonder how well they would fit with the Pegasus figures.

[GumSmith]

Hi Mike,
here is a comparison with Pegasus Fallschirmjäger ( Head and helmet again Dragon / This Pegasus set is very nice, glueable with plastic glue like Revell glue) :




For a Diorama they won`t mix very well in my eyes.

And sprue pics of the weapons and equipment of Caesar sets. Its the same sprues in all sets, only Fallschirmjäger have 3 x FG 42 an Fallschirmjäger helmets on the figures sprue and, in my eyes very interesting, the fabric gasmask bags which are typical for the german Fallschirmjäger in the early years of WW II.


Breadbags and fieldbottles, quality is good enough. Comparing it to Preiser ones you will see it`s the same, with better quality of Preiser Originals.


MP magazine pouches and holster for signal pistol. No good quality, soft details.


Binoculars, fieldbottles, canteens and holster for P 38. Especially canteens have soft details


Cap details too soft, helmets would be okay to lay them as acceries on cars, halftracks etc.


Kar 98 k, top Preiser, below Dragon from their infantry/Para sets, in my opinion Preiser`s is best, f*** the rest.
Same with MG 34.


Same procedure with MP 40.


Uaaarghhh...


Again a poor copiy of Preiser parts...


And again...


...and again...


...and again.

Hope you find this pics useful.

cheers oke