Project Diary: Pair of Panzer II

A Bolt Action meet-up is slated for February 28 and as part of this event the organizer is looking for players to bring Early War period forces. Early War is typically defined as the years 1939-1941 and includes the events such as the Invasion of Poland, Battle of France, and Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of Russia). I originally wanted to bring some US Army units because I haven't played them in a while, but the fact that the United States didn't really get involved in the conflict until 1942 kind of excluded them from the selection.

As a result, I took a look at my Blitzkrieg German force and put together a list that I wanted to bring to meet the 750pt limit. Originally planning a mix of veteran infantry and transports, I had another idea come to mind while I flipped through my Armies of Germany book. The Third Edition's new detachment rules made me lean towards something with a double tank build, and a decently appropriate tank for the time was the Panzer II. Principle service years between 1939-1942 and around 1800 produced, the Panzer II seemed to fit the bill.

In lieu of buying a pair of Panzer IIs, I took the opportunity to relearn and fix my 3D printer which had been gathering dust after a pretty bad hot-end jam. I found a relatively easy 3D model on Thingiverse and went to town.

The first Panzer II came out and I was a little disappointed. It looked a little small and weedy compared to Warlord's Sd. Kfz. 251 Hanomag. So I scaled the model up 10% and felt much better. I stress tested the fine detail level and was relatively happy with the result. It's not fantastic, but for an FDM printer and saving $88 ($44 for each on Warlord) it's a huge win.

The night before the event (Feb 27) is when I sat down to do a speed paint session on the two tanks. It took me about an hour to get most of the painting done, and then I spent an extra 30 minutes or so fiddling with transfers and some fast weathering.

I'm pretty happy with the final results, especially for the amount of money and effort I saved by going this route. I didn't really snap any progress prints, so you just get some final photos. I'll probably spend another 30 minutes during another hobby night to help blend out the transfers and weather up the tanks a bit more. I'd like to hit them with a grimy wash to darken them up to match the Hanomag's paint job, but I need to be 100% confident that the transfers won't reactivate and move.