Some 1/72 (20mm) WWII Stuff

Some shots of my latest stuff. I'm slowly building up American and German forces to a strength of about a platoon each. My intention is to find opponents and run through a skirmish campaign based on the opening actions of the 29th infantry division in Normandy (but skipping the whole bit on the beaches, which would be a bear to model).

I'm using a Kriegspiel inspired rules set by Too Fat Lardies called "Troops, Weapons, & Tactics." They're really quite nice rules, in spite of the liberal dose of horrible puns that the writer uses. The set is very much concerned with emulating Clausewitz's notions of "friction" in warfare and are also very leadership focused. The mechanics are partially card driven and partially dice driven and play quite quickly.

The infantry are by Valiant (they're a bit too 'heroic' in scale for 1/72, but I'll live). The Stug III/g is a simple Armourfast model, and the Pak-40 ATG is by Italeri. Shermans are also by Italeri.

Best thing about 1/72 plastics? The price. Infantry figures are about $0.50 each (not including the quarters I base them on) and I can get two tanks or guns for about $10-13.


Pak 40 (Italeri) by ArkieGamer, on Flickr


Stug and Fritz by ArkieGamer, on Flickr


More Pak 40 (Italeri) by ArkieGamer, on Flickr


Americans by ArkieGamer, on Flickr

Everything is scratch-built, except for the Woodland Scenics trees, which are the worst rip-off in the world of terrain that I've encountered in my very short 'career' as a wargamer.

The rock walls are sculpted from Fimo. I obviously need to refine my technique!

The sunken roads are made out of non-silicon DAP caulk. As you can see, it does a pretty decent job of emulating a muddy road. Although my roads are built into my terrain boards, the caulk is strong and durable enough to serve as stand-alone modular units.