I posted my almost completed Finnish army some time back. This included my infantry and support weapons for two companies of troops. The one missing piece for the leg mounted force was my anti tank guns. I had completed the crews and basing when I did the rest of the troops, but had not completed the guns. Now, those are ready for the table also!Part of my hesitation, was deciding on how I would paint them. The other consideration was what guns to paint. Starting with the second, I looked through my various models to see what I had available, but the the ATG collection was a bit bare. Looking through the mid and late war selection, it was clear that the various German and Russian options would be in order. Unfortunately, when I purchased the figures, I just bought crews and would need to fill out the guns later. Well, later was spoon me and I needed to make some decisions…
First, I know I needed the early Russian 45mm ATGs (which could double as German 37s if necessary). All my models had already been allocated to other armies, so I went online to see what would work. Here, I opted for the Old Glory Command Decision line. I could buy the guns without crews and the price is some of the lowest on the market. Next, I needed to decide between late 45mm or Pak38/75s. I opted for the latter, as I did have some of these already. I got these as extra models when I purchased the PSC RSO kits. If you mount the guns on the RSOs, you can put together the medium ATGs. These particular models are a bit over scaled for some reason, but they would fit the boat.Finally, I pulled out a pair of extra Battlefront Pak40 models I had and added them to the pile. Now, I only had enough bases for six guns. So, I decided (like with my Germans) that I would not glue the guns down. I can only use some many at a time, so no need to paint up all that extra crew. So, I will just attach whatever gun I need for the period I am representing! This also gives me the option of adding other gun options in the future (Russian 76 Its maybe….).
Painting was the other challenge. I am doing the entire army to fight in all snow conditions. I could have gone green, like my support weapons, but the guns are a bit on the large side and I thought that would look strange. So, the best option was whitewash. Looking at photos of Finnish equipment, it is clear that they did full overpaints of white, so I decided to go all white and stay away from the weather torn look.
Now, the last issue… How was I going to actually paint them to make them look decent? This is an important decision, as I still have all my tanks to paint and want to be consistent. As it was only some guns, I figured would experiment with a simple white with shade scheme (and hope for the best). I started by spray painting all the guns with white primer from Krylon. Next, after some good experience painting clone troopers, I decided to try covering the models with GW White contrast paint. This gives a slight graying effect and fills in the recesses. Just to add some character, I added some green contrast to the bottom of the gun shield to show a little wear (turns out this is not visible, so probably a step I will pass on in the future). I then did a light dry brush of white on all the models to pick out the highlight. Last, I needed to paint the wheels and muscles. I thought I would try out GW Black contrast paint. This would give a dark gray weathered effect and would save me from further dry brushing. Once everything was dried, I hit the models with a coat of Testor Dull Coat.
With that, I finished all the guns and can now field them. I am happy with the overall white effect, so will definitely repeat it when I get to my tank support!
- Manteuffel