510 Schwere Panzer-Abteilung Photos!!!

While I continue to paint away on my Black Brigade force (which is still not done, unfortunately, but now that the pressure is off I'm not spending as many hours a day on it either!), I wanted to take a brief moment to go back and get some good photographs of the army I took to Tanksgiving this year, my 510. Schwere Panzer-Abteilung. This was the second army I'd tried to do a full modulated paint job on, and I think it came out pretty well. The core of this unit is the RT Tiger II tanks, a total of five of the beasts. I actually managed to get the pictures to come out pretty well, they're not perfect, but I was able to take advantage of natural light and get some decent shots.

As 510. Schwere Panzer-Abteilung as depicted in the Remagen book is a very late war force, it ended up with a mixture of paint jobs on its vehicles, and according to Trojca's reference, with no distinguishing markings (crosses or turret numbers) and very little stowage. I decided to make the "ambush" scheme Tiger II's the command squad (though data shows that the commander may have actually used the red primer tank), with the CiC in the tank with the open hatch

Below are a couple of rear 3/4 views of the HQ tanks. Unfortunately some of the washes and fine detail are lost in the light, but you can pick out some of it

For the first platoon consisting of two more Tiger II tanks, I went with the "octopus" scheme, as the unit apparently had at least one in this scheme.

Again, I was fairly pleased how these came out. As with the CiC, the platoon commander is the vehicle with the open commander's hatch.  Below is another photo from the other side.

I really like how this scheme came out, and I may have to work up some more Tiger II's using this scheme (which is admittedly rare, so I'll have to choose wisely).

The final Tiger II of the unit is a fairly odd bird. It is primarily in primer red, with some panzer dark yellow over-spray. The vehicle was commanded by an Oberleutnant Helpup. Though I couldn't get a good picture to come out, this vehicle has two track guards in the rear that are in ambush scheme.

The nice thing about the RT Tiger II list is you have enough points to buy enough Tiger II tanks to make a difference, and still buy some reasonable support as well. With Two Tiger II's in the command squad, and another two in one platoon, I can get four of my five on the table only using up one platoon in a reserves mission. However, the Tiger II is vulnerable to the sides and rear, so protecting the beast is a must.

My primary infantry support for the list was a unit of Westfalen infantry. These guys get "enjoy the war" with a 2+ save, so they're likely to stay around when you need them to. They took a while to paint because of the Erbsenmuster camouflage, but the end result was worth it.  I've included two photos below of the whole unit as the focus shifts between them.

As you can see from the photo above, the only drawback to the unit is its relatively small size. While that's a bit of a handicap on the tabletop, it was helpful in terms of actually getting them painted in time! The photos below give you an idea how many colors these guys have on their uniforms!

While the Westfalen infantry is a good support choice, I wasn't done with the unit as I picked up a group of Westfalen training tanks as well. These are a great reserve choice as they can come in and disrupt your opponent's attack. I went with a "well worn" look on these with a mix of Panzer III and one Panzer IV. They served as a nice contrast to the cleaner lines of the freshly produced Tiger II tanks.

One of the banes of any heavy tank army is ground attack aircraft (and artillery being directed by an AOP). So I made sure I took a reasonable anti-aircraft unit to not only serve in its traditional role, but serve a useful anti-infantry, and even in some cases anti-tank role. The Luftwaffe Flakvierling unit was painted to look a bit battle-worn. I've weathered the paint jobs on the guns themselves a bit with several chips, and the crews have a mix of helmet types.

Finally, to provide a little bit of artillery and smoke support, I included a unit of three Nebelwerfers. These are an inexpensive, but useful choice that has a couple of very important roles in the game - probably the most important being to lay smoke on the enemy advance.

So there you have it. A late war army that really captures the feel of the last desperate days of the war. Green crews in freshly painted super-tanks, supported by a mix of replacement and training units from not only the Heer, but from the SS and Luftwaffe as well. The army was also a real blast to play. I look forward to using the two Westfalen units as a core to build that army as well.