Screaming Meemie and Anti tank guns

I finally managed to get some stuff finished this week. I made a resolution to finish everything that has been primed and assembled so far until the New Year, but with the young Master being ill all the time, work (at last) picking up and the Mrs. having demands on my time (have you ever tried to use the IKEA kitchen design program? Don't) I find this highly doubtful. Still, I'll give it a try.

First of all, the SHQ Nebelwerfer, otherwise known as the Screaming Meemie. I don't understand why I see so many of these on gaming tables as they were usually Divisional or Corps level artillery assets, but I had to build one. Not as good as the old Esci model (whatever happened to those molds?) but serviceable. Comes with 4 figures; two reloading, one officer with binoculars and a guy carrying what seems to be a mess tin. Oh, well. Duly finished and based.

Next up, the new Italeri PaK-40s. These are new molds, not part of the old (and still highly serviceable) set. The box comes with 2 guns, 2 boxes of ammo and 6 crew for each gun. Unfortunately only 5 crewmembers are useable. I don't know if anyone has found out what to do with the peg-handed sitting guy, but I kept him as a potential driver. The figures are done in the usual excellent Italeri style and are good for late war.


There are some ejection pin marks, but the set is cheap (under 10 euros), the guns are put together very easily and you get an almost complete crew. You can't possibly lose. Now, if only someone would make a 50mm PaK-38 in plastic, I'd be very happy.

That's all for now from Athens, where the sun is yet again shinning.

Support Elements

A blessedly quiet Saturday evening with the young master out of the house and the mrs. engrossed in a new book allows me to catch up on my blogging. This is a bunch of figures I had finished about 3-4 months ago but with moving the office and going under the knife, I never had time to photograph. These are the support elements of my WWII German platoon.

These are all on-table assets and include a FAO team (minus their Kubelwagen of course), two sustained-fire MG teams, a Panzerschreck element, a sniper element and a 20mm flak gun.

Here is the FAO team, from SHQ Miniatures. The minis were fine, with good sculpting. Essentially they are an officer and a 2-man radio team. I find the use of anything over 50mm mortars as tabletop assets pointless in skirmish games, so these guys can call down fire from the company or battalion 81mm mortars or 75mm guns.

Here is my sniper element. Sniper and spotter come from Elhiem Miniatures. Lovely figs indeed, but I did not do the sniper's face mask much justice. Still, with a proper amount of cover, these guys can provide good forward intel or do harm to the enemy's C&C structure.

My Panzerknacker team is up next. Although panzerfausts were ubiquitous towards the end of the war, Panzerschreck elements provided most of the platoon-level anti-tank fire power for a good portion of it. These are again Elhiem miniatures.

A tripod-mounted MG-42 team. I have two of these beauties, again from Elhiem Miniatures. They come with gunner, loader and observer. I should paint a couple of Pegasus Models Waffen SS as ammo carriers, but it can wait for a bit.

Here is my final support element; a single-barreled 20mm Flak cannon. This comes from SHQ Miniatures and it was quite difficult to put together. The instructions and attachment points were rather vague (or non existent even), so the gun may not be 100% historically accurate. I don't think I'd get another one of these, not with the excellent Zvezda gun out there. It comes also with the ammo trailer, however this has not gotten painted yet.


In my last visit to IKEA, the mrs. found the perfect boxes for me to store my miniatures. I don't remember the exact name, but they are quite large, not expensive (around 5 euros each), fit an awful lot of miniatures, come with a hinged lid, and are stackable. What's not to like?

That's all from not-unbearably hot (for once) Athens. Have a great Saturday night y'all.