Mechanized Infantry (Panzergrenadiers) for 'Team Yankee'

Last year Battlefront released ist WW3 ruleset 'Team Yankee'. Actually a very interesting background for me since it's a scenario I grew up with. Being a child of the 80s I remember the last years of the Cold War rather well. Partly from my own experience and memory and partly from my history and politic lessons in school. But I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon too early since my greatest doubt was how large T.Y. would grow. Not too surprisingly I was waiting for German troops rather then US or Sowjets.

The whole PzGrenZg (Mechanized Infantry Platoon)

This summer T.Y. fulfilled my wish an the expansion 'Leopard' was released. Along came a nice range of 15mm (1/100) vehicles and figures representing the equipment of the Bundeswehr during the mid-eighties. Seeing these sets stroke a chord with me. Battlefront brought most of the stuff I shared my years of active duty with (although in the late nineties): Leopard 1 and 2, Marder, Fuchs, Luchs, Gepard, BO-105... And all the kits looked simply great. From this moment I was lost and it was only a matter of time when I would throw myself into another project...

Three of the infantry bases.

So finally I started with a small and simple 50 pts. Bundeswehr formation to get into T.Y. Basically I want to represent an enhanced tank company as I remember it from my tactic lessons at officers' school. Thus meaning a company with three Leopard 2 platoons and one platoon of mechanized infantry (Panzergrenadiere) on Marder IFVs.

One Marder IFV with a section of grenadiers

Of course I'll add some supporting forces like armoured reconnaissance (Panzeraufklärer), tank hunters (Jagdpanzer), anti-aircraft artillery (Flugabwehr) and such. We'll see how far this will go...

Anyway my start into it was a box of Marders and a set of German infantry offering five IFVs and enough infantry to represent a platoon. Working with 15mm stuff was a completely new experience for me. Until now I didn't go smaller than 20mm but those Battlefront things are wonderful pieces to work with. The Marders were released as brand new plastic kits and their quality is top-notch. Not too many parts (perfect war wargamers who need bunches of them...) but all of them very, very detailed. Same for the figures. Of course those tiny details are rather simple compared with 28mm figures but especially the weapons and the infantry gear are splendid. The represented Bundeswehr weapons are clearly recognizable and the figures are cast absolutely crisp and clear.

My airbrush and the WIP Marders

For the Marders I employed my trusted H&S airbrush. For the first time I tried Tamiya acrylic colours and honestly I cannot recommend them enough. Vallejo colours work really fine with the airbrush but my experience with Tamiya was beyond comparison. Their colours are alcohol based and I used their specific thinner to dilute them about 1:1 to 1:2 (colour : thinner); actually until it had a milky consistency. However it went through the airbrush perfectly. To aplly the camouflage pattern I used a 0.12mm nozzle and very soft pressure below 1bar. The result is absolutely satisfying for me. The line turned out pretty clean with only very little fringe. As colours I used XF-67 'NATO Green', XF-69 'NATO Black' and XF-68 'NATO Brown' in this order.

Another Marder and infantry section.

To bring out the details of the kits I applied some Armypainter 'Dark Tone' wash into the gaps and seams. Afterwards I drybrushed the whole vehicles with Vallejo Model Color 'Iraqui Sand'. As a final touch I put on some decals provided with the kits and - of course - some varnish.

Platoon HQ with the platoon leader section

To my great surprise I was rather fast with those Bundeswehr fellows. I think it didn't take more than a week from opening the box to taking the pictures of the finished stuff. I hope you like them. During the next weeks there'll follow some Leopard 2 tanks and maybe something for the dark side. And a review on the rules after we had our first game. Maybe around Christmas.

One of the Marders with mounted MILAN anti-tank missile

All five Marders from behind

A view on the magnetized turret,