"The Eleventh Panzer Division..."

"...Had originally been organized in August 1940, in the then German province of Silesia."

This plastic 15mm Panzerkampfwagen IV is sold by “Battlefront Miniatures” and can be found inside the company’s “Hit The Beach” starter set for “Flames Of War”. The model consists of a medium tank equipped with "Bazooka Skirts", and will form part of a larger Panzer IV Tank Platoon for my German Beach Defence Company.

The armoured vehicle was assembled and glued straight onto a large base before being primed with a double coat of "Vallejo" German Grey. It was then washed with "Citadel" Nuln Oil and heavily dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" German Grey. Thinking the miniature looked a tad bland and uninteresting, I subsequently gave it a lighter dry-brush of "Vallejo" Sombre Grey to better bring out all the kit's impressive details.

"The division saw action on the Eastern and Western Fronts during the Second World War."

With the basics completed, I decided to 'pick out' the model's spade, stowage, tow-cable and extra piece of tank-track using a combination of "Vallejo" Gunmetal and "Citadel" Nuln Oil" or "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. In addition I painted the Panzer IV's machine gun and rear-situated muffler with "Vallejo" Gunmetal and shaded these parts in "Citadel" Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade respectively.

I also pigmented the tank's tracks with some "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and daubed them with "Citadel" Rakarth Flesh so as to help blend the muddy caterpillar treads into my basing palette once 'drowned' in "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. Finally, I applied some decals across the Panzer IV to mark it out as being part of the Eleventh Panzer Division, using the guidance given in the excellent hardback book "Colours Of War" by "Battlefront Miniatures".

"Papsikels Miniatures" WIPs - A Future Killer, Future Saviour and FKMSA Experimental Battle Mech Series 3

To help mark out the vehicle as being the first tank in the first platoon of the first company I also decided to have the Panzer IV's commander be visible. This half-figure was undercoated with two layers of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, and had his headset pigmented with some "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and Gunmetal. These tiny areas were appropriately daubed in "Citadel" Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade.

Alongside my latest submission to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (AHPC) I have also managed to find some time to print and prime some more science fiction-related figures by "Papsikels Miniatures". All of these figures actually come as 28mm scale STL (Standard Triangle Language) files, so for the Future Saviour and Future Killer I used "Chitubox" Basic to upscale the sculpts by 108.41% so they matched the size of my previously-painted 32mm scale Colonist Marine Cyborg Hero E-900 Exterminator...