"The Official German Designation Was Panzerkampfwagen II."

"The vehicle had originally been designed as a stopgap while larger, more advanced tanks were developed."

This resin and plastic 15mm Panzerkampfwagen II used to be produced by “Battlefront Miniatures” and is one of five models found inside the company’s now sadly Out Of Production (OOP) Panzer II Light Tank Platoon boxed set for “Flames Of War”. Each armoured vehicle consists of a number of pieces, including an optional stowage bin for the back of the turret and a plastic commander standing within an open hatch.

Having been lucky enough to purchase this marvellous kit for a very reasonable price at Salute 50, I must admit to later becoming a little overwhelmed by all its tiny parts when I first opened the package. Happily however, there's an excellent assembly guide on the New Zealand-based manufacturer's website, including a video by YouTuber Wargamerontour, which soon helped make sense of where all the fiddly metal bits needed to be placed and super-glued.

"Pendraken Miniatures" WIPs - Three Crusader II tanks at various stages of painting

Once I was happy with my ensemble - I decided to use one of the stowage bins as I thought they looked super-cool - I permanently attached "the most numerous tank in the German Panzer divisions at the beginning of the war" onto a medium-sized "Flames Of War" rectangular stand and base-coated it with two layers of "Vallejo" German Grey. I then shaded the Panzer II with "Citadel" Nuln Oil, heavily dry-brushed it with (more) "Vallejo" German Grey, and finished the basics off with a light dry-brush of "Vallejo" Sombre Grey.

I next 'picked out' the light tank's spade, stowage, and fire-axe using appropriate combinations of "Vallejo" Gunmetal, "Citadel" Nuln Oil", "Vallejo" Heavy Brown, Heavy Sienna and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. As a final step I tied the colour of my armoured vehicle's tracks in with my usual basing palette by applying some "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, "Citadel" Rakarth Flesh and Agrax Earthshade over them, and added a single Balkenkreuz decal to the turret.

"Games Workshop" WIPs - Three Sons of Horus Space Marines ready for their details to be 'picked out'

Staying with Second World War tanks I have made more progress on three of the six Crusader II tanks I bought from "Pendraken Miniatures" booth at Salute 50. These British armoured vehicles were originally intended for my Battle Of The Bulge project, but as I have since discovered the the "cruiser" predominantly saw action during the Allies' North African campaign, I thought I'd add them to my (non-Winter) Early War project instead - which essentially just means using green flock not white on their bases.

In addition, having been somewhat spurred on by my recent purchase of "Xenos Rampant" by "Osprey Games", I have been working on another trio of 28mm plastic Space Marine by "Games Workshop" from their Warhammer: The Horus Heresy – Age of Darkness boxed set. These multi-part figures have been assembled wearing MK VI armour and will form part of a (second) ten-man strong tactical squad for my five-hundred-point Sons of Horus traitor force.