Back in December Ben and I stumbled into some deeply discounted 15mm and well… it’s gotten out of hand. Sitting amongst a pile of built and unbuilt models after playing our first game of Battlegroup, Ben and I decided we needed to focus on a starting point.

We both jumped in the deep end with a lot of things for 1944 Normandy forces. That was more of a function of the sale we found than our particular interests. If it were up to Ben we’d be knee deep in T-34s for the Eastern Front, and if it were up to me we’d be hunting down the harder to find items for the Pacific. So let’s call the Western Front in 1944 neutral ground.

Where to start amongst all of that though? Battlegroup gives us rules for Germans, Canadians, British, and Americans. The Flames of War ‘Hit the Beach’ starter, of which we acquired several, has nudged us into Americans and Germans. I did a test model American riflemen and I’m keen to paint us some good old made in USA armor. However with the Germans being the more “difficult” of the two to paint with all the camp goodies I decided I would start there and bait myself in with the promise of painting Americans only once I’ve painted all the zeltbahns on my plate. Ben joined me and we’ve each picked a starting focal point for a German force.

Ben is great at tracking down an appropriate unit to focus on for the historical motivation. I do plan to leave the force generic enough for use all over the Western Front but as Ben pointed out, it can be more fun if you’re invested, and I guess that’s fair. Under his guidance we chose the 116th Panzer Division to draw from. They appropriately fought all over in 1944, making it a thematic choice.

The Battlegroup rules (specifically Overlord Beyond the Beaches) guide you in force selection by having infantry platoons laid out nicely in a box with all their options and support choices in a single spot. To me this felt like the perfect place to start a force. I won’t spoil Ben’s choice but mine is a plain Jane Armored Panzergrenadier platoon. I’ve decided to paint one of each support option with it for starters. It seems like a good habit to start to amass a good selection of toys for both Battlegroup and eventually maybe Chain of Command as well. As an added bonus when complete I can simply drop the halftracks and have a normal foot mobile Panzer Grenadier platoon as well.

The following is a list of what I need to paint for this:

Armored Panzer Grenadier Platoon

Command Squad- Officer, NCO, 4x Riflemen, 2x Panzerfausts, 1x SdKfz 251/10

3x Panzer Grenadier Squads

– SdKfz 251/1 Halftrack

– NCO, 6x Riflemen, 3x MG42(or MG34) Gunners, 2x Panzerfausts

Support Options

1x Medic

1x Light Mortar Team

1x HMG Team (MG34)

1x HMG Team (MG42)

1x Panzershreck Team

1x Medium Mortar Team

3x 3 man Loader Teams

1x SdKfz/2

1x SdKfz/9

1x 50mm PaK38

1x 75mm PaK40

2x Opel Blitz (medium truck)

1x 20mm FlaK38

1x 20mm FlaKvierling

1x Extra SdKfz 251/1

Bonus points if I paint up one each of SdKfz 6, 10 and 11 models for use as alternate tows. This depends a a lot on finding models I like for these though.

If that seems like a lot it’s because it is. However I’m a bit of a completionist, which I’m realizing is super dangerous when combined with Battlegroup army lists. As it stands right now I have a fair amount of that ready to go, or close to it. I need to pick up a few more items. We’ll see how fast it gets to the priming stage but if it moves along fast (I’ve been assured 15mm is faster than 28mm by the most dubious of sources) I may just assemble and paint a second copy of everything above in tandem because if nothing else I’m a masochist.

Speak of overdoing it I’m also going to work on a five tank Panzer IV platoon alongside the infantry platoon. Technically their own project they’re going to be my escape from the tedium of very tiny men.

So far my progress consists of getting most of the things I have built. I’ve begun slowly cleaning up infantry and getting the basing material on. I have to acquire a few last items before it’s all gathered together though. I’ll be back with an update on the project as I get into the painting phase of it.

Unfortunately my hobby steam (and likely authorship here) is going to take a major hit this spring as I attend several weeks of out of town training for work which also requires some intensive book work ahead of time. Oh well, I guess SOME things can come before painting tiny models and making tank noises with my mouth.