It’s all systems go at Warlord HQ ahead of the release of Achtung Panzer! With a staff mega-game on the horizon, Warlorders everywhere have been beavering away on their own armour projects – and we’ve been showing them off here! Today it’s Marketing’s own Kieran Leishman, with his Jagdpanzer 38(t) – better known as the ‘Hetzer’! Being as he’s allergic to painting ‘normal’ armies, he’s completed it in a Hungarian scheme so it can fit in with his large Bolt Action collection! Tell all, Mr Leishman!
KL – I’ve made Hetzers before, and one of the great things about them is that they were used extensively in the later stages of the war by a wide variety of different units, which means there’s an almost endless variety of camouflage schemes to paint them in. This time, however, I wanted to step off the beaten track a little bit (and have something I could use for both Achtung Panzer! and my long-running Bolt Action project) and paint one up in Hungarian colours! I also wanted to really go to town and add some tank riders – something I’ve never done before!
Assembly:
The kit comes with multiple ‘main’ build options, as well as smaller subvariants for the different production models, which, in terms of gameplay, do not make a difference but do change the tank’s look slightly, such as the exhaust and road wheels. My advice for this kit would be to decide before you do anything else which variant you want to make, and only focus on the necessary parts – it can be easy to get overwhelmed by lots of small components, especially in a multi-purpose kit like this, but if you work out which ones you can ignore early on, it simplifies matters a lot!
When assembling the tank, the hardest part is connecting the road wheels to the suspension and track; it’s pretty finicky, and to make sure you do this tank justice, you’ll want to take it slow.
The key for me on this build was to keep everything nice and simple on the assembly side, so that I could really go to town with my tank riders later on in the process!
On the hull, there’s a step involving drilling several holes in the rear of the tank, and where the side skirts sit. For my first Hetzer, I did drill the holes, but for this one, I chose not to, as it doesn’t make too much difference visually once it’s all painted – again, simplicity was the key!
Overall, this was a fun little build. Although I deliberately kept it as simple as possible, I made a point to take my time and double-check everything I did before putting glue to plastic, and that made my life much, much easier. Remember – slow is smooth, and smooth is fast!
Painting
I wanted to have the Hetzer match the other vehicles in my late-war Hungarian force, so I used a leather brown and army green camo scheme over a bone primer. This looks really bright when it’s first laid down, but it looks great once a wash has gone over it!
Applying the base colours of the camo, I used two thin coats to avoid brush marks (as I was not using an airbrush). I always allow plenty of time to dry between coats, and when I do the second colour I make sure to overlap it slightly in places to give a more varied pattern. I then washed the camo, dulling it down and combining the colours. After this, I added a secondary dark wash over the lower panels to make them look grimier.
To get the tracks looking right (before all the rust and mud!), I used a really simple base coat of dark gunmetal and then a dry brush of gunmetal. I followed these same steps for the exhaust and other external metal furnishings, and applied a dark wash over them and the surrounding areas.
For the rust, I used I used a mixture of brown and copper (you can also use an orange here for a less ‘metallic’ look). I took one of the foam backing sheets that come in our blister packs, tore it into more manageable pieces, and used it to sponge on the brown, followed by the copper.
Next up was the mud! I used an old brush to apply Vallejo Dark Earth to the tracks, the lower sides of the hull, the road wheels and where the tank riders are sat. I love this stuff, and you can use as much or as little as you want to get a wide range of ‘dirtiness’!
Finally, I used the Hungarian transfers from the Panzer 38(t) kit to finish it all off – got to have the right flags, after all!
Tank Riders!
The Hungarian Army’s assault guns worked in concert with the infantry, and the Hetzer was used in the 16th, 20th, and 24th Assault Gun battalions, taking part in the fighting in and around Budapest.
I wanted to represent how assault guns worked with infantry in the game by adding tank riders, and the Raus! set gave me a great starting point to represent Hungarians.
Once I’d chosen the models I was going to use, I used blu-tac to work out exactly where I was going to position them, before painting them separately – you certainly could glue them down and paint them on the tank, but that way madness lies if you don’t have a very steady hand! One of the models had an open hand, and I couldn’t resist adding the bike from the new accessories to the model with the miniature holding onto it while resting on the side of the Hetzer – he’s clearly not hanging about! For the painting itself, I simply used my normal Hungarian scheme (expect an article on that in the future!) and then superglued the riders to the Hetzer once they were finished!
I also whipped up a quick scenic base – nothing fancy, just some mud, grass, and slate – as I know this Hetzer would be getting photographed a bit more than usual! It’s not glued down to the base, though, so that I can still use it in games of Achtung Panzer! and Bolt Action – which I seem to forget every time I go to pick it up!
Want to get involved with Achtung Panzer!, the game of Second World War armoured combat? Of course you do – who doesn’t love some fast-paced tank action!? Pre-orders are now live, so whether you’re looking for a brand-new force of armoured fighting vehicles, or the rules and cards you’ll need to use your existing Bolt Action tanks in a whole new way, we’ve got you covered!
Want to copy Kieran’s method? Here’s a list of the paints he used!
– Gunmetal
– Copper
