Bolt Action Sgt. Steiner's Recce Squad

I vividly remember the first time I watched Sam Peckinpah's iconic WW2 film, Cross of Iron at the cinema in the 1970's and was just blown away by it. It certainly left a deep and lasting impression on me as it was unlike any other war film I'd seen with it's gritty, very bloody battle scenes and most unusually, it featured the Germans as the "good guys" fighting the Russians. I have since acquired it on Blu-ray and it still packs a hell off a punch.
There are a small number of companies who make Sergeant Steiner (played by James Coburn) 28mm scale figures but the set I liked the most is this one below by First Corps Miniatures. Not only does it feature Steiner but also six of his squad, all of whom are recognisable as the characters they play in the film. For Bolt Action purposes I have split the figures into a five-man veteran Panzer Grenadier squad, all armed with sub-machine guns and a veteran two-man Sniper team.

So, from left to right we have Sergeant Steiner, Private Anselm, Private Maas, Private Schnurbbert and Private Kern.

Note that Steiner has replaced his MP40 SMG with a Russian PPSH SMG. Private Anselm is the radio operator, Maas is the squad's cook, Schnurbbert is nicknamed "Moustache" for obvious reasons and Kern is a bookworm and intellectual.

The Sniper team is made up of Corporal Kruger, the spotter armed with a KAR 98 Bolt Action Rifle and Private Dietz the sniper, whose KAR 98 is fitted with telescopic sights. Both men have stick grenades tucked into their right boots and Kruger has a Walther P38 Pistol tucked into the back of his belt.

As a bonus, you got an MP40 SMG resting against a tree stump. I added a KAR98 Rifle and a Panzerfaust to it to make a small ammo dump objective.
These figures have a lot chunkier feel to them than those by other companies like Artisan or Warlord Games but I have no problem in wanting to add them to my Bolt Action German army.

Vampifans Views 123 - Monthly Musings 93

This portrait of Vampirella was painted by Jim Silke, who painted a few covers for the Vampirella comics when the licence was held by Harris Comics. It is a mildly gory portrait, which means I like it a lot. It looks like Vampi has just fed. From the amount of blood dripping from her hands I doubt if her victim fared well.

September has been another very productive month for me hobby-wise. Good progress has been made on the last three Trader crews of my Core Space sci-fi skirmish game. I should finish painting them next month.

Mostly, however, I have been concentrating on painting more Warlord Games' Bolt Action WW2 figures, namely American 101st Airborne infantry and German late-war Panzer Grenadiers. For the Americans I have painted a HQ unit consisting of two officers with one assistant each, a medic and a forward observer unit. The infantry squads consist of two 10-man veteran Airborne squads and two 6-man veteran Pathfinder squads. Their support teams are made up of a MMG team and a Sniper team. This is more than enough for a starting game. My Kelly's Heroes squad won't see action until I make Oddball's Sherman tank and probably Oddball's two support Shermans commanded by Whiskey and Moe. Also, Kelly's Heroes are G.I. forces not Airborne forces, but I will be adding a large G.I. company to my American forces.
My German forces are nowhere near as numerous as my US forces, although I am rectifying that problem. My Panzer Grenadier HQ unit matches the US one. I have two 10-man infantry squads. I need more and I am lacking any support units.

I have bought two more units from fiction. First up is this 7-man squad of Sergeant Steiner's Panzer Grenadier Recce squad produced by First Corps Miniatures. These appeared in the 1977 film, Cross of Iron, directed by Sam Peckinpah. It is set on the Eastern Front in 1943. This photo is taken from FCM's website. Steiner is in the centre of the group, holding a Russian PPSH SMG. I plan on the survivors being transferred to the Western Front in 1944 (there weren't many!) so I can use them with my other Panzer Grenadiers. I'll split them up into a 5-man infantry unit, led by Steiner, and armed entirely with SMGs and the two riflemen forming a sniper unit.

My second fictional squad is the men of Easy Company led by the famous Sergeant Rock. I have figures to represent all the men from the illustration above apart from Zack, the one-armed bazooka operator. Instead I have his two replacements, Long Round and Short Round who joined Easy Company after Zack was killed in action. My figures are an eclectic mix from Bolt Action, DC Heroclix and Artizan Design. They are G.I. infantry. As I said, I do plan on adding the G.I.s to accompany my Airborne forces or use on their own.
I admit that I know very little about Sergeant Rock and Easy Company. So I ordered a couple of graphic novels from Amazon.Co.UK to learn a bit more about them. What is interesting about them is their prices. First up was Sgt. Rock's Combat Tales which covered his early adventures. This anthology collected ten short stories from 1958-1960. The stories were okay and the artwork by Joe Kubert was mixed. His figure work was good but his work on any armour (tanks, aircraft and ships) bore no resemblance to any vehicles used in WW2. Amazon didn't have the book in stock but it was available from a number of its affiliate sellers in new or used condition. I went for the cheapest option, which cost me just 4 pence plus £2.50 for post and packing. When it arrived it was in very good condition. So, what a bargain!
The second graphic novel I bought was Sgt. Rock - Between Hell and a Hard Place. Published in 2003, this was a six-part full-length story, beautifully illustrated by Joe Kubert. You can see his artwork has improved a great deal. Now, for example, his Tiger 1 tanks look like Tiger 1 tanks. The price of it was a curious anomaly - £18.00 for the hardback version but £24.00 for the softback version. That makes no sense to me but obviously I ordered the hardback version. The story was top notch - part war story and part murder mystery and featured many of the characters shown in the illustration above, which was most helpful for me.

See you in the trenches next month.