Kampfgruppe Bäke Beginnt!

Started a lot of work to expand my Schwere Panzer Company to encompass units under the Kampfgruppe Bäke list from Grey Wolf. If you're not familiar, Kampgruppe Bäke was an interesting specially-formed regiment consisting mainly of German heavy tanks under the command of Oberstleutnant Dr. Franz Bäke. Bäke himself is an interesting character - a former World War I veteran and civilian dentist, he was recalled to service in the Panzer Corps in 1937. He was an immensely capable officer, winning the Knight's Cross with Swords in 1944 for his service on the Eastern Front. Wily to the last, he led a breakout against surrounding Soviet forces in 1945 to surrender to US forces on the Elbe River.

The Panther Ausf. As are PSC, and Bäke's Panther Ausf. G is Battlefront. They are painted in a (mostly) fictional camo scheme consisting of alternating bands of Red Oxide Primer, Dunkelgelb, and (in the case of "009") Luftwaffe Camo Green. I returned to using the same Gothic font numbering I used with the Sturer Emil tank hunters, simply because of the excellent large vertical sides on the Panther turret. I dispensed with used the multi-color oil wash I used on the Tigers, instead using just plain Brown Oil.

To match with the brighter colors and more defined highlights of the Panthers, I also did some repainting of my Tiger I tanks. I added a lot of metallic highlights to the tracks and tow cables and put some Red Oxide Primer color on the places where the paste had worn or been shot off.