MiniArt German Panzergrenadiers (35248) 1:35

[Mike]

German Panzergrenadiers (35248)

1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models

 

 

Panzer Grenadier was a term that was coined during WWII to describe troops that supported armour, or motorised infantry.  They wore pink piping on their uniforms, with an S that stood for Shützen, or Protect to differentiate them from gun or other armoured crew.  If they weren't riding on a tank, they would often travel in trucks, or if they were really lucky, a half-track such as an Sd.kfz.251.  This figure set from MiniArt contains a group of Panzer Grenadiers sat in various poses on a vehicle.  It arrives in a standard end-opening box, with four sprues of grey styrene inside.  The painting and main construction diagrams are printed on the rear of the box, with colours called out in a large number of brands of paint for your ease.

 

 

From the box you can build four figures, each having separate arms, legs head and torso, plus seven standard German helmets.  They are all seated in differing poses, with most of them nursing Kar98s rifles, while one shows off his MP40, which has a separate folding stock.  Each of them has the usual complement of pouches, gas mask canister, entrenching tool and water bottle, with ammo pouches to match their personal weapons.

 

 

There are two weapons and one accessory sprues, each of the weapon sprues providing two Kar98s and MP40s, bayonets, a pistol and flare pistol, plus holsters in the open and closed positions, along with first aid kit, map case, binoculars and ammo pouches to personalise the crew or diorama with.  The painting guide covers Vallejo, Mr. Color, LifeColor, Tamiya, Testors, AK Real Color, Humbrol, Revell, and Mission Models, with the names of the colours given in English and Ukrainian.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

MiniArt's figures are excellent, and these gentlemen can be used to give your truck, half-track or tank a little human scale, or even just a squad sitting around on a wall or some ruins.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

[Troy Smith]

15 minutes ago, Mike said:

Panzer Grenadier was a term that was coined during WWII to describe troops that supported armour, or motorised infantry.  They wore pink piping on their uniforms, with an S that stood for Shützen, or Protect to differentiate them from gun or other armoured crew. 

 

Memrories of Airfix Afirka Korps staing panzer grenadiers had apple green piping made me have a search...  

found this

https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=137540&start=15

Quote

Drew, you are correct. Armored infantry regiments were originally called Schuetzen-Regimenter. In Panzer divisions they wore standard field grey field blouses with pink waffenfarbe, and an "S" device on the shoulder strap above the unit number. Panzergrenadier regiments were formed on July 5, 1942 when all Schuetzen regiments were renamed. They adopted a new waffenfarbe- "Weisengruen" (meadow green). This is the light green color. For much of this research and what follows, I am indebted to our unit Haptfeldwebel, Noah Tietze, who uncovered this stuff during the never-ending research we put into our portrayal. Noah located a German OKW Document titled "Truppenkennzeichen Schulterklappen Heer (Gem. „Grundlegenden Befehl Nr. 21" AHA Stab IB (Bekl) 21 – September 1944)." This is the offical decree of what was supposed to be worn by all units. This document lists as following (edited for comparison):

Die Schulterklappen der Uniformen des Heeres tragen
- eine Umrandung in der Waffenfarbe
- die Nummer des Truppenteils (Ausnahmen siehe unten)
- in vielen Fällen Buchstaben oder Zeichen, welche die Truppengattung erkennen lassen

A) Waffenfarben: (Einzelheiten unter B 3.2.)
- WEISS Infanterie-Truppe
- WIESENGRÜN Schützen-Rgt., Panzer-Gren.Rgt

3.2. arabische Nummer, dazu Waffenfarbe:
- WEISS Infanterie-, Grenadier-, Füsilier-Rgt., Inf. Btl (z.b.V.)
Infanterie-Rgt (mot), Grenadier-, Füsilier-Rgt (mot)
Füsilier-Btl ohne Kavallerietradition
- WIESENGRÜN Schützen-Rgt., Kavallerie-Schützen-Rgt, Panzer-Gren.Rgt

So as you can see, Grenadier-Regimenter (mot) wore white piping. What piping was worn was determined not by the Division, but by the unit within the division. 

Generally speaking, all soldiers with late-war impressions should wear generic litzen as these were the litzen applied at the factory when the field blouse was made starting in 1938. However, some soldiers liked the look of early insignia and would replace the factory applied insignia with early stuff when they could get it. This was of course the exception to the rule. Mostly this practice was done by long-serving NCOs who still had early stuff. Early tunics that were being reissued were reissued with wartime generic litzen, it is very common in period pictures to see M36 tunics worn with final pattern generic litzen sewn directly to the collar. For soldiers in Panzergrenadier units, using early insignia was not an option because Panzergrenadier litzen never existed, if they had leftover early insignia it would have been the pink piped stuff used in Schuetzen units. In December 1944 all motorized Grenadier regiments were renamed Panzergrenadier regiments but at that late point in the war I would assume that insignia changes were not a priority, though certainly some units would have been issued new boards and some officers would have had the opportunity to get new insignia as well. I believe that it was this edict that created all the Panzergrenadier M44 boards on the collector market today.

Just to make matters a bit more confusing, there did exist litzen for enlisted Schutzpolizei uniforms that had all three stripes in a light green color that is supposed to be the "Hellgruen" (light green) color used by Jaeger but with age, manufacturing differences, etc. they can appear to be Weisengruen. These are different from the pre-1938 Heer litzen that had only the two outer stripes in the branch color while the larger middle stripe was a dark green.

Hellgruen Schutzpolizei insignia is easy to find, and is a good way to see more examples of the color that was used by Jaeger and Gebirgsjaeger (but not Panzergrenadier) regiments.

 

which made my head spin,  but as the figures are late war as they have the short boots and British style gaiters,  this would be after 1942...

 

As an aside,  the face of the figures here 

 

reminds me of a photo I saw as double page spread in a WW2 magazine I got years ago,  famous image by Ullmann, 

Waffen SS after fighting in Smolensk, 1941

 

the one in the centre look like someone out of a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, or that's what I always thought. 

 

 Sorry, a bit random,  but does show how well sculpted they are....

 

[Mike]

23 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

Sorry, a bit random,  but does show how well sculpted they are....

I'm still confused about the colours, but at 1:35 I doubt anyone would notice anyway Does anyone else think that the top-centre guy on the artwork looks a bit like a young Arnie?