Modelling Panzer Crewmen of the Heer

A wonderfully detailed and beautifully finished armour model can easily be let down if accompanied by a poorly painted figure. All too often, armour modellers spend enormous energy and time bringing their AFVs to life with realistic weathering, expensive accessories and a scenic base, then spend very little time painting the figures that go with it. In many cases, figures become an afterthought. This is a shame, because while not every viewer will know exactly what your model is supposed to look like in real life, everyone knows what a human being is supposed to be. Inevitably, some viewers’ opinion of the accuracy of the armour model will depend on the overall realistic appearance of the figure.

The addition of scale figures helps provide depth, weight and realism to a model. A well-painted figure can even distract the viewer from a mediocre model. But to this end, painting and working with figures continues to be most armour modellers’ worst nightmare, even though building and painting scale armour is far more demanding and time-consuming.

The purpose of this manual is to provide tips and techniques for building, converting and painting World War II German army Panzer crew figures. To add variety, several award-winning modellers will share their own techniques and style. The main themes include how to paint different uniforms using enamels and oils, converting and scratch-building figures, as well as painting heads.

Success in figure painting can only be reached by applying, attempting and comparing one technique to another, thus determining which methods work best for you, and from this, developing your own personal style. For this reason, there are no hard-and-fast rules for painting figures. However, the key to success lies in the ‘three Ps’: practice, patience and perseverance.

While I have always considered myself first and foremost an armour modeller, my intention has always been to attain a level in my figure painting that allows me to safely add figures to my models without taking away from the kit being presented. This continues to be my philosophy, and for this reason, this manual is really an armour modeller’s guide to painting figures, and has been written from this perspective. The approaches in this manual are, by and large, the same techniques used on armour models, with some small variations and slight modifications.

The many types of Panzer uniform offer a wide choice of schemes that are, with small modifications, equally applicable to other uniform types, such as the Panzer uniforms of the Luftwaffe, Waffen-SS and the Polizei. The techniques presented in this manual are also generic enough to allow you to apply them to any other figure size, subject or period. There has been much documented and published on the uniforms and insignia of the German Panzer and assault gun crews of the Third Reich. However, this manual is about building and painting figures, and only a brief explanation of the uniforms being depicted will be described.