First Vehicle for Early German Army in Bolt Action

The very first vehicle I built for my early German army was the very old-fashioned-looking scout car Kfz 13, also known as the Adler after the company Adlerwerke that produced the original civilian car.

Even in its new military role, it still resembles a civilian car fitted with a bit of armour and a machine gun. It was used first for training the new German army in the 1930’s and as a reconnaissance vehicle in the early stages of the Second World War, both in the Polish campaign and the Battle of France.

It’s not a huge or flashy vehicle, and there isn’t much grandeur to it, but a flavourful and unusual vehicle nonetheless. So I thought that was a good place to start for my early German force for the wargame Bolt Action.

The kit is from Warlord and consists of a resin body, whilst the details are cast in metal. I was a bit nervous about whether it would hold together, despite using a strong superglue, but hopefully it will hold. Some people might choose to mount the vehicle on a base, but I actually quite like having it stand with all four wheels directly on the ground.

After washing the resin and metal in warm, soapy water, I primed it with a rattle can. After that, it was just a matter of finding the right German panzer grey colour.

At first, I tried German Grey from Vallejo, which looked good, but a bit too dark.

Something happens when a model is scaled down. The colour that is correct for a vehicle in 1:1 scale isn’t necessarily the same for a 1:56 scale model. Something happens with the amount of light reflected off a smaller model – there is simply less light. Therefore, you actually need to use a lighter colour, because if you use the exact same shade, it will look much darker.

Instead, I ended up using Ash Grey from AK which looked much better. It was a bit lighter, which also had the advantage of allowing me to use a dark grey/black wash to add depth to the model.

Once the model itself had been primed and painted, it was time to paint the two figures: the driver of the vehicle and the gunner at the machine gun (the old MG 08, I believe it was).

It took a bit of time. I used contrast paints, and as I have written about previously, that made it significantly faster than it otherwise would have been. But it still takes quite a while compared to just painting, shading, and highlighting a regular military uniform. So it was great to finally glue them into place.

A standard, grey German vehicle can be a bit bland to look at, but adding a few crew members helps, as do a few decals I found in my stash (unfortunately, none were included in Warlord’s kit). To finish off, the vehicle itself got a dark grey wash, and then I highlighted it with an off-white/beige to bring out some of the details.

After that, I started applying a bit of wash around the wheels and the undercarriage – a brown wash using Agrax Earthshade – and finally some light dust powder on the wheels and the lower sides of the vehicle. That way, it looks as though it’s been driving on a dusty, sunny day.

And with that, it was ready for action! It has a good weight to it, and it feels sturdy and solid, which is great. Now I’m looking forward to getting my German armoured spearhead into battle against my good friend who plays France, to see how it performs. It’s probably not the most impressive unit, but the little Kfz 13 certainly has its charm.