WIP – Battlefront Panzer III J Platoon – Part I

Hi friends! Today I’m starting with a Panzer III J Platoon from Battlefront. I’m going to paint them as an Afrika Korps Platoon, in a desert scheme.

The Panzer III was one of the tanks with more versions available. In fact, the J version I’m going to paint had two subversions, early and late ones (with increased armor plates). And the late versions had two types of gun. So, to sum:

• Panzer III J Early with L/42 gun (5cm KwK 38)
• Panzer III J Late with L/42 gun (5cm KwK 38)
• Panzer III J Late with L/60 gun (5cm KwK 39)

The L/60 gun was longer and designed to fight again the Russian T-34, the British Crusader, etc. But it proved insufficient against the T-34, and of course, against the KV family. That’s why the 7.5cm guns started to be developed. But that’s another story…

Talking about the paint, I’m going to do 3 units of the Late L/42 and 2 units of the newer and better Late L/60. But I’ll put the 5 of them in the same platoon. I know that Battlefront differences between the two versions, but I’ll use them as one or another platoon. I don’t care about this, as the only difference is the gun (same hull and turret).

For now I have cleaned the models and primed them with an airbrush and AK Interactive Grey Primer. Next step, base color with a Tamiya paint I’m still deciding.