'Reconnaissance' from JasperO: 28mm Panzer II Ausf. L "Luchs"

Ahhh, coincidences... Having played a few games of What a Tanker with more or less regular tanks, thoughts turned to more extreme vehicles. Glass cannons (Nashorn anyone?), ones that require different tactics (an Archer has been base coated) and I figured a Luchs would be fun too. You know, to race around in World of Tanks style. One Warlord Games resin Luchs duly appeared in the mail (thanks for arranging that, Guy!).

Having Reconnaissance as a bonus theme thus was a wonderful case of serendipity, as the Luchs was used as such late in WW2. Even more so because I tend to spend the first two weeks or so of the Challenge at my in-laws in the US. I've got paint there, brushes, and the minis go into a foam box, but I can't very well bring lots of basing materials. Flock and static grass in opened bags don't make for travelling companions, I think. I thus can't properly finish any of the minis I paint while here. A vehicle though, doesn't strictly need basing! I can earn points while on vacation. Isn't that grand?

The resin model is very nice, though I was less enamoured with the banana-style gun barrel. As I was sure that even careful straightening wouldn't a) never really work and b) would work only until I next touched it, I replaced the barrel with some thin brass tube. The crewman is from the Perry tank crew set, and is really for the Afrika Korps, but you know, black covers everything... I applied a dunkelgelb base coat with the airbrush, but, as that particular tool is at home, painted the rest by hand, including the Balkenkreuz and numbers. Pretty pleased with how it turned out! Now to see how it performs on the table!