Additionally, because everybody but Travis picked up Allied armies (Finns are neutral, Mike), I happened to snag a box of Wargames Foundry late-war Germans (30 minis for $6.50), and a $50 Amazon gift card provided two Tamiya Sfdkz.251/1s and a Tamiya Panzer MkIV Auf H for a combined total of of 49.97 with shipping.
I've been sitting on the Germans for a little while because painting Germans is basically a living nightmare. Nobody makes the colors correctly, if you thought Olive Drab was a wide range of tones you've seen nothing until trying to research Feldgrau, and late-war Germans had huge mixes of early, mid, and late-war gear in their units anyway; late war Germans wore a LOT of green and not the stereotypical "German grey" we all think of from film. Luckily I'm not doing a Fallschrimjaeger unit and their camo patterns.
I'm essentially putting together a platoon from 1st Company, 1st Battalion, 115th PzGrn Regt, 15th Panzergrenadier Division, mostly because only the 1st company in a PzGrn Regiment actually got to ride around in half-tracks. Also, they were in constant combat in Italy through 1943 and promptly got moved up to the northern Western front to rest and refit in late May, 1944. That long stretch of combat followed by an R&R means I can justify a mix of uniforms within the unit. I still can't find anybody (Vallejo, Reaper, Humbrol, Model Master, GW) who makes a good grey with blue undertones for that classic German look.
These have JUST been started this week.
1 Squad
2 Squad; yes, of course I have to paint the Splinter pattern camo smocks
Officer with an SMG NCO, a medic, and two runners
"Spare" guys. This mix allows me to throw a 2nd LMG into one of the squads (historically accurate for Panzergrenadiers), and to load the other squad up with Panzerfausts to go tank-hunting. Finally, there's a scoped G43 sniper rifle in the box that's the only one on the market; the dude who gets displaced out of the squad by the 2nd LMG becomes the sniper's spotter.