Norwegians for Chain of Command

As most of you know, I am really quite interested in the central and Eastern European theatres in WWII. I also like winter wargaming. The Lard Magazine put out a Narvik campaign in the 2023 annual and since that I have been tempted to paint up some Norwegians. Actually, I have been tempted to paint up some Norwegians for a much longer time that that as there is also the Road to Dombas campaign in one of the terrain books put out by Pat at the Silver Whistle. My friend Graham had recently put in some orders to EWM and added a pack of Norwegian infantry for me. I have been quite good recently, in respect to my lead pile, and had no unpainted primed figures sitting around. I cleaned up the figures, primed them black and then slap chopped them with white.

There was a bit of a challenge to discover a painting guide for them but I have found when you cannot find something check the Flames of War site and you will find it. I also got some very useful help from a Norwegian CoC player Olve Kroknes who had written the Narvik campaign for Lard Magazine. 

In photos are prints the Norwegian Infantry uniform looks greenish but most written descriptions describe a grey-blueish tinge to the cloth. Olve suggested a blue wash, and I was quite pleased on how this worked out. I initially did the wash after the first uniform colour application and then dry brushed it but I found that the blue wash should be the final step. Once I got this down it ended up being a pretty simple paint scheme as follows:

• Slapchop
• VMC German Field Grey-Uniform
• VMC Flat Earth-Leather
• VMC Khaki-Canvas Bags
• VMC Green Grey-Anklets
• VMC Black-Boots
• Followed by highlights of the same slightly lightened with VMC Stone Grey or Khaki
• Washed with Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade
• If overcoats you can do them VMC Dark Prussian Blue
• If there are anoraks you can do them VMC Green Grey

In respect to the EWM figures, they were Ok. I am not overly fond of their sculpts but they have improved over the Chasseur Ardenais figures I got from them some years ago. The poses were good and varied in the pack and all the necessary weapons were available for a basic platoon, I also have to be cognisant that EWM does do a great job of putting out figures for minor nations in WWII which no one else does.

Some confusion also about Norwegian platoon structure, but I eventually came to the conclusion that I would go with the following structure. Always happy to be corrected, as I do appreciate that this is not the alternate platoon structure described in the Narvik campaign.

Platoon Structure

Platoon HQ: 2 SL (Captain and Lieutenant) with Pistols + JL (Platoon Sergeant) with a rifle

Sections x 4:  9 men (1 Corporal with a rifle, a 6 man rifle team and a 2 man LMG team with a Madsen m/22 LMG)

Alternate Structure

Platoon HQ: 2 SL (Captain and Sergeant) with Pistol and Rifle Respectively

Sections x 4:  8 men (1 Corporal with a rifle, a 4 man rifle team and a 3 man LMG team with a Madsen m/22 LMG)

I have decided to try to do a better job on terraining. The biggest challenge is to decide to go with "Full Winter" as I have done with the Finns or "Snow on the Ground" as I have done above. I have decided to go with the latter for my Soviets as they have all just been rebased but not yet terrained.