"The Black Brigade" Marches!

The Polish 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade, aka "the Black Brigade" had a storied history during WWII and it has long been a force that I'd like to see on the tabletop.  Fortunately for me, Old Glory purchased the "True North" line of 15mm World War II figures some time ago and when Battlefront came out with the "Blitzkrieg" book for Flames of War and this unit was in it, I knew it was my opportunity to get the figures and be able to use them for a game I enjoy.  Well, that was over a year ago...or was it two?  Anyway, I have been trying to play in the local FOW tournaments and I found out that the one scheduled for May 19th would be for the early war period I had my motivation.  I could have taken the easy route and used one of my desert forces and not had to do anything, but instead I challenged myself to get the Black Brigade done; that was approximately 6 weeks ago.  With Tim K from Saguaro Painting Service enlisted to assemble the guns and trucks (they are multi-part models with "fiddley" pieces that I don't have the patience for and Tim is a master modeler IMO and he did a great job on them) I got to work.  I thought of taking pictures along the way, but I think that would have slowed me down; instead I plowed through painting and basing (and I hate basing in case you didn't know) 204 15mm infantry, 4 75mm guns, 4 caissons, 4 37mm guns, 1 motorcycle with side car, 3 combat cars (Fiat 508's), 8 trucks (Fiat 621's), 10 TKS tankettes, 4 Vickers A tanks (dual MG turrets) and 6 Vickers B tanks (47mm gun) in 6 weeks.  That is my best painting production in such a short time in a number of years. 

The force I built consists of:

HQ - Commander, 2IC, 2 x 81mm mortars, motorcycle and Fiat 508

2 x Motorized Cavalry Company - Commander, 2 platoons (4 stands each), 2 AT rifles, 1 Fiat 508 and 4 Fiat 621 per company

AT Company - 3 x 37mm AT guns, Commander

HMG Company - 4 x HMG,  Commander (and the HMGs can instead be bought as part of the Motorized Cavalry Companies if I so chose)

Artillery Battery - 4 x 75mm guns, Staff Team, Observer and Commander

2 x Vickers Tank Platoons - 3 x Vickers B and 2 x Vickers A each

2 x Reconnaissance Tank Platoons - 5 TKS tankettes (2 upgraded with 20mm FKA) each

Piechoty Company - Single platoon with 12 rifle stands, AT rifle and commander

Here are some pictures of some of the infantry that I took quickly this afternoon.  The camera that I used for years died on me, so I'm using my wife's camera and I need to work on getting the settings and lighting right with it; these pictures aren't the best as a result.  I'll work on it and hope to have more pictures up by the end of the week.

Motorized Cavalry Company

 Artillery Battery

Piechoty Company - The majority of the figures are actually "Polish Highlander" figures representing the specially trained mountain troops; there are some dismounted cavalry and regular infantry mixed in.  I thought it would be a bit different to represent an cut off infantry force using these troops.

Motorized Cavalry Company

 Now I'm on a roll and have to keep the momentum going!