10mm Black Powder

I have been busy with a few things lately.  One of which is the decision to purge my 28mm ACW collection.  The reasons for this are many, but it basically boils down to doing what makes me happy.  I originally thought I would just replace my 28's with 10's as that is the scale I want to use for Black Powder.  I purchased a few packs of Old Glory 10mm and painted up a few units.  One is a standard sized unit for Black Powder and the other would be a small sized unit.  These were a breeze to paint and look better from a distance which is the way it should be...10mm is for a massed look, and too much detail actually gets lost too close up.

My gaming friends are sticking with 28mm for Black Powder and are doing ACW and Napoleonics.  I don't want to duplicate their efforts initially, so I need to figure out a different period that I can do both sides for so they don't have to worry about it and I can be able to host games on my own.  I'm looking at the Crimean War, the American War of Independence, the Franco-Prussian War (and others during that timeframe), and the Sudan.  I'm not sure what I will end up doing...

Polish 10th Brygada Kawalerii Pancernej in France - Completed!

Well, it has taken me longer than expected, but I finally completed the 15mm Polish 10th Brygada Kawalerii Pancernej force I started months ago.  The entire force is Battlefront miniatures with the exception of the 4 French 75mm artillery pieces and the 6 R40 tanks which are from Old Glory.  The painting on this has actually been done for quite some time, but anyone who knows me knows that I really dislike basing figures; so the painted figures sat there looking at me...taunting me...until I finally gave in and based them.

I like how this force looks, and enjoyed painting it; I can't wait to get it on the table. I was going to use it in Shifting Sands 2016, but over the summer I started running again.  My weight had gotten up there in the spring and I really wasn't feeling or looking healthy.  It has been 10 years since I ran a half-marathon, and with 50 just a few years off I figured no time like the present.  The good news is that I have lost over 30 pounds...the bad news is that the half-marathon I plan on running is the same weekend as Shifting Sands.  Oh, well...at least the army is done, and here it is:

Company Command with 25mm AT Gun Section

Company Command Mortars (2x81mm & 1x60mm)

1st Platoon (6 Rifle MG teams, 1 VB Grenade Launcher team, Platoon Command team)

2nd Platoon (6 Rifle MG teams, 1 VB Grenade Launcher team, Platoon Command team)

3rd Platoon (6 Rifle MG teams, 1 VB Grenade Launcher team, Platoon Command team)

25mm Anti-tank Gun Platoon 

Machine Gun Platoon

Artillery Battery 1

Artillery Battery 2

20mm Anti-Aircraft Platoon

1st Tank Platoon 

2nd Tank Platoon

Up next I am going to prep some 15mm WWI for Saguaro Painting Service to paint, then work on some other projects...more on that in my obligatory year end/new year post...

New Project - Polish 10th Brygada Kawalerii Pancernej in France

I've been getting in a lot of games this year, but I have had trouble focusing on getting projects done/stuff painted.  With Shifting Sands 2016 confirmed as early war centered around the German invasion of Poland and France, I think I finally have some motivation to focus on a project and completing it.  I could just use my Polish 10th Mechanized Brigade ("the Black Brigade") or my early war German Panzer or Grenadier forces, but instead I have decided to do the one evolution of "the Black Brigade" I don't already have - the 10th Brygada Kawalerii Pancernej - 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade for France 1940.

Many of the members of "the Black Brigade" that escaped the fall of Poland by crossing into Hungary traveled to France to help form the Polish Army in exile.  General Maczek, the commander of "the Black Brigade" formed the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade.  Highly motivated, but poorly equipped and treated less than professionally by the French, the 10th fought well in the Champagne and Bourgogne regions supporting their French allies only to be cut-off when neighboring French units retreated/withdrew.  General Maczek again ordered his men to leave another defeated country - those that managed to escape France helped form the core of the Polish 1st Armoured Division that would return to France in 1944.

This Flames of War force will use the "Compagnie de Fusiliers-Voltigeurs" Colonial list from Blitzkrieg.  The Fearless Trained rating of the Colonials seem to fit the Poles in this instance as they will not use the Trench Warfare or Integrated Defences rules, but will hit on 3+ during assaults.  I've got 211 infantry/crew figures, 15 guns/mortars and 6 tanks to paint up as pictured below.  An interesting note is that the tanks used by the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade were R-40's - Battlefront doesn't make this model, so I'm using Old Glory for them and the French 75's (all other models are Battlefront).  I will just use the stats for the Hotchkiss tanks with the R40 models since they are nearly identical.  Here is everything prepped and primed:

Now, some of my gaming buddies question my ability and desire to paint for myself anymore since I seem to be continually farming out painting projects to Tim at Saguaro Painting Service or Philgreg painters.  I still like to paint for myself, it's just that I have a lot of projects and haven't been able to focus on many.  I can, and will paint this army myself...and proceed to defeat the doubters on the game table!  Expect updates as I make progress on this force...

15mm Sassanid Persian Army

Recently my friend John offered his very nice 15mm Sassanid Persian Army up for sale for a great price.  I've always wanted a Sassanid army and at one point in time I had an unpainted army in both 10mm and 28mm.  Anyway, I couldn't pass up such a nice army at such a great price, so I'm now the proud owner of an army I've always wanted to have.  I will use it for Might of Arms mainly, though I've had some discussions about giving Hail Caesar a try in 15mm, so we'll see.  The army is all Old Glory 15's with the exception of the skirmishers which are Essex.

Skirmishing Slingers

 Skirmishing Archers

 Light Cavalry #1

 Light Cavalry #2

 Heavy Infantry Spearmen & Archers

 Elephants

 Generals

 Clibinari #1

 Clibinari #2

 Cataphracts

 Medium Archers

28mm Mitanni Chariots - Army Complete!

Well after literally YEARS I've finally finished my 28mm Mitanni army!  When I started this army I was playing WAB extensively and my goal was to use this army for that game.  But with the ultimate demise of Warhammer Historicals at the hands of Forgeworld/GW and the hose job they gave to people that put in a ton of time on products that will never see the light of day, I'm done playing WAB and have moved on to Clash of Empires.  It will be for a game of Clash of Empires that this army will see the table for as I've got a game lined up next week.  If I remember, I'll take my camera and get some pictures of the game.

The chariots for this army are a collection of different manufacturers.  All but two of the chariots are from Old Glory with the other two being from Newline.  The crew area mixture of Foundry, Newline and Old Glory.  I think they all fit together just fine.  The base painting on the chariots and horses was done by Tim K. at Saguaro Painting Service and the crew were painted long ago by Fernando Enterprises; I added extra detail to the chariots & horses and did touch ups on the crew as well as the basing.   

It feels good to get another project checked off of my list.  Next up is a bunch of basing projects along with some painting for a friend...updates to follow on both of those as I make progress.

"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!

American Civil War Game - "Action Front"

On Sunday I got in an American Civil War game against Joe D who has a really nice collection of 28mm figures for the war. All of the troops in the pictures are his except for the 114th PA which is mine. The figures are from Sash & Saber primarily with some being Old Glory, the buildings are from Old Glory, the roads are from JR, the fences are refinished Pegasus Hobbies fences, and the tree stands and hills were made by a few of the local guys.

We each ran a brigade of 4 regiments with an attached battery. Joe ran the Rebs and I ran the Union. Joe's brigade outnumbered mine, but he had a couple of "Fresh Fish" regiments and his battery was Veteran whereas my units were all Experianced. We used a set of rules being developed by Don E. who has a great ACW blog called "Action Front" http://actionfront.blogspot.com/

We hadn't played in a while so decided to march our troops on to get used to maneuvering again. Once we came to blows things turned to the Union advantage fairly quickly mostly due to Joe's decision to lead with a Fresh Fish regiment and his really poor dice rolling. All in all it was a fun game (helped because I won) and I am certain that Joe will be looking for a rematch soon!

The brigades march on...

The lines form...
Union infantry passes through the battery...

CHARGE!

A bloody repulse!

15mm Old Glory Mongols

Here are the 15mm Mongols that were painted by Tim K at Saguaro Painting Service (http://saguaropainting.blogspot.com/). Like the Medieval Russians in my previous post, Tim did a good job on these and I simply did touch-ups, some highlighting to my liking, and the basing (boy, am I glad the basing is over with...the trouble is I have a ton more to do!). The Mongols will be the heart of this army and the Russians will just compliment it as an allied contingent from time to time.

Mongol Heavy Cavalry & Generals

Mongol Light Cavalry

Allied Light Cavalry (Cuman figures)

All of these figures are Old Glory 15mm based on Litko bases. The allied Light Cavalry are Cumans and are suitable for a wide variety of armies. There are 24 stands of Mongol Heavy Cavalry, 30 stands of Mongol Light Cavalry, 12 stands of allied Light Cavalry and 3 Mongol General stands.

15mm Old Glory Medieval Russians

Several months ago I contracted with Tim K of Saguaro Painting Service (http://saguaropainting.blogspot.com/) to paint up a 15mm Mongol army with Russian Allies. Tim did a nice, quick job and the figures look the part of a battle tested force. Well...once I got them back, they just sat there...you see, in case I haven't said this before, I LOATHE basing figures!!!! I did start to work on them slowly and did some touch-ups and highlights, which is much easier than painting the entire figure (that's for sure). I finally got around to finishing up the basing this weekend, so here's the Russian allied contingent that will serve their Mongol overlords well (hopefully!).

Russian Heavy Cavalry Closeup

Russian Heavy Cavalry

Russian Heavy Infantry

Russian Archers

Russian Skirmishing Crossbowmen

All of these 15mm figures are from Old Glory and are mounted on Litko bases for the Might of Arms set of rules. I look forward to their first battle. There are 9 stands of Heavy Cavalry, 1 General, 9 stands of subheavy infantry, 9 stands of subheavy crossbowmen, 12 stands of light/medium bow & 6 stands of skirmishing crossbows.

Flames of War Afrika Korps Completed!

Well, as I've mentioned on more than one occaision I've had a cloud hanging over me in the form of an unfinished DAK army for Flames of War; I have finally removed the cloud! I just got done dulcoting the trucks for the army that have taken so long for me to complete. They are a mixture of Old Glory and Battlefront; I have to say I like the Battlefront single piece resin trucks better than the Old Glory from the standpoint of not having to assemble them! While I was at it I put a wash on the tanks and guns for the army...as you can see in my post from October 2009, the tanks were a bit light for my liking once I got them on the table, so I put a brown ink wash on them and they look much better. So that's one thing done from this year's list!