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...

653rd Schwere Panzerjagerabteilung

I think a lot of gamer's are drawn to unique forces of one kind or another, and I'm no different.  When I spotted the Flames of War list for the 653rd Schwere Panzerjagerabteilung a while ago I thought that this force would be a great chance for me to have something very unique.  The trouble is, I'm not much of a modeler.  I like painting, though I'm slow, but I've glued my fingers together on more than one occasion when assembling models!  Enter Tim K at Saguaro Painting Service who enjoys modeling and unique challenges like this.  I figured the best way to do this would be to use some 15mm Plastic Soldier Company  vehicles as the base since Battlefront resin vehicles would require filling in the turret rings for some of the vehicles.  Battlefront vehicles were used for some of the models though.  This force will be used in the next late war game I play in.  Now, on to the models:

Tiger I (P) VK4501 Battalion Command Tank - 

Battlefront Model which Tim sculpted the zimmermit on using "green stuff"

Bergepanther with a stationary Panzer IV turret -

Both the Panther chassis and the Panzer IV turret are from Plastic Soldier Company

Bergepanther with a quad 20mm AA gun -

The Panther chassis is from Plastic Soldier Company and the AA Gun and crew are from Battlefront

T-34 with quad 20mm AA gun - 

T-34 chassis is from Plastic Soldier Company, AA gun and crew are from Battlefront, 

turret armor is plastic card converted by Tim (the Germans used armor off of half-tracks)

And finally, the Elefants - stock Battlefront models

Thanks to Tim for putting this together and getting it painted for me!  I look forward to using it soon.

2013 Posting Negiligence

So it's April 28, 2013 and this is my first post of the year.  Sad, but true.  So, where have I been and what have I been doing?  Well, the bulk of my free time for the first 3 months of the year has been directed to a remodel/refresh of the house...you know, demo some stuff, get dry wall fixed, lay some tile, move furniture, move furniture again, paint, paint some more, sell some furniture, buy some new furniture.  Anyone that has gone through this process knows it can suck up a lot of time.  I still have some new light fixtures to install and we've decided to paint another room.  The good news is those couple of things will finish off this phase and we won't be moving on to the next phase until next year most likely.

With my focus on that project and several significant projects at work, it has been difficult to focus on gaming, especially painting.  That said, I have painted up a few 28mm models for my Union ACW force and I've actually gotten some games in.  You can check out my less than stellar record for this year on the side bar.

I think I'm shaking out of this "slump".  A few of us are planning a game of ACW Black Powder for later in May so that gives me something to work towards.  I need to finish up my ACW Union force for that game.  I also have handed off some terrain and some odds and ends to Tim at Saguaro Painting Service and have some other things lined up to knock off quickly after finishing the ACW.

I did get rid of my 15mm DAK army.  I had generally poor luck with it and wanted something different, so I used the proceeds from that sale to help purchase a nicely done 15mm Italian army for the desert.  It works for the mid-war period for FOW  and I plan on adding to it in order to be able to use it for early war.

I'm looking into what I would have to be able to use my 28mm Viking army for Hail Caesar and from the looks of it I would have to add 60 or so figures, most of which would be thralls and bondi.  This would give me a 400 point force and I may give it a try using Gripping Beast plastics to fill in the ranks.  Also, I'm very interested in the By Fire and Sword Kickstarter for their English rules; I really like this period and this may be the first Kickstarter I participate in.

Coming soon will be some pictures of more 28mm ACW stuff...stay tuned.

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.

Flames of War Additions

Here are a few additions to my Flames of War German DAK and British 8th Army forces for North Africa.  I have a good selection of options for both of these forces for the mid-war period, but when the early war books came out for the game I realized I was short a few stands for both forces to give me some options.  I purchased some Peter Pig 15mm troops and had Tim K at Saguaro Painting Service paint them up to match the existing figures in the armies.  I just had to base them up and finally got around to it this weekend.  There are 4 AT Rifle stands & 2 light mortar stands for the Brits and 2 AT Rifle stands & 2 light mortar stands (actually just weapons crews minus the mortars) for the Germans.

Up next I'll be posting on another project I completed this weekend!

"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!

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.