WW2 Australian Infantry 15mm – Part 1

Ok, this is a big step for me:  WW2 in 15mm!

After our last Blitzkrieg Commander game Richard gave me two packs of Battlefront Miniatures Australian Infantry.  Prior to this, while I have admired the figures, I have stayed strictly away, wanting to concentrate on my 1/76^th scale WW2 forces.  But inspiration struck as well as a desire to get more Vallejo paints. 

I really got stuck into these guys (it helped that we had finished watching Lost), aiming for a force to protect Crete from the onslaught of Richard’s Fallschirmjagers. 

Method

Cleaned up, not significant flash except on bases which was easily dealt with.  Some of the venting streamers were a bit trickier, but so far I have only found one that I missed.  Detail looks good although some of the poses are perhaps a bit to ‘knees bent crouching behaviour’, but then I don’t blame them!

Washed the 37 figures in warm water and dishwashing liquid and rinsed well.

Then I used PVA glue to fix them to cardboard strips by base groups for ease of painting.

The undercoated I used was Tamiya XF10 Flat Brown.  I was a bit apprehensive, but it has really gone on well, dried well (it seems to shrink on to the detail rather than cover it up even though it went on thick – it was a brand new pot and I didn’t feel it needed thinning).  It has really made the figures look good and this bought on a round of obsessing about what colours to use and how many layers etc.  Lots of research and no definitive solution...

Somewhere I had read advice to paint the faces first and so I did this with Vallejo VJ 70955 Flat Flesh.  I’m so glad I did this and stopped after the first two figures.  It was too pale.  I wanted bronzed Aussies.

Luckily I found that Vallejo VJ 70860 Medium Fleshtone over the brown undercoat provided exactly what I was looking for.

Boots, bayonet scabbard and rifle trim I did in VJ 70950 Black.  Then came hats, socks and water bottle in VJ 70921 English Uniform.  The actual uniform I did in VJ 70819 Iraqi Sand which I also used to dry brush over the slouch hats.  I was doing this over the socks as well, but changed to painting the gaiters as part of the webbing which I did in VJ 70976 Buff all though I did do the packs first in Stone Grey.
The helmets I did in VJ 70977 Desert yellow over brushed with VJ 70847 Dark Sand.

For the rifles I mixed Cavalry Brown with some Black.  The trim I finished in Metallic Gunmetal Grey (not a VJ colour) and bayonets then got a brush of Pure Silver (not a VJ colour).

The bases I painted in Tamiya XF52 Flat Earth and that then leaves with the basing dilemma: the pictures had five per base and I think four is the maximum I want to do, also just two on the small bases.  That will leave me some figures for singles which can then be commanders for use with Crossfire.

He looks a bit scary all blown up in the photo like that ...

Old Glory Napoleonic Prussian Kuirassiers

Perhaps a bit premature posting at this stage, but I’ve had these guys six months and want to get them done.  I bought them to form the other brigade of Prussian HC that appears in the Napoleon’s Battles Lutzen scenario.  The first brigade I built using ABs and they are wearing the blue tunic and have already been posted.  I wanted the second brigade to be in white and after some searching and a wonderful bit of serendipity found the Old Glory pack.

The only problem is that for a lot of the figures, the riders hands did not align with the reins. A bit of bending, shuffling and carving later I got them ready to assemble.  Of course after all that handling they needed a wash and here we can see them drying after their bath.

50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division – Part 7

Still working on the Quads which are now undercoated (Tamiya XF1 Flat Black) and one has its base coat (Tamiya XF58 Olive Green).  I also found the figures for the crew and they are nearly finished.  I’m thinking of basing the Quads and limbers together and not sure if I will go for 90mm or 60mm squares for the guns.  Probably 90mm as that will set my standard for field artillery.

Progress has been slower than expected as we’ve been watching Lost, Season 1 to 6, on DVD.

Revell’s Deutsche Artillerie WWII – one year on

Most of my time with these guys has gone on agonising over what base size to use.  I’ve settled on a permanent fixture to a 90mm square.  So far I've done little more than undercoat them, but I have also started using Vallejo paints (on these figures the flesh and grey - base is Tamiya Flat Black).

Battle of Kamenewo 6 October 1941 Refought Using BlitzKrieg Commander

Battle report from 19 February 2012

The aim was to play a game using Blitzkrieg Commander set on the early Eastern Front. I was tempted to try and convert the Crossfire Stalingrad scenario, but would need to test it first. So I settled on the Battle of Kamenewo which I found on the BKC website. Researching the battle provided the necessary inspiration to overcome the rather rough notes and after a bit of searching I found a simple online tool to produce a map.

Map created using:

http://www.imagineimage.org/gbgen/gbmain.htm

The game was 2,500 points a side. The start sees a Soviet rearguard trying to stop the 4th Panzer Division as it makes its push towards Moscow in early October 1941. The rearguard know that help is on the way with the 4th Tank Brigade heading towards the front to ambush the Germans.

The Germans sent the 35th Panzer Regiment across first, but it took time to deploy. The going was slow but as the Soviet rearguard forces were revealed they were taken out one by one. As they were entrenched this was hard work, but the Germans had the numbers and eventually threw the 6s.

By the time the Germans were across the Soviet tanks had begun coming down the highway. The Germans Pz IIIs headed out to stop the BT7s while the rest of the 35th and the 34th motorcycle battalion raced to deploy on the hills. When the Soviet T34s arrived the German tanks tried to pull back, but couldn't find reverse and so it was stay and fight. There was no Russian ambush and in the head to head fighting the Germans would mass against one of the Russians, normally knocking it out while the Russians would generally go for suppressing as many of the German tanks as they could.

The German 105s had been lost to accurate Russian mortar fire early on, but they now had their 88 deployed and with its long range and power started to knock out the BT7s with each shot and that helped the hard pressed Pz IIIs.

The game played well, with only mortars seeming too powerful (we since found they should have required 6s to hit fully enclosed armour) and wrecks, while looking great, were not blocking line of sight. This last point is an interesting issue as in the scale I was imagining (one model representing around a company) it wouldn't factor, but with a 1:1 scale it most definitely would.

It would have helped to have hidden movement and an advantage for the Russians to be able to move through the forest and flank the Germans as they did in the real battle.

The pictures are from the end of the game.  All figures, models and terrain are from Richard’s collection.

50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division – Part 6

With all the recent posts I’ve seen on other blogs about contents of scrap boxes I thought an update on the progress of the field artillery for this unit would be timely.  The guns and limbers were not an issue and I have even found the original gun crews.  One of the quads required only a little make good, but the other was a total rebuild from many parts including a bit of scratch building.  Here are the two quads before they go for painting.

Austrian Napoleonic IR 29 – Completed

Undercoat commenced in July last year and I finally got the time over Xmas to finish them.  See original post on the background to this unit here: http://onesidedminiaturewargamingdiscourse.blogspot.com/2011/07/austrian-napoleonic-ir-29-undercoat.html

  I only used the brown wash on the flesh, although I don't think these photos do the effect justice.

I’m very happy how this brigade of 28AsLN turned out for Napoleon's Battles.  I went to a bit of effort to make sure they fitted together regardless of sequence, not so noticeable when deployed in line, but a must for column.