28mm WAB action Late Romans vs a barbarian conspiracy.

Thursday night club  action.  My 28mm Late Romans taking on Si G's central European Barbarian hordes using WAB historical ancients rules.

Four legionary units and Cataphracts in the centre, 4 Scorpions, a unit each of Lanciarii and shock cavalry on the left, units of shock cavalry, horse archers and Lanciarii on the right.

I didnt pay for leaders for the cavalry or standards for any of the units, which meant I was one down on each combat, wont make that mistake again.  Now to source some Hun allies for their Parthian shot ability.

Fun to play and the table looked great.  The Barbarians definitely had the upper hand after 5 turns.

Thanks for looking.
 

Late Romans for WAB now in movement trays

 I've a couple of games of WAB booked for next month, so I dusted off last winter's project, my Late Romans and have spent the last couple of weeks finishing off some part complete units.  I had the front rank of these Wargames Atlantic Late Romans in Spangenhelms finished this time last year, but ran out of steam with the rest of the unit.  So, I finished the second rank and added a third rank of Gripping Beast archers.  This will be my elite infantry unit.  The officer is "Arthur", purchased from Col Bills.  The shield design is generic, derived from on of the illustrations in Fall of the West.

The Herculiani Seniores, the only historical unit I know as I used decals from The Baggage Train for their shields.  All figures are Gripping Beast.

A mix of Gripping Beast and Wargames Atlantic figures provide another unit of pedites in a darker green uniform.  Shield design is again a hand drawn generic version based on Fall of the West.

Gripping Beast figures in vermillion with plain pale blue shields, based on an illustration from the Notitia Dignitatum. 

And finally, for now, a pair of newly painted Scorpions, ready to keep elephants at bay, or at least enrage them, or to provoke warbands into attacking.  These are from Wargames Foundry and kindly sent to me by Richard Phillips (many thanks Mr P).

Movement trays are from Warbases.  I tried to purchase these at a show, but was disappointed to find out they don't carry them to shows, so had to order by mail.  Still, postage was reasonable and turn around very quick.

I have another set of Scorpions and a handful of Gripping Beast unarmoured pedites, which I'm painting as marines, to be used as skirmishers.  I also have a box of Cataphracts, although I suspect they may not be ready in time for December, so my Goth heavy cavalry will probably have to serve in their place.  Finally, an impulse buy from the last show was a bag of sub-Roman pedites from Col Bills, 12 spearmen, musician, standard bearer and commander.  I might do these in a less uniform set of more homespun colours, with a view to using them as sub-Roman or as Limitanii or Romanized foederatii (apparently Romanitas was much prized even among "barbarian" tribes picking over the spoils of the collapsing western empire).

As ever, thanks for looking.

15mm DBA Lysimachid Army

The club is seeing a bit of renewed interest in DBA and opted for a c. 300BCE period for armies to take part in a mini tournament.  I bought a couple of armies from Museum Miniatures, this one, a Lysimachid army and another Scythian army which is in the pipeline.   

The Lysimachids came with 4 bases of Phalangites (pike), 3 bases of Hoplites (Spear), a general's base of knights, a light horse base and three bases of psiloi.  I added some extras, 2 bases of auxilia (Bulgarian) spearmen (Ax4) and two of Thracians (Ax3) plus another Psiloi of Thracians, an elephant with tower and a pack of mules for a baggage base.  Gives me enough bases for the early and late Lysimachid periods with several options within each period.

The whole army.

War elephant, hoplites and Bulgarian auxilia.

Phalangite pike blocks, hoplites, General/Knights and Psiloi.

Baggage train, Thracian light auxilia, light horse and Psiloi.

A quick paint to get them in action as soon as possible, ready for the tourney in November.

Thanks for looking.

20mm WW1 Turks in green

 Will offered to share the excess WW1 Ottoman Turks from his ebay win, so I took up his offer.  These are Hat figures painted up in green, using a recipe from Mark Hargreaves book.

I am quite pleased with the faded look and will probably have at least enough to do another 3 or 4 similar groups, although I'm tempted to try some of the other recipes in the book.

Nearly finished the 28mm DAK infantry and then on to their vehicles and some support weapons.

Thanks for looking.

Some 20mm WW1 and RCW progress

Trying to sort out some of the projects that have stalled and make some progress, I dug out various bits and pieces to complete.

First up, a bargain bits box miscast from Early War Miniatures at one of the shows.  It's a Mk 9 troop carrier - plenty of space on top to add some stowage at some point.

Also from EWM, this mounted Hotchkiss LMG team with crew in Solar helmets for the Middle East.

And the dismounted LMG team.

And finally, some Strelets dismounted Australian cavalry ready to do service as dismounted Camel Corps troopers.

I've got a couple of bags of assorted Turkish WW1 infantry in kolpaks and arab headress, an ebay win split with Will, with some Turks in green uniforms next off the table.

Thanks for looking. 

3D printing 28mm kit for DAK Attack.

 The heat over the last few days in Cheshire has meant that painting is nigh on impossible - paints drying on the brush faster than it can be applied.  However, temperatures over 25C mean it's perfect conditions for the 3D printer.  The grey resin Opel Britz truck with tilt is next to an open topped SPA AS.37 Italian light truck, mounting an LMG.  Next to that is an Autosahariana with twin LMGs (looking suspicously like Vickers K guns), a Breda 20mm autocanon and possibly a Breda M37 HMG. 

Two open topped Opel Blitz trucks and a version with canvas tilt.  Seated troops are generic seated figures from Wargaming3D. 

A very poor Opel Blitz tanker print - the last before the uv polarizer on the printer failed - so very much in need of a reprint.  Next to it an SdKfz 222 armoured car, one of the first to be printed after I replaced the polarizer.

Motor cycle and sidecar riders for Kradschutzen teams.

More sidecar teams base coated, with some Perry DAK figures sneaking into shot.

A set of 6 motorcyclists painted as DAK.  Motorcycles and sidecars are also downloads from Wargaming3D.

By the time I've finished the figures in the pipeline, I should have a platoon of DAK, extra platoon of DAK veterans, 2 or 3 Kradschutzen sections, three Opel Blitz and a tanker, an SdKfz 222, AB41, Autosahariana and AS.37.  I've also got a half squad of Italian infantry, but might add some 3D printed figures to bring them up to a platoon.  Might also add some Pz IIIs and L3s or 6s, just in case we do larger scale Battlegroup games as well.

Thanks for looking.

Progress update May 2023

Varied progress over the bank holiday weekend.

Nine of the Perry 28mm Afrika Korps figures painted and based, photographed here drying in the sunshine.  As an added bonus, I was rummaging through the stash and came across a sprue of Warlord DAK figures - I think from a copy of Wargames Illustrated.  Bonus additional 6 figures, which I've assembled and started to paint (no photos as yet).

With the 3D printer behaving itself at the moment, I scaled up some Bergmann jeeps from 15mm to 20mm and added some SHQ crews.  Two US recce jeeps with .50 cals.  One British para recce jeep and a para transport jeep.  Still have another para recce jeep and regular British jeep crew to work on.

Started back before Christmas, these 15mm M151 jeeps from QRF just needed varnish and basing.  Dried in a matter of minutes in the afternoon sun and simple static grass on base.  Two recoilless rifles and two TOW armed jeeps.  Suitable for 60's through 80's.  I just need some M151s with a recce HMG variant.  They might even make it on the table in AK47 games, or as Indo-Pak or Arab-Israeli wars forces.

Finally, for now, I got around to finishing the batch of 20mm figures I ordered at Christmas during the Elhiem sale.  These are a pack of random Middle Eastern insurgents and a pack of RPG armed insurgents.

 I finished these pretty much as my Not Going to Salute sale order from Elhiem arrived on the doorstep.

As ever, thanks for looking.

28mm Afrika Korps test figure

 DAK Attack has become very popular at the club at the moment with people assembling vast quantities of 28mm LRDG vehicles and figures.  I thought I might build up a DAK force to provide some opposition.  I enjoyed painting the 20mm DAK figures that I have, so decided to give it a go with some Perry infantry and Warlord support pack.  While perusing the table top sales at Hammerhead, I spotted a pack of sentry figures, one DAK, one 8th Army and a WW1 Tommy or Doughboy.  I got the two figures for N Africa mounted and painted them up.  Tommy is taking a crafty drag from a cigarette, while Fritz is lighting his own.  Both these figures were marked Warlord Games on the base, but no sign of them on the current Warlord website.

Tommy's greatcoat is khaki, shorts, shirt and helmet are Iraqi Sand.  Fritz greatcoat is US Tan and helmet desert yellow.  Figures were washed in Agrax Earthshade, base colours touched up and highlighted with base colour with a little Iraqi Sand or pale sand.  Faces are light brown with pale flesh highlights washed with Reikland flesh wash.

Nice figures, should do the job of sentries quite nicely.  Now on with assembling and painting the Perry DAK infantry.

Thanks for looking.

28mm Late War German Infantry

Since last summer, we've been playing WW2 Chain of Command, mainly pitting Owain's US paratroopers against Late War German panzergrenadiers.  I've steadily worked through boxes of Warlord panzergrenadiers and support weapons, as well as picking up some unpainted figures at various bring and buys.  These metal Warlord Volksturm were picked up at the Penkridge table top sale back in September, a pack of 16 figures, just 4 missing from a complete box.

First up a unit of 5 tank hunter types armed with panzerfausts and mainly dressed as Hitler Youth or DBM.

Next, a group of 6 factory workers or similar with various small arms, a panzerfaust and an improvised Molotov cocktail.

The remainder of the set, 4 tough looking veterans and a "Golden Pheasant" SA officer.

Sniper with bendy barrel for shooting round corners - not seen any rules for this particular weapon, so probably just use him as a sniper or rifleman.

Three veterans, the guy on the left has put on a little weight since his last physical and carries a mine and panzerfaust.  Centre guy wears a reed green tunic and carries a late war improvised SMG, while the guy on the right, in addition to an assault rifle, carries a fliegerfaust hand held AA rocket launcher.  I'm not sure the Volksturm would have been issued with this wonder weapon, but I guess anything could happen in the last days of the Reich.  Wiki suggests a photo from Berlin in 1945 shows several of these weapons expended and lying in the street.

The SA officer or "Golden Pheasant" if I remember correctly from extensive reading of Sven Hassel novels in my youth.

Nice castings, very little to clean up and they have lots of detail that rewards some painting time.  I'm not sure when/where I'll be able to get them on the tabletop, but I did enjoy painting them.

Thanks for looking!