'Resistance' by PeterD: Badass Women of the Dutch Resistance

I've been down with the lurgy so these sat almost done until Saturday morning.  I did some rudimentary ground cover, which needs tidying up but met the deadline.

  

As noted on one my earlier posts, I bought into a Bad Squiddo Kickstarter featuring women of the WW2 Resistance.  So for the Resistance Theme Round I present the Dutch Resistance fighters Hannie Schaft, Freddie Oversteegen and her sister Truus Oversteegen.  I'm rather infamous for long winded history posts, but this time I suggest following the links as I don't think that I can do these three young women justice (Hannie was the eldest at 24 in 1945).

Note to self, add red highlights to Hannie (centre) and darken the sisters' hair.  Also brush the ground cover off the figures!

The trio worked together on the full gamut of Resistance activity - sabotage, assassinations, transporting documents and arms, helping Jewish children escape etc.  Hannie would make sure to dress up and do full makeup before her operations saying “I’ll die clean and beautiful.”  "The girl with the red hair" became one of the Dutch Gestapo's most wanted.   

Love the strut on Hannie, still dressing for the moment even incognito.

As the heat turned up, they conducted operations in disguise.  Hannie cut her hair short and dyed it black while Truus dressed as a man.  Eventually Hannie was caught and executed in the final weeks of the war, despite an agreement between the Gestapo and Resistance to end executions.  The Oversteegen sisters lived full lives and survived into their nineties (this seems to be a theme among surviving resistance fighters in the Bad Squiddo kickstarter).  All three are honoured in the Netherlands and other countries, particularly Hannie.

Had a last minute panic attack when I realized that I gave the wrong figure the black hair, leading to a Saturday am dye job on both.

Like all Bad Squiddo women of WW2 figures, these are excellent.  Well researched, nicely sculpted, full of character and a joy to paint.  That's five 28mm figures for 25 points, and I'm going to claim a squirrel point as the Dutch resistance was operating in a different theatre than the other fighters that I've painted this challenge.

'Toy Story' from PeterD - Dorky Home Crafted Toy Ships

 

Definitely has the dorky home made charm to it.

For my entry in the Toy Story round I am going back to my teenage years when I attempted to carve  WW1 model warships out of balsa wood.  I have a home carve basswood model of the armoured cruiser SMS Kaiser and metal models of her German Asian squadron in 1898.  This squadron did not take part in the Spanish American War, but came close.  They anchored in Manilla Bay shortly after Dewey's victory and had a long staring match with the American navy.  I wanted to get ships to represent the possibility of a US-German battle, but appropriate models were not available in 1:2400.  Therefore I did some bodging, carving one ship from wood, converting an existing model of a different , and representing the three smaller cruisers with paint conversions of models of other ships.

Waterline view

Here is the home made ship, SMS Kaiser.  She was completed in 1875 as a fully rigged  central battery ironclad in Britain, designed by Sir Edward Reed a brilliant former chief constructor of the Royal Navy before he resigned after a political battle. By the 1890s many navies looked to update their older ironclad by refitting them, with varying degrees of success throwing good money after bad.  Kaiser kept her old main guns and machinery in place but had her full rig replaced with military masts and gained modern secondaries and light quick firers.  It must have worked ok because reclassified as armoured cruisers ( despite being very slow) both she and her sister served was flagships on the China station.

Kaiser as built left and in converted form right.

The problem was that I couldn't find a suitable model for Kaiser in her converted shape.  I spent quite some time looking for a suitable model of a similar ironclad as fudge, but no luck.  They were too big, too small, the wrong shape or fully rigged.  The closest I could find was a Tumbling Dice model of HMS Alexandra, which was bigger and had a different hull shape.  Even worse she came as a one piece casting fully rigged (see the photo below).  My fingers cringed thinking about going at it with an Xacto or Dremel.  

The basic hull shape is ok, but too big.  However cutting off all the top hamper would be a chore and would risk damaging either the hull or my fingers.

An in process shot shows how crude the construction is.

So I figured I could do as well myself and went back to my teenage years and bodged together a model.  The bull is basswood, with left over funnels from Tumbing Dice kits and brass wire masts.  I want to add 3D printed fighting tops but need to find a printer that will handle the file format the ones I have.  The model is deliberately rough and ready, but should suit the purpose until some manufacturer comes up with something better in 1:2400.  The bigger problem is that I had plans from vintage Brasseys' naval annual, but they had the gun battery with recessed gunport, while the ship actually had her battery sponsored out instead.  Oh well three feet of distance and 1:2400 scale hides many sins.

The going rate is 2 points for a 1:2400 ship, so I think I'll get the best leverage from the Theme Round Bonus.

'Fellowship' from PeterD: Mice and Mystics

My submission for the fellowship round is a band of nine intrepid fantasy adventurers - three fighters, an archer, a mage, a healer two thieves and a ranger.  Oh and they are also seven mice, a shrew and a gecko!

Here's the full set, although a couple of the shy ones are hiding in the back row.  I'll see if I can draw them forth shortly.  These miniatures come in Red Hat's board game Mice & Mystics and its expansion Downwood Tales.  The game features a royal (Human) household that overtaken by an evil sorceress and the heroes change themselves into mice to escape.    long the way they battle cockroaches, rats, centipedes and spiders (including their human enemies who also morph themselves).  It is a surprising good play, with simple rules,  great story line scenarios, a good challenge and lots of nice colour.  The currency is cheese, there's a ring of cat strength magic item and triggering a mouse trap means that your mouse both takes a hit and gets a cheese.  Better yet you can find a dinner fork and mouse-a-pult yourself over danger.

Tilda, Colin, Maginose

First up we have the leader, Price Colin in his red cloak flanked by his counsellors Tilda the healer and Maginos the mystic.  Tilda also fights with a nasty mace and gets more deadly if she's defending wounded comrades.  Maginos has his familiar wyvern Meeps who's been transformed into a lady bug.

Filch, Nez, Lily

Next up we have the royal armourer Nez, flanked by Filch the scamp and Lily the archer. Nez is a tinkerer (which is sometimes useful) and a warrior which is always useful especially when he uses his Thundersqueak ability.  Lily has always been a mouse and is a member of a local mouse clan that Colin befriends.  We meet her in one of the early scenarios when they rescue her from a mousetrap.

Jakobe, Ansel, Ditty

The last set of three are characters that we will meet in the expansion game as Colin and fiends venture into Downwood.  As with Lily, these characters have always been critters.  Jakobe the gecko is their guide and carries a boomerang.  He looks chatty and may try and sell us car insurance.  Ansel is a valiant mouse warrior and wears a serpent scale breastplate.  Ditty the shrew is a scamp.  She carries a peppercorn sling and a fiddle.

I'm not sure if Sarah's Challenge includes only human characters.  But there are three female anthropomorphic rodents in this groups so I've tagged them any way.  Here are the three ladies in question, Mother Hen Tilda, Adventurous Lily and well keep a hand on your valuables Ditty.

Final group shot.

FYI when we play M&M, I play Tilda, Curt plays Filch, Sylvain is Nez, Jeremey is Maginos and Stacey is Colin.

Points wise these figures are shorter than 28s and taller than 20s.  I'll leave it to the gods and GMs to work out my points.

'Mercenary' from PeterD: Regiment Nassau Prince Louis

For the Mercenary Bonus Round I have a German Regiment from the French Army in  Seven Years War.  There are 16 members of the Nassau Prince Louis Regiment, using 28mm Front Rank figures.  Napoleonic wargamers will be familiar with Nassauers who fought for the French in the Peninsula, and then against the French in the 100 days campaign.  Under the Ancient Regime, the french army raised a number of foreign regiments, which were in many cases considered better than the native French regiments.  Not being French citizens, I think that these can qualify as Mercenaries.

Swiss, Irish, Scots, Italian, German and Walloon regiments all served in the Western Germany in the SYW.  Recruitment and organisation varied according to the nationality, but many of the German regiments came from the Palatinate region of western Germany, including this regiment from the Nassau area.  This Regiment started as the Nassau-Saarbruck regiment until it merged with the Nassau-Ussinghen Regiment in 1758, becoming the Nassau regiment whose colonel was Prince Louis of Nassau (I'm not sure which line as the history, naming and ruling houses of minor German states is convoluted).

I quite like the office with the spontoon.  I gave him a non-regulation red waistcoat, which is a hold over from their pre-1758 uniform.

You can see where the "spare" Grenadier figures from my last unit went.  Unlike "French" regiments, "German" regiments had no separate Grenadier companies rather each company had a section of Grenadiers.  Gotta love the flags for this army.

I don't think I've ever painting a figure this orange before, at least not intentionally.  Base coat is Grumbacher Vermilion with over washes (dark red and black?)

Like many German regiments in French service, they wore blue uniforms, in this case faced red.  The House of Nassau is related to the House of Orange, as can be seen with their flags and drummer's liveries.  Like Dutch fans at the World Cup or Olympic Speed Skating oval, the drummers wear ORANGE!   I took a couple of liberties on uniform details, so button counters be forewarned.  The Front Rank figures came with collars, while the Nassau uniform did not until after the SYW.  Had I caught it earlier I would have trimmed the collars off but I didn't catch this until about half way through the painting process, and went with red collars as I thought it looked nice.  Also the drummer should possibly have red lapels under the lace (the figures had none but lots of lace) and orange breeches (just caught this one now).  However, SYW uniforms weren't regulated as much as later periods and I figure a to would depend on local supply and colonel's whim.  Neither the drummer not the collars look out of place, so I'm good with them.

I also like the NCO pointing.

So that's 16 28mm foot figures plus two flags is 82 points plus bonus round points.  There's another 8 Nassuaers on the work bench to bring the unit up to standard complement of 24, but they'll have to wait a week or so.

'Reconnaissance' from PeterD: SYW Hanoverian Commander on Recon

For the Reconnaissance Bonus Round I have a Hanoverian Command group having a scout of the enemy.  We have a general with a jaeger officer and sentry.  Figures are all 28mm, the general is Front Rank and the two Jaegers are from the Perry AWI Hessian range.

I picture the scene where the general goes forward to get the lay of the land.  He lets the sharp-eyed Jaeger office use the glass to get the best report.  Meanwhile the jaeger on guard takes advantage of the break to get in a puff or two on his pipe.

I had trouble finding information on Hanoverian generals uniforms during the Seven Year's War, but in the end went with an officer's regimental uniform.  Generals in both the British and Prussian armies wore their regimentals, so I figured that would work for Hanoverians too.  This fellow wears the Uniform of the Wangenheim Infantry, red with straw facings.  The inhaler during the SWY was Georg August von Wangenheim who was promoted through the general ranks over the war.  He served in detached roles on occasion and seems to have been less of a fossilized relic than other Hanoverians.  

The general was a breeze to paint - the Front Rank figures generally have clean poses and good detail.  Front Rank's run a little chunkier than Perry's do but I figure that Jaegers should be lithe and wiry and the general's mount looks a solid block of German warm blood horseflesh.

The Hanoverian Freytag's Jaegers (along with the Hessian Jaegers) were seemingly everywhere in the campaign in Western Germany and heavily involved in the Kleine Krieg.  Greatly expanded over the war by 1760 there were 6 mounted and 6 foot jaeger companies.  Dress was utilitarian, green without facing colours with straw breeches.  While the Hanoverians intended to arm them with rifles, apparently regular muskets were more common due to shortages.  By contrast Hessian jaegers brought their own hunting rifles!

I find that the jaeger green is always problematic to paint, it being difficult to get the sweet spot between two faded and too flat matte.  I shaded and dry brushed to the point of "close enough for government work" and left them at that.  The officer's yellow sash was also interesting.  These figures are from my favourite packs from Perry, AWI Hessian garrison musketeers and command at ease.

I've been using round bases for command stands, and this one looked a little big for the figures.  I therefore tried to add some terra forming using a bark chip.

Aside from the Bonus Round points, make that 20 points for the 1 mounted and two foot 28mm figures.  Duels Wallah those points should be ratcheted up on the Black Powdometer.

'Childhood' from PeterD: Return to the Lace Wars

My submission for the "childhood" round is this vignette featuring three members of the Brunswick Lieb Regiment from the SYW.  And no there's not a child among them and it does look more like a "musician"bonus post.  But that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Ok, more details.  My entire work this year is my SYW project which to me is a nostalgic return to my childhood.  As a young lad (I'm guessing 8-10) my father gave a copy of this book by Rene North (I bet many grognards have the same volume).  Family circumstances being that I rarely saw my dad in my first 5 years, and not at all for another 10 years, any gift from him tended to get a lot of my attention. 

Forty five plus years later, I've still got stuck in my head snippets from the book about the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War.   The  "Messieurs les Anglais, tirez les premiers" incident from Fontenoy, the Minden roses, the Walloon dragoons in the Austrian army and the red brick walls of the Diesbach Regiment that Freddy's artillery could not breach.  So when I started a SYW project for Sharp Practice, it became a homecoming for me.  Plus I found I really, really like painting lace wars uniforms.  So much so that my SP project has expanded into a Black Powder/Honours of War project.

The figures are all Perry miniatures Hessians from their AWI line from two separate command packs (there are I believe 8 Hessian command packs in the Perry line). The Lieb regiment drummers wore a yellow coat as shown in the period folk art illustration.  

The officer has adopted some campaign mods, turning back his coat, changing to low cut soft boots and added a cloak worn bandoleer style.  I am picturing a moment of a long day's march as the troops settle into camp routine.  An officer pauses to here one drummer play a plaintive folk song on his fife as the second takes a well deserved breather.

And yes, the vignette was meant to be my music bonus round submission but I was laid low by the flu.  I could have taken any of my output (well except the Luftwaffe flight entry) or ongoing projects to represent this return to childhood.  This one happened to be the one that rolled off the assembly line at the right moment.

'Flight' from PeterD: Fliegerkorps X

A flight of BF110s shepherds two flights of Stukas over the Mediterranean

What do you know I actually got a bonus round in this challenge.  I was not expecting as this as I have a very busy work schedule this coming Winter.  My service role is doubling from 1/3 to 2/3 of my time and while my teaching role stays constant at 2/3 of my time (and yes I teach in a math department).  Also we are hiring to replace a retiring faculty colleague and I am chair of the Search Committee.  But I found these in the lead pile and what do you, presto change we have a flight entry.

These are elements of Luftwaffe Fliegerkorps X, an anti shipping unit transferred from Norway to Sicily in early 1941 to help the Axis war effort against the Royal Navy.  We have two Me 110Cs and four JU 87R1s (Stukas).  The models are 1:1200 scale produced by CAP Aero and available from Last Square or Magister Millitum depending on which side of the pond you're sitting on.  They made an immediate impact in Operation Excess most notably crippling HMS Illustrious while proving the toughness of RN carriers with armoured fight decks.  The models are small (about the size of small micro armour vehicles) but convey the essence of the aircraft quite nicely.  They were primed years ago to go with my 1:2400 WW2 Naval project before that got mothballed.

I've painted these in a very simple desert sand upper sides with pale blue-grey under sides and silver canopies.  Brief research showed either this pattern or desert camps and I don't have the head space for camo in 1:1200 right now.  There is a band of white around the rear fuselage which I've included, but I excluded the teeny tiny Black Crosses.

Basing in my normal cheap ass, impatient but works style.  Florist wire was bent into stands and glued to small roughly circular card bases.  By painting the wires black they tend to disappear at any distance (old magicians trick there) and the end end result looks better than it has any right to.

So that's six 1:1200 aircraft, I'll leave that Curt to work out the points value but I'd guess it would be similar to a small scale land vehicle.

'Armour' from PeterD: 11th Hussars, 1940

For my armour bonus round submission I have two Rolls Royce Armoured Cars in 15mm.  These are the venerable 1924 pattern cars used in the Western Desert by the 11th Hussars in 1940.  The models are by Battlefront.

The 11th Hussars were the divisional recon unit for the Western Desert Force, later the famous Seventh Armoured Division the Desert Rats.  About this time last Challenge I was thinking of doing Operation Compass and or the East African campaigns in 15mm using I Ain't Been Shot Mum by the Lardies.  I got the Lardys supplements for these campaigns and some figures.  But then I had a number of realizations - I didn't like 15s or at least Battlefronts 15s, tanks are too fiddly to paint, too much drab and our group already had a gazillion WWII kit.

Anyway, these got primed last Challenge and painted this Challenge.  They are pretty much front the box, with some added kit from my bits box in the back.  I tried to modify the steel hats into berets to suit the 11th.  I tried a simplified Caunter camo pattern.  My ancient Vanguard has a picture where the Car is without markings, so I didn't do any either.  There's a blank space at the back for unit labels in case I ever do dome.

'Risk Taker' from PeterD - 'Jock Campbell'

So for the Risk Taker Bonus round I have Jock Campbell, a key figure in the early Western Desert Campaign.  Campbell was an artillery officer who was with the 7th Armoured Division (the Desert Rats), and later promoted to command first the Division's Support Group and finally the Division itself.  He was killed in a car accident in early 1942 shortly after getting command of the division.    The mounted (ok riding a cut down station wagon).  and dismounted figures are 15mm by Battlefront.  The mounted figure is clearly based on this print from the OOP Osprey Vanguard 1.  Battlefront mounts this on a base, so I used what it came with.  However, I added some baggage - the valise in the back seat and a tarp or blanket roll in the truck.  (I'm curious to see if anyone guesses the origins of these).  If Campbell was Canadian he'd be waving an extra large double double with a half eaten box of Timbits in the back.

Much of the early Desert Campaign (the period pre-Monty basically) was a largely improvised affair using what was on hand and a giant dose of chutzpah.  Campbell was one of the most respected Desert Commanders (by both sides).  He was awarded the DSO after Operation Compass and Beda Fomm where his guns played a key role.  Later his bravery on the Sidi Rezegh airfield during Operation Crusader led to a VC.     

There's a Timmies over that way!  I've gone for hand painted unit symbols looking to get the look right if not the details.

His name is also given to that most wargamer of formations the Jock Column.   Take a company of infantry, mount them in trucks and add a troop of light armour and some guns and bobs your uncle you got a Jock Column.  These were used to scout and harass enemy positions and just general mayhem.  Campbell did so well with them that they named the idea for him.

Best view of the clutter in the back.

I would also point out that I am also a risk taker on this post and I am stepping well outside my normal comfort zone.   First, while I have painted many 15mms in my time (Nappys, SYW, Tudor English) these are my first 15s since 1997 (at least), it's been 28mms only for night on twenty years.  Second, I have with one small exception, restricted myself to historicals pre-1900 - Nappys, Greeks, Medievals, Renaissance, SYW, Colonials etc.    So vehicles, battledress, modern weapons, etc,  well out of my wheelhouse.  The one exception was a dalliance in Western Desert in 10mm in the early 1990s, long since sold off.

So having been swayed by BigLee's 6mm wonders and the excellent 28mm East African work by Scrivs, I have been swayed back to Western Desert 1940-1.  And there's another risk here, as Curt has figures in the same scale and period which I know I won't be able to match.  However, this is a project that I want to do for myself.

The dismounted version needs a wash and highlighting on the base.  

I have been amused by the number "god I hate painting X" posts over the Challenge.  Horses, artillery, tartans, shields, terrain, etc, etc, all of which seemed like great things to paint and a lot of fun.  I did make me wonder what level of childhood trauma had led to these dislikes in some case, but whatever.  Anyway my point here i.e., quit yer whining, get over your self imposed obstacles and Challenge yourself.  I stepped out of my comfort zone and so can you.

FYI, comments, suggestions and feedback on my initial step into this particular madness are appreciated.