Norman's WW1 Collection

 Norman Paterson has shared some more images of his extensive and beautiful collection of military figures.  This time it is the First World War, with a mix of french, German and British figures set up in the most dramatic and striking poses.  

The figures are a mix of Britains and King and Country castings. Although not historically accurate given the mix of figures, the display is quite stunning.

Funny Little Wars - British

 I have been really busy recently, which has distracted me from my current projects.  A friend gave me his collection of 20mm Russo Japanese war figures.  They are mostly Jacklex and a large portion were owned and painted by Jack Alexander.  There are three armies; the Japanese, the Russians and a Red army for the Russian Revolution.  My time has been taken up sorting them out and basing them to suit my playing rules.

I did however manage to sort out a British battalion for my 'funny little wars' project.  These are Britains Highlanders in tropical dress.  I haven't done much to them, other than paint the bases a sandy colour:

I also painted a test figure.  This is a Irregular miniatures 54mm colonial Sepoy.  He looks rather good and I am thinking of getting some more to create another battalion:

Funny Little Wars

 Some time ago I purchased a copy of the book 'Funny Little Wars', a set of rules based upon the  famous HG Wells rules, Little Wars.

Over time I have been accumulating some 54mm figures to try out the rules.  My firs unit, Turkish artillery, are by Irregular Miniatures, having adapted some kneeling riflemen into gunners.  the gun is an old Britains matchstick firing piece:

I have also painted up some Britains Deetail mounted French Foreign Legion (FFL).  They started off like this:

And after some paint applied:

I have also painted some FFL infantry as well as a Gatling gun.  My plan is for the FFL to take on my Britains arabs.  The Turks/Egyptians will provide an enemy for my Britians British.  I also have some Mahdist warriors.

More Herald Trojan Warriors

 I had a few more Trojans hanging around and I thought it might be fun to paint them.  I have a plan for these figures, but will see how things go before i confirm what it is.

Britains Herald Trojan

 I have been looking for a suitable figure to pose as a general for my Carthaginian army.  I didn't want to spend too much money on this figure and metal models turned out to be very expensive.  However, I spotted a plastic figure online that might do the trick and he was very cheap.  He is a mounted 'Trojan' and he sits on a cheap white plastic horse.  In his free arm he carries are rather odd, Roman style, banner.:

I thought I would try and adapt him for my needs.  The first thinkg I did was to cut off the banner and replace it with a sword.  Having mounted the figure on a wooden base I painted it with my Speed paints.  here is the result:

Not perfect, but I think he will do the job until a more suitable figure comes along.

Experimenting with Speed Paints

 Most of my painting using Speed paints has been on figures of a more colourful nature.  I thought it might be fun to try the techniques on some WW2 figures.

Choosing the right colours was an interesting exercise, as the paints seem to be tailored towards the fantasy world, with 'Goblin Skin', 'Slaughter Red' and 'Palid Bone' being examples.  However, it is possible to mix the paints and to thin them down to make lighter tones.

As an experiment, I primed and based some 54mm Airfix Japanese and a single Britains 8th Army figure. Here are the results:

I am going to paint some more Japanese and some Airfix Australians.  I have in mind a Jungle based skirmish game.

More Herald Refurbishments

 I have had these Britains Herald American Civil War figures lurking in my toy box for as long as I remember.  For no reason, other than I thought they might be fun to paint, I dug them out to see what I could do.  They were in a very shabby state and I wanted to paint them as closely to the originals as possible.  Although most of the paint had gone on the models there was enough left to give an idea of what they would have looked like when new.  I also looked at some pictures online.

This is what they looked like before I started.  Unfortunately this example has a damaged musket and did not get a new paint job:

Perhaps a little brighter than the original paint scheme, these business-like Confederates are now ready to take to the field once more:

Britains Herald Knight - Refurbished

 I have quite a few of the old !/32nd scale Herald figures sold by Britains.  Many are in poor condition with missing or broken weapons and poor paintwork.

When the mood takes me I get out the brushes and have a bit of fun.  One such figure was this  medieval pikeman:

His original paintwork has been applied roughly and is a bit battered.  Also, his pike is broken, so I wrote off to Ian Kay at Irregular Miniatures and he supplied me with some cast metal weapons.

After a quick paint job and a new weapon he is ready to go into battle once more:

Early Cold War British

 I have been thinking about painting some late 1950s/early 60s figures for some time and the Easter break gave me the opportunity.  The figures are recasts of the Britains Lilliput range from the 50s/60s, plus a few Revell WW2 support teams.  They were recast by 'A call to Arms' a few years back and I acquired a couple of boxes:

The Bedford RL trucks and the two Austin Champs are also by Britains, the two scout cars are converted Matchbox items.  

The Saladin and Saracen armoured vehicles are from Airfix:

My longer term plan is to acquire some communist insurgents which will allow me to play some small scale actions such as were seen in Malaya and SE Asia at that time.

More Medieval stuff - Opening boxes

This is the last lot from from the garage, although there is a box of Britains cavalry to sort out. Will do that tomorrow. 

These figures are mostly britains deetail:

A small amount of siege equipment:

There is a plastic castle somewhere, will need to dig that out too.

Britains knights on foot:

Think this guy is meant to be the King?

And lastly for this batch, some Herald pike men:

Opening More Boxes - Medieval Figures

I was reading some of my old wargaming books when I became inspired to have a go at either ancient or medieval gaming.  I have a heap of plastic and some metal ancient figures that I have never organised or played with.  I seem to lose my mojo quite quickly. On the other hand the idea of longbowmen and tin men on horses bashing each other does appeal. Again I have a box of old minifigs knights etc, but these too are not properly organised or based.

I then remembered that lurking in the garage in storage are a mass of 'toy soldier' knights. I was soon amongst the cobwebs and mouse droppings and unearthed a few boxes, I was surprised by what I found - long forgotten men.

Most were painted to some degree and I spent a few hours putting bases on those that weren't - mainly to stop them falling over on the table.

I am about halfway through sorting them out. This is what I have uncovered so far:

These are Timpo and Timpo lookalike knights:

Timpo foot soldiers/knights:

Accurate? French knights on foot:

Britains Deetail archers:

Britains Deetial Knights:

Britains Herald archers:

Turkish light spearmen, by Britians:

Turkish Heavy Infantry:

More Herald archers:

Turkish infantry:

Turkish Cavalry:

Revell? English? foot:

There are quite a few more to unbox. I will show these in my next post.  I am thinking that I have sufficient forces to play a European force against the Turkish hoards.

Action at Pont de la Croix

I might have mentioned in an earlier post that one of my favourite wargame books is"Operation Warboard" by Gavin and Bernard Lyall. For a long time I have wanted to try out the scenario in the opening chapter, that sees a small US force being delayed at a bridge before the fictional village of "Pont de la Croix" in Normandy, by an even smaller German force. I decided to use this battle to form the basis for this action.

This map gives an overview of the battlefield:

The German force has been ordered to hold the bridge in case it should be required for a counter attack in the future and if it cannot be held cause as much damage and delay to any attacking force as possible.  As can be seen, a road leads into the village from the northeast, crosses a small bridge over a river that is impassible to vehicles and armour, but can be waded with difficulty by infantry. This is what the wargame table looks like:

Defending the village are two platoons, a company HQ and a single tank. A machine gun is deployed forward in a bunker on the far bank and there is an anti-tank team in the ruined house. There is another undisclosed anti-tank weapon hiding somewhere on the field ( a dice will be thrown to determine whether it is a panzerschreck, a 75mm gun or a light tank destroyer).

The first German platoon is in the area of the Ruined House supporting the declared anti-tank team:

The second platoon is in the area of Red House:

And Company HQ is set up around the Ruined Church, with a machine gun in the Ruined Cafe:

Finally, and most potently, a Panther Tank lurks out of sight behind the church:

The US force consists of a company of three infantry platoons, a recce troop, with machine gun armed jeeps and three Sherman tanks. The company commander looks down the road towards the sleepy village and wonders what, if anything awaits over the bridge:

Following the "Operation Warboard" scenario, the Company Commander orders the recce jeeps forward to check out the village:

This is where my use of the scenario in the book ends, as rather than tearing down the road and across the bridge, the jeeps edge fowards covering each other. As they move the Company Commander orders two of his infantry platoons to move up to the woods on either side of the road; One Platoon on the left, Two Platoon on the right and he holds Three Platoon in reserve.

The jeeps move foward:

They are engaged by a machine gun in the bunker and one jeep is destroyed losing one of the crew; the second crew member takes cover:

The other jeeps hastily pull back, and while the two platoons advance on the woods the US commander calls forward his tanks:

Meanwhile, the German machinegun team in the bunker pulls back, wading across the river, covered by the machine gun on the top story of the Ruined Cafe:

The US Shermans halt and cover the infantry moving towards the woods.

As One Platoon approach the South Wood a hail of bullets come from the tree line and the platoon commander is down:

A brisk firefight develops as the US troops in the open fire into the woods. Meanwhile on the US right flank Two Platoon moves forwards into the North Wood:

The German commander decides to deploy his only tank, the Panther and it begins to rumble up the road towards the Bridge:

At the same time Two Platoon are emerging from the North Wood and decide to bounce the river and get across quickly; however they run into the Panther and a hail of fire from the Ruined House and gardens. Two platoon is decimated:

On the left One Platoon continues to fight the Germans in the wood, slowly grinding them down, when the Germans reveal their undeclared anti-tank weapon. Unfortunately for them it is another Panzerschreck, which fires a round that misses a Sherman on the other side of the road:

He is quickly taken out by combined small arms and tank fire.


 The US Shermans spot the Panther and engage:

One shot hits the Panther, but bounces off. The Panther returns fire and the first Sherman to be hit brews up:

Two Platoon continues to suffer casualties and is forced back into North wood:

As this is going on a second Sherman is struck by a 75mm round from the Panther, and is destroyed:

 The third Sherman wisely pulls back and swings around North Wood to try to get a flank shot against the Panther:

On the left, One Platoon finally clears the South Wood and takes up position along the edge of the river. The US commander is more cautious now having seen what happened to Two Platoon:

Despite this, One Platoon comes under fire from across the river where the German Platoon in the Red House occupies the buildings and gardens,

The US commander orders his reserve, Three Platoon, to cross the river, with One Platoon providing cover:

Three Platoon advance, but suffer casualties and withdraw back over the river:

Meanwhile, on the right flank, Sherman number three has skirted around the North Wood, spots the Panther and takes aim, however, the Panther fires first, but misses. The Sherman fires and a lucky shot enters the tank through the turret ring. The Panther burns up:

Sherman number three begins firing HE rounds into the buildings across the river, supported by the remnants of US Two Platoon:

Over on the left, the Company Commander orders up one of the recce jeeps, which along with the machine guns of One and Two Platoons, as well as the remnants of Three Platoon pours a massive weight of fire onto the Germans in the area of the Red House:

This allows One Platoon to storm across the river:

This time the crossing is succesful as Sherman Three fires into the buildings.

The German commander can see his men being slowly worn down by the tank fire and he has nothing left to take on the Sherman tank as it is out of range of any hand held anti-tank weapons. His right hand platoon is suppressed. He orders a withdrawal. Fighting around Red House continues as the Germans pull back:

Here the battle ends. The Germans withdraw and the US forces halt, having lost two tanks and nearly 50% of their infantry. The battle is a victory for the US, although they could not exploit their win without further reinforcements.