The 1812 Russian army for AOE/ V&F rules in 20mm size.

Sorry but I did something stupid and if you want to see this video you have to paste it on the bar or see it on my YouTube channel:

https://youtu.be/NhOvhsYHMWc?si=z79kcseEVmnP13LF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhOvhsYHMWc

The Napoleonic French allies for the campaigns of 1809 and 1812 for AoE/V&F rules in 20mm size

French Cuirassiers at Wagram and Borodino for AOE/V&F in 20mm

My 1809-12 French were designed around the Armée du Portugal that invaded Portugal in 1810. As this ratio is higher (1-100) than the AoE ratio (1-360 in infantry terms, for instance) I was not very worried about expanding French Line and Light infantry or Hussar, Chasseur or Dragoons as there are plenty in the shelves, but there were no Cuirassiers as they were not part of the Order of Battle of the Armée du Portugal.

Like that you need between 24 and 36 bases for Wagram (1809)  up to Borodino (1812). The first group of 24 bases divided in groups (brigades in AoE terms) is done with each brigade represented respectively by the 1st, 5th, 10th and 11th regiments. The good thing about painting Cuirassiers is that the differences between regiments is minimal and the painting process is quite straight forward with some changes in the facing colors. 

Another good thing about French Cuirassiers is their usage up to Waterloo as there is virtually no change in uniform. This has to do with my idea of returning to 20mm Waterloo and quitting my 28mm for that specific campaign. 

For this group I used (from front row to back row) Airfix figures, StreletsR and Zvezda. 

The Zvezda box is simply beautiful with a generous 19 figures provided. A few extra Airfix were added to make the total of 24 miniatures in two regiments. 

The Airfix figures are very old and incomplete so they needed some extra work, namely the addition of a plume in the helmet, a valise on the back part of the saddle (both made of Milliput) and a plastic scabbard on the left side of the cavalrymen. All horse´s "legs in the air" are glued to the base as usual but also as they are quite fiddly. 

All three additions can be seen here. Like this these oldies can became goldies. A paper flag was also added to the eagle pole. 

The StreletsR regiment is made of the usual funny figures made of shorties, when in fact the Cuirassiers were big guys on big horses. Even so all figures are different and very lively.

Next: photos from Arnhem

The Wurttembergers at Wagram and Borodino for AOE/V&F in 20mm

 

I collected a small Wurttemberg force from Hat during the Covid days. I think my first seriously painted Napoleonics were some Esci Austrians painted as Wurttembergers maybe 40 years ago. Then these went to a friend´s house when Hat released their own boxes. 

These are the three boxes of Hat Wurttembergers: one box of cavalry with 12 figures; one box of artillery with 4 guns (only 3 are necessary) and one box of infantry with 100 figures. After looking for the OB of the Wurttemberg contingent during the Wagram battle (they were near Vienna, guarding comunication lines and thus they didn´t participate in the battle) I divided them into three brigades of infantry (one of them of Jägers), one cavalry brigade and three batteries of artillery. At Borodino the contingent was much smaller but still included men from all three arms. 

The blue figures are Bavarian leftovers from StreletsR turned into Wurttembergers as 8 figures were still missing.

A good thing about this army is that the Wurttembergers fought in two lines, even if they also knew how to do it in three lines. This saves at least 40 figures as I place 6 figures in three lines for most of the Napoleonic armies.

Th 2nd and 4th IR were used to provide figures for the two line infantry brigades. Besides the few Bavarians turned into Wurttembergers, two of the four officers became flag bearers with the left hand heated up in order to hold the flag.

The StreletsR Bavarian figures had a 1mm slice of the Raupenhelm cut out and a bit of GreenStuff was used for the tip of the crest.

The Bavarian artillery figures are the best of the three Hat boxes together with a nice gun divided into several parts. 

The horse artillery limber is scratch built: Irregular Miniatures wheels; wood parts from EverGreen plastic card, converted figures from Revell, Esci and StreletsR and horses from Valiant IF8 infantry cart given to me by the great Colin Rumford from Rapid Fire! fame (together with some other 200 sprues!).

If you want to avoid this trouble you can go to Franznap but prepare to open your wallet. The good thing about Franznap is that you will get first class figures, probably the best around. 

The Jägers form the 3rd brigade. The individual figures are for another set of rules were they can be used as this is not the case of Age of Eagles (AOE) or Valour&Fortitude (V&F) which are brigade level games. 

The cavalry is represented by the König Chasseurs à Cheval regiment. I couldn´t find any information about a flag for these troopers but I added  a pink one to go along with the facing colors. 

Next: The Essling granary and more Austrians.

Gettysburg in 1/72nd scale (part 2), the Army of Northern Virginia

The second part of this Gettysburg big units video is about Lee´s army. Same brands, and same techniques as in the Union army, so nothing new here. Even if the ANV didn´t have any Zouave units the Confederate army is always colorful with all that butternutt, Cadet gray and civilian items. I forgot to show you Jeb Stuart´s cavalry but you can see it here in this blog´s post: http://jpwargamingplace.blogspot.com/2018/12/fire-acw-rules-set-gettysburg-in-20mm_19.html

Gettysburg in 1/72nd scale (part 1), the Army of the Potomac

This one is made from all available plastic figures from the venerable Airfix to the more recent Strelets R, including A Call to Arms, Revell, Italeri and also some metal Irregular Miniatures. I tried to characterize all famous individuals from regimental commanders up to Corps commanders since this is a period with abundant information. This army is complete for Fire&Fury brigade rules and it will be followed by the Confederate army. The houses are made of card and maybe one or two more will be added in the future. All other structures, roads, hills, stonewalls, trees, etc are not shown as most of them are generic and useful for a number of periods.

Crete 1941 in 20mm for Rapid Fire! Part 7: The Greek infantry

 

Masters Colin and Richard ordered us to have around two incomplete battalions of Greek infantry for two of the actions in the Crete booklet. Greeks are fun to make as they had pretty much WW1 designed uniforms - in fact much like the rest of the world - with many similarities with, for instance, the Italian uniform. The equipment included a home made helmet that for many years was thought to be Italian but in fact was produced in Greece. Another interesting particularity of the Greeks equipment was still the usage of the WW1 British helmet. All these can easily be converted from plastics. 

The base of this force is the Airfix WW2 Italian infantry box together with some help from StreletsR, Revell, Esci, and some Airfix Japanese. 

The British helmets came from WW2 Airfix and Esci. The ones from Airfix fit very well on the Italian torsos as I suspect they were made by the same sculptor. Most of the poses of the Italian Airfix figures are great as they hide the cartridge holders which were more separate in the Greek equipment. 

Some radios are mandatory. I´m not sure if the Greeks carried them like this but at least its a possibility. 

The marching Airfix Japanese enters the group well as its the same size with similar looks. 

The machine guns were more tricky. One of the Strelets Italian boxes provides an MMG that looks like the Schwarzlose still used by the Greeks. The foggy figure to the left is a WW2 Airfix British torso on top of Italian legs.  The binoculars figure is a German WW1 Revell with a British helmet. 

The LMGs were taken from Esci Alpini and glued to the Airfix figure (after cutting its rifle). 

Next: a few day off and then lets see what is coming from there or what is on the mail while arriving. 

Impetus rules, Mohacs 1526 in 20mm (Part 2), The Ottoman army

In this second part of the Mohacs battle of 1526 you can see the Ottoman army. Models are Zvezda, Italeri, Lucky Toys and StreletsR. As usual there are plenty of conversions, specially on the Sipahis. This project is still halfway but all types of Ottoman soldiers are already here.

Bir Hakeim in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules

Another old project of mine got concluded or at least its presentable. Still missing are some vehicle hidings, a pair of 75mm guns, and Koenig's staff car together with Miss Susan Travers. This was another project with plenty of scratch building and some guessing as the Bir Hakeim compound is not easy to understand in all its details.

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 10) - The French anti-tank guns

 

The Free French at Bir hakeim had 30x 75mm guns (6x in RF! terms) in the anti-tank role with cut-out shields and truck tyres in order to make a lower and smaller silhouette. Together with those the French also had 7x 47mm and 18x 25mm anti tank guns. As I already placed 3x 25mm guns in SP mode on top of Morris trucks I just added one more. 

The  FtF 75mm guns had its shields cut like the one present at Les Invalides Army Museum. The 47mm and 25mm are 3d prints in resin by BPM. This brand evolved greatly from the days of the PLA plastic used initially. Unfortunately I just ordered these two hoping that its small weight and size would escape customs. To no avail. BPM dispatched the parcel in a couple of days but it took a month to reach Portugal and then customs made me pay more for it than for the original models. Brexit oblige...

The guns were crewed with old plastic figures from Airfix and Matchbox and some newer ones from StreletsR. Many of the figures had rifles and SMGs taken out and replaced with shells. 

A Chad-Ubangi crewed 75mm gun. I´m not sure about this but I´ve seen a greater number of gun crews with helmets in the period pictures maybe because the artillery spots attracted plenty of artillery fire. 

The extras from the FFL Strelets box of support weapons makes good artillerymen. 

The usage of shells in the old Airfix and figures can be seen in several figures with the 8th Army Vickers No1 (far right making a very good anti-tank crewman). 

The main problem with this batch is the usage of the original FtF wheels as I couldn´t find twelve equal truck tyres. 

This is the Matchbox 1941 Cadillac I found in a supermarket used for scale in a previous post on pine tree woods. It will become the command car of an Umbau column for Holland 1944. Most surely no Cadillac reached Holland after 1940 but even so this one must not be far away from other european classy cars of the period. This one belonged to my youngest and had to be painted and based in the night shift while he was sleeping. 

Next: an Angolan Brigade for Cuito Canavale or the last few walls of Bir Hakeim.

Impetus Rules - Mohacs 1526, part 13 - More Rumelian and Anatolian Sipahis in 20mm

 

These Sipahis are made mostly from the Italeri boxes of Mongols and Saracens with a few add ons and cuts. 

There are also Zvezda (sand colored) Sipahis and a Agha and new plastic card shields. The lances are plastic broom sticks and many of the heads got new turbans made of Green Stuff. Some Sipahis also got Esci and StreletsR heads. When visiting the Istanbul military museum I got surprised with the amount of beautiful and very large paintings depicting the Mongol army of Genghis Khan not also in Anatolia but also in China which shows the proximity that the nowadays Turkish (the army at least) feels towards the Mongols. In fact the Italeri Mongol box shows horses and figures clad in equipment that is also the Ottoman Medieval and early Modern armies. I was thinking that the Lasso would have to be taken out from the Italeri Mongol horses but while reading more on the subject I found that even the Lasso was also used by the Ottoman Sipahis. So these Mongol figures are good enough for the barded Rumelian (Balcanic mostly) Sipahis. The Green Stuff turban was added because of the muzlim influence and is naturally not placed on the Mongol original figures as the Mongols are whether Shamanists or Buddhists. 

The Rumelian Sipahis. 

One Sihlatar (red  headdress, similar in shape to Janissaries)  was added to both groups of Sipahis. I´m not sure of this but maybe the elite Sihlatar were added to groups of Sipahis in order to influence them in military prowesses and make them more disciplined. In several cinematic researches the Sihlatar are never shown in large groups so maybe, just maybe, they can be portrayed like this. The Agha is the beautiful Zvezda figure. 

The Rumelian group was easy to paint due to the metal barded horses and armour of the cavalrymen. Mostly red and green was used in the details. Painting groups like this in the same colors makes the painting process much easier. Other groups have or will have different colors making a large Ottoman force a very colorful sight. 

The Anatolian Sipahis have both Mongol and Saracen Italeri figures together with a few Zvezda. 

Blue was used for most of the details but the more varied nature of non armored horses and men forces the use of some more colors. 

Next: Angolans for 1987-88 Cuito Canavale. 

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 2) - The infantry for the Free French 1st Brigade

Did you ever think why the Free French didn´t have any tanks at Bir Hakeim? I mean, the position was avoiding the encirclement of the full 8th army from the south and having no tanks looks strange. Well, I will tell you the story I found: 

In fact there was a M-3 Lee tank attached to the Free French. With its two guns and reasonable protection it woud have been a formidable opponent to the Axis armour at Bir Hakeim. The problem is that it was spotted by an old Italian Breda BA-65 on its way to the Italian Aviation Museum in Rome. It was still carrying some of its bombs and one fell just on top of the Lee blowing it to bits. Fortunately, the crew was out of the tanks as they had eaten a full meal of Couscous that somehow made them feel bad (some say it was the water...) and they were all behind a wadi discharging their intestinal content. 

Of course all this story is rubbish. I found last week the Altaya Lee and the Rare Plane Vacuform (older than me) at the nice Leirimodel exhibition in Leiria some 60km from Coimbra. After finishing them I decided to go to round two of my Free French making the necessary infantry. Round one can be seen here: http://jpwargamingplace.blogspot.com/search?q=tanake

My idea is to have the full Free French  for RF!  and all the defensive positions as I have already the Ariete Division and the DAK so there will be a few more posts on the subject. 

I was eager to get to the white kepis of the FFL as the two Strelets boxes - infantry and support weapons - makes them justice. The 13e demi-brigade had two battalions that can be seen here. A big thanks to Don McHugh for showing me the OB of the Free French for Rapid Fire!

Clearly taken in the fog-of-war this picture shows the support weapons box that gives you what you need for the entire two demi-brigades and still some figures that can be used elsewhere. 

The battaillon de marche No2, coming from nowadays Central African Republique, was made from converted Strelets leftovers and a few Airfix and Revell. The Strelets figures had its kepi peak taken out in order to look like the Chechia and the British helmets of the other figures were cut out until looking like a Chechia.

                    

The pith helmets of the Strelets figures went all to the BM2 as I saw pictures of this unit using this headgear. For the Bataillon du Pacifique I will use British figures already made as this battalion has many pictures with the Brodie helmet. 

The Command stand can be for Brigade or for any of the demi-brigades. The 75mm is Minigeneral coupled with some ugly printed wheels I had around as the originals were spoked. 

The Altaya Lee got extra stowage and the usual black wash followed by some sand drybrushing. Now I have 10 of these (Lee/Grant)in British desert camouflage and this is the number I wanted acording to my calculations for the maximum number of models in a British armoured division in a 1 to 5 ratio.  

This old Vacuform Rare Plane BA-65 got new wing MGs made of plastic and a carved bay where an Airfix gunner and MG was inserted as this model didn´t have this option that is far more interesting. This plastic is easily cut but becomes extremely light in the end. The model had already lost the windshield and only the fuselage support was left to be painted. 

Next: Bir Hakeim fortifications. 

Hastings 1066- The Norman army in 20mm for Impetus rules

 

This Norman army was an old wish of mine since Revell released its box in 1989. While the figures looked great there was the obvious problem of only two horsemen per box and only with rearing horses. Also a number of other armies from the early Middle Ages could be modelled, like Portuguese and Castillan for the Reconquista or Crusaders for the first few rounds of invasion of the Holy land, but the horsemen problem continued and the project kept on being delayed. 

This is how the Norman army would have looked like at Hastings. The centre would be occupied by the Normans themselves with Roger of Montgomery´s French and Flemish on the right and Alan of Brittany´s Bretons on the left. The first line would have been made of archers; the second, of heavy infantry and the third, of heavy or medium cavalry. A total of 15 Impetus stands were made, a match for the Saxon army. They are ready to climb Senlac hill or Caldbec hill if you prefer. 

Now for the Norman host proper, the most numerous of the three groups with maybe around 5000 men. All figures are Revell (with the exception of Bishop Odo of Bayeux with a club, an Italeri figure, leading the army next to William). 

This is the trick I used to produce some 20+ cavalry figures. I used some of the poses of the foot Revell Normans with swords, carved a bit of plastic from the middle of the legs (ouch...) and sat them with the help of an hot glue gun in Airfix or Italeri Medieval horses from several boxes. Also a few of the rearing Revell horses got some heat for them to bend to some more common poses. The Pope's flag was placed in the front rank of this stand. 

The infantry was less problematic as Revell gives a nice assortment of poses. The only  aspect worth mentioning was the usage of glued photocopies of 25mm Norman shields from the web, scaled down and retouched as the brands place those lines to avoid, well, exactly what I did... In fact all Normans and French have this trick both in cavalry and infantry. 

The archers are the same for the three hosts. In the end I regretted not placing the mailed archers only in the Norman stands but frankly I don´t know if this was the case. 

 

Now for the Bretons which may have been some 2000+ at Hastings. Their main visual difference to the Normans characteristic was the lack of mailed armor or maybe its use under the clothes both in cavalry and infantry. 

 

For the Breton (and French/mercenary) cavalry I did not use Normans. Instead I looked in the several sets of early Medieval cavalry from Italeri (Russian, Teutonic and Crusaders) and used the ones with conical helmets or Kettle hats. Their cavalry was mostly discarded as they have the Caparison cover and were replaced by StreletsR horses. These two stands have one less figure than the Norman stands so they can be used as CM or CP as the difference between 7 or 8 horsemen is barely noticeable. 

The shields were enlarged with the glued photocopies. This time, just to make them different from the French, I painted the shield in one color only a practice I saw in a number of Bretons from different sources. 

As you can see here the smaller original shields were dwarfed by the paper ones. In the end if you place a good layer of PVA at the joint between the plastic and the paper shields you will barely see the difference and they become very tough. 

The Italeri figures, used for Breton infantry, had even smaller shields which were enlarged with the same trick. 

The full stand of Breton Infantry made of Italeri figures mostly with kite shields. When the kite shields were small they became bigger with the photocopies trick. 

Lastly, the French and other european mercenaries, maybe some 1500 or 2000 men. 

The cavalry was made pretty much like the Bretons, only with printed and retouched colorful shields. 

The French Infantry was made like the Bretons as I couldn´t find any relevant differences. Eventually they also used plenty of mailed armor like the Normans. The main source for this period, the obvious Bayeux tapestry, was made years after the battle and many details and differences between the fighters are not clear. 

One more stand of French archers, mixing mailed and non-mailed figures. I thought about placing some crossbows but there are already two in the Breton infantry stand so this one became archers-only. 

Odo of Bayeux and William still need the company of the Breton and French leaders which will join the ranks when I find a bit more of information on Alan and Roger. 

Next: a video on Hastings or on the Iraqis of 1991.