More Afghan Irregulars

Here is a photo of the two different Artizan Designs Afghan Irregulars with Muskets:

As before the figures were painted by Roger.

Artizan Afghan Irregulars

With Artizan Designs gradually expanding their colonial ranges I was looking to see whether anything from their 2nd Afghan War packs might be usable for my Indian Mutiny collection (with the possibility of expanding out to the Afghan war later using some of my Perry Sudan figures in Indian service dress).  I believe Mike Owen, the sculptor Artizan figures, also did the Mutineer Miniatures range for them and so these are a good fit for style.  Here are some photos of the Irregular Command, Swordsmen and Swordsmen II packs:

As with the rest of my Mutiny collection, the figures were painted by Roger and only based by me.

Late War Fallschirmjäger Platoon

The next addition to my ever expanding 28mm WW2 collection is a platoon of late war Fallschirmjäger:

The figures are from Artisan Designs, painted by Roger and based by me.

More Red Devils Redux

I took a few more photos of my additional paras but this time with the rest of the platoon:

The figures are from Foundry and Artizan Designs, they were painted by Roger and based by me.

More Red Devils

I picked up a few additional figures from Artizan Designs to add some characters to my mostly Foundry British Para platoon:

The figures were painted by Roger and based by me.

Apologies for the photo quality, I'm trying to post just using my iPad but I'm afraid I can't seem to get pictures up to my camera standard.

12th SS Panzergrenadiers

I've added a few more figures to my World War 2 collection - this time it's some Artizan late war Germans painted up as a platoon of the 12th SS Panzergrenadiers:

The figures are from Artizan Designs, painted by Roger and based by me.

Eastern Front Action

In keeping with the season I thought I would post a few photos from a WW2 Eastern Front game I put on recently:

WW2 Med: GIs

Here are a couple of photos of my Artizan US troops for my WW2 Mediterranean project:

North Africa Project Update

I finally finished basing the first figures for my North Africa / Mediterranean project. The figures are all 28mm from Artizan Designs but, as you can see I have decided to take a slightly different approach and focus on the French.

First up the opposition - a selection from my Afrika Korps:


And now some Goumiers:


These chaps had a pretty fearsome reputation but ended up with quite a mix of equipment (some of it obtained through slightly dubious means!)

I plan to get these to the table soon and follow up with some more traditional infantry. I will be using Artizan US figures to represent the American equipped French (which will also allow me to use them in their more traditional role too).

The General

Another addition is "General Clearwell" from the Artizan Designs Thrilling Tales range:

The Long Arms of the Law

I have just added a few Artizan armed police to my Musketeer force for VBCW:

Artizan - More Armed Bobbies

Artizan Designs have added some more armed police to their Thrilling Tales range:

Since I picked up a set of their rifle armed chaps I must add these...

Artizan - Armed Bobbies

Artizan have shown some previews of their armed police:

Figure Review: Bolt Action and Artizan WW2 US Infantry

As you may have noticed from my earlier post Lenin brought my 28mm late WW2 US figures over last weekend. They are a mixture of Bolt Action Miniatures and Artizan Designs figures the latter from their greatcoats range. The two ranges are both interesting and well sculpted, and they mix very well (as you can see from one of the pictures I have included in the album.

The Wargame Shed - Figure Review No. 6

I also included a picture of the Bolt Action German panzer crew which may be useful if I ever get my Panther or Tiger as reinforcements and they fall foul of one of bazookas!

Projects Update

The Great War

My WW1 early war French arrived from Renegade on Friday. They're nice figures albeit with a couple with a little more flash than usual but easily cleaned up. Unfortunately, the Osprey I had ordered from Amazon as a painting reference seems to have gone AWOL in the post (is it me or is that happening more than it used to?). Fortunately Amazon are sending me another one so that should be sorted later this week. With the early war Germans that I bought from Renegade these will allow me to play out the scenarios from the SkirmishCampaigns: Rommel's Route to Verdun.

I'm planning a game in a couple of weeks using my Brigade US Marines and late war Germans which will recreate an encounter in Belleau Wood. I plan to use Nuts! from Two Hour Wargames as the rules which will really test out how they work without automatic weapons as there won't be any on the table. I'll report back on this one.

Inter-War

I've been starting to plan out how to get the scenarios from the Russo-Polish War 1919: Battles of the Borderlands to the table. My Brigade late war Germans will be useable again but I'd like to get some of the Brigade later war French which look superb; however, with the cost of postage etc. these are starting to look a little pricey. I'm enquiring as to whether the Wargames Command Post actually have any in stock - if they do then I'll try them as their service has been excellent to date. As to the opposition, Lenin has some beautifully painted Copplestone Bolsheviks who will fit the bill. There are a couple of scenarios which need Polish cavalry and, short of converting the BAM WW2 ones, I may have to improvise there (along with the locomotive and railway trucks needed in one of them!). I've also ordered a copy of Warsaw 1920 by Adam Zamoyski on the recommendation of John from the club.

In an attempt to get the maximum use out of my Brigade late war Germans I've also ordered a copy of Osprey's The German Freikorps 1918-23 which may provide further inspiration! I like my figures to do double or even triple duty (does this make me a cheapskate?)

I'm hoping to see my first SCW and IWI figures back from painting next month (fingers crossed) and in the interim I'm ploughing through Antony Beevor's The Battle for Spain, which is proving quite enlightening to someone with only a passing knowledge of the subject. I also picked up a couple of movies as inspiration for IWI (OK - I know they're not likely to be historically accurate Mr Purist - but hey they're more likely to get the juices flowing, if you'll forgive the expression, than most books) - Michael Collins and The Wind that Shakes the Barley.

Winter War etc.

I'm hoping my snow Terrain Mat will arrive next week, after a bit of a wait (I'll let you know what I think overall when it gets here) and that will allow me to sort out the tree basing and the like. I also need to have another look at the basing of the Bake Company Finns I got from eBay as they aren't terribly "winter". I've ordered a couple of the wooden Russian houses from BAM as they seem to be the best I've seen for ones I can get away with for Finland (and also use for Eastern Front when I get around to that). However, the full game will have to wait until the Brigade and BAM Finns are painted as the Baker Co. ones alone aren't quite enough. I've also ordered some early war Russians from BAM for some of the larger scenarios (that and they look pretty smart!).

I've assembled the Anglian T26 and it went together reasonably well. It is a nicely detailed piece and I'm now going to have to decide which shade of green to use. I'm going to avoid markings as I'd like to use it for SCW too (am I frugal or what?).

WW2

Hopefully Lenin will be bringing the Artizan US in greatcoats along in a couple of weeks for a late war winter game (on the Terrain Mat all being well). So I should have some pictures of that out soon afterwards.

I'm still in the planning stage for the Poland 1939 project though (i.e. haven't done much other than got the SkirmishCampaigns booklet and an Osprey).

All in all quite a bit of progress but my wallet is feeling a lot lighter so I may have to go and have a lie down now!

Figure Review: Artizan Designs Late WW2 Germans

I picked up a few late War Germans from Artizan Designs a little while ago and whilst he was down for the weekend Lenin dropped off the painted ones. As always with Artizan the figures are a nice mix of interesting poses and painted in a mixture of camo and winter smocks they look great. I've posted a few pictures below:

The Wargame Shed - Figure Review No. 4