Plan Zachód - Polish 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade

 As one of the iconic units in the defence of Poland in 1939 the "Black Brigade" was an essential addition to my Poland 1939 project.  Here is a sample from the platoon I have nearly completed for Chain of Command - they are a mix of Warlord Games' Bolt Action range and Gorgon Studios figures:

 Once again, these were painted by my friend Roger and just based by me.

Plan Zachód - Polish Infantry

 When I looked at the correct organisation for a Polish platoon in 1939 I realised I was going to need quite a few more figures.  So here is a selection of the full platoon I now have for Chain of Command.  The figures are all from Warlord Games' Bolt Action range.

As always, there were painted by my friend Roger and just based by me.

Polish Command

Obviously I need someone to lead my Polish infantry - here's the officer, radioman, medic and anti-tank rifleman:

Polish HMG

Here's a couple of pictures of the machine gun unit that gave the Germans such a hard time in the Defiant Stand, Poland 1939 scenario (but this time not concealed in a building!):

Once again the figures are from the Warlord Games Bolt Action range

Polish Infantry

Since they didn't make much of a physical appearance in my earlier Defiant Stand, Poland 1939 post I thought I would show you a couple of pictures of some of my Polish infantry (they are from Warlord Games' Bolt Action range):

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:

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!

Bolt Action Russian House

My order from Bolt Action arrived this morning. A few packs of early war Russians and two of their resin Russian houses both intended for my Winter War project. I know the architecture probably isn't right but they're the closest I've found so far.

The houses were a little rough around the edges and had plenty of flash (is that the right name when you're talking resin?) in the windows, doorway and around the edges of the roof and the base of the building. Nothing a little filing can't sort though.


The house comes with a white metal door. I'm trying to figure out whether to paint it specifically for winter terrain or if there's some cunning way to make it usable for other seasons.

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: Bolt Action Miniatures WW2 Russians

As I mentioned in a previous post Lenin let me have some BAM Russians at Salute. They include the main command group and the two scout packs. I asked him to paint these up in winter camouflage to allow them to be used against my Artizan Germans and Baker Co/BAM/Brigade Finns in the Continuation War.

As with the majority of the BAM range these are super figures with interesting poses and, as you can see, paint up very nicely:

The Wargame Shed - Figure Review No. 5

Winter War Anyone?

Last weekend's gaming has really got me in a table-top gaming mood again. I was impressed with Lenin's desert Terrain Mat (which you can see in the photos). Having used TSS tiles, mainly for convenience, I've always found it difficult to reproduce more fluid terrain like sand or snow. You can see the difference between the TSS tiles on the .45 Adventure Dragon Bones game and the mat on the Back of Beyond and Medieval games. Having seen Lenin's mat I decided to take the plunge and order a snow mat to use with my existing Brigade Games Gebirgsjaeger and new Artizan late war Germans along with some Baker Company Finns I picked up on eBay.

The Finns got me thinking about the Winter War and so I ordered Finland at War 1939-45 by Osprey and William Trotter's The Winter War: The Russo-Finnish War of 1939-40 from Amazon. The former is a typical Osprey Elite series book which covers not only the Winter War but also the Continuation and Lapland Wars which followed. I'm only part way through Trotter's book but it a great read and has really got me excited about the period. Unfortunately the Baker Company Finns I have don't have quite the right mix of weapons or numbers to suit me and their standard packs would end up giving me quite a bit of wastage unless I was building a company sized unit. As a result I've started looking at Brigade Games' range (which are also in full snow kit) and Bolt Action's range (which are not) to see how I might best mix and match.

Since I'm reknowned for being a little frugal (in other words - mean!) I am also looking at what I can do to flesh out not only the Winter War but also the Continuation and Lapland Wars to ensure I can get the most out of my outlay. Now what I need is some snow based trees and a couple of small terrain pieces...