Back to the 18th century and a return to my imagi-nations

It is quite a long time since I painted any troops for Syldavia and Borduria, but I've been painting Grenadiers. First, two groups of grenadiers for the Freikorps Schtroumpf;

A couple of groups of grenadiers had been in my plans for a very long time, a decade in fact, but I'd not done anything about them until now. I'd always planned for them to have the white and blue Schtroumpf uniform colours, but with red facings. The figures are from Essex Miniatures and are actually Prussian Von Schony grenadiers. I've added in an officer, NCO and Drummer. The drummer in the front group is there for colour, but is treated as a man with a musket for Sharp Practice purposes.

Next are two groups of Syldavian grenadiers, once again from Essex Miniatures' SYW Austrian range;

As I already have one group of 8 grenadiers from the Istow Regiment, I decided to paint two groups from other regiments, so I could have a Combined Grenadier formation for Sharp Practice. The front group  with green facings is from the Lippzshutt regiment and the group behind with black facings is from the Motörkopf regiment. Again, I have added a couple of officers, a drummer, an NCO and an ensign with a standard, showing the famous Black Pelican of Syldavia.

These chaps will be getting their tabletop debuts at Winter Wonderlard VI at BIG in Bristol on SAturday 7th February.

New 15mm German troops

Following on from my previous post where I showed additional troops to make my Soviet units CoC2 compliant, here are the German equivalents, again all by Peter Pig, plus a new Zug (platoon).

First, a three-man Engineer team and a sniper team;

Next a Volksgrenadier squad (see below also) supporting a three-man Flamethrower team;

Here are eight ammunition carriers because LMG teams now need more guys supporting the MG42 and I've also painted an extra Senior Leader. The figure was spare, so I painted him up;

And finally, my new unit, a Volksgrenadier Zug, equipped with the StG 44 assault rifle;

Volksgrenadier units weren't all supplied with the StG 44 because the bulk of the troops still had the Kar 98k rifle, because millions of them were produced during the war, with less than 500,000 StG 44s entering service. However, this is an assault Zug, with two assault squads and a heavy squad with two MG42 teams. That is a lot of firepower. The extra Volksgrenadier squad above will be a potential support choice for the Germans.

I'm pleased with the final photo, because I was able to use one of Jon Hodgson's SciFi backdrops as a battle-scarred cityscape.

Having reorganised all of my German units by mixing in the ammunition carriers and changing the structure of my Panzergrenadier Zug , I've managed to create two extra rifleman (Grenadier) squads and an extra Panzergrenadier squad as support options.

Looking at my Soviets and Germans, when I add in my Volkssturm and an earlier "green" Volksgrenadier squad I painted a few years ago, I reckon that I could put on a huge game with the Soviets and Germans fighting over the ruins of Berlin. Of course, I'd have to create a big pile of ruined buildings to add to the ones I've already got. Maybe a plan for the future?

 

New 15mm WW2 Soviet troops

These are all additions to make my 15mm Soviet units compliant with Chain of Command V2;

Everything is from Peter Pig. 

Above are two additions to fill a gap I had previously; two 50mm mortar teams.

Next, I have an additional squad for a standard Rifle platoon. These will either work as a support option or for games set in 1941-43.

Below are figures that I needed to add to some SMG-armed figures to make a second squad for a SMG platoon, all armed with the PPSh-41 SMG.

CoC2 changes Soviet platoon HQ sections. So, I now have a rifle platoon commander (peaked cap), a platoon sergeant (helmet) and a sniper team (in the middle). Platoon commanders are now equipped with SMGs.

Below is the HQ section for my SMG platoon with the same organisation as above for the rifle one.

Next up, a heavy squad for my SMG platoon. Both the rifle and SMG platoons now have a "heavy" squad with two DP-27 LMG teams. This is a big change. I was able to make the necessary changes for my rifle platoon from figures I already had.

Here are two more sniper teams and a couple of spare SMG-armed men. I did these because the Peter Pig sniper set gives you four teams and the SMG guys are just spares.

Below are "resting" SMG men, who I have painted up to use as extra DP-27 LMG team members, because in CoC2 the Soviet LMG teams now have either three or four members.

So, all in all, that is 56 more recruits for my Soviet forces. 

This has allowed me to reorganise what I have available for the Soviet Union. As core troops, I now have a Rifle platoon, a SMG (or tank rider) platoon, a Motor Rifle platoon and as supports (including things I had already), I can field two 50cm mortar teams, two sniper teams, a rifle squad, a SMG squad, a Scout squad (Junior leader and 6 men, all with SMGs), two Maxim MMG teams, a 45cm anti-tank gun with crew and a junior leader and a Commissar. 

I have armoured cars, various tanks and a SU-76 as vehicle support too and I have a number of painted figures that are surplus to my units.

I've also still got a few things left to paint, mostly extra riflemen, so who knows what else I'll be able to turn the leftovers into in the future? 
 

My review of what I completed in 2023

Of course, at the start of the year I had many good intentions, so, how did I do? The picture below is something I didn't plan, but it came up quite early on as something I wanted to paint.

They were two North Star figures that were the subject of a painting challenge set by Nick Eyre, the North Star supremo. I think they turned out pretty well although I didn't win. The standard was really high and I never expected to win. It was fun painting them, though

Here were my actual plans;

15mm WW2 British Airborne support options for Chain of Command (these will be my January priority).

15mm WW2 German support options for Chain of Command

Stargrave plastic box sets for Xenos Rampant armies

Various other plastic sets that will work for Xenos Rampant with head and weapons swaps.

28mm Spanish for Sharp Practice 

28mm Bloody Miniatures 17th century troopers

28mm 17th century Bicorne Miniatures Pikemen and Musketeers (these will augment my existing Bloody Miniatures figures to make up useful forces for various sets of rules)

15mm extra units for my SYW Honours Of War army, infantry and artillery mostly

28mm Wild West figures for Dead Man's Hand and anything else.

15mm Renaissance army for Sword and Spear Fantasy (with a Warhammer Fantasy Empire theme)

15mm Northwest Frontier Imperial and Afghan forces and buildings (this is a new project)

Continuing building up my scenic collection in 15mm and 28mm, including lots of 28mm Sci Fi scenics

1/285 scale 8th Army and DAK for O Group

Crossfire 15mm US infantry company

15mm WW2 1943-45 British/Commonwealth infantry for the Far East.

28mm Pulp figures for all sorts of things (I have too many of these in my leadpile)

Additions to my 28mm Perry plastic Renaissance collection

Silver Bayonet - I completed a Spanish band

28mm Soviet Women, also for Chain of Command (from the Bad Squiddo Kickstarter)

28mm Late Roman skirmishing and armoured cavalry, and cataphracts too.

15mm Romano-British "Arthurian" army for Sword and Spear Fantasy

If the above is highlighted in green, I achieved it as planned. If it is in yellow, I started it but have plenty left to do and if it is in blue, it is an ongoing project. Scenics will always come under that heading.

 Anything not highlighted hasn't been started and will probably get dropped for 2024, although I now have the North-west Frontier figures and they might get looked at during the year. In the case of the 15mm SYW extra units, that isn't going to happen at all.

The Bicorne Miniatures stuff is almost completed. I did all the Musketeers and the Pikemen are almost finished, so they will get done quite soon, hopefully. They were victims of the dose of Painter's Block I had during the last couple of months of 2023.

Overall, I am reasonably happy with what I actually achieved but it was a case of Could Try Harder.

I'll do a separate post covering my 2024 plans soon. I have fewer firm objectives for the coming year, and a few ideas for side projects to stop me getting bored. What I want to avoid is getting dragged off down rabbit holes and buying stuff because I suddenly get a burning desire to start something that looks interesting. I expect it'll happen, though.

Four units of Knightly Orders for my 15mm Warhammer Empire project

Well, two real ones and two inspired by the idea of knightly Orders First, two units of Reiksguard Knights;

 Obviously, they have to be given a white/red colour palette, so that is what I did. I don't really have anything to add to that. 

Next a single unit painted in a red and blue colour scheme, which I think ought to make them Altdorf Knights, but maybe not one of the "official" Orders but perhaps the guards of a powerful noble in Imperial service. Anyway, my army, my colour schemes.

Finally, a complete invention, mainly because I wanted something unique and I was playing around with washes and different metallic colours. I present to you The Knights of The Rose Cross;

These had copper horse barding with oiled steel highlights and white cloth under that and black surcoats on the knights, but I wasn't happy with how they looked, so I washed them in Winsor and Newton dark red drawing ink. Intitally, I wasn't sure, but the colour scheme grew on me. I added a pink standard from an 18th century Prussian cavalry unit,  reduced in size to fit.

I'm sure that some people will say "Yuck!" but they will certainly stand out on the tabletop.

Once again, these are all from Alternative Armies.

I've primed up some infantry now and also figures for two more command bases for Sword and Spear Fantasy, so more painting to get working on!

15mm Empire artillery

Artillery in Sword and Spear Fantasy can be pretty devastating, but it needs to be protected. So, for my Warhammer Empire army, I've put together two units of Imperial great cannon, and here they are;

Clearly, in reality, each base should really only have one cannon and maybe some gabions but artillery is quite an expensive option in S&SF and I rather like the look of a crowded base in 15mm. I think that they will look OK on the table.

Next, I'm going to be finishing off the rest of my mounted Knightly Orders (men-at-arms on barded horses) and after than, I'll begin work on the infantry.

Some characters and leaders for my 15mm Warhammer Empire project

All armies need leaders, and in fantasy armies they need heroes and wizards too. So, here are a few I've completed.

Above are two generals for my army, once again from Alternative Armies. The figure on the left could quite easily be the Emperor Karl Franz and the other just has to be an Elector Count. Both are accompanied by standard bearers

Next, some Imperial Battle Wizards;

The two on the left are mounted and dismounted versions of Leonardo Da Vinci and the right-hand pair are Niccolo Machiavelli, from the Alternative Armies renaissance collection but I think that these are great as wizards. In Sword and Spear Fantasy, wizards don't really dominate games, I find them most useful to either bolster units in combat or to try and remove hits on units at the end of game turns.

I've given the mounted Leonardo figure a barded horse, to mark him out as a wizard of great power and repute.

I like wizards in purple, it seems a good colour for the Hermetic Arts and the Occult.

Finally, what self-respecting Empire army would be without a Hero on a Gryphon? Well, certainly not mine.

One of the things I like about Alternative Armies' figure ranges is that you can buy mounted figures and mounts separately, as seen here. The Hero is a man-at-arms from the Renaissance range and the Gryphon is from their 15mm Fantasy range. I think he will look pretty impressive on the table.

 

A Warhammer Fantasy Empire-themed army in 15mm

A long time ago, I created a renaissance army for HoTT, which I based upon the Warhammer Fantsy Empire province of Averland. I still have it, but I rarely play HoTT nowadays. However, I am always thinking about renaissance wargaming and a year or so ago I bought a load of Alternative Armies figures in the form of two complete (French and Italian) Italian Wars armies plus some extra odds and ends. My plan was to create a Warhammer Fantasy Empire army that I could use for Sword and Spear and, especially Sword and Spear Fantasy.

Obviously the figures aren't an exact match and the Warhammer Empire didn't have any pike blocks, but I don't see that as being too important. It is the theme that counts.Anyway, I've now made a start and here are some of my first efforts.

The top picture shows two units of mounted men-at-arms who I have painted up to represent The Order of Knights Panther. I've stuck to a blue and yellow palette and also painted their helmet plumes in a desert yellow colour to give an impression of tan panther pelts.

The lower picture is of two army generals, using the mounted versions of Georg von Frundsberg (left) and Cesare Borgia (right) with standard bearers. The former does a reasonable impersonation of the Emperor Karl Franz of Warhammer fame.

Banners are a problem. There are plenty of images on the internet, but they are very large and generally only show one side of the flag. So, I've had to download large images, shrink them considerably (which loses all the detail), create a mirror image and then join the two halves together before printing them off. They aren't great, but they will have to do.

All my units will be on 8 cm wide bases, with any Heroes, Monsters and War Wagons on 4 cm bases and leaders and magicians on round bases. I will be able to reuse my Leonardo Da Vinci turtle tank as a WarWagon and maybe also some of the other HoTT bases as Heroes too.

Unlike real renaissance armies, my units will all be painted in uniform colour schemes, to create that Empire appearance, but I can still use them in historical games too.

I bought this at the beginning of 2022 .............

............... and now, more than 21 months later, I've actually painted it!

It is a PaK 40 7.5cm anti-tank gun with five crew and a junior leader. It will be a deadly addition to my collection of German support options for Chain of Command.

The gun and figures are from Peter Pig, as are all my WW2 German troops. I decided to put all the crew on a single base and use a small dice to record casualties. Because of the size of the gun, I had to base it on a 6cm MDF disc, so putting the crew on the same base made sense. It gives the whole thing a smaller footprint than having some of the crew on separate bases, which is easier for removing casualties.

So, now I have a big A/T gun for my Heer. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it on the table in the not too distant future.

Winter Wonder Lard 2023

So, yesterday saw a disparate bunch of Lardy gamers, and Richard Clarke of TooFatLardies himself, head down to Bristol Independent Gaming in South Bristol for a day of Lardy Goodness, followed by beer and curry. I was running a 15mm game of Big Chain Of Command with four players in the morning and here are a few pictures from it;

The scenario was based around the fighting near Bréville-les-Monts in the aftermath of the D Day landings in June 1944. In this scenario, the fighting was concentrated to the south-west of the village of Bréville-les-Monts between elements of 9th Parachute Battalion's C company and troops from the Festung Grenadier-Regiment 857 supported by armoured assault vehicles.

The terrain was deceptive, a ridge above a road lower down the slopes with plenty of dead ground, low ridges, hedgerows and interrupted lines of sight, small wooded areas and a paddock (visible on the upper edge of the first photo. The German objective was the crossroads halfway along the road along the ridge. Unbeknown to the British airborne troops, the Germans had a pre-registered target for their limited off-table mortar support (only two barrages were allowed) and that target was the objective itself. 9 Para would also suffer from an unpredictable availability of troops due to the dispersed nature of the airborne and glider drops on D Day itself. 9 Para had moved to the area around Bréville-les-Monts on 7th June following the action at the Merville Battery where it had suffered casualties.

The game itself was pretty brutal for both sides and resulted in a German win. Of course, in real life, the fighting would continue for several days more before Bréville-les-Monts was captured and the German offensive was broken.

In the afternoon, I played  in a terrific 28mm game of Chain of Command set somewhere in Egypt between 8th Army and Afrika Korps troops trying to gain control of the Ark of The Covenant. This was amazingly enjoyable, and featured aggressive camels, mysterious men wearing fezzes, blasts of ancient magic, reanimated evil mummies, Indiana Jones (who perished at the hands of the Chief Mummy) and many more pitfalls, as well as normal CoC things. The game resulted in a British victory, but it went right down to the wire in the end.

Here are a few photos;

The day was organised by David Hunter, hosted by Jim and Ellen at BIG and the curry arranged by Andy Crow, who all deserve a huge round of applause.

My plans for 2023

Well, I've been pondering what I want/need to get on with over the next 12 months, and looking at the metal, plastic and resin mountain to see what I really ought to do something about, even if it is only because the various things have been hanging around for ages.

There are things that fell off the bottom of my 2022 list that I will definitely work on, as well as others that might get done. There are also a few things that won't happen and one or two that might end up as something else.

So, here are the things I will definitely be aiming at getting done. The higher up the list, the more likely they will get an early start;

15mm WW2 British Airborne support options for Chain of Command (these will be my January priority).

15mm WW2 German support options for Chain of Command

Stargrave plastic box sets for Xenos Rampant armies

Various other plastic sets that will work for Xenos Rampant with head and weapons swaps.

28mm Spanish for Sharp Practice 

28mm Bloody Miniatures 17th century troopers

28mm 17th century Bicorne Miniatures Pikemen and Musketeers (these will augment my existing Bloody Miniatures figures to make up useful forces for various sets of rules)

15mm extra units for my SYW Honours Of War army, infantry and artillery mostly

28mm Wild West figures for Dead Man's Hand and anything else.

15mm Renaissance army for Sword and Spear Fantasy (with a Warhammer Fantasy Empire theme)

15mm Northwest Frontier Imperial and Afghan forces and buildings (this is a new project)

Continuing building up my scenic collection in 15mm and 28mm, including lots of 28mm Sci Fi scenics

1/285 scale 8th Army and DAK for O Group

Crossfire 15mm US infantry company

15mm WW2 1943-45 British/Commonwealth infantry for the Far East.

28mm Pulp figures for all sorts of things (I have too many of these in my leadpile)

Additions to my 28mm Perry plastic Renaissance collection

Silver Bayonet

28mm Soviet Women, also for Chain of Command (from the Bad Squiddo Kickstarter)

28mm Late Roman skirmishing and armoured cavalry, and cataphracts too.

15mm Romano-British "Arthurian" army for Sword and Spear Fantasy

The thing about all of the above is that I already have the necessary figures for most of this, apart from the extra units for my SYW army and more Perry 15th century plastic infantry, so the only thing stopping me from making a start on this list is my own laziness and habit of playing with the dogs, reading books and listening to music instead of prepping and painting minis.

Of course, there are lots of other odds and ends hanging around that might get worked on simply because I feel like a change. I've got lots of Fantasy stuff that I really ought to do something about this year, including a box of Wargames Atlantic giant spiders, which would definitely work for Xenos Rampant.

Dragoons and Hussars for my 15mm SYW project

Here are the last of my cavalry for my Honours of War 15mm imagi-nation, The Grand Duchy of Überwald.

First, a brigade of Dragoons, with their brigadier;

I decided that the Dragoons, because of their roots as mounted infantry would wear the standard grey coats of Überwald infantry regiments but with orange facings. The Dragoon regiments would be distinguished by different coloured breeches and the trim on their horse blankets. Here, I have given one unit yellow breeches and the other has light blue ones.

Obviously, by the time of the SYW these dragoons would be classed as medium cavalry, rather than having a dismounted role.

My last set of cavalry are the Hussars;

I've given both regiments green dolmans and pelisses, but different coloured breeches, boots, fur trim and busby bags (which match their breeches). I decided that all Hussars in the Überwald army would have red shabraques edged in white, but I'm not really planning to paint any more regiments of Hussars, mainly because they aren't really dealt with properly in the Honours of War rules. The rules make it clear that if you want useful cavalry they have to be heavy ones, which is a shame. Hussar uniforms are always so striking.

I had a couple of spare figures left over, so I decided to rebase two of my brigadier figures to add an extra figure on each base;

I think that this looks a lot better than just having one figure and I might have to look around for a few spares to improve my remaining brigadier bases.

Anyway, I've now finished off everything I bought up front for this army. If I want to add anything different, I'll have to spend more money with Essex Miniatures.  I do quite like the idea of a Freikorps brigade, maybe a couple of battalions of line infantry and one of skirmishers, perhaps with a squadron of cavalry of some kind. I'd also like to do some allied heavy cavalry, based upon the Essex SYW British Horse Grenadiers. There is no rush, though.

Three units of heavy cavalry for my SYW imaginations project

So, it is time for the cavalry part of my Uberwald SYW army. First, three units of big men on big horses, i.e cuirassiers, the armoured fist of the mounted arm.

These are the Garde zu Pferde, resplendent in their blue uniforms, led by their Brigadier and a trumpeter.

Next are two squadrons of line Cuirassiers, wearing buff uniforms.

These units could all be brigaded together or I might use them as shock troops to be supported by Dragoons and Hussars.

My last three SYW infantry battalions

I've finally nearly everything done for my Honours of War project, apart from the cavalry. Here are my last three infantry battalions;

Overall, I am pretty happy with what I've done with this army so far. Even without cavalry it is a pretty reasonable force. It would certainly suffice for most games of Honours of War.

I'll be working on the cavalry over the rest of September and into October, but for the moment I will be concentrating on a 28mm Austrian Napoleonic project that I really should have got on with last year. 

Allied infantry battalions for my 15mm SYW project

The Grand Duchy of Überwald's army usually includes allied units.

These two battalions represent troops recruited in the Margravate of Streslau. The current Grand Duke, Carl Emanuel III was the Margrave of Streslau before succeeding his father, Carl Emanuel II to the title several years ago. Streslau has been a feudal vassal of Überwald since the 16th century and provides well-respected and stubborn infantry to the Ducal Army.

The infantry regiments of Streslau wear green uniforms and their standards are distinguished by the yellow Cross of St Alberich, the patron saint of Streslau.