German officers and NCOs

I finished these up last night while watching Rogue One with Arthur.  I joked with him that I was painting Imperial soldiers, which was somewhat apt as Lucas et al were inspired by German uniforms.  But then we carried on to note that all the main powers in WWI were Empires, including German, but also British, Russian, Japanese, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman, and even the French Republic had imperial colonies, as did Italy!

Anyway, here are some officers and non-commissioned officers, plus a few other headquarters types for the late WWI Germans.  These are from Great War Miniatures.

I've put them on hex bases to help the leaders stand out from the rank and file troops.  These ones are more front line types, ready to lead the troops into action.

And this group are more of the HQ types, directing the action, managing communications and trying to keep up!  Many of these figures have Iron Crosses or ribbons, one even has the Blue Max.  I'm not thrilled with my painting of these medals, they are too small for me!  

Here is a comparison of a Wargames Atlantic plastic soldier with a Great War Miniatures metal figure.  The WGA has a more slender rifle, but for me the two fit well enough on the same battelfield.

And finally, I found this wee Wargames Foundry fellow in the lead mountain.  The Foundry WWI figures are noticeably smaller than WGA or GWM. I wouldn't recommend mixing them in the same force. 

CEF Supporting Arms

 Here are some supporting troops for my late WWI CEF - an 18-pdr, a Vickers MMG and some more signallers.  

By the later stages of WWI, most front line infantry were issued one or more Lewis guns per platoon.  With Lewis guns now issued to front line troops, the Vickers guns were mostly gathered into dedicated Machine Gun Companies.  This gun team has my attempt at the insignia of the 3rd Company of the 1st Canadian Machine Gun Battalion.  I assembled this gun out of pieces that were in my lead mountain. The front two legs of the tripod were missing, so I fabricated replacements from plastic rod.  Unlike the MMG team I prepared for the Germans, these are both fixed to the base.  

There is also an 18-pdr for the late war CEF.  I already have 5 early war 18-pdrs plus one more with winter kit - now the late war troops have their own.

For this gun team, only one gunner is fixed to the model.

 The rest of the crew are based individually for casualty removal or if a different number of crew members are required.

And to finish up here are some signallers (with the white over blue arm band), including one on a motorcycle, plus a trench raider and a couple of red-tabbed staff officers.

Two More Western Buildings

 Happy New Year!  To start off 2024, here are a couple of buildings to expand my Old West gaming town.

First up is the Renedra Ramshackle House.  I didn't know this existed until I saw it on the shelf at The Sentry Box in Calgary.  I already have several buildings from this series, a collaboration between Perry Miniatures and Renedra, so it fits in with my current collection quite nicely.  

I assembled the roof to be removable so that figures can be placed inside.  This building comes with a floor, unlike the other buildings in the series.  Other than the floor, I chose not to decorate the building interior.

The house is slightly undersized compared to 28mm miniatures, especially when bases are considered.

Here are all five of my Renedra/Perry Miniatures buildings, including the ramshackle barn, store, ramshackle house, church and farmhouse.

Next up is an MDF two-storey shop from Sarissa Precision.  

Arthur picked up this kit months ago.  It has been sitting unassembled here for months until he finally asked me to finish it for him.  During the wait, two of the risers for the stairs disappeared.  Taking advantage of this, I did not attempt to replace them, instead leaving the gaps which are just the right size to allow a figure to rest part way up the stairs.

Figures fit nicely on the stairs.

The building is designed to allow figures to more around inside.  Although I again chose not to finish the interior!

Just as the Renedra building is slightly under scale, the Sarissa building is slightly over scale!  This has an advantage of allowing figures to move around easily inside the building.  On the other hand, it means that the Sarissa shop doesn't really match the others in my little town!  It's also somewhat delicate.  The balcony in front has already come apart once, requiring repair, and the stairs in the back are going to require some delicate handling.  Still, it was nice to build and paint and by adding a two-storey building the wild west games will get wilder!