WWI Russian Reinforcements

 As my WWI Russian cavalry had a slightly off-putting 9 cavalrymen, I placed an order to North Star Miniatures to top up the unit to a nice, round number of 10.  But of course I can never order just one thing!  So I added a couple extra packs, and here they are.

First up, here are a pair of generals from Crusader Miniatures Boxer Rebellion line.  I had an idea that Boxer Rebellion would be close enough to WWI, especially for officers.  The officer in the great coat fits in well for WWI, but the chap in the tunic and cap didn't match my other WWI Russians.  On the other hand I thought he was a good fit for my 1880-ish Russian general!  So I gave him a white coat and red trousers to match the Russian forces for Central Asia.

Copplestone identifies these as 'Cossack Standard Bearers', but in my mind the flag poles can just as easily be lances, so two of these are lancers.  The miniatures in the pack are in a mix of uniforms so I painted one to match the WWI cavalry, and the other two to match the Circassian cossacks for Central Asia.

The great thing about the unchanging nature of the uniforms worn by these Circassians is that I can justify using them any time from the mid-nineteenth century right up to WWII.  The black-yellow-white tricolour flag, however, is a bit more specific.  It was phased out in the 1890s in favour of the white-blue-red tricolour of Peter the Great.  So the standard is great for the army conquering Central Asia, but not so much for WWI.

I painted the other Copplestone cavalryman to match the uniform worn by the horsemen I got from Siberia Miniatures.  The Copplestone horse and rider are a bit bigger than the Siberians, but with the same paint scheme they fit together pretty well.

Mixed into the unit, he and his mount are visibly larger, but for my purposes he fits in well enough.

To round out the order, I picked up a Copplestone Castings field gun.  

The base is a funny, wedge-shaped bit of wood that I had in my bits box.  I suppose I could have trimmed off the pointed end, but it does no harm as it is.

Here is the Copplestone field gun next to the Siberia miniatures field gun with navy crew.

German reinforcements

 It's been a couple of months since my last post, apologies for the lack of content.  Things have been busy.  Painting and gaming have been on the back burner, but still slowly progressing.

First up, a German command pack from Warlord Games!  Naturally, there is the stern commander, complete with monocle, who will is a fantastic looking figure but will likely only take part in a pulp-style adventure game!  Of more practical use are the medic and the forward observer/radio operator.  And of course, one more tough, veteran NCO with MP40.  He certainly looks the part, but I really have more of these SMG-wielding NCOs than I have need for!

In the Chain of Command Blitzkrieg 1940 book, some German platoon are allocated 4 squads, and on most lists even for the 3-squad platoons, a fourth platoon is a support option.  Accordingly, I decided I needed another squad, "just in case".  These troops are from Artizan Designs.  Although the other troops in the platoon are from Crusader, I wanted to add these Artizans for the fourth squad, partly for variety and also because Mike Owen, Artizan's owner and sculptor, actively collaborated with Mark Sims of Crusader to ensure the figures would be compatible.  Strictly speaking, the Artizan figures are designed for 1942, so there are some minor uniform differences with the 1939/40 uniforms of the Crusaders.  I'm not sufficiently educated in these details to spot the differences, though!

Another option from the Blitzkrieg book is to field Germans with antiquated, World War I era equipment.  To allow for this option, I picked up some Great War Miniatures Germans armed with MG08/15 machine guns.  In this case, I CAN spot some of the differences with the WWII uniforms!  I did minor modifications (scraping away the puttees and painting them to look like boots), but at arm's length, they will serve just fine, and will show which squads have the obsolete machine gun instead of the MG34.

I also procured another Panzer IV for my German forces on Sicily.  I did this as I volunteered to host a game of What A Tanker at the Trumpeter Society's annual Trumpeter Salute convention next weekend, and I wanted 4 German medium tanks to counter the 4 Sherman tanks that I've lined up to face them!  This tank is a Warlord Games model, painted to match the other German armour I've already got.  

A one-eyed fat man and a one-legged spy

 When I recently purchased some Crusader Miniatures from North Star, I added a few extra figures to my order, including an old west marshal and an SOE operative working behind enemy lines in France during WWII.

The marshal, derided as a 'one-eyed fat man' by his opponents, is based on John Wayne's portrayal of Rooster Cogburn in the 1969 version of 'True Grit'.

I managed to break the horse's legs when cleaning the miniature and attaching it to the base, so I built up around the legs with green stuff.  It then looked like the horse was up to its withers in mud, so I added a bit of teddy bear fur to make it look like the horse had kicked up some dust.

Here is the video clip I copied for the paint palette.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-cPWheNyaA

My next offering is one of Bad Squiddo's SOE agents, this one based on Virginia Hall, the one-legged agent who managed to avoid capture while operating in German-occupied France, despite being obviously not French, and having a pretty distinct physical handicap besides!  She is a figure that I noted as missing from my collection previously when I added some other Bad Squiddos.  

Unfortunately, my camera's autofocus chose to focus on the background instead of the figure, so these are not the best representation of Ms Hall.  Or perhaps, a manifestation of the evasion skills that she practiced so effectively in France in 1942!

German Platoon for early WWII

I've got my basic German force ready for action.  No doubt I'll gradually add a greater variety of support options, but I've now got enough to put them in a game, if I can ever make time for one!

The platoon (aka zug) has a small command team and three squads.

The command team consists of the officer (leutnant), senior NCO (feldwebel) and a three-man 5cm mortar team.  Senior leaders are on street-style bases so they easily stand out from the other soldiers.

Each squad has 10 men, including the squad leader (obergefreiter/JL), a three-man MG34 team and a 6-man rifle team.  The JL is on a taller, 3D-sculpted base, the LMG team on 25mm bases and the rifle team on 20mm bases to help to easily tell them apart.

Second squad is mostly kneeling, as an additional visual aid!

And third squad.

Many of the potential supports aren't necessarily Wehrmacht assets (like Shabby Nazi Tricks), or will not necessarily show up on the table (like pre-game bombardments).  I do however have a few supports ready to show up on the table.  These include the tripod-mounted MG34 (in a support role), the Pak36 anti-tank gun and the sIG 33 infantry gun, as well as a Leichter Panzerspähwagen (light armoured car, aka the SdKfz221), an Opel Blitz troop carrier truck and a collection of pioneers.

Not shown is my Panzer P38(t).

So, ready for action!  I may add a fourth squad to allow some more flexibility with the army lists:  'first wave' units apparently had four squads available.  I may also find some WWI-era MG08 machine guns to show the use of older weapons by some German units.  And of course I'll be on the lookout for more armour: can't have a Blitzkrieg German army without loads of Panzers!

German Pioniere

 Now that I've finished up the base infantry for the platoon (or zug, I suppose, since they are German), here is the start of the support units.  Since I am planning this unit for Chain of Command, pioniere arrive in teams of three men.  I've started with one pack of Crusader Miniatures' German Assault Engineers for the specialists, to be supplemented as necessary with one or more riflemen to make up numbers.

Here is a group shot.

The justifiably feared flamethrower or flammenwerfer, with a couple of riflemen in support.

And three more specialists, including a chap armed with a bag of grenades and a grenade launching sturmpistole.  Not sure when I'll use him, but he looks ready for action.  In addition, there looks to be a demolition expert and a fellow with a mine detector.  I'm not 100% certain the mine detector was available to the Wehrmacht in 1940, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

And finally, a group photo!