Last Painting Push for Partizan

With the Partizan show at the weekend I am making an effort to finish some bits and bobs.

As always I am out of time for some last minute additions but others will be on table.

Also I decided to try the black background for the light box, I find it has worked very well with this latest batch so will try it again.

Coming off the painting table whilst I wait for more Mongolians we have a varied bunch of figures.

This unit wont see Partizan. The lovely Empress WW1 German gun and crew have polish jackets and will form the 4th gun for my Polish forces. Love these, I should point out that chum Chris built and then painted the gun for me and a lovely job he has done too.

The Empress figures from Paul Hicks are just lovely. I find the Hicks figures usually fit my painting style and come out well, very pleased with this lot. Very German looking but still with the Polish collar tabs and odd armband thrown in.

The second Empress gun and crew also by Hicks, are Russian. I have given them a mix of Khaki and the parade uniforms sometimes found in Civil War units. The green trousers and caps were artillery uniform for the Imperial army.

Again really happy with how both gun and crew have turned out, this one will definately feature in the Partizan game so I better get my skates on basing it.

The Gun officer has been painted as a Company commander and basis for another company of Whites, along with a spare figure from the recently painted MG crew and two spare White infantry troopers, thats half a company already done. I have a sprue of Wargames Atlantic Russians that look very nice to build and paint and make up the rest of this unit.

Quite how three Legionaires for Mexico got painted at the same time I am not quite sure, but I fancied these and had some time whilst the Mongols were in the post. Foundry figures, the one on the right has a head swap with a head from Steve Barber.

Managing to complete and base a couple of these for the game I thought Would share images

The Empress Howitzer is a lovely peice and the Hicks sculpts sublime as usual.

I have included a smatter of artillery green caps and trousers in the crew.

Also completed are two companies of Cossack Plastun, or Cossack infantry.

The majority are again Empress Hicks sculpts from the Tsuba miniatures 1904 range.

I do however have 3 Studio Siberia figures mixed in, on the left in this picture, the foot cossacks would have been a bit poorer and as they bought their own gear its likely some couldn't afford the Kuban Cossack coat or the regulation red or black shirts. So there are some Khaki and civilian white ones mixed in.

The black background seems to working better than white so I may stick with this for future.

Lovely figures very pleased with them, I have an MG and officer to finish and this weak battalion is complete. 

Lastly the Polish Howitzer,

A lovely model the Empress Miniatures gun was built and painted for me by chum Chris Charlton, thanks Chris an absolutely cracking job.

Really pleased with how it has turned out, although this is Polish and the uniform colours are right the troops have retained their old German army field caps.

The Empress figures are Paul Hicks sculpts and as usual are lovely.

Over all pretty pleased with progress.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Larger Sharp Practice Game AAR

We returned to Sharp Practice this week with the 40mm Peninsular collection.

I decided I wanted quite different forces and push the size of the units to see how it impacted the game. Quite a lot it turns out.

For our game Chris Charlton commanded two formations of 32 Spanish infantry each with 3 level 1 commanders to allow the unit to be broken up. He also had a Spanish heavy field gun and a troop of British Light Dragoons.

Steve meanwhile had a formation of 40 Hessians with 2 level 1 and 1 level 2 commanders plus 4 six man skirmish units each with a level 1 commander.

So 72 Spanish and 64 French.

The French/Hessian deployment point was next to the Villa in their own half of the table whilst the Spanish deployment point was on their own table edge. Each side needed to capture and hold the villa.

I also allowed 2 of the French skirmish units to deploy already on table to allow them to get into to position and have half a chance against the artillery.

I already had in my mind how this would play out, the British cavalry flanking left forcing the French to hive units off to keep them at bay, the Hessians occupying the Villa to use its walls as cover from the gun, the skirmishers nuibbling away at the advancing Spanish.

Probably not surprisingly none of that happened as the players had their own ideas.

First move the Hessians occupy a position between the villa and the woods to the right flank of the villa, two units of French skirmishers started to deploy into the Villa grounds, the other two to ruined walls either side.

The British Dragoons meanwhile deployed to their right flank and the gun to the open Spanish left flank with the infantry marching straight up the middle one formation behind the other.

As the French Voltiguers get into position behind the walls and ruins the French are almost deployed and a quick shot from the left flank unit empties a Light Dragoon saddle.

The Spanish are still sorting themselves out and slowly moving forward.

The Light Dragoons however get two sets of cards back to back and charge the Voltiguers.

The French stand firm and with the cover of the wall have almost as many dice in combat as the Cavalry.

The net result is the French lose just one Voltiguer and the Light Dragoons have two troopers dragged from their saddles, losing the melee they are forced to retreat.

The Spanish have got going, Chris sacrificing a cohesive line in order to just get forward.

The Light Dragoons take more casualties from skirmisher fire as they try to rally and eventually, down to three troopers from eight, they break.

Things may however be about to change as the Spanish heavy gun is deployed and made ready. Its first shot into the Voltiguers ont he French right wipes the unit out to a man

The Spanish are now at long range and the Hessians unleash a first volley supported by skirmishers and they are now inflicting casualties.

The Irish regiment responds with a volley of its own and the Green faced regiment passes through to fire its own volley.

At this point we start to see why such large units do less well in gaming terms as the casualties are spread over the formation and nobody seems to take enough hits for anything to happen for quite some time.

The game has devolved into an attritional firefight, the Spanish gun joins the slaughter but with the walls blocking visibility is not inflicting huge casualties on the Hessians.

40 Hessians and 18 skirmishers however are taking a toll on the front unit of Spanish, as the night closes there is an hour of play left but the outcome is not really in doubt and we declare a French/Hessian victory.

Its been great to get so many of the lovely 40mm figures on table and try a different game out. It does however highlight  a need for somethign different for larger games.

Lots of fun and thanks for bearing with me Chris and Steve.

Thanks for stopping by.

A bunch of Completed Based 1919-20 Figures and Buildings to Share

With some help from Chum Steve I have a whole bunch of completed figures and units to share with you.

These figures are all based around the Partizan potential demo games either for Poland or Mongolia both 1920. Mongolia looking most likely on the basis that most of the figures required are already done.

So filling in some gaps firstly a Russian Officer from the lovely STP range carried by Studio Siberia and more recently for the boxed sets by Empress. The Cherry Cap and black band mark him as an Officer of the General Kornilov shock division. In Mongolia he will simply be an White officer.

The Russians, both red and white, have relatively few Machine Guns so I am remedying that for the game, this one is unusual as its set up on its stand rather than its wheels. This is from the Empress range of figures which is becoming quite extensive now.

This Tchana for my Kuban Cossacks is a 3d printed model ery kindly gifted by chum Chris Charlton, many thanks Chris. I really enjoyed painting this.

I think it is marketed as a WW2 peice but works well enough for me for 1920.

For the Poles I have a second squadron of the Uhlans with yellow pennants and hat bands. Sorry I am not sure what unit they are but I have the unforms from mutliplle imgaes I have found.

The first squadron are nearly all old Renegade Germans on whatever horses I could find, many Redoubt from their Zulu war range, these are a mix of renegade and Scheltum on a mix of Scheltrum and Mutineer miniatures horses, which go well with each other given they are all based on the Ebob horses. The heads are mainly Studio Siberia with a splash of Scheltrum heads.

These are in the 1919 Polish uniform but the cavalry breaches with the yellow stripe added to the collar tabs and cap band give a nice splash of colour. I have another bunch of these to do so will make an effort to translate some of my sources from Polish to let you know what regiment they are.

Also for this project I picked up a couple of bomb damaged houses at Vapnartak in York earlier this year. 

Nice 3d printed buildings equally useful for Poland or Russia, sorry no idea of the company name, it was a table full of buildings run by some nice people, if I knew I would be going back for some more.

The Paint jobs are quick and easy mainly relying on dry brushing to varying degrees.

The shell holes in various parts of the buildings are a nice touch.

Building two is slightly smaller and simpler but in some ways I like it better.

My painting was based on existing examples of cottages with white painted log walls and grey wood tiled rooves. Add to this darker patches where there is smoke damage.

Simple but effective I feel, I will get a couple more if I find the company again. I might even be able to use these for retreat from Moscow games when I get back to that old project!

These last are mainly for Mongolian game, I may try get a sneaky gun and crew and maybe the Cossack Plastoon finished too but time is against me. 

Anyway tried these with a brown background, oddly it washed out some of the images. Firstly White Russian MG.

Copplestone Back of Beyond range, fairly generic paint job so they mix in.

Another unit of Kuban Cossacks. All from the Empress range, initially Tsuba figures for the Russo Japanese War.

The horses are Ebob and came out really nice. The horses and riders are a little small so wont mix but fine by themselves.

The figures themselces are really quite lovely, typical Paul Hicks beauties.

Notice the Cherkeska coats are a mix of colours and the Gymnasterka shirts are too, with civilian white and army Khaki mixed with black and parade ground red shirts. The Cossacks provided a lot of their own gear so an opportunity to make each one a litle indvidual.

This chap on the left is probably my favourite with a blue grey Cherkeska.

So thats it for now, Thanks for stopping by.