Christmas, TMT Progress and Talvisota / Winter War Chain of Command – Part 1 The Soviet Platoon

On 24/12/201620/02/2017 By The OneIn 15mm, 6mm, Chain of Command rules, Finnish Winter, Continuation and Lapland Wars, Painting, Uncategorized7 Comments

soviet soldier.jpg — Red Army Soldier with the typical pointy Budenovka hat that was still in use during the Winter War period. The picure is taken from SA-kuva (Finnish Armed Forces Photographs) and you can find their webpage here.

Towards Moscow Trilogy Progress

I considered just putting up some old pictures and change the titles – I might get away with it for individual units but I am afraid it would fail en masse at the Joy of Six in July next year. Anyway, joke aside and in line with the promise I solemnly made to myself I did force myself to complete a few more bases for the Project. This time 3 No. Russian Dragoon regiments (As before these are from Baccus 6mm).

Astrachanski Regiment

xmas1

Nevska Regiment

xmas2

Kievska Regiment

Winter War – Chain of Command

A little bit of an intro

The Winter War was the invasion by Soviet Union of Finland in 1939 (30 November) to 1940 (13 April) in order to protect its interest as it, amongst other things, perceived Leningrad’s proximity to the Finnish border being a security issue. This short war showed the difference between a bad & overoptimistic plan, inadequate equipment & training for the theatre of war, unmotivated & badly led men (remember Stalin’s 1936 t0 1938 purges of the Red Army leadership) against a disciplined, trained and mobile force of highly motivated soldiers who used the arctic conditions to its advantage. Although the Soviet Union won the war it was not the quick and total victory that had been expected.

winter-war-propaganda-poster — Finnish Propaganda poster from the Winter War saying something like “*Comrades, Red Army Soldiers. The Political Commissar drive you into death, and you say “Die yourself, you dog”.*

Onlookers marveled at the Finnish resolve but more importantly the incompetence and seemingly badly preparedness of the Red Army was noticed by the Germans and this is traditionally seen as one of the contributions to the start of the Barbarossa Campaign in 1941. However, although the lesson was correct in 1940 it did not consider that the Red Army had learned a few lessons too. The sobering and embarrassing experience of the War led the Red Army High command to review its performance and from this implement a number of reforms including changes to tactics, logistics, communications and training of officers. It also introduced the wider use of field mortars to support infantry, toned down the role of the political commissar, as well as the wider use of submachine guns. Although these changes were not fully implemented at the start of the Barbarossa campaign, the Red Army in 1941 was not the same army that invaded Finland in 1939.

The family on my mother’s side are Finnish and I have heard many stories from this period – some heroic but most of them being about the sad realities of war and the people that had to endure them directly and indirectly. For example one of my relatives, a pioneering educationalist working in the Finnish border areas, had to take home his two sons in coffins during the war – both of them were volunteers and the youngest was 17. My hobby is very much related to war and I think it is important to remember that in reality it is far from a game. This awareness does not take out the fun of it but adds respect to how I deal with it.

I recommend you read more about the conflict here and why not get a copy of the Talvisota/Winter War movie while you are at it. There is a good youtube video with Sabaton’s Talvisota with clips from the Talvisota movie – you can find it here (this is a good one, did I say that?). Other sources on the net that are worth checking out to start with are:

Sami Korhonen’s Battle of the Winter War webpage, here (lots of links to other useful stuff) – very good source.
The Jaeger Platoon webpage – weapons, formations and some battle write-ups as well as links to other information, here.
Some war stories can be found here. It forms part of the Axis History Forum’s Winter and Continuation war forum (here) with over 1800 topics.
And three relevant and good papers:
- New approaches to the study of Arctic warfare by Pasi Tuunainen, here.
- Elimination of pockets in Western Lemetti during January – February 1940: Use of German Experience with Storm Troops by the Finnish VI Army Corps, by Pasi Tuunainen, here.
- Finland in the Winter War by Ville Savin, on the Lardies website, here.

I find the following books useful and a good start:

The Winter War: The Russo-Finnish War of 1939-40 by William R. Trotter, link to the publisher here.
Finland at War: The Winter War 1939-40, by Vesa Nenye, Peter Munter and Toni Wirtanen (the second in the Series about the Continuation War is good too). Link to the publisher here (but could perhaps be bought cheaper elsewhere).

From a Wargaming perspective I intend to use the Chain of Command rules from Too Fat Lardies (they are really good and you can find them here). I also have a few other resources including the Skirmish Campaigns book Finland 39-40 The Winter War (This was not written for the Chain of Command rules but can easily be used for the system, and this have been discussed to some extent at the Chain of Command forum, here search for “Skirmish Campaigns and Chain of Command”).

Miniatures Used

I decided to do this project in 15mm and got myself a few packs of miniatures from Battlefront (yes 15mm Flames of War miniatures, sometimes you can find packs on ebay and other alternatives but if this fails buy it directly from Battlefront) as they were doing early war Finns and Soviets for their Rising Sun supplement (Well I got a fair few actually). The packs are still for Sale and I think they are ok – in addition buy some loose heads from Peter Pig of the German WW1 helmet and you could even buy some Japanese helmets without netting (to simulate the Swedish helmets worn by some units, the Swedish M-26 helmet is being used to make fake Japanese helmets being sold on the collectibles markets), and some German field caps and fur hats and you have some headswap options to create some variety with the same poses. Similarly for the Russian side you can get some early Sovietic helmets (known as the M-36, these were replace by the more iconic SSh-39). Your winter war Russian looks best with the pointy hats and/or the M-36 helmets.

Peter Pigs head range can be found here – snip off the head and drill a little hole, put some superglue and attach the new head (be careful and you will be fine, it is worth it).

I have added some additional things using more Peter Pig (main page here) stuff, some old Resistant Rooster stuff (here) as well as a few really old True North stuff (here, but I am not sure they are still in business?). But this is really for variety – the only issue with the Battlefront miniatures are the lack of LMGs.

Battlefront Finnish Packs Used

FI721 Jääkari Rifle Platoon (Winter) – main pack

FI722 Jääkäri SMG Platoon (Winter)

FI724 Machine-gun Platoon (Winter)

FI727 Tank-Hunter Platoon (Winter)

FSO113 Finnish Anti-tank Gun Group (Winter)

FSO112 Finnish Artillery Group (Winter)

FSO115 Finnish Sissi Troops (Winter)

SU500 45mm obr 1937 gun

FI570 76K/02 (76mm gun) (x2)

Battlefront Soviet Packs Used

SBX28 Strelkovy Company (Winter) – main pack

SSO120 Greatcoat Command & Komissar Team

SSO152 Artillery Group (Winter)

SU560 76mm obr 1927 gun (x2)

SSO153 Anti-tank Group (Winter)

SSO192 Soviet Dismounted Tank Crew

SSO151 Flame-thrower Platoon (Winter)

SU766 Sappers (Winter) Upgrade

SU301 BA-10

SU040 T-28

SU002 T-26S obr 1939

SU422 Zis-5 3-ton truck (x2)

Now to some more detail on the platoons, the Soviet Platoon this week and the Finnish Platoon next.

The Soviet Platoon

You can find the full army list from Too Fat Lardies here (The Platoon Force Rating is +6 for Regular and -2 for Green, 5 Command Dice when regular and 4 when Green. The Winter war forces are regarded as Green during the initial phase (Nov-39 to Jan-40) and can be regarded as Regular after that). These are not elegant maneuvering elements – this is brute force! UHRAAAAH!

I tried to go for some variety to the coats but painted the pointy hat in the same colour (with the red star) using a field bluish colour – it gives a somewhat uniform look to the units. It works for me. I got some inspiration from some nice photos from this site – it shows some reenactors of the conflict – both Finnish and Russian.

NOTE: The bases are in desperate need of some modelling snow flock – not done yet.

Platoon Headquarters – Leytenant Tretiak (Senior Leader with Pistol), Starshina Fetisov (Senior Leader with Rifle). The Starhina is from Battlefront and the Leytenant is from Peter Pig.

Squad One – Serzhant Kasatonov (Junior leader with Rifle), DP-28 LMG with two crew, twelve riflemen. All are from Battlefront.

Squad Two – Serzhant Krutov (Junior leader with Rifle), DP-28 LMG with two crew, twelve riflemen.All are from Battlefront I added a flag bearer to each squad for show, not sure this is realistic – but it looks good.

Squad Three – Serzhant Larionov (Junior leader with Rifle), DP-28 LMG with two crew, twelve riflemen. All are from Battlefront.

Squad Four – Serzhant Makarov (Junior leader with Rifle), DP-28 LMG with two crew, twelve riflemen. All are from Battlefront.

Support Options

List 1

SMG upgrade – PPD SMG – I made a few SMG armed ones based on Peter Pig winter war Russians with headswaps (using heads from the Battlefront Peaked cap miniatures or the Early Russian Helmet Head packs from Peter Pig). Not a very common weapon at this time of the war.

SVT-38 Semi-auto rifles – did not do specials for these. They were being tried during the Finnish Winter War. If they are used we just make a note and get on with it. Slightly longer than the normal rifle and a with a cartridge magazine. The initial reaction of the troops to this new rifle was negative as it was felt it was cumbersome, difficult to maintain and the magazine could fall of the rifle.

Engineering Teams – 3 men for each (Mine clearance, Wire Cutting, Demolition or what ever). These are from the Battlefront Sappers pack.

Other more terrainy stuff have to wait until I do my next battle (Minefield, Barded wire, entrenchments)

List 2

Mortar teams using the 50-PM 38 (50-mm company mortar model 1938), comes in the base winter infantry pack.

Flamethrower team, armed with the ROKS-2 Flamethrower designed to be easy to conceal on the battlefield (22.7kg, effective range 25 meters, but could fire up to 30-35 meters). The Finns captured some of these and they were later put in use as the Add to dictionary M/41-r. Nasty weapons. The are from the Flamethrower platoon pack.

For the pathetic but charming T37 see picture below, do not have a T-27 Tankette or a BA-20.

List 3

Sniper Team – this is just a standard infantry model from Battlefront without the bayonet and his spotter.

M1910 Maxim MMG (Will do a few more) – very dark picture again from Battlefront.

Political Commissar/Officer – I think this is a headswap story with a Peter Pig body and a Battlefront Peaked hat head. He is screaming out communist propaganda whilst running into the sights of the White Death.

For the T26 see the tank picture at the end. These are Battlefront.

List 4

Another infantry squad – Serzhant Pushkin (Junior leader with Rifle), DP-28 LMG with two crew, twelve riflemen. This time with the early War Russian helmet bodies from Battlefront and heads from Peter Pig – Early Russian helmets.

I need to paint the 45mm AT Gun and the 75mm infantry gun, I got both these from Battlefront.

List 5

For the Kht-26 flamethrower tank and the T28 see the tank picture at the end. The Flamethrower tank is from Zvezda and the T-28 from Battlefront.

List 6

T28E (using the T28 again), see the picture below.

tanks — The Garage and some tank crew from Battlefront. The T-28 commander is from the Winter Infantry Set (just cut off the top part and actually looks more the part). As for the bases I need to winterize these at some point.

I hope this was of some use, I will show the Finnish Platoon next week…

/ All the very best, and seasonal greetings! Keep toy soldiering on!

Towards Moscow Trilogy (TMT) Part 3 – Accelerate or break!

On 18/12/201626/02/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Great Northern War, PaintingLeave a comment

I have just reviewed the children’s Christmas wish lists to do some final clicks on Amazon trying to support the market in its constant struggle to achieve equilibrium. I have not done a wish list for myself for a long time, my mother still asks me what I want every year and I normally answer peace on earth! – the best battles are fought on the tabletop with toy soldiers.

I tend to cherish experiences and last year I enjoyed the visit we did to the reenactment of the Battle of Hastings (see here for some notes from the day) or another example is when we went on the Dreknor boat in Caretan (Normandy) a few years back. I like to get an insight in how things looked like, worked and/or felt, it is sometimes difficult to capture this from the pages of a history book. So I do hope to get a similar experience of some kind in 2017.

Talking about experiences I took the children to watch Rogue One this evening – overall I thought it was fantastic fun and so did the kids (well, except the middle one!). I have to admit that Episode VII and this movie has reinvigorated my faith in the Force again. Although I do not think I ever lost it! A Light Saber that would be nice, I think I put that on my wish list.

I had a splendid day a few years ago on the Dreknor that is a ‘genuine’ replica of a Viking Longboat and offers a unique experience of being in a seafaring vehicle that for its time was pretty amazing and capable of maneuvers in shallow rivers as well as on the open ocean. I do hope I will get an opportunity to get out with the crew again at some point in the future. Here is a link if you are in Normandy and interested.

I have a friend who used to compete in long distance motorcycle off-road events whose motto used to be, and I suppose still is, “Accelerate or break!”. It dawned on me that I was coming to a position with the Towards Moscow Trilogy project (see here for a summary of what the heck this is all about) where I had to get real and stop faffing about. So after being told off by myself I will stop this wishy washy stuff and get on with some painting instead.

I actually have not completed any bases of miniatures since August for this project, so I decided to complete at least ten bases by the end of each week. Here is how I got on this week (in red bases completed this week):

Russian Units for Lesnaya, TMT Part 1	Type	Need	Done
Preobrazhenski	Infantry	3	3
Semenovski	Infantry	3	3
Ingermanlandski	Infantry	3	3
Astrachanski	Infantry	1	1
Menshikovs livskvadron	Cavalry	3	3
Vladimirska	Cavalry	4	4
Sibirska	Cavalry	3	3
Nizjegorodska	Cavalry	4	4
Vjatska	Cavalry	3
Nevska	Cavalry	3
Kievska	Cavalry	3
Novgorodska	Cavalry	4
Rostovska dragonregementet	Cavalry	4
Ustjuzjska dragonregementet	Cavalry	4
Smolenska	Cavalry	3	3
Troitska	Cavalry	3	3
Jamburgska	Cavalry	3
Karpolska	Cavalry	4
Tverska	Cavalry	3	3
Koporski	Cavalry	2
Narvski	Cavalry	3
Olonetski	Cavalry	4

And the mandatory proof (All 6mm scale from Baccus).

I am currently at the final hurdle of finishing of a Finnish and a Sovietic platoon for Chain of Command in 15mm – so I may do a few notes on these in the next few blogs.

I also got my order of Waggons from Baccus so we will continue doing the Supply column in the next few weeks or so.

/ May the force be with you and Toysoldier on!

Lead astray or a hike to the snow cladded lead mountain – Part 2

On 10/12/201620/02/2017 By The OneIn 18th Century Rules, 6mm, Chain of Command rules, Finnish Winter, Continuation and Lapland Wars, Great Northern War, IABSM, Maurice, Might and Reason Rules, Painting, Polemos GNW, Saga8 Comments

Swedes attacking a defended Saxon position (Miniatures from Baccus)

With a little help to my friends

Twilight of the Sun King Rules

Nick Dorrell’s adaptation of the Twilight of the Sun King Rules I talked about in an earlier blog (see here) are now published by the Pike and Shot society. I really enjoy these fast play rules that makes it possible to play large horse and musket battles during late 17th and early 18th century in a reasonable time. Basing is adaptable and the rules works at two levels standard/brigade and regimental scale. In the standard scale a unit represents brigade or its equivalent (2,000 infantry or 1,000 cavalry – so about 4 battalions or 8 squadrons). For the regimental scale a unit equates to 1,000 infantry or 500 cavalry. I play the game in the regimental scale, as I do GNW where the battles tends to be smaller and I have more than enough miniatures to play in this scale, using two 60 by 30mm bases for a unit with a total frontage of 120mm per unit. This is the same basing I use for the Polemos, Maurice and the Might and Reason rules. Further the units can be classified as small or large to allow for the variation in units sizes during the period, e.g. to deal with smaller elite units etc.

totsk

The rules are, to quote Nick from the Design Philosophy notes, “…radical, some would say reductionist, in their conception. It is based on the premise that during this time period, morale rather than numbers of casualties was the key to deciding combat and even the outcome of battles. Many wargames rules pay lip-service to this; however, these rules take the radical step of collapsing shooting and close combat into morale. This dramatically simplifies game play but does so, in the designers’ opinion, without significant loss of historical accuracy.”

The Rules as well as a Scenario book is now available from the Pike and Shot Society and can be obtained from them, http://www.pikeandshotsociety.org/, and other retail outlets.

The scenario book is called Louis XIV at War and features 10 battles – 4 of these are from the War of the Grand Alliance (1688 to 1697) and the other 6 from the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14). Each scenario includes orders of battles and a map.

A second scenario book is being worked on and will cover the Great Northern War and the Ottoman wars.

There is a Yahoo group:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TwilightSK/info

and you can contact nick via wyreforestgamers@yahoo.co.uk

Collection Calculator

Another friend of mine, Peter Riley, came up with an idea for a Wargames collection calculator when he went to the Newbury show this year. As he walked and talked to gamers at the show it emerged from the many conversations he had is that we don’t know, in detail, what we have in our collections and what they are worth. So to keep a good record of all the elements we have in our growing collections seemed a good idea.

A beta website has been set up here – http://collectioncalculator.com/ . Peter is looking for feedback on what you may think.

I think it is a brilliant idea and could be used to manage your collection, get an idea about its value for a sale or how much to insure your collection for. Try it out and if you like the general idea support it by letting them know how it can be improved.

In a recent Meeples and Miniatures episode the hosts discussed the issue about insuring your stuff when they were speculating what they would do if they lost their collection and got the opportunity to do it all again being given the full value from the insurance company. If you do not know what you have and are not adequately insured then this scenario could end it tears and not in speculation on what you would replace or not.

By the way Peter Riley is the author of a few sets of wargame rules, including the ACW rules Crisis of Allegiance and On They Came as well as the Franco-Prussian Wars rules Kommandant de Battaile and Kommandant de Armee. He is working on a few new sets including a colonial set called A Steady and Deliberate Fire.

Winter is coming

I have presented two Great Northern War battles at the Joy of Six show that took place during the winter season with snow and misery on the battle field – Fraustadt 1706 (with a mention in an earlier post here) and Gadebusch 1712. I really like wintery landscapes having been brought up in Sweden, where minus degrees and snow is a constant for a large part of the year. It engulfs the land and when Spring finally comes it feels like the land has been subjected to some form of annual cleansing.

When I first did the Fraustadt Battle I was hesitant in “winter basing” the armies as I was going to do Klissow where I could have “re-used” a lot of the miniatures especially on the Saxon side. However the contrast between a wintery table and the rectangular zone of summer really annoyed me when I had finished the table and set up the bases on it. So I got on with drybrushing all of the bases with white and then topped them up with some wintery tufts – it was worth the effort. Following the Gadebusch battle I now have fully sized GNW armies for the Swedes, Saxons and the Danes ready to rumble any time of the year.

The Saxon forces at Fraustadt did stand and wait for the Swedes for a while but I do not think that it resulted in the grass growing, or that they had some Astro Turf ready to roll out. I agree with the fact that basing should make the miniatures stand out but this a little bit over the top!

So apart from the snow ventures above I have a passion, or perhaps compulsion, for the Winter War 1939-40. It is a very interesting conflict and I went with the Baker Company Winter War 28mm Kickstarter a few years back – the project did not really go as intended and I only got part of what I expected. Instead I decided to go for it in 15mm and have recently completed enough to start playing some Chain of Command with a Platoon with some options for each side (I will do a future posting for the Finnish and the Russian/Sovietic platoon). I am also keen to try out the IABSM (I ain’t been shot Mum) rules from Company Sized actions. Both these rules are from the eminent makers of rules at Too Fat Lardies (Chain of Command here and IABSM here).

Finnish Soldiers from the 1939-40 Winter War. The Light Machine Gun is the M-26 7.62mm Lahti-Saloranta. The picture is taken from SA-kuva (Finnish Armed Forces Photographs) and you can find their webpage here. This is a conflict to which the lead mountain has attracted permanent visitors from a number of scales.

So for IABSM I have a few options, (i) expand the 15mm platoons for Chain of Command, (ii) use the Pithead 10mm ones I bought a few years back or (iii) try out the 6mm Finnish from Heroics and Ros.

I bought a few test strips from Heroics and Ros from their Finnish Range and also a strip from the Snow/Ski Troopers. I decided to paint these and base them to see how they would look like and put them on a 65 by 65mm base. I am pleased how they came out and I think it will work well for the IABSM rules (although I would probably use 25mm bases) – I hope you agree (Note one of the pictures show some 15mm miniatures from the Chain of Command Finns). I used some snow flock mixed with Matte Mod Podge for the basing, it looks slightly better for real than in the photos. I am going to do a winter company for the Finns, Russians and Germans as they did some combined operations with the Finns. With this scale it should not take very long to complete a company worth of miniatures. It will look fantastic.

I think I have to order some more from Heroics and Ros. For the Pithead stuff, well I have no problem with it staying on the mountain for now! The 28mm Baker Company stuff I did get I will probably get rid off.

Not really Winter but cold as death

About 2 months ago I wrote about some new 6mm miniatures from Microworld Games (see here). I did not buy the Landsknechts this time but I bought the new duelists and peasants as well as a large number of zombies and ghouls for another little project I am working on (I am doing the Saga Revenants faction in 6mm when I have time). Anyway, I got them this week as it was a pre-order, and I really liked the look of the duelists and the peasants – some of these will be used for my Sharp Practice games. I could not resist painting up a little vignette on a 60 by 60mm base with some zombies controlled by a witch/necromancer (from Perfect Six) attacking three witch hunters (the duelists) supported by a few farmers. This is a homage to a roleplaying scenario I played when I was a kid (well at least a younger kid) and actually a Christmas present to a very dear friend.

Ok next time I will get on with some Great Northern War stuff and the Towards Moscow Project / Keep on toysoldiering!

Gadebusch 1712 from Joy of Six 2015 – the Swedes advancing over the frozen fields towards the Danes.

Lead astray or a hike to the lead mountain – Part 1

On 04/12/201620/02/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Chain of Command rules, Painting, Western Front 1940Leave a comment

fullsizerender

Recently I have been rummaging around my various past projects and found a fair few forgotten ones – they all seemed like a good idea at the time. I felt myself obliged to consider whether I could reignite the fire/impulse that had trigger the start of these projects in the first place – if not I may as well get rid of them. These projects range from a number of unopened packs to being considerably started and with a few bases even being completed! I thought one way of going about this process was to paint a few models for each project and then see how I felt in taking them to the very end.

The World’s Smallest Wargame

The smallest unfinished project I found was a little vignette Peter Berry gave me at the Baccus open day a few years back. This is normally held the day before the Joy of Six and gives a chance to see how Peter and Igor produce the little soldiers. The model depicts two 6mm scale war gamers playing a war-game. I decided to give it some acrylic love and base it up. I thought it would be fun to plant it on the table for the next outing and see if someone spots it. I wish they were all that easy!

Note: I added the BIC pen with a diameter of 9mm to the picture as I occasionally are being contacted by people who wonder how tall these guys are. In general when we refer to scale in Xmm it is the measure of the height from the base of the miniature to the eye level or the top of the head. Baccus in general are between 6 to 7mm and the two gentlemen here are 7mm (the bearded bloke) and 6.5mm (the accountant) respectively.

In the next section I will be showing 15mm soldiers and these are of course about 15mm from the base of the miniature to the eye level. But remember that these scales are indicative and the actual size of a Xmm miniatures can vary significantly between different manufactures and sometimes even between their ranges.

I used a BIC pen as it is probably one of the most known items on the planet (I made that up!) and based on my extensive research has sold over 100 billion pens since the 1950s that is enough pens to stretch 40 times the distance from the earth to the moon if laid end to end.

no3

no4

Western Front 1940

Another, and perhaps a better example, of these projects was to use the Skirmish campaign books and the Arc of Fire ruleset to do some early France 1940 WW2 platoon level scenarios. I had started painting a few of them but there was still some work to do.

I intend to put some effort into this and use the excellent Chain of Command rules from Too Fat Lardies. I printed out the Chain of Command army list for the German 1940 platoon (you can download it here) and checked that I had the right amount of miniatures (these being 15mm and mainly from the excellent Peter Pig range) and realized I had most of what I needed and fairly quickly over the last few weeks got to a state of having them all block painted and based. This included some support options like anti-tank rifle, AT-guns, infantry gun, sniper team, heavy machine guns, flamethrower unit and a forward observer. What remains is some washing, highlighting and base detailing. They are individually based on 15mm washers (with a magnet in the hole) and prone LMGs, heavy machine guns, 50mm mortar and AT rifles on small flames of war bases. I base the AT and Infantry guns on medium flames of war bases. In addition I need to do some vehicles, but this should not be too difficult for early Germans!

no2 — Sniper in the middle, PAK 36 AT Gun to the right and a rifle section to the left.

I have also made good progress on the BEF 1940 Platoon using some old Skytrex and Peter Pig Miniatures. We should be able to wrap this project up in a not too distant future.

Joe Dever

I was saddened to hear that Joe Dever had died a few days ago. He was one of my childhood heroes who allowed me to become one as well every now and then in the fantastic world of Magnamund. I met Joe a few years ago at a gaming convention where he was busy taking pictures of the proceedings. We had a short but very enjoyable chat. Hats off to you Sir!

The picture is of the Swedish translation of his first game book “Flight from the Dark”.

product

/ Have a good week

Towards Moscow Trilogy (TMT) Part 2 – Moulding a Supply Column

On 19/11/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Great Northern War, Painting, Polemos GNW, Towards Moscow Triology4 Comments

For the first part of the TMT, the Lesnaya 1708 battle, I need a large number of bases to represent the Swedish Supply column.

I had seen the picture above in Pavel Konovaltjuks and Einar Lyths book “Vägen till Poltava” (The Road to Poltava) and wanted to have something similar for my Supply Column. I opted for Baccus ox wagons (from their equipment range). I felt these were a close enough match.

1073-equ11

However they do not come with a canopy and I did not want to miss a chance to see a splendid row of blue and yellow waggons. I had to do some sculpting and it was not too difficult to do a canopy, but I needed another 39! So I bought myself some Mould Making Silicone Putty from ebay and made a mould from my first creation. It cost me £6 and was very easy to do and very satisfying. I cast them using dental plaster – I made three moulds to speed up production.

I have ordered enough waggons from Baccus that are yet to arrive but I already had a few so I did a few test bases today – one waggon and two towed artillery pieces (one Field and one Siege gun and some limbers, again from the Baccus range). I think they turned out ok.

/ Take care

Note to self (as I will paint more of these) on colours used.

Remembrance Day, Chislehurst Caves and some more 6mm Great Northern War Norwegians

On 13/11/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Great Northern War, Historical Sites, Painting, Polemos GNWLeave a comment

The last few years we have spent Remembrance Sunday at our local Rugby club where the Little One plays. This Sunday was joint practice with the other local, and rival, club. But local rivalries were set aside and the children had a very good training session and what made my day was them standing shoulder to shoulder in remembrance! Rugby is a beautiful sport on and off the field and this day was a very strong manifestation supporting this.

shoulder-to-shoulder

“They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,…
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.”

-From the Ode of Remembrance by Laurence Binyon

We, I and the other Ones, also had some time to re-visit Chislehurst caves, on Saturday, that played a key role during WW2 as an air raid shelter and at its peak it had in excess of 15,000 people staying here over night. Interesting place and this is as close to Dungeons and Dragons you get but with no encounters – incidentally there is a live action roleplaying company running some stuff next door if that is your cup or tea – or perhaps pint of mead (they are called Labyrinthe, and here is a link. I think you have to pre-book). The caves are actually hand dug chalk and flint mines and have since been used to store explosives, grow mushrooms, host pop and rock concerts and as a backdrop for some movies and television series like Doctor Who. As with all of these kind of places there are stories of ghosts and mysterious events in the tunnels – it is worth a visit!

Norwegian GNW Infantry

I finalized some more Norwegians from the Great Northern War era – this time some infantry. Please see my previous post (last week here) for flag sheets, etc. I have decided to put this diversion on hold for a while and crack on with the main GNW project – but here are the bases I did get on with.

Trondhjemske – this regiment was over 2000 men strong so I made it 4 bases. The nice company colours really stands out and make the unit look really good. The white flag represents the Colonels (the head of the regiment) battalion.

trond

Gyldenløves Geworbne – this regiment was 2 battalions strong so I made it 2 bases.

gew2

Hausmanns Geworbne – same as above. Colours of the flags are speculative (I made it up!).

gew1

/ Have a good week

Vikings in Town and some 6mm Great Northern War Norwegians

On 07/11/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn 18th Century Rules, 6mm, Great Northern War, Music, Painting, Polemos GNW1 Comment

Vikings in Town

We were blessed with the presence of Amon Amarth in London on Friday last week as part of their Jomsviking European Tour – it was a very good show and awoke those old Scandinavian rhythms inside. We, I and the Beautiful One, missed the first support band but managed to see most of Testament – a band from my youth who sounded as good as ever! – it was a fantastic evening. Thank you Amon Amarth!

Johan Hegg is a bloody brilliant front man for an impressively tight and talented band.

Mounted Norwegians for the Great Northern War

A while ago I re-read the eminent “Notes on the Norwegian Army 1700-1720” by Daniel A. Schorr and got inspired to do a few bases of Norwegian cavalry and infantry [the booklet, in PDF form, used to be available on-line in the past but I can not located it anymore]. I got about halfway in painting a fair few bases of dragoons and infantry a few months back so I thought it was time to get these finalised and completed a few of the bases. I used Baccus Russian GNW Dragoons for these mixed with a few WSS cavalry (not the latest re-sculpts). These are suppose to represent the units at around 1701. In addition to the Schorr piece I used “Tacitus” eminent page on Norwegian units as a painting guide (you can find it here). Notes from his page are included in italics below.

Fölckersamb Dragon regiment

1701 The national [skrevne] companies had blue coats with lining and trimming in white, and the enlisted [geworbne] companies had blue coats with lining and trimming in green. [I painted the saddle details etc. in blue with white/green trim].

Sehested Rytter regiment

1701 The regiment would continue to wear light grey coats with red lining after the reorganization to dragoons. [I painted the saddle details etc. in red with white trim. The regiment was re-organized in 1701 but I base them as if they were normal horse].

This week I will finish some of the infantry and tidy up these a little bit. Yes I know I ought to work on the big TMT project but I just needed to get these out of the way. I am tempted to do some dismounted dragoon bases as well to complement these – but let us get some overall progress on the other stuff first.

Here is a painting guide for Norwegian Infantry with some colours to use as well. I do the flags about 8mm high for my 6mm miniatures. Cut them out and stick them together with PVA glue around the flagpole, add some paint when dry if required – I suppose you know the drill.

norway2

/ All the best

Sharp Practice in 6mm Part 7 – Shock Markers done and some deliveries (TMT, Conan and X-wing miniatures)

On 30/10/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn French Indian War (FIW), Great Northern War, Painting, Sharp Practice, Towards Moscow Triology, X wing miniatures game1 Comment

This week the Sharp Practice shock markers were finalized for the two starting forces an also the first batch of painted miniatures arrived from Marching in Colour for The Moscow Trilogy Project (TMT). We also had some notable deliveries of (i) Conan the Boardgame and (ii) the Heroes of the Resistance Expansion pack for the X-wing miniatures games.

spcoll2 — The Growing Sharp Practice in 6mm box – not the box but the contents. I think I have to add another layer soon. I am toying with the idea of making a 2′ by 1.5′ box containing everything you would need (including miniatures, the support options, trees, hills, roads, houses, river sections, etc.) and when folded up becomes a 2′ by 3′ playing surface. That would make it truly portable and get the whole point of the project across in a very visual, and practical, way.

TMT – First Batch Arrives

The first batch of painted miniatures from Marching in Colour arrived this week but did not have time to get started on finishing them off. Absolutely brilliant stuff!. I wrote about Chris and his services in the last blog update (link here). I have already sent him the next batch. This will make the process, at this end, very quick!

fullsizerender — 15 bases worth of Russian Dragoons and 15 bases worth of Russian Infantry.

Sharp Practice in 6mm – Shock/Casualty Markers and some new “heroes”

… continued from last week.

Step 9 – prepare ground basing by applying sand and painting it chocolate brown.

cas5

Step 10 – pick out the details of the unit the marker represents, e.g. in the middle the markers for the British Regulars and in the right upper corner the Rangers. I made two for every unit.

cas6

Step 11 – Drybrush with three colours (light browns and a light yellowish colour).

cas8

Step 12 – Apply static grass and tufts. This shows the French Canadian Militia. All ready to go!

cas9

Conan the Board game – Finally Arrives

This week we got a big parcel with the Conan Board Game stuff from Monolith games. I have to admit that I and the little one were following the Kickstarter at the time with great excitement and we had been waiting and waiting. The little one used to say “When is Conan coming?”. When I finally told him that Conan had arrived, he asked me “What is that?”. Joke aside what arrived was an impressive set of two boxes fully package with all you could ever want for the game. It was a Carlsberg moment and worth waiting for.

boxes — *The Little One eagerly hacking his way into the Conan Stuff*

Conan is one of those boyhood heroes and I read several of the fantastic novels and of course watched the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. The scene, in “Conan the Barbarian” where the young Conan gets chained to the mill grinder (wheel of pain) and then turns into this enormous and muscular grown up man is a nice cinematic touch. I still find the books and the movies entertaining and, at least for me, the ex-California governor is truly etched as my mental image of the Cimmerian Warrior. One of the stretch goals during the Kickstarter campaign was a miniature depicting the Camel that Conan has some fisticuffs with in the “Conan the Barbarian” movie, another nice touch.

camel

Many miniatures to paint if I am going down that route – however for the moment I have decided to play it first and then worry about painting some other day. A thought occurred to me of doing it in 6mm – just joking – however there are a lot of stuff out there that would make this more than possible.

008c81848a2c02b67763ede42d01c660 — 6mm Barbarian from Perfect Six can be found here.

The Dragon Order and Adventure Set from Perfect Six we discussed last time and of course all the fantasy stuff from Microworld Games, Baccus (who does Camels as well!) and perhaps using some Pendragon 10mm for monsters – but I suppose I should never say never again!.

The Welsh Wizard, Mike Hobbs, has done a series of blogs posts showing what the boxes contain and even had time to play a game so teleport over there if you want to see/read more by starting here. By Crom!, we have been waiting for this to begin.

Heroes of the Resistance

We also got our pre-order of the Heroes of the Resistance for X-wing Miniatures game containing the new (perhaps “older” is the word to use) Millennium Falcon, with its Square Satellite dish, and Poe Cameron’s X-wing. Fantastic stuff and ready to go straight out of the Box. We will have to have a go at flying these this evening.

/ Take care and fly casual!

New 6mm Stuff, Painting Service and Shock Markers

On 24/10/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Movies, Painting, Saga, Sharp Practice, Towards Moscow Triology5 Comments

Limited progress this week but an update of some new and upcoming 6mm ranges that caught my eye, some discussion on the TMT project and the enlistment of a painting service, a little diversion and reflection on 18th century warfare on TV & in movies, and some shock markers for Sharp Practice.

New/Upcoming 6mm Ranges – Landsknechts, TYW/ECW and the Order of the Dragon

landsknechte — *Landsknechts – picture from Wikipedia (link in the text below)*

I have to admit that a few new 6mm ranges have blown me away these last few weeks:

Microworld Games Landsknechts range – check them out here. I stumbled across these when I was ordering something for my Saga in 6mm project. I am planning on doing the Revenant Faction at some point and needed some ghoulish looking creatures. Microworld has a wide range of 6mm fantasy but these are, as far as I gather, looking pretty historical like the real Landsknecths. Splendid!, based in the US, flat rate international shipping at $12 (excluding Customs and Charges if you live outside the States, but if you can overcome that this would be an impressive and colourful force to field). I am very tempted to add a few of these to my next order even if I am not screaming for projects at the moment. The pictures are from Microworld’s webpage and they also have a few other new sets that may be of some interest.

Perfect Six Miniatures, that I have mentioned on several occasions on this blog, does not just sell fine scenic items but have a growing range of, mainly fantasy, miniatures. Their latest release is their Order of the Dragon Miniatures and they are really nice. They have just been released so I ordered a few packs. Again pictures from their webpage.

Baccus upcoming English Civil War (ECW) / Thirty Years War (TYW) range are presented here and here. Based on these snippets this, in my view, promises to be Baccus finest range yet. It is not just the detail but the poses are phenomenal and I am more than sure that at some point I will have to get into this period and make a Swedish Army led by the Lion from the North. The pictures are from the Baccus page. Baccus are also soon releasing more French Indian War stuff that I am very much looking forward too.

musketeers pike

Painting Service for my Great Northern War stuff

I decided to enlist some help in completing the Towards Moscow Trilogy (TMT) project (see the long and winding presentation of it here, if you have not read it yet) and have asked Marching in Colour (Painting service, with a link here) to paint a lot of the miniatures that will be used in the 3 battles. I have opted for block painted units that I will finish by applying some nut-brown ink and then some highlighting and basing – this way they will nicely blend into the existing collection.

I have had a previous experience of using a painting service that was ok, but I have to admit that I really like the way Chris communicates and deals with you as a customer. I find his prices reasonable too. The problem I have is that I have more ideas than I have time and I think I have already proven to the world, or at least to myself, that I can paint 6mm Great Northern war miniatures en masse. This approach allows me to, in an IKEA like fashion, be directly involved in the production process and still have time to push on with all that other stuff.

With a little bit of luck I will be able to complete all the miniatures needed in the next year or so. This will give me time to do some of the things that are currently not being done like the 15mm miniatures for the Winter War of 1939 between Finland and Russia and perhaps more importantly the Little ones Halo Ships and Battles stuff.

So in summary, I will be outsourcing most of the Russians I have left to do and will also have some of the Swedish Infantry done by MiC. I have seen the first batch on photos and I am eagerly waiting for them to arrive.

TV and Movies

I have recently started watching the TV Series “Turn” that is set during the American Revolutionary War period. I was watching the 2nd series finale depicting the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse and although the number of men involved were reminiscent of the Battles in the Sharpe series, i.e. being very few men compared to the real deal, I really enjoyed it. It is not that often 18th century battles are depicted on the white or silver screen, with a few notable exceptions including Barry Lyndon, The Last of the Mohicans and the Sovereign’s Servant that incidentally is about the Battle of Poltava – the last breath of the Russian Campaign 1708-09.

I also had another go at the Northwest Passage movie with Spencer Tracy. Not as adventurous as my childhood memory had indicated. The portrayal of the Indians on both sides is not very flattering even for its time – it was made 1940 . I would still recommend it and it serves part of the my background “research” for my Sharp Practice in 6mm project. I have Drums along the Mohawk and an alternative version of the Last of the Mohicans to look forward to as well – when I have a few minutes spare. I also ordered the Broken Chain with Pierce Brosnan, based on a recommendation.

Sharp Practice Shock Markers

Talking about Sharp Practice, I did start making some shock markers for Sharp Practice in line with my discussion in an earlier post. The design concept is reproduced below.

parrot-markers

Here is a picture that may be useful as well, adjust to the size of your washers, I did mine with 15mm washers.

casulalty-markers

Step 1: Print out the sheet above with the right dimensions.

Step 2: Cut out the top parts and stick to the adhesive side of a Flexometal sheets (or any other sheet that is magnetic, i.e. contains some metal. I bought mine from Abel Magnets but you can also get them from other sources) – then cut them out carefully, as seen in the picture below.

Step 3: Glue on your shock/casualty markers – these are from the Baccus ECW and WSS range and will do fine for my purposes (as there are no specific ones for the period). It is difficult to see any detail at this stage. So trust me or come back next week and have a look at the painted ones.

sm3

Step 4 – prime the shock markers and set aside to dry. As per usual I prime them in grey.

Step 5 – cut out the round dials (0 to 9) carefully

Step 6 – take your washers (these are of the flat/penny washer type with a hole in the middle) and stick a round label/sticker on top, turn it around and put a (Neodymium Disc) magnet inside, put another sticker on top, then glue on the dial (0 to 9) on the top using PVA glue. These steps are shown below. Put PVA glue on the top of the washer and on the top of the dial as well to seal the paper on using a brush. Do not be too aggressive and do not worry it will dry clear.

sm4

Step 7 – let it dry and join together. As you may have guessed due to the ferrous sheet and the magnet the two parts stick together and the dial can be turned allowing you to set any value you want it to sm6 show.

Step 8 – They are now ready for basing and painting, but we did not get any further this weekend. I hope to be able to report on some more decorated markers next week.

/ All the very best

FIW – Sharp Practice in 6mm – Part 6 Inspiration and Some Progress

On 09/10/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn 18th Century Rules, 6mm, Buildings, French Indian War (FIW), Games played, Great Northern War, Historical Sites, Muskets and Tomahawks, Painting, Saga, Sharp Practice, Shows, Songs of Drums and TomahawksLeave a comment

Braddock’s Defeat

I just finished listening to Braddock’s Defeat on Audible and ended up buying the physical book as well from Amazon as a reference copy. This is an amazing piece of work by David Preston and I have not had so much enjoyment (reading a book on Military History) since I read Oskar Sjöström’s Fraustadt 1706: ett fält färgat rött. The Fraustadt book unfortunately, as is the case for a lot of Great Northern War literature, is not available in English. But I digress…

If you are familiar with the French Indian War period of history you will have heard about the British General Braddock leading a expeditionary force, in 1755, through Pennsylvania to attack the French Fort Duquesne on the forks of the Ohio River. A smaller French Canadian force, led by the French Captain Beaujeu and supported by native Indian Tribes, had decided to seek battle before the British arrived to the fort and encountered and attacked the British at Monongahela (about 10 miles from what is now Pittsburgh). It was the French Canadian resolve and ability to quickly get organised and use the terrain efficiently in applying woodland tactics that won the day.

“Historians have generally ignored French and Native perspectives on the 1755 campaign. The French were outnumbered, outgunned, and faced crippling supply problems in their Ohio Valley posts. They despaired of their inability to halt or slow Braddock’s relentless march. However, convoys of French reinforcements led by a veteran officer, Captain Beaujeu, came to Fort Duquesne after an epic 700-mile voyage from Montreal, arriving only a few days before the fateful battle at the Monongahela. …..

A newly discovered French account from the Archives du Calvados transforms our understanding of French and Native American leadership and tactics at the Battle of the Monongahela. The French commander, Captain Beaujeu, sent out Native scouts who brought him exact intelligence on the location and disposition of the British. Dividing his force into three parallel columns, Beaujeu organized a frontal attack on the British column with his Canadian troops. He instructed the Indians to spread out in the woods on the right and the left, and to withhold their fire until he had engaged the British. The Monongahela was neither a meeting engagement nor an ambush, but a well-planned and executed French and Indian attack on a vulnerable British column. “

Ten questions about Braddock’s Defeat by David L. Preston, accessible here.

9999001583-l — Painting showing a contingent of French and Indians attacking General Braddock, in the background, who is falling from his horse being assisted by Major George Washington, the future first president of the United States of America – one of many key characters of the American revolution that were involved in this expedition. (Painted by Edwin W. Deming, the painting forms part of the Wisconsin Historicial Society’s collection)

I really enjoy the story telling aspect of real history and to paraphrase Dan Carlin, “it has destroyed fiction for me” (go and listen to one of his Hardcore History Shows if you have not done so yet!, here is a link). However being factual, intellectual and educational does not need to be boring and can instead be truly inspirational and that is this book in a nutshell. If you have any interest in the period, or military history in general, I suggest you get hold of this one.

I think a lot can be done with the skirmish rules I have (i.e. Sharp Practice, Musket and Tomahawks and Songs of Drums and Tomahawks) but for the “larger” battles I am not sure what good rulesets are there that captures the flavour of not just the period but in the particular way the war was fought in this theatre. But then this was only a small diversion!

Crystal Palace and that very famous Battle

I was intending to spend the day at SELWG (South East London Wargames Group) show in Crystal Palace today, but the little one had his first rugby festival for the season and luckily, because I would be a really sad bastard otherwise, I actually prefer to see him play rather than going to a wargames show. As it is very close to where we live we ended up going for the last 45 minutes on our way home – but the last part of a wargames show is very often like drinking a pint of lager that was poured two hours ago. I did not take any pictures of the tables on offer, but there seemed to be a good collection – a nice ancient game with loads of pikes and a Doctor Who game caught my eye. Next weekend (on both Saturday and Sunday) is the big event at Battle with the 950th Anniversary re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings. We are looking forward to this.

Supporting Cast, Real Estate and Markers

I decided to spend the little time I had available for diversions this week finalising as much of the painting as I could for the initial Sharp Practice stuff – so I and the little one could play a proper game in a not too distant future. This, instead of getting diverted spending hours gluing small strips of spaghetti like last week (see my last blog entry here) I actually managed to get some of the more immediate and necessary stuff completed.

temp-out-of-ammo-markers — My temporary “Out of ammunition markers” using crates from Perfectsix – I did a few more. “Resthouse” by Leven Miniatures. The bases are 9mm in diameter.

cannister — Ammo markers for artillery (again made from PerfectSix materials).

barricades-2 — Barricades based on various items from PerfectSix

barricades — As above but from a different angle

breastworks-2 — Breastworks based on some old Irregular stuff I had lying around. Painted up really well!

breastworks — As above but from a different angle

docs-and-clergy — Holymen and Doctors for both sides – Pere Bleu, Docteur Bleu, Doctor Red and Father Red.

carts — Carts – Engineering, Water and Ammunition Carts

I was thinking about a scenario with the characters from a famous movie set during the French Indian War – and did the three little chaps below. / Until next

3-guys

Towards Moscow Trilogy Progress

Astrachanski Regiment

Nevska Regiment

Kievska Regiment

Winter War – Chain of Command

A little bit of an intro

Miniatures Used

The Soviet Platoon

Support Options

List 1

List 3

List 4

List 5

List 6

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With a little help to my friends

Twilight of the Sun King Rules

Collection Calculator

Winter is coming

Not really Winter but cold as death

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The World’s Smallest Wargame

Western Front 1940

Joe Dever

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Norwegian GNW Infantry

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Vikings in Town

Mounted Norwegians for the Great Northern War

Fölckersamb Dragon regiment

Sehested Rytter regiment

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TMT – First Batch Arrives

Sharp Practice in 6mm – Shock/Casualty Markers and some new “heroes”

Conan the Board game – Finally Arrives

Heroes of the Resistance

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New/Upcoming 6mm Ranges – Landsknechts, TYW/ECW and the Order of the Dragon

Painting Service for my Great Northern War stuff

TV and Movies

Sharp Practice Shock Markers

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Braddock’s Defeat

Crystal Palace and that very famous Battle

Supporting Cast, Real Estate and Markers

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