Projects Update

The Great War

My WW1 early war French arrived from Renegade on Friday. They're nice figures albeit with a couple with a little more flash than usual but easily cleaned up. Unfortunately, the Osprey I had ordered from Amazon as a painting reference seems to have gone AWOL in the post (is it me or is that happening more than it used to?). Fortunately Amazon are sending me another one so that should be sorted later this week. With the early war Germans that I bought from Renegade these will allow me to play out the scenarios from the SkirmishCampaigns: Rommel's Route to Verdun.

I'm planning a game in a couple of weeks using my Brigade US Marines and late war Germans which will recreate an encounter in Belleau Wood. I plan to use Nuts! from Two Hour Wargames as the rules which will really test out how they work without automatic weapons as there won't be any on the table. I'll report back on this one.

Inter-War

I've been starting to plan out how to get the scenarios from the Russo-Polish War 1919: Battles of the Borderlands to the table. My Brigade late war Germans will be useable again but I'd like to get some of the Brigade later war French which look superb; however, with the cost of postage etc. these are starting to look a little pricey. I'm enquiring as to whether the Wargames Command Post actually have any in stock - if they do then I'll try them as their service has been excellent to date. As to the opposition, Lenin has some beautifully painted Copplestone Bolsheviks who will fit the bill. There are a couple of scenarios which need Polish cavalry and, short of converting the BAM WW2 ones, I may have to improvise there (along with the locomotive and railway trucks needed in one of them!). I've also ordered a copy of Warsaw 1920 by Adam Zamoyski on the recommendation of John from the club.

In an attempt to get the maximum use out of my Brigade late war Germans I've also ordered a copy of Osprey's The German Freikorps 1918-23 which may provide further inspiration! I like my figures to do double or even triple duty (does this make me a cheapskate?)

I'm hoping to see my first SCW and IWI figures back from painting next month (fingers crossed) and in the interim I'm ploughing through Antony Beevor's The Battle for Spain, which is proving quite enlightening to someone with only a passing knowledge of the subject. I also picked up a couple of movies as inspiration for IWI (OK - I know they're not likely to be historically accurate Mr Purist - but hey they're more likely to get the juices flowing, if you'll forgive the expression, than most books) - Michael Collins and The Wind that Shakes the Barley.

Winter War etc.

I'm hoping my snow Terrain Mat will arrive next week, after a bit of a wait (I'll let you know what I think overall when it gets here) and that will allow me to sort out the tree basing and the like. I also need to have another look at the basing of the Bake Company Finns I got from eBay as they aren't terribly "winter". I've ordered a couple of the wooden Russian houses from BAM as they seem to be the best I've seen for ones I can get away with for Finland (and also use for Eastern Front when I get around to that). However, the full game will have to wait until the Brigade and BAM Finns are painted as the Baker Co. ones alone aren't quite enough. I've also ordered some early war Russians from BAM for some of the larger scenarios (that and they look pretty smart!).

I've assembled the Anglian T26 and it went together reasonably well. It is a nicely detailed piece and I'm now going to have to decide which shade of green to use. I'm going to avoid markings as I'd like to use it for SCW too (am I frugal or what?).

WW2

Hopefully Lenin will be bringing the Artizan US in greatcoats along in a couple of weeks for a late war winter game (on the Terrain Mat all being well). So I should have some pictures of that out soon afterwards.

I'm still in the planning stage for the Poland 1939 project though (i.e. haven't done much other than got the SkirmishCampaigns booklet and an Osprey).

All in all quite a bit of progress but my wallet is feeling a lot lighter so I may have to go and have a lie down now!