Tuesday, February 21, 2017

263rd Reserve Infantry Regiment - 79th Reserve Infantry Division


This will likely be the last of the Germans for a while. These, along with the three regiments of Bavarians, should be all I need for the Vimy game in April. There were a few other battalions thrown into the line from the corps reserve on the day, but I figure I can use recycled casualties from the front line battalions to represent the late arriving reinforcements.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


263rd Reserve Infantry Regiment – this unit, as with most of the Germans, is made up of my own figures that I modeled, made moulds of, and cast myself. They’re not particularly pretty, but they are all mine.


3 Machine-gun teams from Irregular Miniatures.


The 79th Reserve Infantry Division including the 261st, 262nd, and 263rd Reserve infantry Regiments.

The division is made up of three regiments (261st, 262nd, and 263rd) of three battalions of ten figures each, plus a command element of three figures. Ideally each regiment would have a machine-gun and mortar element attached, but I don't have quite enough mortars at the moment (painted, that is... I may finish up one or two more, but they're not a priority at the moment) so they are pictured here with extra Machine gun teams.

The battalions are smaller than the Canadian battalions - 10 compared to 15. This was largely a time-saving necessity, but also I figured the German battalions would have been whittled down by the "Week of Suffering" - a week-long campaign of constant harassing artillery and machine-gun barrages. The Canadian battalions, by comparison would have all be brought up to - or beyond - their established strengths with fresh drafts of reinforcements in the days before the attack (my great-uncle Bertram was one of those!), I may, ultimately, cut down the number of Canadians I end up using. With 15 figures per battalion it might get a bit crowded. Also as the Canadians have four divisions of three brigades with FOUR battalions of FIFTEEN figures each... the Canadian figures would outnumber the Germans four to one!!

I will hopefully get a few play-tests in later in March and try out different strengths for the Canadian Battalions.


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Canadians! Conveniently the rest of the Canadians I ordered from Irregular Miniatures arrived just this afternoon – so I should be getting those based up pronto and hopefully have a good chunk of the final Brigade of Canadians done by the end of the week! 

5 comments:

  1. Good work! It must be especially rewarding to make figures from the raw materials and bring them forth onto the table. The Irregular guns and crew look very good. I have never seen an Irregular figure in person. Perhaps, I should give them a try?

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    1. Thanks Jonathan.

      Irregular Miniatures are inexpensive. That's about all I can say about them. The machine-gun teams are less that half the cost of any others on the market. The level of detail is on par with my own homemade castings (though perhaps slightly less chunky), which is to say, they aren't very nice looking upon close inspection. Given a decent paint job and based up nicely and presented en masse... no one will notice such things.... So they don't look terribly out of place among my collection.

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    2. Tim's given an entirely accurate depiction of Irregular Miniatures. They are cheap cheap and you wonder why you wasted money buying that crap. But if you persist and paint them up, they look pretty decent.

      I have 900 (literally) Irregular Zulus plus opposing British to paint up. Maybe that is my next project. Although I do have a huge stash of Microarmour I should have a go at.

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  2. Your Germans look great en masse, which I guess is the way you envisaged them?
    Best Iain

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    1. That is the only way they look good. Upon close inspection they're nothing to write home about!

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