French Foreign Legionnaires

I could say I’m painting these up because I recently picked up In Her Majesty’s Name… but that wouldn’t be entirely true… I DID pick up IHMN recently, and I did just start reading it, but honestly I really picked out these to paint next because… well… it seemed like the most fun thing to paint at the moment - which is really my motivation for most things - hobby-wise... or otherwise...

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

French Foreign Legionnaires from Artizan Designs.

Only 13 of these are newly painted, two of them were painted previously... like a year (or so) ago!



A couple more pics of the colour bearer (as I'm rather pleased with how he turned out!)

Actually, as I was just finishing these up and considering getting another unit of them out to paint, it occurred to me that I don’t actually have any HISTORICAL opponents for these!? I have to admit I think I picked them up thinking I’d use them in a semi-historical/fantastical African setting/ campaign involving competing adjacent colonies of France, England, and possibly Germany…? Or Belgium…? It was a loose idea I had a long while back – using a campaign system similar to the original Mighty Empires. Each European Power would have a small six hex colony/trading region/area of influence on the coast and could explore inland adding territory and resources, building trading posts and forts and mines and possibly laying train tracks… raising local troops or vying for regulars from the homeland and, ultimately clashing with the neighboring colonies… Anyway, the idea – like so many before (and since) – fizzled and I moved on to other things.

Or I might have been thinking I could use them on Mars in a Space:1889 sort of setting. So not really all that far off from what I may end up using them for in the near future (In Her Majesty’s Name - if it turns out to look interesting enough to set up a game).

Since painting these and having a look at the stuff I’ve got I got to thinking I need to pick up a few more (Oh, not right now… like, maybe next year! But this is how it happens!). I have two units of guys in sun helmets, and two in kepis. Except one of the units of guys in sun helmets is short one… and I have about five spare chaps in kepis… Now I could just have a few guys in kepis join the units of guys in sunhelmets and leave it at that… but I got to thinking; if I ordered four more packs of guys in sun helmets (four packs of four would be 16 more) I would have THREE units of exactly 15 guys in Sun helmets! AND if I ordered three more packs of guys in kepis (which would be 12 more) I would have three units of guys in kepis plus only two left over – and if one of those three packs was a command pack I’d probably have a couple of spare officers I could use as higher command (a C-in-C and/or staff officer if I were using Ever Victorious Armies).

Of course the mad (or maddest) thing about this plan is that, as I have mentioned, I don’t really have any genuine historical OPPONENTS!?

Perhaps it’s time to start painting Martians again…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Maybe more of these Legionnaires (I have two more units of these…). Or maybe some 1914 Belgians… or WW2 Soviets… or 1889 Maritans!?  or a giant Movie Mummy… or… gosh, who knows!? I seem to be all over the place these days. 

First Special Service Force

Putting together a small force of the joint Canadian-American First Special Service Force (often referred to as the Devil's Brigade.

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

These are all from Artizan Designs Second World War - Devil’s Brigade line.

A couple weeks back North Star Miniatures announced on their Facebook page that new FSSF minis in parkas (including ones armed with the Johnson LMG) were now there – I took that to mean they had cast minis in stock, but depite checking Artizan’s website daily they have yet to appear… I’m guessing perhaps he meant the masters had arrived… and they are now being molded and cast. Anyway, I figured I couldn’t possibly justify buying more – even if it was to fill out a section or two that was missing vital components – if I didn’t have a few of them painted… so I painted all the ones I had!

I’m having fun with the batch-painting at the moment – after having painted so many individual zombies and modern armed civilians and survivors and whatnot. I have a strange urge to paint some 1914 French or Belgians…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

1914 French or Belgians? I have no idea.

WW2 US Marines and First Special Service Force

A few odd items rolling off the workbench this week…

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Assorted WW2 US Marines from The Assault Group.

The first of a small group of First Special Service Force from Artizan Designs. So far I only have a handful of guys with rifles (8), carbines (4), and Thompson SMGs (4). There are supposed to be some support packs available in the not to distant future – including forcemen armed with Johnson LMGs… I’ll need a couple of those – one per section, and then a few more packs of the rifles to fill out a second section to make up a platoon. I’m hoping the additional packs will have some specialist like radio operators and rifle-grenadiers… According to North Star’s Facebook page they’ve arrived, they just don’t seem to be up on the website yet…

Slowly catching up to the “acquired” number bringing that deficit down… and after that I’m going to try and start knocking down the number of unpainted minis that have been accumulating for too long… I haven’t actually bought any minis for over two months. Oh, there were a few that arrived a few weeks ago… but they order back in mid-march! Currently there aren’t really any that I feel any great need to get. I suppose if the new FSSF guys get posted I might pick up a few packs just to fill out a platoon… The only other things I’m even remotely considering are some Renegade Miniatures Early Great War Germans (and maybe some more Great War Miniatures Belgians). But I’m in no rush to pick up either. Renegade seems to have 5-for-4 sales near the end of the year so, if I do get any this year, I’ll wait until then to pick them up – or maybe early next year… so I can do some 1914 gaming in the fall of next year. (100^th anniversaries and all…)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have no idea… Preparations for our impending renovations are ramping up and the hobby den is chock-a-block full of crap from other parts of the house that needed evacuating. I’ve been meaning to take this as an opportunity to clear out some stuff and make my storage systems a little more efficient… but that’s been challenging and made much more difficult by all the extra crap I’m having to work around! Hopefully in the next week or so I’ll be able to clear an area for some painting and gaming…

In the meantime I’ve been getting in a few board games with the kids. 

African Militia

Back in March when I played the “Gone To Ground” scenario from Classified: Special Operations Missions 1940–2010 I noted a bit of a deficiency in support weapons for my Generic African Militia and sought to rectify that by ordering some from The Assault Group. They took a while to get here (busy time of year for them, I imagine… Salute and all that…) but they finaly arrived last week (along with some African Regulars)  (and some WW2 US Marines…)  (just… don’t ask…)

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

Support for the Generic African Militia.

The whole Generic African Militia mob.

And an odd British Officer that has noting at all to do with the Africans… but I happened to finish him up last night too… (figure is from Artizan Designs)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Those aforementioned US Marines have lingered on the table long enough that I started putting some paint on a few. As minis come in I base and prime and often even do the “base goop” in batches so that minis are ready to paint when I feel the urge – also I can sotre them in the drawer/box they’ll be in along with their painted comrades and thus I have a sense of how much space I will need for them – and be remined any time I look at the drawer that I have some to finish up… Anyway, as the Marines arrived at the same time as these Africans I based and primed and gooped them all at the same time (along with some First Special Service Force troopers that arrived earlie but hadn’t been primed, etc. yet) and as they were still sitting there as I started painting the Africans… and sort of got some paint on them in the process… I may finish up a few of those… just for fun… along with some of those FSSF troops…? 

African Regulars and Mercenaries

A few of the just arrived Africans… I’m not normally a last in, first out kind of guy.. but these I wanted to get out of the way – they’re small in number and for an otherwise complete force. Getting them done right away means it’s one less force that I have gnawing on my mind like zombies moaning “paaaaaaiiiiinnt me… paaaaaaaaiiiiiinnnnt meeeee…” 

All these are form The Assault Group.

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

Newly arrived additional support for my African Regulars – most often fielded as the Federal Army of the Republic of Timbogo.

Here’s the entire force, platoon-ish in size…

Ready to crush the insurgency by the People’s Revolutionary Army of Timbogo!

I also finished up a few mercenaries…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The rest of the recently arrived Assault Group Africans are on the painting table – they’re mostly support for my African irregular militia. Hopefully I’ll get to them this week…

So many other things to finish up… I don’t know where to begin.

I’ve also been doing some other painting this week, and hope to do some more in the near future… 

Semper Fi

Do or Die! Gung-ho! Gung-ho!

I finished up the last of my modern United States Marines. Well, the infantry. I do have a pair of M1 Tanks to give them some heavy (on table) support, and I’d like to pick up a pair of AAVP-7A1 and some HMMWVs (from Imprint Models), but that’ll have to wait until I sell some minis…

I finished up 28 of them (two squads), but here’s the whole force:

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

With a few exceptions noted below the bulk of this force is from Eureka Miniatures USA.

I have a platoon of three squads (each with three fireteams of four plus a squad leader and a guy carrying a device for scrambling IEDs...?), and a platoon command of four. There are some EOD, Force REcon and Snipers I can also attach to the force. 

First Squad

Second Squad

Third Squad

Platoon command (from Empress Miniatures) consisting of a platoon commander, 2IC, Radio Operator and an attached Naval Corpsman. (ARe they still Naval Corpsmen? Or are they just "Marine Medics" now?)

EOD Team (also from Empress Miniatures)

Snipers - the prone fellow is from  Eureka Miniatures USA and the standing guy is from The Assault Group 

Marine Force Recon patrol.



I also have an additional Naval Corpsman from Victory Force Miniatures. He's quite gigantic next to the others...

As mentioned I do have a could of plastic 1/48 scale plastic M1 tank models to assemble and paint for these guys… and would like to pick up two AAVP-7A1 and 3-4 HMMWVs (for a recce patrol) and maybe a LAV-25.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hmmmmmm… hard to say… I have a handful of modern Africans that just arrived from The Assault Group that I’m anxious to do up as they are a small addition to an otherwise complete force…. I also still have a handful of zombies to finish up… I also have a couple of old Aurora Monster Movie Models that I’m going to assemble and paint for a friend that I want to get so soon-ish…

I’ll probably finish up the Africans and Zombies first, then get cracking on The Mummy! 

A Few More Zombies and Surviviors

A few more finished… only a handful left to go…

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

A pair of survivors from Hasslefree Miniatures

Assorted zombies from Cold War Miniatures, RAFM, and Mega Miniatures. The cheerleader originally had a pompom – but it broke off in the process of painting her… and her arm was just so spindly I couldn’t pin it pack on so I slathered on some more blood and said she has no hand!

I think there’s only nine or ten zombies left to do. I think it’s about time I took stock of things. I have only a few modern things left to paint. There’s some Americans, Generic US-backed South/Central Americans, Modern British SAS in temperate DPM, and a handful of Africans. I suppose if we want to consider everything post-ww2 “modern”, then there’s also a few Vietnam minis; ANZACs and Americans. There’s also the Killer B Games Geezers, Shut It! minis… and  a bunch of vehicles to do… 2x M1, 2x Leopard 2, 3x Marders, 3x T-72, and a bunch of trucks and cars… a few helicopters and an airplane… And there are a few other things I’d like to pick up… (a few more Cold War Commies, 2x AAVP-7A1, Scimitar, BMDs, Humers…. And maybe a few other vehicles…). I guess that’s still quite a bit really, but for me it seems like the end is in sight.

After that…? I thought I might work on finishing up some of my WW2 forces… and I might… but I’m also feeling like it’s time to get back to working on my Great War armies and playing some of that. I’ve also been feeling the urge to finish up some Greek Armies for HOTT or DBA. I think I have enough for five or six armies – which would make for a pretty fun campaign.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The Last of the Zombies…