The 8th Infantry Brigade was part of the Canadian
Expeditionary Force's 3rd Division in the Great War. It consisted of four
battalions of "Mounted Rifles" which had been originally been raised
in late 1914 as 8 regiments in two brigades. Upon their arrival overseas,
however, it became immediately apparent that there would be no role for mounted
rifles anytime soon and were thus "dismounted" and amalgamated into
four regular infantry battalions.
These are all to be part of my
"Vimy
Project" - a megalomaniacal dream to play the entire Canadian
Corps' assault on the ridge on the 100th anniversary of the battle in 2017
(more on all that shortly!). So far I have done the terrain and miniature for
the 4th Division (and the opposing Germans in their sector). This year I am
doing the 3rd Division and terrain for it's section of the line (and the
Germans opposite). Next year will be the 2nd Division and in 2016 I'll finish
up the 1st Division - so I'll have the entire Corps (and terrain... and
Germans...) ready for early 2017.
The entire Fourth Division was
made of miniatures I modeled, cast and (of course) painted myself. Later, I got
the idea in my head that the rest of the Divisions I would do making up
brigades from various different manufacturers. The 8th Brigade, here, is made
up of models I picked up from Renegade
Miniatures a couple years back during one of their 5-4-4 sales. I
also have miniatures for the 7th Brigade - which are all Great War Miniatures -
and so far I have painted the 42nd
(Royal Highlanders) Battalion (which was, apparently TWO YEARS AGO!).
I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the 9th Brigade...? Probably Brigade Games - as there is a highland unit in the 9th Brigade (Camerons of Canada, I think?) and Brigade has Highland figures - which some of the other manufacturers don't!?
(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):
This is the entire Brigade along with the Brigade Commander
and headquarters signalers and the 8th Company, 3rd Canadian Machine-Gun
Battalion and the 8th Trench Mortar Battery (the Commander, signalers and MG
and Mortar Teams were painted previous to the Challenge, but are shown here for
completeness!)
Brigade Commander and HQ along with the 8th
Trench Mortar Battery and the 8th company, 3rd Canadian
Machine-Gun Battalion
First Battalion Canadian Mounted Rifles - which my Great
Uncle Bertram served with at Vimy Ridge!
Second Battalion Canadian Mounted Rifles
Fourth Battalion Canadian Mounted Rifles
Fifth Battalion Canadian Mounted Rifles
Well now what…? I think I should do some planning for the
next couple months and maybe do an update on the Vimy Project… It’d be nice if
I could maintain momentum on this and finish up the 7th Brigade – as
I already HAVE those figures, they’re all based and primed and ready to go, and
one of the battalions is already painted!
Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:
Game Plan 2014 Part 2
Vimy Project Update
More A Songs of Blades and Heroes
Posts
These are jolly good Tim. Congrats on a great challenge and getting a load of stuff painted!
ReplyDeleteThanks Millsy!
DeleteGreat work, Tim. Really inspirational.
ReplyDeleteBTW, a mess of TAG monks arrived today. :)
Great work Tim, so how many more figures will you need to paint for the Vimy Ridge project?
ReplyDeleteThanks Ray!
DeleteI'm just sitting down this weekend to sort that out. Roughly though, a Canadian brigade is 60 figures. I have, roughly 7-8 brigades of Canadians to finish up... so... ~4-500 of those... probably almost as many Germans... But I usually paint 800-1000 figures per year, so I don't think it'll be a problem - as long as I can stay focused.
Building the terrain is a bigger issue. Actually, building it isn't the tricky bit - it'll be the storing and transporting them I'll need to figure out.
For some reason I just can't become a follower of your blog- I keep getting, again and again, the message that they can't connect me at this time....
ReplyDeleteA real shame as I'm very interested in the exploits of the Canadians in miniature during the Great War.
Could it be that it's because I'm signed in to Google plus? Anyone?
Darrell.
Sorry, I have no idea. I know when I try to manually add a blog address on the reader page it won't let me because there's some magical limit of 300 blogs you can follow, but when I click on "join this site" - if the blogger has a follower gadget on their blog it will let me even though I am following more than 300!?
DeleteTry again later? Sometimes blogger is just finicky.
Weirdly I'm still having the same problem Tim. Is there another way I can subscribe to your blog? Perhaps through e-mail? I know there's a gadget for that in the gadgets section of the Dashboard.
DeleteDarrell.
RSS feed? Over on the left at the very bottom (after all the previous years' painting totals) there is a "Subscribe To" thingie? I don't know if that helps.
DeleteIn my mail program (on a mac) I'd just click "Add RSS Feed" (under "file") and paste in "feed://saskminigamer.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default"
Looks like a good project! I have a plastic collection which I hope to be able to paint up and game with when I return to Nova Scotia in the future.
ReplyDeleteExcellent project. Do you intend to also do the 22nd Battalion? (from Quebec?)
ReplyDeleteOf course! They were part of the Canadian Corps (5th Brigade, 2nd Division) and took part in the battle of Vimy Ridge!?
DeleteAmazing!
ReplyDelete