Tiger I

I hope everyone over in Blighty (who has been able to make it) has been enjoying Salute this weekend – I’m looking forward to all the pretty pictures that I’m sure will be all over the blogosphere in the coming week!

I’ve been enjoying a rather unseasonable snowstorm this weekend

Maybe “enjoying” isn’t quite the right phrase…

I think Mother Nature’s been at the sauce again.

You're drunk Mother Nature! Go home!

Yep… looks like ol’ Persephone’s gone back for one last cuddle with the Lord of the Underworld…



And I just took the winter tires off all our bikes... not that we're going anywhere in this mess!



By Tuesday it's supposed to be +20°C!? Welcome to Saskatchewan weather. 

But that hasn’t stopped me from taking pictures and updating my blog!!

I finished up this Pzkw VI (Tiger I) from West Wind Productions’ Berlin or Bust line last night.

(Actually I finished it up while watching Fury… well… listening to Fury and occasionally looking up to watch the action…)

I picked up this kit a few years back – at the same time I bought the Sherman Troop and the T-34 Platoon. West Wind was having some big sale and the Canadian dollar was doing well (or the Pound Sterling doing poorly… depending on who you ask, I suppose) and I seem to recall they worked out to about $20 per tank!?

The West Wind tanks are a bit on the small side – compared to most other 28mm WW2 tank manufacturers… but since MOST of my later war tanks for the European fronts are all from West Wind, it doesn’t really matter…

That may not be the commander that came with the kit... I have an assortment of German tank commanders that got all jumbled together...

I also have two Panthers and two Pzkw IV to finish up. I didn’t do this tiger first because I have any real need or desire to have the Tiger done first… it was mostly because… well there was only one of them and of the three kits it was by FAR the easiest looking to assemble – the other two have all sorts of bits and bobs that I – for the most part – have NO IDEA where they’re supposed to go!? (and there were NO INSTRUCTIONS included with the models!?)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a couple more SS in the works to finish up that force… then…? I’ve been eyeing up the Fallshirmjäger… and the American Paratroopers… but a few 40K Imperail Guard have infiltrated their way onto the workbench… so…

Waffen SS

blogger tells me this is the 1300th post...

I have a small force of SS that I am working on – mostly as an opposing force for my Canadians in Normandy and Paras in Arnhem. I though this might be the last of them, but I found a few more I’m going to paint up before I call them “done for now…”

While some of the figures are genuinely marketed as “SS” figures, others are just Germans I’ve painted up in pes-dot cam to pass off as SS.

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

The latest batch.

An SS Command team from Bolt Action Miniatures

LMG team – also from Bolt Action Miniatures

Advancing LMG team – also from Bolt Action Miniatures

SS with Panzerfausts – I’m not entirely sure of the make of these – I think I picked them up off of ebay and they were listed as “Battle Honors” but they seem a bit chunkier than other battle honours figures I have…?

Panzershrek teams – came with the batch with the panzerfausts above.

Flame thrower – again – came with the two batches above

Assorted SS from Artizan Designs

And a few more from Black Tree Design

SS Casualties from Black Tree Design - it’s possible they were simply meant to be “prone” but I’m using them as casualty markers…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Perhaps a few more SS… though I’ve also been working on a Tiger tank and been eyeing up both Fallshirmjägers and 40 Imperial Guard… so… who knows!? 

Early War French for Bolt Action

Below is a small force of French Infantry I’ve organized for Bolt Action. All the figures are from Bolt Action/ Warlord Games.

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

French Platoon and Support – about 639-749 points (so far…)

Platoon HQ: CO (Lieutenant), Sergeant-chef, Signaler

(Regular 1^st Lieutenant plus two extra Regular s) 95 points

1st Section

(French Infantry Section - 10 Regulars, 1 LMG, 1 pistol, VB launcher)  137 points

2nd Section

(French Infantry Section - 10 Regulars, 1 LMG, 1 pistol, VB launcher)  137 points

3rd Section

(French Infantry Section - 10 Regulars, 1 LMG, 1 pistol, VB launcher)  137 points

Other Attached Elements:

Hotchkiss Mle1914 Machine-gun Team – from one of the battalion’s four MG Platoons

Regular MMG Team @ 50 points

Mle 1927/31 81mm Mortar Team – from the battalion’s Heavy Weapons Platoon

(Regular Medium Mortar Team) 50points

Medical Aide – from the Regimental Medical Services Squad

(Regular Medic) 23points

The trusty old Soixante-Quinze (75mm Mle 1897 gun) – state-of-the-art in 1914… 1940… not so much – but according to the Bolt Action lists I can field one for FREE due to the Forward Artillery Doctrine rule – from the Division’s Light Artillery Regiment

Light Howitzer Team – 0 points!

Officer and signaler. Could be either:

Company commander – Capitaine

(Regular Captain + 1 Regular) 120 points

OR

Forward Artillery Observer Team

(Regular Artillery Forward Observer +1 Regular) 110 points

OR

perhaps I could just use the signaler as a Spotter for Mortar…? (+10 points)

If I were to add anything to the force it might be an Renault R35 tank (which I probably will in the not-too-distant future)… I’d go for the R35 as the majority of the Bataillion de Chars de Combat (armoured battalions that provided support to Infantry Divisions) seem to have been equipped with the R35 (I’m all about versatility).

Additionally I could add an AT gun - probably the 25mm M37 (as I imagine they could be facing some blitzkrieging light panzers) - or possibly some French Cavalry from Crusader Miniatures just for fun.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have some more German SS infantry on the workbench at the moment… so seems I’m going to be finishing them up next… Then perhaps the Fallshirmjägers…? 

Maybe at some point I should throw some of these on the table and play a game or two!? 

Last of the French and Japanese (for now…)

Just finishing up a few last French and Japanese...

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

Last of the French – to finish up my Early War French Infantry Platoon – all figures are from Bolt Action Miniatures/Warlord Games.

A few more Japanese - that didn’t make it into the post about my complete Imperial Japanese Army for Bolt Action post (because they hadn’t quite arrived yet). This gives me a spare officer for… whatever… (Perhaps I could call him a Kempeitai Political Officer..?). The LMG team makes it so I can field three later war mixed sections for both of the platoons. Figures are also from Bolt Action Miniatures/Warlord Games.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

French Infantry Platoon for Bolt Action! 

British Chindits for Bolt Action

I have put together a small force of Chindits for Bolt Action. Here's what I've got:

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

Chindit Force – 670 points (so far…)

Patrol HQ: CO (1^st Lieutenant), Sergeant Major, Batman/Runner/Siganller

(Veteran Lieutenant plus two extra Veterans) 116 points

2” Mortar team (part of the Troop HQ, technically, but is considered a separate team for Bolt Action)

(Veteran Light Mortar Team) 46 points

1st Section

Sergeant (SMG), Bren-gunner, 6x Riflemen (Including Bren No. 2 – all SMLE)

(Chindit Section, 8 Veterans, 1 SMGs, 1 Bren LMG) 143 points

2nd Section

Sergeant (M1 Carbine), Bren-gunner, 6x Riflemen (Including Bren No. 2 – all SMLE)

 (Chindit Section, 8 Veterans, 1 Bren LMG) 140 points

3rd Section

Sergeant (M1 Carbine), 7x Riflemen (SMLE)

(Chindit Section, 8 Veterans) 120 points

Other elements of the column:

Medical Aide and wounded

(Veteran Medic +1 veteran) 43 points

Vickers MG team(s) – somehow I ended up with TWO of these!? I guess if I ever expand the force to two platoons I could make use of them both…

Veteran MMG Team @ 65 points

Mule Team

No real rules for these… I suppose I could us it as an objective marker of some sort or add it to the Medic’s team…?

Some Bolt Action figures are available singly and I had hoped to place a small order and pick up a third Bren-gunner (and some others) to fill out the sections. Unfortunately the Bren-gunner doesn’t seem to be available anymore – as a single figure – so this is it for now.

At some point I might add a PIAT team and/or Boyes ATR Team and a 3” mortar team. I could even see adding a complete second platoon – of either Chindits or Gurkhas. I could also see adding a Forward Observer team –either air or artillery – for some of the bigger actions on Operation Thursday

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The French

Frenchies, Chindits, and an SS Medic

An assortment of items I’ve finished up in the last week or so (since finishing up the Japanese).

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

Chindits – mostly from Warlord Games - though there is one from Artizan Designs (actually a British Commando officer from North Africa that I decided to pass off as a Chindit by painting his trousers green)

Two sections of French infantry (plus a medic and the Platoon Sergeant) from Warlord Games

Later War SS Medic – also from Warlord Games

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

As the Chindits are now complete (or as complete as they’re going to be for some time!) I’ll likely do a breakdown of how they could be organized for Bolt Action as I’ve done with the the Japanese, British/Canadian Paratroopers, and British Commandos.

Hopefully after that I’ll finish up the final section of French to complete that force!

Then…? 

Taking Stock – World War Two

If you've been following along, you'll have noticed I’ve been painting a lot of Second World War stuff lately. It’s largely a function of desire to finish groups that will be easy to finish and stuff that is currently fun to paint – rather than stuff I want to play with at this point. I’ve kind of lost interest in actually playing with miniatures at the exact moment (which is largely a function of the degree of mess in the game room and the amount of work that will be required to get it to a state clean enough to play games… the unfun of cleaning is currently greater than the potential fun of playing games… why is that? anyway…) and lost interest in playing WW2 games quite a while ago (largely because it's never been a favourite period of mine but so many people love it and will play ONLY WW2 stuff and I feel I've played it to death...). Anyway... for whatever reason, I've been having fun painting WW2 stuff  and in the process I’ve been trying to organize my World War Two forces into something playable (should I ever actually play with them) and deciding if I really would need anything else to make each force playable and what things might be fun to add to the force at some point in the future. NEED to get versus NICE to get…

Then one night last week I thought I’d do a little stocktaking – I thought it might be inspiring to really see how close I am to finishing these all up…

Force  - Finished (Foot/Guns/Vehicles) - Still TO DO (Foot/Guns/Vehicles)

Germany – DAK – 28/0/0 – 23/0/1

Germany – Gebirgsjäger – 15/0/0 – 0/0/0 – DONE!!

Germany – Kriegsmarine  - 16/0/0 – 0/0/0 – DONE!!

Germany – Fallshirmjäger – 18/0/0 – 40/0/0

Germany – SS – 26/0/0 – 30/0/0

Germany – Heer 107/2/7 – 94/1/9

Italy – Europe 10/0/0 – 0/0/0 – DONE (sort of...)!

Italy – North Africa – 10/0/0 – 41/0/0

Soviet Union – 294/4/11 – 0/0/0 – DONE!!!

USA – Airborne – 0/0/0 – 47/0/0

USA – Army – 25/0/0 – 55/0/0

USA – USMC – 20/0/0 – 14/0/2

USA - USMC Raider – 14/0/0 – 0/0/0

Japan – 110/0/0 – 14/0/0

Great Britain – Commando – 51/0/0 – 25/0/2

Great Britain – Chindits – 21/0/0 – 14/0/0

Great Britain – SAS/LRDG - 30/0/0 – 0/0/0 – DONE (sort of...)!

Australia – 27/1/0 – 5/1/0

Canada – Infantry – 119/1/5 – 14/0/1

Canada – Paratroopers – 96/0/0 – 0/0/0 – DONE!

Canada/USA – FSSF – 26/0/0 – 0/0/0 – DONE (sort of...)!

France – FFL – 31/0/0 – 0/0/0 – DONE!

France – Early War – 10/1/0 – 32/0/0

Totals

DONE

Foot: 1094

Guns: 10

Vehicles: 23

STILL TO DO

Foot: 446

Guns: 2

Vehicles: 16

Well… over half done at least… but not QUITE as close to being done as I had perhaps hoped… especially considering that a few of the forces are not even close to being usable forces even if I did finish painting all the stuff that I currently have.

Well the plan (for now) remains the same: finish them off. I have placed a few orders to help finish up a few things (in the sense of “finish up making a complete, useable force”).

I am resisting the urge to place any further orders until all of these that I currently have are completely painted. Some of these forces, once painted, will still not be a complete useable force – the Italians for European theatres, for example. It’s DONE! But that’s ONE SQUAD! Not much use there… The First Special Service Force also needs a few packs to complete the two sections in the planned platoon – but I’m waiting on Artizan Designs to release the promised pack of Johnson Machine-gunners…

For most the plan is to field something like a reinforced platoon (or, in some cases, platoonS – or even a company!) – the scale of force most commonly used in Bolt Action. Some forces won’t be useable in that scale of action, and I have no intention to make them so – I just have them for potentially using in Role-Playing/Pulp Adventure type games.

If I cranked out about 100 foot per month (which I can easily do when I get up to high production speed) I could have these all done by mid-summer… well the Infantry… and then I’d have some vehicles to finish up. It could all be done by fall…

The question is: Do I have that long of an attention span anymore…?

Coming up next: Some Frenchies (or possibly more Chindits...?)

Imperial Japanese Army Force for Bolt Action

Because I ended up with a fair few Japanese (this comes of buying things that are on sale with no real plan…) – a bit too much for a single platoon… but not enough for a full company… and far too many officers… I’ve more or less tried to organize my force as an under-strength Company. Probably later in the war, seen lots of action and not nearly enough reinforcements to cover the losses due to combat or disease.

I suppose if they’ve seen a lot of action I could have made them veterans, but I figured I’d go with regulars imagining those that have seen a lot of action, have also seen a lot of hardship and it’s been telling – also the influx of not-so-experienced replacements (though not nearly enough to keep things up to their authorized strength) would also lower the overall effectiveness of the squads.

I’ve also gone with the optional later war dual weapon squads – but could just as easily set these up as two Rifle squads and one Grenadier squad…

The entire force (so far…)

Company Headquarters

Company Command

(Regular Captain +2 Regular Men) 130 Points

1^st Platoon



The entire platoon. 

Platoon HQ:

Platoon Commander (subaltern), Platoon Sergeant, Runner

(Regular First Lieutenant and two other regulars) 95 points

3x IJA Infantry Squads, each with:

First Squad

(IJA Infantry Squad – 8 Regulars, LMG, Light Mortar) 125 points

Second Squad

(IJA Infantry Squad – 8 Regulars, LMG, Light Mortar) 125 points

Third Squad

(IJA Infantry Squad – 8 Regulars, LMG, Light Mortar) 125 points

2^nd  Platoon

The Second Platoon is currently organized with two rifle squads and a mortar squad – mostly because I don’t have a third LMG team for this platoon yet (there’s one on order, should be here this week… but I thought I’d show them organized as such… because… well… because they CAN be organized as such…

The entire platoon (pictures from a previous post)

Platoon HQ:

Platoon Commander and Runner

(Regular Second Lieutenant +1 Regular Soldier) 60 points
Though there is only the officer pictured here I DO have a runner figure for the platoon HQ... he somehow just didn't end up in the picture.... 

3x IJA Infantry Squads:

First Squad

(8 Regulars + LMG) 100 points

Second Squad

(8 Regulars + LMG) 100 points

Third (Grenadier) Squad

(6 Regular soldiers + 3 light mortars) 135 points

Other Supporting Elements Attached Battalion/Regimental/Divisional Assets:

Medical Officer and Orderly

(Regular Medic + Extra Man) +40 points

I seem to have lots of extra Officers… rather than making ANOTHER platoon to make use of them I decided to use them… elsewhere… so here is a battalion medical officer with his family’s sword – ready to use if for expedient battlefield amputations!

81mm Type 97 Medium Mortar Team and Observer

(Regular Medium Mortar Team + Spotter) 60 Points

Medium Again with the spare officer…

Type 92 Medium Machine-Gun Team

(Regular Medium Machine-Gun Team) 50 points

MMG team from the Battalion’s MG Platoon. AGAIN with the spare officer… the MG team is supposed to have a crew of three... I only had two – but I had this spare officer… so…

Suicide Anti-Tank Teams

(2x Regular Suicide Anti-Tank Teams) @ 20 = 40 points

Forward Observer teams

(Regular Artillery Forward Observer + extra man) 110 points

(Regular Air Force Forward Observer + extra man) 85 points


So if I fielded this entire force that would be about 1400 points - could be more if I made them veteran, less if I fielded not so many observers and/or support stuff and/or made the first platoon commander a 2nd Lieutenant... or simply fielded ONE platoon... I guess what I am saying is there are a LOT of different ways this force could be fielded - the above organization (the one I would default to) is but one way of doing things...

If I ever got to doing a defence of Okinawa (or some “What If” scenarios involving an invasion of Japan) I could field a couple of Inexperienced Bamboo Spear Fighting Squads…

Bamboo Spear-Fighter Squad

(15 Inexperienced Infantry with Bamboo Spears) +75 points.
Yes they're samurai-era peasants from my Ronin Peasant Buntai, but really, how much would the dress of the average rural Japanese peasant have changed from the Sengoku period...?

STILL TO DO:

I’m pretty much done with these… I DO have one last LMG team for the second infantry platoon on the way and I ordered a squad of Japanese infantry on bicycles (because… I am a bit of a Bike Geek…) – perhaps they could be fielded as a regimental scout squad…? I don’t know…
(12 Veterans, LMG, Light Mortar, Bicycles) +213 points

Perhaps SOMEDAY it might be nice to pick up a few other things:

TANK(s) – I might like to pick up a Type 95 Ha-Go Light Tank and/or a Type 97 Chi-HA Medium Tank – they seem to be the most numerous tanks fielded by the Imperial Japanese Army, and thus the most likely to be supporting any particular company…

Light Artillery – I also wouldn’t mind picking up either a Type 92 70mm Infantry Gun or a Type 41 75mm Mountain Gun (does anyone even make such a thing?!) for some organic light support from the Battalion Gun Platoon.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog: