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Friday, June 17, 2016

13th Battalion (Royal Highland Regiment of Canada), CEF


The 13th was one of many battalions raised by the Royal Highland Regiment of Canada (Black Watch) of Montreal. Three served as regular battalions in the Canadian Corps (the 13th Battalion in the 1st Division, the 42nd Battalion in the 3rd Division and the 73rd Battalion in the 4th Division), the rest supplied drafts of reinforcements to these (and likely other) battalions in the line.

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


13th Battalion (Royal Highland Regiment of Canada), CEF

Those who are paying close attention will have noticed that there are more troops in this battalion than any of the other battalions I’ve painted so far. 20, in fact, where the others have only 15. This has nothing to do with relative sizes of the battalions at any particular point in the Great War and everything to so with the packaging of miniatures. Old Glory Miniatures packages their Great War highlanders in packs of 10 which include 8 riflemen, a piper and an officer… The Lewis Gunner and Bomber came in a completely different package of “Characters”, which put me at 12… 3 short of the 15 required for a battalion. So, at some point, I broke down and bought a SECOND pack of Higlanders - which gave me another 8 riflemen, a piper and an officer… The piper and officer are being used in another unit (of mostly home-cast figures) and the rest… well I painted them up with the formation patch of the 13th as I wasn’t going to be making any other units of highlanders using Old Glory Miniatures.

Half of the above figures I painted ages ago – the first pack of ten, then the Lewis gunner and bomber when I picked up the “Character” pack on a separate occasion. Those that I did paint earlier got a bit of a touch up – formation patches were repainted as were the helmets – so everyone would have a matching colour of helmet (originally I’d painted them the same khaki as the serge of their uniforms?)

The originals I painted with a half kilt apron - in the front - and tried painting a Government Sett on the pleats at the rear. The new ones I just painted as a full kilt apron because... well... I was feeling lazy! Though I did repaint the officers trousers - which were originally khaki - to look like trews. 


Detail of the formation patch. The red patch of the First Division surmounted by a blue circle (blue for the middle junior of the division and the circle for the senior battalion within the brigade).

As I mentioned in the last post I recently ordered two more brigades worth of miniatures. One of the manufacturers I ordered from was Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design, who later in the day (or perhaps it was the next day…?) sent a notification that the package had been shipped via UPS and is to arrive later today!? ZOUNDS! While it’s exciting that it will arrive so quickly (considering I also placed an order with Wargames Foundry in May and I haven’t seen or heard anything from them yet… I guess that was just two weeks ago…). I’m a little anxious though as, in the past, when bringing stuff across the US-Canadian border UPS usually charged HORRENDOUS “brokerage fees” – now I don’t mind paying GST to the government – I LIKE roads and fire departments and socialized medicare and such – but the brokerage fees just go to UPS and are essentially extortion – if you don’t pay their fee, you don’t get your stuff! I’m not sure about stuff coming from the UK though… I guess we’ll see later today.


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have two more battalions of highlanders for the 3rd Brigade I’ll probably finish up – most of them are painted and just require some touch-ups – so I’ll probably finish them up next. The are mostly made up of the very first miniature I ever sculpted – a Great War Highander! The fourth battalion in the brigade was a regular battalion and I’m not sure what miniatures I’m using for it. I may have ordered enough extras from the Foundry  to do that unit… So I’ll have to wait until they arrive to finish it up.

After that I’ll probably launch into painting up a brigade of the 2nd Division using the Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design miniatures – though they will require some assembly (separate heads) – not to mention basing and priming… so there may be a bit of a break in posts while I get all of that done. 

21 comments:

  1. Fantastic work and such a great subject. You obviously know your history!

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  2. You continue cranking out beautiful figures at a fast clip. Excellent!

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    1. Thanks Jonathan - half of this batch were mostly painted already...

      and thanks again for the Gift Certificate - I should have a German trench mortar and staff on the way shortly!

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    2. My pleasure! I look forward to seeing the figures once painted. Perhaps one of the German staff officers can be a one, Herr Freitag!

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  3. Oh and the Gripping Beast stuff showed up and the Brokerage Fee they charged wasn't as bad as it has been for some orders I've had from teh states. it was only an additional $23 and change I had to pay - $13 of it was GST (Canadian Goods and Services tax), $10 was the brokerage fee, and then another 50¢ GST ON the brokerage fee...

    I'm going to have to make a run to the local home centre to pick up some washers to start basing them - luckily there's one near my FLGS (Dragon's Den Games) and I'm heading there for Free RPG Day tomorrow! So hopefully you'll see the first units rolling off the line some time in the next week.

    I think I'm going to use the Gripping Beast stuff for the 5th Brigade, which includes the 22nd Battalion (Canadien Francais)!

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  4. Great job, and beautiful pictures, love the last one in the trenches...

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  5. I always insist on shipping by USPS from the states.

    The worst case of ups I had was when a friend sent me a box of 54 home casts as a thank you for the master I did for him. He marked a value of $100 dollars for insurance and I got hit with customs and an even bigger ups brokerage fee. If I refused they would take it back and charge him + return shipping. So I paid about $90 for my gift. Not happy.

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    1. I try to make sure as well, but sometimes sellers think they'll do you a favour and "upgrade" your delivery...

      I don't know how they stay in business. (I guess they stay in business by extorting unsuspecting consumers in Canada!?)

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  6. Oh and great looking Highlanders! Takes me back to the armoury on Bleury St.

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  7. Very nice looking Highlanders, Tim! I sold off my WW1 French & Germans recently, but work like this makes me wish I hadn't! :)

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    1. Thanks Dean!

      This is why I'll probably never sell off any of my 28mm stuff... The moment I get rid of it, I'll read an article or a blog post about someone else doing in and instantly regret ever getting rid of them! (Not to mention all the stuff I owned back in the late 80s and early 90s that I got rid of in the mid 90s and now kick myself for doing so... regularly...)

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  8. Great looking highlanders, very nice looking OG figures your staying impressively on track!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain!

      Orders from Gripping Beast and Wargames Foundry arrived this week and I've been busy prepping and priming the lot of them. I hope the other orders I've made over the last few weeks arrived before Canada Post locks it's carriers out! Hopefully I'll have some of those rolling off the workbench by the end of the weekend. (or early next week).

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  9. Very detailed minis - great read! Keep it up!

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