Beavers? BEAVERS!? Yes, beavers.
Well… it’s been a busy couple of
weeks around the Brown household! Dance classes and violin lessons wrapping up,
with extra rehearsals and recitals, we’re still getting ready for our year end
reporting next Monday – desperately trying to finish up a few projects for that
- and a final violin concert this weekend. In the middle of this the copy of
Game of Thrones Season Five I requested finally arrived at the library (being a
newly-released DVD there was no chance we’d be able to renew it and thus had 10
hours of TV watching to do in one week) and we got a call from our family
doctor a couple hours after The Boy went for a blood test, saying we need to
get to the hospital PRONTO! Turns out the lab found he had a blood-glucose
level of 42, which is apparently super high – like undiagnosed Type One
Diabetes kind of high! So that ended up with us spending the afternoon in
Pediatric Emergency and a couple days (and a couple of sleepless nights!) up in
the Pediatric ward…
Usually I get a lot of painting
done when watching TV series – I kind of just listen and half watch while
painting, but I’ve just been so worn out and tired I couldn’t even focus on miniatures
I was wanting to paint – even with my new reading glasses! So I actually just
WATCHED the whole season.
I also, FINALLY, got a bit of a
vegetable garden planted this last week… It’s a bit late, but hopefully we’ll
get a bit out of it. I never got around to planting anything last year. May is
just too busy…
Anyway, on to the minis!
(Remember: click on the pictures
for a bigger version):
The 2nd and 3rd Trench Mortar
batteries. (Figures are from Old
Glory Miniatures)
As I’ve probably mentioned
before, I’ve been trying to put together entire brigades from each of the
different manufacturers of 28mm Great War figures (well, makers of Late War
British – that can be passed off as Canadians – at least!). Unfortunately not
all the manufacturers of Great War Miniatures make trench mortars (I’m looking
at YOU, Wargames
Foundry and Brigade
Games!!). So a few of the brigades will have Miniatures attached from
other manufacturers – which drives that little OCD part of me CrAzY!? (Also the brigades made up of my OWN
models will have trench mortar batteries made by others as I’m too lazy/don’t
have the time or skillz to make masters for a trench mortar – but for some
reason that doesn’t irritate me so…)
Some spare figures from Old Glory Miniatures
that will be pressed into service as Brigade staff and signaler/runners.
Beavers.
Just… don’t ask… It seemed like
a good idea at the time…
(miniatures from North Star Figures)
Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:
More Canadians of the first division. Actually now I have
the Trench mortars finished up I could take a pictures of the whole 2nd
Brigade – which I now complete!
I totally broke my gaming budget
for the year and ordered the next three brigades worth of figures (from Wargames Foundry,
First Corps
, and Gripping
Beast/Woodbine Design) so hopefully they’ll be start showing up
soon-ish and I’ll get to work on those. I was going to order one more brigade
from Irregular
Miniatures just to be a completist.
Excellent work on the mortars and crew! Is that a pair of trews the officer is wearing? Nice!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathan! I was trying for trews, but from this angle it looks like I didn't make the plaid pattern tight enough... ah well... clearly you could tell what it's supposed to be so it wasn't a total failure.
DeleteThose look like some very organized beavers! (is one of them carrying some rolled up plans?)
ReplyDeleteAlso, they do seem appropriate for a Canadian army... :)
Yes I think he is holding a rolled up plan - I think they are supposed to be discussing the construction of a dam. It's hard to see from this angle (and they are very small to begin with) but one is supposed to be gesticulating, another has his arms folded, another is scratching his head. It's a cute set. There was eight in the pack (two of each) I kept the others thinking I might put them on a multifigure base for a Hordes of the Things Narnian army at some point... I've been collecting up bits of critters of all shapes and sizes over the years to make said army. I really just need to order a bunch of those armed ones from Splintered Light and be done with it and make the army... perhaps next year!
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DeleteNice trench mortars and staff,I read the staff officer as wearing trews on my phone so I think that works, nice beavers very neat.
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain!
DeleteGreat looking troops, and these beavers are so cute!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil! The Beavers are fun. I have no idea what I'd ever use them for, but I couldn't resist picking them up.
DeletePerhaps I'll use them as an alternative to the wandering Giant Rats in Frostgrave...?
You could use the beavers to indicate things for the Canadians, objectives, start lines, where a mine is etc
ReplyDeleteHey, that's a pretty good idea!
Delete(I'd probably need MORE then!)
Nice work as usual. I believe the beavers were attached to the sappers who dug the tunnels. Someone had to cut all of those posts for shoring them up. They were also useful assigned to listening posts since the slapping of a tail did not alert the Germans that they were spotted.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, as a Type2 diabetic I would like to express sympathy and best wishes for your son. Lots of hopeful research on type1s.
Thank you Ross!
DeleteAttached to the sappers of the Tunneling Companies - brilliant!
That just reminded me, though, there was also two forestry battalions raised which became the nucleus of the Canadian Forestry Corps of which there were some 56 independent companies operating in France and Great Britain by the end of the war... These seem like some likely recruits for THAT service!
Great painting as always Time...the trews look great! I think the beavers could find equal home in Frostgrave or lumbering for the CEF, lol, they look cool.
ReplyDeleteThanks Stanely!
DeleteI'll find some way of getting those beavers on the table! We are playing Frostgrave on Friday....