Great War Officers and Casualties

No, not the 1st (Western Ontario) Battalion as promised – I have been working on them. I just happened to also be working on these concurrently and sort of finished them off first.

All the figures in this post are from Gripping Beast/Woodbine Designs.

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

Two Canadian officers. The one with the red brassard is from the 2^nd Division HQ, the other is from the 5^th Brigade HQ.

A couple of 2^nd Division casualties.

A couple of Australian casualties…

This figure is supposed to be another Australian casualty, but I painted it in such a was as to pass it off as a Great War Gurkha.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

1st (Western Ontario) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force.

No, really… 

1st Australian Light Horse

I’ve had a productive weekend so far. Heck, I’ve been pretty darn productive all week. This is what happens when the kids (and more recently myself) are all sick and don’t go anywhere all week and are too sore in the throat to do much reading with each other… When not sleeping, they play, I paint toys… I’d much rather be getting out and DOING stuff with what remains of the summer. Summer colds suck.

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

Australian Light Horsemen from Brigade Games.

I like these figures. Teh detail is a bit finer and thus a tad trickier to paint than the Renegade Cavalry I just finished up, but the horses are solid. 

The marker flag/pennant is that of the 1^st Light Horse. I also tried to do the shoulder patches on the few that are wearing their tunics.

A little preview of what’s coming up next:

French Foreign Legionnaires from Artizan Designs. Not quite Great War. I might be able to pass them off as such… I mean the metropolitan troops were still in blue great coats and red trousers… But I think the Legion was actually in khaki by 1914.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The rest of the unit of Legionnaires. I also have some modern police, WW2 Soviet NKVD and British Paras, Early Great War German Jagers, Later Great War British (Canadian) Vickers teams and a pile of other odd and sundry items on the workbench… Probably the cops will be next after the Legionnaires… But who knows really… it could be an Amazon General in a chariot!? 

(Dismounted) Australian Light Horse

I got a little distracted from my other current projects over the weekend (moderns, Greeks, WW2 Soviets and Paras…). Maybe it was time to do something a little different. I was getting tired of working on individual figures (as many of the recent modern ones had been) and wanted to do something simple (i.e. without patterning/camouflage). What the exact thought process that led me to pull a pile of (dismounted) Australian Light Horse out of the drawer and paint them up I doubt I’d be able to retrace… but pull them out I did and below are the results…

Unfortunately this is yet another one of those smallish projects that I feel like; “gee, I could totally finish all of these up in a week or two if I stayed focused… and then they’d be done…” Unfortunately I have a couple dozen projects at the same level of completion – It’d just take a week or two… but adding them all up that’s over a year’s work!? Which to do first!?

It probably won’t be these (largely because I have very few opponents finished for them – I think I have one unit of Turks I painted a couple years back - or maybe just PART of one unit… looks like there’s only 10 there…

Anyway, it’s be good to get back to doing some Great War Stuff… but I think it’d be more productive to work on some more West Front stuff… Germans… Canadians… Rebuilding the Vimy Terrain…

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

These chaps are from Brigade Games.

Vickers team from the same.

Two of infantry I painted over a year ago. The other day I was looking at an Osprey book on the the Australian Army in WW1 and they were all illustrated in a brownish khaki serge… and I got to second guessing my decision to do them in a more greenish serge. So I partly repainted those two with a more brownish serge and started a couple more… and then started second guessing myself again and decided the brownish khaki looked like rubbish and blacked them out and started all over again with the green!?

I am an idiot.

Now that I have a whole unit painted in the greenish serge, however, I am sticking with it!?

I can see why Curt’s decided to go with grey… Who can argue with that and tell him he’s wrong – it looks JUST LIKE the photos! When I first read about his project I couldn’t decide whether it was freaking brilliant or just pretentious and Silly! I’m definitely leaning more towards brilliant these days…

Speaking of me being a daft twit… I was getting excited over the last month as My painted figure total climbed ever higher slowly approaching 700x28mm foot – while my figures purchased stayed steady at just below 1000 (which is, I’ll admit, an absurd amount regardless) and I was thinking I might actually be able to hold off on buying anything else and painting MORE then I acquire this year!? HUZZAH!? Bu then last week I was looking something up and discovered that North Bay Games and Hobbies had dropped the pack prices on their Foundry and assault group figures to $5… Five bucks for an eight figure pack… So I ordered all the Foundry stuff I could possible ever imagin making use of (which wasn’t much) and all the Assault Group stuff I could imagine ever making use of (and then some) and then then I went to place an order I was informed that they’re doing the same for Renegade…. So I bought ALL the Renegade Great War stuff, which, fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) ended up only being one blister of Germans and a boxed set of Early War French Cavalry…. So now my acquired total is through the roof again for the fourth year in a row…

I need to have a clearer plan… and stick to the plan… and ignore crazy sales – no matter how insanely good they may be…

But eight 28mm figures for $5… tell me you wouldn’t have…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Who knows…? I wouldn’t have guessed Australian Light Horse would be the next post when I put up the previous post… so…

As with any time a new batch of toys arrives in the mail, I’ll probably paint a handful of them in the next couple days… because, y’know… new stuff is EXCITING stuff! 

Great War ANZACs

I recently picked up a bunch of Great War “dismounted Australian Light Horse” (as well as some mounted). Upon the arrival of the dismounted troops I was wondering if they were indeed dismounted light horse as the equipment didn’t seem quite right – mostly wearing trousers rather than breeches they look to be wearing in most photos and uniform plates. They also have 1908 pattern webbing rather than the bandoleer-type equipment I thought the Light Horse used. I looked them up on Brigade Games web site and these are indeed listed as dismounted Light Horse. I’m guessing they picked up regular infantry kit when fighting dismounted for a prolonged time – like at Gallipoli.

The other thing I’m not entirely sure about is the colour here. The colour pics I can find on the web show them in anything from brown-iah khaki to green-ish/brown-ish khaki to quite green-ish khaki…. So I’ve done these chaps in a green-ish Khaki as I have a lot mixed up for the WW2 Canadian battle dress… It may not be entirely accurate… but I do like taking a break from the common tan and brown khakis

Hopefully Helen will be along shortly to set me straight…


As mentioned these are a couple of Australian Light Horse from Brigade Games. Really nice figures, lots of character. I have about 30 dismounted and 10 mounted – with another 8 dismounted and 10 more mounted on the way, in the post.

I have no real need to get these done... I just thought I’d paint a couple up to see how they look. You know how it is…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably more High Martians…?