Great War - British Tanks

Repainted some tanks that have been sitting in a box for over a decade. I had this idea of doing A little campaign of seven to ten battles based on the Last 100 Days of the Great War using Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames. I've had the rules for ages and wanted to try them out. I've had the tanks even longer... I

 figured I'd paint them up as the first battle of the campaign would be Amiens and tanks featured fairly prominently in that battle, if I recall... the 4th Tank Brigade - with its 140+ MkV tanks were in support of the Canadian Corps. 

I have no idea if these are MkV tanks... I can't be bothered to figure out the differences... It's a British tank in the Great War, they all look pretty much alike... 

Two British tanks of the Great War - I don't know the Mk (I do know they are "male" and "female" varieties - a breeding pair!). I don't know the manufacturer of the models. 

Tanks supported by infantry (for scale). 

Yes, if you look close there are parts that are broken or missing. I COULD have tried manufacturing some... but that seemed like too much work for something that's probably going to see action in one game and then go back in a drawer never to be used again... and when I have SO MANY OTHER THINGS I'd also like to be painting that MIGHT get used... potentially could be used... 

Never say "never", I guess, though. If ever I DO think I'll get to using these on a slightly more regular basis... I'll fix them up a bit better! For now, they are DONE! 

So… Vimy…

Not happening this year. Sorry.

I want to thank everyone that has commented on this blog and been so supportive of the project.

Though time has been running short, that wasn’t really what killed it. I probably could have gotten it done – though it might not have been as pretty as I originally intended. It wasn’t even the lack of enthusiasm – I could have worked through that. I sat down with my mostly finished plan and started pricing out the materials I’d have to run out and get to build the terrain and WOW prices of building materials have gone up since I last bought any in quantity! It was going to cost a LOT more than I’d originally budgeted for (and my original budget for the project was going to completely blow my year’s toys spending budget as it was). That was the final nail in the coffin. (Well that and the kitchen renovation that Amanda’s suddenly decided MUST HAPPEN THIS YEAR!!! But that’s a whole other story…).

So it’s not happening for the 100^th anniversary, which is a bit of a shame… Not saying it’s never going to happen. When I made peace with the fact that it wasn’t happening this year It felt like a great weight had been lifted off of me and with it the general disinterest and loathing for the project. I’ll return to this some day, but it’s not going to be this year.

I may or may not do a Passchendaele battle in the fall. I have all the figures! I wouldn’t make any terrain boards – just a bunch of shell craters and pill boxes and distribute those over a table covered with a brown cloth (a little less costly and labour intensive!) I had thought of doing it for ToonCon, but I’m also planning a jet bike racing game using Faustus Furius and jet bikes from Ramshackle Games (from the Jet Bike Construction Kit Kickstarter) and I’m not sure I really want to run TWO games at the con… We’ll see…

For now… I need to do something else. I’ve been working on some English Civil War figures to try and finish up a couple of companies for Pikeman’s Lament (and/or En Garde and/or Flashing Steel). I’ve also been eyeing up my fantasy and medieval stuff and planning units for Lion Rampant/Dragon Rampant and Song of Blades and Heroes. Yesterday another package arrived from Magister Militum with some more Lead Adventure Post Apocalyptic figures (for some more Mutants and Death Ray Guns action!). And I guess since I won't be so insanely busy building terrain, we should get back to some BOARDGAMES! So, I’ll be keeping myself busy. 

It's also getting warm again this week (-1°C forecast for today and daytime highs above freezing for teh next week!) and i want to get out RIDING! 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

ECW Dismounted Cavalry!

Countdown to Vimy – (less than) 5 weeks to go!

A bit late (again) but I was just finishing some stuff up...

The Plan for this past week was to:

#1 Finish The Canadians!

CHECK!

They’re done – and with that I have finished all the miniatures I was planning to use for the project. I haven’t even bothered to post individual pictures of each battalion. I probably won’t. But I finished off the last three battalions of the 6th Brigade and 3 machinegun teams and 4 mortar teams.

Just for giggles I thought I’d set out the entire Canadian Corps (so far… I don’t have the 10^th Brigade done – as they did not take part in the action on the 9^th as they were being held in reserve for an attack on “The Pimple” (as strong point just north of the ridge) the following day).

#2 Finalize Terrain Plans

Well, I did get the table cleared off and the existing terrain up on it…

And I did try to make a plan of it

And started trying to figure out how to tie it all in to the rest of the ridge.

But I can’t in all honesty say I have “finalized” any sort of plans. If I’m going ahead with this, I best get on with it!

If…

At this point, I have to be honest, I’m sick to death of this whole thing. For some time I’ve just been going through the motions of trying to get it all done and posting updates on this blog hoping somehow I might get excited at that prospect and it might rekindle some spark of enthusiasm.

On one hand I just want to throw in the towel and say “fü¢k it, it’s just not worth it anymore….” There are a hundred other things i'd rather be doing. But on the other hand I feel like I’ve put so much work into it and come so far, I should see it through, right?

Should….

Seriously, that’s the only thing keeping me going at this point – guilting myself into forward motion with “What the hell did you buy and cast and paint all those stupid figures for if you’re not going to finish it now, moron!?”

Maybe I just need to take a little break (a VERY LITTLE one – as time is running out!). I wish the weather was still like it was last week - I’d take the kids and go for a day-long bike ride and get some fresh air…

Alas the weather has taken a turn for the worse… we’ve has a few days of snow – and WIND – and the temperature has plummeted from +5°C into the -20s (°C).  

Maybe we'll just play a few more boardgames... 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Vimy Terrain!

(or… maybe something completely different…). 

Great War British/Canadian Figure Comparison

Now that I have samples painted of (insofar as I know) every manufacturer of Great War British (late war) infantry (which I am of course using as Canadians) I thought I’d post some figure comparison pictures – because many miniature gamers are very concerned about such things. I’m not as concerned as others… )although I did recently pick up some 6mm Sci Fi infantry I thought I might use as proxy Imperial Guardsmen and though they are lovely figures, they are taller than the GW Space Marines that I have… so… I’m not so sure I’ll be using them…).

There is at least one other manufacturer of Great War British that I can think of – but in that particular case they only do early war (the the SD caps) and were of no use to me.

Manufacturers represented here include:

Wargames Foundry

Old Glory

1st Corps

Brigade Games

Irregular Miniatures

Great War Miniatures

Gripping Beast/Woodbine Designs

Renegade Miniatures

I have also included the Great War Canadian figures that I modelled, moulded and cast myself - just for interests sake. 

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

Officers (from left to right): Scarab Miniatures, one of my own, Renegade Miniatures, Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design, 1st Corps, Renegade Miniatures, Great War Miniature, Brigade Games, Old Glory, Irregular Miniatures, and Wargames Foundry.

I don't actually have any UNITS of Great War British (or Canadians) by Scarab Miniatures, but I do have the one pack of officers, so I thought I'd include him in the line-up.

Lewis Gunners (from left to right): Renegade Miniatures, one of my own,  Great War Miniatures, 1st Corps, Brigade Games, Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design,  Old Glory, Wargames Foundry, and Irregular Miniatures.



Most manufacturers also make a No.2 or Loader for the Lewis Gun. From left to right-ish we have Great War Miniatures,  1st Corps (slightly behind), Brigade Games (in the middle up front), Renegade Miniatures (in the middle at the back), Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design, and Wargames Foundry.



Old Glory doesn't make a loader, but they do make their lewis gunners in standing and prone firing positions. The standing one is meant for using in a trench - with a bipod out front to prop up on the parapet - where the prone one is meant for use on the advance out in no-man's-land. I'm not a HUGE fan of prone firing light machine-guns - or light machine-gun TEAMS - largely because they take up more space than they really need to on the tabletop. They are useless in trenches and buildings - or at least they look SILLY in trenches and buildings. They also don't fit into my uniform storage system very well. At least Old Glory makes some kneeling figures so there is at least some gradation within the unit, which is more than I can say for some other manufacturers...

 

Like, say, Brigade Games... Their packs include one team advancing and one that is prone and firing. I could be a little more forgiving if their other packs included figures that are kneeling... but then don't. They don't even include any other figures that are FIRING!? It's prone firing machine-guns and everyone else is just advancing, like they're on a stroll through the park...  and they ain't cheap. At least with Old Glory, they're (relatively) inexpensive and you get a pack of TEN Lewis Gunners - five prone and firing, five that are standing and firing - enough to have one of each available for each unit, depending on whether they are defending or attacking!?



What's even worse is that even though they make highlanders - they don't make highlanders with Lewis Guns (or at least didn't at the time, I haven't bothered to go back and check) so I had to convert one out of one of the prone teams!? 

Bombers (from left to right): one of my own, Renegade Miniatures, Great War Miniatures, Brigade Games, 1st Corps,  Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design, Irregular Miniatures, Old Glory, and two from Wargames Foundry.

Firing (from left to right): one of my own, Renegade Miniatures, Great War Miniatures, 1st Corps,  Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design, Old Glory, Irregular Miniatures, and Wargames Foundry.

Brigade Games doesn't seem to have any firing miniatures - well, other than their Lewis Gun team. All of their other miniatures are upright and advancing. Which further makes me wonder WHY they had to include a prone Lewis Gun team!? 

Advancing (from left to right): one of my own, Renegade Miniatures, Great War Miniatures, 1st Corps, Brigade Games,  Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design, Old Glory, Irregular Miniatures, and Wargames Foundry.

Two advancing figures from Great War Miniatures. People often ask me: "which is your favourite?" I find it hard to pick, I like all of them... well... most of them. I like some things about some, other things about others. This picture above illustrates one of the reasons I think overall I like Great War Miniatures the best - beyond the clean, easy-to-paint details - it's the little extra things like shovels and picks - that you see being carried in pictures of assaulting troops - that give the guys just a little bit of character. 

Kneeling (from left to right): Renegade Miniatures, two from Old Glory, Wargames Foundry, Irregular Miniatures, fur from Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design

I don't seem to have any kneeling figures from 1st Corps, Brigade Games, or Great War Miniatures - and I never did make any myself. Generally, for modern-ish wars, I don't mind kneeling figures at all - In fact if there are prone and standing miniatures in the same unit I'd really rather there also be a few kneeling guys - so there is some gradation within the unit. Though for the Great War, if you're using trenches, guys that are kneeling and firing in trenches look a bit odd... or course prone guys inside trenches are even worse... 

I included two from Old Glory because they had one thing that I don't think anyone else had - a rifle grenadier. I also included four from Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design because... well... because they HAD a lot of different poses - all of which I though were great. 

Casualties
First row, prone, left to right: Old Glory, Gripping Beast/WoodbineDesigns, Great War Miniatures
Second row, standing, from left to right: Wargames Foundry, Great War Miniatures

I did take a separate picture of the different highlanders I have from some of the manufacturers, but then realized I didn't have examples of all the ones I own - Brigade Games was missing - and I don't even have highlanders from some of the manufacturers that produce them, so I decided to not include it at this time.

I do also have figures from Tiger Miniatures for the CSEF (Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force), but I haven’t painted any of them yet and they would never really be mixed in with these I’m using for the western front anyway, so…

Earlier I did a comparison of Great War Vickers Teams. 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The rest of 6th Brigade. 

27th Battalion (City of Winnipeg), CEF

Finally the last brigade of miniatures for the Vimy project are rolling off the line! This isn't the last of the Canadian Corps. I still have the 10th Brigade to paint, but as they took no part in the attack on the 9 April 1917, I'm not going to bother with them for now... I also have  a lot of artillery pieces to paint up at some point. Not sure when they'd ever be used. I picked them up thinking if I had time, they'd have been fun to paint up and sit on a nearby table to show SOME element of the guns involved.

The 27th Battalion (City of Winnipeg) was part of the 6th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadian Division.

All ot the figures used for the 6th Brigade are from Irregular Miniatures.

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

27th Battalion (City of Winnipeg), CEF – figures from Irregular Miniatures.

The formation patch for the 27th Battalion was a blue circle (blue for the junior brigade within the division and the circle for the senior battalion within the brigade) over the blue rectangle of the 2nd Division. 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A figure comparison of 28mm British/Canadian Great War infantry miniatures (now that I have samples from every manufacturer… I had hoped to do this today, but the lighting isn’t great (as evidenced by the crap photos above!) and it’s a bit nippier outside that I’s expected, so I may not get to it until tomorrow.

Countdown to Vimy – 6 weeks to go!

The Plan for this past week was to:

#1 PAINT BRITISH AND CANADIANS! AS MANY AS POSSIBLE!

I did get one battalion done. Originally I thought I’d use it as one of the British battalions, but then realized I don’t think I ever did the 85th Battalion – a labour battalion that was thrown into the attack when the advance on the 4th division’s front ground to a halt. 

I may or may not even include the British battalions now. I did do some work on the terrain plans and looking over them I’m wondering if I’ll even have ROOM on the table for all the Canadians (let alone some spare British battalions). I’ve even considered only fielding battalions of 12 for the Canadians (which will be closer to the battalions of 10 I have for the Germans…? If I do end up needing the British, I have a few battalions worth of early war British – in caps – which may be a bit anachronistic at this point in the war, but whatever – it will make them easily identifiable…

I also happened to finish up a German Mortar team that’s been haunting the edges of the painting table for months now!

Despite having some time off from other activities this week, I didn’t get nearly as much done as I’d hoped…

I did do some assembling early in the week – The remainder of the Irregular miniatures British/Canadians finally arrived and so I had to get them stuck down to bases and while I was at it I got the Irregular mortars based and then I did the guns and then I started doing other guns while I was at it… which was ridiculous, because I’m totally not going to need them and thus not even going to try and get them done… a good chunk of may painting time was eaten up priming and gooping figures. It is a very time consuming process.

Basically when new figures arrive I glue them to their bases, then wait a day. Then I paint the first coat of black (primer) and wait a day. Then I paint the second coat of black (paint) and wait a day. Then I goop the bases and wait a day. THEN I can get to painting! I have tried to rush the process in the past, trying to do both coats of black in one day or even gooping immediately after the second coat of black – but I’ve found that if it isn’t left at least 24 hours to cure the black layers rub off easily and I’m constantly having to touch them up. If I do the first coat of black before the glue is entirely cured, I end up with figures popping of their bases. So, I have learned to be patient and try to have other figures to paint while I’m waiting. This week those figures were post-apocalyptic DISTRACTIONS!  and a Few More Distractions... 

This week:

#1 Finish These Canadians!

#2 Finalize Terrain Plans (and maybe get cracking on terrain!)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

February Boardgame Roundup 

Last of the Canadians!! 

German Minenwerfer, Canadian Infantry, and Distractions

A few more things over the last week. Not nearly as much as I’d hoped… but, there it is…

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

A German Minenwerfer team from Brigade Games that Jonathan Freitag of Palouse Wargaming Journal generously donated to the cause.

A battalion of my own Canadian miniatures (though the lewis gunner and officer are from Renegade Miniatures and were painted previously). Originally I’d intended these to be one of the British battalions attached to the Canadian Corps. But then realized I hadn’t done the 85th Battalion – a labour battalion that was thrown into the attack when the advance on the 4th Division’s front ground to a halt. So I’ll probably use this unit as those. I may replace the lewis gunner with a regular rifleman (not sure if a labour battalion would have been fully kitted out with an infantry battalions compliment of light machine-guns!)

In addition to the Post-Apocalyptic Soviets I finished last week, there were a few other distractions I finished up while waiting for paint to dry, etc…

Post apocalyptic KGB (to go along with the Post-Apocalyptic Soviets) – also from Lead Adventure Miniatures

A pair of Medieval-ish/fantasy warrior women. On the left of the picture is the “Warrior Woman” from Wargames Illustrated – Giants In Miniature and on the right is the Frostgrave Assassin from North Star Figures. They kind of look like they could be sisters… I think I shall make them so!

The painted version of the Frostgrave assassin was all it black, which I thought was a bit odd for Frostgrave. Being all stone and ice, I’d think black would rather stand out – so I’d originally planned to do her cloak in white or a really light grey and all her clothes and armour in light greys.

The greys turned out a little darker than I originally intended and once I got painting the cloak I ended up trying to do a mottled look of light greys and blues and then tried to make it look a bit dirty stained from draggin in the dirt and mud as the ancient city slowly melts… I was totally happy with how it turned out… I actuall think it looks a lot better in this photo somehow? Not about to strip and repaint it. It starting to grow on me…

Copplestone Castings Road Warrior.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Vimy Update and then MORE GREAT WAR CANADIANS! 

263rd Reserve Infantry Regiment - 79th Reserve Infantry Division

This will likely be the last of the Germans for a while. These, along with the three regiments of Bavarians, should be all I need for the Vimy game in April. There were a few other battalions thrown into the line from the corps reserve on the day, but I figure I can use recycled casualties from the front line battalions to represent the late arriving reinforcements.

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

263rd Reserve Infantry Regiment – this unit, as with most of the Germans, is made up of my own figures that I modeled, made moulds of, and cast myself. They’re not particularly pretty, but they are all mine.

3 Machine-gun teams from Irregular Miniatures.

The 79th Reserve Infantry Division including the 261st, 262nd, and 263rd Reserve infantry Regiments.

The division is made up of three regiments (261st, 262nd, and 263rd) of three battalions of ten figures each, plus a command element of three figures. Ideally each regiment would have a machine-gun and mortar element attached, but I don't have quite enough mortars at the moment (painted, that is... I may finish up one or two more, but they're not a priority at the moment) so they are pictured here with extra Machine gun teams.

The battalions are smaller than the Canadian battalions - 10 compared to 15. This was largely a time-saving necessity, but also I figured the German battalions would have been whittled down by the "Week of Suffering" - a week-long campaign of constant harassing artillery and machine-gun barrages. The Canadian battalions, by comparison would have all be brought up to - or beyond - their established strengths with fresh drafts of reinforcements in the days before the attack (my great-uncle Bertram was one of those!), I may, ultimately, cut down the number of Canadians I end up using. With 15 figures per battalion it might get a bit crowded. Also as the Canadians have four divisions of three brigades with FOUR battalions of FIFTEEN figures each... the Canadian figures would outnumber the Germans four to one!!

I will hopefully get a few play-tests in later in March and try out different strengths for the Canadian Battalions.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Canadians! Conveniently the rest of the Canadians I ordered from Irregular Miniatures arrived just this afternoon – so I should be getting those based up pronto and hopefully have a good chunk of the final Brigade of Canadians done by the end of the week! 

Countdown to Vimy – (Less than) 7 weeks to go!

The Plan for this past week was to:

#1 PAINT GERMANS! AS MANY AS POSSIBLE!

CHECK!

Mostly complete 263rd Reserve Infantry Regiment earlier on the weekend. Just need to finish up the bases on these now.

I have finished up the rest of the 263rd Reserve Infantry Regiment – which finishes up the 79th Reserve Infantry Division. I do have three more battalions that were thrown in from the reserves that I COULD finish up… but I think they’ll be last minute items, if I get around to them at all. As they’d show up later, I’m sure there will be enough German casualties by the time I need them that I could just recycle miniatures… I should likely get to posting more pictures of these later today.

This Week:

#1 PAINT BRITISH AND CANADIANS! AS MANY AS POSSIBLE!

Still have 60 Canadians and 30 British to paint. I’d like to finish up as many as possible over the next week. Luckily there’s a school break this week so all the kids regular activities are cancelled which means I basically don’t have to leave the house for a week if I don’t have to… gonna get me some PAINTING done!

March

Build Terrain!

April

Make more wire and barrage markers

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

79th Reserve Infantry Division!!

Great War Germans

After a good solid evening of painting I’m feeling back in the saddle and a bit more positive about the prospects of getting all this done one time…

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

This is what I managed to finish up last night. Some were worked on over the last week – a bit, here and there…

Command figures from Great War Miniatures - these will make up the command element for the 79th Reserve Infantry Division.

Assorted German casualty markers – also from Great War Miniatures.

A few of my own castings – enough to finish up the 262nd Reserve Infantry Regiment.

262nd Reserve Infantry Regiment – all of my own castings.

79th Reserve Infantry Division so far – including the 261st Reserve Infantry Regiment and 262nd Reserve Infantry Regiment. I still need to finish up three battalions to complete the 263rd Reserve Infantry Regiment. Add in a few machine-guns and mortars and the 79th Reserve Infantry Division will be complete!

I guess I COULD paint up some artillery – the two regiments of the 79th Reserve Field Artillery Brigade… but as they will not be on the table, I likely won’t in time for the BIG GAME! Mind you, The Divisional command will likely not be present on the table either, so….

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

MORE Great War Germans!

(or some minor distractions!) 

Countdown to Vimy – 8 weeks to go!

Just under two months to go...

The Plan for this past week was to:

#1 Paint 45 Great War Germans to add to those painted last week and reorganize into 10 figure battalions to form the 3 regiments of the 79th Infantry Division.

They’re mostly still on the workbench… Partly painted. Some more than others... 

There are a few casualty and command types that are more or less finished and just need their bases finished. The rest.. well... they're LESS finished.

#2 Repaint collars on old 261 Reserve Infantry Regiment to match collars on 11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment reorganize those two regiments to form 11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment, Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 1, and Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 3.

CHECK!

I did repaint 45 collars to convert figures I’d painted for the 261st Reserve Regiment into elements of the 1st and 3rd Bavarian Reserve Regiments and painted up 9 or so others to finish off the three Bavarian regiments (only two of them are shown here). See more here: Bavarians

#3 Work on (and maybe try to Finalize!?) Terrain Plans

Little work was done on this…

(By "very little" I mean "none")

#4 Begin refurbishing rest of 4th Division’s Terrain…?

I've been trying to get motivated to do this for weeks, months ever, and I’ve finally come to the realization that going back and forth betweek paintng miniatures and building terrain is not in any way efficient. To be effective at either I need blocks of dedicated time and get into the Mode (Painting Mode or Terrain-Building Mode). Therefore Iv’e decided I’m going to try and finish up painting ALL the miniatures in the next couple of weeks and THEN have a month and a bit of solid terrain building.

Distractions!

There were a few figures that snuck on the the edge of the workbench and got a little paint on them... including some Lead Adventure Miniatures I’d ordered from Magister Militum (during a moment of weakness in January) arrived and I sort-of-kind-of painted a few.

I also spent a bit of time early in the week re-basing a few old biker minis so I could try out Faustus Furius... Then played the game... then wrote a report for it... You can find said report of the ensuing shenanigans here: Faustus Furius MMLIII

This Week:

PAINT GERMANS! AS MANY AS POSSIBLE!

I have 70-80 infantry, 3 machine-gun teams and possibly a few more trench mortar teams. Ideally I’d like to get at least HALF of that done this week – preferably MORE!!! 

Rest of February

Finish Germans – 4 more (10-man) battalions of units in reserve plus machine Guns and mortars.

Finish British (2 battalions – 30 figures) and Canadians (4 battalions – 60 figures – plus a few machine-gun and mortar teams)

March

Build Terrain

April

Make more wire and barrage markers

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hopefully some painted Great War Germans!!

Bavarians

I was up a bit late last night trying to finish these up – watch (well… listened to, mostly) Contagion and 12 Monkeys – how’s THAT for an evening’s double feature!? Contagion I hadn't seen before and I thought it was pretty good. 12 Monkeys I hadn't seen in years - probably over a decade and it was actually better than I remember it... You wont' read me write this often, but I actually liked Bruce Willis in it. I usually find him pretty dry - but maybe that's all just part of the tough guy part he's always pidgeon-holled into - but I thought he was actually quite good in 12 Monkeys.

Earlier in the week I was doing some assembling and organizing and repainting collars on about 40 others to make them into Bavarians (they had a white and blue lace edging their collars… I could have left it off and no one would have known the difference… but…) – so this isn’t ALL I’ve done so far this week…

Last week I started reorganizing the German forces for Vimy. I found I needed a handful more officers and men to finish up the three regiments of Bavarians and so I set to finishing those up as they seemed like low-hanging fruit. While doing that I also painted up three of the Irregular Miniatures machine-gun teams to go with the Bavarians. I even mixed some paints to try and match the original tunic colour I used 10 years ago when I painted the first batch (a colour that is no longer commercially available and lighter and greener than the one I’m using now)

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

The Spare Infantry

Machine-gun teams from Irregular Miniatures.

Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiments Nos. 1 & 3. These were part of the 1st Bavarian Reserve Infantry Division which held the southern end of the ridge. The 2nd Regiment, also part of the Division, held a part of the German line south of the Canadian area of operations during the Arras offensive. (I think it was the 51st Highland Division that was just south of the Canadian Corps, which would have been fighting against the 2nd).

The mortar teams are from Renegade Miniatures, the machine-gun teams are from Irregular Miniatures, the rest are entirely homemade figures.

With the exception of the seven newly painted figures and ten that were reorged from the original 11^th Bavarians, all the other figures in these two regiments had their collars repainted this week as well…

Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiments No. 1

Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiments No. 3.

I have a third regiment of Bavarians; the 11^th Bavarian Infantry Regiment, which was part of the 16th Bavarian Infantry Division) held the North end of the Ridge and “The Pimple” which the 10^th Canadian Brigade was scheduled to attack the following day. I was originally going to take pictures of the 11^th as well… but there was nothing newly painted among them (save for one of the machine-gun teams above) and I don’t have a Mortar element for it yet… and… well my fingers were getting cold! (I do most of my photography out of doors where I get better light! And it was chilly this afternoon!)

On the bottoms of all of these Vimy figures I have stickers to indicate which unit each figure is in. Part of the reorganizing of the Germans I’ve been doing over the last week involved tearing the original stickers off and replacing them.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

MORE Germans for the Vimy project. I had hoped to crank out another 45 guys to finish up the 79th Reserve Infantry Division… I probably won’t get them done by Sunday or Monday or whenever I get to the weekly countdown post. Tonight is our biweekly D&D night, but I should get in a couple of solid evenings of paiting Saturday and Sunday… So I should finish up the 262nd Reserve Infantry Regiment and get s good start on the 263rd. Then I have only a few spare battalions that were thrown in from the reserves to finish up for the Germans.