10mm Normandy armies for Rommel

My 10mm WW2 Normandy armies were collected, organised and painted for Spearhead  quite a few years ago, but have never left their boxes for a game. The prospect of coping with all the different sorts of hardware has somewhat inhibited my WW2 wargaming (except for Crossfire).

The imminent appearance of Sam Mustafa's Rommel has given them a purpose in life. So I decided to photograph all of them for the first time in order to review what I have and what I would need to get if I want to deploy proper painted armies.

British Shermans of various types

Yet more British Shermans

British Cromwells and armoured infantry

British leg infantry

German Panthers, Panzer IVs and Tigers

German armoured infantry

German leg infantry and transport

This looks like more than enough for a basic game, except for the absence of artillery which is not represented at the level for which the armies were originally organised. The armies predate my discovery of Pendraken and consist mainly of Minifigs and Pithead Miniatures when they first produced stuff in resin.

Great War Crossfire

The empty field (lower left-hand corner) had contained a
German platoon. Despite eliminating this, the British
platoon (lower centre) was beginning to lose the firefight
with the German platoon in the copse on the left edge.

Many of you will know Robert Dunlop from his contribution to the Great War Spearhead rules and scenario books and his extremely well-informed forum postings on WW1 topics. It was thus a pleasure and privilege to welcome him to my local wargames club and to play a WW1 Crossfire game which he organised.

Robert has recently been quoting chapter and verse on the Yahoo Crossfire group about low level training and actions during WW1 - the level that Crossfire represents - so I was keen to see how a WW1 game would work with these WW2 rules.

The game was a meeting battle, a common occurrence in northern France in the early days of WW1 during the Race to the Sea. Robert posted an eloquent account of the game in the Crossfire Yahoo Group placing it in historical context.

The absence of smoke and the relative scarcity of HMGs made this a significantly different style of game to the WW2  ones I've played but the rules worked equally well.

Plenty of reserves but nowhere to send them except into
the German meat-grinder. Miniatures are 15mm Peter
Pig and Minifigs.

The game has rekindled my interest in doing some 1914 armies, but I once again find myself spoilt for choice. For Crossfire armies, which are small and predominantly infantry, I would normally go for 15mm figures, but for early WW1 I am very attracted to the superb 12mm Kallistra ranges. But the armies might also be used for Square Bashing, Bloody Big Battles! and/or Great War Spearhead which all require relatively large numbers of bases, so 6mm Baccus figures might be a better option.

15mm Samurai for Irregular Wars

Japanese armed peasants join the lead mountain...

I bought some 15mm Two Dragons Samurai years ago to do a DBR army. There weren't enough figures and they've sat in a box ever since. But then I realised that with a few extras they would make an army for Irregular Wars. So I bought the extras and an Ikko-Ikki army to oppose them.

The Two Dragons figures are now sold through the Minifigs website and dispatched by Caliver Books. I'm very pleased to see that after all these years the castings are still excellent quality.

The only thing I'm now lacking is a portable shrine for the Ikko-Ikki which nobody seems to make in 15mm but which should be easy enough to scratch-build.

10mm ACW: The Grand Review: Part 4: The Cavalry And The Commanders

Now for the cavalry and generals. I resent having to paint horses - so much more painting but still only one figure! And don't mention artillery limbers. Having to paint them is a deal-breaker for me when it comes to choosing rules.

10mm ACW: The Grand Review: Part 3: The Artillery

Herewith the Confederate and Union artillery. In a Civil War battle being with the artillery was the safest place to be.

10mm ACW: The Grand Review: Part 2: The Union Infantry

Next up it's the boys in blue. I selected the figures and painted these to give a very uniform appearance in order to accentuate the contrast with the Confederates, although I doubt if any army in the field was ever as regularly equipped as the regulations and uniform books imply. (I also know that the Confederates could be very well supplied.)

10mm ACW: The Grand Review: Part 1: The Confederate Infantry

My 10mm American Civil War armies are at last complete. Painted, stained, grassed and Ardcoated. Thank goodness. As promised/threatened, I'm now going to photo them all so you can see how they've turned out. The photos reveal both the good mass effect and the not quite so good close-up effect. First up it's the Confederate Infantry.

I like irregular armies and I prefer painting infantry, so the Confederate
Infantry are my favourite, even though they took more time to paint.

10mm ACW: visible progress at last

Union infantry after washing and drybrushing

Keen to generate some space for starting work on my 15mm Irregular Wars armies, I'm having a real drive to finish my 10mm ACW ones. Since my last post on this subject I decided the figures looked rather dark, so I chose very light colours for any finishing details, especially Confederate hats and caps. Although these are relatively small areas, this really lifted the appearance of the stands.

Elizabethan Small Wars: Part 4: Irregular Wars - Mere Irish

I've been collecting 15mm figures for my Irregular Wars 'Mere Irish' Battle. 'Mere' is today a slighting term but originally meant 'pure', i.e. it designated the native Gaelic Irish. Galloglass and Kerns are compulsory in the army list before 1600 and Pike and Shot after 1600, but all types are usable across the divide. In 'set piece' battles there are 5 additional options which take the form of x1, xD2 or xD3 etc companies. So for any option you have to allow for more units than you might actually get to field on the table.

I'm currently planning the following units. Each unit is a company/base. Most of the figures are Khurasan Renaissance Irish, but others will be conscripted where required. I decided in the end to go with the standard 30mm square bases as I felt that larger bases would crowd the battlefield too much and alter the game. I could increase the playing area to compensate for larger bases but I want to keep the game compact and not too demanding on painting time.

2 Pike

2 Shot

3 Galloglass

4 Kerns

4 Horse

3 Bonnachts

3 Kern marksmen

2 Redshanks

1 Priest

I was also going to add some Spanish Targeteers but I think I'll postpone that and do a whole 'Spanish Expeditionary Force' Battle once Khurasan have released their Spanish range. For each extra Battle, you add a foot in width. Given that my club like multiplayer games, it will be good to be able to deploy a couple of Battles per side.

Pike. All Khurasan. The end figure is an ensign from the command pack.

10mm ACW - Drinking paint since 2008

Confederate infantry

I seem to have bought my 10mm ACW armies in mid-2008 and they are still drinking paint. These are the figures I based before painting for 'quickness'. I admit that other projects have intervened, but part of the reason for lack of progress has been the awkwardness of painting these figures and the tedium it induces.

The figures are a mixture of Pendraken and Minifigs. They mix OK but the Minifig muskets/bayonets are very thin and delicate and IMO that just isn't practical for wargaming figures. I'm hoping that two good coats of Ardcoat will strengthen them a bit, but it's an act of desperation to rely on varnish to hold things together.

If I had my life over again I'd stick exclusively to Pendraken, but at the time their ACW range was incorrectly modelled with the blanket rolls over the right shoulder, so I thought the Pendraken figures needed some dilution.

10mm ACW - basing before painting

My last post described using a white undercoat, washes and a stain to paint 20th Century figures. For my more colourful 10mm 1690 armies I spot painted over a black undercoat, but I find it increasingly difficult to see detail on a dark surface. More recently I have also experimented with the method very ably demonstrated by Nik Harwood (http://nikharwood.pbworks.com) in which figures are based first and then given a dark brown undercoat, followed by spot painting of the bits you can see/reach. I am using this approach for my 10mm ACW armies currently under the paint brush. It works, but I found it rather like painting through a keyhole so I doubt if I will use it again.

Figures based but not painted. They are a mixture of UK Minifigs and Pendraken (old range). The idea was that I could start using them in games, but 10mm muskets and bayonets are a bit fragile without reinforcement with paint and Ardcoat.