Western Front ANZACs

Pictures of the superb HaT ANZACs with helmets added. Surely one of this company's best sets, I have used these figures for a number of minor projects, and have just recently been looking at using some more to bolster the ranks of my Nationalist Chinese forces.

There are some simple yet effective poses amongst this set, and it is reasonably easy to create a couple more with some head twisting, as you can see.

The sculpting is very good and the choice of plastic an absolute bonus for the converter.

The Stokes Mortar team is by Emhar, but fits just fine with the others.

The Vickers is from an Airfix set, as is the loader, a fairly good match all-round.

WW1 German Artillery

Being a former gunner myself, it has been suggested to me that it was high time I showed a few pictures of the various field pieces in my collection. So first up we have some German examples from the Great War.

Currently I have 75s, 76.2s and 105s. These suit most of the actions that we tend to focus on, although it would be good to see some large caliber weapons come onto the market in the not too distant future also.

HaT have done very well with these as before their arrival they were only available in resin and metal, and quite expensive at that. The crew figures are a bonus as you always have a few spares for conversion ideas, and the limbers are reasonably interchangeable with other nations artillery as well.

WW1 Germans

Several projects on the go at present and with nothing new to post I thought I'd show a few more pictures from my Great War collection.

Most of these figures are from the HaT late-war German set, however, all of the currently available brands are included in this part of the collection. I have enough German battalions based and painted to represent an entire division for the years 1916-1918, which amounts to about 150 stands or platoons. I intend to build an early-war division sometime later this year.

The figures shown in this post are all from the 1918 storm battalion I have, which usually works out to a 1/9 ratio, that is, one battalion in every nine, but I actually have two of these because the rules allow for an additional battalion in the division when being used on the attack between March and May 1918.

Trench warfare games are usually quite boring because of the lack of flanking movement options. Even on a table as big as the one I have it is very difficult to create genuine flanking operations, although using less troops can help with this, you then start running into inaccurate troop versus ground ratios, which is quite important when doing historical re-fights.

Fireflies

The only two Fireflies I have, pictured with a couple of platoons of paratroopers. Have been planning to get some of the Hat versions to add to this unit for ages, just haven't quite got around to it.

These I'm almost certain are matchbox, I have had them for a long time. They don't get a lot of use as the late war period is not really my thing. For the rules we use larger guns means a larger table, and much movement is lost to long-range exchanges between tank forces; very ho-hum.

Nationalist Chinese

Here is the Regimental command unit for the Nationalist forces. Chinese formations frequently had to make do with old and varied equipment, so the old Maxim (despite being a very mediocre figure) fits well.

This is one of the line platoons, apparently the big curved swords were quite common in some units.

Battalion command stand and a couple of rifle platoons.

Some battalions had LMGs instead of the heavier support items usually found at this level.

I have only played a couple of solo games with these troops at the battalion level so far, but am in the process of researching a decent engagement that will allow for a regimental sized deployment, AT guns, field artillery, and of course, armour and aircraft for the Japanese; might even try my hand at an after action report.

Japanese Armour

Plenty on the work bench, so it will be a while before I post anything new. Been looking at some Sino-Japanese stuff as well recently, so thought I'd dust off the meagre assets I have for this conflict, and see what I need to add.

I have regimental sized formations for both armies, but only the Japanese have AFVs. Artillery is reasonable but it'd be nice to get some aircraft as well. Will post a few pictures of infantry later.

Finished Royal Marines

Finally finished a troop of RMC. The results may have been slightly improved with a better selection of donor figures to choose from, however I am reasonably happy with the results. A big thanks to Paul Foster for helping out with spare miniatures and ideas.

I wasn't able to supply the lads with all the right berets, but as Royal Marines have yet to be done in plastic this was hardly surprising.

As can be seen, a couple of figures merely got new heads, and had things such as back-packs added.

Others, however, required substantial modifications.

Had to go with sleeves down for the weapons platoon, but they still fit in okay with the rest.

I have learnt a lot by trying new things, and hope to put the experience to good use when it comes to a similar unit for use with my Korean War project.

Progress II

Another Royal Marine almost finished. I've decided to stick with the shirt sleeve order for the WW2 troop. Some parts have been salvaged from the donor figure but I've also grafted a couple of minor details with green-stuff.

Nearly completed the line units now, and am beginning to think about the weapons platoon which ideally will include a prone Bren gunner and loader of some description, but I'd really like to do something quite different for this pair so it may take some more time and thought.

Progress

Here are a couple of pictures of my Royal Marines conversions. A recent visit to Coakley Manor saw me come away with the materials needed to continue this project. I have decided to complete the WW2 unit before doing another for the Korean War.


As you can see there is still a bit to be done on these. The officer figure will lose his base to keep the height consistent with the others. Eventually, I'd like to have two complete companies of RMC, for WW2, totalling sixteen figures.


The last couple of pictures show the work in progress on the French 75s which will certainly see use in several theatres of both wars.

Keep on modelling!

French 75s

Just arrived French 75s. This piece of kit has been missing from the hobby, in plastic, for a long time. I think the type of plastic being used at present doesn't quite do the miniatures justice, however, for these guns it is worth the trade-off.
Some of the gunners will end up in crews for WW2, as engineers, as cavalry, and some will lose their heads.

It is good to see the Great War range being expanded, and hopefully we will eventually see the addition of a set of BEF.

Latest Conversion

Back from holidays, here is my latest effort. This figure will be the first of a company of Royal Marines, but finding others suitable for similar conversion may be difficult, so if you have any suggestions feel free to comment.

I'd like to be able to use this unit for the Korean War as well, but as we were largely equipped with US kit for that conflict it may just mean creating two separate formations, one with their clobber, and one with our own.

This figure is from the Revell ANZAC set which was given to me by Paul from Plastic Warriors Blog. I have used green-stuff to tidy up some areas, but no other custom additions as yet.

Roads and Hills

A few items of scenery today. First a selection of the various hills I use in games. Most have rolling contours but a couple are of the old step variety. All have holes drilled in several places to accommodate the addition of trees.

The two in this picture are equal to roughly 200 metres in height at an inch to fifty yards. The venerable old Airfix pontoon bridge in the background.

Next are some of my road sections. All have bevelled edges and are of different lengths. Roads, rivers and hills are difficult things to reproduce accurately on a games table.

More from the workbench

Some pictures of Alpine Infantry. There is still some touching up to be done but these are more or less finished now. Engineer and mortar crews got head-swaps, the rest are standard. Airfix mixed with Caesar figures.

Some of the weapon slings I made turned out quite good, others not so, but I'll keep working on it because small additions like this help to create some variety among my figures.

Last couple today are of some 1950s ROK figures that I have been working on. They have a combination of several brands and styles amongst them, which should hopefully improve the look of the unit once completed.

Uniforms and equipment for the South Korean forces didn't start out too flash, and I'm trying to replicate this by changing the appearance of one in every two of the figures I have.