SCW, part 8

 As I have not posted anything about the 20mm Spanish Civil War project for a long while, this entry is to bring myself back up to speed and to show the readers where the projects stands at the moment.

First up are some Republicans:

 

From the left:  a section of 15 infantry; infantry support - LMGs, medic, a 50mm mortar team, and platoon command with commissar; and 3 Renault FT tanks.  The infantry force organization is based on the España supplement for Chain of Command.

As one can see, they are in various stages of completion, with the front FT almost complete, just needs a bit of touch-up.  In all, close to being a useful force on the table.  Most of these miniatures are from Minairons - the tank commander is a French WW2 TC from AB Figures/Eureka Miniatures, and the kneeling/pointing trooper on the left is a kitbashed Zvezda WW2 Russian with a Minairons helmet.

And, some Nationalists:

13 infantry figures from Minairons.  Again, close to being done although I think the green might be too dark on some as these figures have yet to get a dark wash.

More vehicles were being worked on:

2 T-26s, 3 Pz-1As, 2 L3-33s, 2 UNL-35 armored cars, and 1 Ba-FAI armored car.  These are from Minairons except the L3-33s which are S-Model, and the Ba-FAI is a diecast vehicle I found on eBay and re-primed.  The sprues are WW2 Russians from Zvezda and Plastic Soldier Company that are being used for kitbashes and bits for other needs for the Minairons troops.

Out of sight is a paper ream box with plenty of other stuff, the ever-present Pile of Potential!

Not much effort is needed to get these figures ready for games.  The big obstacle is appropriate terrain, and that is on my 'Necessaries' list for later.

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New rules, future projects

 As my painting and gaming mojo comes back, I have been thinking about other projects, of course!  Here are a few that are at the front of the queue at the moment:

Two very interesting sets.  

Seven Days to the River Rhine covers the Great Conflict that never was - the Cold War Gone Hot in Europe.  This era brings me back to my early days of miniatures battles, as the gaming group I was part of was writing/testing micro-armour rules for both WW2 and 'Modern'.  Decades later, it is back, with a slight twist.  The idea that I have is more akin to the movie Red Dawn instead of the book Red Storm Rising, just at a larger level of gaming.  This would not be a skirmish game.  1/285 miniatures have been acquired for this project, now known as G22.

For Whom The Dice Rolls also caught my eye when published.  Do I need another Spanish Civil War project?  That is the question, and since I have two in the works already - 20mm skirmish and 1/144 aerial - the answer seems to be, err, yes!  My original thought was to do this in 6mm, but I am thinking 10mm might be better, as the 1/144 aircraft could be used for the ground battles, and the 10mm kit can be targets/scenery for the air-to-air segment.  To my eye, 20mm would be too large for this set, but I could be wrong.  More thought is needed.

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Greeks part 3, and a bit more

 2 posts in the same month - wonders will never end!  To be fair, this is a post for the 'sandwich crowd' 😄 and well as the beginnings of an effort for me to post more often.

Some small progress on the Greeks:

The first unit of skirmishers is painted and ready, except for a minor detail - bases.  So, after a bit of searching an order to Warbases was sent off.  I have a preference for their 2mm MDF bases for 15mm figures, and I intend to continue use of Litko 3mm bases for my 28mm efforts.

Also shown in the pic above is the first attempt at some Theban hoplites.  I will need to make spears (dory) for each hoplite as neither PSC nor Xyston provide them in their packs/boxes.  Another issue, hard to see above is an on-going test of primers.  Eventually, I will settle on one or two brands, but I am still searching for perfection.  Although I leave shields separate during painting for my 28mm figures, I think that it will be best to attach them prior to priming next time!

And, a bit more from the Pile of Possibilities...

One project that is waiting patiently in the background is my 20mm Spanish Civil War set-up.  There has been some work on it during my absence but I will need to do a thoroughly inventory to make a plan.

 I am fairly certain that I have enough (just barely enough 😁) tanks for both Republican and Nationalist forces, although none of them are finished.  Plenty of infantry, but I seem to remember that the Francoist forces were lacking.

And then, of course, terrain will need to be secured!

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SCW Republicans, part 7

It has been a long time - over two years - since infantry from my Spanish Civil War project graced the pages of this blog:

This is an infantry section for the Republican army, circa 1937, as outlined in the marvelous España supplement for Chain of Command, along with a figure that will be used to represent a Medical Orderly (above and right of the center of the pic).  15 soldiers - 3 squads of 5 - and a sargento (a junior leader for CoC) make up the section.  The sargento is the fellow on the rightmost of the above pic, and he is being assembled from pieces from a Zvezda WW2 Soviet gunner sprue with a Minairons head in Adrian helmet.

Another pic of the troops:

None of the figures are complete, although some just need some detailing and matte overcoat.



A better pic of the two special figures:

The Medical Orderly is a Minairons infantryman that will be modified with a new right hand, courtesy of the Zvezda sprue, and a satchel.  The sargento has already been glued down to the base, and a hole has been drilled for the new head.  A little more glue and he will be assembled...

A really simple conversion made easy by the nice individual parts of the Zvezda sprue, and the Minairons head selection that is available separately.  The figure is a bit different than the standard infantry from Minairons - a bit more stocky, different boots, a more delicate rifle, etc.  The kneeling position, however, hides the extra 'pounds' on the figure and if anything will make it stand out a bit more than his troops.

There are a total of three sections in a Republican platoon for CoC, so 2 more will need to be made!


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SCW tanks, part 4

Here is a quick pic of the table at the moment:

Two Panzer 1a light tanks are assembled, with a third on the way.  Three FT's in various states of completion, with the first only needing a clear coat to finish it off.

And, the usual assortment of projects!


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SCW tanks, part 3

The kit building continues!

Here is the next FT-17:

Sorry for the poor pic, but black plastic does not photograph very well.  Here is a test fit for FT #2, along with the next FT's tracks for some reason.  I have cut out the turret doors so I can place a TC figure in the turret.  

The TC will come from one of the fine selection of 20mm tanks crews from Eureka:

French AFV crewmembers

Early war German tank crew

Soviet AFV crew

Soviet AFV crew pack #2

For the French-built tanks for my Republican forces, I will be using the French crew figures, and Soviet figures for the Soviet-supplied tanks.  I have no definite proof, but it makes sense, to me at least, to use the same nationality crew for the tank.  Uniforms might not be exactly the same colors, especially for the FT-17 crews, but the headgear should be similar.


Now that the first set of FT-17's are being worked upon, I started the first of my Nationalist tanks:

One sprue has all of the parts on these simplified kits.  Two turrets are included, one for the standard twin-MG Panzer 1 and one for the field-modified turret with a 20mm cannon.


Here is a quick shot of the tank park now:

Three FT-17's in various stages of completion, and one Panzer 1a.  The panzer is completely assembled, although the turret is not glued down, and I might add some details before painting.  The second FT shows how the TC will be added to the tank - I just need to make some new doors.  The third FT is awaiting some more attention although the hull is done.  As a significant amount of the hull is covered by the tracks on the FT-17, I am leaving final assembly until painting is nearly complete.


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SCW tanks, part 2

Well now, a line has been drawn in the sand...  Over at his fine blog  20mm and then some, Gunbird has declared a month of kit building, aiming for a kit a day until June 21.  And, I wandered into his trap!  Now, getting 30 kits done in a month seems to be out of reach for me, but it is a nice dose of impetus to finally get myself into gear after the recent slump.

Right off the bat, I worked on that first 1/72 Minairons FT-17 that was half-finished so long ago:

Here it is now, with some weathering and track detail.  The tracks are not yet finished, with some more rust to be added.  The weathering was an experiment using Golden High-Flow acrylics.  The paints are just fine, but I mixed them with an airbrush extender that was glossy (and sticky even after more than 24 hrs).  I expect that the little guy will look much better after some dull coat.

One last test fit:

It is not quite finished - the exhaust needs some work, and I want to add some slogans to the hull or turret.  Those should have been painted on before weathering (decals also), but it is a learning curve and it will be all right in the end.



And moving along:

Two more FT-17's have been started.  Actual time for completion - might be some time as I have some ideas that I want to try with the turrets, but the hull will make progress.


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1/72 Zvezda Soviets for SCW

With an eye towards having more variety for my Spanish Civil War Republican forces, I purchased these:

I had never owned a kit from Zvezda before, but at roughly $4 a box I thought that the risk was minimal.


Inside the box of Militia, one finds:

Two sprues of figures, an instruction sheet for assembly, and a data card for Zvezda's own WW2 game, Art of Tactic.  Right off the bat, I was struck by two things:  first, there are only five figures in the box; and second, the production values are quite high.  The figures are free of flash and mold lines, and the weapons are right to scale.  Unfortunately, this makes the rifles, and the bayonets especially, quite fragile as they are very slender.

Still, they are a useful purchase and look like they will fit right in with my Minairons figures.  Conversions are already being planned.  The female figure has a PPsh SMG, but I think that I might leave it as is.  One of the male figures (on the left-most sprue) appears to have a Molotov cocktail, but he is holding it by the neck of the bottle and upside down.  He might be converted to a dinamitero, or the bottle will just be rearranged in his hand.


In the second box:

Two identical sprues, two data cards, and instructions.  Each sprue has a two-man MMG crew and their Maxim MMG.  The figures and MMG are beautifully made, and will be quite useful for the Republican cause.  I do plan to make head swaps with them, as the Soviet helmet will not look quite right and I have a selection of Minairons heads for the job.


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SCW Republicans, part 6

With a little bit of work, the crew of the MMG was changed around a bit.

First off, this pic shows the pieces of the 1/72 WW2 Russian gun crews from Plastic Soldier:

There are 8 figures per frame (two figures per frame are split into two pieces each), and a variety of heads and weapons are included.  One or both arms on a select few figures are also separate pieces.  The gun crew pack from Plastic Soldier has 4 of these frames in it, which gives a lot of pieces for potential conversions!

(I want to thank Arjun again for his generosity in sending me these figures  - see this post.)


Here is what I started with for the MMG stand:

The original crew from Minairons is pewter, with the plastic gunner replacement in plastic.  I chose to use a Czech-style helmet for the new gunner.  The base is a 1¼" diameter steel fender washer, with a sticky dot to cover up the hole.

At this point, I decided that the original leader would be better off with my Nationalist forces, so a replacement is needed.  The old gunner would be perfect with a slight change - replace the right hand with a plastic one that is pointing out a target in the distance:

And, a couple of cuts later:

Add a bit of glue (super glue for the plastic-to-metal connection):

Simples.



The new gunner needed a bit of attention as well:

In the pic above, one can just see the entrenching tool attached to his belt.  I trimmed off the handle, and will paint the rest to look like a normal belt pouch.

I used a small drill bit to make a hole for the new head - plastic is so easy to drill!



And, some test-fitting of the crew:

It will be a tight squeeze to get all of the crew on the base - the loader is positioned at an angle to the weapon, which takes up more room.  I am fairly certain that the new gunner is not firing the MMG in the textbook manner, but it should be OK.  One note - the Plastic Soldier figures seem to be a bit more broad in the shoulders than the figures from Minairons, but it should blend in seamlessly once the crew is painted and based.

The dark spot in the above pic is also part of the base - While trying to get the original gunner to fit more closely to the weapon, I trimmed the base to a point where the figure will not stand upright on its own.  Hence, a nice rock for the new leader to rest his knee upon...


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SCW Republicans, part 5

As the first section of Republican infantry nears completion, I am looking at starting up some of their supports:

There are several support groups in the pic above, so lets break it down somewhat:

#1  -  These two troopers are going to be converted into Medical Orderlies.  The rifle is a separate piece, and it will be replaced with a satchel of some sort.

#2  -  Headquarters types.  One of the pistol-armed chaps will become the platoon leader, and the other will be a Commissar.  The flag bearer will be put aside for now, as specific Flag supports (in Chain of Command España) only show up in Militia platoons.

#3  -  Maxim medium MG.  This support is getting a make-over, as the original gunner does not fit in well with the weapon in my opinion, and the leader of the group looks more like a Nationalist!  The new gunner is a plastic WW2 Russian AT crewmember from Plastic Soldier, and the original gunner will become the leader.  3 crew is the minimum for a MMG for the Republicans, so I will need to recruit some others to fill it out.  More on this in another post.

#4  -  5cm mortar with 2 crew.  Also needs 3 more crew to complete the support.  I intend to keep some of the extra crew members, for the MMG and mortar, for example, mounted separately so I can mix and match them somewhat.

#5  -  Two light MG supports.  These will be mounted separately to keep the figures flexible.

#6 and #7  -  Minairons offers separate head kits, and I have received two of them.  #6 uses the Czech helmet, while #7 has the Adrian helmet.  It will take some careful cutting to use these on the Minairons figures, but if you look carefully at the Plastic Soldier figure - he was molded with the head separate (and the right arm), which will make customization very easy.


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SCW tanks, part 1

The first of my Republican FT-17 tanks is slowly coming together:

Does not look so good, does it?  I am using Vallejo Grey Surface primer on this vehicle.  I have found in the past that gesso does not cover plastic figures very well, so I was hoping that this primer would be better.  By brush, it looks a mess.  But, I did try it on a piece of sprue first, and coverage of the paint after priming works just fine.

The decision to not fully assemble the FT-17 was deliberate, as the tracks have some details on the other side, and painting the hull sides would have tough if the tracks were mounted first.  Also, the issue of the turret was still undecided at the time of this pic.  It might have been possible to leave the turret unglued to the hull, but test-fitting of the turret showed that it does not always go on in a level fashion.  After the base coats and basic weathering steps are done, I will glue the turret onto the hull.


Here is a pic of the FT-17 after the beginning of base-coating: 

The base coat went on surprisingly smoothly, after the awkward primer coat.  I need to experiment with a color for the tracks, as I do not have anything that looks like rust right out of the bottle.

Also included in the above pic - infantry!  The first section of Republicans is almost done, just need to finish off the weapons.  And the first section of Nationalists is coming along...


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A couple of newish books

Just a few more additions to the reading stack:

Osprey's New Vanguard series, # 170.  It is a good overview of the tanks - and just tanks - used in the Spanish Civil War.  It is a slim volume at 48 pages, but it has some good photos and color plates.



And, another one:

Also by Osprey, this is Aircraft of the Aces # 106.  96 pages, with more photos, many more color plates, and more information than their more slim cousins.  The historical information about the aces covered by each volume gives a lot of potential scenario fodder...


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Tanks!

Despite the lack of painting progress, I have been getting some stuff done.  Or, just getting some stuff.  Fortunately, the new stuff is for a project that is already well-founded...

First up is one of my favorites:

This is a pack of 3 FT-17 tanks from Minairons.  Spain had possession of dozens of these WW1 veterans at the beginning of the war, and received more (from Poland) early in 1937.

The back of the box has the assembly instructions and a brief painting guide.

And, here are the contents - three tanks with a choice of either round or polygonal turrets, weapon choices - machine gun or short 37mm cannon - and a multitude of decals.  The black plastic makes it difficult to see, but these models are well-detailed, but not loaded with many delicate parts.


Something for my Nationalist forces:

The Germans sent many Panzer 1 light tanks to Spain.  This kit, once again, contains enough parts to build three tanks, with a choice of turrets.  The grey plastic makes it a bit easier to see the details, but it is similar to the FT-17 with a lack of delicate details, perfect for gaming.


Now, it remains to be seen if I can get this done...


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New and not so new arrivals

Typically, I post pics of my new stuff to the blog, but sometimes I am lax.  However, this just arrived:

This is a great item, and I desperately need terrain pieces.  Hopefully, I can get these set up in an eye-pleasing way (to the eternal critic - me!) in short order.


Also new:

My first new brushes in ages.  These are from Rosemary & Co., a great little brushmaker in the UK.  The company was recommended by several painters across different forums, so I jumped in also.  The ones with black handles are Kolinsky sable, in sizes ranging from 2/0 to 2, while the fifth one (natural-colored handle) is a sable blend.  These brushes are not very expensive, with the average price of the group above - including shipping to the USA - being about $7.50.  It is hoped that these new brushes will help with my figure-painting output; they are much nicer than my other brushes!


And now, the not-so-new:

1/72 Nationalist infantry for the Spanish Civil War.  My Republicans now have some opposition!  One more infantry section, and some heavy weapons, will give me plenty of fodder for some games.



Last, but not least:

(Apologies for the poor pics)  

These are the most controversial group of all...  1/56 Savoia musketeers from Crann Tara.

Why are these controversial?  They represent the nucleus of yet another project.  I appear to be doing some retail therapy on myself, which I usually do not mind but typically it is pointed towards existing projects.  Life seems to be a bit outside of my comfort zone at the moment, and that has always led me to think in different directions for my hobbies.  Will this new project stick this time?  Perhaps, as my lovely wife likes tricornes and the period is more appealing than some others.  Right now I am trying to decide on single or element basing for what could be a major set-up.

To add some more controversy - I am intending to use these fine figures for Seven Years' War Russians...


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