First 20mm Polish Infantry

First batch of models completed for Battlegroup, some 20mm Early War Miniatures Polish infantry:

Reasonably pleased with how these have turned out, very quick and easy to do as well, which is always a major bonus. I've got a machine gun and a cavalry squad on the way, here's some sneak peaks:

So once these are done, I have about anohter 20 polish infantry to do. Also in the queue are some more Napoloenics, some modern Brits and that pesky German Puma that I should have finished about 6 months ago. With Salute approaching, I need to try and clear some stuff as I am planning on going a bit mad on the day and getting whatever takes my fancy.

The Hills are Alive!!

Not major news, but some hills have reached the front of the painting queue and been completed. They are the old Games Workshop ones that I thought were robust, hence why I bought them. This is the second lot of these I have painted.

Nothing spectacular but here they are:

I had neglected to write down how I painted the others, but I think they blend together ok:

As you can see, the gaming table is still a long way from being useable. However, it's getting there. I think next on the agenda needs to be some trees, which I shall look to get from Salute in a few weeks. After that I can start to move on to more scale specific terrain such as buildings etc. 

Early War Miniatures Polish - Review

As alluded to in previous posts, I am getting quite keen on 20mm world war 2, specifically using the Battlegroup rules that have sprung from the Battlegroup Kursk book (and Kampfgruppe Normandy if you go back far enough).

I decided to start with an early way Polish force. Casting around on the web and Early War Miniatures seemed to have a comprehensive range so I ordered a test purchase of one infantry squad, one cavalry squad and a heavy machine gun.

So, first off, what did I get? The infantry squad was a pack of infantry about 10 strong. I was disappointed to find that two of the riflemen and worse, the light machine gun/BAR man all came in the prone position. Now this first point is not a criticism of Early War Miniatures, but is a matter of personal taste. For weapons teams I have no problem with prone models (there is one in the HMG team). However, I don't like putting them into normal sqauds. Don't ask me why, it's probably something to do with the look of the squad being ruined by having one or two members on different sized bases. So I won't be using those guys, which means I shall be needing to source my BAR's from somewhere else.

Pose wise they are ok models. The cavalry don't suffer as badly due to being cavalry, but some of the infantry are a little bit wooden. The grenade throwing guy in particular was so bad he won't be getting used either. He's the only one I won't be using, the rest make it into the squad.

Now I've rewrote this last part of the review because originally I was quite unkind. However, having now painted a few of the infantry (blog coming soon on that), and started on the cavalry, I think these are decent miniatures for gaming. They do have enough detail to paint up very quickly, which is always a positive, without being too fiddly. I also can only really compare them to 28mm as that is what I am most familiar with, and I think that is why I was initally a bit down on them.

Overall, I will be ordering more of these. The posing issue is a minor one, and since you can order individual poses it's a simple work around. I've also received some polish infantry from Capitan games and think they will be a good mix. And with a single Polish platoon coming in at about 60 men, before support options, I'm going to need quite a few. I'm currently working on some of the cavalry, which are coming along nicely and will feature soon.

British Peninsular Flank Companies

Not going to be a vey wordy blog entry this one.

I've completed the two flank companies that will go with my first British Peninsular battalion. Once again, I am very pleased with how the unit as a whole is progressing. Here is how the two flank companies have come out:

And blended in with the other two bases done so far:

I'm going to be doing 6 bases per battalion, maybe with the odd one or two large battalions (probably guard regiments). I've only got the two centre command companies/bases to do now, which will be the most difficult due to containing officers and banner bearers. I am especially concerned about flags, something I've never really tackled before.

20mm 1939 Polish Test Mini

So it's been a while. A month or more to be precise. I had certainly not intended to leave it so long between blog posts but time and motivation both took a dip in Feb and it was a very unproductive month with no models finished and little progress on other stuff. I did manage to acquire some items though. I've now got the full collection of Battlegroup rules having picked up Kursk via a facebook trading group, as well as pre-ordering the new Battle of the Bulge supplement that should be availabel around Salute.

In that vain, I have finally made a start on my 20mm arimes - in this case a 1939 Polish army. I decided on an early war army after a fun game of the blitzkrieg period using the Battlegroup rules about 6 weeks ago. And I chose Poles as it would give me something different and I would get to use Cavalry.

The down side to Poles is that there are not quite so many companies making them as there are say Germans or Brits. I've found a couple of companies which I have made orders with and the only one to arrive so far is Early War Miniatures. I've purchased a squad of infantry, one of cavalry and a machine gun. I shall be doing a full review of these soon.

In the meantime, as it's a new army I have started with a test mini. It's also my first time painting 20mm, which isn't as close to 28mm as I thought it was.

Here are ther pictures:

I think it came out rather well. It's typical WW2, very drab and unexciting. One thing I am looking forward to is adding some bright pennants to some of the cavalry when I get them done. What I did like was how fast this was, even when having to wait for drying. Batch painting should blast them out.

At the moment I am trying to reign in my purchases so that I can splurge at Salute, which I am very much looking forward to. Only time will tell if this idea works out.

Messing Around with a Light Box

I decided a while ago that I need to improve the photos I take for the blog. I tend to find that even with lots of lights on them they are dark, especially in the winter when there is very little natural light around.

I know that a lot of people use light boxes so after finding a cheapo one on Amazon for £7.99, I took the plunge. The light box itself is just an expanding wire framed box with white cloth over it. I didn't get the set that comes with lights because I decided in the short term that I would see if I could use my daylight lamps.

After setting it up, here are the results:

Here is a comparison shot of my recent Skaven both how I normally to do the photos (top) and the light box one (bottom):

I can't personally see a massive difference, perhaps I need some better lights? Also, ironing the back ground cloths that come with the light box wouldn't hurt. The main positive is that it doesnt matter how dark and miserable the weather is, the light will be constant.

Complete Skaven Unit

Having picked up Dragon Rampant rules just before Christmas, it prompted me to look at the forces I had suitable for fantasy. I have very small forces of Undead, Elves and only ten Skaven. I decided finishing off another 10 Skaven to make a full unit of 20 would give me a suitable size unit to use in my games. I quickly finished off these guys to achieve this:

 When put with the other ten and stuck on a movement tray they look like this:

The important thing to remember with these chaps is that they are base coat of maybe 8 colours and a wash, then basing. So I reckon that unit took maybe 12 hours all in spread out over 6 evenings. In other words I could easily sit down and do a unit in a day if I had nothing else to do with my life, which I think is a pretty healthy speed.

My intention now is to do a few solo trial games of Dragon Rampant to learn the rules and see where things go from there. I suspect, from a quick read of the rules, that I might what to house rule a few things already but they seem a straight forward stater for fantasy games. Just need to get the games table sorted with a few bits of terrain first.

In other hobby related news: I've had my first play around with a light box to get better photos, I have my first ever 20mm World War 2 inbound and I'm mulling over going in on my first kickstarter ever as well. Lots of new stuff to look forward to.