Necromancy

It's been a while!

Nearly 2 and a half years as it turns out. Why, in these turbulent times am I revisiting my blog? To be honest, I am really not qute sure as to why, but I have decided make an attempt at blogging my hobby progress once again.

And what has the last two years of hobby bought me? Quite a lot as it happens. I have a hobby room set up and this year is seeing the final push to get it all finalised. I hope to complete it soon. However, it has been sufficiently equipped for me to be quite productive.

I have been painting a lot of stuff for myself and also taking on some commission work. New project wise, I started a Warhammer Fantasy Orc and Goblin army last year and there is a 15mm Roman Army in the works. I am also experimenting with other smaller scales and games.

For now, here are some pictures of stuff I have completed recently.

I recently completed three Perry Miniatures battalions of French Line Infantry for a client. Considering the amount of white in these, I was really pleased in how they turned out. The order also included three mounted colonels:

The same client has commission four War of Spanish Succession Battalions in 28mm. Here is the first all done and based, the rest are coming along nicely.

Finely, at the recent Hammerhead show I picked up three 7TP tanks in 20mm for my Polish. These are from Early War Miniatures and I painted them up straight away. With a 37mm gun they should give the Germans pause for thought.

And finally, a unit of 10 Spider Riders for my Orcs and Goblins. 

What's coming up? Well, there are more Bavarians, some geenskins and some 15mm Romans - and that's just the start. I am aiming for a ratio of one mini a day sp stay tuned. 

Polish Medic and AT Rifle

Not a fantastically long post, but part of my catching up with what I have panted recently.

In my quest to work my way through the Battlegroup Polish list, here's two more options for the infantry platoon I am currently building.

A Polish Medic:

I couldn't find much on what uniform the medics wore so I coped out and added a simple armband to mark him out.

Also, an AT Rifle:

A nice simple model and quite a pleasure to paint. Although out of date by mid war, AT rifles could make a mess of the early panzers.

All the miniatures are Early War Miniatures. In order tocomplete the infantry platoon I am still waiting for Capitan games to put there Polish back into production so I don't have too many similiar poses.

Polish AT Gun and Catching Up

It appears that I have been very neglectful of the blog, but all is not as it would seem. I have in fact been busier than ever in the hobby. I've been painting and gaming at quite a decent pace and I have managed to make quite a dint in my Polish force. But more of that later.

The big development is that I have set myself up as an independent wargaming trader. I am initially selling Warlord Games products, with a focus on Bolt Action 2.

This is a part time buisness for me but one I am excited about. First of all, all my profits will be put back into more products so if things go well the range I stock will only grow. Second, it gives me the chance to potentially grow my hobby in nurmerous different ways.

At the moment, I have a small selection of things on eBay and people are welcome to order through me for Warlord items as I submit fairly regular orders. The best way is to head over to facebook and like my page as I am managing it through there in the first instance. Research has started into an online store so I'll keep you updated with progress. I currently offer a 22.5% discount on most of Warlords range.


But back to the hobby. I have completed a Bofors AT gun along with limber for my 20mm Polish. Here they are.


The gun itself along with three crew:

The three assistant gunners:

And finally the horse limber (actually from the Early War Miniaures french range):

I've got a few other bits finished that I will upload in due course and try to bring this blog back up to date. 

More Polish Infantry

Managed to get another 10 standard rifle infantry done for the ongoing Polish army project.

All rifle armed and destined to bulk out the platoon's rifle squads, they are all from Early War Miniatures.

Once more I can't seem to get the photos right, one has come out very dark despite some editing and the models being under two massive daylight lamps! Oh well, you get the idea.

As I previously mentioned an order has fallen though for a large chunk of Polish stuff, which was needed to complete the infantry platoon and HQ. I can get the minituares from elsewhere but I am awaiting a webstore to reopen to put the order in.

What that means is that I have an Bofors AT tank gun with horse limber and an AT rilfe to go and I'm done with what I have. Good job the general back log is big enough to keep my busy!

Polish Light Mortar Support

The Polish forces are continuing to grow, very slowly, but I am getting there.

I have managed to add some light mortar support to my forces. In keeping with the Battlegroup Blitzkrieg force structure, I am trying to work my way through and cover all the options. A platoon can have up to two light mortars so I have bought two and painted two. Each has it's crew of three and then the option for three assitant loaders, which I have also painted up.

Here are the photos (some have come out a little dark for some reason).

Team 1:

Team 2:

These are all from Early War Miniatures. There isn't a great deal of variety in posing, especially amongst the 6 extra loaders, who were all the same pose bar one. I had hoped to get some more minis from another company but that order has fallen through, so it's all Early War Mini's at the moment. I don't suppose it's a major issue as they are an extra that might not see much use. They can always double as infantry in any case.

Next up for these guys are a chunk of ten infantry and a 37mm AT gun with Limber. I am hoping to get the infantry done before the end of the month.

Oh, and if you haven't already give the blog a follow or pop over to my facebook page to give me a like, as there is some news coming soon.....

Polish Preparation

Still trying to refind that elusive mojo that I had a few weeks ago that had me wanting to paint every spare moment I could find. I suspect it's just the normal summer malaise and it hopefully won't last too long. The good news is that I am not totally disinterested like normal, and still getting bits and bobs done - albeit not at the pace I was before.

To that end, the other day I managed to muster a little but of enthusiasm. I put it to god use, and assembled a big bunch of 20mm Early War Miniautres Polish for the next phase of the army:

Two light mortar teams:

A 37mm Bofors anti-tank gun team:

And their horse and limber tow. This is actually a french team but I figured I can get away with it:

A chunk of infantry:

And a final, lonely chap to be a medic:

I'm trying to cover all the options as I go, so each of the weapon teams has 6 gunners. Three will be mounted to each base, and the other three on individual bases. In Battlegroup, each weapon team has three gunners and you can purchase three to make the team more effective. I hope that doing this, I can cover most options in the book.

Just got to find the time and motivation to undercoat and paint the lot.

20mm Polish Army So Far

I recently finished up the last five of my Polish infantry out of the initial orders I had placed. I figured that rather than show you another 5 Polish infantry, I'd do some group shots of what I have so far. Because everyone loves an army shot right?

It's not a large force yet, maybe a third of a platoon, but its got a good cohesive look and sets a good ground work for whats to come. I intend to make this force my focus over the summer, to try to get it playable. To that end, I've got enough stuff either on the pile or on order to complete a HQ element and everything else I need to make a full infantry platoon along with all the support options. Cavalry, vehicles and other stuff will all come later.

Review: First To Fight Polish Wz.34 Armoured Car

One of the few 20mm purchases I managed to get hold of at Salute was the Wz.34 Armoured car for my 1939 Polish Force. I decided to review it as it is from what I think is a fairly new company called First to Fight.

First to Fight are a Polish company and they seem to be concentrating on the 1939 Polish invasion in 20mm scale at the moment. A bit of research on the web shows they do both German and Polish kits, across infantry, vehicles and guns.

Now this pack was a single vehicle, in 1/72 of the WZ.34 armoured car. It came with two options to have a machince gun or a 47mm gun. I wanted it for the bigger gun.

First impressions were good. The box comes cellophaned together with a small A4 magazine. Sadly, this was all in Polish, so what looked like lots of text and background info was lost to me. The only real translation was the painting guide, where the Vallejo paints were named with their English names, so easy to follow:

Having finished looking at the pretty pictures in the magazine and lamented my lack of Polish, I cracked open the box. The kit was split over two sprues, and the instructions were fairly clear on the back of the box - there was no seperate leaflet on how to build it:

I found that the kit went together fairly quickly. It is somewhere between a gaming kit and a model kit it terms of detail. It has some things you don't need on a gaming model - such as suspension modelled underneath etc but goes together easily enough so that you aren't wasting a lot of time building something you want to use.

Once it was done, I was surprised at how tiny it was! Here is a shot next to some 20mm infantry and it's a tiny little vehicle. Still, it was only a two person armoured car, and a lot of ealy war stuff for all nations was tiny compared to what came later, so I won't labour on the scale issue. It will do for my purposes.

Overall, I think this kit is half decent. At £7.50 for a single vehicle it was perhaps a little more expensive than I would like. However, this is balanced with the fact that the company seem to be covering a lot of stuff you can't find elsehwere. There also is never going to be as much competition in this period as say 1944, so perhaps that's a factor. I also found the model a llittle bit flimsy in places, mainly where the wheels attached. I snapped two off during assembly, and whilst this is not a problem as it's a simple fix, it's a tad irrating and something I'll have to try to remember when moving the model around on the table top.

I would certainly consider getting other kits from First to Fight, but I suspect it may be the more obsucre vehicles. The TKS Tankette's for example I shall be looking around for, as at £7.50 each from these guys, and the fact I want four or five, make's those a tad expensive. But it's a company worth looking out for.

The model should be quick and easy to paint - I suspect it's too small to warrant even breaking out the airbrush, but that will be another blog post. 

Polish Footsloggers

I have recently finished up a couple of sqauds of Polish infantry. I have enjoyed painting these, mainly because of the progress I have made. I very quickly realised that I can finish them in one evening if I work on batches of 5 or 6, and being able to see them done so quickly gave me the impetus to keep going.

The squads are configured for Battlegroup Blitzkrieg rules. A Polish platoon in this rule set is 3 squads of ten riflemen along with another 3 squads of 9 containing an LMG (a polish produced copy of the American BAR I believe). There is also the HQ sqaud and the support options.

Here are the pictures of the squads:

The models are a mixture of Capitan Games and Early War Miniatures. Close up the Early War are larger but at gaming distances, they all blend together ok. I will be buying from both companies to have plenty of variety.

For this project, I still have a long way to go. There are a few more infantry to paint, then the armoured car I got from salute but that is all. I do have a shopping list of stuff I need to complete the infantry platoon in full, which will be the next step once funds allow.  I've got plenty of other things to be getting on with in the mean time.

Ride of the Uhlans!

As those of you who follow my face book page will know, I have not painted cavalry in any scale before. So I have to admit part of my attraction to doing a 1939 Polish force was to push myself and include cavalry, as I like the look of them, just not the idea of painting them.

Since this force is intended for Battlegroup, you can take whole platoons of cavalry for the Poles, including support weapons. I started with a pack of 6, mixed evenly between lancers and sabres, again from Early War miniatures. Support options will come much later, along with dismounted troops.

I found them to be lovely little models, and they painted up simply enough. The riders especially where done in no time at all, whilst I did invest a little more time in the horses (but still only maybe 20 minutes per horse in total).

So here are the picture. I think you'll agree these have come out really well.

And now for the whole squad of 6:

I am very chuffed with these! They have pushed my out of my comfort zone and the results are well worth it. Although there are no more cavalry in the queue currently, I will sooner or later add two more squads at least. I will most probably do a squad of brown horse, then one of black and mix them up from there.

All feedback is appreciated, I hope you like them as much as I do! 

In othre news, got quite a busy work hobby wise. Games of NetEpic and Bolt Action on my gaming table, meaning I am fulfilling one of my key aims this year, as well as a trip to the mighty Salute. That is likely to be a tiring and expensive day out. I will be taking my camera so look out for blog entries on what I see and what I buy, as well as more Poles in the pipe line. 

Polish HMG Team

Just a quick blog post this one. My expanding 20mm Polish have received a little bit of fire support.

This comes in the from of an HMG with crew from Early War miniatures. Good little model this one, painted up quickly and easily. Here's the complete result:

The pack originally came with four crew, but battlegroup only requires three so I have repurposed the outstanding dude into a rifleman. Each platoon can take two of these, so I suspect I will get another in the not too distant future.

I also made a little more effort with the base, adding some tufts and fallen logs. A theme I shall probably carry on with the large bases of my force. Here are some more shots from different angles.

It think you will agree it's turned out quite well. There are plenty more poles coming soon so stay tuned.

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.

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.

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.