From GregB - More 12mm Germans for Early WW1

In this squinty photo are more 12mm early-WW1 German troops - nearly all from Kallistra.

Greetings all - here are some more 12mm Germans for my early WW1 project. There is a bit of a twist compared to my previous submissions on this subject - where my previous figures had been from Great Escape Games, nearly all of the figures you glimpse here in this submission are from Kallistra's 12mm WW1 range (the lone exception is the MG08 gunner - an extra I had found in one of my packs from Great Escape Games - always nice to get a surprise like that :) 

View of the infantry elements - the MG08 on the right is from great Escape Games - everything else is from Kallistra.

Most of the basing is consistent with the game "1914" from Great Escape Games, but there is one square base in the group - I intend to use this as a "Regimental Command" for games of "Great War Speahead". There is a unity of infantry, a command base, and a regiment of cavalry, both mounted and dismounted.

The Kallistra sculpts are very nice, and there is a bit more variety of poses available.

The Kallistra castings are a little thinner than the ones from Great Escape Games, but also have a bit more variety of poses and the range is a more established one with some extra variety. I recommend both Great Escape Games and Kallistra - they are excellent either way - but this gives some variety. 

German Dragoons - mounted.

For example, with the cavalry unit, these could/would represent some German Dragoons - either mounted or dismounted - to give some variety to go with the Uhlans. It's an example of how the Kallistra range is just a little more rounded out than Great Escape's (although, again, both are excellent - I recommend both). 

Side view of the Dragoons.

German Dragoons - dismounted. I might paint a base of horse-holders or something at some point...

It's been quite a dash to start this project. I have made a good start, and I feel a bit of exhaustion when it comes to this project, with my interests moving back toward other subjects for a time. We'll see where that goes - and at the rate vaccinations are proceeding in Canada, I expect you will see more of whatever that will be posted here...take care all, and thanks for reading!

From GregB - German WW1 Jagers in 12mm

German WW1 Jagers, 12mm figures from Great Escape Games.

My "Guns of August" project continues - here is another unit for the German side. These are Jagers, "light" infantry of the German army. These are all 12mm figures from "Great Escape Games", based for their rule set "1914". Each base would represent a company of infantry, and so this would represent a full-strength battalion in the "1914" game.

MG08 gunner is on a 25mm square base - others are mounted on 25mm x 50mm rectangles.

The uniform of the Jager is different from that of the other regular German infantry of the era - they still wear a shako, and even though this had a cover, the pom at the top of the shako still showed. They also wore green (or, at least, I think most of them did, at the outset of WW1 anyway). As is common with "light infantry", they were thought to be elite, especially if you asked them. The green does not stand out as much as the green worn in 1870, but it provides a slight amount of colour variety for the German WW1 forces.

Nice detail on the kit and packs of the troops.

 

Jager battalions were attached at Corps-level in the German army, and in particular they seemed to accompany cavalry formations - or at least they did in terms of the OOBs of the game scenarios I am considering. I think they often had some troops riding bicycles to accompany with/keep up with cavalry units. I can't think of a way to represent this yet...if any clever Challenge participant knows someone who makes 12mm size bicycles, please let me know!

You might be able to pick out the officer, near the centre of the photo - "here we go, should reach Paris in no time at all!"

As before, these were very nice and fun-to-paint castings, and this project has still has a lot of momentum on my painting desk - at least for now! Thanks for reading!

From GregB - More WW1 Infantry in 12mm

French and German WW1 infantry in 12mm - figures from Great Escape Games.

So my hobby focus continues to be soaked up by the early weeks and months of WW1, and I continue painting 12mm figures for my "Guns of August" project. In this submission, we see more German troops, but some allies also make an appearance. All figures are from Great Escape Games, and are based for their "1914" rules (although this basing will work with other rules as well). 

Dismounted German Uhlans

Dismounted German Uhlans - figures from Great Escape Games.

Who wants to dismount their cavalry? That's boring! But of course the battlefield realities of WW1 were such that dismounting was often called for - when the machineguns, rifles and artillery open fire, that whole theory of "mounted infantry" suddenly, maybe, possibly might make a little bit of sense...even though it was SO lacking in glory...

In the "1914" rules (and many other rules) the cavalry can dismount...so you functionally need double the number of bases...

The upshot of this is that your Uhlans might dismount and fight on foot, and it is nice to have figures to represent this on the table. Great Escape Games has you covered...when you purchase a cavalry unit, you get figures to represent them both as mounted (glorious!) and dismounted (sigh...). 

Excellent sculpts from Great Escape Games.

Uhlans make glorious-looking cavalry, even with the muted grey-green colours of 1914. But as infantry they seem pretty awkward. It makes me think of the Uhlans themselves sort of realizing that the whole ride-around-and-charge thing was probably over, even if they, or their officers, were reluctant to accept such a truth...

(Another) German Infantry Unit

More German infantry from WW1...you need lots of these fellows for the game...

Not much to say here...it's more German infantry, ready to battle through Belgium and into France! Schlieffen worked out all the timetables, right? So what could go wrong?

Each base would represent a company of infantry for the "1914" rules.

For the "1914" rules each base would represent a company of infantry, so the four bases together on the table would represent a battalion at its full right-off-the-train-from-the-depot strength, ready to continue the advance!

French Infantry Unit

Toujour a l'outtrance!

Can't play WW1 without some Allies, right? Great Escape Games offers French, British and Belgian figures for their "1914" range. The figures all look great, and I'm keen to test my brushes on each set. I had to pick one to be "first", and I went with the French.

Obviously, the uniform has a strong hobby appeal. Of all the combatants in WW1, the French army retained the most "classic" look to their uniform, with red pants and blue coats. The covers for the kepis, and the removal of the epaulettes take the "bling level" down a touch from the time of the Second Empire, but these are still fun colours to paint. 

A French company, ready to take the offensvie!

But beyond the uniforms there is just the great and compelling spirit and tragedy of the French army in WW1. The French went to war in 1914 with "Plan XVII" as their strategy and the idea of "cran" as their guide. The offensive was more than the order of the day...it was the central spirit, a core element of cohesion to the entire French military structure in 1914, from top to bottom. 

The base at the rear has only three castings...a broken rifle on a figure has already caused some losses...

This mix of factors led to a stunning series of military collisions, the "Battle of the Frontiers", in the opening days of the war. These battles did not go well for France. These Plan XVII attacks went nowhere, and as the scale of the German right wing wheeling through Belgium became apparent, the French would be sent reeling.

I believe that is a Hotckiss MG, although I think the French army had a different MG for the outset of WW1?

The commander is ready to lead from the front...

With hindsight Plan XVII seems quite bonkers, naturally - so much of WW1 does. But there is something I cannot describe about the French army in those opening days that is a particular trigger to my curiousity - and so the French will be the first allies on to the table for this project! This one unit was a "test" - more to follow soon, I hope...

So that's all for now - thanks for reading!

From GregB: More 12mm WW1 Germans

More 12mm WW1 Germans ready to march through Belgium!

In my final post for AHPC XI I kicked off another new project - we all need new projects - and this was WW1 in 12mm, with figures from Great Escape Games. For the first post in Curt's Vaccination Challenge, I have more of the same to share - here is more infantry, more MGs, another 77mm gun team and a command base. These are all based for Great Escape Games "1914" rules, although they would certainly work for other rulesets as well.

German infantry columns massing for war!

In the "1914" rules, the level of abstraction is similar to that of Great War Spearhead - each base of infantry would represent a company, and each MG would represent an entire detachment of the weapons. Oddly, each 77mm gun only represents one half of a battery...that seems strange to me, but I haven't yet had the chance to try out the rules on the table, so I should withhold any judgements like that until such a time as I finally get to play them!

77mm gun ready to support the advance.

Another view of the gun crew. The bases for artillery are 50mm squares.

The castings from Great Escape Games have been very nice so far - only one broken Uhlan lance in the whole package so far...the figures are sold in units (generally four bases plus an MG, although in the game the actual size of the units can vary) or in special "brigade" boxes. I started with a "brigade" box for the Germans, and you get a fair bit of stuff - four units of infantry (four bases each), a regiment of cavalry (four bases), bases to represent the dismounted cavalry (four bases' worth), five MGs, two 77mm guns, and a group of command figures. Not too shabby!

Command base, packed with goodies from the box set - very nice sculpts. The German officers are not sure what to make of these maps...

As you can see, I based the command figures on a round base, as I would for games of "Spearhead". I think it looks better, and helps it to stand out from the others. Also, one of the gaps in the "1914" rules (and there are a few) is that, well, they provide literally no rules for what to do with the commanders, so thought I would go with my preference :)

More views of the infantry. The bases are 50mm x 25mm rectangles.

Lovely detail on the sculpts, showing the kit of the German infantry.

The MG08s are on 25mm square bases.

My only criticism on the Great Escape figures so far would be lack of crew...certainly an MG08 in 1914 needed more than one chap to haul the gun, ammo and tripod around. The 77mm guns would have taken more than two crew to stay in action...but that said, these are all nice castings, they paint up quickly, and I really enjoyed working on them. All I have left to finish in the box is the dismounted figures for the Uhlan regiment, and then it will be time to paint some Allies! Or something else...who knows?

Thanks for reading - please stay safe, and stay sane!

KenR British Cavalry Unit for WW1 Mesopotamia

Here we go with the final post of the Q Challenge, a full unit of Cavalry for my WW1 Mesopotamia collection.

I've spoken about these figures before, 28mm Great War Miniatures with head swaps from Woodbine Design Company.

So points wise is the darts favourite of 180 ! (I'd done 6 before the Challenge began) giving me a Q Challenge total of 1618 which was a lot better than my winter challenge score.

I always forget how big a proper size 28mm Cavalry Unit is.

There we go, the end of Q Challenge, Thanks to Curt for organising it, thanks to all you lovely people who have commented on my stuff over these strange months. I hope you all keep well and will no doubt see most of you in the Winter Paint Challenge.

This madness carries on all year round and I'd love to see you all down on the Yarkshire Gamer blog

KenR 28mm WW1 Mesopotamia Cavalry test figures

I have been searching for sources of figures for 28mm WW1 Mesopotamia Cavalry for some time, I'm going to do a big blog post on the search soon. One of the suggestions was Irregular Miniatures who I have to say I was completely unaware did a WW1 Range.

So I ordered six figures so I could do a test base of each type of figure. Irregular are pretty old school compared with the much more detailed modern sculpts, I've painted them in my usual way, oils for the horses and acrylic paints with the occasional wash for the figures.

First up Turkish Cavalry, quite "toy soldier" looking but presentable, will probably end up getting some more of these as there really is no other options.

Next up the Indian Cavalry, probably the favourite of the bunch, I have another alternative for Indian Cavalry depending on how successful a 3d printing of ammo pouches go so it's yet to be seen if I expand on these but it's a decent option to have in hand.

Finally there are some British Cavalry, they come from the same range as the Indian Cavalry but have a Colonial style Pith Helmet rather than the Wolesley style more common in Mesopotamia. They do have the 1903 ammo bandolier but look more Boer War to me, so these are in the undecided pile.

So for the Q score that's another 60 points taking me to 1025.