Challenge Armour Bonus Round 10th Hussars 1940

It was the Armour Theme Week at the Challenge.  For my armour bonus round submission I have two Rolls Royce Armoured Cars in 15mm.  These are the venerable 1924 pattern cars used in the Western Desert by the 11th Hussars in 1940.  The models are by Battlefront.

The 11th Hussars were the divisional recon unit for the Western Desert Force, later the famous Seventh Armoured Division the Desert Rats.  About this time last Challenge I was thinking of doing Operation Compass and or the East African campaigns in 15mm using I Ain't Been Shot Mum by the Lardies.  I got the Lardys supplements for these campaigns and some figures.  But then I had a number of realizations - I didn't like 15s or at least Battlefronts 15s, tanks are too fiddly to paint, too much drab and our group already had a gazillion WWII kit.

Anyway, these got primed last Challenge and painted this Challenge.  They are pretty much front the box, with some added kit from my bits box in the back.  I tried to modify the steel hats into berets to suit the 11th.  I tried a simplified Caunter camo pattern.  My ancient Vanguard has a picture where the Car is without markings, so I didn't do any either.  There's a blank space at the back for unit labels in case I ever do some.

15th Light Dragoons for SYW

For my second entry I have a group of 9 British 15th Light Dragoons (or Elliot's Light Horse) from the Seven Years War.  These are the second of the three projects that I started on Boxing Day (that's December 26th for Yankees or St. Stephen's Day for the Irish).  The figures are Perry Miniatures from their AWI range and are lovely figures that I really enjoyed painting.  These will serve in my Sharp Practice British SYW force alongside Keith's Highlanders. 

It seems that you can tell a Brit that he's a light cavalryman and dress him like a fop, but he'll still try to run over what ever is in his path.  The 15th was the first British Light Dragoon Regiment (raised in 1759) and set the tone early for this tendency.  Shipped to Germany they joined the polyglot Allied army on July 15, 1760 and fought at Emsdorf the very next day.  Elliott's did most of the fighting at Emsdorf, charging French Infantry twice and capturing an entire battalion.

Enough history and back to the figures.  Again I am morphing AWI figures to serve in the SYW.  In this case, it doesn't seem that uniforms for light dragoons changed much between 1760 and 1776.  I checked with my goto source and got the following info on the SYW uniform (you could probably heat my fist pump as I read this).

We have not found any primary source describing the uniform of this regiment. Several part of our description are assumptions based on the uniforms of the regiments of dragoons.

I took this to read "we got nothing, do what ever looks right".  War-games fashion police might try to haul me on minor issues with shabraques, cuffs and shoulder straps to which I reply Pffffffffft!   

The figures themselves are excellent, a little beefier than other Perrys with good active poses, lovely detail and great horses.  They certainly look like hard campaigners with their carbine muzzles wrapped for protection and the well stuffed extra saddle bags of fodder and plunder.

I didn't notice one bit of detail until I was finishing the figures.  There is a lovely plate embossed on front of the elegant helmets which picks out nicely with white paint.  However, the Perrys correctly sculpted these as 17th Light Dragoon, and therefore gave helmet the skull and crossbones emblem specific to that unit.  I tried to be selective in picking out the details in order to give the impression of the White Horse of Hanover instead.

I make this 9 28mm cavalry figures at 10 points a pop = 90 points.

SYW Highlanders for the Challenge

Forgive me father, it's been over a month since my last post.  In that time I have survived end of term, exams, a business trip to New Orleans, a bad cold and the holiday season.  Oh and I also entered the latest edition of Curt's Painting Challenge.  The plan is for 800 points (equivalent to 160 28mm foot figures) before the Spring Equinox.

First post for me in this year’s Challenge, late to the game but I really didn’t start painting until Boxing Day.  December 20^th brought not only the start of the Challenge, but my mother in law, my daughter home from Uni and a pile of papers courtesy of the final exam for my Financial Mathematics students.

I got fairly well organized (for me) this year and figs prepped and primed and set to go on the day and actually started three different projects on the morning of the 26^th.  These 5 SYW 28mm Highlanders are the first project off the production line.  The figs are from the Perry Brothers, from their AWI range.  I love these figs and have morphed several packs into SYW units when possible.  The Highlander uniform didn’t change much between 1763 and 1775 so this was an easy morph.  I filed off the shoulder wings and that was it.  There are some other anachronisms but they don’t stand out much.  The AWI uniform had lapels on where the SYW uniform had none on thars, but they had heavy lace and the actual lapels underneath don’t stand out when the lace is painted.  The cuffs on the figs are probably not quite right too, but uniform info on the SYW is much sketchier than later periods and invites a lot of free interpretation.

I did this group of 5 as a test group before going Full Monty (or Full Sylvain which may be more appropriate) on the unit.  The plan is to build a fully British force for Sharp Practice using new figures, during the Challenge.   I have FIW figures for a British force already but they are old and many of the figures I used are problematic.

Overhead view

It had been 15 years since I did a unit of highlanders and this was the first time I’d painted the great kilt as opposed to the small kilt or trews of the colonial era figs.  I am pretty happy with the results, and quite pleased with both the kilts and the red and white hose.  For the tartans I go fairly minimalist approach, going for the right look from 2 feet away or more.  

As for the unit, the British Army raised several highland regiments for the SYW, which were disbanded at the end of the conflict.  The regiments were shipped to North America, the Caribbean, India and two were sent to Germany.  The 87^th Foot (Keith’s Highlanders) was raised in 1759 and a detachment shipped to Germany later that year.  The Colonel was a relative of the Prussian Field Marshall Kieth. 

Close up of the Officer

To quote the excellent Krosnokraf site (the goto site for SYW info, do your self a favour and get lost there for a while):

In 1760, Ferdinand of Brunswick was so pleased by these Highlanders that he requested to complete the initial detachment to a full regiment. Accordingly, 5 additional companies were raised at Perth and shipped to Germany to join the 3 former companies.

Highland units were used as a light troops or raiders. The men received little formal training other than to advance with the bayonet. The soldier's backgrounds, extensive cattle raiding in the Highlands, made them well suited to their role in Germany. The unit was often combined with the 88th Campbell or Highland Volunteers and both were heavily engaged in petite guerre operations gaining a fearsome reputation. 

I find it interesting how the highlanders were used in different theatres.  In North America (and I expect other colonial theatres) irregulars were common and they were used as line infantry.  But in Western Germany regular infantry were a dime a dozen and it was irregulars that were needed.  It’s kind of like the Highlanders were not quite European, but more civilized than North Americans!

Bad lighting but a front on view

Curt's Sharp Practice Aspern Game

Sylvain looks perplexed late in the game.  His troops (in the churchyard in the distance) are getting hammered in a fire fight in the distance.  Mine (in the churchyard closest to camera) are winning the musketry battle but getting slaughter by artillery.

This past weekend Curt ran an awesome huge Sharp Practice game based on the church at Aspern in 1809.  Full scenario details can be found over at Curt's blog.  My shots are included here.

This was an amazing game and full points to Curt for organizing it.  Figures are from Curt's and Greg's collections.  The building are mixed media (foam core, card and balsa) constructed by Sylvain and painted by Curt.  The french were played by myself (left flank), Sylvain (right flank) and Jeremy (in the buildings and reserve initially).  Greg (main assault) and Stacey (facing my flank) took the Austrians.

First wave of Austrians set out to assault Sylvain's forces.

Close up of Curt's figures.  The Austrian could come from any of three sides so we needed to cover all of these

Close up of the church yard on my flank.  Stacey assaults the wall but is repulsed.

Second (or third) wave of Austrians set to assault.  The Austrians got to come back at full strength to recognize a new wave coming up.  We french kept getting whittled down.  We held the first two assaults , barely held the third and would have been swept by the fourth and final assault when we called end of play.

My starting positions.  Again trying to cover all angles.

Another shot of Stacey's assault, this was in the first wave.  He had a second formation to the right of this one but I managed to shoot them up nicely and they never got closer.

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge VII

The call has gone out for this year's challenge the seventh annual.  Details over at the Challenge Blog.  Soon this will have higher Roman Numerals than a slasher flick series.

I am entered again with a target of 800 points.  I plan to work on my Great Italian Wars and SYW Sharp Practice projects.

SYW Hessian Artillery

Another set of AWI Hessians, this time a Perry set of metals featuring 4 artillery men and a "Swedish" four pounder.  As with my other troops from Hesse-Kassel (grenadiers and jaegers to date), these are perfectly suitable for SYW as the Hessians adopted Prussian style uniforms for both conflicts.  These were lovely figures and a joy to paint.

Side view of the piece.  Poor photo but the carriage is a very dark blue.

The Perry box comes with a "Swedish" 4 pounder.  These were captured from the French during the SYW and were apparently very nice pieces.  Captured pieces served with the Hanoverian and allied German states during the SYW.  I have painted the carriage a dark blue which was typical during the AWI and later.  Krosnokraf gives sources for a white/light grey scheme with red trim,  but I went with the most utilitarian and less flashy blue.

In action shot.  As always the Perry crews look like they are actually working the piece.

I will of course use these for SP2 actions, which give a standard artillery unit with one piece and five crew.  It also helps a lot if you field a leader for the artillery.  This means that I'll need to add two figures.  Right now the plan is to use a Warlord plastic  infantryfigure to represent hired help to drag the gun around.  For the leader I may use a plastic Warlord officer figure on foot or a Perry mounted figure.

Ground level shot from behind.  Note the drag ropes for prolonging the piece once unlimbered.

Lovely crisp details on the belts and packs

Hessian Grenadiers

These are a set of 9 Hessian Grenadiers painted for my SYW Sharp Practice project.  They are 28mm hard plastic figures from the Warlord AWI Hessian Infantry boxed set.  They have been some time coming as it took a long while to get them together and then painted and then photographed and blogged.  Basically problem children, with many of the problems lying somewhere between the chair seat and the tip of the paintbrush.

These were my first experience with Warlord figures and they were a learning experience!  Ok lets start with the plus side.  

• The box includes enough figures to do a reasonable sized unit and options for  a Prussian/Hessian Fusilier (the early pickelhaube helmet), Musketeer (Prussian style tricorn) and Grenadiers (classic mitre) plus command stand and a handful of Jaegers.
• The figures are well moulded and have a good set of accurate kit for the AWI.  I am fudging the trousers a bit going back to SYW but otherwise they fit the earlier period well.
• There's a good variety of poses, and some of these (firing, loading and priming) are very good.
• The box comes with a good full colour insert with instructions on putting them together and painting, plus flags.
• I managed to put together a usable group for SP2, so they are mostly idiot proof!

 OK now for the not so good.

• They are fussy to put together, way more so then the Perry boxes (the gold standard IMHO).
• As always some of the figures are not so great.  The figure at the trail (the NCO and one ranker in my unit) go into this category.
• Most of the torsos have exactly one set of arms that work with them.  This limits the variety of poses greatly.  I far prefer the Perry approach and love mixing and matching bits from different figures and boxes.
• The heads are two-three piece constructions!  The musketeer hats have to be glued onto the heads and then the pigtails come separate (really?!?).  I went with Grenadiers in part because  their hats come cast on the heads reducing the number of steps/chances for error.  And let's just say that frustration is maximized trying to glue a pigtail on a 28mm figure, or trying to find a grey pigtail on the floor.  Several grenadiers have gone with a more cropped hair style as a result.
• Down at the feet we have more issues, namely the figures have separate bases and the feet end at the bottom of their feet.  This gave me more conniptions trying to figure how to get these painted.  Eventually I went with the Warlord individual square bases.  They'll work well for skirmish games but be a pain in kiester in a larger game.  They are also fall over easily and I had to apply a quick fix in the form of ballast in the base.
• You'll note that I managed to get the facing of the figures off in some cases so some grenadiers are firing at a 45 degree angle to strait ahead and will be hearing from their Sergeant shortly.
• The seemed to take a while to paint, this may be me or it may be the figures.  But I painted a set of Perry metal AWI figures shortly after wards (post to come) and they took the paint very well with far less do overs and fixes required.

Herrs Schultz and Muller need to adjust their aim.  Eyes front soldiers!

Hoffman at least has his eyes on the prize and is aiming dead ahead.  I am not a huge fan on the head down at the trail figure that doubles as an NCO with a swap of a partizan carrying set of arms.

The other problem with the bases, being hollow they don't have much ballast and the figures topple over easily.  I compensated by supergluing a small washer into the hollow space.

Rear view showing the kit and the problematic pigtails (or lack there of).

Again from the rear and above.  Much of the slowness in painting came from the cross belts (and lapels on the front of the figures).   The detail wasn't crisp enough to get it right first time out.