Go West, Young Man! Part III

There is no doubt that the sacrifice of the poor bloody infantry of the Red Army led to final victory in May of 1945.

Platoon CO with Runners

In the words of Churchill ~ It is the Russian Armies who have done the main work in tearing the guts out of the German army. In the air and on the oceans we could maintain our place, but there was no force in the world which could have been called into being, except after several more years, that would have been able to maul and break the German army unless it had been subjected to the terrible slaughter and manhandling that has fallen to it through the strength of the Russian Soviet Armies. (Aug. 2, 1944).

I spent my evenings this past week, when I was not playing Twilight Struggle, painting a WW2 Soviet Infantry platoon.  I bought most of the figures about the same time on eBay and they were mixed when they were primed.  The packages included figures by West Wind Line: Berlin or Bust (by Old Glory) and Harlequin Miniatures (now know as Black Tree Design). Together the two different companies provide a great mix of poses and figures.

1st Squad: 7 Riflemen and 1 SMG and a Sgt

On paper each Soviet Rifle squad would consist of a Sgt, with an Assistant Squad leader, 1 LMG (Gunner and Ammo Carrier) team, 2 SMGs and 6 or 7 Riflemen. Squads were rarely full strength or fully equipped. I have painted three 9 men squads, none equipped with the LMG teams.

 

2nd and 3rd Squads

The 2nd squad has 7 riflemen and 1 SMG, while the 3rd squad had 2 SMGs but only 6 riflemen.

Note: When I was putting the figures away, in my Soviet War Chest, I discovered I had already painted three LMG teams. I only had to add my yellow dot code so each team was matched to a squad. Now each squad can exercise various manpower  and equipment options.

LMG Teams Added to the Platoon

I still have another 50 primed Infantry figures to paint. These figures will allow me to bring a platoon in winter camo pattern, and a 2nd summer dress platoon up to strength. In addition, to a squad of Combat Engineers that need to take to the field with their flamethrowers and mine detectors, there is a newly arrived mortar section (4x mortars with crews) from BTD Miniatures to paint.

To complete this project I have one pack of BTD (WW2010) Soviet Character Set and four packs of Battle Honors WW2 Soviet Infantry unopened. The first, Russ-7 is a package of 10 tank riders. The second package,  Russ-18 consists of four 2 man Anti-Tank Rifle Teams.

Finally there are two packs of Russ-22 (each with 2 x Maxim MGs and NKVD Crews). If you watched Enemy at the Gates, you know you can't go to Stalingrad without them. It is amazing that despite such criminal encouragement, the heroic soldiers of the Workers and Peasants Red Army advanced into the heart of Nazi Germany.

Soviet Medium Tank Battalions 1943

Back when I was a poor student, my early purchases in the field of microarmour were from Heroics & Ros. I am sure I paid less than 20 cents per vehicle at the time. However I was always drawn towards the much greater detailed miniatures available from C-in-C and GHQ. A few years ago opportunity knocked, and I was able to purchase three boxes of GHQ Combat Command packages at a local gaming store for less than half price. This past week, two boxes were painted.

 

First Battalion Painted Russian Uniform WWII Vallejo 094 

Second Battalion Painted Russian Green Vallejo 096

Both units were given a black ink wash (1: 20 parts water) to bring out the details and tracks and running gear were painted various earth tones with a brown ink wash.

Each unit at full strength had 21 x T-34/76s and 2 x Stalinetz Tractors (Recovery Vehicles). The Battalion would consist of  two tank companies each with 10 vehicles and  the Battalion CO in the 21st Tank.

I do not know if the recovery vehicles were attached one per company or acted as a battalion asset.

Saracen DBA/HOTT Part VIII: Arabian Myth

This should be the final entry for the DBA Saracen or the HOTT Arabian Myth army, other than a camp or stronghold. To past the evenings during the last week, I painted the Black Tree Design Bowmen and Crossbowmen that I received in the early autumn of 2010. They have been sitting on the back burner for a while and I needed them completed in order to use them yesterday for some DBA gaming.

See Captain's Blog: Form 540, the blog devoted to my gaming activities.

Last year I order two of the Warriors of Islam army pack deals from Black Tree Design Miniatures. The first was AB1059 Warriors of Islam Archers (20 figures) which I used to make five 3 Man Shooter Elements and three 2 Man Psiloi Stands. The second package, AB1058 Warriors of Islam Crossbowmen (20 figures) provided five 4 Man Shooter Elements. For either DBM or WRG Ancients the Crossbowmen represent Regular Troops and the Bowmen Irregular.

 

Warriors of Islam 2 Man Psiloi Elements

AB1059 Warriors of Islam Archers

Based as 3 Man Shooter/Bow Elements

 

AB1058 Warriors of Islam Crossbowmen

Based as 4 Man Shooter/Crossbowmen Elements

I got the idea of how to paint them by looking at the Warhammer Ancients sourcebook on El Cid.

Games Workshop Palm Trees

Last weekend when I dug out the shoebox of palm trees from the storage closet for my Vietnam photo shoot, I discovered that fully 3/4 (21) of the trees still needed to be based and painted. I remembered that it felt like a daunting chore at the time they were assembled.

The Jungle Project was quickly sidelined the first time after seven trees had been painted and based. Oh well, the job had to get done. Over the last five days (and nights), I have slowly taken 15 or so minutes at a time, to complete this project in stages.

 

Warrior leads his horse to water, surrounded by lush vegetation.

I commenced by super-gluing one to three of the trees to each of ten plastic stands. I then applied a layer of texture paint to the bases. I then proceeded by working on 1/3 of the trees/stands at a time. First I'd paint the stands and then the palm trees. Finally I glued either sand (to four desert stands) or static grass (to six jungle stands) to complete the effect. Carried out in increments, the task wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

Actually, it's rather easy to spend 15 minutes just before bedtime on a painting project like this, and then another another 15 minutes in the middle of the night after answering a call of nature. Thus when I woke up in the morning, the stands were dry and ready for the next stage.

 

Foliage for a tropic island or the mighty jungle. 

IMO these trees were one of the better deals from the people at Games Workshop. They were rather clever in the way these models were designed to be assembled in an endless variety of shapes. Unlike most plastic model trees these looked pretty good, despite being 100% plastic.

Tourists of Duty or My Time in Vietnam

Before he left Halifax, Rob Swan ran a fun series of Vietnam war games. I think they were partly inspired by the Tour of Duty TV series and were mainly played with the Gi'ac My rule set. I recently was reading my copy of Charlie Company and reflected fondly back on those games. Like the Charlie Company rules, the scenarios that Rob ran were based upon time spent in-country. My character was a US Infantry sergeant who survived his 12 month (game) tour, and was finally on his way home.

Sgt Rockwell, due to his good luck, and seemingly invulnerability started to be referred to as Sgt Rockwell, the latest product of Rockwell Industries. After each game, if your character survived, you received a D6 die roll (1-3 = +1, 4-5 = +2 and 6= +3) to augment the character's stats or skills. I was fairly lucky with my rolls. Victor Charles was not happy that I had survived my tour, and I was a recipient of a personal scenario. A VC hit team was waiting for me at the airport as I prepared to return to the World. These games were long before the digital camera and little, if no record exists of them.

 

Sgt Rockwell leads his squad out of the jungle.

As my contribution I painted up an US Infantry Platoon. I had over forty figures from the Charlie Company line by RAFM. They were divided into three ten man squads, accompanied by an under strength weapons squad and a HQ squad. I built four M113 plastic APCs and a M-48 Patton tank, all ESCI models, purchased from Squadron Shop. I later obtained two 105mm howitzers, which were never assembled or put into the field. Last year when I started to Blog about my WW2 Japanese I dug out the howitzers. I wanted to see how easy they were to assemble compared to  the B.P. Cast model guns. In two words, No Contest.

 

Two 105mm Howitzers with Camp and M-48 Patton Tank

 

Heavy Weapons Squad with M113 APC

(2 Hvy MGs, 2 M-79s, 1 LAW and I Sniper)

 

Understrength HQ Squad. Doc runs towards the Lt.

 

Shavetail used for scale 

(Above M-48 Patton Tank and Below M-88 ARV)

Having the guns on my painting table inspired some eBay purchases, all from the same seller. I won a M-88 Armoured Recovery Vehicle and a fifth M113 APC. I also gained two Roco M113s, but there is such a noticeable difference in scale compared to both the 20mm figures and the other M113 models that I will put these two APCs up for auction. Since there is no other piece to compare it to, I decided to keep the ARV, even though it too is by Roco Minitanks.

I finally painted the arty crews this past weekend and then decided to photograph the complete unit.  I dug out my box of GW plastic palm trees to provide a jungle like back drop.

 2nd Squad exiting a jungle trail. M-48 at the rear of the column.

Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant

At one point I decided that my Roman Army needed an ancient equivalent of the Army Show. According to Wiedenmann (Emperors and Gladiators 1992) "the military were great aficionados of the games, and supervised the schools. Many schools and amphitheatres were sited at or near military barracks, and some provincial army units owned gladiator troupes".

 I won these twelve figures in an eBay auction, about  five years ago. I do not know the manufacturer but they were made for slot bases.  After getting them half way painted they were put aside and forgotten. (Note: March 14 Today I was looking on-line at the Gladiators sold by Black Tree Designs and I am pretty sure the figures I have are from their line)

Recently I was going through one of my storage bins and found two items to reignite my interest. The first was the SPI Ares game Arena of Death. Arena of Death was a tactical combat system for Dragonquest, the SPI fantasy RPG System. 

The second was an old beat up rule booklet from the early 1980s called RVDIS, The Wooden Sword. rules for Gladiatorial Combat written by Ian Beck. Both sets depend upon a  hexagonal tactical display. RVDIS describes the various gladiators by there weapons and armour.

Cimachaerus: Gladius in each hand.

Dimachaerus: Long dagger in each hand.
Gaetulian: Heavy throwing darts.
Hoplomachus: Thrusting Spear and Gladius
Laquearius:: Lasso in right hand, may have a trident tied to left wrist.
Provocator:Spear and gladius
Pugiles: Armoured boxing gloves.
Secutor: Gladius in right hand.
Tatierius: Net inright hand, trident in left. It may not be thrown.
Thrcian: Sica in right hand (Curved sword 40 to 45cms in length)
Velite: Javelin in right hand tied to the wrist. Can not be thrown.

Gladiators were typically picked from prisoners of war, slaves, and sentenced criminals. Criminals were expected to die within a year but could earn release if they survived three years. Despite the low social status held by gladiators, there were also volunteers who fought for money, and the possible celebrity status, a successful gladiator could achieve. 

Who knows how much of the combats were choreographed or scripted in advance. Most professional gladiators were only expected to fight three combats per year. Alas that can not be said for the condemned criminals who fought to the death nor the helpless Christian martyrs, among others.

"The overall death rate among gladiators is unknown, but few survived more than 10 matches or lived past the age of 30. One (Felix) is known to have lived to 45 and one retired gladiator lived on to 90. George Ville calculated an average age at death at 27 for gladiators (based on headstone evidence), with mortality "among all who entered the arena" around the 1st century CE at 19/100. A rise in the risk of death for losers, from 1/5 to 1/4 between the early and later Imperial periods, seems to suggest missio was granted less often" (Futrell: A Sourcebook on the Roman Games 2004)

The following link has something to say on popular gladiatorial myths and the possible rates and causes of death. One argument presented here is that the death rate was caused more by injury and infections,  with euthanasia being a hammer blow to the head.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/09/20/2038358.htm

Suetonius, in the Twelve Caesars, recorded that after receiving the salutation, used as the title, at the start of a mock naval battle on Lake Fucinus that Claudius retorted back "Aut non!" (Or not!). I read somewhere that the combatants took this as a sign that they would not have to fight. Oars were stowed on the galleys and it took a threat of force to get the games to begin.

Note The Army Show was originally a CBC radio show developed in Dec 1942, featuring Wayne and Shuster. The show later toured overseas to perform for the troops.

For those who may not be familiar with Wayne and Shuster  I offer this skit with a Roman Flavour: Rinse the Blood off my Toga 

TAU Empire Gun Drones

I will go on record, that I have not played Warhammer 40K, since I left Halifax in 1997. I have a Space Wolves army and I have on occasion bought some WH40K figures with the idea of using them for possible Traveller or Snapshot scenarios. It was with this idea in mind that I purchased a used pack of Tau Empire Drones at the Librairie Donjon Montreal last year. I learnt Thursday evening that Librairie Donjon closed last November and another game store has opened in its place.

 Tau Empire: Gun Drones by Games Workshop

There were seven drones in the package I purchased but there only enough pieces to fully build five models.  According to the Games Workshop website they sell them in squads of  four, and they appear in the 40K universe as units of 4 to 8 models acting in conjunction with a unit of Tau Empire Fire Warriors.

I have designed this as a unit of five drones centered around a command sensor drone. There are two sets of senors mounted on the unit, so that it can provide stereoscopic imagery to a command centre. It is armed to defend itself, while the other four drones can act on seek and destroy orders. I imagine that these figures can be used in either 15mm or 25mm scale games.

 
Note:
The Game Keeper 
http://www.gamekeeper.ca/
10810 LAJEUNESSE,
MONTREAL, QC
H3L 2E8

Elephants? 25mm RAFM & Ral Partha

Since I was painting an undead war mammoth, I thought I would continue with an elephant theme. 

The first is an RAFM Ancient Indian Unarmoured Elephant. It has been very hard to track down any information about this piece. I honestly haven't got a clue as to how long it has been sitting in my collection of figures. When researching Asian Elephants I read that they can rang in colour from dark brown to dark gray. I even read somewhere elephants that some may appear to be pink. I originally gave the figure a white base coat and went with a brown wash for it's skin. It had a similar effect to some photos I saw of elephants after bathing, before they become covered again in dust.. I suspect that the model came with two crew, but I only have one in my possession.

 

RAFM Unarmoured Indian Elephant

The next elephant is an African elephant with a sole crew member. I believed that it should be a two man crew (rider/driver and javalin/bowman). I am pretty certain that this figure was by Ral Partha.The model has easily been in my collection for 25 years and was recently rebased. It always hung out with my Roman Army. I found a photo of one for sale with a Later Carthaginian DBA army at GAJO.

 

 Ral Partha Unarmoured Catthaginian Elephant 

And finally a photograph of these two elephants next to my Undead War Mammoth to provide some idea of how large it really is.

Undead War Mammoth by Grenadier Miniatures

War Mammoth of the Undead Legion, Model Number 5501, went in production by Grenadier Miniatures in 1984. The company itself ceased to exist in 1996. There are a couple of variations of the model that I have seen photos of on the internet.  The miniature is old and was sold on eBay without it's original packaging. I tried to work with the metal but the two front legs proved to be very brittle and fragile. The armour trunk, and the tail had broke in transit. After my experience I decided to leave the tusks in their current position. I would prefer to have them pointed more forward instead of at 90 degrees to the head.

 Notice: 15mm Skeleton next to foreleg for scale.
The angle of the tusks are better view in the 3rd photo. 

The model is 25mm scale and came with three skeletons for crew members. I found the quality of these pieces to be rather poor and decided to "man", the Mammoth and it's double howdah with 15mm figures by Black Raven. Two riders are located on the neck, with two figures in each half of the howdah. In addition there is a kneeing crossbowman, next to the command banner and a swordsman standing near the left foreleg of this undead behemoth. It was armed with a catapult which fit on it's back between the two halves of the howdah. I choose to disregard this weapon system, as I felt it did not add to the overall effect of the model. The howdah halves are decorated with large scale (compared to the 15mm crew) skulls and shields. These trophies can be explained to be ogres or giants that were vanquished by the Undead Legions.

Bone Coloration caused by high iron (pyrite) content leaching into the soil.

The model when completed was unstable. I drilled a hole into it's body and mounted the model on a clear 60mm Game Workshop aerial base. The mammoth no longer falls over and I like the effect of the round base. I feel that this figure fits nicely into my large scale HOTT Undead Army. The actual base size for the behemoth under the HOTT rules should be 60mm x 60mm. The diameter of the base is 60mm so when positioned in combat I feel there shouldn't be any problem.

Undead HOTT Part III

This is just a quick posting on two additions to my HOTT Undead army. The first is it's camp. The camp consists of a resin representation of an open mass grave. Numerous bits of skeletons, skulls and ribcages are exposed to the elements and other, more malevolent powers.

Open Pit Grave, with 25mm Undead (Plastics)

Note: Photo revised Feb 21st

The resin piece is 100mm x 90mm, and is supposed to be for 25mm scale. I have added some broken 15mm Irregular Miniature Undead as well as a number of broken 25mm Plastic Skeletons that I received with a Undead Mammoth, that I have yet to paint. It would appear that the first troops of the next horde are starting to assemble.

The second is two elements of flyers. Both are Bat Swarms (Model 03355) by Reaper Miniatures.