German reinforcements ... Bolt Action... Medium mortar & Light Howitzer

Some recently completed work for my German whermacht forces...

First up an 81mm mortar ... 

And next up a light howitzer; LEiG 75mm infantry gun...

More work in progress to follow...

FestungsKompanie

I have long had an interest in WWII. This was probably brought about by growing up as a child in the 70's, watching war movies on TV and playing with air-fix toy soldiers. My father also has an interest in the period and he most likely influenced me in this too. He was born in '41, so has few recollections of the war, but recalls looking up in the sky as a child and seeing aircraft flying over head.
During his working career he served as a fireman in the north east of England, and told me tales of a colleague the fireman nicknamed "the vicar", as he was an older chap than they, had a round bald head, and always wore the old grandad style shirts with the straight round collar, much like a vicars dog-collar, hence the nickname.
"The Vicar" served in the war as a tank crewman in Normandy, and he told the firemen tales of going up against the Jerry panzers. These tales my father passed on to me.

One such mentioned how the tank he was in, suffered a hit from the side, to the front of the tank. They were able to continue though, and when they later inspected the tank, they found that the shot had torn off both the front towing shackles.

Another such tale recounted how they were forced at one time to take shelter from a bombardment, under their tank. But despite being sheltered under the tank, they found that they still had to maintain a "press-up position", to avoid being hit by shrapnel fragments flying under the tank!

All stirring stuff to a young mind!

But other than playing toy soldiers as most kids too, this never really evolved into a war-game with rules as such, and having become a war-gamer in later years, the period still did not attract me as by then I had been swayed by other influences, including Tolkien.

However a couple of years ago, having come across the Flames of War (FOW) war-games rules by Battlefront, here in New Zealand, I felt I should give it a go as it seemed to be a game lots of folks were playing, and since it was made locally, I should support it, which contrasts with most other miniatures which seem to be made in the UK or USA.

Having made my decision, to play the game, I decided to go with a British commando force, which would be small and tough (which would keep the cost down of assembling a new army to see how it went) and they'd be elite troops so hopefully quite effective.

I assembled a small force of these, and managed a couple of games with local folks, but again this fizzled out, and other periods swayed my attention.

Now much later, my own young son, Christopher now six and half years, has "found" WWII. In part from the computer game Axis and Allies, but also from shows such as Band of Brothers, movies like Kelly's Heroes, and of course all the WWII documentaries on SKY's History channel.

So I decided to look at gaming WWII again, but this time in house with my son. So out came the commandos, which got a dusting off, but then the realization that I'm going to have to get some troops to fight against them!

Having also decided that as a part of WWII, I was most interested in the North West European theatre from Normandy onwards, so Late War, in terms of FOW. The main reason being that by this time most of the armies would be using their best equipment, including the big Jerry tanks...

An inquiry to the FOW forum, elicited the answer that a FestungsKompanie boxed set would be a good way to go, to face off against the commandos and that's where I start here!

So we have a grenadier company, that would have manned the defenses of Normandy, Rommel's Atlantic Wall of Fortress Europe.

I am going theme this force, around the various German forces defending Normandy, which, with a few tweaks could include the 352 infantry division (confident veteran) at Omaha. The 352 also contained elements of the 726 infantry division also at Omaha. 716 infantry division will do for defending Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches against the British. Both 726 & 716 rated confident trained.
There are also the options to represent Kampfgruppe Meyer, the immediate mobile reserve in Normandy, featuring StuG G assault guns and Marder IIIM's.

Flames of War: 716 Briefing

In the meantime I have also made contact with folk over at the Upper Hutt club, who have several FOW players, and I have lined up some "training" games with them, which I am looking forward to, to help me better learn the game.

So far I have managed the Company Commander, 2iC, and panzershrek team, and two full platoons.




Company Commander, 2iC and Panzershrek team. Command teams have been upgraded to SMG panzerknacker.


First Platoon, all teams classed as MG team, (as the coastal units had been issued a greater number of machineguns than regular grenadiers), so that means ROF 3, per team. Again the command team has been upgraded to SMG Panzerknacker.
The platoon itself comprises a total of 30 men; 3 in the command team, then 3 sections of nine men, split into 4 and 5 man teams respectively as per the force list in FOW's Bloody Omaha supplement.


Second platoon, equipped as first.

I have also constructed a small house as a terrain piece made from regular cardboard, and thin card, and some sand textured paint.



The roof lifts off allowing placement of an infantry team inside...




5/5/10 update:
Added a few extras :-
3 Goliath Radio-controlled demolition charges, 3 sniper teams, 3 light mortar teams and the puppchen cannon.



Update 28/5/10:


These are the optional 8cm G42 Stummelwerfer mortars that can be part of company HQ.



Here's the two tank turret bunkers, and four open tobruk MG42 bunkers.



And here's the whole company, comprising HQ, snipers, HQ mortar and Anti-tank options, tank turret and open MG42 bunkers, and three grenadier platoons each with their Goliath. Backing the company up are my StuG G assault guns, which I have just finished painting (they still need their decals adding and varnishing done. I'll show these better in a late blog post).

I have a Mortar platoon, HMG platoon and PaK40 platoon to add to this force. I'd also like to add some anti-aircraft protection, artillery - maybe 10.5cm howitzers, and eventually some heavy tanks. This will then give me more options to field this force.

Flames of War - Late War British Commandos

Flames of War late war British commandos:



Black undercoat
Uniforms: Foundry 12a Drab + GW Graveyard earth
Packs: Foundry 26A Forest Green + Foundry 26C Forest Green
Skin: GW Bestial Brown + GW Vomit Brown + GW Dwarf flesh
Hair: GW Scorched Earth + GW Snakebite leather
Rifle wood: GW Scorched earth + GW Bestial Brown
Berets: GW Dark Angels Green + GW Woodland Green
Boots & gun barrels: GW Black



Update - 22/12/7 - although the pics dont show it (they are a little dark), I was not too happy with some of my colour choices.
I toned down the berets which looked too bright, so these were just GW Jungle Green over a black undercoat.
The webbing etc was also slightly gaudy I thought so I switched this to Foundry 27A followed by Foundry 27C. Its a "flatter" pale green than the slighty brighter 26 shade I had originally done.
I am now happy with the result and will press on to finish the platoon.



Platoon finished and based Xmas '07. Base was textured with a layer of polyfilla, and fine gravel/sand. This was painted GW scorched brown and gravel inked with brown ink. Dry brushed then with GW Vermin Brown then Foundry 12c Drab. Finally static grass added with thinned PVA glue.

Picture shows two full 13 man platoons (the 6 teams on the large bases), plus company command base with bagpiper, and 2iC command base. Also in front, sniper to left, and two PIAT teams and a light mortar team - all the toys a commando platoon needs! ;-)

Flames of War Commando Briefing available here.

Also a possible Dieppe Briefing

Pressing on with Platoon #2

Update: 6/2/8.
Second Platoon completed and also finished Commando Weapons platoons including 3" mortars and Vickers HMG. Also first section of 6pdr anti tank gun divisional support platoon.


Commando 3" Mortar platoon with 3 teams and platoon command and spotter teams.


Close up of Mortar team


Commando Vickers HMG platoon with platoon command


Close up of Vickers HMG team


6pdr anti tank gun from divisional support. First section of 2 guns painted - still have to do second section and Universal troop carrier. Will probably sub a spare commando platoon command team to act as their command. They will be accompanying the commandos, so makes sense to have some commando "advisers".

Update - March 08.
Finished off the divisional support options that I currently have: The 6pdr anti-tank gun section, complete with 4 Loyd Carriers and a Universal carrier for platoon command. I have also added the option of one up gunned section comprising two 17pdr anti-tank guns, with M5 Half Tracks from the "lend lease" agreement with the US, as towing vehicles. Interestingly, although the M5 were supplied fitted with 50cal machine-gun, the Brits took them off before entering action. I don't think the Brits envisaged using them in the same way as the Yanks.



6Pdr anti-tank gun seciton with Loyd carriers and UC command.


17pdr anti-tank gun section with M5 Half-tracks.


Close up of Loyd carrier.


Close up of Universal carrier.

I have not got round to adding the vehicle markings, I need to get a pack of decals from Battlefront.

This gives my little force just over 1000 points worth of troops for FOW. I would like to add another Commando combat platoon pack and a Typhoon flight for air support. That should take my force up to 1500 points or there abouts.

Warhammer English Civil War - Parliament

This project started late 2005 / early 2006 (I think?), shortly after I had first moved to New Zealand. The small town I had moved to, Whakatane, did not appear to have any local wargamers, but after doing a bit internet surfing I came across a chap in the next town over, Rotorua, called Nathan Ward.

I was interested in playing Warhammer Historical, at the time I was finishing off a medieval army. Nathan was considering Warhammer but for the English Civil War supplement. So we mutually decided to give this period and rule-set a whirl. I had previously picked up a set of rules from E-bay, but not done anything with them at that point.

Next we had to get some miniatures. My first port of call normally for figures is Foundry. However, having checked out the Foundry range I was not overly impressed with some of the poses; the musketeers looked oddly crouched over which did not appeal. Also the price of Foundry figures plus postage to New Zealand, was prohibitive.

Yet more internet searching revealed Renegade miniatures, who had at the time, a post free worldwide deal on their army deals. I gleefully ordered the foot and horse army packs. These came through a little while later and I set to work; filing, basing and undercoating so that we could get a feel for the rules, with based figures. The figures were nicely sculpted and slightly larger than the Foundry figures I was used to.

The only problem at the time was that Renegade were only offering the foot and horse, with no other figures available; no artillery, dragoons and other desirable figures. More internet searching revealed that compatible ranges in style and scale were Bicorne and Redoubt. I liked the look of the Bicorne figures and found helpful responses from Andrew Barrett at Bicorne, with questions about the ranges on offer.

I have to say I was put off going with Redoubt, who may have had a wider range but a lot of their figures came with separate heads and to be honest I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of having to glue them all into place.

So Bicorne won my business and some artillery and dragoons and militia etc were finally ordered.

Just as things were starting to progress nicely, our plans for New Zealand changed, and my family and I moved south to Kapiti Coast. Not finding anyone playing WECW locally, but meeting up with guys at the Wellington Warlords who were playing Warhammer Ancients, I decided to start an ancient germanic barbarian army.(See separate post for full details of this venture!)

So my poor old WECW army got put on the back burner...

During the time of painting up my Barbarians I had met with the local Kapiti Fusiliers and Fusilier Steve Sands was interested in the ECW period and had an army, although based for WRG. Over time, Steve very sportingly decided to give these WECW rules a go, and gradually re-based his army and off I went again with my WECW painting project.

I still have a ways to go but heres whats done so far (Dec 07):




This is the first regiment of foote I painted. All Renegade, painted in acrylics, on magnetized bases and movement trays. The pikes are 100mm Foundry spears/pikes, and very sharp they are too! The flag is hand-made and painted, but I may replace this with a commercially available one from GMB.



The second regiment of foote painted. Again all Renegade. I still need to sort out the flag for the ensign of this regiment.



Some spare Renegade musketeers were painted in general, non-uniformed colours, to act as a separate Forlorn Hope, or add some extra figures to the other foote regiments shot sleeves.

It was at about this point that my ECW painting stalled to go on to the Barbarians.



When painting finally resumed, I decided to "let myself in gradually" to the period again (and not be scared off by having to face painting big units!), and started with some artillery and crews. These are Falconets, light guns, from Bicorne.



These are Sakers, medium guns, again from Bicorne.



Well I guess an army needs someone to lead it into battle, so here are the Parliament Commanders. From left to right, William Waller, Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell. Figures from Bicorne.



There was no putting it off any longer. I had to make a start on the cavalry. I tend to prefer painting infantry to cavalry, as the individual models paint faster. Consequently I tend to find cavalry a bit of a slog, but there was nothing for it but to press on. These are heavy horse, with breast and backplate and gauntlet on left arm. Figures from Renegade.



And then I decided to place another little order with Bicorne to fill another few gaps in my force. A mortar and crew duly arrived and were painted up as a nice interlude to the cavalry. The mortar, shells and red jacketed crew member are Bicorne, the other crew are spare cannon crew, also from Bicorne. There is a nice little pair of mortar crew I am still busy with who are carrying a mortar shell between them. I'll post a picture when finished.



Having decided to turn our ECW games into a campaign, where armies would march with baggage trains, I needed to get some carts and wagons to represent this on the table top. Again Bicorne came through with some nice figures. This is their cart and driver. This was a multi-part piece that needed assembling. The parts were well sculpted but a little fiddly to assemble. I used Araldite for glue (a two part epoxy) and used Blu-tac to hold pieces together while glue sets. I prefer Araldite to super-glue as it makes a stronger less brittle bond, although does have the nuisance of taking a little while to set. The base is several GW cavalry bases glued long edge to long edge, and the sloped edges filled with glue and sand.



And finally the four wheeled wagon again from Bicorne.

Of course it has to be said both cart and wagon are empty of supplies! I will have to sculpt some sacks with Greenstuff, and add them later.

No doubt these carts and wagons will see a lot of service in my future gaming as they will probably do service in many armies, medieval onwards, either as baggage trains or perhaps just battlefield decoration.

Well thats enough distraction, back to painting those horses!