On the finished table this week

 Time for another update. 

I have been back at the painting table and finaly killed the Prussian regular troops. 

I've also finished 12 battalions of Prussian reserves but I've run out of bases for the moment.

Biweekly update updated

 As par normal I've been remarkably remiss in updating the blog. Truth be told I've not been in a good place to do any wargaming modeling. January started off with painting 12 battalions of regular Prussian infantry. Somewhere through this my painting mojo just up and died. I attempted to start 12 battalions of Prussian reserve infantry, and that nailed the coffin shut. Eventually I moved to some IHMN modeling by hauling out the large paddle steamer. Now going back when we last saw it, it looked like this.

First up some decking. While you can use paint and clever washes, nothing looks quite like real wood. Thin pine veneer (no idea where I found thing) stained (walnut) and varnished has come out quite nicely.

 Now while trawling the intertubes looking for further inspiration I came across the following which proves that there is indeed a prototype for everything. I swear now that I have not come across these before. If I had I probably would have been stuck trying to replicate it wihich would have taken far longer or most likely stalled the project.

This ferry and several sisters have plied the rivers of Burma/Myanmar for over 100 years. And while White is a quite nice quaint victorian colour, I came across something I found a bit more interesting and fetching.

 

I quite like the external vs internal colours on the sides.

One thing I have discovered in working on a model of this scale is that its a real pain to paint them

Bi-weekly update

 This weeks completed painting is another divison for the 1813 project. This time its the 39th division from the Confederation of the Rhine with a brigade from Baden and the other from Hesse.

No Divisional comand stand as I'm currently out  of round cut bases. 

Other projects that have come tocompetion over the last week.

A couple of months ago while looking for some ice-cream I discoverd 3kg of plums in the freezer from last seasons crop (you run out of things do do when you have 35kg of plums). So plum wine it was. After 4 weeks in the fermenter it was time to bottle it. Just to try something different I've done 1/2 of it as a sparkling wine. what was left of the plum pulp was used to make a plum saison beer (which is also quite nice).

On the Bench

Another month and another update.

This last month I've been painting more of Napoleons allies for my ongoing 1813 project.

First up is the Wurttemberg 38th division of 2 brigades. The Wurttemberg infantry were among the best of the Confederation of the Rhine troops.

Next is the Polish Dutchy of Warsaw VIII corps. The Poles were among the strongest supporters of Napoleon as they viewed him as the best chance of an independent Poland. The infantry contingent contained the Vistula legion previously in French service.

The artillery was a progression of cock ups. First up I ordered the artillery crews from the Polish range in Czapka which the artillery replaced with the Shako in 1810. As there's no quick way to replace them (with the curent Baccus ordering setup) I used the figures anyway. I also painted up some horse artillery using French Guard horse artillery. I also grabbed a set of artillery limbers and horse teams from the pack and painted and based them. Of course I completely forgot that I needed 2 limbers and teams for the scond artillery battalion for the other division.

I suppose I can always use them as corps troops. Next order to Baccus I will have to order the correct replacements.

The cavalry so far. A brigade of Uhlans (using the Imperial guard figures as I had them sitting round spare) and the Polish Cuirassiers with light lancer support.

The Corps commader Poniatowski and a couple of ADC's. Poniatowski was the only non French marshal created by Napoleon, even if he only got to enjoy it for 3 days.

 The 1813 campaign saw the end of an independed Poland for over a centry untill the end of WW1. 

With this lot off the painting table I now have to decide whats next. I have 2/3rds of the Middle guard (for some odd reason Bacus sell these guys and no other formed infantry in 48's rather than 96's) which punts them down the list a bit. Theres also the figures for the 39th German division of Baden and Hessians on hand. 

Or I could start on the Prussians.....

A request

 I was asked on a mailing list for some close up pictures of my Russian WW2 cavalry. Flicking back through the blog to find the pictures  I discovered that I had not taken any. So here we go. I apologise for the painting in advance

 3 stands of Cossacks (H&R SR05)

Russian cavalry in helmets (H&R SR04)

Part of the cavalry divison tank battalion. I thought tank riders would suit this quite well (T34 is H&R S08A)

Tank battalion command unit. The truck with troops and flag is from the Irregular Spanish civil war range.

A rarity. A divisional command stand on table. The cart is also from Irregular.

On the bench

 A "second" Sunday update (it being a holiday and all) I thought it was time to update whats been across my workbench in the last month. First up was the finish for the moment of the 1:600 aircraft replacement project (as I just got tired of it ).

Not everything based but mostly started. The Russian heicopters need completing but that waits for a second order the Mr Page is waiting on.

And the pile that its replacing...

 

Theres an interesting historical mix of manufacturers here. Heroics and Ros, some old NZ military minatures models (my, they were nice), a couple of Skytrex, some GHQ and local cast GHQ ripoffs and one that completey escapes me whic is saying something (a variable sweep wing Mig 23). This doesn't count the helicopters. All to eventually go on Trademe (uness anyone makes me an offer, money or trade, for any of the bits. I'm happy to split it off).

With this workbench out of the way I went to some IHMN figures. I had brought a pack of Perry Mahdist infantry a while back to provide the cheap cultists/filler that any evil gang needs. Plus they were 40 figures for 20 quid which is about what you want to pay for expendables. I had never assembled  any sort of multipose figures before  and its taken me a while to get into it (not just weapons but heads too). With all the options I eventually simplified it standising on the clothes and weapons. A first group was done with swords backed up by some guys with rifles.

 

The problem with the boxes like this is that theres only so many weapons, so at this point I was out of sword arms. It was then onto the spears and shields.

 

Finally, with the impending opening of the Baccus cart again (and with Heroics and Ros still sort of open, but not with my complete needs for any MSH projects) it was time to get back into the Napoleonics pile. First up off the blocks was the Wurtemberg contingent. By good management or good luck they were still a full division by Liepzig at the end of 1813 so its only 100 infantry with artillery and commanders.

 

 

I'm not quite sure what I am ordering next but given that the last order I made was on August the 13th, and its being cast this week (so I shoudl see it by December) I'm now ordering figures for Febuaray next year. Such is the current way of the world.

Desant

 I was having a bit of a hunt through the back-blocks of my hard drive today and came across a TOE for Russian airborn units published by those nice chaps at the Army Infantry School in Fort Benning. Its part of ST 7-198 FY 84. N this is a handy document as I am rather sceptical of the TOE's that I have seen. Now I suppose I should hold any information from the 80's with a grain of salt as information on TOE's was very hard to come by (even more so at the arse end of the world). However the official TOE's for MSH are in places not much better (British anyone?)

Now I must admit that I have some misgivings about bits of it which I'll address at the end.

Divisional HQ     HQ infantry stand.

                            2 BRDM-2

Support regiment

            Artillery regiment 4 x D-30 122mm

            Artillery regiment 4 x BM-14/GAZ66

            AT battalion 4 x ASU-85

1 BMD regiment    HQ in BMD

                                1 BRDM-2

Mortar battery     1 x 120mm Mortar/GAZ66

AA battery           1 x 23mm AA /GAZ66

AT battery             2 x BRDM 2S/BRDM 3

3 Battalions    HQ in BMD

                    3 companies 2 BMD-1 

2 Parachute Regiments HQ infantry stand 

BMD coy 2 BMD-1

Mortar battery     1 x 120mm Mortar/GAZ66

AA battery           1 x 23mm AA /GAZ66

AT battery            1 x SD-85/GAZ66

3 Battalions          HQ stand 

                    3 companies 3 Inf stands

                                         1 SPG9

                    3 companies 3 SPG9

                                         2 AT3/AT4

Man the formatting for the new blogger is rubbish for something like this.

So issues I do have is a lack of regiment/battalion recce elements, engineering stands and 82mm mortars. The 82mm mortars might be replaced by SPG-9's as they would be easier to cart round than a mortar baseplate. 

Now oddly enough the airborne units that I have modeled seem to be from another source which from what I can tell was Jake Collins old site.

First up the parachute units. This appears to be a BHQ, 3 companies of 2 platoons, an 82mm and 120mm Mortar, an SA-7 and 2 AT stabds (mixed SPG9 and AT-4).

The BMD battalion is BMD comand (BMD-KSH), 3 compaies of 2 platoons, plus an 82mm motar and a 30mm GL

To cap this whole story off I have another TOE for 1979 in one of those annoying "every vehicle represented by a sillouete" which doesn't give numbers (which counting 30 trucks is just daft) or platoon/squad breakdowns. it also has some really odd stuff of which I'll give 2 examples;

-BMD companies have an extra platoon with SPG-9 in trucks. now why if you have 10 73mm guns would you want another 3 that are unarmoured?

-The Regiment has a battery of ASU-57, when these were phased out in the mid 1970's

So, a bit of a mess really, and no clear winners.

I'll leave you all with a picture of my ASU-85 battaion, possibly the worst idea anyAFV  designer could come up with.