Lucky Products Hessians

I have recently finished the first Hessian stand for Volley and Bayonet using the Lucky products figures I purchased some time ago (Click here for more details). While these are not the most detailed figures available, they do have a certain charm to them. I have painted them as Grenadiers of the Hesse-Cassel Regiment Von Rall. While their breeches were white, many ended up with ones made of red and white striped mattress ticking.

Hessians occupy an unfinished BUA.

The model building in the background is an experimental design by Fitz from Shouting into the Void. He kindly designed a basic building for use on the school laser cutter. Hopefully I should be able to show him an example within the next few days.

A close up of the stand.

For the Brandywine scenario I need to base up another stand of Hessians to complete the Grenadier brigade. I will probably use the same format, but perhaps adding on a few more figures with mitres. I have toyed with trimming the trumpet like instrument back to a more fife like size, but I feel this would defeat the purpose of using these figures, by removing some of their quirkiness.

Angled for the camera.

Oddly enough, the fifer has what appears to be a regular sized fife case sculpted on the figure. Still I think that my Hessians will fight better for having a war trumpet rather than a fife!

Parcels, Pikes, and Planes

Life has been somewhat eventful of late, but I have managed to get a few gaming related things done. recently I was generously sent a parcel of goodies by Paul (from Plastic Warriors) that contained some more Esci gabions, some more pieces from the Esci Battlefield Accessory set, and a Matchbox Saracen armoured car.

The parcel from Paul. Cheers Paul!

 I have been continuing to try and improve my BUAs by varying the size of the gables and walls, but also by trying to create a brick effect. The next step will be trying to get windows and doors cut. With the aid of someone else's very clever work I may have a solution to show in the next post.

Bigger walls and gables.

Brickwork walls and gables!

 I also attended Conquest last weekend. While there Rodger (from Rebel Barracks) kindly gave me some more gabions, some more bits of the Esci accessory set, and two sets of the Imex AWI artillery in 1/72.

More stuff for AWI V&B kindly provided by Rodger.

I also took part in a demonstration game of "Pike and Shotte" that I thoroughly enjoyed, and managed to make a few small purchases. A number of 1/144 scale jets that I plan to use for Harad games.

Four  J-35s awaiting construction.

A rather nice Sabre kit.

A pretty smart looking Saudi Lightning.

 Afterwards I went and saw Glenn and acquired a vast haul of vehicles and figures. The vehicles were in various states of disarray, but will prove a source of fun through refurbishment and use on the tabletop. Some of what I acquired I have passed on to Archduke Piccolo (click here for link), but I have greedily kept a great deal for myself! I was also meant to see Glenn on Wednesday, but events conspired against me - with luck I might be able to catch up this weekend with him?

Lots of nice bits!

Some very useful vehicles.

Figures for the WW1 project.

Some Tigers for the Archduke.

Glenn also gave me a B-17 kit to pass on to Mr K. - who is quite delighted with the addition to his air fleet!

Classic Airfix box art!

Complete with bonus 57mm gun!

Wagons Ho!

Since I have been tidying unfinished bits and pieces of my Volley and Bayonet AWI project, I thought I might do a quick post about some of the wagons that I am doing up for use as logistics elements. V&B doesn't require logistics elements on the tabletop, but I like having logistics elements available for my toy armies.

My drivers are mounted on the wrong horse! they should be on the left rear horse!

The two big Conestoga wagons come from the Imex Conestoga Wagon set (PSR link here), which is currently available bundled with the Imex  American Pioneers set (PSR review here) as the Billy V toys American Western Settlers set that retails at around US$10. The Billy V sets are very good value and seem to be the cheapest way of getting Imex sets.

It is a very long model!

The Conestoga wagons were first used in the early part of the 18th Century in Pennsylvania, so I might even be able to use them for Braddock's campaign during the French and Indian Wars. The other wagon I have painted up is one from the BUM Far West Town sets I purchased earlier this year (for more details see this post) I have removed the driver of the wagon, and added a running Airfix soldier to try and catch up with the horse!

Another logistics element completed.

The final picture for this post is my set of eight completed Esci Gabions. These come two at a time from the Esci Battlefield Accessory kit (PSR review here). While I don't have four of these sets, I do have enough bits and bobs from them to make using parts of them a serious proposition.

Not the easiest item to assemble.

 I have been slowly acquiring these items, so when I found I had accrued a reasonable number I assembled them, and mounted them on 5 cent coins then filled them up with artists medium.These should prove useful in denoting that a stand is in a prepared position.

Blue Roofed BUAs

Real life has been interfering with the hobby of late, but I have been quietly ticking away at a few projects. one of these is making up BUAs (Built Up Areas) for Volley and Bayonet, and continuing with the refurbishment of painted Airfix figures in order to quickly make up stands of V&B troops.

A V&B BUA - complete with white picket fences.

The lift out section of the BUA next to the main portion. The building from my friend is the big one on the main section.

The rules call for BUAs to be 4 inches by 6 inches with a 3 inch by inch  space in the template to allow for the placement of occupying troops. The idea of having a lift out building which is then replaced by the occupying stands is one that I have stolen from Robin (from Wargamingnz) and Adrian (whose V&B colonial BUAs are amazing)

As I am currently trawling through my wargaming terrain, I discovered a building that had been given to me by a friend before he left to live in the UK sometime in the mid to late 1990s. While it is scaled to 15mm, I figured that it was perfect for use in V&B - all it needed was roofing, painting, and basing - tasks I had put off doing for some time!

It has a rather nice style of construction that I will attempt to copy. 

My friend built it out of heavy construction cardboard, which has proven to be very durable.

 Naturally I have to include a photo of the BUA occupied by a couple of stands of my refurbished Airfix troops. These figures are part of a large number that I acquired from Mr Airfix recently. Glenn and Geoff also kindly supplied me with some of their old painted AWI Airfix figures that I am currently refurbishing the American figures from (Hopefully I will get two stands worth!).

Occupied or liberated? US troops hold the BUA.

The construction of the BUA allows for alternate building configurations.

I have also manged to refurbish another stand of infantry form figures supplied by Glenn. These figures had the majority of their paintwork flaked off, but since the uniform was mainly white, I figured it was worth making an attempt to save them. After all, someone went to a great deal of effort putting toothbrush mustaches on all of them!

Another stand of refurbished Airfix figures. These fellows are probably French - but let me know if you know better!

Refurbished AWI Britsh. The figures were kindly given to me from Geoff and Glenn's collection of old painted figures.

The refurbishment project has been generating a number of AWI stands, but I am slowly painting up some figures from scratch. The priority at the moment is to finish off a number of terrain projects so I can safely store all my terrain, and also dispose of some of the "useful bits for terrain making" that I have been holding on to for too long.

Another V&B BUA awaits the final finishing touches.

My current plan is to finish up the BUAs for V&B, then move on to during some final bits and pieces for Harad, and then do some WW2 terrain. Like all plans this one may be subject to change!

Airfix Pseudo Spanish and Almost Continentals.

Not the best of  paint jobs,  but a fine basis for refurbishment!

The school I work at recently got a laser cutter, so offered to have it cut some V&B mdf bases as way of testing it was working properly! Naturally since I now had a pile of bases I had to get some troops on them. I wasn't wanting to do any major effort, just wanting to get figures on bases in order to swell the V&B ranks quickly. Fortunately I was able to acquire from Glenn a number of preloved and prepainted Airfix figures from the Washington's Army set (click here for the PSR review) that I was able to refurbish, wash, and base.

More painted figures - more stands of troops!

 Now I have already gone through this process with my AWI French (click here for that post), and my AWI Americans (click here for details), but with those figures had been very nicely painted by the original owner. I wanted to see if I could get useable stands using figures that weren't as well painted.

Spacing out the figures - these look like they might be painted as Hessians of some type? Or are they Americans?

A well painted example found amongst the less well painted.

 Now using prepainted figures does mean that I am guessing as to the intent of the original owner as to what they were meaning to represent. Given that for the longest time this set was the only source of 18th century line infantry, the possibilities are rather large - more so if I add in the strong likelihood that they may have been painted to represent an imaginary or generic regiment, or merely painted using information that was incorrect.

Pseudo Spanish! I can't find a Spanish unit that has that exact colour scheme. 

 First off are the white coated fellows that I am choosing to believe are some type of Spanish troops. The red breeches and black boots are similar to a Spanish soldier depicted here, and another here. A table giving the uniform colours used by Spanish units in the Seven Years War can be found here, but it doesn't give the colour of breeches, leggings or boots worn. So given that they don't fit a known colour scheme I will use them as Spanish until I learn that they aren't.

But still they look nice and can be used as generic Pseudo Spanish

 And incidentally, should you know what these fellows could be, please feel free to let me know in the comments below.

The colour scheme is rather nice though.

I am quite pleased with how well these three stands turned out given the state of the source material.

 The other two stands that I have finished also lack a colour scheme that I can definitively say is one thing or another. They could be meant to represent american forces, either state or even Continental troops, but equally they may be meant to represent German troops of some type - assuming that they are meant to represent troops from the AWI!

Two stands of blue coated rebels - again the colour scheme doesn't seem to match anything I can find.

 Still the end result is quite pleasing, and I know that I will be able to find use for them, either as Americans or Germans!

Again I am rather pleased with them, although I am tempted to put a small amount of Fall leaves on the bases.

The wash brings out the detail in the figure extremely well. Airfix did a good job designing these figures!

So far I have finished five stands, with six more ready to go. I am finding the process of recycling these figures quite fun, and a good way to ease me into painting up the legions of bare plastic AWI figures that I have waiting for me.

5 BIM finished...almost....

5 BIM sans attached artillery.

So after getting new batteries in my camera, and finally making the time to make a proper post, here is my take on 5 BIM for use at Mt Tumbledown. the only thing left to do is paint up a couple of jeeps for them to use - a project that I am planning on tackling after finishing off the army and air force troops for use at Goose Green, and scratchbuilding the AAA needed. I am going to paint up the rest of the British forces I need after I have finished the Argentine forces.

 The following ToE is based on several sources and is from a discussion on Paul's blog Plastic Warriors (click here for the discussion in the comments section) Naturally any errors are mine alone.

5 BIM command stand. figure is converted from an Italian officer in the Esci NATO set.

5th Marine Battalion, Experienced ML 7
Battalion Headquarters company,with::
  1 Command Stand
  1 Jeep

3 Rifle Companies, each with:
  1 Command Stand
  1 Weapons Stand
  2 Infantry Stands

The first Rifle Company - figures are a mix of Revell, Esci, Matchbox, HK knockoff and Airfix.

The second Rifle Company - again a mix of figures, but the bulk are converted Airfix British Paraa.

The third Rifle Company. as in the other companies the weapons stand is denoted by having a M20 Bazooka on it. 

1 Support Company, with:
  1 Command Stand

  1 HMG stand
  1 107mm Mortar
  1 107mm RCL
  2 Gun Crew stands (ds)
  1 Patrol stand
  1 Recon Jeep

The support company. Figures are a mix of Esci, matchbox, Revell, Imex, Fujimi and Airfix. The mortar is from an Esci kit, while the RCL is by Mars.

attached:
Battalion de Artilleria de Campana de Marina 1
Batteria B, with:
  1 Command Stand

  1 FO Stand
  1 105mm Howitzer
  1 gun crew stand (ds)

Guncrew  is from the Esci White Scout car, the command stand is a figure from a Hasegawa set, and the FO is from the Imex Korean war set. 

The gun is a Corgi diecast that I have discussed previously (click here for more details)

Harriers and other loot...

Three box scale Corgi GR3 Harriers and a Matchbox Skyhawk. In the rear  is an unassembled 1/144 scale Academy FRS 1 Harrier kit.

Recently I have started a new job, and have been having fun sorting out the joys a new role can bring. On the plus side I have more money for toys, on the negative side I will have less time to spend playing with them! Still, that just means I have to use the hobby time wisely...

And a ruler for scale - it works at at around 1:120ish.

I am still slowly converting and painting up my Falklands forces, and I am still even more slowly working on other projects. I am very fortunate that when Katherine returned from her trip over to her parents in PA, she brought me back a small pile of loot (in addition to the Corgi harriers)....

Books and yet more 1/144 scale kits... 

20mm Soviet Cossacks - a little extra for the modern hordes!

Plus she lugged back a large fleet of 1/1800 scale War AT Sea miniatures (but more on those in a future post). I am very lucky to have a wife who is actively supportive of my hobby!