Inspiration from others work

I search eBay for 15mm WWI miniatures regularly; Who doesn't love a deal? Recently there were some WWI Middle East items from a guy in Canada. One of the listings really inspired me.
I think he did a grand job on them and I love all the color!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150383939728&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT




While I wait for my EW Germans to return from the painter I have pulled out my Arabs and Turks and decided to work on them some more. My Turks have one infantry platoon and some guards (for raid missions) that need completing. I also need at least two limbers.

My Arabs are much farther behind and they need more, head swaps and mods more lead, etc. I will be creating a Lewis gun team and a Hotchkiss LMG team along with a Talbot Car with its 10pdr (British crew) guns. The thing with the Arabs is they take twice the stands, mounted and dismounted versions. So, I send a small order into Peter Pig for the screw guns and some Sun Hat WWI heads.


I will post some pics as I make progress.

BTW -I did get permission to post the pic from the seller, thanks Ross!

More EW figures done.

Since I sent my EW German company out to be painted I have been working on some smaller units for my EW armies. I can usually only get a few minutes every few days at the painting table so it goes slowly.

This is a British Artillery section. The figures were already painted (fair) so I just did some touch up and re based them. I did not mount the guns allowing the unit to have 4.5" How (pictured above - QRF model) or 18pdrs (pictured below - Peter Pig). Crew are Peter Pig.

I did the same thing with the German Artillery section. I repainted the figures completely with these. This is with the 7.7cm Field gun (Peter Pig)

This is with the 10.5 How (Peter Pig). Crew are also Peter Pig.

This last pic is of German Cavalry dismounted. They were just touched up, dipped and re based. They are Peter Pig figures.

I am currently removing some French Colonial Zouaves (Blue Horizon Miniature figures) from there original bases, touching them up, dipping and re basing but more on them in another post.

1917 Nivelle Offensive game

Last night some friends came over and we tried a new scenario I created,
1917 Nivelle Offensive.

The Germans had full knowledge of the attack and prepared well. The French tanks were a disappointment and the artillery was not well coordinated.

The Preliminary bombardment did little to the one German platoon in the trenches, only pinned them but it was effective on the wire creating a few large gaps.

This is the French starting off.

By turn three the Germans call for one of there SOS/defensive barrages and it catches a Schneider tank and sets it a fire. The French rolling barrage is starting to get away from the infantry.

Turn four the second SOS barrage falls but does little. The French continue to push forward as the barrage rolls pas the front trench and the Germans start to man the line.

The French get into the trench and try to fight their way down the line but the Germans put up a stubborn defense.

The French left tries desperately to get up the trench as the right takes the trench but is then pinned and never recovers. Eventually they are ground down on the left and the game goes to the Germans.

It was a lot of fun and played and flowed well. The German HMGs caused major problems for the French.

I will post the scenario on the FOW1918 yahoo group.

1914 German Infantry - The repaint begins

I have started on the EW German infantry that I obtained recently. I was hoping that they would be as easy as the EW British but after review I will be doing a complete repaint.

I did the CO, 2IC and the HMG Section as a sample to see what I was getting into. It is not to much, though the little detail of the red piping and such will slow me down.

The platoons are huge, 17 bases each. So this part of the project will take longer than I had hoped but better to do them right the first time.

I am fighting the urge to follow my gaming mates and do a DBA RRR army. I will eventually do a French one based on The Three Musketeers but for now it is back to the 1914 Germans.

EW BEF Infantry

Here are my 1914 British Infantry. They were part of the large collection I purchased a few months ago. The figs are Peter Pig painted to a reasonable gaming standard. I rebased them for FOW1918 and dipped them. I think they look pretty good. I just need to do some cav and an artillery battery but I am on to the German Infantry next.

CO and 2IC.

1914 German Kurassiers

One of the many early war German cavalry units that I am rebasing and touching up from my resent acquisition is a Kurassier troop. The Kurassiers were the heavies of the German cavalry. They no longer wore the breast plates of yore but were still large men on large horses. For my EW force I want a full troop (nine stands) so I will have to purchase a few packs from Minifigs to finish this unit. One thing that all German cavalry shared was the lance, leading to confusion within the allied armies as to whom they were actually dealing with.
The lances all had pennants distinguishing there region. I used some medieval ones off Warflags.com and painted them. I will do a different region for each type of cav unit I created, Hussar, Uhlan, etc. I found the Renegade Miniatures article very helpful and it matched up with the pictures on the Landships website.
I am very much looking forward to seeing them on the table in mass.
I have some Peter Pig Kurassiers figures but they are a wee bit smaller so they do not work on the same stands. The nice thing about the Peter Pig figs are the pennants are already present and the lances are much sturdier.

Online sources:

http://www.renegademiniatures.com/article13.htm

http://www.landships.freeservers.com/german_earlywar_uniforms.htm

http://www.germanmilitaria.com/Imperial/photos/G005957.html

EW Armies, O' my!

I just purchased a large collection of EW Armies. British, German, French, Serbian with some Russians, Italians and AH thrown in. It is huge and I am a little over whelmed. Most are Peter Pig but a good amount of Minifig and then Eureka.

A large amount is painted but then again a lot is not.

I have started to rebase the British for FOW1918 and then will be doing a little touch-up painting. This will get the EW gaming going fairly quickly.