Great War Miniatures French 75mm Field Gun

 The latest piece to come off the painting desk. I'm quite pleased with this but will make a few observations. The first being that I was not sure of the exact shade that the gun should be, so just went with some coloured plates that I found on the net. I feel that the shade should be lighter and more grey. Some plates showed the crew with double striped trousers and others showed single. I opted for single as it was easier to do. The gun is very nice as are the figures. The only issue is that the figures mounted on the gun base are very small with bobble heads. The other two on single bases are a decent size. Once placed on the table top I doubt that this is very noticeable but it bothered me when painting them.

Great War Miniatures French Cavalry

These are the Cuirassiers with the Command and Trooper packs. For the painting I followed some plates I found on the internet as well as Mark Hargreaves "Over Open Sights" painted examples but changed a couple of colours to suit my taste.

I thought at first that the horses look really small but later changed my mind. I have some Renegade German Cavalry to paint at some stage which have larger horses so it should be interesting to see a comparison. I didn't plan the basing very well and just grabbed some that I bought for DBMM. These being 60x30mm.

I used my phone Camera again but now see that I cant see the subtle differences that using a wash and then a highlight brings out, so may go back to using my Camera again. The faces and Helmets in particular look much better in reality.

French Flag bearer.

This is another item that has been hanging around my work desk for far too long. I don't like to paint individual figures so find that they keep getting pushed aside. The figure started out as an Artizan figure which then got a new head cut from a Great War French figure, the left over HMG Gunner I had. The flagpole is a metal Lance and the Flag was down loaded and then printed courtesy of Major Thomas Foolery's Blog. It may be wrong for this conflict but I like it.

 

Renegade WW1 French reinforcements

Well I have actually managed to finish something. I had only been able to spend an hour on painting on Sunday afternoons for a couple of weeks, and then I seemed to regain my energy and have managed to paint four nights a week for the last couple of weeks.  I have also managed to find the enthusiasm to buy some Vitrix Celt Chariots and Gaul Cavalry and also all the DBMM books. I still need to buy some MDF bases. I have also managed to sit in on another two DBMM games taking a command.

The French.

I bought these figures from Ebay and thought from the photos that there was a chance that I could use them as they were. Unfortunately the paint jobs turned out to be a bit rough and some of the bases fell off so I had no choice but to strip them and start again. This turned out to be a good thing as they are now almost indistinguishable from my other figures. You might remember that I was worried about the Great Figures being a bit small? This batch of figures looked like they were sculpted by three different people and the sizes are a bit mixed. I thought that I might as well paint up some Great War HMG gunners at the same time. These turned out to be a great mix and once added to the bases look like they are interacting with the original figures. The left over figure will donate his head to a Flag Bearer conversion that I am planning.

When I took the photos the sun was streaming onto my paint desk so they look a bit washed out. I have tried to change the colour on a couple of the photos so they are not really the light Blue they appear. I will have to put these aside for now as I have other things that are more urgent to paint (Celts).

Great War French

I bought a pack of Great War French Infantry to see how they compared to the Renegade figures I have already painted. My initial conclusion was that they are really too different to fit in the same units. Its not just that they are quite slim but also they are a very different style. I attempted to try and hide the slimness by adding Greenstuff to the Kepis and Greatcoat tails. I also added backpacks to most of them which came from some Artisan packets. However the thinness of the guns compared to the Renegade figures are really evident. After basing the figures I thought that the kneeling figures are very difficult to spot the difference so I bought a set of the HMG so I can add a couple of figures to the bases I have already painted up. These have been undercoated with the eight second hand Renegade figures I have stripped and are ready to paint.

The figure below on the right hand side is a Renegade figure.

Last weekend I went to ValleyCon which is a yearly event put on by the Hutt Wargames Club. It is a decent sized affair and was as far as I can tell consisted of Competition Games and no Demo games so I did not take any photos. I did however talk to a Club-mate about taking up DBM. To my surprise he invited me to take command of one of his Generals of a Spanish Army. It was a really good game and I learnt quite a lot but I was blamed for losing the game. Haha it was all in jest as the other player had the right plan in his mind before we even set up. I have a pile of Black Trees Design Romans, Wargames Factory Vikings and a few already painted Renegade and Black Tree Celts which were bought with DBM in mind. So as soon as I can I will be painting up some Celts and have already based some of the ones I have painted earlier just to get a feel for the game.

Renegade Early War French

I was going to claim that this was the quickest paint job ever as this was just a repaint. However it did not work out that way but was still done in about half the time that it would have done from scratch. These were originally painted as Foreign Legion for Pulp games painted in Khaki. I knew the uniforms would be incorrect but it was in a Pulp setting so did not worry me too much. It turned out that they were used once for a game of Contemptible Little Armies and once in a Pulp setting against my Tomb Kings Army and had lain unused for about ten years. A friend has bought some Early War Germans so I thought I'd repaint these which meant that caps, trousers, coats, leather equipment, water bottles all needed a repaint. I left the flesh as is and painted wood grain onto the rifles using the older dark brown as a base. I had some problems with taking the photos as the blue turned out really light and did not look like the paint jobs. I eventually used a white background but did not have enough light so had to lighten them in Photoshop. I might have to invest in a Light Box set up soon.

I have ordered some figures from the Northstar Artisan range to fill out the units. These figures are rather large and out of production so I could have some issues matching them. The Great War figures are a little smaller so I would put them in different units should I need more. I intend getting the Cavalry and Artillery from Great War at this stage and have also found some prone figures sculpted by Steve Barber which I may get as another squad.

The first photos I showed to a mate prompted him to call them "Ultra Marines"!

First squad in lighter Blue Caps.

Second squad in Dark Blue Caps. 

HMG Teams.

Command Squads in Red Caps. The far right figure will Command the Colonial Troops when they arrive.

Aussie HMG's and an 18 pounder

I've had this 18 pdr in my lead pile for a few years so it was good to get it out and get it painted finally. I am not happy with the shirts as I have made them too bright. The gun came out really good as I had sealed it and then went over that to do the rusty wheel rims and a lighter shade of Green on the gun itself. Bought from Gripping Beast.

These HMG's were originally painted to go into the backs of some Corgi Trucks for my Dinosaur Hunters Army for Back of Beyond gaming. They had a few outings but the Army was never really completed. I am really pleased with the paint on these as it was over ten years ago and before I had to wear reading glasses for painting. I even managed to paint the brass buttons rather neatly. Being Brigade games figures they are rather chunky and the details are easy to see. I also did a few head swaps to add some variety. For use in WW1 I have changed the bases from wooden planks to Arid dusty terrain. The first was modified to look like a hasty AA gun. I think I got the shirts the correct colour this time.

This Rendra camp fire had a Spit Roast handle and supports added from twisted wire and Brass Rod.

Building for Beersheba

I am planning to do a Demo game about the Battle of Beersheba on this coming ANZAC Day. I have most of the buildings I think that I will need but a couple more will not be a wasted effort.

This first Building is very loosely based on some of the infrastructure which the Germans built for the Railway system. The Buildings were built in a European style which at first look may seem a bit odd in this setting. The water was raised by Kerosene powered pumps which were housed in the buildings.

 

 I have made a trough on the higher level with a pipe, which has a gate to allow water to build up before being allowed to flow to the lower level. All parts for this were from the spares box. The hill was originally made for Vietnam years ago before I decided to put hills under the drop cloth. The roof was just thin plastic card, scribed and then cut into strips. The painting of the roof was a happy accident when I over thinned the paint. The flowing water was made out of clear sprue, heated and then stretched and bent into shape.

The next building is an Airfix resin building which I got on sale. It lacks some detail so I added doors and frames from Balsa wood. I also added some Granny Grate for the smaller windows.

The well was made from plastic card bent around some mdf rings that I had drilled out for some reason years ago.