Dismount!

Hi,

Finished up the dismounted version of the first platoon of cossacks. The plan is to get two mounted and two dismounted as the core of a 1000 point force. Later, as more gets painted, I can use the stuff I've got to give me the option to dismount in game.



Work got going in earnest again this week, but despite this, managed to get these guys done. The lack of horses does make the painting go quicker.





I did some head swaps on these. Battlefront only makes models for the mounted and dismounted cossack platoons, but there are a number of other cossak units. Two that I plan to include in the 1000 point list are 57mm AT guns and 82mm mortars. In order to make the gun teams fit in, I figured I'd use some head swaps and creative painting. The helmeted heads on the regular cossack platoons aren't seem to work ok, as I've seen several pictures of cossack units wearing helmets.





It's a start ;)

Urrah! Pobeda!

Hi,

So some time ago, after the mother of all trades, and before the wackiness that began in January, I swapped out a pile of British FoW models for some cossacks and cash. The plan was to add some of the cossacks on to the existing Soviet force I had been working on. For those of you unfamiliar with Soviets in FoW, they are the horde army, i.e., to play them, you have to paint a lot of them. I've painted them twice now, and both times, ended up selling them off to help pay for lawyers - the first time during my divorce, and the second time to fight (again) for residential custody of my son. For me, Soviets are associated both with significant labour, struggle, and a deep sense of bitterness.



While this may help put me in a historical mindset for playing them (and it is at this point I wish Blogger provided smilies), it left me with little motivation to paint the horsey horde, until quite recently. It's occurred to me that if I actually want to get a game in, or at least a game that's not GW (more on that in another post), FoW is my best bet. The 1/72 Napoleonics are going to be a while before they're playable, even at full-tilt production, and while there are some secret projects in the wings (no, I won't say what, it's secret), they're at least several months away.

Hence these:



To be honest, I'm a little iffy on the sculpts. I've painted some OG horses, and seen 15mm horses by the folks at AB, and they look like little horses. The BF ones, however, just seem off somehow. I kept wondering if the cossack horse herds were suffering from some sort of degenerative nerve disorder. That said, the riders are decent, and once I get a couple dozen stands on the table, I doubt I'll much mind.



The plan is to start working towards a 1000 point list, with one mounted company and one dismounted company, along with some AT guns and mortars in support.



These are Don cossacks, unlike the Kuban cossacks that BF typically illustrates. The Don cossacks are an odd case - while most of the cossacks that went over to the Axis were from the Don host, several Soviet cavalry divisions were still raised from the Don as well. The Don cossacks had a slightly different uniform - their schapkas are red with a black cross, and they typically had a red stripe down their trousers. I've painted this, but it doesn't seem to show up well in all the pics.



Between what I got in the trade, and a box set my beloved gave me for Christmas last year, I have enough for 5 mounted and 2 dismounted platoons. I'm hoping to stretch the latter with some judicious head swapping, but may need to pick up a few blisters of the dismounted fellas. In the mean time, I'll have plenty of painting to do.



Even as a relatively elite army for Soviets (rated Guards, i.e., fearless trained), their are four bases to a platoon, up to four platoons to a company, and at least two companies in the battalion. That's lots of horses. I'm going to keep plugging away at this between now and Christmas. What I'd like to do is get a 1000 point army done by then, punctuated by the occasional burst of napoleonic painting when I need a change. Around Christmas, the secret project should be kicking in. I'm pretty stoked about it, but for now, mum's the word.

FMB

The big picture

Hi,

Or at least, a big post with pictures . . . .

Last night I managed to get out to the Dueling Grounds for the first time since before the new addition arrived. I didn't get a game in, but did manage to sit in of most of a game of Lasalle, and get some pics of a biggish Impetus game going on at the next table over. There's plenty of pictures in this post, so a heads up to those of you with slow internet.

First up, I managed to get some pictures of the completed Hussar base. We had a guy in doing some plaster work in the apartment, and in the process of cleaning up the dust, I found an old can of Armory matt varnish, which unlike the GW stuff, seems to last forever. A couple of light coats later, and the Hussars are ready for their public ;)







Next up, I got some shots of an Impetus game that JJMicromegas from THMG was coaching for some of the guys. I didn't sit in and follow it, but it looked good. The figures are all from JJM's collection of "true 25s", and they were playing a fairly large game - around 400 points I think it was, Philip vs. Sthpartaaaaaaaa!.









The highlight of the evening for me, however, was a game of Lasalle played by michaeld (playing Russians, guards IIRC) and James Smith (playing Waterloo notBritish), again, both from the THMG. The game was played on a table the club recently put together for a FoW show in Barrie. Looked marvelous.

Opening moves saw the notBritish advance, with an aggressive push on their right towards the Russian position around the manor house.





The Russians formed up to welcome their guests.



After both sides deployed battaries on the notBritish right, and traded some fairly ineffective shots, the notBritish concentrated their attack on the left side of the manor. In the lead were the shaky, amateur Hanoverian cavalry, who apparantly were so new to the business they didn't realise the trouble they were in.



On the left, the notBritish used the gullies that cut across the ground to advance under cover towards the Russian line.



With a (possibly drunken?) "Hurrah!", the Hanoverians charged a battary of Russian guns deployed to the right of the manor. One can only assume their officer was so amateur he was unaware of the effect cannister could have at short range. A more experienced leader would probably realised he was about to lead his troops into a dog food factory.



Of course, a more experienced leader would also not have over-run the Russian guns, and barrelled on into two battalions of Infantry, only one of which was able to form square in time.



You can see the abandoned Russian guns behind the upper set of units.



Amazingly, both cavalry units were thrown back in disarray, and the Russians promptly formed the rest of their infantry into square. It was around this time I had to leave, but the battle was apparantly settled by a clash between the elite cavalry on both sides - Russian guard and uhlans vs. Brunswick. When the game was called for time, the Brunswickers had thrown back the Russians, and the notBritish were closing in on all sides.

I have to say, the game looked terrific, and played much quicker than I had expected from reading the rules. If I had the cash, I'd be putting in an order for 15mm napoleonic figs right now. As it is (unless I find a buyer for some fo the geek detritus I'm trying to sell off), I'm going to be good and stick to the projects I've got going already. Priority is to get something on the table I can play. More on that next post.