WWI Project Updates

I love the look of gas masks, although wearing them maybe not so much (a band I was in once did live music for a theatrical production and were required to wear surplus gas masks while performing - it was hard to breath and seeing the guitar neck through the lenses was something else). I also happen to really like the French WWI horizon blue uniform and the gas mask they used for the majority of the war. 

It was probably inevitable, then, that in a moment of feeling sorry for myself for missing my friend's wedding due to Covid, I would order the ICM WW1 French in Gas Masks. 

They are 1:35 and ICM is small 1/35 in my opinion - based on comparing their Austrian and British machine gun teams with my 1/35 Soviet machine gun crew.  Clearly, they won't fit with the Armies and Plastic, Waterloo 1815, or Dulcop figures. 

That's OK. I have a plan.

I've really been enjoying the army building and background creating for my Venusian forces, I realized I wanted to do more fantasy-based themes. Fantasy role-playing games and world-building loom large in my personal gaming history. I also happen to be a fan of weird fiction (Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Algernon Blackwood, etc.) and the general ideas behind the various Mythos related role-playing games. It struck me that it would be fun to do something themed around that.

Weird World War II might be an obvious choice given my existing collection plus the Nazi occult themes, zombies or werewolves and sometimes mechs. However, I am really more interested in WWI generally speaking and I started this post talking about the ICM figures, so you have to know I'm leading up to their use!

Why not Weird World War I? 

I picture a handful of gas mask wearing infantry (the ICM figures!) heading into no-man's land, exploring mysteriously empty trenches, underground constructions of non-human origin, villages filled with low-hanging fog and no signs of life? Perhaps some slumbering Eldritch horrors have awakened due to the death and destruction sown upon the land? 

So, that's a new project that came out of nowhere - an RPG-light skirmish wargame.

I already have some horrors in mind - the lovely Hook Horror figures from CP Models. The proprietor, Mark, was kind enough to measure the figures for me. They come in around 50mm which is just about perfect.

FYI, the ICM figures come with two heads per figure, one with a gas mask and one without. Theoretically, you could buy two boxes of the gas mask figures to get an extra set of gas mask heads, then by a box of their French infantry without gas masks and gain a few more poses. 

I suspect I'll pick up some ICM British in gas masks as well, Germans too. Why should the French have all the "fun"?

In other WWI gaming news, I finished up my (for now) final base of Austro-Hungarian infantry and Italian infantry as well. They both now have six bases of regular infantry. The Austro-Hungarian force is done, save for a machine gun base that I need to purchase. The Italians need two bases of arditi (6 figures total) and a four cavalry figures painted up and another machine gun base as well.

Speaking of cavalry, here is the first head-swap to make Italian cavalry:

The body is an Armies in Plastic Egyptian lancer and the head is from a Dulcop arditi (the grenade throwing pose - the dagger pose has much too small a head). The head isn't a perfect fit but it's close enough. and is the best I had to work with. As much as it pained me to cut up a Dulcop figure, as was mentioned in the comments on the cavalry post, the AiP French heads are *way* too big to use for this purpose.

I'd be lying if I didn't note that I am already planning to acquire a box/bag each of Armies in Plastic WWI Germans for Caporetto, and the British for Asiago and Vittorio Venetto.

Operation Hasty : Game 1

Corporal May took a look at his map. "There's a farmhouse on the other side of this ridge. Eddie, Atkinson, 'Stain', you're with me. Whiteford, take Saunders, Cross, and 'Lucky' around the base of the hill. I want the Bren covering the road and the farmhouse in case someone's home and isn't glad for the company." 

These paratroopers were among those chosen cause havoc for the Germans and prevent them from destroying infrastructure as they pulled back from Sora to Avezzano and that part of the Gothic Line. It had been christened by the higher-ups as 'Operation Hasty', wich didn't fill May, Whiteford, or any of the others with a lot of confidence.

"Yes, Corporal! Alright you lot, let's move!"  That was Lt. Corporal Frank Whiteford, the second in command for this squad. He had been in it since Dunkirk, and with May since the Moro River. He knew May could smell trouble a mile away.

Of course, May often was the one causing trouble.

A boxer before the war, he was always ready for a scrap in and out of the ring - and always willing to get one started if no one was forthcoming. In war, he learned not only was he good at knocking men out, but he was good at leading them, too.

As May and his team moved down the hill to the edge of the woods, they spotted a German patrol moving up along the farmhouse.

There are two blinds on the board - one in the field, one in the house. Rather than using the Nuts! patrol scenario and PEFs, I used the patrol scenario and forces from Platoon Forward. There are two blinds, one of which is the real patrol, and the patrol will consist of several blinds as well which have to be resolved.

"Looks like the welcoming committee is already here. Let them have it!" May's Sten was already spitting lead before he finished his command, bringing down the German squad's LMG team.

Another German was dropped by rifle fire and then Whiteford's team opened fire as they came around the hill, to terrible effect. 

The few Jerries who had survived the attack fell back behind the house.

Gott im Himmel!

Celebrations were cut short by the sputtering of bullets from a window of the farmhouse. 

"Spandau!"shouted Whiteford, as he was knocked to the ground. Lucky opened fire with his Bren - killing the gunner and leaving the loader scrambling.

From their left, alongside the farmhouse another LMG team appeared and again Lucky's Bren made quick work of them.

A kubelwagen raced up the road to provide cover for the badly mauled German patrol which was trying to withdraw. With its mounted MG-42 it opened fire and wounded Lucky, but Saunders caught the worst of it. 

Under a hail of lead, Whiteford scrambled, grabbed Lucky and Saunders and dragged them into cover behind the hill.

Meanwhile, the MG-42 in the house had repositioned and prepared to open fire on May's team on the hill. The trunk of the tree to his left exploded in splinters and May hit the dirt. Dragging Stainton who had caught one in the arm, he slipped back into the shadows of the trees.

The firefight ended as quickly as it started. The Germans withdrew- unaware that they had come against a single squad - as Cpl. May led his men to temporary safety deeper into the woods. 

Stain and Lucky would be OK and could keep going, but Saunders, on the other hand, was in bad shape.

"What do we do, Corporal?"

 

*****

• Rules used: Nuts! Final Edition
• Platoon Forward generated the German patrol - it was far better equipped than I had expected. I was OK with that given the historical situation.
• I used the Nuts! non-player force movement and such. The decision to withdraw was made immediately after first contact (by the Nuts! table for that). I figured that since the other blinds were in position, they would provide cover for the withdrawal - hence the tripod MG, the extra LMG team, and the kubelwagen getting some action before ending the game. 

WiP: Triceratops Battlewagon

Spent some time this weekend bashing together the "howdah" / platform for my lizard archers.

 

It definitely needs some walls but my first attempt did not work well and ended with my hands covered in super glue. Fortunately, hot water, soap, and olive oil got it off my hands eventually.

The platform was originally going to be the narrow side to the front but then it would overhang the tail, which bothered me more than overhanging the sides. I don't know why.

Admittedly, if I didn't base the figures it could be smaller, but I like the option of being able to use them dismounted. Horses for courses.

The logs are bamboo skewer pieces painted water-down Raw Sienna, so that there are patches of dark and light, which to my eyes is like bark missing in some places.The vines holding the platform in place are florist wire and twisted masking tape. I will paint that eventually as well.

I also finished the remaining red palms I had in progress (four total) and made some weird paper  pom-pom type foliage (the two short blue paper things). They aren't much on their own but massed together they make decent low cover/concealment and look suitably like alien jungle. I'm not so keen on the blue mid-height "tree" on the right as it reminds me of some deep sea tube worms - fortunately, as with all my paper tube trees, i can easily swap out the leaves for something else.

Figure-wise I knocked out another Austro-Hungarian LMG figure (Armies in Plastic, no picture). It's not the right LMG for the A-H troops, but beggars can't be choosers. I use the LMG and MP 18 figures to indicate stormtrooper bases. Accurate or not, I reason that some German weapons were in use by the Austro-Hungarian army.

I've got three HaT Carthaginians on the table now and will probably start three WW1 Italians or three Foreign Legion at the same time, since it takes so many coats of orange to do the Tanitian look.

Lizard Warrior Archers

To my surprise, I stuck with my plan and finished up my Reaper Dark Heaven lizard warrior archers and drummer (from the command pack) for my planned howdah crew. Although I prefer to stick to three figures or less at a time, they are only 28mm and fairly simple paint jobs - although they do have ample detail for those who go for that sort of thing.

Not sure why some are naked and some wear loin cloths. Must be a cultural thing.

I based them like the others on 1"- 1.25" rounds, which, though it will make the howdah a little oversized, means I can dismount them if I choose. Frankly, I love the sculpts of the Dark Heaven lizard warriors and may pick up some melee weapon armed figures to allow me to filed a 10-12 figure unit. They are also some of the very few metal 28mm figures I have and I do like the heft they have. I almost understand why people like metal figures so much.

I can only assume the fletching is green because there are lots of green-feathered parrot people on Venus. I didn't say the lizards were friendly chaps. Blue to match their tongues might have tied the look together better though.

While I've been working on these, I have been making some additional Venusian/Lost World jungle terrain. The picture in the previous post looks quite full, but in reality that's a trick of cramming as much of terrain into the camera's view, not a table thick with vegetation.

However, due to the wedding I'm in next weekend and the cost of travel there, the rental car, the hotel, having to buy a suit and a tie (I don't use those things for work and I have but one that does not meet the requirements set by the bride and groom), I'm trying to keep expenses in check (mostly). 

Behold, the masking tape, paper, and florist's wire palm:

I got the idea from Reese's recent Rumble in the Jungle post over on Heroes of the 54mm Empire. I believe those trees use pipe cleaner, but I have none. I do have a roll of florist's wire though. The paper by the way is not the palm leaves (those are masking tape over a florist wire stem), but the core for the trunk (it's just a paper roll covered in spiraling masking table and painted with watered down Raw Sienna - "highlights" are where more of the masking tape shows through).

I'm using fairly narrow tape because it's what I have on hand, but a wider roll would work quite well for some broad leaf palms no doubt. I have a few more in progress. My goal is a dozen. They aren't hard to make, but I wanted to spend more time painting the howdah crew.

Next on the paint table? I don't know. I might start making the howdah as I have a few different ideas or it might be the French Legionairres with red trousers. Or perhaps tackling some arditi.Or maybe I'll actually play a game.

Crossing the Streams : A Scruby Question

Some of you know that I am the website manager/administrator (not really sure what my "title" is now that I think about it) for the the Lone Warrior site. I don't generally like to cross-post between blogs, but we had a question come in from a reader that I am certain someone out there in wargaming-land can answer, but so far it has been crickets.

You can see the actual question over on Lone Warrior.

However, tl;dr: they are trying to find two particular Jack Scruby figures:

• Item #9731-02 “Rebel (firing, kepi hat)” from the Civil War Assortment and
• item #9732-13 “British Grenadier (at attention)” from the American Revolution Assortment

They are, if I understood their post correctly, 54mm figures, and I have pointed them to the Little Wars Revisited forum and to HistoriFigs (who still produce Scruby figures).

However, if you can help, please feel free to head to the Lone Warrior post linked above and leave a comment - you don't need to be a member (although if you aren't, might I suggest you consider membership? You don't even need to be a solo gamer - take a look at the sample articles, free rules, and book reviews for example.) If you prefer, though, feel free to leave a comment here and I'll relay it.

 And, because every post should have a picture, even one unrelated to the content:

The ambush. (not from a game, just trying out my jungle scenery)

 

WWI Italian Cavalry

I can't tell you how many books I have read about the Italian/Southern Front in WWI, but it's a lot. Over the last six years now, I've read books both lengthy and all too brief. One oft repeated mention is that the cavalry gave up their horses and fought as infantry from early in Italy's entrance into the war.

This, it turns out, is not entirely accurate.

While reading through some Wikipedia articles on the battles of the front (I am reading Asiago, by Francis Mackay, and I was struck by the need to look up something or other), I ended up on the page for Caporetto and  stumbled upon reference to the "Battle of Pozzuolo". This was a battle that I had either not heard of or had forgotten. 

The article was brief, but included this sentence:

The cavalry brigade that fought at Pozzuolo was renamed the Pozzuolo del Friuli Cavalry Brigade and a detailed history of the battle can be found in the brigade's article.

Well, it never hurts to read up on the specific units in an action. My world was about to turn upside down.

With the "Genova Cavalleria" under heavy attack the lancers of the "Lancieri di Novara" began to harass the left flank of the enemy in repeated cavalry charges.

Say what????

uncredited painting from https://www.reddit.com/r/wwi/comments/dp9wqg/a_painting_depicting_the_battle_of_pozzuolo_del/

Apparently, the cavalry did fight dismounted for a time in 1916, but by the end of that year, they were back on horseback. Both the Wikipedia entry for the unit and the Reddit link above give descriptions of their actions in October 1917 (Caporetto/Pozzuolo).

There is a picture floating around on the web (and on sale on eBay) of Italian cavalry in pursuit of Austrians in late 1918 - either as part of the 2nd Battle of the Piave in June or during/in the aftermath of the Battle of Vittorio Veneto:

https://www.bridgemanimages.com/en-US/noartistknown/wwi-italian-cavalry-squadron-of-italian-lancers-starting-in-pursuit-of-the-retreating-austrian-army/nomedium/asset/3130683

Also, feel free to Google the Italian cavalry in 1918 - you'll get plenty of photos and illustrations of lancers on horseback. All of my reading and I feel like I missed something crucial!

In any case, I think it's obvious what all of this means: I need cavalry now!

Of course, finding purpose made Italian cavalry in this scale is a difficult task. However, the Armies in Plastic WWI British lancer uniforms are close enough for me - a paint conversion should handle it. A head swap with the Adrian-helmeted WWI French figures will complete the ensemble.

Since I decided on using One Hour Wargames "Machine Age"  with reduced base size or maybe The Portable Wargame at some point, as well as Trench Hammer, a few two-cavalry figure units is more than enough.

Mon dieu!

Somehow, I seem to have gotten back into a rhythm of painting regularly - although I probably just jinxed myself. In any case, over the past week I knocked out three Armies in Plastic French Foreign Legion figures.

I believe I have mentioned before how the first "period" that I fielded any sizeable quantity of figures for was Victorian Science Fiction. That collection (in 15mm) began with Foreign Legion and lizard warrior figures - much like my current VSF collection in 54mm. 

I chose the Legion in large part due to the description of Camerone over on The Junior General site. A mention on some site or other about the French Foreign Legion fighting lizardmen on Venus and I was in. Always a fan of the Lizard from Spiderman (the Mego figure was one of my favorite toys as a kid) and later, D&D lizardmen (the drawing in the 1e Monster Manual is perfect), it was an easy concept to buy into.

As they say, everything old is new again - only now I'm doing it in the scale I wanted to do it in back then but thought it wasn't "proper" wargaming based on blogs and TMP. I didn't start wargaming until my 30s and even so, prevailing ideas about gaming with 54mm figures steered me to the smaller scales (I don't dislike those scales, but, with the exception of 6mm and smaller, I am not enamored with them either, unlike 54mm). 

Rambling aside, below is completed 10-figure unit:

For expediency's sake, I plan to paint up another batch of three to serve as a gun crew while borrowing the Gatling gun from my British force for now. I had intended for that to be the entirety of the force, save for an overall leader/hero type, however, it occurred to me that I could paint the crew with red trousers, and when ten total figures are done that way, I'll have a second and visually distinct unit. So that is the overarching plan at that is point.

On the paint table now are four 28mm Reaper lizard archers and a drummer. This will be the howdah crew for a triceratops. Some WWI figures might jump ahead in line - they paint quickly but prepping them takes a bit.

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say 'Banana'?

Finishing out April and kicking off May, I finished two 'not Carthaginians' (Tanitians in my world(s) - named after the Punic goddess Tanit). I say finished because I started these early in the year but it takes many, many, MANY coats of orange to actually cover the base coat. I have tried black, grey, and, with this pair, raw Sienna. Next time, white.

The black-lining is done with architecture pens and takes considerably less time,especially since I learned the trick of varnishing the figure before black-lining (then again after).

The figure on the left is by HaT. The figure on the right is by Classic Toy Soldiers. They scale well together and the CTS figure is the only plastic Carthaginian leader figure I am aware of.

The shield designs are simple - they have to be because I am hand- painting and do not have great brush control! The leader has the well-known symbol of Chaos, while the hoplite has a design inspired by one found when searching for 'Eldritch symbols' online. Despite being named for Tanit, the Tanitians tend to worship, or at least interact with, a fair number of entities best described as cosmic horrors.

Indeed, it is rumored there may be a portal to Carocosa and to the court of the famed King in Yellow in one of the Tanitian temples. Who's to say?

Any individual figure does not bear close scrutiny, but at wargame distance and en masse (as much as seven counts as a mass), they capture the look of what I imagined when I conceived of this idea (albeit in a shade of orange not at all like the one I sought. I gave up after awhile and just went with one I found pleasing to my eye).

In the following overexposed picture, you can witness a 'rumble in the jungle' of sorts as Tanitians and a force of lizard warriors collide in a clearing.

Another 3 to 5 figures are required to fill out the unit for Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles or for use with G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., etc. However as they are now, I can field them in smaller games like Fistful of Lead, particularly as I purchased the Might & Melee rule book awhile back.

Currently on the paint table are three Armies in Plastic French Foreign Legionnaires to finish up a 10-figure unit of those.