World War I Updates

I completed the second machine gun and crew for the Austro-Hungarians (I use the German mg and crew from Irregular Miniatures, with gasmask heads because gasmasks look cool) and with that, phase 1 of my WWI armies, for Austro-Hungary at least, is complete.

We'll call this a battalion of three 6-figure companies with a stormtrooper company in front,

I haven't decided if I'm keeping the Green Tea base color or not, hence the plain wood rounds.

Now obviously, when someone says something like "Phase 1"that implies a "Phase 2". Indeed, that is the case here. 

Of course, these phases, so-called, were derived after the fact, thus the labels are being retroactively applied.

Phase 1: 

• 18 infantry figures
•  6 assault troops
•  1 leader
•  2 machine guns with crews. 

The Italian gun and crew are in the queue and have jumped to the front:

Irregular Miniatures British HMG and crew, with Adrian helmeted heads from their Empire  Multi-parts range,

Phase 2:

For both sides: 

• 6 additional infantry figures (giving me 4 companies for my battalion, when using 6-figure units),
• 1 airplane

For the Italians: 

• 2 additional cavalry figures 
• 6 Alpini figures

Phase 3:

• 12 Germans
• 12 British 
• 1 German MG
• 1 British MG

"Now, hold on there, Jethro!", I hear you say.  "What's this about an airplane?" 

Well, I acquired a print copy of Contemptible Little Armies and I really like the way air support is included on the table. Before I could say "contact!", I had a 1/48 scale model whizzing through the mail to me:

The search for a suitable (i.e. cheap and not difficult to assemble) kit for Austro-Hungary continues. 

I haven't built a model plane in nearly 40 years. I'm a bit nervous about the painting. And I've always hated applying decals(I always tore them accidentally). The 1/48 scale should hopefully be easier for my all-thumbs-itude and my sketchy vision to deal with, at least.

Finally, also World War I, but on the weird side, I have assembled my 1/35 ICM French

They remind me of game pieces in this grey state.

Let me be clear, I love these figures. The poses are fantastic, the sculpting is crisp, and the figures very clean with no flash and minimal, easily removed, mold lines. HOWEVER, I doubt they will last more than a game or two, if they survive painting. 

Apparently, the difference between 1/35 and 1/32 is that in 1/35, bayonets are skinny little needles that break when you look at them wrong (both of those pictured are glued together somewhere in the middle of their length as a result). That the bolts on the rifles were a separate piece to be attached with glue defies all logic that I can muster.

At least I somehow managed to glue the bi-pod on the LMG the right way.

As I said, this is a Weird World War I project (and ICM is helping by suddenly releaseing a bunch of sets of figures in the attempts at armor made during the war). Weird means there needs to be something, well, weird. First up:

This is in-progress. I have yet to decide on how I'll finish i off

This is a hook horror from CP Models. It is intended as a larger than human-sized 28mm figure. But, I wrote to the proprietor and found out just how big.

I think it fits quite well with the 1/35 figures. It doesn't look bad next to my 1/32 HaT Spanish Infantry either (which are undersized). 

Painting for the entire Weird War I project is intended to be grittier than my usual glossy toy-soldiers to convey the weird aspect in visual form.

Oh and one last thing, I recently learned of Never Going Home, a WWWI RPG. Savage Worlds has its own Weird World War I books, which I will acquire eventually, but I managed to score the entire Never Going Home PDF collection via a Humble Bundle deal. Highly recommend if just for the evocative artwork!