Weird World War I : Are You Afraid of the Dark?

 Western Front.

A French patrol crosses No-Man's Land on a moonlit night to investigate a suddenly silent section of German trench

 

 

 

They meet no resistance on entering. No signs of anyone.

Cautiously, they navigate the twists and turns of the trench, ever watchful for ambush.

A private expresses his disdain for this mission to the officer, who himself would rather not be there.

Meanwhile the others, unaware that they were just two, continued to advance.

Out of the darkness, a terrifying roar bellows from a hideous visage. Intent on satisfying its blood lust, it leaps upon the poor soldiers.

The other's race to catch up to their comrades and join the fight against the terror from the shadows.

The fight was over before it began.

*****

As those photos were taken this morning, the atmosphere is somewhat lost - here are some photos of the infantry that I took last night by kitchen light

I am pleased with the results - actually I can't believe I painted them. They have the look for this kind of game that I wanted them to have.

The "trench" is a proof of concept, literally slapped together while I waited for the figure bases to dry. Materials used: a cardboard box, a thick card mailer, a bamboo skewer, paint. I didn't measure anything and it shows, but I like the look none the less.

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!