The Great Plastics Revival - French Infantry and Artillery

 Over the past couple of months, I have been working through the mountain of French Line and Guard infantry and artillery.  The figires are a mix of Airfix, HaT, Revell, ESCI and Italeri.  

First off, we have the line infantry, with 11 battalions and three batteries of guns:

Airfix line infantry:

Esci line infantry

And the Imperial Guard, consisting of, five Old Guard battalions, two of Young Guard and three gun batteries:

I'm now starting to sort out the Prussians.

The Battle For Donville - Rapid Fire

 Bob Black came over for a quick game earlier in the week and after a beer and a light lunch we went to the war room, where I had set up a scenario borrowed from the July 2025 Miniature Wargames (credited for the map):

Essentially, US forces in the shape of an infantry company are holding the vicinity of the central farm, while elements of 17th SS Panzer Division, supported by Stug IIIs, Panzer IVs and the 17th Artillery Regiment.

The US forces have advance warning of the German attack and rush to send reinforcements to the area.

Here is the table, looking at the central farm area, viewed from the north.  The US infantry can be seen lining the hedgerows around the farm, a single Sherman has arrived and there is a machine gun covering the diamond shaped field within the small copse.  An FOO team has also turned up and moves towards the taller of the three buildings:

German infantry arrive, emerging from a wood on the western edge of the board and move towards the farm:

Bob, playing the Germans, sends his first Stug III rushing up the road and straight into the field adjacent to the farm. The Sherman takes aim - and misses.  The Stug fires and the Sherman is destroyed:

A US bazooka team flanks the Stug from the hedge, but they are out of range. Now the US troops are in trouble, with an assault gun in the area of the farm and nothing to deal with it.

Meanwhile the German infantry begin to work their way through the hedgerows:

Some enter the field and are mown down by the concealed US machine gun:

To add to the US woes a second Panzer Grenadier company with heavy weapons dismount from their half tracks and follow up behind the Stug:

The Stug, meanwhile, crashes through the hedge and engages the US infantry, some of whom retire into the farm buildings. German artillery hits the farm and HE rounds from the Stug cause casualties. 

The Panzer grenadiers close in, but they come under fire from US artillery and small arms:

The US machine gun is taken out by German artillery and heavy fire from the hedge, allowing the German troops to close onto the farm:

Most of the US defenders are either dead or wounded and the farm is quickly cleared and occupied by German infantry.  The Stug takes up position in the farm to cover the approach road:

To make matters even worse, a second Stug arrives and rumbles up the road to support the Panzer Grenadiers in the field, who have taken heavy casualties from flanking fire:

This final US defence is soon disrupted as the half track pours machine gun fire into their position. Despite three shots from the Bazooka team, all miss and the half track causes havoc:

At this point the first US reinforcements, in the shape of armoured infantry and heavy weapons company arrives:

But, it is too late.  The Germans have two tanks and a half track in the farm, with the remnants of two infantry companies.  Also, the US FOO spots more Panzer Grenadiers approaching the farm across the fields:

Outgunned and with the Germans in control of the farm and key road junctions the US commander calls it a day and withdraws what he can save.  This was a resounding win for the Germans.  A very interesting game that played well with Rapid Fire rules.  The loss of the Sherman early on was a major disaster and spreading the US infantry out too widely was probably a mistake, putting the Bazooka team out of range.

Britains Deetail French Foriegn Legion

 Linked to my Funny Little Wars idea I have now finished painting the French Foreign Legion (FFL) infantry.  As with all Deetail figures the mouldings are quite nice and look so much better with a little painting. I have enough for a couple of companies  and a Gatling Gun.  They will be supported by a squadron of cavalry, which I painted a couple of weeks ago.

The whole unit:

The Gatling gun

And the Bedouin Arabs, twice as many cavalry as the FFL:

As well as around 50 foot:

Most of the Arabs are still in their rather gaudy factory finish.  At some point I will paint them all.  In the meantime, I have just repainted the bases to get rid of the lime green colour.

Funny Little Wars - Turkish Infantry

 Over the last few days I have been assembling and painting a small Turkish force.  The figures are 54mm from Irregular Miniatures.  They went together well, required a small amount of filing and drilling and the paint went on easily.  I used a grey primer for these figures.

The uniform colours may not be strictly correct, but I based my colour scheme on that used on early hollow cast figures:

Funny Little Wars

 Some time ago I purchased a copy of the book 'Funny Little Wars', a set of rules based upon the  famous HG Wells rules, Little Wars.

Over time I have been accumulating some 54mm figures to try out the rules.  My firs unit, Turkish artillery, are by Irregular Miniatures, having adapted some kneeling riflemen into gunners.  the gun is an old Britains matchstick firing piece:

I have also painted up some Britains Deetail mounted French Foreign Legion (FFL).  They started off like this:

And after some paint applied:

I have also painted some FFL infantry as well as a Gatling gun.  My plan is for the FFL to take on my Britains arabs.  The Turks/Egyptians will provide an enemy for my Britians British.  I also have some Mahdist warriors.

The Great Plastics Revival - The Austrians

 Yesterday I finished off the last of the Austrians, completing 10 infantry units, 4 of artillery and 3 cavalry. This all makes up to a nice army that can be organised into two divisions.  I also uncovered a large amount of unpainted Austian that will no doubt have their time on the painting table in the future.

Here is the Austrian Army:

Next will be a few more British and then I will look at the Prussian army.

The Bavarians arrive and some old favourites

 I have managed to sort out around half of the Bavarians - the easy ones.  The rest will require considerable work and there is a regiment of dragoons that will need a complete repaint.

Here are four infantry battalions:

Another quick task was the basing and touching up of two old favourites.  Some Airfix foot artillery:

And some Airfix French infantry:

I'm not sure what I will do next.  There's a lot of French infantry and artillery to do and large box of Austrians.  Further down the line I willl look at the Prussians and Russians.