Pocket Panzers

One of the potential benefits of collecting figures to wargame the French and Indian War is that cavalry units are almost nonexistent in the forests of North America and artillery is really limited to large sieges which are mostly outside the scale of skirmish games like Sharp Practice. It makes it easier to collect and paint what feels like a full force. However, that doesn't mean that I didn't have a look at what was out there. Sharp Practice does  have rules for cavalry and artillery, after all. There's metal and even some plastic artillery kits out there, but most predate (War of Spanish Succession) or postdate (American War of Independence) the period I was interested in. As far as I can tell, the only readily available option that wouldn't involve some kitbashing or sculpting (something I wanted to avoid for a piece that will likely see limited use) is this metal set from AW Miniatures. They also carry an equivalent kit for British artillery, I believe. I could te...

Gebirgsjäger — German mountain troops — are a project I've wanted to tackle for some time, although I couldn't say exactly where the idea first came from. At this scale, the mountain infantry are not that different in appearance from regular German soldiers, aside from the inclusion of some specialized winter clothing. And at least in the game systems I've played, their special rules are nothing to write home about. Still, there's something about the depictions of them in historical photographs, art and reenacting circles that has always appealed to me. Maybe it's the status they carried as elite troops, or the way they seem to appear scruffier and hardier than the average German soldier, or even the Third Reich's tendency to throw away the lives of their specialized troops as leg infantry to stave off an inevitable defeat. What I'm getting at is that I've made some Gebirgsjäger. I started with a squad at first, but I've got every intention to expand...

Well it's nearly Halloween, so seems fitting that I return from the dead with a new post, this time about the completion of the last major unit for my French and Indian War force. These figures were painted in late August, right before we finished playing out our FIW campaign and I took an abrupt and unplanned hiatus from wargaming and mini painting. My main wargaming partner in the area has left the country for two years on a Peace Corps assignment, and work has limited the time and energy I've had. Nevertheless, I do intend to make more posts here this fall, including battle reports from the FIW campaign. But, back to the miniatures. In Sharp Practice terms, this is three groups of regular French line infantry. I've got them painted as the Regiment Languedoc that served in North America, but I believe they could also stand in as campagnie franches de la marine troops in line formation. To that end, I've modeled flags for both units, since I shouldn't need two stan...

This week, I put the finishing touches on some more French compagnies franches de la marine, this time from Brigade Games, and finished up another Huron leader, also from Brigade Games. I wanted to add some variation to my French marine forces and include more troops that were in their issued uniform, not just frontiersman attire like most of the Conquest/Warlord Games figures are. These are from two packs of Brigade Games' French marines . I think these have been my favorite Brigade figures to paint so far. The Brigade rangers I did were well sculpted, but there was something about these figures that made getting good detail and shading almost effortless. Most are in the blue uniform coats, but there are a couple in the capote coats that give them more of a woodsman look. Here I've chosen to go with earthy colors, though I have read it was not uncommon to make these coats out of their issued uniforms. I painted up two officers or sergeants from the command pack because I...

  This week, my regular opponent Jesse and I were joined by two friends that we haven't gotten to game with in months, so we took a break from the French and Indian War campaign using Sharp Practice to return to Chain of Command, which is my favorite, at least, WWII ruleset. Some people in our group feel differently. We really enjoy games set during the Battle of France in 1940, but don't get to do them very often because only one person in our group has enough French built and painted to play. In this game, Jesse and I will be taking command of a mixed German tank force and a German Kradschützen motorcycle recon platoon, respectively, in a game of Big CoC. Our opponents will have a French tank platoon and a platoon of Chasseur light infantry. The scenario is Hasty Defense from the France 1940 book. The Germans are tasked with moving a unit off the enemy table edge while keeping two thirds of the table clear of enemy forces. The French must repel them and stop a breakthrough. T...