Pocket Panzers

After an extended sojourn in the grim darkness of the far future, I got back to basics by finally painting up my PaK 36 model. I haven't painted any WWII figures since a couple of Soviet casualty figures in late December, and haven't featured any new figures on the blog in almost a year . This is the exceptional plastic model from Rubicon, spruced up with a crew made from Warlord's plastic Germans. I didn't much care for the Rubicon crew, I don't think they match the style of the rest of my Germans very well. It took me forever to get around to painting this model, partially because the very specific spare ammo canisters went missing in my bits box for several months after I finished kitbashing the figures. The PaK 36 is greatly maligned among history buffs and wargamers, considered weak to the point of ineffectiveness against French and Soviet tanks. While that reputation is not totally unearned, the guns still made up the backbone of the panzerjager forces for a g...

  When TooFatLardies published John Savage's Old West gunfight game What a Cowboy earlier this year, I was eager to make a jump to a new period and a new ruleset. I've played my fair share of Bolt Action, Chain of Command, and Sharp Practice, and was just starting to get into Warhammer 40K (more on that later).

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, the year has come and gone, so here's a look back at my year in wargaming. This year, I made the jump to a new game system - Sharp Practice 2 - set in a new time period - the French and Indian War - which made for a lot of fun games and really entertaining miniatures to paint. I thoroughly enjoyed my dive into the black powder period. In the last month of the year, I also made the fateful jump into collecting Warhammer 40K. I've played two games so far and have enjoyed it, but it's an interesting adjustment. Expect some posts about my 40K ventures in 2023, but I plan to keep the blog's focus on historical wargaming. Now, some numbers: 2022 Models Acquired: - Figures: 251 95x FIW 84x WWII 67x 40K 5x fantasy - Support Weapons*: 1 - Vehicles: 3 - Buildings: 0 - Scatter Terrain**: 0 - Markers/Tokens: 19 2022 Models Painted: - Figures: 110 33x FIW Native Americans 30x FIW French line infantry 22x FIW French compagnie franches de la marine 9x FIW Rangers 8x FIW Canadian...

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...