First Corps FT-17

I had been keen on picking up a FT-17 from First Corps after seeing 'Tin Shed Gamers' post on the Lead Adventure Forum so at the recent Partizan picked one up from Simon and Mike at the First Corps stand.

Opening the box it is very well packaged.

Just five resin parts, including a choice of turrets and a separate white metal Hotchkiss machine-gun.

It's a very easy assembly with minimal cleaning up, although at first I thought I had really badly cast running gear until I realised that it was supposed to be mud! To make the turrets more robust I drilled a hole in the hull and added a long wire shaft to the base of the turret.

Here it is next to a Gripping Beast Poilu, I think it may be a bit over large and heigh but that should not cause a problem on the table, I had originally planned to get some of the old Force of Arms ones from Empress, but at 1/60 they would have been far too tiny.

Painting was very simple, after assembly the model was washed in detergent and then sprayed with car primer and then when dry Army Painter 'Army Green'. The tracks and detail were base-coated and then the whole lot washed with Vallejo Sepia wash.

I then applied a couple of highlights and some Tamiya Model Master weathering and after less than an hours effort it was ready for deploying on the table.

I'll be able to use this in both my late WWI and Spanish Civil War games.

Plenty more images of both 37mm gun and Hotchkiss machine-gun configurations.

Apologies for the washed out images, the florescent tube went in my daylight lamp and I had to photograph using an incandescent one.

Germans in gas-masks and a 77mm gun and crew

The six Germans in gas-masks have been base-coated and washed and awaiting highlights for quite a few weeks now, however on Friday I got the kick up the arse that I needed to rekindle my painting mojo when chum James visited me at the office with a 77mm field gun and crew from the Great War Miniatures range supplied by Northstar.

It was very kind of James, and I know he has a slight ulterior motive as the last game in our ongoing campaign will require the Germans to field a 77mm gun. Home from work on Friday I got it assembled - no mean feat - and cleaned up the crew ready for a spray of grey car primer on Saturday morning.

While that dried I did the highlights on the six German Command and Support in Gas Masks then made a start in the gun and crew. By Saturday evening they were all done and had a spray of matt varnish this morning.

I am quite happy how the gun came out, the four standing crew are removable from the base and can be replaced with the empty shell cases when casualties.

I do note however that I have already managed to chip off some paint under the muzzle, I shall have to repair that.

When playing Chain of Command the gun has a Junior Leader and five crew so these two blisters are the perfect configuration, the Junior Leader being the guy closest to the camera in this shot.

From the Command and Supports in gas mask are these two that will be used as leaders, the one on the right has a Bergmann SMG though so is not suitable for our Verdun games but can be used as a Trench Broom in our later war games.

A extra pair of riflemen in gas-mask.

Finally, and again not suitable for our Verdun games, but a MG08/15 light machine-gun with crew in gas-masks, I quite like how these came out.
 

Apologies for the picture quality, the florescent tube in my daylight lamp has blown and the spare is incandescent and leaves these rather washed out.

The Other Partizan 'Sir Donald Wolfit'

Yesterday I painted the 'Sir Donald Wolfit' figure that was given away at the Partizan show earlier this month.

I plan to use him as a British advisor to my Spanish Civil War Nationalists, an ex-military officer from the British Army who thinks he can go over and teach those lazy Dagoes how to put the workers down.

Rather a nice figure to paint, only took about 30 minutes to do.

Apologies for the washed out images, the florescent tube went in my daylight lamp and I had to photograph using an incandescent one.

Getting back to painting: The last five Poilu

It's been several months since I last had a proper painting session however this weekend I was determined to break the malaise.

These five chaps are the last of my Gripping Beast Poilu and had been all but finished since before I went on holiday but were languishing just needing the bases finished.

Yesterday I just did the final touches and today they had a coat of matt varnish.

All were painted using my standard technique for the WWI French in Horizon Bleu.

Apologies for the quality of the images, the florescent bulb has gone in my daylight lamp so I had to use my old lamp with an incandescent bulb for the photos, it has rather washed out the colours.

Chasseur Leiutenant, resplendent in white gloves with cane and pistol.

My second Hotchkiss machine-gun. I have painted the crew for this one in Chasseur trousers, my other Hotchkiss is in a sandbagged emplacement, I thought this one should be more minimal, so settled for a Great Escape Games crate and a single sand-bag to decorate the base.

Finally a second Chauchat gunner, I need to order another pack of infantry from Gripping Beast to make a No.2 for him.

WAB El Cid action

Yes you heard right, I played WAB on Tuesday evening for the first time since 14th March 2014 over 18 months ago!

Trev asked if I fancied a game and after some horse trading about what we could still actually field we decided to use my El Cid collection.

I picked a pair of armies:

Almohavids

Emir - 165pts
Sword, Light Armour, Shield (General)

Army Standard Bearer - 83pts
Sword, Light Armour

19 Berber Spearmen - 172pts
Sword, Thrusting Spear, Javelin, Large Shield (Leader, African Drummers, Standard)
7 Berber Archers - 49pts
Composite Bow, Sword (Combined Formation)

Sayyid - 80pts
Sword, Light Armour, Shield

20 Berber Spearmen - 180pts
Sword, Thrusting Spear, Javelin, Large Shield (Leader, African Drummers, Standard)
7 Berber Archers - 49pts
Composite Bow, Sword (Combined Formation)

Sayyid - 88pts
Sword, Light Armour, Shield, Horse

11 Berber Cavalry - 246pts
Sword, Throwing Spear, Javelins, Shield (Leader, Musician, Standard. Light Cavalry, Feigned Flight)

Imam - 70pts
Sword

20 Berber Spearmen - 180pts
Sword, Thrusting Spear, Javelin, Large Shield (Leader, African Drummers, Standard)
7 Berber Archers - 49pts
Composite Bow, Sword (Combined Formation)

21 Berber Spearmen - 167pts
Sword, Thrusting Spear, Javelin, Shield (Leader, African Drummers, Standard.)
7 Berber Archers - 49pts
Composite Bow, Sword (Combined Formation)

21 Berber Spearmen - 167pts
Sword, Thrusting Spear, Javelin, Shield (Leader, African Drummers, Standard.)
7 Berber Archers - 49pts
Composite Bow, Sword (Combined Formation)

7 Berber Cavalry - 157pts
Sword, Throwing Spear, Javelins, Shield (Leader, Musician. Light Cavalry, Feigned Flight)

Age of El Cid

Rey - 191pts

Sword, Javelins, Throwing Spear, Warhorse, Heavy Armour, Shield (General)

Arminger - 107pts

Sword, Warhorse, Heavy Armour, Shield (Army Standard Bearer)

10 Caballeros Hildagos - 325pts

Sword, Throwing Spear, Warhorse, Heavy Armour, Shield (Leader, Musician, Standard)

Infante - 96pts

Sword, Javelins, Throwing Spear, Warhorse, Heavy Armour, Shield 

11 Caballeros Hildagos - 356pts

Sword, Throwing Spear, Warhorse, Heavy Armour, Shield (Leader, Musician, Standard)

12 Caballeros - 339pts

Sword, Throwing Spear, Light Armour, Shield (Leader, Musician, Standard. Light Cavalry, Feigned Flight)

9 Jinettes - 180pts

Sword, Throwing Spear, Javelins, Shield (Light Cavalry, Feigned Flight)

21 Peones - 183pts

Thrusting Spear, Javelins, Shield (Leader, Standard,Musician)

21 Peones - 183pts

Thrusting Spear, Javelins, Shield (Leader, Standard,Musician)

10 Skirmishers - 40pts

Shortbow (Skirmishers)

We drew lots for who would have the armies and I would play the role of Ibn Scrivs while Trev would become El Trev for the evening. We deployed units alternately and ended up as per the image. I took first turn and stepped the line forwards, holding my cavalry on the left back - they would have their work cut out!

After the first round of shooting two Christian skirmishers were dead as were two Caballeros who appeared to have forgotten their armour,

 The Christian right flank swept forwards as did the Jinetes on their left, my horse moved up to counter, and hopefully make full use of their Feigned Flight ability and they were soon drawing the Spanish Knights out of position. 

The Berber foot, harassed on their right by the Jinetes started to wheel to their left to face towards the mass of Spanish nobles while still presenting a face to the Peones who seemed not to want to join in the battle.

The Caballeros Hildagos were now well advanced on their right flank of the and it was time for the Berber horse to try and draw them out, declaring that I would use my Feigned Flight ability I really needed anything between 9 and 13 on 3D6, so about average, instead I ran 15" and went straight off table, bugger.

However, in the centre the Berber foot pressed on and charged home into the Peones inflicting many casualties and breaking the first unit.

With only the skirmishing cavalry to defend my left flank I was struggling against the Caballeros Hildagos, but a steady stream of bow and javelin fire was whittling them down (fortunately for me Trev seemed unable to make any 3+ armour saves).

As dusk fell on the battlefield my victorious Berbers held fast against a charge from the second unit of Peones and inflicted many casualties on them scattering them to the winds. Despite being outflanked by the Caballeros Hildagos the Iman exhorted his troops to reform in the face of the enemy.

 

As the sun went down, with his forces badly depleted El Trev threw caution to the wind and charged home. The Imam fell to the Infantes blows, however, undaunted the Berbers avanged his death and broke the Caballeros. El Trev let his handful of men against Ibn Scrivs spears, the two generals blows clattered off each other without effect, but the remaining Caballeros wend down under the Berber spears and the last we saw of El Trev he and his standard bearer were heading for the hills.

A resounding victory for the Berbers.