Revisiting Old Projects That Never Got Off The Ground

A few weeks ago the Brigadista was nosing around my workshop after a game of Command Decision when he stumbled across some painted stands of 15mm WW2 American infantry. "If you finished these off, you'd have almost enough for a battalion," he announced. Yeah, yeah, I thought. Those models have been sitting like that for almost two years.

After poking around some more, he came across a second batch of painted American infantry. "This is enough for a second battalion. You need to get these on the table," he proclaimed.

Hmmm... Once again, the Brigadista was on to something. After I shooed him out and sent him on his way home, I took an inventory of my 15mm WW2 Americans. I had started this project on two separate occasions, but immediately lost steam each time. The two batches of figures were painted maybe two years apart, so they weren't a perfect match in terms of color or style. However, they were pretty close. Some highlights would go a long way towards making them look good together.

After a count of painted figures, I determined that I did have all of the infantry I needed for two Command Decision battalions. I did need to paint some support weapons, a couple of jeeps, and a couple of light trucks to make the units complete. I dug out my unpainted metal and found everything I needed to finish the two battalions (plus a bunch of other stuff as well - more on that another time).

I started by rebasing all of the painted figures onto 3mm thick Litko bases. I have been using magnetic bases for my other 15mm Command Decision units, but decided to go this route because I didn't have enough magnetic bases on hand and because I didn't want to wait for an order from Litko.

Next, I highlighted all of the painted figures. I did this so they would all have roughly the same shades for their pants, jackets, and helmets. The different base coats on the different batches of figures ended up giving a pleasing variation in final appearance. After the painted figures were ready, I quickly painted up the handful of figures I needed to complete this mini-project. These were painted in a different style from the first two batches, but were highlighted with the same colors.

The last step was deciding how to flock the bases. For my 15mm British, I used acrylic pumice to texture the base, which was painted and highlighted before adding patches of static grass. For this project, I decided to go with something simpler.

I mixed up a batch of Woodland Scenics burnt grass flock with some very small stones. Then I covered the base in diluted white glue and piled on the flock mixture. Viola! Very simple and very quick, but I think the final result looks great on the table. The bases on my British look nice up close, but they tend to stand out on the table. These bases blend in. I like them.

In less than a week I was able to field a nice sized force for Command Decision. In fact, the figures were immediately put to use in a Battle of the Bulge scenario where they valiantly held the town of Dom Burtgenbach against the 12th SS Panzer Division.

It's a good feeling when you can make use of figures that have been taking up space for years. In this case it was remarkably (embarrassingly?) easy. The best part? I put a nice force on the table without spending a dime. (Of course I spent many dimes when I originally bought the stuff, but that was years ago. Sunk costs. They feel free now.)

Now that I have a nice foundation of American infantry, the Brigadista and I have big plans for how we are going to use them. More on that soon.

From the Photo Archives - Battle of Villers Bocage in 15mm

I was digging through my photo archive and stumbled accross some photos from a Command Decision game based on the Battle of Villers Bocage that Brigadista and I played earlier this year.  The scenario came from Bob Mackenzie's excellent Command Decision website.

You might not expect Villers Bocage to give a good game, but this scenario certainly did.  In fact, of all the Command Decision games Brigadista and I played this year, this was my favorite.

Here's the scene as Wittman's Tiger bursts through the bocage, surprising a British mortor company and an armoured squadron from 7th Armoured Division.  I love this picture.

Here's the same scene from the reverse angle.  The tank is the headquarters troop of 4th County of London Yeomanry.  It would become a flaming wreck a few seconds after this picture was taken.

Here are the results a quick German dash up a road in the bocage against waiting British tanks - this action saved the British from defeat in the scenario.

Birth of a Project - WW2 Early Pacific War

[Setting: Fields of Honor gaming convention in Des Moines, IA]

Me: “Hey, I think it would be cool to game the early Pacific War in 15mm for Command Decision.”

Brigadista: “Oh, really?”

Me: “Well, I'm not positive I want to do it. I'm just thinking out loud. You can't hold me to it.”

[Later, at the Flea Market]

Brigadista: “Hey, look at all these bags of Old Glory Japanese. They're selling them cheap! You should buy them for your Pacific project.”

Me: “Maybe... I'm not doing that for sure. I'm just thinking about it.”

Brigadista: “Well, maybe I'll buy them.”

[Fade to black...]

To make a long story short, the Brigadista bought the figures and now we're doing the Pacific War. Amazingly, he somehow maneuvered things so that he got to buy the deeply discounted flea market figures and I'm stuck buying the Allies at full retail! He seems like a nice guy, but he's actually quite evil.

Anyway, the first Allied figures I'm painting up are the KNIL (Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger), the Dutch colonial army in the Dutch East Indies. Initially, the KNIL will muster a Command Decision infantry battalion with some regimental assets. The KNIL had some other interesting stuff, including a variety of light tanks and light armored vehicles, that I also want to add at some point.

Most of my inspiration for gaming the Dutch East Indies came from photos and information provided by a guy named David Reasoner who posts on the Command Decision: Test of Battle forum. David has compiled a lot of organizational material and has posted pictures of his excellent 20mm collection.

I'm using mostly True North Miniatures for the KNIL. The figures are pretty good and the infantry even comes wearing tropical headgear (a mix of bush hats and straw hats). Unfortunately the officers and heavy weapons crews do not.

The machine guns and mortars are from Peter Pig for the simple reason that True North's support weapon packaging is inconvenient. The support weapon pack comes with two machine gun teams, two LMG teams, two mortar teams, and two anti-tank rifle teams. That's all well and good, except that all I need are three machine gun teams and one mortar team for the battalion I'm building. It doesn't make any sense to buy all of that extra stuff that I won't be using. Plus I'd have to buy two packs to get the right number of machine guns! The Peter Pig packaging is much more convenient.

At this point I'm nearly done with the infantry. They just need touch ups, a wash, some highlights, and a varnish. I'm planning to do head swaps to put tropical hats on the support weapons crews so I'll tackle that next. Wish me luck – I've never tried this operation on a 15mm figure! I'll post photos when this unit is done.

After this initial batch of Dutch, I'm planning to add a battalion of Australians from Eureka Miniatures. The allied army on Java consisted of Dutch, Australians, British, and Americans, so there is room for lots of variety here. I'll also be adding some British light tanks for armored support.  The Brigadista was kind enough to give me a Quality Castings British MkVIb light tank to get me started. I figure it was the least he could do...

Some Vehicles for the Scruttockshires

Next up is an assortment of vehicles used by the Scruttockshires.  Being that they are British, they have lots of carriers.  Not all are shown here.  All vehicles are from Battlefront/Flames of War.

Here's the mortar carrier for the battalion's 3" mortar:

Here's the recon carrier:

Here's an M5 halftrack for those times when the Scruttockshires masquerade as a motor battalion.

Here's the Colonel in his jeep:

One frustration I've had the Battlefront vehicles is that all of the passengers are wearing plain tin hats, while my dismounted troops all have camoflage netting on their helmets.  I'm able to sleep at night by imagining that the little fellows switch helmets whenever they get out of their vehicles.

Photos of my 1944 British Infantry Battalion

My current favorite set of WW2 miniatures rules is Command Decision: Test of Battle.  My regular opponent, the Brigadista, and I have played a number of games set in Normandy in the summer of 1944.  Brigadista has a large force of Germans and I have a more modest force of British.

Here are some photos of my first 1944 British infantry battalion.  While they've stood in for a number of historical battalions, they carry the grand title of 2nd Battalion, The Scruttockshire Regiment in our fictional battles.  (The name Scruttockshire comes from the setting of an English Civil War campaign included in the wargame rules 1644.)

The figures are entirely 15mm Peter Pig.  The 6-pounder anti-tank guns are Old Glory.  The bases are from Litko Aerosystems.  Each base represents a platoon sized element of 30-50 men or 4-6 guns.

Here's the battalion on parade:

The Colonel:

Here's 'A' Company:

Here's the mortar platoon:

Here's an anti-tank gun troop:

The 2nd Scruttockshires have generally given a good account of themselves in our games.  They have proven themselves stout-hearted and tenacious on the defense.  The Brigadista has come to fear their PIATs!!

One thing I decided to do when preparing this army was to mount the command and recon stands on bases with rounded corners.  This makes it a bit easier to identify the command stands on the table, which is very important in Command Decision because each command stand has the ability to issue orders.  The downside of the rounded corners is that makes it easier for your opponent to identify the command stands as well.  This isn't a big deal to me as the people I game with don't usually go out of their way to target the command stands anyway.

I'm still working on my photographic technique with the small figures.  One problem is that the autofocus on my camera wants to focus on the base rather than the figure!

Please comment with any constructive advice on the miniatures or photos.