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.

Volley and Bayonet: Road to Glory

Lately I've been trying to thin out my rules collection and I haven't been buying much new stuff.  However, I made an exception for the new edition of Volley and Bayonet.  So why did I go out and buy a $40 second edition of a set of rules I already own and have never played?

Well, first of all I'm pretty much a Frank Chadwick fanboy and I tended to buy anything he produces.    Second, I've always been a sucker for grand tactical horse and musket games.  I guess I want to pretend to be Napoleon or something.  Third, the original set of rules had a lot of elegant mechanics.  I was eager to see what changes were made for the new edition.

I'm not going to go into a full review here, because others have done so.  Besides, I haven't really run any games with it yet.  Capsule reviews from people who haven't played the game, a staple in some wargaming magazines, don't seem very useful to me.  

I think this edition of Volley and Bayonet will be the one to get me off my butt and painting some figures.  I'm still trying to decide what period I will use the rules for: Seven Years War, Napoleonics, or American Civil War.  Heck, ultimately I'd like to do all three.  But where to start?

I've always been interested in the 100 Days campaign for some reason, so I may start there.  I'm a bit of an Anglophile, so it just seems necessary to be able to play Waterloo.  It's also an interesting campaign in the sense that in addition to French, British, and Prussians, you also have Dutch-Belgians, Hanoverians, and Brunswickers.  There are four battles to fight and the campaign itself could be recreated.  I'm also not adverse to fictional battles using the historical armies.  In all, it gives a lot of options.

Figures are available in a number of scales for this campaign.  The Perry Brothers have a 28mm range that will shortly include all of the participants save the Prussians and it seems like they can't be far behind.  The downside is that I don't think I have the painting chops to pull it off.  Even if I can paint the figures to a standard that does them justice, it will take f-o-r-e-v-e-r.  Another downside it that once I did it, I'd probably be afraid to ever take the figures out of my house!

A more realistic option may be to use 15mm.  Minifigs has all of the combatants available and are sculpted in an old school style that I find appealing.  Painting would be a breeze and it would be a more affordable option.  Plus I wouldn't worrying about running games at the local store or at a con.

Hmmm....  Decisions, decisions.

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...