Impetus Baroque - Mohacs 1526 in 20mm - More Hungarian heavy cavalry

Led by Archbisop Pál Tomori another wing of Hungarian Heavy cavalry charges the Ottoman lines at Mohacs. The figures are Zvezda and  MiniArt.

There are some problems with the horses: The MiniArt are too thin and the Zvezda too short. But for the Hungarian Cavalry there aren´t many choices apart from the difficult to get Dark Dream Studios.

The figures from Zvezda are the some of the French for the 110YW that suited the beggining of the XVI century. Some of the original weapons were replaced by new lances made of broom sticks. The Miniart come from the French Cavalry and the Burgundian cavalry sets. 

The flags are fotocopies of my own designs of flags used in the battle (at least they are showned on the Mohacs 1526 Internet movie).

                           

The stand of Pál Tomori uses a Zvezda figure as the Archbishop. To make it distinguishable painted the character with a beard he shows in its statue at Kalocsa. 

Next: wether BEF 1940 of Russo-Georgian war 2008.

Rapid Fire! Normandy 1944 in 20mm - The British Motor Battalion for the 7th AD

The British Motor Battalion of the 7th AD disembarks from its M5 Halftracks under the protection of the organic 6 pdr. The five Carriers are far ahead in a reconnaissance mission … well, they are not I confess. They are still in Alentejo inside the printers of Pedro Pato,  the Minigeneral big boss. 

This organisation is from the RF! 2nd rules book, a bit different from the one proposed by the Normandy Battlegroups book (the later proposes less figures in the infantry companies and one extra 6 pdr AT gun). 

One of the Loyd Carriers will go to the Motor battalion of the Sherman equipped division and its just here to show off. 

The HQ White Scout Car is Italeri (ex.Esci). I just added the crew (Airfix and Matchbox), an antenna and the usual stowage. You may recognize the second figure with bonoculars from the Airfix Bofors gun. Originally the figure is looking to the sky but after some seconds very close to a lighter assumed a more 'infantry' look.

The HQ group, all big and beautiful Valiant. 

The company Halftracks are, left to right, an Hasegawa M3A1 with Valiant crew, an Italeri M3 with Valiant, Britannia and Hasegawa US conversion crew and an Airfix M5 with Matchbox crew. 

                           

All three companies are Valiant and the first row of this one has several conversions. The most distinctive figure is the running Bren as the original is in a too relaxed pose that wouldn't harm anyone if he had to. 

Two FO stands from Valiant for the artillery were also added.

The Support Company. More Valiant minis. 

Both Loyd Carriers are PSC but I scratch built this 6 pdr AT gun in EverGreen plastic card and tubing a long time ago and I'm using it finally together with a Valiant converted crew. The two 6pdr from PSC will go to the US Paratroopers that are still  inside the boxes for a project I have of building the 101st.   

This Valiant figures are not the new 20mm figures. Even if they are a bit big they are detailed beauties, excelent material for conversions and they paint extremely well.

Next: Impetus CP Hungarians for Mohacs 1526.

Impetus Baroque - Mohacs 1526 in 20mm - Azab infantry

 I had these StreletsR figures based and painted for months still without an idea about what to do with them. They would become part of Suleiman's army for sure so I chose to depict Azab close combat infantry, armed with lances, axes and swords.

Well there is no such thing as Azab close combat infantry in Extra Impetus No 3 so if they (ever) fight they will have the status of FP Levantine Infantry. I used plenty broom sticks lances instead of the separate swords provided in the set. 

This set is the Arab Infantry set of StreletsR aimeds at the Crusades, 200/300 years before Mohacs battle. The teardrop shields are anachronistic but I like to think that they could still be used mainly by the many Arab forces that integrated the Ottoman army. 

The standards are my own and you can track them in previous Impetus posts. 

Next: Wether more Hungarian CP for Mohacs or the second British Motor Battalion for 1944/45. 

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - Additions to the BEF motor park (part 1)

Elements of the Motor Battalions of the British 1st Armoured Division depart from Route Longue (not far from Bois Perdu and other stupid names I made up) in order to join the tank brigades for another push against the Germans.

 The first four Scout Carriers are from 2nd KRRC Motor Battalion while the one to the right is the missing Carrier of the 1st Rifles Motor Battalion. Here a big thank you to John Pews and Andre Foulkes for sorting out the correct markings for these units. 

The Carriers are MiniGeneral 3d models with Hat torsos from the WWI US Artillery. I think these figures go very well for the BEF as they have clean helmets and the gas mask bag properly sculpted in the figure besides giving you 8 different poses. I burned the figure's legs and stucked them in place using a bit of two paste component for details. 

The Scout Carriers are detailed minis, a bit difficult to clean but with patience you get a nice result. Only a small mast was added to place the Bren LMG. The Boys ATR is also provided.

More MiniGeneral models this time a trio of Austin Tilly radio vans for the artillery batteries. The figures are torsos of Hat WWI US artillery again with Esci legs from the kneeling Enfield firer. The radios are Evergreen bits. 

Two more Bren Carriers for the regular infantry Division again MiniGeneral with the same kind of conversions as crew. 

One last MiniGeneral model with this Austin 10 staff car. 

Finally four Airfix Morris Quad to tow the 4.5'' Howitzers from Hat I built months ago. The two to the right are very old 1964  soft plastic models with bigger resin wheels and scratchbuilt trailers as they dont exist in the original. The trick of the wheels makes them the same size as the hard plastic brothers and very acceptable models. The holes of the windshields and all glasses were all covered with hot glue.

Next: Ottoman/Levantine infantry for Impetus and the battle of Mohacs 1526.

Rapid Fire! Poland 1939 in 20mm - More Polish models for land and air

A Polish HT (hasty force) gathers by a stonewall in order to protect from the pesky Germans an improvised airfield in south-central-north Poland. The models are both kits and my usual conversions. 

The four anti-tank Bofors 37mm came from two boxes of FtF kits. The models and figures are very good and easy to put together. 

The infantry had this kind of limbers to pull the AT Bofors. The cavalry had and extra horse per limber.

These limbers were scratchbuilt with several styrene pieces and plastic card. The horses were slightly transformed from the original Hat Medium Persian Cavalry. Two of the drivers are Hat WWI American artillery bodies with Revell Marines heads and the other two are true Polish figures from the Hat Artillery  box.

Taking advantage of the primer cloud I used a few more Hat Artillery figures to crew two more scratchbuilt 81mm mortars.

A company of FT-17 models from 3d MiniGeneral was added to the Polish tank force. 

Now this is a great mess. I wanted a reconnaissance aircraft for the Polish. There are two possibilities for the Polish airforce of 1939: the RWD-14 Czapla and the Lublin R- XIII. I looked for them at Hannants but nothing. So I converted an old and relatively useless KP Letov S-28 to a Lublin R-XIII changing the Letov in many parts: only the upper wings were used and cut in some parts with new support structures; rear rudder also cut, MG pit made new and new wheels.

Only when all parts were out together I noticed that main fuselage was much more similar to the Czapla than the Lublin. But too late...

Finally a P-7 fighter from Arma Hobby was added and with this one all main types of Polish aircraft are covered.

Lastly a big thank you to Robert Rycharski for all information provided.

Next: BEF 194O or Punic Wars.

Rapid Fire! France in 20mm - 1st British Armoured Division headquarters

At Forêt-des-Jolies-Arbres stands a Guy Lizard ACV of the HQ of the 1st Armoured Division under the watchfull eye of a Cruiser MkIV of the 9th Lancers.

The ACV is a 3d print from MiniGeneral and all figures are conversions.

To the left you can see  a glowing General Roger Evans discussing with one of his brigadiers about the recent failures.

The torsos of the figures are the venerable Matchbox British officers. They needed riding boots to look like BEF officers so Evans got  new legs from an Airfix German and the other one got them from a metal Irregular Miniatures French figure.

The radioman was more complicated with lots of  different pieces coming from many directions.

The torso is the Matchbox Monty with Esci Russian legs from the figure that rides their T-34 range. Arms and gas mask bag are made of GreenStuff. Here I made a mistake by placing a bereted figure. I found out that the beret was only generalised around 1941 (only tanks and recce troops used them by then) when the figure was already painted.

A quick plastic card table and a map and its done. 

This was the original picture that provided inspiration for this stand.

The MiniGeneral Guy Lizard ACV got a pair of antennae and one of the external canvas roofs was open. I made the open canvas roof a bit simpler than it was really.

The Mark IV is one more MiniGeneral  miniature. The RF 1st AD needs some 75 model tanks between light and cruiser tanks and still 18 are now missing.

Next: Janissaries for Mohacs, or a few Morris Quod for France 1940 or Punic Wars.

Daimyo set of Rules in 20mm - Japan's Sengoku period/Sekigahara 1600: Koboyakawa Hideaki's clan

Hideaki looks at at  valley below mount Matsuo still not knowing in which side he will fight on the 21 october 1600. This is the 5th clan I made for Sekigahara but with over 40 in the battlefield there is still a long way to go.

His army was the 3rd biggest on the battlefield with 15.600 men and its defection to Ieyasu's side decided the course of the battle.

For the first time I converted a few Ashigaru to use the ōtsuchi (big hammer). Recently I managed to get the 2017 Japanese movie Sekigahara, a brilliant movie which places Mitsunari as the hero of the story (and Ieyasu as the villain) where plenty of ōtsushi can be seen in action.

The ōtsushi in action hammering a few heads.

The mounted Samurai are the usual Zvezda. Its Sashimono  and Nabori also taken from the 2017 movie Sekigahara. They are completely different from the ones in Samurai-Archives and they look great on the battle scenes. Which of them are the true ones?

Koboyakawa Hideaki's model is a resin copy of the Zvezda General with another head using a variation of the eboshi-nari kabuto.

Close to the already painted Hideaki is a war drummer also from Zvezda.

I included some shields in both archers and teppo stands.

The foot Samurai are again the usual Zvezda. Is funny how these excellent figures put an end to other 20mm plastic Samurai being produced elsewhere.

Some teppo Ashigaru are conversions from those grizzly Zvezda  figures carrying severed heads. 

The majority of the Ashigaru are the usual Red Box.

The other group is mixed Zvezda and Red Box.

Here they go down mount Matsuo to hit Ukita Hideie in the flank. 

Next: more BEF or Punic Wars. 

DBM Gaugamela in 20mm - Alexander's army.

This post replace the old one from 2011 with the same models. Hundreds of my faithfull followers (well, one at least...) complained about its poor quality pictures and hopefully these can make more justice to the models. I mentioned that old post on the one about Darius army and put it to rest. 

Still a few units like Hypaspists to be done but the majority of the army is here.

Alexander's figure and its beautiful Bucephalus are Zvezda and its Companions are both Zvezda and Hat.

The Thessalian cavalry is also Hat and its leader, Parmenion, had some Milliput applied on the horse's tiger skin to make him distinguishable.

The Hat Prodromoi. Only one figure can be used from the several available sets so some arm twisting was used in order to create more variety.

Alexander's lights.  In the first line there are the Hat Cretan archers and Zvezda Macedonian archers; second line has the Hat Agrianians and the third line has Hat Illyrian javelinmen.

Irregular auxilia from several of Hat sets. Some shields are scratchbuilt and other are Newline Designs.

 Three of the Taxeis of Alexander Pezhetairoi are Hat industries...

... the other three are a mix of Zvezda and Atlantic conversions. 

The Atlantic conversions are based on the Greek Classic Hoplites. I chose the positions in which they are standing, cut ou the big classical Hoplon and sword they have, glued a roundel of plastic card and drilled the long sarissa on the right hand. like this they make some reasonable back ranks of Pezhetairoi. 

The front ranks are glued in double ranks as the Zvezda figures work better this way. 

Some middle rank figures didn't carry the small shield and some had to be made in plastic card. The Sarissas are made of plastic broom bristles with the tip heated with a lighter and squashed with pliers and finally shaped with an X-Acto.

Here it is Alexander's army ready to perform the famous tactic used in Gaugamela headed to strike at Darius himself.

Next: more Samurai or the armies of the Punic wars.