Rapid Fire! - Wargaming pine trees from Christmas decorations

 

For long I was trying to find pine trees in a good quantity, reasonable price and in good size for 12mm up to 25mm scale. The main goal was the Ardennes and for these trees to be used for Rapid Fire 20mm games, even if these ones can be useful a bit all over the world. 

Well, Santa was generous and at the local Action warehouse I found eleven of these bags, each with 10 trees (four small at around 5cm height; three medium sized around 8cm and three others around 11 cm). At 2 euros each you can have 110 trees total while spending around 20 euros. Not only they are cheap but they are reasonable depictions of miniature pine trees. All trees had an exaggerated sized piece of plastic to keep them standing but that could be solved with texture and flocking. 

Another place was visited for the bases, a very nice downtown Chinese shop specialized in handycraft. I brought all kind of round bases I could find and the trees got stuck with electric glue together with some pebbles of different size and shape. 

The bases were then textured and flocked with the same style as most of my basing. The 1/72 Matchbox car is from my youngest kid and is here just for scale. As I´m feeling attached to it this one will soon become a command car for a German Umbau column from the Market Garden period. 

Again for scale with  two Matchbox figures.

Bird´s view. 

All bases were made taking into account the accomodation of a varied number of Rapid Fire stands from my regular 3,5 X 2,5cm infantry stands to some larger AT gun stands. 

Next: More Ottoman Sipahi. 

Impetus Rules - Mohacs 1526, part 12 - Hungarian Hussars in 20mm

 

Some badly needed light cavalry for the Hungarians (CL Hungarians or Serbians)  is on the way to the shelves of Mohacs (in fact transparent plastic drewers). The models are metal and made in Hungary by Takács Krisztián. 

The models have five parts, horse, cavalryman body, head, lance and shield. The shields, heads and lances are different allowing plenty of variations. Two of the figures had flag poles and I was also given two beautiful Hungarian flags. The horses were glued with electric glue to the base for extra sturdiness. 

The Hussars were the most numerous cavalry in the Hungarian army and a few more stands have to be added. 

Next: a bunch of pine trees for the Ardennes. 

Rapid Fire! NW Europe 44/45 - 101st US Airborne - New C-47 and Waco

 

Some years ago I bought an old 1960 Airfix C-47 from a guy that sells and collect second-hand toys. The kit was complete and the figures showed clearly its age as they were mostly blobs of plastic. The model kit even so is not bad and was glued very quickly as I discarded all interior. 

The windshield was lost so I used electric glue to fill the space and that shows :) But frankly I know you are not looking at that but your attention was caught by the beautiful laidy, as Bertorelli would say, taking her panties and saying "Com´in". I used the C-47 "Steppin´out" as inspiration but changed the name and the "6N" is also my invention. Try to guess what it means...

The place from where the asspiration... sorry, the inspiration came. 

Only after painting it I realised that the paratrooper is a British one as shown by the shorter boots and the type of helmet. Even so as its not a very detailed character it makes a passable US paratrooper. The open door is again electric glue which hides partially the exiting figure. 

The Waco glider is Italeri and some details were not glued as I want to make a number of them in wood and Blueboard using this one as template. 

At the moment the US airborne fleet counts with one Airfix C-47 and one Italeri C-47 and Waco but more Waco will be added soon. 

Next. Pine trees for the Ardennes or Hungarian cavalry for Mohacs. 

Rapid Fire! NW Europe 44/45 - 101st US Airborne - 3rd battalion done and 501st PIR finished

These ones were black primed for some months and were quickly finished upon the arrival of the latest RFR The Road to Carentan booklet from Masters Colin and Richard. In this batch I added some cute resin prints offered by Pedro Pato of MiniGeneral 3d. The rank and file are the usual Revell and Esci figures as I´m out of SHQ minis. 

Three resin printed Cushman scooters are a beauty with all being different. One will go to each battalion for liaison purposes or, if not necessary, to look good on the table. 

The 3d resin Pack 75mm gun comes with three beautiful figures. 

The 3d resin 57mm AT gun comes with three other lovely  crew, again all different. Only one gun is missing to complete the Para AT battalion as this one is the fifth 57mm of this group. 

The Bazookas are Hasegawa and Revell (the closest one). The No2 are Revell with repositioned M1 carbines and Hasegawa Bazooka rounds. 

Again the Revell tripods of the 30. cals. were turned into bipods with added plastic stocks. 

Together with the OP stand the radio was added to the back of the Thompson armed figure. 

The 81mm mortar and main operator comes from Esci US infantry. With some extra GreenStuff on the uniform and equipment he could join the airborne. The 60mm mortar is made of pieces of plastic. 

Next: more aircraft for the US airborne. 

The video on battle of Little Bighorn in 20mm (part 13)

In the last few 3 months I´ve been around Little Bighorn 1876, something I wanted to do for decades by now. The miniatures are plastics, Revell, Atlantic, Italeri, Airfix and Giant. The US troopers of the 7th Cavalry are all conversions of ACW or Cowboy figures while the Indians are more straight forward figures painted straight from the box. Built on purpose to this terrain is the river and the Indian lodges. I still need plenty of Indians - around the double - but the stash I had is all made. The basing is according to the excellent set of rules Battles for Empire II.

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 12) - Last three 7th US cavalry companies

 

Last post before the video. Its always a pleasure to finish one of those projects you had from childhood. Still, I don´t have enough foot figure for the 11th company and the 12th company is totally missing. Fortunately this last company was guarding the pack train and didn´t participate in the battle. Another problem is not having enough Indian figures but at least I finished all figures I had available. 

No big news here, just a collection of the recent ways I use to produce 1876 US troopers. Revell and mostly Italeri ACW were used with kepis, sword and scabbards taken out. The larger slouch hats are Italeri foot figures, A Call to Arms , resized Airfix and Revell. Rifles and pistol holsters were glued on the right side of the horse and troopers. The fanion bearers were converted from figures holding a sword. This time there are more figures firing a pistol from the saddle which must have been much easier than firing (and recharging) the Springfield carbine while on horse. The figures firing the carbine to the left side had some of them cut in half by the torso and placed more frontally. 

The two last dismounted trooper's companies had some of them in buckskin coats and hats from the Hat Spanish Guerrilla set. Real desperation as I didn´t have anything else, only Airfix Australians which have too small heads. 

After 10 buglers directly from the sprues of Revell and Italeri ACW (that means 10 boxes of figures) this last one was made from a figure hacking with his sword as I hadv nothing else. Not the best cornet ever as its a home made GreenStuff thing. 

Some figures were again cut by the waist and moved in different directions for extra action while firing their pistols. 

The legs in the air of many horses were again disguised with static grass due to the use of electric glue to strenghten it. 

Next: The most awaited video of the decade - at least in Montana, USA - dedicated to LBH.

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 11) - One more Sioux/Cheyenne foot warriors batch

 ... and probably the last one, at least in the near future, as I´m out of Indian figures. Including the two last US cavalry companies still on the making, I have around 400 figures total for both sides. The US side at LBH had a total of around 700 men (and one boy on vacations). At a ratio of 1 to 5 you need 140 figures which I already largely overcame (also due to have the same figures both mounted and dismounted), but on the much bigger Indian side, of say 1800 men (a ratio of close to 3:1 in favor of the Indians), you need 360 figures from which I only have around 210, and that is counting with this group, still far from the aim. 

The figures are my remnants Revell, Atlantic and resized Airfix. There is an obvious exaggeration of feathered bonnets here, even if these were not exclusive of chiefs, but they were important as I was running out of figures and the feathered bonnets give lots of colour to the group. With so many feathered bonnets no one visiting my collection can call them Egyptians or Celts. The kind of thing that happens quite a lot :). 

All stands got spray primed with terracotta from Spectrum also in order to get the skin indian color something that speeded painting  a lot as skin color is dominant here. 

Next: last companies of 1876 US troopers. 

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 10) - The river and H company, 7th Cavalry

 

In the middle of the last few posts I´ve been toying with LBH terrain namely the river, hills and trees. While all hills and trees are old things the river is brand new. I tried to follow the course of the river close to the action points, both east - Custer Last Stand, Weir point and Reno and Benteen defence and west - Benteen´s failed southern attack. 

The gaps in the hills represent the ravines and coulees that were used to the approach of the 7th cavalry to the Indian huge camp. This one is Deep Coulee and to its left is Last Stand Hill. 

The view from Custer´s column while approaching the Indian camp. I tried to cover the Indian camp sight with lots of trees as it looks that Custer was mislead when attacking it as he was thinking he was attacking the northern part of the camp when he was really right at its center. 

The river is made of eight MDF parts. After cutting the shape the water effect is made from two tones of green ( I thought about brown but frankly I have more green :) later gloss varnished with spray. The banks of the river were made from thick layers of ochre paint+PVA glue dipped in a mixture of cat litter and sand then drybrushed in sand colour. 

One of the reasons for the "2D" teepees in which the round format of the base is not achieved is because of the need of placing over 30 of them is a narrow strip of terrain between 40-60 cm as the rest of the table is busy with river, trees and hills. 

I took the opportunity to make some extra pieces of river that can be used in other scenarios. 

Company H entered the fray both on horse and foot. The cavalrymen and horses are Italeri while the foot troopers are the usual Revell, resized Airfix and Esci. Most of these figures had new heads and cut out scabbards and swords. 

As I´m getting short of figures I used  figures that were hacking with their sabres (close to the neck) and turned them into pistols. You can do that by burning the whole sabre into a blob of plastic and then pulling the hot plastic into the shape of a pistol (cutting the excess in the end, obviously). Italeri has both a Confederate (left)  and an Union (right) trooper in very close positions of hacking with sabre that can be used as US 1876 troopers. 

H company had blood bay horses, being the only company with this horse color. I mean, this is theoretically, as I don´t know if these horse colors were that much followed. 

Next: more LBH Indians. 

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 9) - The second group of mounted troopers - D, E, F and G companies - of the 7th Cavalry (Airfix and Atlantic based)

 

These four companies are made from the old 1965 US cavalry and the Atlantic 1975 7th cavalry. Frankly what came next from Strelets, Lucky Toys and Waterloo 1815 didn´t improve that much what was available for the Plains Wars and so I used these oldies but goldies. 

D company is made of Airfix with two models at both ends from Italeri and Revell. The Airfix figures got slouch hats and had their scabbards and swords removed. I kept the ammunition bandolier around the torso (a way to carry ammo that only was used decades later) as a compromise. I also like to think that as there were several types of ammo belts in the US cavalry around 1876 some troopers might have used it in Mexican style. D company had bay and black horses.

The "Grey company" (E company ) is two stands Atlantic and one stand Airfix. Both brands got hats instead of the original kepis on top of the heads and they were simply glued, not pinned. This way the nice Atlantic faces are still there and the slightly bigger hats from Revell and Airfix makes them bond quite well with the Airfix models. 

F company is to the front with bay horses while G company is to the back with sorrel horses. 

Once again all troopers, buglers and officers got a plastic carbine hanging from the rear. .  

All horses had the four legs firmly attached to the base with the help of eletric glue and superglue.

 

Next: the Little Bighorn river

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 8) - More dismounted troopers (companies D,E,F and G)

 

Four more companies of dismounted troopers of the US 7th Cavalry. Again they are a mixture of re-scaled Airfix; Revell and some new Esci conversions. 

The Esci figure (left) is the standing Confederate with kepi. The usual treatment followed: trimmed trousers for it to look like boots; new pinned head and shortened rifle in order to look like Springfield carbines. A mixture of shirts, shell jackets and sack coats can be seen. 

Several of the figures had the ugly blue shirt with a plastron which made them look like Country music singers. The whole group is without gloves which is more appropriate for dismounted fight. 

The fanion holder is the cowboy firing the pistol with the left hand pressing frenetically the hammer spur. The left arm was changed in order to hold the fanion. 

Next: The Little Bighorn river