DBR- Battle of Mohács 1526 (part 6) - 20mm, first Sipahis painted

The converted Sipahis from two posts ago already painted.

These ones were conversions from Esci and Italeri with some extra details added.

The blue colours on most of these Ottomans vests were inspired on the Mohács movie I've showed you. There are many more available on the Osprey books and such. Search in the web for George Gush Airfix articles on Renaissance warfare. They are an excelent start for the period and mainly designed for wargaming.

The red flags are loosely based on the red flags of the Silâhtar Sipahis, one of the elite group of the household cavalry.

  

  A few extra were added like the Evergreen bow case...

... and an armoured chest protection    for everybody made out of painted Liquid GreenStuff and a turban from normal GreenStuff for one Sipahi per stand.

DBR- Battle of Mohács 1526 (part 5) - Figures you can use.

These are the existing plastic for the Renaissance period and Ottoman Vs Hungarian (according to PSR site).

Ottoman:

- Orion janissaries.

- Zvezda cavalry.

- Zvezda janissaries.

- Lucky Toys Turks.

My Ottoman army will have all of these less the Janissaries Orion box as I could find two Zvezda janissaries boxes in Izmir, and c'mon, buying Ottoman soldiers in Turkey is really cool (in spite of Zvezda being Russian...). 

Hungarian (most approximate, as there is no Hungarian dedicated box ):

- DDR Landsknecht (2 boxes, one with pikemen and another with Doppelsoldners and arquebusiers).

- DDR knights  (apparently not in production).

All of this figures but the DDR knights will be on my army, and will be replaced by Miniart knights.

BUT, there is always a butt (and some of them are reeeeeally extraordinary...) you can use other boxes from late Middle Ages to make the large variety of different soldiers present at Mohács 1526: 

Non dedicated Ottoman boxes:

- StreletsR Muzlim Foot Warriors, Arab Cavalry and Turcopoles Cavalry for the Azab, Akinji, Balkan and Tartar contingents.

- Esci Muzlim Warriors for some torsos and heads both for Sipahis and artillerymen. 

(This is the IPSBLQHB (initially-pretty-stupid-but-later-quite-helpful-buying) I did at a supermarket for 1€ each. 

- Italeri Saracen Warriors for camels, foot Azab and horses. 

- Italeri Mongol Horde for tartars and Sipahi barded horses.

Non dedicated Hungarian boxes:

- Miniart Burgundian or French Cavalry as they are almost the same. 

- Zvezda 100 YW French Cavalry also have many lancers that fit nicely the Hungarian knights. 

- Zvezda 100 YW French Infantry, specially for the crossbows. 

For the Hungarian infantry I still have to look better both for arquebusiers and spear armed figures probably from Miniart, metal being the last resource.

This Mohács 1526 project will be mostly a job on the cheap side, with many boxes from the stockpile and conversions, and when this happens it's a particularly thrilling thing as what comes out is generally a collection of unique figures. 

DBR - Battle of Mohács 1526 (part 4) - converted Sipahis

One of the  first sources of figures for this Mohács project is a huge stash of Esci Muzlims I found some 10 years ago in a supermarket (???) in Covilhã, a city close to the Spanish border.

There were 15 such boxes, all the same, and at an irresistible 1€ each as I told in the previous post. So I bought them all with that typical eagerness of the pre-crisis era, thinking as usual that one day they could be useful for Alcácer Quibir or to fight the French Foreign Legion or ... whatever. 

Well, we just don't need too many coherent reasons to justify our hobby, do we?

So here it goes he first use of the Esci Muzlim box. After comparing the figures to the ones I could use for Mohács 1526 there is only one figure (better, its torso) and some heads that can be used. What  could I expect if the box was designed for XIX century North Africa?

Worse: there are only 3 such figures per box. But at 15 boxes it makes 45 figures, plus some 21 more from some 7 other boxes previously bought. 

So here you can see what use I gave them:  they turned into armoured mounted Sipahis. 

        

     

These figures were cut by the waist as well as some Italeri Mongols and Saracens who provided legs and horses. 

The bond was achieved with cyanocrilate for soft plastics. 

The scimitar was cut off and replaced with a lance made from the bristle of a plastic broom.

The arms of some were heated with a lighter and placed in different positions for the sake of variety. 

Ottoman army is gathering around his sancak (flag- for you not versed in Turkish, he he ...).

DBR - Battle of Mohács 1526 (part 3) - Shots from the movie

Just for some colour I'll show you some camera shots from the movie on the battle of Mohács 1526.

The Ottomans:

The Janissaries are supposed to sport blue jackets but the period miniatures show them in all sort of colours, mainly blue, red, yellow and some green.

Armoured Sipahis.

Sipahis Rumes (western Sipahis).

Artillery.

The Hungarians:

Heavy cavalry.

Hussars.

Landsknecht:

Hope it continues to help, Big Andy. But nothing's better than watching the movie.

DBR - Battle of Mohács 1526 (part 2) - B/W drawings

The movie I posted a few days ago is an extraordinary encyclopedia on the equipment and uniforms of the battle of Mohács.

The information is such that I decided to do some drawings on the soldiers and equipment of the battle from the movie it self. This way I can stop seeing the movie  almost on a daily basis and have a rest...

There are no specific plastic Hungarian figures in 1/72nd scale, the same for many of the Ottoman types. So I hope these plates are useful to make conversions from the existing Zvezda, StreletsR, Miniart, DDS and such. 

The Hungarians:

The Ottomans:

Flags and last uniforms:

Hope they can be useful to all who want to wargame this period.

Pineapple Miniatures - 1/32nd scale - 95th Rifles, Buçaco 1810

Brand new from ACTA : the famous 95th Rifles, which fought around Sula Village at Buçaco 1810 against Ney corps.

If not for the tucked trousers and the bayonet in the rifle (hindering aiming) these miniatures portray nicely these famous soldiers. 

'Were can I find them?' is everybody asking, right? Buçaco Military Museum, as usual...

DBR - Battle of Mohács 1526 (part 1)

My next period. Zvezda; Miniart, StreletsR, Irregular Miniatures and all that. Difficult not to be hooked after the movie. I've been in the place three months ago and with the movie on top of it all it becomes irresistible.

Rapid Fire! 20mm, British Armoured division - Sherman equipped-Normandy44

After some time away I'll show you my Sherman equiped Armoured Division for the Normandy campaign.

 When building a Sherman based brigade you can use it both for the Guards or 11th armoured division (this brigade can also be  one of the independent Sherman brigades, the 8th, 27th and 33rd armoured brigades - not  the 4th as this one had mostly Sherman II  with cast hulls).

 This division was built before the 7th Armoured (Cromwell based) I showed you some months ago and it's built around the Airfix and Matchbox Sherman 1/76th kits. These two are quite compatible but while the Matchbox kit is the Firefly, and thus a British version,  the Airfix is one of the initial US versions of the M-4. So lots of changes were necessary.

I started this division many years ago and you can notice different styles of painting as well as different approaches to modelling, with some models with lots of work while other are almost straight from the box. 

Most of the these Sherman have the M-34 main gun mantlet, the most usual both in Guards and 11th armoured divisions.

This is the junior regiment of the brigade (blue markings, number 53). It's the most recent and the one with more transformed models. Basically you have Airfix, Matchbox, Fujimi, Britannia and Frontline Wargaming models.

These Hybrid Fireflies are original Fujimi kits (M4A1). I used the Matchbox mantlet and 17 pdr barrels, some Airfix Jeep drivers with Evergreen phones ( bended  thin stripes of plastic with heated ends) and a barrel cleaning kit box also taken from the Matchbox kit.

 I also made a 2nd top turret hatch in liquid GreenStuff using a detail brush. After drying it can be painted as a normal plastic part. I also applied this hatch to all Airfix Sherman.

The modelled foliage was placed to compensate the lack of the seam that was clear between the cast and the welded part on the Sherman Ic Hybrid .

The Britannia Firefly with a few stowage parts added.

What about the 75mm barrels of the Fujimi kits ?

Well, here they are glued to the Matchbox kits in a way to have the allongated Sherman V in plastic. True plastic  brotherhood!

Some Evergreen side ammo protections and a lot of stowage and here you have them.

The small M-5 are mostly Frontline Wargaming. I placed a Fujimi Japanese tank commander as the helmet looks like British at least in this small guy.

The MG is also scratchbuilt in Evergreen.

All Airfix Sherman received a rear turret radio box, 12,7 Browning MG, ammo protection plates to the sides and a barrel cleaning kit box all made in Evergreen.

The middle regiment of the brigade (yellow markings, number 52) mostly Matchbox kits.

The same Shermans V 75mm converted from the Matchbox Firefly from two posts ago  painted and ready for battle. These two replaced some soft plastic Airfix Sherman who served this division with dedication for many years.  

The small Humbers are Frontline Wargaming with some Rocco Miniatures as crew. These 1/87 figures come from a modern German crew set but are quite big for this scale and they fit nicely with 1/76th scale models.

The Britannia M-5 with a very nice tank commander in that beautiful chunky style  of this company.

The senior regiment of the brigade (red markings, number 51). A mix of Airfix and Matchbox Sherman. 

The recce M-5 are turretless Hasegawa kits with 12,7 mm Browning MG and crew from the Falklands 82 Matchbox set.

These two came from Belgium many years ago and were from the grandpa of my friend Isabelle Houart. He must have been a great guy as he had dozens of unpainted Airfix kits - Sherman, Stugs, Panthers, etc -   and hundreds of figures with which he wargamed in his attic - reminds you someone?

 Isabelle brought the entire collection during several years, a bag each time she came here.

The Recce regiment. (White markings, number 45). Revell and Frontline Wargaming Cromwells.

The Challengers are Frontline Wargaming. Recently Tim Wade remodelled the Challenger but these ones are 1st edition models.

The Revell Cromwell with a Britannia crewman. This kit is probably one of the best around. 

When I was building the recce regiment I was not certain about the existence  of  Fireflies in these units. Just in case I built three Frontline Wargaming models. One of them is another Hybrid, again with the lacking hull seam disguised with camouflage netting as the original hull of this model is a normal cast hull M4A1.

Some more Hasegawa M-5 from the recce regiment.

Motor battalion. Airfix M-3 HalfTracks, Frontline Wargaming and Britannia Carriers, Britannia 6 pdr and White car. The infantry comes from Esci, Revell and a few Esci Commandos with helmets.

The White car from Britannia. A "54" (motor battalion) plate was added to the front as the original vehicle had no space in the frontal part for such an inscription.

The Frontline Wargaming Carriers are packed with soft plastic figures. I melt the legs of these ones up to the torso with a lighter until they fit inside. Hurry up doing this before it dries up and be careful with your fingers !!

Comand and mortar stands. All three mortar crew are Esci commandos with helmets.

The anti-tank company with Matchbox 17 pdr. Crew are mostly Airfix. 

Sexton regiment: left and right batteries are Ready To Roll and the centre one is Britannia. Jeeps are Matchbox.

Airfix towed 25 pdr artillery regiment.

Corps level Airfix 5,5 inch artillery regiment. 

The Airfix Matador becomes an attractive vehicle with the Mickey Mouse camouflage patern. 

Introducing the infantry regiment. Once again these first battalion figures are mostly Revell, Esci and helmeted commandos. The Bedfords QLD are Frontline Wargaming. The MG company is on the top right corner.

Second battalion has all-Airfix carriers.

Third battalion.

The full infantry brigade deploying.

A large Bedford QLT from Skytrex.

Airfix Carriers. The one to the right has a Matchbox Bren gun in an AA mount.

More Frontline Wargaming Carriers.

Bedford 15CTW. Close to camera there is a Skytrex model; behind, two from Frontline Wargaming.

The pontoon carrier Bedford from some posts ago already painted.

The full division ready to embark to Shelves Beach, Coimbra- Portugal. Still waiting for D-Day...

British armour in WWII is a pleasant subject for modelling and Wargaming with its US based AFV's and some nice indigenous designs. 

Next ill show you my Churchill 6th armoured brigade in Normandy 44.