DBM - Battle of Cannae 216 BC in 20mm. Hannibal's Army

I made this army along several years and finished my last group of Gallic warriors some weeks ago. I tried to keep the same style of painting and basing but many subtle changes happened. In the end of more than 1000 figures it is one of my favorites adventures into this crazy idea of mine of building full historical wargaming armies to set them quietly in the shelves. 

The powerful Cartaginian army of Hannibal Barca arrives at the plain of Cannae and prepares to follow Hannibal's orders for forming a large convex bow in front of the Roman army to absorb its impact...

Hannibal mounted on his brave Belleus. Next to him is Maharbal, Hannibal's 2IC. The army's command stand is Newline Designs. 

Not at Cannae, of course, but needed elsewhere namely at Zama, follows a group of Hat elephants. 

Protecting the back of Hannibal itself , two Newline Designs stands of elephants in a not very favorable position for the spear men in front...

Here, Hannibal is surrounded by his faithful Liby-Phoenician phalanxes. Later in the battle, these two groups will be placed in both ends of the battle line, and they will be crucial to defeat the bottle necked Roman legions in a pincer movement. 

Hannibal and his Citizen Cavalry bodyguards.

The left wing phalanx. The phalanxes are made mainly of Newline Designs figures but the front ranks also have some Hat miniatures. Every single shield is a different design making these units slow painting groups. In the end I even went to the Lybian ministery of tourism site to find some extra designs!
All other ethnical groups are the same regarding shields: only the Numidians figures have more or less the same pattern, all other, Spanish, Gauls, Carthaginians have different shield designs. So some 900 different patterns. The good thing was that this army was made along several years, interchanging modelling with other periods of history, otherwise I would be in a loony house. 

The right wing phalanx. Both command stands are Hat miniatures.

The biggest group in the Carthaginian army were the Gauls, recruited when Hannibal made his journey from Hispania to Italy. 

Here you can see Revell, Italeri, Newline Designs and Airfix all mixed in. 

Having a large contingent of Gaul figures is very helpful as they were long lasting enemies of the Romans. 

This group was the last to be painted and includes some blue tattoed bodies. 

The full Gallic foot contingent.

Gallic Cavalry. Again many Italeri, Hat and Newline Designs. Whenever I can I have a metal figure at least per stand to make it heavier and more varied. 

Numidian skirmishers. Hat and Newline Designs figures with shields covered with oxhide.

Numidian cavalry made out from the usual Hat and Newline Designs. I placed two commanders in  different stands anticipating Zama when there were rival contingents of Numidians in the battlefield.

The Spanish Caetrati are all Hat miniatures.

Balearic slingers from Newline Designs and Hat miniatures. 

Spanish Scutarii. These came from the two boxes of Hat miniaturers that contemplates these long lasting enemies of Rome.  

"Round shield" and "Long shield" Spanish Cavalry. The command satnds are Newline Designs and the rest is Hat miniatures.

Celtiberian spear men. Mostly are Newline Designs with some three stands of Hat Miniatures.

The Newline Designs miniatures paint extremely well and the figures are detailed and very well proportioned.


Next: Houses for Normandy, made in China and repainted in Portugal.

Rapid Fire! Market Garden in 20mm - Oddities and such (part 1).

A Group of Germans tries to visit the Arnhem Municipality Museum passing by the famous White house (the Dreyeroord Hotel in Oosterbeek, here slightly misplaced by a few Kms) only to find it closed. Apparently its Regisseur, hearing gun shots around,  abandoned it and threw the keys into the Rhine! Well, without anything else to do on a Sunday afternoon the Germans decided to fight off the pesky British Paratroopers. 

I model Wargaming stuff since I was 10, that means for 40 years. From time to time I have to search the old Wargame books looking for inspiration even with the Net packed with stuff from incredible talented modellers. My favourite Rapid Fire! books are many times the source for inspiration, at least for WW2. Looking again into the Arnhem book I signalled many years ago all models that I didn´t have on those days. The list got shorter each year and now the only few things I don't have are the Steyr heavy cars, the Fire Trucks, the Horch Radio cars, the Kriegsmarine infantry and the Sdkfz 251/21 Drilling. I tried to be more picky and looked again inside my usual reference books and found in the Concord book on German Armour at Arnhem by Marcel Zwarts a few more useful stuff to be modelled namely German captured Dodges and Jeeps and a re-used Panhard 178. Also the StuH42 without muzzle on the 105mm Howitzer used by Stug-Bgde 280 showed up. The good thing about all this is that I had material in the stash to fill almost all of these blanks.

The good news continued as by looking into the RF! black book on the Bulge some of the latter models will also fill some blanks for the Ardennes 1944/45 namely the 251/21 Drillings.

The STUH 42 is an Esci model with PSC crew with cut down muzzle. 

The commander got some homemade headphones .

 

Plenty of stowage and foliage as the ones used at Arnhem.

Recognize this one? Me neither. Its just an atempt to make a Horch Radio car from a toy I stole from my 2.5 YO kid. In the morning, when he woke up, the model was all all primed grey, stuck to a base and with a few details. He got suspicious but was never sure!

I used plenty of foliage and netting to desguise the original toy and to make it look something like a Horch 901 Kfz 17...

... like this one.

The original toy before priming. A slightly over scale thing but a funny conversion. 

Finally the famous Fire Trucks used by the SS NCO school of Arnhem. They might have looked something like this but they could also have been fully enclosed and more modern. Matt Williamson found a great site from the Arnhem Fire Brigade with two vehicles lost in 1944. One is a fully enclosed -Mercedes maybe- and another has some similarities with the one above. The problem is that both Fire Trucks were commandeered in Leerdam, a place kilometers to the west of Arnhem so I think the quest for the shape and type of these two will continue. 

I added figures, new wheels, Airfix Jeep windscreen, spotlight, ladders, tools and a hoose to the original Isuzu Hasegawa model.

As the trucks were used to carry heavy weapons I placed a tripod MG42 inside. After finishing to glue all pieces I found a piece of information that 81mm mortars were carried inside but too late.

The hoose is made of wire rolled around a piece made of plastic card.

This is the original Hasegawa model still far from over. The figures were all converted to seated people. I think I´ll have to go AB models sooner or later...

Next: wether Hannibal`s army, NW European resin houses or part 2 of this series.

Rapid Fire! Desert War 1940-43 in 20mm - First British infantry/ motor battalion

A British Infantry battalion crosses the Oasis of Ras-ta-Parta. This one is a bit on the large side as I made enough figures for a RF! motor battalion (with 3 Boys stands for the Bren Carriers)  and a normal infantry battalion. All plastics- Airfix, Revell, Matchbox and Esci - are together.

The command stand has a Revell radioman with a German Esci radio on its back. The close 2" mortar has a Matchbox Bren firer (without the Bren) and a cut down tube from the Matchbox 81mm mortar. 

The Airfix Vickers MMG has a plastic water cooling system as an extra. The Bren carrier for the 81mm mortar is SHQ with crew from 1st and 2nd editions of the Airfix 8th Army British infantry.

The different brands and scales can also mix well. Even the smaller 1/76th figures of Matchbox fit well with the larger Revell and Airfix if you glue them with electric glue giving them 2 or 3mm extra height.


Next: additions to Arnhem

Rapid Fire! Desert War 1940-43 in 20mm - Early British armoured force

At an oasis near Ras-al-Brexit, in the middle of the Levant, an early British tank force with support group, prepares for the night after a hellish hot day (you will see it better if you increase the size of the picture). They are forming a laager to protect themselves from marauding Vichy French, Italians or eventual Germans who may arrive in the region at any time. And quite on time as a huge green tank approaches filled with menacing guns. To whom does it belong? Friend or foe? Is it the Carro Armato P26/40 that the spies of MI5 are talking about? Or maybe the German Neubaufahrzeug? Keep on reading to find out! 

All models are Minigeneral 3d prints. 

My third Guy ACV went for Early British and was painted in the Counter camouflage scheme. A few stowage parts were added as well as two torsos of Matchbox officers.

Two Vickers Mediums joined the forces. I painted them with the scheme used at Tobrouk in 1942, at least according to the Wardrawings website.

The last two Morris CS9 travelled to the desert and received the colours and camouflage of the famous 11th Lancers of the even more famous 7th Armoured Division. The crew is Airfix and PSC.

For the Counter camouflage I used a base of Vallejo Desert Yellow, Sage colour from Docraft and Vallejo German WW2 uniform. 

These Light Tanks Mk IIA received the colours of the one present at the Bovington Tank Museum. I added turret hand grips for the commanders as these little tanks could flip them easily

I use several of these figures for my British tankers. They are the Airfix driver you can find in the DUKW, Matador truck or Willys Jeep. By carefully placing some headphones made of heated styrene you get a nice tank commander. 

The last few Morris CS8 and Universal Carriers necessary to finish the transports of my 1st Motor Battalion in all flashy Counter Camouflage. 

The occupants are 1st edition Airfix for the driver and Revell for the back seater. This last figure is originally seated in a large piece of stowage eating its meal but here is in a much more military attitude holding his Boys AT rifle. 

                            

Finally the mystery is unveiled: the approaching monster is the sole Independent A1E1 tank ever made. It escaped Bovington Museum, crossed the Channel, carved a path of destruction in the occupying German forces in France, swam all across the Mediterranean sea (where it may have sunk a German U-boat, but this information is unconfirmed) until joining its comrades-in-arms in the hot sands of the Levant. 

The only addition to this gift from Pedro Pato, besides figure and stowage, is the ladder that came from the Airfix Commando box.

I somehow managed to find a way to reduce the lines of the 3d prints. You can use your oldest acrylic paint, the one that is almost drying is the better, mix 50% of PVA glue, mix the paste (red paste in the picture) and let it dry to loose most of the water. Then apply over the areas with more printing lines.

When the lot was primed the results are visible. Still not perfect but most of the problem is solved. 

Next: British Infantry for the Desert 1940-43 or Hannibal's army,

DBM - Battle of Cannae 216 BC in 20mm. The Manipular Roman Legions made up to now

The Battle of Cannae in the year 216 BC is one of the biggest events of ancient times and the most terrible defeat of the Roman army ever. In the end of the 2nd  of August in the plain of Cannae, not far from nowadays Bari, only the Triarii were alive and virtually all other were dead - around 80.000 men! The genius of a certain Carthaginian called Hannibal worked once more and again with a much smaller army. 

I´m still far from the end as I need a total of 16 legions and all I have up to now are these 6 you can see. So a bit more than 1/3 of the way done with only the weak Roman cavalry complete. This mean 500 figures already painted but still close to 800 to be painted. Many will be the newer Zvezda which are true beauties.

The Roman legion of the period is the pre-Marian one still with four lines you can see here: Velites ahead, followed by two lines both of Hastati and Princeps and finally one line of Triarii. 

Most of the figures are Hat from all their sets, but you can also find some NewLine Designs, Odemars and Italeri and even some Esci manipulus and officers from Empire days which suits this period too. 

Now the full Roman cavalry for the battle: one of the reasons why they lost as the Gaul and Numidian cavalry were much more and will brush them aside with ease. In this picture you can see the Allied cavalry, an Hat unit with a few Italeri mixed in. 

The Roman Citizen cavalry itself. All Hat miniatures again.

Now a quick review of the six Legions done up to now. The last row of this Legion has Triarii from Italeri with broom sticks spears replacing the original Pila.

Again a foot Esci imperial officer (on foot) enters this Legion as he still carries the bronze cuirass.

Here you can still see a number of different standards. Only the Eagle will survive with the later Marian reforms. 

The basing of this Legion was made with Basetex. Half of the command group is NewLine Designs.

                            

Again the command group has a few NewLine designs namely an officer and the Tubicem. 

I chose to paint each Legion with one pattern of both tunic and shield. Still there are many debates on the issue but at least  this method speeds painting.

Approaching their terrible fate...

Next: probably British for Early Desert 1940.