Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 2) - Second batch of Sioux/Cheyenne mounted warriors (and this one is GIANT)

 

This second batch of mounted warriors is the last for now as I´ve run out of figures for this group. Most of the figures and horses are very old GIANT figures. Even if these figures are not up to nowadays standards they can be painted in a colorful way and look nice on the table or on the shelves. Also one Atlantic stand was added and can be seen at the back but that was covered in part 1 of this series. 

In this stand the GIANT horses can be seen with their legs shortened and their bellies filled with hot glue. The figure firing a rifle is Revell. Even if with only 3 poses of the Sioux and Cheyenne and one pose of horse the stands can be quite colorful and diverse with the introduction of a different figure and some sort of individul painting to each model. Another thing that helps diversity is the fact that the Plains Indians horses had many colors. 

The horses both to the left and right are Atlantic from the Greek cavalry. These are ideal models for the Plains Indians as they have no harness or cloth on the back. 

The War Bonnets (AKA Eagle Feather Headdresses) are the trademark of highly respected Indians, not only chiefs, but also warriors that accomplished great deeds. Their usage in combat was obviously rare but even so they look great as miniature models. 

Next: foot Indian warriors

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 1) - first batch of Sioux/Cheyenne mounted warriors

This is another project kept inside boxes for decades. Since childhood Errol Flynn and more recently Gary Cole, Rodney Grant  (Rosanna Arquette also, even if with too much clothes on) made me wish to replicate in miniature the events of the war of 1876 and surrounding events. Reading on the Plains Wars is fascinating and simultaneously sad, firstly on its own as it speaks of a culture´s destruction and secondly brings to mind the old idea that some feel entitled to a promised land just because it comes on an book. Funnily enough is also the atempt to portray the Indians as nations of savages that were always fighting with each other and thus the white people were more than entitled to do the same with them and steal their lands. What they forget is that the Europeans were doing the same in a scale never seen before and also dying constantly for independence. Also forgotten many times is that the internal Indian wars (Crow Vs Sioux, for instance) were provoked by the shrinkage of Indian lands by the white man´s expansion to the West and the constant lack of treaty breaking due the finding of gold and simple greadiness. 

For this period you can find an enormous amount of information on the Web as the Americans tend to treasure every button found due to their short story. In order to see beautiful models of this war go to Matakishi's Tea House for instance. 

This group is made of old Atlantic Indians some painted decades ago and others just now taken from the storage boxes. Also some GIANT copies were mixed in. The basing is according to Battles for Empire II set of rules by the great Chris Leach. 

This Giant figure copy is maybe older than me. More on this later for it to become more "HO". 

The Atlantic Sioux are very Hollywoodesque miniatures but in group they are lively and colorful as you tend to forget the wrong details like boots instead of moccasins. 

In this first group I used a group of GIANT figures but they had to go for a number of changes. The first three figures are clearly Mohawk due to the hair style and some extra long hair was lazily placed with the same hot glue that was gluing them to the bases. Not the best solution but passable. 

The second change is on the horse´s size as the one to the right had its legs cut in order to go along the smaller ones of Revell, Airfix and Atlantic. This simple change made me gain a few more dozen Indian horses which are not easily found in quantity in the other plastic brands with Plains Indians. 

The third change is to deal with the hollowness of GIANT horses by filling it with a hot glue gun. 

Next: More Little Big Horn or Bir Hakeim

AOE 28mm Waterloo - The Plancenoit wall

 

Many years ago I bought this little church in a Chinese shop and somehow it looked like the Plancenoit church. Having the wall of the church is mandatory as it was the focus of the battle much more than the church itself. The space between the church and the wall is just enough for the 4cm width bases I use for 28mm. 

The perimeter of the wall should be small as well as the church itself as I intend to have the full Waterloo terrain on the table. 

A great piece of inspiration came from the Napoleonic Archive books on Waterloo with this fantastic Plancenoit ...

... and a trip to the place made the rest. 

While making lots of terrain for Bir Hakeim thin slices of Blue Board came out and were used for the round shape of the wall. The material bends quite well and is carved easily. 

This piece of terrain can also be used in many scales as a walled garden...

... or the center of a chateau. 

Next: Little Big Horn most probably along with more Bir Hakeim. 

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 9) - The Roman well and some barbed wire

 

Not much is left from the French fortifications or even from the ground of Bir Hakeim which makes the work of reconstitution slow and difficult. Even so with some patience and time you get a reasonable collection of features from this famous battlefield.  The Roman well was a part of the Bir Hakeim complex and in fact the item that gave existence to Bir Hakeim. Unfortunately its a tricky one to find in images both in books or the Web. But after googling in French some more information comes and the Roman well can be found. 

This photo came from a pilgrimage made to Bir Hakeim in 1955. 

This is another one from the series of photos taken by the Germans after conquering Bir Hakeim were its proximity to the Turkish fort can be seen.

I made my own Roman well in styrofoam and bits of plastic and card. 

The model well is around 16cm long. As its something small you don´t need to reduce the model and you gain another unique structure.  

Some 2,40 meters of barbed wire was made from matches glued to 16 large ice cream sticks with metal barbed wire wrapped around it. It will be used to mark the extensive minefields around Bir Hakeim. Another issue solved is the barbed wire bases for my Omaha beach as I only had 9 bases of it. 

Next: the Plancenoit wall

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 8) - The AA Bofors of the Fusiliers Marins and a few more emplacements

The Bir Hakeim series continues this time with the 40mm Bofors for the Fusiliers Marins and respective trucks and a few more different emplacements. 

The V shaped emplacements are slightly different from the previous ones due to the wooden cover being placed close to the curve instead at the corners. The straight trenches are just something different as I´m making also trenches that can be used in other scenarios. 

The the FFL Bofors were pulled by Chevrolet trucks and not by Morris CS8 4X2. These are cheap Chinese trucks bought at Ale-Hop with a part of the cargo bay cut out. The guns are Airfix. 

The idea was to get to this. 

The figures were challenging as I don´t have many more artillerymen left suitable for this task. So all are conversions with the French Fusiliers Marins bonnet. From left to right:

- the Airfix standing figure on the 6pdr set;

- the driver is a 1st edition Airfix DAK figure manning the 2,8cm Panzerbüchse;

- a Preiser civilian (I think from one of the train station sets) .... 

- the Airfix Australian carrying a box;

- another 1st edition Airfix DAK;

- a Revell figure from their WW2 Scottish set. 

Next: Barbed wire for Bir Hakeim or Plancenoit 1815. 

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 7) - New trenches and one more AA truck for the Fusiliers Marins

 

A few more company trenches, 75mm emplacements and mortar/MG pits were finished in the last few days. Also added is the famous 13,2mm DAT gun on truck. 

The total made was 2X company trenches; 4x 75mm emplacements and 4x mortar/MG pits. Now I need to place everything together on the table and see exactly what is still missing for Bir Hakeim. While on holidays I took some books and magazines on Crete 1941 and that particular bug started to bite. The way I made the Bir Hakeim complex made me happy as it can be easily adapted to Crete, other NA scenarios or even Italy. In fact as they are simple things they can go everywhere as when you dig trenches you take out all foliage which make these ones fit for almost all theaters. The drop-on solution avoids the building of more complex terrain models which, if over detailed, will be only used in a specific scenario, with the problems of storage coming next. 

The 75mm emplacements have to be like this as the Free French wanted them to have 360 degrees rotation. Note the absence of sand bags. In fact most of the trenches for this project have sand bags while the ones on Bir Hakeim can hardly be seen in most of the period photographs. This is another compromise in order to allow its usage in other scenarios. 

These L-shaped company trenches are different from the T-shaped I made previously. They look quite Vauban style and thus clearly more French :) 

The mortar/MG pits are made for my 4cm poker disks. Besides the heavy weapons the battalion CO stand can also be fitted inside. 

The Fusiliers Marins at Bir Hakeim were in charge of the AA defences and had a number of truck mounted SP guns. This is my second version of the thing, this time with a  quad 13,2mm DAT gun...

... and based on this famous photo. 

The figures are heavily converted Airfix and Atlantic copies. 

Once again the cheap plastic truck is a bit too big but with a 1,5cm cut at the back it becomes reasonable sized for the big and complex gun. 

The gun is made totally from scratch with the help of a great Britmodeller article from their website. Also, if you want to avoid all this work, 3D print Shapeways makes this gun in 1/72nd scale. 

The figure manning the gun is the old wounded Atlantic British figure being carried at the back of his closest friend. Apparently it recovered from his wounds, joined the FFL and is now defending Bir Hakeim! 

The 3d one at the Britmodeller website (is it the same at Shapeways?) that I really can´t rival. 

Next: the 3rd battalion for my US PIR; Little Big Horn; King Porus army (yes, Don McHugh has something to do with this); photos of Bodrum castle; Plancenoit church in 1815 or Crete 1941. Let´s see what comes next.

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 6) - The Morris CS8 w/25mm AT gun at Les Mamelles

 

A "Jock" column makes a reconnaissance mission around the Bir Hakeim perimeter on the night of 25th May, 1942. In order to get some inspiration for the fight they know its coming  the group stop at Les Mamelles (the breasts) with some of them remembering the delights of the Moulin Rouge while others get into dirty talking. 

The Airfix six-wheeled Morris is, unfortunately, only good to tow the Bofors 40mm AA gun. I searched other usages but found nothing. On the contrary the gun itself can be used by many armies which is something that I´ve been doing but with different tows (Poland 39 with CP2; FFL with Ford/Dodge, etc) . After making a few combinations of tow and Bofors gun for the British, the pile of Morris CDSW was good only for conversion to its older and smaller brother, the Morris CS8. 

There were 18 25mm AT guns with the Free French at Bir hakeim. I suppose most of them were of the naval type with a larger shield than the infantry version. I don´t know how many of them were of the naval type or on SP mode like these ones but like this the FFL gets some interesting and rather unique vehicles. 

All figures are converted Hat with one Matchbox figure. 

The Morris CDSW got all the rear part changed with only one set of wheels (glued at the middle of the two sets of the original model version) and the construction of a new and shorter cargo bed. 

The gun itself is made from two types of hard plastic. I only mesure the lenght of the guns and work from within until the majority of the details are there. 

All trucks got a French FM 24/29, in fact 3d printed Bren but a close one. 

The windshields are again pieces of EverGreen plastic. 

Les Mamelles were carved from thick 10cm blocks of BlueBoard.  Frankly I don´t know the correct shape of Les Mamelles around summer 1942 as I can´t find proper images on the Web, books, or magazines. When you google it three big water cisternes shows up and connected to Bir Hakeim: 

I think this has nothing to do with Bir Hakeim but even so gives a reasonable idea of the Arab cisternes of the region. 

"No one will take from us les Mamelles"

Next: a few weeks off and then in late August more Bir Hakeim and the last of the three battalions of the late1944 US PIR.