French Foreign Legion and Insurgents

All,

Happy Thanksgiving!  And, just to prove I'm still alive and being productive, here's a post.  I bought some tan felt the other day and have been working on making it into a desert mat.  Here are some pics:

 And this is when I realize how terrible the photos are...  This is in my garage, and it's dark outside, so it's getting washed out by the flash.  It's orangey-tan felt, which I spray-painted khaki.  I think it has a nice mottled look to it, though you certainly can't tell from the photos.  The little dots are green bushes I glued in place.

 A little closer, still very washed out.  I put the bushes in place with white glue, plus doing it while the spray paint was still nice and sticky.  I've heard of using a glue gun, but I'm not smart enough for that...  So, if you see my with this mat on the tabletop, fighting it out sans bushes, you'll know what happened.

 Another shot.  I tried using different camera settings, but nothing worked out.  The mat is quite a bit darker than you see here.  Why did I do a desert mat?  Well, for starters, to give these guys something to fight over.

 Here is my small force of French Foreign Legion, in desert camo.  This was my first go at desert basing, and I'm very happy with it.  I painted the guys up, then glued them to the bases, put down a layer of sand, painted it a sand color, then gave the guys and the bases a wash.  Lastly, I white-glued some bushes on, then gave them a matt spray.  For what it's worth, the bases match the desert matt I made really well.

The whole force is six rifle units (can be teams or whole squads, depending on what rules I want to use), a weapons element, and three leaders.

 Here's a sample of two rifle bases, and two leaders.

 Closeup of a rifle base.  I like their tiny little FAMAS rifles.  There are also some SAWs mixed in on other bases (looks like our M-249, but I'm not sure if that's accurate, don't really know what the French use as a SAW).

 A shot of the Weapons element.  These are almost entirely borrowed from the British Heavy Weapons pack, so I won't even pretend they are accurate, but they work for me.  Left to right is a SAM, an MG, and an ATGM.

 The reverse.  This little force will go well with the three Panhards I already have painted up.  Now, for their opponents.

 The full insurgent force.  Both forces are made up entirely from Minifigs 10mm (they call them 12mm), with these coming from the "Arab Insurgents" range.  I also have Modern Brit, Modern Isreali, and Mountain Insurgent forces I need to get based up.

In any case, the whole force consists of 8 rifle elements and four leaders.  I also have two Toyota pick-up trucks ("Technicals"), one with a 106mm recoiless rifle and one with a 12.7mm Dshk HMG, to go with this force.

 Closeup of a couple rifle elements.

Closeup of a couple leaders.  Again, very happy with the basing.

Alright, so that's what I've been working on since finishing my French Indochina forces.  I had a great Thanksgiving and am off from work tomorrow, so I'm looking at putting the paintbrush/basing materials down and getting into some games this weekend.  I know it's very ambitious, but I plan on playing three games this weekend.  Here's what I plan to do:

1.  Play another fight from my 82nd Airborne "All Americans" campaign, possibly ending the campaign in Sicily for them.  The platoon will be coming out of its blocking positions into Marsala to replace a battalion coming out of the line for some rest after some very heavy street-fighting.  The platoon will be charged with pushing further into the city.

2.  A modern Special Operations element conducting a raid against modern Regulars to capture a high-ranking officer.

3.  An attack by the FFL to break up a meeting between two rival clans looking to patch relations up enough to team up against their shared European adversary.

So, to make this fun, you can vote on which fight you'd like me to carry out first.  Keep in mind that not many folks read my posts (also, it's getting late on Thanksgiving night, and the first fight is happening tomorrow morning, so not much time left), so one vote may very well carry the day!

V/R,
Jack

Bo Dai and Legionaires/Paras for DBP

All,

It's taken much longer than I expected, but I have completed my forces for French Indochina.  They are Vietminh regulars and a composite French force to represent the Legionaires, Paras, colonial forces, Vietnamese, whatever I need for a scenario to oppose my Vietminh Bo Dai.  On the workbench I still have a set of figures that will serve as Vietminh Chu Luc for Indochina and Viet Cong for the "American" Vietnam War.

The figures are (as always) 10mm, and are entirely from the good folks at Pendraken.  The Vietminh are entirely from the Bo Dai section of the Indochina range (except for one MG which is actually Pendraken WWII Japanese, but I had it to spare and didn't want to order another pack of Vietminh MGs).  The French are an interesting mix consisting of: French from the Indochina range, WWII Brit rifles and Stens in slouch hats, WWII US Paras from both the D-Day and Ardennes sections, and WWII US Marines from the USMC range.

On a side note, I can definitely see using the Vietminh as Korean War North Koreans or Chinese (summer time), or various other communist forces as needed for various scenarios in the late 40s, throughout the 50's, and maybe even some lower echelon forces from the 60s.

Here's the pics:

 Here is the entire collection, a company each.  They consist of:
-Commanding Officer
-Forward Observer
-Three Rifle Platoons, each with 1 Platoon Commander, 3 Squad Leaders, and 3 rifle squads, each consisting of a LMG team and a rifle team.
-One Weapons Platoon, consisting of 1 Platoon Commander, 1 Platoon Sergeant (in lieu of 3 Squad Leaders), 1 Machine Gun Section, 1 Mortar Section (60mm for French, 82mm for Vietminh), and 1 Recoilless Rifle Section.  The French also have an Engineer section (differentiated from the rifle squads by having a flamethrower on the stand).
-You may note that I have two of pretty much everything in the Weapons Platoons.  The reason for this is that I based them so that I can split a stand off each rifle squad, promote the Company Commander to Battalion Commander, promote two Platoon Commanders to Company Commanders, and promote eight Squad Leaders to Platoon Commanders and BAM, I have two Rifle Companies.  Someday I will purchase the necessary lead to round out the third Rifle Company and Weapons Company for each battalion.

 Here are the Vietminh.  At top is 1st Platoon, with the three squad leaders and PC behind them (to their left), followed by 2nd and 3rd Platoons, with Weapons Plt at bottom.  I just realized I didn't get the CO and FO in the photo...

 Here are the French, set up the same way, except you can see the CO and FO at top far left.

 Time for closeups.  Here's a look at a Bo Dai rifle squad, with LMG team at left and rifle team at right.
Actually, this photo reminds me that I used another pack of WII Japanese for the Vietminh (bottom right man of right-hand stand is a Japanese NCO).

 On left are examples of of Platoon Command stands (on left), consisting of an officer and a radio, and Squad Leaders (on right).  I know my garish colors will put some folks off, but it aids me with unit recognition for C2 purposes in my games.  It looks a little ugly, but requires no book-keeping or having to lift up the base to see who it is.

 Vietminh recoiless rifles.

 Vietminh mortars.

 Vietminh machine guns (top right is the Japanese MG team, which I hastily repainted and forgot to put a wash on).

 The Vietminh CO (left) and FO (right).

 On to the French, here a typical rifle squad, with LMG team on right and rifle team on left.  The stand at left has three French Indochina guys and a Brit Sten in slouch hat, while the right stand has two French (center two), with a US Marine at top and a US Ardennes Para at bottom.

 French Platoon Commanders in center, flanked by two different versions of Squad Leaders.  The left-hand SL is a US Marine, the right-hand is French.  You'll note that the 'red' (2nd Platoon) PC has a red Paratrooper beret, while the 'blue' (1st Platoon) PC has a green Legion beret, which makes absolutely no sense with regards to historical tables of organization, but, as I stated previously, this is my composite French force (there was no way in hell I was going to do up separate Legion, Para, 'regular,' Colonial, and Vietnamese forces).

 The French engineer stands, using D-Day Para flamethrowers and USMC radiomen (the other kneeling figures).

 French MG Teams (bottom right is D-Day Para MG, while the others are French.  The perils of basing two per stand with packs sold in threes...).

 French 60mm mortars.  These are all US figures.

 French recoiless rifles.  I am going to have to buy another pack as I have one floating around by himself...

 Time for some extreme closeups.  I'm certainly the most talented painter/modeler, but I am quite proud of the job I did painting and basing (and boy did it take me a long time).  I tried to mix and match the French uniforms quite a bit, first to aid in making them look 'composite,' as well as to reflect my understanding of how they looked in real life.  Both guys are wearing OD green pants and USMC 'duck-hunter' camo (brown-side out).

Another extreme closeup.  The closest guy is wearing OD green pants with a USMC 'duck-hunter' camo smock (green side out), while the next guy is wearing French camo top and bottom.  The last guy is wearing OD green pants with French camo smock and an OC green bush hat.

Can't wait to get these guys on the table.  I haven't played a doggone game for three weeks now.  A lot of it has been 'real life' intervening, but I've had some time, I've just devoted it to painting terrain and figures.  At first I was scared I was getting burned out on all my solo gaming (and couldn't get any buddies to come over, even for Veteran's Day!), but I realize it's not that.  The truth is that I have quite a lead mountain going on and I was starting to feel a bit of anxiety about not making any progress on it.  So I make no promises as to what I will get done next, it may be gaming or it may be painting, but take heart in the fact that I am still in the fight and will continue to post.

V/R,
Jack

Proof of Life

For the loyal eight or so folks that keep an eye on this blog, I humbly apologize for the quiet spell.  I've pretty reliably filled time and space here with batreps, gaming background matter, and pics of figs/terrain, but the past couple weeks have seen a deluge of 'real life' encroach upon my gaming.  Having said that, it hasn't been a total loss, as I've snatched a moment here and a minute there to finish up all the buildings I own, I rebased mid-war 10mm Germans and Russians (in a previous post), and I put some flock on my set of coconut trees.  Here's some pics:

 Here's an overview of all the buildings I have.  After years of playing with khaki colored buildings, I finally decided to put in a little work on the upgrade.  They are still no one's idea of a masterpiece, but they're 100 times better than they were and they're good enough for me!

 Some JR Miniatures 'dragon's teeth.'  Though I play in 10mm, almost all my terrain is 15mm, and I find it works well.

 Some bombed out houses.  Sorry, I don't recall the manufacturer.  I picked them up about eight months ago from Greathall Minis in Austin, TX.

 Two larger bombed-out houses, same (unknown) manufacturer as above pic, also gotten at Greathall Minis.

 A 15mm JR Minis building.

 These are both JR Minis.  They came in full sections that you then cut/broke into pieces to make them look bombed out.

 More JR Minis.

 Ditto.  I'd love to put which model each building is, but frankly, I don't recall anymore.

 JR Minis.  If this one if familiar, it's because this is one of the two buildings I finished a couple months ago and have been using in my 'All Americans' battles.

 Backside of same building.

 Here's the other one I had already finished.

 And the backside.

 Here's the newly finished counterpart.

 And the backside.

 This, and the photo below, are also JR Minis, but they are not made of plastic.  I don't know, maybe resin?  It feels like concrete.  I like them, but they are definitely smaller than the other 15mm stuff.

 Again, I like them, but definitely on the smaller side.

 I have no idea who makes this, another one gotten from Greathall Minis.  It has the distinction of being the only building I own that is not bombed out...

 My new collection of 36 coconut trees gotten rather cheaply off E-bay.  Now, as any wargamer knows, you can never have enough trees, but this is a decent start.

 I put some static grass on the bases and gave them a matte sealant.  Ready for war.

A closer up shot of the bases.  Perhaps not the most beautiful/accurate, but good enough to serve me on the wargames table.  I'll definitely be going to some South/Central Pacific circa 1941-1944 with these, probably some southern-delta Vietnam, definitely some Cuba (YES! Cuba Libre is not dead!).  Maybe some Africa, both colonial and modern?

With the long weekend (due to Veteran's Day), I intend on getting in at least two fights this weekend, and if I can do that and get them written up, I just might call it a day on All Americans in Sicily.  Then I'll look to get into something else for a bit (before returning for AA in Salerno).  Where I shall go exactly is anyone's guess.  Here are some things I'm kicking around (in no particular order):
-1/600 Air USN vs IJA/IJN (have)
-1/600 Air Flying Tigers vs IJA (have)
-1/600 Air Battle of Britain (have)
-1/1850 Naval USN vs IJN task-force level (have the minis but need rules)
-1/600 Coastal USN vs IJN (have a set of rules from the kindly Mr. Legan, and need to order minis from the kindly Mr. Gregory, then paint and base them)
-10mm Ground WWII mid-war German vs Soviet (have minis, need to put company-level CoC on paper)
-10mm Ground WWII late-war Germans vs US and Brit Paras (need to rebase all three, need to repaint most of the US)
-10mm Ground Modern Cuba Libre (at least the first phase, liberation-have the minis and rules)
-6mm Ground Napoleonic.  I'm years from being done with the minis (seemingly), then I need to settle on some rules, probably some version of Black Powder.  But if I quit playing everything else and just work on the painting/basing, I could get there a lot faster...
-1/600 Air Vietnam (got the minis, need to finish painting them, need to work on "Thud Ridge" rules to see if I can make them doable for solo games).
-10mm Ground WWII-got a bunch of Brit 8th Army figures that need to get based, could use them for North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Burma, India, even Aussies for New Guinea?
-10mm Ground WWII USMC and IJA that need to be finished up.  Like to meld them into a campaign of ground, air, coastal, and naval; probably just a pipedream.
-I've got 10mm Napoleonics for Song of Drums and Shakos painted up and just taking up space, and 10mm Romano-Brits for Song of Arthur and Merlin that need to be finished painting and basing.
-I've got more 10mm Modern stuff than I know what to do with, and I need to figure out what to do with it and get it on the table.
-I received my order of 10mm French and Vietminh, Vietnam Aussies, and more Vietnam NVA and VC.  They're all cleaned up and primed, but I need to get all of that painted and based (once I figure out what rules I'm going to use for the various elements).
-I've got a bunch of WWII US and Germans in 6mm sitting around, not doing anything, and I keep having irrational desires to buy more.  What really scares me is having an impulse buy in 6mm of stuff I already have in 10mm...  For example, I keep looking at GHQ Warsaw Pact stuff, and wanting to do some sort of quasi-Imagination war between former Soviet Republics with T-80s, BMPs, and BTRs.  Of course I already have T-72s, BMPs, and BTRs in 10mm, but dammit, I keep finding myself on the GHQ site.  I keep thinking of the Republic of Prussia blog and wanting to do that as he does, in 6mm, but I already have 10mm.  What's wrong with me???

Also, I have this crazy idea.  I was a Marine, and we have/had the MEU, or Marine Expeditionary Unit concept for rapid response worldwide.  I keep dreaming of using this concept, except it's Royal Marines in the 1880s to early 1900s.  Get some Pendraken colonial Brit riflemen and put them ashore throughout the Empire in order to show the flag, quell the violence/keep the peace, protect British interests, etc...  Get some Zulus, some Egyptian regulars, some Middle Eastern tribal types, some contemporary colonial rifles to serve as dastardly competing empires (Germans, Japanese, Russians?), and proxy them all over the world.  Pretty crazy, no?

In any case, sorry for the rambling, just trying to get some thoughts 'on paper,' so to speak, as to where to go after my AA Sicily campaign is finished.  Too many projects, too little time...

V/R,
Jack

Helping Out a Buddy

All,
    The other day I received an e-mail from one of the few people that actually read this raggedy-ass blog, asking me if I could compare some Minifigs and Pendraken.  So I took some photos and posted them here, and I hope they help.  These are for JChaos:

 On left is Pendraken Falklands Range Brit Leader, on right, Pendraken Vietnam Range US leader.  I saw in your gallery you have some of the Pendraken Vietnam range, so I figured this would help.  The Falklands range is shorter (though this is offset by the thickness of the base), and thinner than the Vietnam range.

 Falklands range Argentinian Leader and Brit Leader.

 Vietnam NVA riflemen and Argentinian leader.

 NVA officer and Brit leader.  You can really see how much taller and thicker the NVA officer is, and Pendraken WWII are the same size as the NVA officer.

 Here's some WWII: Pendraken German Officer (left), Minifigs German rifleman.  Pendraken is taller and thicker.

 Another view.

 Again, with Brit leader at far right.  The camera is canted, but all three are on basing of the same height.  The Brit leader looks taller, but this is due to the thickness of the base, not how tall he actually is.

 Left, Minifigs modern Warsaw Pact, right, Pendraken Argentine rifleman.

 Left, Minifigs modern Warsaw Pact, right, Pendraken Argentine.

 Left, Pendraken Falklands Brit, right, Minifigs Special Operations.

Left, Minifigs Spec Ops, right, Pendraken Falklands Brit.

To sum up, I mix both (WWII and Modern), but I think the Modern mixes better than the WWII.  I hope this helps you, Jorge!

V/R,
Jack