Under lockdown...

Irregular Turcowaz Sipahi face Ruberian Lancers.

Much to my surprise, not a lot is happening chez moi on the war games front. Ideas occur for campaigns and battles (of which more anon) and for a new 'cartoon' navy, which is probably not a very good idea, however fun it might be. This posting follows on from the previous three to begin with - a project that began from small, modest beginnings, into something pretty near global.

Recently on my cutting board.  Spare Airfix Foreign Legion
figures as artillery.  The leaning back guy looks to be
tugging the firing lanyard.

Having last year fought a couple of battles - more or less historically based, though disguised into a period 40 years previous, upon General Townshend's disastrous 1915-6 operations in Mesopotamia - it seemed to me that the BLUE OPFOR, the Turcowaz, ought to have an army of its own, rather than  Azurian (BLUE) ring-ins. The Turkish Army of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 seemed to me designed for the task. Turns out that though Strelets-R make the figures, they aren't that easy to get hold of.   Only the foot Bashi-Bazouks seemed to be available.

Well, that's a start. Paul threw in a half dozen of Turkish sipahi from a couple of centuries earlier - great for irregulars, and colourful withal. Between them they could make for all kinds of Turkic or Arabic tribes people dwelling in the more obscure parts of the world. Eventually we found some regular foot in the Strelets-R 'Thin Red Line' Pack.  

Irregular Turcowaz sipahi.

Now they have all been painted up, the TURQUOISE Army presently constituted as shown in the following pictures.

Turcowaz Army.

Turcowaz Army

1 Army Command stand
3 Regular Infantry Units with
     1 command stand, 3 rifle stands
4 Irregular Infantry Units with
     1 command stand, 3 warrior(?) stands
1 Irregular Cavalry Unit with
     2 sipahi stands

To be added when the opportunity provides;
1 Regular Cavalry Unit with
     1 command stand, 3 cavalry stands.
2-3 Artillery Units with
     1 gun, 2 or more crew.

At the moment a spare regular command stand can substitute for 1 gun crew, and a Krupp type of gun perhaps scratch-built. This army is certainly 'fightable' as it presently stands. The 'Units' might represent anything from companies to Divisions, though they will probably be seen more often as battalions or brigades.

 

Turcowaz army, yet to be supplied with more modern artillery.

And so it will - sometime soon. I hope.

The circumstance is that Major-General Scarlett's Ruberian expedition into the Medifluvia has been stopped by the Turcowaz Army, and retreated to the scene of their first victory at Hak Al Kumara. There he has permitted himself to become besieged, giving vent to strident appeals to higher command to effect his rescue. Rather than leave the stranded army to stew in General Scarlett's juice, that higher command cobbled together a second expedition, under Major-General Ezekiel Rust to attempt the relief.

Even in its unfinished state, this army is ready for action.

This circumstance brings me to the serendipitous inclusion of the following unit into the Ruberian (RED) Army. The 'Thin Red Line' box contained a couple of sprues of Highlanders. A dozen of the figures being sufficient for my purposes - I wanted no more than 1 unit, 'Jacko' (who had put the order in on my behalf) got the other dozen or so. It so happened that the 7th Division relief column of 1916 included a couple of Highland battalions.  I had been thinking of making them into something vaguely Hellenic, but changed my mind.

In painting the 'tartan' on the kilts, I again used my 'sample' technique that I used for my Napoleonic highlanders, which, I think, turns out surprisingly tartan-like. To my eye, anyhow. Pictured is the Dearg Highland Infantry. The flag is, of course, the Cross of St Andrew, with the Cross of St George in canton.

Dearg Highland Infantry in the service of Ruberia.

And now, folks, for an abrupt change of subject. 

Lately I have been thinking more and more about where I'm going with my WW2 armies. So I have begun a wholesale reconciliation of my Russian army, with the view of building as many 6-stand units of the 'Not Quite Mechanised' type as I can with what I have available, supplementing them with 2-stand SMG, and possibly other, subunits. The 6-stand units will be battalions, regiments, brigades or Divisions, depending upon the scale of action. In their Divisional role, though, I'm thinking of adding a 76.2mm field piece or 122mm howitzer. 

My Soviet Infantry - most of what I can find, anyhow...

Below is most of my Soviet artillery to date: 3 76.2mm anti-tank/ field pieces; 2 122mm howitzers (one is semi-scratchbuilt, the other a metal model), and 4 152mm howitzers. 

Most of my Soviet artillery.  I'll probably be building a couple
more of my scratch-built field guns.

The nearest is an older type with the 'shark-fin' muzzle brake that I made a week or so ago. It is based on a spare Airfix British 5.5-inch howitzer, with the gun barrel trimmed back and replaced with one from a Plastic Soldier kit. The gun shield and elevating (?) wheel were added on. The shield is wrong, but looks right to my mind - a very acceptable piece. A bit of weathering and highlighting/ shading should finish it off nicely.

Latest inclusion to my heavier Soviet ordnance: an older pattern
(M1937) 152mm gun/howitzer.  A quick kit bash with a
cardboard gun shield.

What I have in mind is Operation Dolgorouky, some time in mid 1944, pitting a couple of Soviet Armies - one Rifle, one Shock - against a single Panzer Corps. Dare I rope in Bob Cordery's 66th Army - a facsimile thereof, slightly reorganised - as the Rifle army? The 6th Shock Army will be the one with most of the teeth.  I'm tempted to call the pair collectively the rather small 'South Pripyat Front'...

On the German side, XLIX Panzer Corps will comprise 1 Panzer Division,  1 Regular Infantry Division, and 1 'Grenadier' Division - a formation a trifle weaker than the regulars. Their front line position will be dug in, wired and mined.  

It's all in my head at the moment, wanting for me to begin by sorting out the Russians, then the Germans, and putting pencil to paper... 

An Explosive Project (2)

The transition from Very Little Wars with 16-figure companies to the Horse, Foot, Guns was easy to contemplate, megalomaniac as I am. Imagine: a stand of 4 figures represents an infantry Brigade of some 2000 officers and men. Three of those, plus maybe a command element, you have a Division; three Divisions, with a bigger command stand, perhaps, and you have an Army Corps.  You might be looking at 45 infantry figures, here. Add a Brigade of Horse (3 figures) and a park of artillery (1-3 guns each with a couple of gunners), and you just scrape past 50 figures.  Fifty figures for an Army Corps!  I'll have a piece of that!

Turcowaz regular infantry.  The army now has 21 infantry
elements, 12 of which are irregulars...

An attractive idea. But I wanted armies of about 1875, roughly Britannic and roughly Gallic. What I wanted to see was an army list for either, as a guide line for organisation, but never saw one. What with one thing and another, the project sputtered on for a few more years with nothing much happening. Becoming disenchanted with the whole DBx rule systems - through no real fault of them - it was not easy to conjure up much enthusiasm for carrying on with it.  

Royal Dearg Highlanders in the service of Ruberia.

It was the Portable War Games systems that revived the interest. The whole gig looked simple, a few try-outs indicated very quick, very playable games, and the thing has progressed much more rapidly in the last three years. It has expanded considerably as well. The original intention was a war - or series of wars - between the Kingdom of Ruberia (RED) and la République of  Azuria, upon or near their home territories, with perhaps a side-order of colonial rivalry in, say, Africa or South Asia. But when the notion of something less 'symmetric' came to mind, the Azurian Army suddenly got co-opted into an 'alternative BLUE', namely TURQUOISE, or Turcowaz. 

The latest Bashi-Bazouk recruits.  Actually they are the
Strelets-R 'bonus' Russian Streltsi figures.  Near
enough, says I.

Having fought at least 4 actions, it was clear that the Turcowaz ought to have its own army. For these I chose the Turkish armies of the 1877 war against Russia. Unfortunately these aren't so easy to get hold of.  Strelets-R makes them, but they aren't so easily available. I scored a box of foot Bashi-Bazouks (through Paul 'Jacko's' on-line contact with a distributor), and that was about it. Still, they got painted up. Then a Crimean War box came available, with Turkish foot, Russian Foot and Horse, and some Highlanders. The Turks were pretty much the same as the 1877 lot; they'd do. Unsure what to do with the highlanders, eventually I shared them with Paul and made a formation of 3 stands and a command from what I kept.

The Royal Dearg Highlanders again.  Under the PW system
this lot could be a company, a battalion, a Brigade,
or a Division.

And the Russians? Well, I did have a 'hidden character' nation that was called Porphyria that was to be a Tsardom, but as these fellows favoured green, they became Zelyoniya.  Its army won't be huge; 8 infantry elements and maybe 4 Horse, plus a gun or two.  Enough, perhaps to prove a menace to the northern borders of the Settee Empire of Turcowaz.

Just by the way, I really like the chunky presence of the Strelets-R figures, especially the later sculpts.  They probably require a deal more attention to painting than some other plastic figures of similar scales, but the end result is worth it.  

Flank rear view of Turcowaz regulars.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned 'Jacko' had himself caught the 19th Century colonial warfare bug, and was developing his own armies and nations. His green-uniformed guys become the Imperial forces of Azeitona - vaguely Portuguese (should we call them Azeitonese or Azeitonians?).  Resisting their encroachments are the m'Butu tribesmen (BLACK) and the vaguely Arabic (WHITE?) pirates/ raiders/ really annoying people. Though they are his project, there are - or will be - points of contact between his and my projects, especially in the Dark Benighted Continent of Africa Aithiops.  

Turcowaz regulat foot.

The most promising beginning seems to be upon the east coast of Aithiops. 'Jacko' scored a fine campaign map of the WW1 campaign of German East Africa. The recent battle of the Limpopo Trail was intended as a species of prologue to the conflicts that will develop in that region of the world. The Ruberians will almost certainly take an interest - and it would scarcely be surprising if the Settee Empire of Turcowaz sought some kind of confrontation with the Abyad (?*) corsairs, raiders and suchlike riff-raff...

Turcowaz irregular cavalry.  Actually Stretets-R 17th
Century Ottoman Turks, but OK for my purposes.

The Ruberian Imperial troops of Rajistan will still be mounting operations against the fringes of the Settee Empire, such as the Medifluvia region and perhaps expanding into the area of Tchagai, which itself became the scene of a revolt some 7 decades later...

The beauty of the PW system is that it could lend itself to a wide range of scales. An Infantry stand might represent anything from a platoon to a Brigade; a group of three or four might be a company or a Division, depending on the overall scale of operation or campaign being undertaken. A single cavalry stand might be a troop or a Brigade. I don't imagine any higher cavalry formations larger than a Division.  And a gun might be a troop or a regiment.  The recent action along the Limpopo Trail was a small affair of maybe regimental or brigade sized forces.  The setback to Azeitona is not one to compromise the colony's existence...

Turcowaz army, so far...  Could do with some regular cavalry
and 'modern' artillery.

 I do like flexibility and versatility.

Elements of Ruberian Army: foot, artillery, and the dreaded
Gatling guns.

Now, recent perusals of the Madasahatta Campaign (Eric Knowles and Bob Cordery) has led to the realisation that, distant as the colonial emprises are from their homelands, they require a certain naval presence, if only to protect the imports of vital supplies and equipments, and the colonies themselves from raid, robbery, etc.  Something ... ocean going; not too flashy, something with a shallow draught, moderate speed, and bally great big guns. Say hello to the Queen of the East Aithiopsian waters, HMS Blunderer, coastal battleship, 9000 tons, carrying four 12-inch rifled guns. A gunboat of the 'Fly' class, perhaps HMS Botfly (a sister vessel, HMS Shoofly, operates in Medifluvian waters) might be suitable for riverine work. Perhaps one or two former American Civil War naval units might find their way into the rival navies. I feel fairly sure that Azeitona will welcome the ironclad ram Lafayette, bought from the United States of Anaconda in 1866. No match for the Blunderer, of course, but ... with a certain presence of its own.  Perhaps the twin-turreted monitor Kickapoo, recently sold (in 1874) by the USA to an undisclosed buyer, might yet find its way to the area.  Who knows? 

HMS Blunderer - newly commissioned, still wanting
its lifeboats...

Plenty of scope for small scale inshore and riverine naval and combined operations...

To be concluded...

Abyad*  - My tentative name for the Islamic Arabs, Mahdists and what have you, engaged in raid, robbery, and all-round rambunctiousness... well that's what the Ruberians are saying, anyhow. Probably Jacko already has his own name for them.

Russians are coming... slowly...

Ekaterinburg (nearer camera) and Apsheron Infantry
advancing in echelon.

A few weeks ago I posted some pics of Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars Russians, and a rather historic licensed Highland battalion.  Since then they have progressed.  Almost finished, withal, and some other figures almost begun...

I don't know what manufacture of soldiery these are - 28mm, fairly roughly sculpted but plenty of character to the figures.  The many advancing poses, and several cheloveki without hats leads to quite an animated unit - rather different from my usual Napoleonic battalions.

 I believe these are more in the way of Revolutionary Wars Russians, still with bicorne hats for the musketeers and mitre caps for the grenadiers. At that, I have taken some liberties with history by placing a 4-figure grenadier company in each of the battalions.  History be damned: the units together make a fine Brigade (or Division with an Army level rule set I have in mind).

Russian infantry battalions in line.

 The 73rd (Perthshire) 'Highland' Infantry are very nearly complete, but for clox on sox and chequers on the bonnets.

 I have mentioned before my method of skewing downloaded paper flags (using the Microsoft 'Paint' software), from a oblong to a more lozenge shape - a parallelogram - in order to improve the way they 'drape' from their poles.  This does have the effect, I suspect, of making the end result a little darker than it might be.  There are a number of ways one might tackle this, but one method might be to 'stretch' the flag in the fly - make it a little longer horizontally - before skewing.  10% seems about right.

73rd (Perthshire) Highlanders.  The dark green
Regimental colour looks almost black in this picture.

 Looking at these pictures show that some touching up is indicated along the edges of the flags.  Look how dark the regimental flag is!

 These two confrontational pictures show clearly, I think, my method of rendering the tartan.  Rather than try to paint the whole thing, I took what I considered to be a 'representative' section as the basis for the whole. Instead of two (or more?) rows of blue squares, there is just one. On the whole I was quite pleased at how the thing turned out.

Meanwhile, back in the USSR I mean Russia the remains of the Corps is still to do.  To begin with, a rather understrength unit of Jager, from the Minifigs 25mm range.  The green of their uniforms is rather darker than it ought to be, perhaps.   

 Below I have begun by undercoating the two Grenadier (St Petersburg and Brest-Litovsk) battalions.  I include these to show my recently adopted method.  Previously I preferred to undercoat in white and then outline in black before beginning painting.  This method took a little time but there were two upsides to this. First was, that once this was done, the figures would be already looking interesting, and it kindled enthusiasm for continuing painting.  The second was that accurate painting was a lot easier.

 

Unfortunately my eyesight rules that method out - you need good binocular vision, I find.  So now I black undercoat, and then by whisking - almost dry brushing - over with white, I can pick out the details.  This means I can actually see them, but also means that the applied colours won't be dulled - except where required - by the underlying dark undercoat.

Only two ranks of the above column have been so treated so far.  In the background, the flags the battalions will receive (nicely contrasting, methinks).  They have been downloaded from Napflags and the obverse and reverse skewed as you see here.  The centre - pole - section has been moved up.  This has left those white vertical lines you see, but they can be blacked out, or left as is, as I decide.