Operation Winter Storm: Panzergrenadiers 4 – Sniper Team

The next support team to be finished for the Operation Winter Storm project are some German snipers.

The miniatures are from Battlefront.

I'm not really that fond of diorama type bases, but here I took the opportunity to indulge in some light modelling as I thought it would suit the miniatures.

Next we're gearing up for the heavier stuff!

Operation Winter Storm: Panzergrenadiers 3 – Pioneer Teams

I'm steaming ahead with the Operation Winter Storm project and after finishing all the regular German infantry, it's now time for the support. First up are a couple of Pioneer teams, very useful for taking care of bunkers and other fortified positions.

Smoke team with smoke grenades.

Demolitions team with pole charges
and other demolition charges.

Flamethrower team with flamethrower and two riflemen.

The models are a mix of Peter Pig (specialists) and Battlefront (riflemen). Despite a difference in style and chunkiness, they mix pretty nicely in my opinion.

More support toys to come ...

Operation Winter Storm: Panzergrenadiers 2

Here are another two squads of German Panzergrenadiers for the Operation Winter Storm project. Together with the ones posted last week they make up a reinforced platoon, and are all the regular German infantry needed for this project. Ah, the joys of working in 15 mm!

Squad 1.

LMG team 1 and three riflemen. 

LMG team 2 and two riflemen.

Miniatures are all from Battlefront. A mix of older and newer sculpts. I actually quite like them both but wish there were more poses with full winter gear.

Squad 2.

LMG team 1 and three riflemen. 

LMG team 2 and two riflemen.

All together now ...

German Panzergrenadier platoon,
reinforced with a fourth squad.

Thank you very much for reading – have a great weekend everyone!

Operation Winter Storm: Panzergrenadiers 1

After a (not so) brief fantasy diversion it's time to buckle down and get on with one of my planned projects for this year: WW2 Estern Front, more specifically Unternehmen Wintergewitter – Operation Winter Storm.

German troops in southern Soviet Union in December 1942.
In the foreground a Panzer III.

This was an attempt to rescue the encircled German 6th Army at Stalingrad during December 1942. The plan was for a relief force made up of the 4th Panzer Army, commanded by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein and consisting of the 6th, 17th and 23rd Panzer Divisions, to penetrate the Soviet lines from the south and secure a bridgehead over the river Myshkova. Meanwhile the mobile forces of 6th army would smash its way out of the Stalingrad pocket and join up. This was somewhat of gamble by Manstein, as Hitler had more or less forbidden the 6th Army from ever giving up the city.

The main effort of the drive from the south was to be with 6th Panzer Division, who was in very good shape after a period of refitting in France, while the other two divisions were protect the flanks of the advance. However, 17th and 23rd had seen heavy fighting on the Eastern front and as a result they were both badly understrength leaving the flanks of 6th Panzer Division dangerously vulnerable.

Despite this, and despite the crumbling front line, the first stage of the operation was a success: the divisions were able to detrain successfully while under threat from Soviets pouring into the gap left in the front line, stabilise the situation, and launch the operation.

German Panzergrenadiers examining
a knocked out Soviet T-34 tank.

The Soviets were taken somewhat by surprise by the attacking German forces, and in true Blitzkrieg spirit, the Panzer Divisions were able to rapidly speed deep into enemy held territory before the Soviets counterattacked. These attacks, fierce as they were, were initially fought back by the advancing Germans and the 6th Panzer Division could eventually secure the bridgehead over the Myshkova river. However, they had now suffered heavy losses and continuous Soviet attacks forced them to halt further advance.

According to the original plan, the 6th Army was now to break out of their encirclement and join up with the relief force. Despite Manstein's successful operation, Hitler still refused to let the 6th Army conduct the breakout operation. Manstein tried to convince General Friedrich Paulus, the commander of the 6th Army, to still go ahead with the original plan. While Paulus at first agreed, he later changed his mind due to the weakened state of the 6th Army and Hitler's expressed orders against it.

German troops on the Eastern front October 1941.
Note the interesting mix of regular and improvised winter camouflage.

Manstein then made a final attempt to link up with the forces at Stalingrad, but despite advancing to within some 48 km from the city, the 6th Army made no attempt to break out of the encirclement. Sensing the moment lost, on December 23rd, Operation Winterstorm was cancelled as Manstein ordered the 4th Panzer Army to regroup to deal with further Soviet offensives elsewhere. The German forces at Stalingrad incredibly managed to hold out for another month, under constant worsening conditions, but on January 31st they finally had to surrender. Some 91 000 men were taken prisoner, and of these only 5 000 ever made their way back to Germany.

As a basis for this project I will use the excellent scenario pack for Too Fat Lardies platoon level game Chain of Command. My original goal for 2015 was to be able to play the first 14 (of 22) scenarios. This meant painting up models for both sides (Germans and Soviets), and to make all the necessary terrain – certainly an ambitious plan! But now we're already well into October and I've had to adjust the plan, making this first step a more modest one: my goal is now to finish all the German stuff this year. The Soviets and the terrain will have to wait until 2016 I'm afraid.

Squad 1.

What better way to start then, than with two squads of the iconic German Panzergrenadiers. These guys are all about the firepower: with the tactics built around their (in)famous MG 34/42:s, they can pour out some serious amounts of dice. They have their Obergefreiters with them (Junior Leaders in Chain of Command).

LMG team 1 and three riflemen.

LMG team 2 and two riflemen.

As for the basing, I've been thinking this over for a good while, and as you can see, in the end I went for mostly single bases with the LMG-teams two on one base. The reason for this is mostly aesthetic rather than practical, as I think single bases just look better and more "realistic" when it comes to modelling WW2-tactics. And of course, casualty removal is a breeze with singles. If it proves too fiddly in play I can always rebase them ...

The regular riflemen are on a 15 mm base, while the JLs are on 20 mm bases to make them easier to spot on the table. The LMG-teams are on 30 mm bases.

Squad 2.

The bases show a late fall/early winter theme with patches of snow, as the area was not fully covered in snow during December 1942. I'm not entirely happy with the look, mainly the snow flock  is a bit too coarse for this scale, and I might go back and adjust this.

LMG team 1 and 2 riflemen.

LMG team 2 and 3 riflemen.

Models are from Battlefront and I've gone for a mix of greatcoats and winter camouflage uniforms, with further diversity added by painting some helmets white. During the first winter on the Eastern front, in 1941, the Germans lacked suitable equipment as they were convinced the invasion would be a quick job, and they would be home before Christmas. When faced with the harsh Russian winter, they scrambled together what they could find of warm clothes and even had to improvise winter camouflage with scavenged bedsheets and captured Soviet winter uniforms (see the photo above). The relief force in 1942 would probably be better equipped for the winter conditions, but I think the Germans always look best with a somewhat rag-tag appearance.

Finally a shot of the two groups together with the platoon commander (Unterfeldwebel, Senior Leader). He's mounted on a 25 mm base to make him stand out from the JLs.

Squads 1 and 2 with their Unterfeldwebel/Senior Leader.

Next up are two more squads of Panzergrenadiers and then it's time for all the fun toys.

Thank you very much for reading – have a great weekend everyone!

A Small Teaser – Table for Tonight's game

I couldn't resist sharing these pictures with you, showing the setup for tonight's game of Dux Britanniarum. The terrain was set up by my good mate Dalauppror, who has a real talent for making beautiful tables, and this time he really outdid himself.

Buildings, markers, minis and trees by yours truly. The rest of the terrain is from the club.

The game? Well, the Saxons were out to plunder the church but had a really rough nigh. But with two newcomers commanding them and the terrain placement perhaps being a bit too tough on them, this was only to be expected. Still, I think everyone had a good time – I certainly enjoyed visiting this old favourite of mine!

A full report with pictures of the action will be posted in due time.

Rohan Warband

Well, now that fellow club member Sören has posted his truly wonderful version of Galadriel, the cat's out of the bag so to speak, and we can reveal our "secret project". Not that I know why it was ever a secret, but anyway ...

It's only fitting that Sören would kick things off, as he was the instigator after having watched one too many parts of The Hobbit! Me and Michael were quickly drafted into the project as it turned out we all had a fair amount of painted and unpainted Lord of the Rings miniatures in our respective lead piles.

As for my part, I have a lot of things on my plate right now and therefore choose the easy path and rebased some Rohan miniatures I painted 4 or 5 years ago, originally intended for Basic Impetus Fantasy (another abandoned project). However, after looking over the minis I found the paint jobs to be worse than I remembered. If I recall correctly they were actually speed painted using Army Painter dip. In an attempt to at least bring them up to a standard I wasn't too ashamed of to put down on the gaming table, I did some touch-ups and added a couple of highlights here and there in addition to the rebasing. The horses got some special attention, and one or two were even totally repainted.

When it came to rules, we decided to go for the upcoming fantasy version of Lion Rampant as we're very familiar with the rules engine by now and it gives a fast and fun game. Going by what Dan posted on his blog about troop types and costs, I came up with the following:
1xHeavy Riders @ 4 pts
2xHeavy Foot @ 2x4 pts

That's a mere 12 points but should be enough to get me started. I have several more models in my lead pile, mainly heroes/characters, both foot and mounted. I'm thinking about painting up a mounted Éowyn, as she is my absolute favourite character in the books and films, but thematically perhaps Éomer would be a better fit. We shall see! In any way, the character would be fielded as an Elite Rider single model unit @ 6 points.

The models took a little longer to finish than expected, and are certainly not my best paint jobs (hence not too many pictures this time), but they're certainly good enough for a game or two!

And don't worry, that's enough fantasy for a while. Next up are some proper historical stuff.

Please Stand Clear – Rebasing in Progress

The state of the painting tray a while back ...

The fruits of the labour will be revealed during next week.

Have a great week everyone!

Frostgrave Warband

Regular readers may know that although I'm first and foremost a historical gamer I occasionally like to dabble in more "exotic" periods/genres. Last year I did a smallish fantasy project over the summer, and well – this year I did too! Inspired by my mate Dalauppror's superb kit bashed warband for Frostgrave, I had a rummage through my bit box and built a warband of my own.

An old GW plastic wizard was used as the central character. At this time, I didn't have the rules yet, but after flicking through Dalauppror's book I knew there was a wizard type called soothsayer and the crystal ball in the wizard kit would be a perfect match for this school of magic. After trying a couple of different heads, I used one with a fur hat as it looked good and would fit the winter theme of Frostgrave.

For the soldiers, I went with some old Bretonnian men-at-arms as the basis. I liked their heavily armoured look, which I think also fits nicely with the winter theme. The heads, arms and weapons are from a couple of different GW kits, including the original Bretonnians, Empire militia and State Troops. It was fun trying out different poses – tiny adjustments can really make a big difference for the look and character of the model.

To make the soldiers look less uniform and more like a hardened band of mercenaries, I mixed shields from the original kit with different metal shields from Curtey's and Gripping Beast. The lion heads are overpainted transfers.

The apprentice gave me some trouble. It wasn't until I started playing around with a Gripping Beast model it all seemed to click. The model is from the Saga baggage set. He got a spare head from the GW wizard kit, a pole arm from the Bretonnian kit (it's a bit over-sized but hey, it's fantasy!) and a fur cloak for a bit of dramatic flair. I liked the look of the cloak so I went back an added one to one of the soldiers. 

Then it was just a matter of painting them up, trying to find a paint scheme that tied them all together as a force. To make them stand out, I added a bright green colour to some parts of the wizard and the apprentice.

As I said, I didn't have the Frostgrave rules when I built the models. After receiving the rules and reading up on warband creation, I discovered my warband is too large, especially kitted out like this. Oh well, it's nice to have some models for when the warband grows – and of course I can use them for other games as well. 

Thanks for reading – have a great weekend everyone!

Håtunaleken – The Full Host of King Birger Magnusson

As I now have finished my host for our club project Håtunaleken, about the feuding royal brothers in early 14th century Sweden, I decided to take some pictures of the assembled units. To me, it's always very satisfying seeing a finished project like this.

This is a full 24 points retinue for Lion Rampant consisting of:
Mounted Men-at-Arms (Drilled) 7 points
Foot Men-at-Arms 6 points
Foot Serjeants 4 points
Foot Yeomen (Mixed Weapons) 5 points
Bidowers 2 points

Leading from the front, swinging his big axe and accompanied
by his personal bodyguard, is the king himself.
In the background can be seen the fearsome knights,
ready to make short work of any rebellious brothers.

The miniatures are a mix of Black Tree Design, Curtey's and Gripping Beast. There are some headswaps hidden amongst the units, with new heads from Curtey's and West Wind.

I had my first game with the complete host this past Monday – and it was a complete and utter disaster! More about this humiliating defeat in Dalauppror's upcoming AAR I'm sure ...

And to finish it all off, here is the last part of the story of the Second Feud of Brothers. When we left the three royal brothers – Birger, Erik and Valdemar – Sweden had just fought a civil war with the king Birger on one side and the younger brothers duke Erik and duke Valdemar on the other. Since Birger and Erik through marriage, had the support of the Danish and the Norwegian kings respectively, neither side was strong enough and the fighting was inconclusive. Instead, on initiative of the two other kings, in 1310 a peace treaty was signed and Sweden was now definitely split between the brothers and in practice ruled as three independent kingdoms. However, as the "legitimate" king Birger had, in his own opinion at least, drawn the shortest straw, he naturally wanted to restore his power and unite the kingdom under himself once again.

Here are the king's trusted knektar (serjeants),
and in front of them some skirmishing peasants.

In December 1317, as a sign of reconciliation, king Birger invited the dukes Erik and Valdemar to Nyköpings hus (Nyköping Castle). When they arrived they were told only they could stay at the castle, since there wasn't enough room to house all their men. Instead, the men had to make camp in the city itself.

On the night between December 10th and 11th, the dukes were arrested by a company of crossbow men. According to the legends, the king himself was present at the arrests and is told to have said:

Minnes idher nakot aff Haatwna leek?
Fulgörla minnes han mik!
Thenne er ey bätre än hin!

(Do you remember the Håtuna Games?
All too well I remember them!
This one will not be any better!)

The dukes were then imprisoned in the dungeons, while in the morning all their men were also arrested. These particular events have became known as "Nyköpings gästbud" (Nyköping Banquet).

However, Birger had misjudged the political situation: rather than acknowledge him as king, the dukes' supporters rose up against Birger and Sweden was once again thrown into a civil war.

Finally the allmoge, peasants armed with a mix of spears,
polearms and crossbows. (Sorry about the blurry picture!)

When Nyköping castle was besieged in the summer of 1318, Birger and his queen were forced to flee to the island Gotland and then further on to Denmark. In the meantime, their son, Magnus, was left in charge of the defenders of the castle. However, they could not hold out against the attacking forces and Magnus was also forced to flee towards Gotland. During the flight he was captured and later executed in Stockholm in 1320. When the dukes' supporters broke into the castle they found both Erik and Valdemar dead in the dungeons. How they died remains unclear to this day – were they murdered or did they die of starvation?

Birger ended his days in exile in Denmark 1321, while duke Erik's only son Magnus Eriksson was chosen as king of Sweden in 1319 at the age of three. Prior to this, he had been declared king of Norway after his grandfather king Håkon Magnusson had died, and thus he was destined to become a very powerful man indeed. King Magnus was a very interesting person, for many reasons, but this is another story best left for another time!

Have a great weekend everyone and thank you very much for reading!

A Forest

Or the start of one at least!

For years I have looked in envy at the wonderful trees adorning many a British wargaming table. I was quite taken by the look of them – they looked so much better than the usual bottle-cleaner trees or the boring samey ones from Woodland Scenics.

After some research, I found out these trees seemed to be made by the same manufacturer, Last Valley Terrain. At Salute last year, I had the chance to see and admire the products up close, but due to the limited space in my suitcase, a purchase was not possible.

Rubberised horsehair – the magic stuff!

Instead I perused the Net for suitable tutorials and then promptly ordered some rubberised horsehair (it's not really horsehair these days though, more like organic fibres from coconuts or something), grabbed some of my Woodland Scenics tree armatures, a bottle of cheap hairspray and got to work.

This was my method:

1. Remove any mould lines from the WS tree armatures and then twist them into the desired shapes.
2. Glue to bases.
3. Wetbrush mid/dark grey on the stems. Don't be too neat as a sloppy job just makes them look more natural.
4. Wash with a dark brown wash, eg AP Strong Tone.
5. Drybrush original mid/dark grey.
6. Light drybrush with lighter grey.
7. Tear off chunks in various sizes from the rubberised horsehair and tease these apart. 
8. Paint some wood/PVA glue on the branches and then wind/stretch the rubberised horsehair over them. Leave to dry.
9. If the rubberised horsehair still looks flat in some places, tease it apart as best as you can.
10. Spray the rubberised horsehair with a generous amount of cheap (and sticky!) hairspray and pour your preferred flock over the tree. For my trial I used WS fine turf green blend. Wait for a while then shake of excess flock. 
11. Spray heavily with more hair spray over the newly attached flock. Then spray some more.
12. Wait an hour or more then do another heavy spray.
13. Snip off any straggly bits of the rubberised horsehair with some scissors.
14. Finish off the base in your preferred manner.
15. Optional: The hairspray I used dried with a satin sheen. While this was not apparent on the turf, it did show on the stems. A couple of quick sprays with AP Anti-shine took care of this.

And there you have it!

These were all made very quickly as a test and I think they came out rather nice for a first try but of course there's always room for improvements. I learned a couple of important lessons from this trial, eg to try and tease the rubberised horsehair apart, to make it less flat. You can see some parts were I didn't do this enough and it makes the tree look a bit unnatural.

However, the major misstake was the bases. I mounted the trees on 5 mm foamcore but made the bases much too small and this made the trees very wobbly. When I realised this, I glued washers under the bases for some extra weight and this helped to some extent though they're still a bit unstable. I'm planning to do another batch and for these I'm looking at using 1 or 2 mm plastic card for the bases, and making sure to do them a bit larger than these first ones.

In the next batch, I will also experiment with adding some roots made from putty and vary the colours on both the stems and the foliage for a more natural look. I have an idea to make some birch trees as I think a grove of these would look really nice on the gaming table!

Have a great weekend everyone and thank you very much for reading!