Trail of Honor 2014

Last Saturday, I went by the Mississippi Trail of Honor exhibition that is set-up in our local Harley Davidson shop and in the woods behind it.

The shop display room is cleared and local veterans groups, veterans assistance organizations, and others set up display tables, exhibits, and assistance booths.

Various veterans groups - Marines, Vietnam Veterans, etc.

The 82nd Airborne Association

Tuskegee Airman manning the Buffalo Soldiers Association table

More Tuskegee airmen

WW2 Marine Navajo code talkers

Mississippi Military Museum, Camp Shelby

Outside in the woods behind the Harley shop, groups representing America's various wars, from the French and Indian to modern, set up living history demonstrations.

My friend John H. in his Continental officer's uniform, looking rather warm and uncomfortable.

A battery of Confederate artillery

And their opposite numbers, a Union Model 1841 12-lb howitzer, getting ready to fire.

Loading the piece.

And firing.  They double charged it and the noise was palpable to my body as well as my ears.

But the highlight of the exhibition honors our fallen veterans.

The Traveling Vietnam Veterans Wall, which is escorted throughout its time in the state by the American Legion Riders.  The honor guard this year was provided by the Mississippi State Guard, I think.

The Mississippi Faces of the Fallen Wall (under the tent) honors those Mississippians who have died in our recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

The US flags stretched along the trail in both directions.

All in all it is a grand way to honor and memorialize our American veterans (of whom I am one).  I was able to meet and thank a number of older veterans and renew a few acquaintances from previous years.

Paint for Victory - Part 4

I just completed by third, and final, rifle section for the Cambridge Fencibles (Anglican League).

 

This is the "firing line" pack from Battle Honors.  For the most part they seem to be better sculpted and moulded than the "skirmish" packs that I have for the other two sections.  But the standing and kneeling figures are holding their rifles in a most awkward position, rather too far forward to my eye instead of a good positioning against the shoulder.  But from 3 or 4 feet away they look OK.

Now, where does that leave me for my goal when we (Ok, Ok, I) started this "Paint for Victory" madness.  Well, I've painted the two rifle sections, the two mounted officers, and the fillers for my headquarters section so that's good.  But, I didn't get the film crew finished and I haven't completed the armored truck for the BUF special assault section so that's not good.  Oh, well, we can't all be perfect I guess.  Kinda takes the fun out of life.

My game is still on for Saturday.  For a while today I felt like I had scheduled a war and no one was showing up.  But enough of our group will be there that I'll at least have two players per side.  A report with pictures will be forthcoming.

Then it is on to the additional figures that are on their way from Brigade Games - more armed civilians, more headquarters wallahs, and a Maxim machinegun team for my revolutionary sailors.  I am going to try to paint most of these for my convention game next month.



Paint for Victory - Part 3

Today I completed the second of three batches of Battle Honours figures for my Very British Civil War game on Saturday, May 17.

All of these figures are part of the Anglican League's Cambridge Fencibles, raised by the Bishop of Cambridge from veterans of the Great War, recently demobilized troops of the Cambridgeshire Regiment, and volunteers.

The senior headquarters section for the West Suffolk district of the Bury St. Edmonds command area.  The mounted and dismounted Leftenant Colonel are on the photo left while the mounted and dismounted major are on the right.  The "regimental" colour sergeant is in the center.  In the rear right and left are the two signal teams.

 

The command element for No. 2 Company, Cambridge Fencibles, consists of the captain (center), leftenent (with swagger stick), company colour sergeant (to left of captain), and two privates.



 

 

The company has attached to it a Vickers machinegun team.  This two has two "modes."  On the left they are set up and ready to fire while on the right they are moving to a new location.

 

I also did some work on the goods wagon (boxcar to us Americans) that was featured in my game last month.   Fight for the Supplies .

 



 

The goods wagon as it originally came with the toy train set I bought some years ago.  I took it apart and sprayed it first with Krylon plastic primer then with Krylon flat black camouflage paint.



 

Then I painted the body in the livery of the London and North Eastern Railway whose mainline runs through Essex and Suffolk on its way north.  To the left is another open goods wagon that will get a further treatment in the future, maybe as an armored gun car.  It shows the difference in the original toy train set cars and the partially detained car I just did.



Now I only have 10 more figures, Rifle Section No. 2, of the company to paint this week before my game.



Paint for Victory - Part 2

Last night I completed the first of two rifle sections for the Anglican League reinforcements.  These ten Battle Honours figures will join their brethern of the 1st Section as part of No. 2 Company, Cambridge Fencibles, defending western Suffolk from the depredations of the Royalists and their British Union of Fascists allies.

The figure on the front right shows how I mark the rear of the bases to distinguish the various commands.  Anglicans get this nice medium blue with one, two, or three slashes for the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Sections.  Other colors used are white for Royalist, black for BUF, red for revolutionary Naval, orange for socialists, and green for local defense.

I still have to paint another rifle section, a heavy machinegun team, and a number of command figures before my game on Saturday, May 17.

Paint for Victory - Part 1

In a thread on the Very British Civil War Forum, "Taking a Swing at Lead Mountain," the original poster suggested a communal effort to make a concerted effort to get some of our laggard VBCW projects completed.  I posted that I had a number of figures just undercoated that needed to be completed before my game on May 17.  So it looks like we have a target!

Here is the first picture of the progress:

Last night I painted the shoes and puttees or riding boots on 22 infantry, 2 mounted officers, 3 foot officers, and 2 3-man heavy machine gun teams.  They'll get their pants tonight.

These are Battle Honours figures from Old Glory 15s/19th Century Miniatures ( link ) here in the US.  Some of the figures sculpting is a little crude but they look very nice when painted, plus the price and shipping was very reasonable.  They are glued to roofing nails that have large flat heads and held in a block of Styrofoam.  The nails give me a good purchase and I can angle them just about anyway I need to paint the various bits.

More later!

 

 

 

 

 



Additions to Very British Civil War Forces

I've added some more troops to upgrade my Revolutionary Naval force and my British Union of Fascist force.

The Revolutionary Naval company has augmented its headquarters element with three additional figures - a Leftenant resplendent in his whites (but with a red armband to show his "true" colors) and two seamen (front left and right).  The senior petty officer (back left) who was in command as been relegated to 2ic while the petty officer (right rear) now carries a banner suitably engrossed "Maritime Defence Force."  The figures are a mix of Pulp Figures (leftenant, from pack PBT 16) and Brigade Games (packs BG-WIAG 15, 16, and 17).  The banner is courtesy of Leics-Gamer from the VBCW Forum [link].  I also added two more riflemen to each of the rifle sections in the company.

I've also replaced my old "true 25mm" British colonial naval gunners with bigger 28mm 20th Century British naval figures from Pulp Figures (pack PBT 16).

Although they are not really in "gunner" poses, they'll do until I can find something better.  The gun is one that I have had for a very long time (as you can see from the "yellowing" of the white enamel paint).

The Revolutionary Naval company is now up to strength of 35 figures (5 in HQ and 10 in each rifle section) plus a 4-man gun team.

The British Union of Fascist (BUF) local forces from east Essex (Colchester area) have added an expanded headquarters element and a third rifle section.

Now called  the Bolton Rifles (banner and name courtesy of Leics-Gamer again), the expanded headquarters element has a captain (center), leftenant (far left), sergeant (right center), banner bearer (left center, obviously), and a rifle grenadier (far right).  These figures and the ones in the Third Section (below) are from Pulp Figures (packs PGS 15 and 16).

The Third Rifle Section has a sergeant (center with raised hand), eight riflemen, and one rifle grenadier (kneeling figure next to sergeant).

This completes the BUF Bolton Rifles to a company of 35 figures (5 in HQ and 10 in each rifle section) plus a 3-man heavy machine-gun team.

Now I've almost completed all the units that I have on-hand.  I still have to complete painting a new figure for the Squire of East Bergholt (a special Pulp Figures model), a section of mercenaries who will, initially, fight on the Anglican/Albertian side, and two Daimler armored cars for the Royalist armored force.

I've also identified some possible cavalry and infantry additions to the Royalist/BUF forces and cavalry additions to the Anglican/Albertian forces.  But it will be a while before they are ready for combat.

 

BUF Special Assault Section

Ever since before Christmas I have been in in painting doldrums.  But I took this week off from work and have used part of the time to finish a 10-man section of British Union of Fascists Special Assault Service troops for my Very British Civil War forces.  The figures are Pulp Figures German troops in coalscuttle helmets, PGS-08 and -10.  http://pulpfigures.com/products/category/6

The leftenant in charge of the Special Assault Section is a hardened veteran of the Great War and the Freikorps fighting in the early 1920s.  He is armed with a Bergnman MP 18 with a straight magazine.

The entire assault section - one leftenant (above), two sergeants (each armed with a Bergman MP 18 with TM 08 "snail" magazine), five riflemen, one rifle-grenadier (kneeling), and one grenadier.

Those of you who are fans of David Weber's Honorverse science fiction books will recognize the uniform colors as belonging to the State Security forces of the People's Republic of Haven.

This unit will eventually have its own "armored" vehicle as soon as I can convert a Crossley with added "armored" sides, etc.  These troops are all veterans and will be used by the Colchester Royalist/BUF garrison to crack any "hard nuts" they encounter.