Rebasing My 15mm Medieval Troops

Many years ago, I rebased my 15mm Medieval troops from their old DBA-style basing to the basing used by the "Vis Bellica" rules since I was starting to use that set.  That basing called for all units to be on 80mm x 40mm bases (for 15mm figures).  We used the rules for a year or so, but the mathematical calculations necessary to compute combat (both ranged and close) taxed our wee minds too much.

My Norman commanders and cavalry using the "Vis Bellica" basing.

I've used this basing standard with the "To the Strongest!" rules with good success.  Then our group started playing games using Ricard Borg's "Commands and Colors" mechanisms.  We quickly transitioned from the board game with the blocks to a larger hex gridded battle mat using our metal figures.  We've played ancients in 15mm, Napoleonic in 25mm, and Samurai in 28mm.  Although the card driven mechanism can result in some very unrealistic (in my mind) situations, the games were enjoyable.

Now Borg has released "Commands and Colors - Medieval" which I will be getting for Christmas.  The box has already been received and is sitting in the closet with other presents awaiting the big day.  Now I could have kept this basing standard and just used strength markers but that seemed a little awkward to me.  So I began what I had though about doing for years --  the major project of rebasing my Medievals back to the DBA standard of 40mm wide bases.  Each unit will be of 4 stands so losses can be shown.  So far I've rebased about 50% of my forces - the Byzantines and almost all of the Moslems.  Then I ran out of bases, but new ones are on the way.  Here's what they look like now:

Byzantine commanders and infantry

Byzantine cavalry

Moslem commanders and infantry (the three archer bases at the bottom are awaiting new bases)

Moslem commanders and cavalry

I have a large number of figures to paint still in order to have enough for the various scenarios in the "Command and Colors" rule set.  My challenge of course has been that "C&C-M" is set in the very early Medieval period with scenarios dating from the 500s and 600s and pitting the late Romans and early Byzantines against such enemies as the Huns, Sassanid Persians, and Ostro- & Visigoths.  Many of my figures are from the 900-1100 timeframe but will work.  I'm hoping that, as with the ancient sets, Borg expands to cover other Medieval periods.  Then I can use my Normans and other western European troops.

I also obtained two Cigar Box battle mats with 4" hexes to use for my gaming.

Here's part of one of them with two 4-stand units of Byzantine heavy cavalry with bows and a commander.

But part of the project also involves what to do with the old 80mm x 40mm bases that I no longer need.

Old 80mm x 40mm bases

After some consideration, I decided to scrape as much of the adhesive off the bases and use them as infantry unit movement stands.

"New" movement base with a magnetic piece stuck to it

Four stands of auxilia infantry

Same unit showing the loss of one stand

But the old bases would not hold the 30mm deep cavalry stands so I had to come up with something else.  Luckily I had some old skirmish movement bases made from matt board and magnetic sheeting.  I just cut them down and, voila, cavalry movement bases!

 

4-stand unit of generic bow-armed medium cavalry

Same unit showing a loss of 1 stand

Now it is on to paint more figures and make more cavalry movement bases!  More later as the project progresses.

ACW Union XIV Corps Completed

Thanks to a good friend, all of the units of the Union XIV Corps are now painted and based.  Commanded by Major General George Thomas, the XIV Corps was, in my opinion, the elite corps of the Army of the Cumberland from the beginning of the Tullahoma Campaign  through the smashing of Bragg's Army of Tennessee at the Battle of Missionary Ridge.  I've replicated in 15mm for the "On to Richmond" rules.  Please click on each image for a larger picture.

For "On to Richmond" each maneuver unit is either a brigade of infantry or cavalry or a grouping of 12 artillery pieces.  Each infantry stand replicates about 300 men.

The last part of the corps to be completed was Brigadier General John Brannan's 3rd Division.

Brig Gen Brannon (left) and the divisional artillery (right), consisting of D Company, 1st Michigan Light Artillery and C Company, 1st Ohio Light Artillery

1st Brigade (82nd Indiana and 17th, 31st, and 38th Ohio) in line of battle.

1st Brigade in a reinforced line of battle.

2nd Brigade (10th and 74th Indiana, 4th and 10th Kentucky, and 14th Ohio) in reinforced line of battle.

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3rd Brigade (87th Indiana, 2nd Minnesota, and 9th and 35th Ohio) in reinforced line of battle.

And the entire XIV Corps in its "barracks box" with the corps command and artillery in the left center, the 1st Division on the upper left, 2nd Division on the lower left, 3rd Division on the upper right, and 4th Division on the lower right.

The only unit of the corps not yet included is Colonel John Wilder's 1st Brigade, 4th Division, the "Lightning Brigade."  This brigade was a mounted infantry unit and was used by Major General Rosecrans as a mobile striking unit along with some of the army's cavalry.  The Lightning Brigade and Colonel Robert Minty's 1st "Saber" Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division are still "being raised."  They will join the XIV Corps at a later date.

Now on to the Confederate forces who will oppose them.  I've only been working on this project since January 2016 and hope to have it completed before the summer of 2021.  That's only about 5-1/2 years, longer than the American Civil War lasted.

Very British Civil War Civilians

Finally, after over six years, I completed painting a group of civilians for my Very British Civil War period.  I first received these figures in July 2014 [ link ] from Recreational Conflict where they are still being produced.  More details about the figures are in the July 2014 post at the above link.

Please click on the individual pictures for larger images.

From back in 2014, they looked like this:

Male and female ambulance staff

Nurse and three store clerks

Now after finally getting them painted, they look like this:

Three store clerks, nurse, two ambulance staff

I still will need to do some terrain work on the bases, but that will come later once I get a sufficient number of figures ready to tackle that task.

French 9th Mitrailleuse Battery, 15th Loire Corps Artillery

During the Republican period (post Sedan and Metz) of the Franco-German War (1870-1871), the French forces were obtaining weapons from whatever source they could to replace all the ones lost when almost all of the Imperial Army surrendered.  One of the weapons they obtained was the American Gatling gun.

Having several extra Ral Partha Victorian Gatlings laying around, I decided to make my corps artillery Mitrailleuse battery with the Gatlings.

The 9th Mitrailleuse Battery, 15th Loire Corps Artillery

The guns are Ral Partha while the figures are, I believe, either Frontier or Falcon.  I obtained them from various sources over the years.  While the uniform may not be quite right, for the Republican period they are sufficient.

This has been my "break" from painting WW2 Germans, which I'll start again with the heavy weapons support for my kampfgruppe -- an MG-42 on a sustained firing mount and a medium mortar.

Another German Gruppe Completed

I've finally completed the last of my German gruppen (squads) for my ad hoc kampfgruppe.  These are a batch of 28mm Black Tree Design (edited- thanks "Big Red") German Army figures.

 The 10-man gruppe has a sergeant with an MP-40 and nine riflemen, two of whom are carrying panzerfausts.  There is no light machinegun team with this gruppe, although if I can acquire one I'll add it and transfer two of the riflemen to the kampfgruppe headquarters.

I still have the tripod mounted MG-42 and crew, the mortar team, and a motorcycle with sidecar team to add before my Germans are completed.

Some "Rugged Adventures" Painting

Over the past several weeks I've been painting some "fun" figures.

First up is one of Bob Murch's excellent Pulp Figures sculpts.  She is part of the "Dangerous Dames 2" pack (PHP 19).  Bob calls her Bernadette of la Resistance, but I'll probably refer to her as Joanie, after St. Joan d'Arc.  One of my former co-workers who studied in Paris told me that there were mounted statues of St. Joan all over France.  She and some of her less-reverent friends referred to them as "Joanie on a Pony."

Armed with a German MP-40 and wearing her best necklace and lipstick, she brings a certain 'dignity' to what otherwise would be a vulgar brawl.

And here's what she would look like in a "period" picture.

 The next figure is a medic for my "mercenary" White Russian detachment which was featured in the previous post.

He's also a Brigade Games sculpt from their 'Storm in the East' Russian Command I pack.

And finally, I completed painting my small collection of Bob Murch's "Movember" miniatures.  I have six of the seven Bob has released since 2013.  The seventh and latest didn't appeal to me as I don't collect Wild West figures any more.  Here are my interpretations of them.

From left -- Lord Lippinbrush (2013), Stash Gable (2014), and Captain Krustache (2015)

Pasha Moustasha (2016), Muff McGillicutty (2017), Barnabus Tash (2018)

They will all be used in one way or another in my various Back of Beyond, Very British Civil War, and Rugged Adventures games.

And now back to the mundane of painting more WW2 German infantry.  But once I finish them, my planned painting queue involves more White Russians, British 1930s/1940s naval landing party, and a goodly selection of Bob Murch's figures.

Y'all stay safe!

Back to Painting in the "Back of Beyond"

After an almost two month painting hiatus, I knocked off some additional figures for my forces in the "Back of Beyond" China in the 1920s/1930s.

The first batch are two Cannon Fodder (no longer in production) Chinese I picked up from the collection of my late wargaming buddy Mark "Doc Ord" Stevens.  These two will reinforce an already painted unit of ten warlord Chinese.  I still have to terrain the bases.

The second batch were also picked up from Mark's collection.  They are a disparate group of Russian Civil War infantry that will constitute a unit of mercenary White Russians living in China after being chased out of "Mother Russia" by the Communists.

The soldier and officer to the camera left of the banner bearer are Brigade Games RCW figures while the remaining four are from unknown manufacturers.  The banner bearer and the rifleman on the far right are from the same sculptor.  The banner is patterned after the flags carried by the White forces in Siberia.  These bases will also get a terrain treatment in the near future.

They will be joined by a medic and a group of twelve White "shock" troops, also Brigade Games figures.

I'm happy to be able to get back to the painting table after so long!