Reds Under the Bed

My main project for the past couple of week was to get my Soviets re-based and ready to be thrown into the line for a game of O Group at my club tomorrow. I finished the basic battalion a few days back but I've been doing s few other bits and bobs too over the past couple of days.

The vast majority of these figures are from AB Figures but there are some others mixed in that I'm unsure about. I think they may be Adler Miniatures but I don't know. I inherited a load of Russians a couple of years back and that's where the figures come into the story, but more on that later.

The woman radio operator on the Battalion HQ base is one of the mystery figures. I had to include her on the base because the figure looked great and creates a point of difference for the battalion.

The heavy weapons are PSC and were also part of the inherited figures. They're not very nice figures but they do the job.

The guy in the center is another of the mystery figures. If you know who makes/made them I'd appreciate a comment (below).

I also made some Combat Patrol bases for 'O' Group. The figures are PSC. These are also some of the inherited troops. I was given a whole bunch of Soviet WW2 stuff after my friend Jim passed away. Many of the troops were incomplete, only primed or in a bad state. These guys were painted and although their paint scheme doesn't fit with the AB Figures I wanted to find a use for them. So now they've become Combat Patrols and they look great. They'll get used in every game.

I also had a bunch of 1/72 Zvesda German Infantry. These are very nice figures but they're thin and delicate and I don't think they'll stand up to the rigors of the wargaming table. But... They were painted and I wanted some German Combat Patrols quickly to match the Soviet ones, so they got a re-basing too.

However, I have a bunch of Esci/Italeri Germans that I don't have a use for. They're more robust than these figures so I think I'll paint them up and replace these guys with them next week.

And last but not least I also got some anti-tank guns finished. These were also inherited from Jim but they needed some TLC. I gave them a repaint and rebased them onto mdf (instead of cardboard). Like the CP's I used the painted gun crews as they were. They came up looking nice. These are Zis-2 57mm's. I also did a pair of 45mm guns too (but I forgot to takes pics).

That's all for now.
 

More Re-Basing - HG Div

The re-basing continues. This time it's the Hermann Goering Division. These guys are panzer grenadiers and as such they have lot of Light Machine Guns (LMG's). When I started this rebasing I thought I could do these guys relatively quickly but I found that it took fair bit of time to accumulate loads of LMG's (18 in all). I know that for 'O' Group I don't really need to represent all of the LMG's but I wanted them to look different and representing the huge amount of automatic weapons in the battalion was the way to do it.

They don't really look that much different to other German units but they do have Luftwaffe blue trousers and head gear and they also have a different camouflage smock. The figures are a mix of PSC plastics, AB Figures and Esci/Italeri plastics.

I don't have many heavy weapons for them yet. Just what you see here. But I can always sub regular infantry heavy weapons until I get some more painted up.

There are a few reasons I chose to do this particular unit. One is because I wanted an elite/prestige unit but I didn't want to do any SS purely on moralistic grounds. Another good reason for doing the HG is because I've never seen anyone else paint them up and put them on the table. A third reason is because I want to concentrate more on the Mediterranean Theatre and the HG Div fought all through Sicily and Italy. Anyway, what ever my reasons: I think they look great.

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I also made some new terrain. As mentioned above, I want to concentrate more on the Med but I have very little terrain that fits. So I'm in the process for making some and I decided to make some vineyards.

I've been wanting to make these for a long time but I didn't know how to go about it. I got the Setting The Scene books by Pat Smith last year and when I decided the time was ripe for making vineyards I went to that book and used the methods therein. The only difference is that I made mine individually instead of making them a large set terrain pieces. Thanks to Mr Smith, because otherwise, I wouldn't have had a clue how to make them.

The vegetation is from a long strip of artificial ground cover stuff that florists use. I found it in a local shop for $8 for a big roll. I just pulled of lumps of the stuff and glued it into position using contact adhesive. I still have most of the roll for use later on.

To give you an idea of the scale here's the HG's lurking in the vineyard ready to ambush some unwary GI's.

DAK Re-Base.

Continuing with the re-basing of my figures, the next lot in line are my DAK or Afrika Korps. I had enough figures to convert the lot into a battalion with one exception: I seem to have lost an LMG group somewhere along the line so I painted up a new one.

I pretty much have all the figures needed for most of their support too. In the photo below are 2 MMG bases, 2 AT Rifle bases, 2 mortar bases, FOO +kubelwagon, a sniper and Battalion HQ with a heavy car. If I want I could replace the HQ with an SdKfz 250/3.

The infantry are a curious mix. The majority are AB, with a healthy bunch of Simon's Soldiers (unfortunately these figures seem to gone from their catalogue) there are also some plastics in there from ESCI/Italeri and some PSC late German's converted with the very simple, yet tried and trusted "Paint Conversion" method!

To add to the mix I also have a Pioneer Platoon that can have either a Mine Clarence option or a Flame Thrower for an assault role. The are about 90% AB.

Motorcycles. I did these for Battlegroup and what I have pretty makes up a motorcycle section and/or dispatch riders. For 'O' Group I want a company. Luckily this will be pretty easy to achieve. I've been doing some research and number crunching and the numbers I came up with mean that all I need are two more motorcycle/sidecar combos and a pair of kubelwagons (or heavy cars). I already have the cars and I also have two unmade m/c combos. Dismounted figures is more of an issue as I'll need six LMG teams (12 Figures) and three rifle teams (9 figures). In game I figure I can use them as either Recce or treat them like Panzergrenadiers when they dismount. The single motorcycles will go to BHQ.

So that's what I have in the way of DAK. The infantry side is pretty much complete. Looking at them I figure I could add a shed-load of LMG's and pretty much turn them into a panzergrenadier regiment which would be nice for some big games. (I'd need another 27 LMG stands to do that!... Who makes individual 20mm DAK LMG figures?)

And that's what I've been doing. I'm now on to their opponents in the Western Desert Force. I only have two companies painted and a bunch of metal that got put away last year when I lost interest during our lockdown. One of the finished companies I have is plastic and not very good. I have enough metal AB figures to finish another company but I'll be visiting Eureka on Friday so I can pick up enough to finish off the battalion. I'll still use the plastics but they'll be diverted into the carrier platoon/company/whatever.

More Re-Basing: German Infantry Battalion

 I'm continuing with my WWII rebasing. I finished my British/Commonwealth infantry and I then moved onto some Germans. Initially, I was going to concentrate on my Hermann Goering/ Luftwaffe troops because I thought they would need less work to get them up to speed. In the the end I decided to do the regular infantry first but I needed to paint up a full company (that's an O-Group company or a platoon for other rules) to get them up to strength.

So this is the basic battalion for 'O' Group. I'm going to paint a bunch of individual riflemen so that they can also be used for Battlegroup and Chain of Command by adding an extra figure to the gun group. This rebasing makes them a whole lot easier to store and organize and will also make them much easier to move on the table.

Apart from the heavy weapons above, I also have several mortars already based which can be used for various rules. Like the British battalion command base, I once again added a 12mm dice holder for ease of play.

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Last week I bought a pre-printed 20mm building from Battlefield Accessories - an Australian company based in Melbourne. This is a really nice little building that went together nice and easily. I added some carboard edges to the corners and roof apex to cover up the joins & make them look a bit tidier. I also glued a few strips cut from the mdf sprue to the bottom of the top half of the building. This enables the top to lock into the bottom layer. It took about 15 minutes from start to finish and it was ready for the table top. They do them in 15mm and 28mm too.

As you can see, the design for this one is pretty simple but it looks quite nice. It has a printed interior too, which is somewhat plain but it's far and above blank mdf or plain plastic. The interior windows match the outside windows which is useful for those games where those sort of things matter.

And here it is with some AB figures for scale. It will go well with the pre-painted PlastiCraft buildings I already have which are sort of 15mm/20mm... sort of somewhere in the vicinity. So the scale may be slightly different but not so much that it will really matter.

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Hopefully, I'm going to try a solo game of 'O' Group in the very near future. So keep your eyes peeled for a full battle report (the first in a long while).

'O' Group and a Big Re-Basing Project

 

Because I haven't posted on this blog for a while, I initially posted this article on my main blog at: This 28m Life and I'm cross posting it here to get this blog up and happening again.

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I've been looking forward for the release of the new WWII rules: 'O' Group. After playing a lot of Chain of Command in 2019, I sort of lost interest in it. Whilst I do like the game I think it's a bit small scale. For a platoon level game I actually prefer Battlegroup & one of the main reasons is: because I can get to use more of the models and figures I paint. CoC doesn't allow for this.

So I've been keen for the release of 'O' Group to get some games of larger actions happening where I can use plenty of the models I have. However, I need to rebase my figures because individual figures are not going to work for these rules. I'm quite happy with this even if it is a bit of a pain in the bum. I can still use the multi based figures for Battlegroup and maybe CoC if needs be. 

I started with my 1943 / '45 Brits because they are the most complete force that I own. With just a little bit a substituting one or two figures here and there I can field a complete battalion with heavy weapons, mortars, anti-tank, engineers etc. I also have enough models to field most of the armoured support and recce that I'll need to start with. Here is the completed battalion.

I have a bag full of these little mdf 12mm dice holders left over from another project a few years back. I added one to the BHQ base to hold a dice for the Battalion Orders. I like it and I'll do the same for all the other BHQ bases.

I'm now on to some Germans. I had forgotten what troops I had so I had to go through them. As it is, the Germans I have are far more fragmented. I thought I had a full infantry company but I don't. What I have is:

    2 x 1943 - '45 platoons with lots of odds & ends for support, 

    1 x early war platoon, 

    2.5 platoons of Hermann Goering Division organized as panzer-grenadiers, plus a section of assault pioneers (these will become a platoon),

    2+ platoons of Fallschirmjager in Mediterranean kit, and

    1 section of early war Fallschirmjager.

As I said... They're fragmented. So they're going to need a bit of work to bring them up to scratch. Each platoon will convert to 1 company so, for instance: I've decided to concentrate on the Hermann Goering's because they're the closest to a complete 3 company battalion and I can also sub them for regular troops if I need to. (The pic above are actually the regular infantry/grenadiers/schutzen).

P.S. A big Thank You to Viv at Knights of Dice for cutting the mdf bases for me. I decided on an odd base size (50mm x 30mm) and KoD came to the rescue for me.