Russian Dragoons 1914, and ....

Nearly at the end of the WW1 cavalry .... 'thing'.. 'project'... whatever you prefer to call it .. with the completion of 12 Strelets 20mm Russian Dragoons. The dismounted component on each stand is represented with some HaT Russian infantry. These are not an accurate representation of dismounted dragoons, but with the characteristic blue trousers they will do. 'Rivet Counters' need not respond.

So here is the obligatory 'group photo' of the work of the last month or so as I've painted up the WWW1 cavalry that have sat in that 'TBP' (to be painted) pile for 1-+ years.

Russians on the left, Germans on the right

Given the lower strengths of cavalry divisions, this represents the fighting stands for nearly a complete cavalry division for each army using the Great War Spearhead rules (may 2-3 stands short). Each stand represents a squadron'. There are of course support stands included in the OOB, but these may have to be proxied from an infantry formation. I am eyeing up some fictional divisional level actions as possible scenarios for the future. Watch this space.

German Uhlans, 1914

World War 1 may not be known for its cavalry, but armies retained extant cavalry forces throughout the war, cavalry played an important part in the opening weeks and months of warfare in Belgium and France, and of course played a larger role in battle through the war on the eastern front and the middle east.

These German Uhlan (Strelets, 20mm) are the next step in modelling forces for some possible cavalry actions using the Great War Spearhead rules. The foot figures are the HaT German Jager.. and very nice figures too.

The end is nigh ...

Well, the end of the year, anyway... and so it was a week of lighter games, the first a HotT with Jon, and the second the annual 'Snoopy's Christmas' games night hosted by Keith, in which we play games of Wings of War/Wings of Glory .. both evenings were enormous fun. 

The HotT game saw spiders vs pirates... the spiders were ever victorious

And then ....

Swirling dogfights ...

... and some balloon busting

German Hussars 1914

I bought boxes of Strelets 20mm WW1 cavalry a long time ago .. soon after they first came out. I had some grand plan to paint them up, but was stymied because I had no dismounted equivalents. I like to base WW1 cavalry with one mounted and one foot figure [er base. It's my own slight affectation, my way of visually representing the fact that they tended to fight dismounted (apart from those early months in 1915, and some significant work on the eastern front).The idea then struck me, just use some Jager as dismounted figures.. don't even try to create dismounted Hussars and Uhlans. Righto.. this next batch (after the Russian Cossacks, who will be suitable opponents), is a box of 12 German Hussars. 

Source: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/german-hussar.html

This is all progress, as I continue to think about the sorts of battles we might fight in 2026 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Great War Spearhead. One thing's for sure, they will feature cavalry, something we have not done to any degree in our games (apart from a refight of the Battle of Halen with Robert way back in 2008, when we had to proxy foot figures).

Through a looking glass ... what's in a paint palette?

I can remember as a child being fascinated that you could measure the age of a tree by counting the number of rings you saw through its trunk when it was cut down. It didn't take long to occur to me that to do so one had to ensure the demise of the tree. Not a bad realisation for a five year old. I was particularly fascinated by the very idea that in looking at those rings you were looking back in time, and later learning taught me that it is possible to read much about the tree's life and growth, and climatic events, from those rings. Similarly the geology of landforms and the strata that are evident when uplift or erosion occurs all tell a story about aeons long past. It was no wonder I was a Dr Who fan from that very first broadcast in Aotearoa NZ.

So yesterday I had just finished painting another batch of figures, and sat staring at my paint palette. It is (or was) a piece of glass maybe 10-15cm square that my father gave me when I started painting figures and models. I was probably around twelve years old. That piece of glass began at around 5mm thick. It was the thickness that held my gaze. I measured it .. it's now 25mm thick at its thickest. 

The current state of my paint palette

A paint pot next to the palette, for scale

It struck me that if I looked at the underside of the palette I was looking at paint that had been laid down over 55 years ago. I was looking back in time. There is blue, and yellow, and green, and white, and grey and....  I can't recall what I might have been painting. Maybe the blue was some Airfix French Napoleonic infantry? Maybe the green was an Airfix M3 Lee/Grant tank?

The underside of the palette

Again, for scale...

Interesting how the mind works, isn't it. Hopefully I have a few more years of painting left in me, although I doubt enough to add another 20mm to the thickness of the palette.

Russian cavalry for WW1

I have found myself increasingly interested in the role of cavalry in World War 1.  It's not an arm that we readily associate with the western front beyond 1914, although I think it played more of a part in the more fluid battles of 1918. However it does seem to have played a bigger role on the eastern front, and in the middle east. In the middle east there are useful accounts of actions in which cavalry were often used as mobile infantry able to cover longer distances.  Terry Kinloch's book is a fascinating read.

I'm currently on the lookout for reliable sources on the western and eastern fronts in order to read further. 

In the meantime I have been painting up some 20mm figures for the period, and the theatres, anticipating some battles to celebrate the 25th anniversary of my WW1 rules of preference: Great War Spearhead. The cavalry figures are from the Strelets range, bought probably 20 years ago, and left to languish in the infamous wargamers' 'lead/plastic pile'. We may fight some eastern front actions, but equally some actions from the Russian Civil War, or the Russo-Polish War.

These are the latest additions, some Strelets 'Terek Cossacks', and 'Don Cossacks'. My basing preference is one mounted and one foot figure per base. It's my way of matching these figures to my mental paradigm about how cavalry were used in the period. It's my 'affectation', if you like.

The assembled Russian cavalry so far.

These figures in front were 'conversions' that I did probably 45 years ago, using Airfix ACW figures, and swapping the heads for those from some Airfix WW1 British Infantry... the things we did, eh?

Next some Strelets German cavalry ... yeehaaaa... 

VSF Prussians complete.. for now

I'm going to call this one finished, for now anyway: the Victorian Science Fiction Prussian army for HotT (Hordes of the Things). 

It is composed of :
3 x airboats
2 x flyers

3 x riders

2 x artillery

6 x warband

8 x shooters

3 x blades (one of which is intended as the general)

2 x hordes

1 x hero

1 x magician

1 x behemoth

The army is based around two boxes of Airfix 20mm WW1 German infantry. These are old molds, and the flash was profuse on some of the figures.

The blade general element on the right

The two most recently completed shooter bases, using some of the many prone figures in the box. I'd run out of kneeling and standing firing figures (although I still have plenty of the infantry carrying the man pack flamethrowers)

I liked the idea of prone riflemen firing while taking fire orders from their NCO who has his head up

 

The Kaiser's Aerial Navy: 3 airboats, and two flyers

I may see the inspiration for one or two other elements as time goes by. This lot totals 73 points, so for Big Battle games there isn't too much choice.