Painting motivation comes and goes at the moment. While ferreting through that inevitable box (well boxes plural) of unpainted figures and latent projects I came across a bag of Airfix 20mm World War 2 German Mountain troops. They are old. So old, the plastic on some of them has gone brittle, the figures subsequently snapping at the ankles.
I say 'bag' because obviously someone had given these to me sans box, and clearly incomplete .. no heavy weapons. What had I in mind for these? Ah yes, when I acquired them I was thinking about Austro Hungarians for World War 1. Well, it was the cap, wasn't it. Of course, these days there are good quality AH figures available - mine are from HaT. However there are those times when several ideas come together in what seems like a great new idea .. AH mountain troops. But for what purpose?
Here's the second idea. When playing Robert Dunlop's ANZAC landing scenario recently I was really taken by Robert's very simple Great War Spearhead mechanism for reflecting the difficulty of the terrain, the steepness of the contours: it takes any stand half a move to cross a contour. Yep, that simple, and it worked like magic in the scenario.
So.. how about some of those actions in the Carpathians, or the Italian alps, where ordinary troops are struggling across the terrain, but these mountain troops don't pay that contour crossing penalty? This sounded like a 'purpose' for fielding mountain troops apart from the aesthetic (which I suspect will in fact most often be the only reason).
Anyway, here are the first of the mountain troops. I need to complete two more fighting stands, and the Regimental HQ, for which I have the figures in hand, in order to give one complete GWSH regiment. I will also need an MMG, but that may require a purchase. I suspect one regiment is all I'd ever need.
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| The base on the left was my prototype. I tried baking soda and PVA mixed to simulate the snow, but wasn't that happy with the result. For the remaining stands I embedded the figures in my standard white basing compound, and added 'rocks', grey gravel, and a small patch of grass. |
Some figures are painted with snow camouflage tunics and trousers (yes historically some were).
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| Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Austro-Hungarian_ski_patrol_on_Italian_front_in_snow_camouflage_1915-1918.jpg |
The remainder wears a mix of pike grey/blue grey uniforms. Yes I know the uniforms aren't strictly correct for the WW1 Austro Hungarian mountain troops, but this is a 'paint conversion', so no rivet counter comments please.
