Modelling village sectors in Great War Spearhead, and Volley and Bayonet.

With plans in train to play another Great War Spearhead game in 20mm set amongst the highest mountain tops of the Carpathians, I was setting out the table and decided I needed some village sectors. Village sectors provide both concealment and cover, but differ from town sectors in that you can apply direct fire into and out of the sectors. I wanted to model the villages with suitable buildings, but also be able to position stands in the sector without having them 'perched ' on top of the model buildings.

I had these 15mm resin cast building that have sat in a box unused for several decades. So.. a 3"x3" base, and the buildings painted.

However the buildings are removable, with a pseudo cobble appearance painted in the outline of the building.

The village sectors set in place on the table ready for a game.

These 'sectors' will also be suitable as 'villages' in my other 'go to' historical rules set, Volley and Bayonet.

More DBF practice.. orcs and martians

 Another crack at the DBF rules, 120 points, my orcs vs Andy's martians. The orcs were a mix of troop types, split into 2 commands. The chariots were knights, there were plenty of warband, supported by a Great Beast, and a command largely of warbow and blade, and a Level 2 Mage.

The martians were mostly bow, with three behemnoth, an artillery piece, a hero and a Level 4 mage, all in one command.

The centre of the battlefield was dominated by some 'dangerous going' terrain.

The orc 'great beast'

The martian mage, supported by 'bow' (shooters in old school HotT terms

Orc warbow

Orc warband

Rather than a long winded AAR, let's say that it was a closer game than many, with the orcs wining out in the finish.

A practice DBF game ...

Another practice game of the (comparatively) new DBF rules, Andy's Egyptians vs my mythical Romans. The only 'fantasy' troop type in the Roman army was a 'reanimated statue'/behemoth. Jim commanded the Romans.

The Roman 'camp'.

Egyptian flyers

The terrain included an oasis ..

The first 1914 Serbian infantry ...

The first figures completed for 2026 are some Serbian infantry. I chose this as the next project late in 2025, using the HaT 20mm infantry I'd bought when they were first released, supplementing them with some (very large) 18mm guns and figures which had been a very generous gift from Shawn, and some MMGs from Tumbling Dice. I painted 6 bases (a sample sprue from HaT) almost 20 years ago, and now the next 6 bases are complete.

The HaT mouldings are not as good as I'd remembered, but they still paint up well enough, and will do stirling service.

A Serbian Division for 1914

I think the next major project may be in sight - a Serbian division 1914 for Great War Spearhead in 20mm ... HaT, and Tumbling Dice, figures.

In the new year there will also be an order for figures for the Great Northern War (Volley and Bayonet). Looks as if 2025 has been a good year.

Last of the 20mm cavalry .. for now

In my current flurry of painting I have focussed on completing several boxes of 20mm WW1 cavalry. I am planning ahead to 2026 and the 25th anniversary of Great War Spearhead, and have in mind some epic eastern front cavalry battles. Digging through the plastic and lead pile, I first found three unpainted late war German dragoons.

Strelets late war German dragoons

And then I found some B&B Miniatures Great War Indian cavalry and infantry left over from the initial painting bout. Now I'm not sure when that first batch was painted, but the remaining figures were still in their original postal packaging, and the envelope was postmarked 2005 .. whew...

There were three infantry left over. These days I typically put 2 x 20mm infantry figures on a base, but that would have left one figure left over.. hmm.. a three figure base it is.

That's it. However the next projects are already apparent:  20mm Serbians for Great War Spearhead, and Swedes and Russians in 15mm for Great Northern War played using the Volley and Bayonet rules.

In the jungle...

 In the jungle, the peaceful jungle ... 

Well actually the first outing with my Japanese in a game of Crossfire with Andy, and the first table top outing for Andy's US Marines. Our armies are modelled using 20mm figures.

We got many things wrong, as we play it so rarely (unfortunately). Those errors skewed the outcome to look like a Japanese victory. It actually wasn't. Just a few photos.. we were too busy playing, drinking beer and coffee, eating savouries, and yarning, to take enough photos for an AAR.