BEF Part III: 25-pounder

Work continues apace on my British Expeditionary Force project. Last week I completed the first of my medium artillery. In my wish to keep costs down and give my army an old-school look, I chose the Airfix kit. I've built several of these in the past but all have found better homes over the last few years. Unfortunately I had forgotten that the molds have been to hell and back.

The actual gun and the trailer carrying the ammo are not too bad. The Quad is so and so, with the roof piece looking a bit ragged. The crew however looked as if they had been worked over with a 4-barreled 20mm flak. The only one that was usable was the driver who had been shot in the back (in typical Jerry fashion). The crew was substituted again by the HaT WWI British Artillery Crew set. Considering I have one more 4.5" and 2 more 25-pounders to complete, the set I got will be enough, but barely.

Meanwhile, the second company of Highlanders is getting some paint on, while I am debating whether to complete a base of ancient Greeks or Persians for Basic Impetus as a change of pace. The lovely Airfix Bofors and tractor are also getting along nicely and hopefully will be ready for paint by the middle of next week.

This is all for now from chilly Athens.

Nobody tosses the dwarf!

Here are some Eureka 18mm dwarves I painted a couple of months back. Although advertised as 18mm, they are closer in scale to 20mm so they are suitable for 1/72-1/76 gaming. At that time I still thought I would be able to wargame fantasy in 20mm. Alas, my efforts were in vain. As much as I tried, all I could do was dwarves, some few elves, some orcs and undead. No dark elves, no derro, no trolls, no nothing. I switched to 15mm fantasy instead where the pickings are anything but slim. These will be a bit tall for dwarves, especially in 15mm, but I'll deal with it. I ordered one pack of crossbowmen, axemen, spearmen and command. This set me back around 20 pounds (plus shipping and handling) but has given me enough dwarves for at least 2 warbands for the Song of Blades and Heroes game. Here is the first batch:

Miniatures in the Song of Blades and Heroes are divided into personalities and warriors. Personalities have special abilities that set them aside from the average fighter. They may be leaders, heroes, magic users, clerics, or just plain tough and mean.
In this case I painted 2 miniatures that can be used as personalities. Here is the leader (or hero) with his banner bearer and horn blower. The hero is the largest of all the miniatures. He is probably as large as old Airfix figs. Not quite dwarfish, but he looks good on the table. The banner bearer is a particularly imposing miniature and the dragon standard is very well sculpted. The other personality is a magic user or cleric (can be used for either). A 300-point warband will not have room enough for both of them, but he's a useful option, especially if you know you'll be facing undead.
The warriors are a mixed bunch. I've used axemen, spearmen, dwarves with hammers and a few crossbowmen. With the short movement, some shooting may be useful to whittle down the enemy some.
The figures took me about 10 days to complete. There was minimal cleaning up to do and the miniatures pretty much paint themselves. One of the axemen was a bit complicated as I could not figure out the layers of the armour, but that was the only difficulty I faced. I still have enough miniatures left to make another full warband and then some.
Here's some work almost complete; support units for my late WWII german platoon. Everything is almost painted up and the wash has been applied. After that, all I'll have left to do is highlights, painting up the bases and spray some mat varnish. I hope I'll be done by the middle of next week with them. After that? As you can see, plenty of work awaits me.
Have a great night from chilly (for once) Athens.