New Project - 10mm 1914 Imperial Germans - Pendraken

A new project?..and while I have so many projects to work on and make playable...yes!  I'm afraid so.  The move into WW1 has been a recent thing for me and the more books read, the more myths and perceptions are discarded, as history opens up its truths.  The innovations in every aspect in this period, from technology to tactics, was incredible.

 ...and yet after creating a late war WW1 28mm skirmish 'army', I find myself drawn to the period of pickelhaubes, soft hats and brass buttons and those early days of WW1 where the 'Old Contemptibles' proved themselves in those early actions.

Recent games of 'Spearhead' brought out the megalomaniac in me as I'm currently finding myself interested in seeing Corps sized units on the table.  It was when I saw the rule-set 'Great War Spearhead' advertised that it started me thinking.  On researching further I discovered 'Great War Spearhead II' had been brought out too, along with a series of scenario books including for 1914. 

Seeing all of these books at a stand at the Overlord Show in Abingdon (in those good days before the plague back in early March), prompted a major impulse purchase and a new project was begun.

The next question was in which scale?  15mm always looks nice but seemed a bit large for the size of actions being produced on the table.  6mm would be ideal...but I just don't enjoy painting them.  I bought a large set of Napoleonic 6mm armies ready to paint up rapidly to recreate Wellington's glories in the Peninsular. Alas even painting just one unit bored me.  The satisfaction of the finished models just isn't there.  I think perhaps, that once a few divisions are on the table then they might look impressive, but one 6mm unit painted did not enthuse me at all.

So I opted for 10mm. They are identifiable in this scale, reward a bit of attention with the brush and make nice models.  I still can't paint more than a couple of units without having to switch to 28mm though. It's the satisfaction of the finished items that act as a spur to painting the next unit.  However, doing the occasional 10mm battalion of 24 figures only takes a day or two and is not too painful.

These figures are by Pendraken with who I was already familiar from purchasing figures for another project.  I love the fact that the figures are just about flash free. There was just a tiny amount at the bottom of the base to be cut with a blade and it was a case of simply gluing to the painting base for the undercoat.

I must confess that I put way too much detail into my first units, using 4 shades of colour over the undercoat just on the basic tunic/trousers.  This was excessive.  I have cut other bits out of my painting procedure since as too much detail applied with the brush does not reward the effort at this size. 

It does amaze me to think that each figure is only 1cm tall,  The photo below is of the troops with a £1 coin!

Perhaps foolishly I made an attempt at giving the impression of painting the Regimental number on the front of the pickelhaube cover.  This took some time!  I also painted the uniform lace edging in red.  Was this necessary - no.  But for me it is part of the character of these early war German uniforms.

I tried to take enough care so that touching up/lining in was not necessary so time would be saved in the long run.

This picture shows Infantry Regiment Number 75, complete with its 3 battalions and machine-gun company and regimental command.  Each stand represents a company in Great War Spearhead II.

I also painted up 6 batteries of artillery and I have to say what nice models the Pendraken guns are.

The labels were produced as a word document and the use of colours enables the units to be easily plotted and kept track of.  The labels are on the back of the base as well as underneath.  I nearly put them on top of the bases but that for me, always detracts from the figures...though it would probably make the game play a little quicker.  I decided not to use Gothic script on the bases this time in order to assist rapid identification!

Clearly there is a lot more to go, but I have to say that the figures are becoming more painless to paint as I find elements that do not justify the time input. I will probably still continue with the red lace edging though!

More Great War - 28mm Imperial Germans

I'm still at it!  I'm keeping the momentum going and painting my WW1 figures while still reading books on the topic, and this is keeping me on track so far.  

It is helped by having figures that I really enjoy painting.  I don't think there are many WW1 ranges about that can equal the North Star 'Great War Miniatures' troops. I just wish that they did some 1918 French as I can imagine how good they would look.

I'm still managing to steer clear of painting Stormtroops though the purchase of the Osprey 'German Stormtrooper' Book 1914-1918 has proved very useful for background knowledge.  I also purchased 'Images of War, the German Army on the Western Front 1917-1918 by David Bilton'  This is really interesting too, with great photos. Though also some really grim photos and one particular rear view pic of four Germans on a log latrine was one that I didn't really need to see!

I was struck by one image I found of 1918 Germans on parade. The tunics were of so many different shades that I wondered if I was over-fussing about trying to get the colours right.  I have now tried to subtly show differences in shades with my infantry figures, though oddly, under the daylight lamp and the flash of the camera the shade does appear to have taken a more blue-ish grey hue, not so apparent on the figures away from the camera.

The Maxim gun team is an impressive model when assembled. The detail on the base was amazing as it had spent cartridge cases strewn about.  This did mean that I when I put the basing material on, I had to try to raise the level of the MDF with the metal base and hide the join without covering too many spent cases.  The detail is so great that there was a wedding ring cast on the finger of the NCO observer!

The infantry figures have the mix of the later 'Bluse' tunic and the earlier patterns edged in red, as mentioned in my previous post. 

The figures just have so much character!

Again, I'm really trying to paint the figures and base them for the war of movement that commenced again in 1918, so a little more green on the bases than just mud, but still sufficient mud should I wish to get them back into trenches.  A little Somme chalk also appears as well as shattered tree branches from the battered 'bois'.

I did see the '1917' movie for inspiration. I imagine that many of you might have seen it by now. I thought it was pretty good. Uniform detail was excellent mostly, other bits a little odd.    Having said that I was very glad to see a historic movie at long last and grateful for the discounted ticket that Ian obtained for me. 

What's to come next...I do have more WW1, though I am also really wanting to do other things too....decisions decisions!

The Great War - Imperial German Infantry 28mm - 1918 Rifle Squad

This time we have figures for the other side painted up!  These are late war German Infantry from the Great War Miniatures Range.

I'm aware that the grassy bases are a shift away from the typical WW1 figure with their muddy bases like melted chocolate, however I am really aiming to represent figures from when the battles of movement commenced, from Kaiserschlacht to Amiens 1918.  There is enough mud not to hopefully not detract too much should they find themselves in muddy craters of no-man's land!

I have to say that I really enjoyed painting these figures. It was the first time I have ever painted WW1 Germans in 28mm or indeed any scale (other than a rather brave attempt at converting a 1/32nd scale figure when I was about 12 !...including tissue paper and PVA glue puttees!  - actually it was not as bad an effort as one might imagine!).  However I won't include images of that figure. These are all Great War Miniatures 28mm.

These have taken me a few weeks and the reason for this has mainly been the need to research all of the colours for almost every item. I have taken so many screenshots of re-enactors and online prints and read as much technical data as I could find. 

I was always struck by the slightly different shade of the late war tunic with the 1910 Waffenfrock of the early war period. Having compared and read as much as I could it seems that the earlier tunic was slightly more green than the greyer shade of the later war 'Bluse'.  It also seems that shades varied a lot, and like most things, with the amount of sunlight on item at the time of the photo.

Shading took a lot of experimentation and I changed my mind several times during the process. There were again about 35 stages to painting the figures which I have logged to ease the workload next time.  I'm always happy to share paint colours used if anyone is interested.

A sign of the obsessive wargamer!  Yes my labels changed from my usual chosen clear fonts to Gothic Script (actually and rather ironically Olde English Script,but it was close enough!).  The unit chosen is one that would have faced the British Division I have painted on the Allies side, at the Amiens campaign of 1918.

I couldn't resist giving some slightly outdated tunics and trousers to a couple of the troops. Stores, as so often, will issue out what they have, especially if there are shortages.

The red-trim of the earlier uniform jacket was really quite interesting to paint. I will have to do more like that.

I have tried to make them as accurate as I could, even down to the correct company colours on the Troddeln bayonet tassels.  No doubt something isn't quite right somewhere but I was pleased with the way these turned out.

I'm off to see the movie '1917' later so hopefully the inspiration will make me continue with the project.  I really do want to get on and do some early tanks!