The Tale of Historical Wargamers Season 1, Month 1 (July WIP)

[f2k]

What’s it all about then?

This is all about increasing awareness of historical wargaming and indulging in our inner history-geek.

Any period, any company, any scale... If it’s historical, then this is the right place.

This is the first monthly thread. You can post your WIP pictures, and anything else you might find interesting her.

A WORD ON PHOTOS – IMPORTANT!

640x480 please! Or use thumbnails.
If you really, really want to show off a bigger picture, then put a link to it – it means those using slower connections aren't waiting for big pictures to load.

If you want to use bigger pictures then please host it on an external site like photobucket and link to it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q : What army/scale/period should I choose?
A : That’s entirely up to you. As long as it’s a historical wargame then you’re welcome in this tale.

Q : How many points should I aim for?
A : Since we’ll be painting models from different games and scales, this is mostly up to you. You should, however, hopefully end up with a normal sized army for your chosen game.

Q : How much do I have to paint?
A : You should paint approximately 10% of your army each month. For skirmish-level games, you should paint approximately 1/5 or 1/10 of the warband each month, depending on whether you’re doing a “mini-tale” or a full tale, with a minimum of one model per month.

Don’t worry if it’s not up to Golden Daemon standard. Few of us can paint to that level so don’t let yourself get stuck trying to finish a single model. Well, if your monthly quota is a single model then, by all means, fell free to spend the full month painting just that. But for the rest of us, getting done on time is more important than delivering an award winning paintjob.

Q : Can I include historical background in my months post?
A : You not only can, you’re highly encouraged to do so. This is, after all, a tale of historical wargammers, so the historical background is important.

Q : Can I drop out?
A : Well, we’ll be sorry to see you go. But real-life has a way of intruding at the worst possible moments, so if you absolutely and necessarily need to leave then do so. There are, after all, more important things in life than toy soldiers.

[emperorpenguin]

OK here's my first WIP, just need to add a few finishing touches to these guys, the 155th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry





From Wikipedia: The 155th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment was a Federal infantry regiment that served in the American Civil War in the Army of the Potomac in the Eastern Theater.

Recruits from the Pittsburgh area organized at Camp Copeland from September 2–19, 1862, into the 155th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Edward J. Allen served as the first colonel. After initial training and drilling, the regiment moved via train to Washington, D.C. where it joined the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division of the Union Fifth Corps. It moved to Sharpsburg, Maryland, after the Battle of Antietam and then first saw combat in December 1862 at the Battle of Fredericksburg, where the color guard suffered very high casualties in an ill-fated assault.

During their first years the regiment wore the regulation uniform of the Union Army, but in 1863 they, along with the 140th New York and 146th New York received Zouave uniforms. The three regiments were each given a different style Zouave uniform that varied in color. The 140th New York received a predominately dark blue traditional style Zouave uniform with red trim while the 146th New York was given a light blue uniform with yellow trim that resembled that worn by the French Tirailleurs or "Turcos" of Crimean War fame. The 155th Pennsylvania however received a unique Zouave uniform in a style never before created. It consisted of a French blue (not dark blue) Zouave jacket with yellow trim featuring very large yellow "tombeaus" (a stylized false pocket on the front of the jacket). A departure from the usual styled jacket was an inside false vest. A red Zouave sash with yellow trim, French Blue Zouave pantaloons, a red Zouave fez with yellow trim and a dark blue tassle completed the uniform. Slight variations in jacket styles can be seen in the unit's regimental history entitled "Under the Maltese Cross" published in 1910.

The 155th Pennsylvania along with the 140th New York and the 146th New York became the "Zouave Brigade" in the Army of the Potomac's Fifth Corps. The a brigade would later grow with the addition of the 5th New York.

[Tonny]

Hello

This will be my first entry for this tale.


Those men will be soldiers of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Mainly because red is a dominant colour used by his soldiers. I like to paint red.

The only progress I made since the pic is to mount the 4 archers on a GW 50mm base. The man-at-arms with the two soldiers are placed on another 50mm GW base.

I am not following an armylist, I just want to form a cool battleline to place in my cabinet.

[f2k]

I think I’ll start out slowly with a single model – a Stuka dive bomber.

Truth to be told, I’m intending to “cheat” a bit. The extensive conversions needed for the HQ tanks has me a bit worried so, for the time being, I will concentrate on getting the easy models out of the way and then use the remaining time in each month to slowly get the conversion-work underway: planning, looking at pictures, making the moulds needed, etc. Then, once I feel that I have the conversions under control, I’ll set aside a couple of months to complete the conversions and paint the tanks.

That, at least, is the plan...


Junkers JU 87

The Junkers JU 87 ”Stuka” (Sturzkampfflugzeug – dive bomber) is, to me at least, a bit of a conundrum. It was undoubtedly one of the most successful ground attack aircrafts of the war, full of new and innovative technology, and yet it was obsolete before the war had even started.

In truth, the Stuka’s very design betrays the flaw in the Luftwaffe’s development and operational deployment. Intended to operate mainly in a tactical role, most of its bombers were short ranged and with a rather limited payload, wholly unsuited to the reality of large scale “total warfare”.

In accordance with this doctrine, the Stuka was developed as a tactical weapon, intended to support the Wehrmacht’s blitzkrieg. While this worked well during the invasion of Poland, France, and the Low Countries, by the time of the Battle of Britain, the Stuka’s design was shown to have glaring weaknesses. Its payload was too small for strategic bombing and the slow flying Stuka was an easy target for RAF’s fighters.
In fact, it’s vulnerability to enemy fighters would haunt it for the entire war. Whenever Luftwaffe had air superiority, the Stuka proved itself a formidable weapon. But as soon as enemy fighters showed up, the Stuka ran into serious problems.

However, the lack of replacement designs meant that the Stuka would serve throughout the entire war (although, towards the end of the war, it was increasingly replaced by the FW 190F) with the main production finally shutting down in late 1944.

Still, for all its flaws, the Stuka, with its inverted gull-wing, attack-siren, and automatic dive-breaks, remains one of the iconic aircrafts of the war.



Crew: 2
Length: 11.00 m (36 ft 1.07 in)
Wingspan: 13.8 m (45 ft 3.30 in)
Height: 4.23 m (13 ft 10.53 in)
Wing area: 31.90 m˛ (343.37 ft˛)
Empty weight: 3,205 kg (7,086 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,320 kg (9,524 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 5,000 kg (11,023 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Junkers Jumo 211D liquid-cooled inverted-vee V12 engine, 1200 PS (1184 hp, 883 kW) turning a three-blade Junkers VS 5 propeller (3.4 m (11 ft 1.85 in) in diameter)
Maximum speed: 390 km/h @ 4,400 m (242 mph @ 13,410 ft)
Range: 500 km (311 mi) with 500 kg (1,102 lb) bomb load
Service ceiling: 8,200 m (26,903 ft) with 500 kg (1,102 lb) bomb load
Guns: 2× 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17 machine gun forward, 1× 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 15 machine gun to rear
Payload: 1× 250 kg (551 lb) bomb beneath the fuselage and 4× 50 kg (110 lb) with two bombs underneath each wing or 2 x Bordkanone BK 3,7 with one underneath each wing.


The model

The model is a fairly typical Battlefront miniature. At 1/144 scale, it’s detailed enough to let the players know what they’re looking at, but that’s about it.

As is typical for Battlefront, the model a mix of resin and metal. The main fuselage is in resin, but the undercarriage and support, weapons, and spinner (oddly, without a propeller) are all metal.

Sadly, seeing as it’s a typical Battlefront model, it’s got its flaws. One of the landing gears was miscast (more on that later), the rear machinegun is nowhere to be found, the two supports for the stabilizer are identical when they should have been mirrored, and there’re not enough bombs to go around (more on that too later)


The contents of the box – three Stukas with parts to make either a D or G version. Note that this is the old three-plane box. With the new v3 rules you now only need one aircraft to represent a flight so the new boxes contains only one aircraft


The parts for each aircraft. Resin hull with metal landing gear, tail support, spinner, and weapons

[f2k]

Assembly

The aircraft is designed to sit on a standard flight stand. However, the fit was pretty poor (sadly a common problem with Battlefront models – one amongst many) and, in any case, I wanted an easier way to assemble it.

To this end I filled the hole in the fuselage with a short plastic rod and topped it off with a small magnet. I then cut of the top of the flight stand and glue another magnet in place there.

Now, I seriously wish I hadn’t done that…

Turns out that the magnets I used were so small that, once all the metal had been glued to the fuselage the nose-heavy aircraft started tilting slightly on its stand. The magnets are simply too small to anchor the aircraft properly without the central peg (the one I just cut off, remember?) keeping everything lined up straight.
The aircraft can balance on top of the stand (sort of, anyway) but it’s somewhat precarious and not, I fear, entirely up to the rigors of wargaming.

Oh well, live and learn. Thankfully, aircrafts are only on the table for a short while every turn and doesn’t need much moving about so this should be good enough.


The magnet inserted into the bottom of the fuselage


And the corresponding magnet on the flight stand

Once that once done, it was “merely” a matter of gluing the rest of the metal components in place.

Yeah, right…

As I mentioned earlier, one of the landing gears was slightly miscast, missing the stud coming of the upper part of the support. Now, that was easily rectified by drilling a small hole and inserting a brass rod of similar size. Unfortunately, the presence of the rood prevented me from drilling holes through the top of the landing gear so I had to glue them into place with no pinning whatsoever – just a very small tab on the wing as guide. This, I fear, is going to come back and haunt me later…

The bombs turned out to be somewhat problematic as well. First off, there aren’t enough of them. The Stuka carried either two bombs or a single cannon under each wing. However, the box contains only one bomb per wing per aircraft. But since I now only need one aircraft per flight, I could “borrow” a set of bombs from another Stuka which can then, at a later date, be assembled with cannons instead.

So far, so good. Now I only needed to get them glued in place…

Turned out to be a bit of a problem as well, seeing as there are no guides to show where the bombs are supposed to go. And no instructions either…

So I started googling for pictures of the underside of a Stuka with bombs attached. Sadly, the details on the model are so bad that it was rather difficult to match the pictures with the model itself. In fact, I think I ended up mounting them too far towards the fuselage, but never mind – they’re glued down and that’s it!

Surprisingly, the tail supports and spinner provided no major challenge…


The underside of the assembled Stuka


The assembled Stuka, precariously perched on its flight stand

[sigur]

Well, very nice stuff so far I really like the magnetize stuka. Very good solution to the ever-present problem of flying bases.

@Tonny: Are those the Perry Mercenaries?

@emperorpenguin: Looks like you got a head start there. Very nice looking minis and painting.


I'm still waiting for my miniatures. Neither Pendraken nor Old Glory even sent them off yet. I do however possess 140 empty 40x20mm bases now.


edit: UPDATE! I was just informed that my first batch of minis has been sent from Pendraken. Shame is that the mainstray comes from Old Glory UK for now and I have yet to hear from them. -.-

[Tonny]

Well, very nice stuff so far I really like the magnetize stuka. Very good solution to the ever-present problem of flying bases.

@Tonny: Are those the Perry Mercenaries?

@emperorpenguin: Looks like you got a head start there. Very nice looking minis and painting.


I'm still waiting for my miniatures. Neither Pendraken nor Old Glory even sent them off yet. I do however possess 140 empty 40x20mm bases now.


edit: UPDATE! I was just informed that my first batch of minis has been sent from Pendraken. Shame is that the mainstray comes from Old Glory UK for now and I have yet to hear from them. -.-

No, Those are from their first plastic box set "Wars of the Roses Infantry 1450-1500, bows and bills". The 2nd box sets is Mercenaries 1450-1500. The mini's are fantastic.

[f2k]

Well, very nice stuff so far I really like the magnetize stuka. Very good solution to the ever-present problem of flying bases.

Thanks.

Sadly, I've been forced to ditch that idea again. Tonight I build the cannon armed version, thinking that, once the paint had been mixed and the compressor fired up, painting two wouldn't be much more work than just painting one. Unfortunately, it turned out that the cannon armed Stuka got so nose-heavy that the magnet simply couldn't hold it anymore.

So I've been forced to cover the existing holes, magnets and all, and drill a new hole further forward in the fuselage (to get closer to the centre of gravity) and used that as a mount for a standard flight base with a long peg. That keeps the Stuka in place, but it's not quite as nifty as the magnet.


The two Stuka's with the new flight base in the background


The existing holes have been covered with plastic putty and new holes drilled

Also note that neither aircraft has a spinner mounted now. Turning them over in my hands, I suddenly realised that I had no place to hold the planes while I airbrushed them. So I’ve removed the spinners as I can the hot-glue a cocktail stick to the nose and use that to hold the aircraft while I paint it.

[emperorpenguin]

@emperorpenguin: Looks like you got a head start there. Very nice looking minis and painting. -.-

Yep I started them ages ago and using this Tale as an excuse to finish them Thanks btw!

[C-Coen]

Well, back (and slowly recovering) from a 2-week field trip to the Pyrenees, time to get started on this project!

Most stuff still has to be build:



When done, I should, among other things, have 4 units that look like this:
(note that the painted models in the unit will all be repainted)



The models in which should ideally resemble this test model:



Entire army, in the end, would be:

Marcus Hordeonius Flaccus, Governor of Germania Inferior

4 units of 21 Legionaries

1 unit of 10 Auxiliary cavalry

2 units of 8 Auxilary archers (1 Syrian and 1 Gallic)

2 Scorpio ballistae with 2 crew each

Roughly 200-250 points according to the HC! armylists, and probably plenty to get started with that game.
Will probably also paint up some ancient germanics while doing the above, of which I might just as well post pictures too!
This one isn't exactly representative for how the others will be, as it was done with a painting competition and not an army in mind, but still:





No specific list of what I want done for those, depends a bit on the amount of time I can find.

[sigur]

Nice progress everybody. These pictures are mouth-watering, C-Coen.

In terms of my own stuff - still no news on the models. As soon as the first batches from Old Glory and Pendraken arrive I'll have to order the next ones due to me having basically ordered more or less samples to see if I like the quality of the sculpts (surprising how many companies don't have pictures of their stuff in online stores) and I noticed that I need a LOT more for the plans I have. As I said, the smaller part of the army has been sent Friday evening (so I assume technically they were sent off today) from the UK so if I'm really lucky I got the models by the mid of July. As for the much larger part of the order I'm afraid they are shipped from the US either to the UK retailer first or directly from the US to my adress. No word from them about having dispatched the models yet.

Spent about four hours last night writing up regimental organization notes for the Imperial army, the Swedish army and mercenaries hired by the Swedes along with getting some names for batallion and unit leaders together which helps getting a feel for the military of that period.

I also noticed that I miscalculated some points before. The Swedes had almost 100 points more in troops, no wonder they looked so much more powerful to me. Now I got both armies at 750pts for now so I'll aim to paint 150pts a month which equals about four units (give or take one depending on the points costs). I'm still pondering how many bases the units are to consist of. So far I'm probably going for two bases of Musketeers, three for Pikemen, four for cavalry and something vaguely round for attached artillery pieces, size depending on how much senery and crew the piece will get. Sorry about the lack of pictures but ...well, all I got I got so far is plain bases.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Nice work, looking forward to seeing the Romans and Germans come together!

[emperorpenguin]

The models in which should ideally resemble this test model:



.

It's great to see a Roman army NOT painted red!

[DarkAngelsG]

So I got a bit of a late start this month, as I've been going to a number of camps, and will be leaving soon to do a business camp up in Fairbanks. Oi vey. However, I do have my quota primed and ready to go, as well as a test model painted up. For any who don't know, I'm entering this tale with a 1000 point FoW army, a 25th Panzergrenadier Regiment Gepanzerte Panzergrenadierkompanie.

My Sdkfz 251/1 and Sdkfz 251/10 Halftracks all primed, along with my command team and a MG team.

(Apologies for the horrible picture) My test model, trying out a few different uniforms which I will be using all of. Also testing out my basing method, which could use some improvements. They look much better in person than they do here, again, bad picture.

[Eternal Hatred]

Hello, I joined slightly late but I'm taking part with my SAGA warbands. y am is to paint a warband (25-73 figures) every two months which will allow me to field 6 different factions. Currently I have Vikings, Anglo-Danes, Anglo-Saxons, Skraelings and Jomsviking warbands. I have also started a painting log with these, but taking part in the tale will encourage me to get them painted. First up are the Vikings:
The workspace

What I've finished since the start of July:

And the work in progress, another 8 warriors:

Finally, all that I have left to do for the Viking warband:

So there are still 4 Hearthguard, 4 beserkers, 8 warriors and Harald Hardradda to go, I'm aiming for a quick and dirty scheme for them.

[sigur]

@Whitword Stormbringer: These germanic-roman come-togethers usually don't end well...

@DarkAngelsG: Looking nice so far!

@Eternal Hatred: Welcome to the Tale. Seems like you're getting ahead quickly.

Behold, the first batch of models arrived today!


I'm happy with the look of Pendraken's 10mm minis and as soon as I got some pictures of some more of their minis I'll place my second order right away.


On the downside, I still don't have all that much in terms of full units. I got one full unit of swordsmen, three light guns and one full unit of mounted Croat arquebusiers. For the other units I'll have to wait for more minis to arrive so I can mix and match because I'll try to make the units look as diverse as possible.

[f2k]

Sigh...

Remember how I said that I would “start with an easy build”? Yeah, right...

I’m beginning to get a rather bad feeling about this. Those Stuka’s are fighting me all the way.


Once the glue had dried I airbrushed the undercoat on. Or rather, I tried. On most of the body it went on okay, but underneath the wing it became alternatively runny and lumpy, depending on where it was on the wing. So, thinking that I might not have gotten the resin cleaned properly before painting, I stripped off the still-wet undercoat...

While doing that, the undercarriages broke off...

I did say that the un-pinned undercarriages would come back to haunt me, didn’t I?

So, drilling very carefully as far back in the undercarriage as I could (in order to avoid hitting the pin that I had already inserted) I managed to pin the undercarriage on both aircraft. Sort off, anyway – the thin wings don’t provide much depth for the pin, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

Firing up the compressor again, I found that the same problems persisted. The undercoat simply will not go on properly under the wing. In some places it went on really thick and shinny, at other places very thinly, and at yet other places it simply refused to bond to the model and simply ran off as soon as it hit.

Very weird...

I’m wondering if perhaps some of it is down to the accelerator I used to help the superglue bond properly. It would be the first time I’ve seen it happen, but who knows? In any case, there’s nothing I can do about it – accelerator is not just recommended, it’s downright required, in order to bind the weapons to the wing.

So, hoping that the undercoat will hold up, today I tried to apply the next layer of paint – yellow markings for the nose and tail. Once that’s dry – probably not until tomorrow, considering the humidity (it’s raining cats and dogs right now) and the weak undercoat – those areas will be masked off and the rest of the aircraft will be painted.

And, as if I didn’t have enough trouble already, as I painted one of the spinners fell off the stick as I was painting it – hence the empty stick on the picture.

Sigh...

“Easy build”...

Yeah, right...


The painting has begun


I sincerely hope the rest of you have more luck than I do. It’s certainly shaping up to be an interesting tale.

[sigur]

@f2k: Oooh, that sounds like a nasty problem. Some days just everything goes wrong and your story sounds a bit like one of those days. I'm afraid I can't give you any advice either. Never used accelerator for super glue. Let's just hope that the primer will stay on now.

I got no big news I'm afraid. At least no horror reports like f2k's, just nothing except for me having ordered two more batches of toys (from Pendraken and Irregular Miniatures) so I'd get more variety into my units and some more units in general. Once that next batch arrives I'll be able to get to work on some Musketeer units, Swordmen, Croats and Cossacks. Should be good (IF the stuff arrives in time).

[Kisanis]

@F2k

Thats probably one of the most detailed (and therefore the most frustrating) model making horror stories I've heard in a LONG time.

It's one of the reasons why i avoid FoW is that the scale throws me off. From a tactical/gaming standpoint? Absolutely. From a hobbyist standpoint? It would drive me off the walls.
I'm hoping I can get some more Canadians up and painted by the end of the month. Fingers crossed!

[f2k]

@f2k: Oooh, that sounds like a nasty problem. Some days just everything goes wrong and your story sounds a bit like one of those days. I'm afraid I can't give you any advice either. Never used accelerator for super glue. Let's just hope that the primer will stay on now.

I got no big news I'm afraid. At least no horror reports like f2k's, just nothing except for me having ordered two more batches of toys (from Pendraken and Irregular Miniatures) so I'd get more variety into my units and some more units in general. Once that next batch arrives I'll be able to get to work on some Musketeer units, Swordmen, Croats and Cossacks. Should be good (IF the stuff arrives in time).

I’ve used accelerator extensively to assemble FoW models. The quality of the resin is just so bad that I cannot get the superglue to bond properly otherwise. But usually this will be on the inside of tracks or under guns so any problems with regards to priming wouldn’t be seen.

I’m still not entirely sure that the accelerator is to blame, but I’ll certainly keep me eyes on it from now on.

@F2k

Thats probably one of the most detailed (and therefore the most frustrating) model making horror stories I've heard in a LONG time.

It's one of the reasons why i avoid FoW is that the scale throws me off. From a tactical/gaming standpoint? Absolutely. From a hobbyist standpoint? It would drive me off the walls.
I'm hoping I can get some more Canadians up and painted by the end of the month. Fingers crossed!

Yeah... I do ramble a bit sometimes – particularly when annoyed...

The 1/100 scale (15mm) used by FoW (save for the aircrafts which ,oddly enough, are 1/144) is a strange scale in my opinion. It’s just big enough to be detailed, but small enough that working with it, not to mention painting those details, can be a serious pain in the butt. Truth to be told, I would rather go down to 6mm for this kind of game, but that might just be me...

On the other hand, getting slowly into painting some Dust Tactics models (30mm), I’m struck by just how long it takes to get the work done – there are just so many details and large surfaces that it seems to take forever.

Although, it must be said, this is not the first model that I’ve had which just seemed to refuse to go together. I have a few horror stories regarding scale models and then there was the Dark Elf Sorceress on Dark Pegasus that required the strongest glue I could get my hands on to stay together...