Back from holiday and more WW2 Germans

Just back from the warmth of the Canaries and now catching up with what I had finished just before leaving. First off a couple of German winter platoons.

A platoon in white camo anoraks

A platoon in greatcoats

Hopefully these are the last German platoons I will paint as I have far more painted than I need for normal games.

WSS Austrian Cuirassiers

No surprise for my first units of the year, I have created 4 units of Austrian Cuirassiers, all wearing the helmet more commonly worn when fighting the Ottomans. The figures themselves are a mixture of the Strelets Austrian and Bavarians so I could create some consistent charging and resting units for both nationalities.

Left flank - regiments Taffe (front) and Commercy (rear)

Right flank - regiments Jung Hesse Darmstadt (front) Zanthe (rear)

On the Workbench - January 2023

Not the clean workbench I had hoped for to start the year with quite a bit carried over from 2022. So my plan is to work on:

• 4 units of WSS Austrian cuirassiers - already started
• 4 units of WSS Bavarian cuirassiers
• WSS Austrian and Bavarian cavalry commanders
• WW2 German winter infantry platoon in parkas
• WW2 German winter infantry platoon in greatcoats
• clearing as many as possible of thea oddments off the bench

plan for 2023

I'll past another milestone (millstone) this year and typically I was struggling to think of a common theme to focus this years tasks, but I have it now either "Clear the decks" or the "Great tidy-up"

So with this in mind I will:

1. Rationalise my Terrain, upgrading or replacing any unsuitable items
2. Retouch/Rebase as many figures as possible.
3. Attempt to complete all the figures in the stash that have a clear fit with my current plans
4. Clear out all unwanted items

Amplifying the above:

1. Rationalise my Terrain, upgrading or replacing any unsuitable items:

• Wooden Fencing needs either upgraded or replaced
• Hills, I have too many of the wrong sizes
• Rivers need expanded
• Wadi/Depression edges need created

2. Rework/Rebase as many figures as possible.

• Zulu Wars - delayed from last year
• Dark Ages
• Russian Civil War
• possibly Napoleonic British

3. Attempt to complete all the figures in the stash that have a clear fit with my current plans

• Finish the WSS
• Scottish schiltron
• More "Cossack" infantry & cavalry
• Baggage camels for the Crusades, Sudan, etc.
• Replace my old Napoleonic French Dragoons
• Napoleonic Spanish infantry for skirmish games
• 28mm ECW cavalry

4. Clear out all unwanted items, including painted figures

• Assess each existing period, army, and units to consider if I am really going to use them
• Reduce the figure stash from 4 crates to 3

5. 3D Printing - the bulk of my immediate needs have been printed so I am looking at

• ways to produce matching 20mm figures & smaller equipment to complete my Napoleonic and other armies
• components for houses and other terrain
• work on how to make/modify files to meet my specific needs

6. Gaming

• Play at least one WW2 Sicily game as is is the 80th anniversary this year
• I would like to try Dresden 1813 as it is the 210th anniversary
• Attend as many shows as possible

Review of 2022 - part 2 painting breakdown

Painting output was 1,206 items, which dramatically lower than the 2,236 last year, but does contain significantly less rework. There was also quite a bit of work behind the scenes sorting out my printing problems, but overall I felt that I achieved far less than I should have. Now breaking it all down.

Period		Notes
WW2	581	Plenty of Resin tanks and vehicles, but especially French and Japanese. Then yet more German infantry as if I didn't have enough but also more Australian, Italians and DAK for the desert.
WSS	204	British and French Horse and Dragoons
Revolution	122	Cisalpine infantry and more French infantry for Egypt 1800 along with limbers
Napoleonic	100	Spanish Cavalry and Limbers, reworked Austrian Artillery plus French engineers
SYW	90	Jacobite and British Cavalry for the "45"
Medieval	51	Crusader baggage and Saracen light horse
WW1	24	A French field kitchen feeding poilus, a pair of Lanchester armoured cars and two replacement Austin hulls
ACW	14	28mm Wild West Lawmen and Outlaws<
Colonial	12	Boer pom-poms and crews
Grand Total	1,206

Type		Notes
Infantry	433	Mostly WW2, plus French in Egypt 1800 and WSS French dismounted dragoons
Cavalry	314	WSS British & French, SYW British & Jacobite, Saracen Light Horse and WW2 French
Tanks/AFVs	85	All resin printed, the majority were French, Japanese and British (BEF).
Gunners	56	WW2 Japanese, British, French, German and Italian plus some Boers
Rebase/Rework	51	Napoleonic Austrian Artillery and limbers.
Vehicles	50	All WW2, mainly French, some Japanese, including French and Russian Motorcycles
Riders	45	WW2 vehicle crews, plus the Napoleonic Spanish Cavalry using different riders and horses.
Other Items	37	Crusader civilians and WW1 French Field Kitchen
Horses	34	Crusader baggage mules and horses for the Spanish cavalry
Artillery	30	As for Gunners
Limbers	21	Napoleonic Austrian & Spanish, French for Egypt 1800 and WW2 18/25 pdr limbers
Commanders	15	Mix of War of Spanish Succession, Jacobite and Crusader
Engineers	13	Napoleonic French Sappers
Equipment	9	Mainly MMGs and mortars to go with the WW2 infantry I painted, plus a WW1 French Field kitchen
Ships	7	WW2 Cargo ships & German Raumboot and a single British Fairmile.
Wagons	4	All crusader wagons
Aircraft	2	An early Spitfire and a Horsa glider
Grand Total	1,206

Finally a big thanks you to all those who commented on my blog through the year, your comments help to keep me motivated.

Review of 2022 - part 1 progress against plan

I am posting this entry slightly earlier than planned as I caught Covid and had to skip some of my family visits to return home. Overall a bit of a mixed year with less progress than hoped

Looking at my progress against the detailed plan:-

First and foremost my plan is to meet with as many friends as possible, assuming that retrictions come to an end, other than that I'll be working on three themes. - - Beacon Wargames club is well established, we've had a good year and additionally been running Saturday games every 6 weeks or so. There have been less shows than pre-Covid and family comitments and changes to them have prevented me from attanding some others I had hoped to attend.

Game specific projects

• Pegasus bridge and Horsa glider for a D-Day game - Both the glider and bridge are fully assembled and painted, but I still need to create a sufficient large river for the bridge to cross. I have failed to find the same clear flexible plastic that I used for a coastline some years ago.
• Continuing to build my War of Spanish Succession forces, as quickly as Strelets release them - Up until December I had finished everything in the stash, but with the new releases of cuirassiers I still have more to do.
• Rebase/upgrade the whole of my Anglo-Zulu War armies including the Boers - not started - I just couldn't settle on a basing approach - carried foward to 2023.
• Attempt to rationalise my terrain - not started - due to family taking over the garage I missed the opportunity to have a sort out this summer - carried forward to 2023.

Reducing the existing stash, I'd like to make at least a 10% reduction - Completed - I had a purge in Q1 and sold some surplus on ebay and have sold some more in Q4. The stash has declined from 6,630 to 5,820 so a 12% reduction.

• Paint the already printed WW2 French vehicles - Completed, and then painted the extras I subsequently printed. Then I painted all the replacements for those that subsequently "exploded"
• Extra Afrika Corps and Italian figures to convert my Rapid Fire troops to use Batttlegroup. - Completed
• French Goumier Platoon - Completed
• An Australian Platoon plus supports for the desert/Crete, etc - Completed.
• WW2 German Gebirgsjaeger and remaining two platoons of winter infantry - I completed one Gebirgsjager Plationn and another that I had missed in Zeltbahns. But I still have to do the two winter platoons - carried forward to 2023.
• Cavalry for the Seven Years War/Jacobite Rebellion - Completed
• Napoleonic Spanish artillery and more cavalry - Completed
• 1800 French in Egypt - double up the unit size from 12 to 24 - Completed although they were painted as new units instead
• French Revolution - Cisapline legion troops - Completed
• More Crusader baggage and Saracen cavalry - Completed
• Imperial Croat cavalry and Polish pancerni - not started - carried forward to 2023.
• WW1 odd bits and pieces - not started- carried forward to 2023.

Exploiting the 3D resin printer - I've learnt about post production problems, I have lost numerous vehicles due to the models "exploding". So far so good with all my later batches with far larger vent/drain holes. I have also learnt how to slice and merge models using 4D builder, although I don't have a powerful enough graphic card to do complex manipulations.

• Completing my Japanese forces for Pacific/Burma, by printing a selection of suitable vehicles to hopefully cover various 1941-1945 campaigns. - completed - a whole range of tanks, vehicles and guns have been printed and painted.
• Gradually replacing poorly cast or moulded models with new resin prints - underway - in an eaarlier print run I printed replacements for my existing Somua S35's, and then I had to reprint them once they "exploded" A later print run included M10s and Sextons to replace my exisitng Armourfast and PSC versions - this will probably become an ongoing action when I plan the next print runs.
• LVTs and any other extra vehicles so I can carry out Pacific beach landing games - Completed - LVT's printed and painted - although I am tempted to create some waterline versions of the LVTs
• Test printing of 20mm figures - Discovered the best approach was to print with a base, so I've learnt how to add those, but the bases do seem to be subject to warping. I also need to try printing then with a more flexible resin, do reduce the risk of damage to fine parts, although this may not the be water-washable resin I have used up till now
• Components for buildings, doors, windows, shutters etc. - not started - carried forward to 2023.
• Try some 1/100 moderns for NorthAG - Completed - printed a sufficient selection of West German vehicles for a Battlegroup Northag game, but I still need to paint them and source the infantry - carried forward to 2023.
• More vehicles for "Setting the East Ablaze" - underway - Lanchester armoured cars completed. , The Austin armoured cars that "exploded" have now been reprinted, and I still not found any suitable trucks

Replacement BEF armour

These Morris CS-9s, Mark VI and Matilda 2s were reprinted to replace those that exploded during the summer. In fact I removed much of the stowage from the trashed versions to use again.

and that finishes my output for 2022, but with still more in progress.