Short break

I'm taking a short break from the blog, just a couple of days, as all my spare time is going into a very exciting little project which I hope to share with you guys once it's done. I'm translating the Polish army manual for the infantry from 1934 which covers small unit tactics on a team, platoon and company level.

This is part of me helping a friend in the wargaming community since Polish sources about this are hard to find in English and information is needed to give a historically accurate depiction of Polish small unit tactics.

It may appear really nerdy, but the manual is actually very exciting. It's very interesting reading about how the Polish infantry was trained and what was expected of them in different situations. It includes lots of stuff that I would have never been able to imagine, but which correspond with the battle descriptions and memories from the September Campaign told by veterans.

When I was working on my September Campaign book I was very interested in finding stuff on small unit tactics/platoon level operations but it was really hard. I only managed to find this army manual through pure luck after searching the internet. For those of you fluent in Polish here is the original file which I'm translating:http://www.cytadela.aplus.pl/tematy_woj/musztra_new/regpiech.pdf

So the first post when I get back to the blog will most likely be a PDF with the interesting parts of the manual translated into English :-)

Polish motorized infantry platoon

When I was at  Salute I bought two blisters of dismounted Polish cavalry from Forged in Battle, one blister of soldiers in hats and one with soldiers in Adrian helmets. These troops work for many different forces found in the Polish army. Their main use is naturally regular cavalry fighting on foot. However you can also use these as soldiers from Poland’s two motorized brigades; the Warsaw armoured motorized brigade and the 10th motorized cavalry brigade.

Since the motorized troops were in fact transformed from existing cavalry units their uniforms retained the look and style of those found in the cavalry - especially the cavalry pants, boots and Adrian helmets.

The sculpts and quality is great as ever with Forged in Battle products, though I was a bit miffed that my blister of soldiers in Adrian helmet didn't include the officer with the drawn saber but rather an officer pointing with his hand (a sculpt not featured on the picture in the store). Fortunately I was more than pleased with the officer in the pack of soldiers in hats, the guy pointing his pistol looks absolutely badass - I just adjusted the pose of his arm somewhat to make it point straighter. Love that mini!

The anti-tank rifle team and HMG's have not yet been released for the cavalry, Warsaw armoured motorized brigade or 10th motorized cavalry brigade - so what I did was to make an easy head swap of the existing anti-tank rifle team in regular Polish helmets for some heads with Adrian helmets. I also contacted Forged in Battle and got a pack of Polish wz.30 HMG's which I used with the Forged in Battle French HMG teams. Using the French as a substitute is a pretty good choice since they look very much like Polish cavalry with those greatcoats and Adrian helmets. The only difference and something you could mask with paint or greenstuff are the leg wrappings which isn't part of a Polish uniform.

I still got two more platoons to paint up (8Rifle MG teams and 2 AT-rifle teams) before this company is complete. I am however considering to paint up 2-4 more HMG teams so that I could run single platoon companies with the attached HMG support, to make a very cost effective and highly defensive infantry backbone for the motorized brigade.

When the rest of the troops are fully painted up I will order some blisters for the 10th motorized cavalry brigade as well. Those troops are just too iconic to pass, not to mention that the 10th motorized cavalry brigade is the most awesome force organization that the Poles can field in 1939.

4th and last Polish R35 platoon

Last platoon of R-35 tanks for my R-35 company belonging to the Polish 21st Light Tank Battalion.
I picked the last three tanks up from Peter Pig at Salute earlier this year and they have been sitting on my shelf and watching me paint By Fire & Sword miniatures for the past months. I figured I would complete the last few Early War units I have, among them another platoon of 7TP tanks, artillery, AT guns, dismounted cavalry and some HMG's. Just to add some variety to the painting. I had almost forgotten how fast WW2 stuff gets painted compared to brightly colored Renaissance units.

The tank elements of the company max out at 660 points, so it leaves plenty of room for infantry support and motorcycle recon troops. However the company is really lacking serious machinegun support, completely lacks AT guns, artillery assets or air support - as the 21st Light Tank Battalion was meant to act as a reserve unit when the war broke out.

Despite the limited options the company should still offer interesting gameplay. The tanks are great against infantry and can act as mobile AT guns if needed. There is plenty of infantry to defend with, and the recon units can clear the way for the slow moving tanks, you can also have a platoon of AA machineguns and engineers tag along. The trouble begins against other tanks as the AT value of the R-35 is a measly 4 and has only a 16" range with "one man turret" tacked on. It does on the other hand it is RoF3 when stationary and has Firepower 4+, but any engagement with enemy armor will require close firefights and the adds aren't really in favor of tiny tank platoons.

It will be interesting to run the full company this week against my friend  David's Soviet army as he too uses a list from the September Campaign v.2.

Polish objective markers for Flames of War

For a very long time I've been using my Polish eagle badge resin markers mounted on large FoW bases to act as objective markers. I never had the heart to actually glue them in place or base them properly as I figured I would get use for them with other games and periods as well.  This created a jarring contrast and always looked kinda half-finished. So I mustered up some determination and printed out two of those "Poland first to fight" propaganda posters and touched them up with Vallejo paints for some color.

From now on I also won't have to worry about chipping the objective markers, something that happened a lot with the round resin markers as units walked across them.

Swedish infantry 1910-39 painted up

And here are the sample miniatures from the review, now with some paint on. I used one of the tutorials over at http://adalenfigures.blogspot.se/ but don't know if I got the colors exactly right since I had to mix everything myself. The colors used for the uniforms are a mix of Vallejo Scorched brown, German Uniform and Bone white.

Very nice miniatures and they paint up very easily. If I were to buy into interwar Swedes I think I would go for the guys in helmets, but it was nice to try painting all 3 versions of the regular soldiers. And the officer with the drawn sword is a total badass.

I wonder if my Anti-Shine varnish has been ruined. The latest bottle does not behave anywhere near as good as the first one I got from Warlord Games, hence the damn glossy finish...

Polish 28mm cavalry (12 of 12) finished

Finished the last 6 Polish riders last night for Chris who will be using them for Bolt Action. The pictures are taken while the matt varnish is still a bit fresh hence the slight gloss in some areas. They will be shipped back to the US (Virginia to be specific) by the end of this week.

I also figured I would throw in 2 out of my 4 Polish eagle objectives, I rarely use more than 2 in Flames of War anyway. So Bolt Action gamers in Virginia keep an eye out

28mm Polish cavalry (6 out of 12 finished)

This is the first half of the cavalry I'm painting for Chris/"Deploymentzone" over at the WWPD forum as a thank you gesture for the load of 15mm Polish stuff he donated to me.

The miniatures are 28mm Warlord Games Polish cavalry, half will be armed with lances the other half with sabers. The bases is something Chris will tend to himself. None of the riders are glued in place to make it safer to ship them back to the US when they are all done.

Hope to have the remaining 6 painted up towards the end of the next week.

My friend David's Early War Soviet's

I wanted to showcase some of my friend David's Early War Soviet's, which I think are his best looking army to date. Many of these units along with painting tutorials will be included in the upcoming "Hobby book for Poland 1939" compilation. Here’s a preview of his latest stuff::

BT-5 tanks from Zvezda

Polikarpov I-15B (manufacturer ? Battlefront flight stand)

Soviet infantry, AT-guns and artillery by Plastic Soldier Company