Georland's enemies - the infantry

Prussian Line Infantry

Silesian Riflemen

Bavarian Infantry

Saxon Infantry (apologies for the blurred photographs)

Wurttemberg Infantry

One of the good things about the Miniature Figurines Franco Prussian War Range was the presence of figures for various of the German States allied to Prussia, mainly for infantry but also including Bavarain cavalry and Wurttemberg artillery. These national contingents give some flexibility when representing the enmies of Georland.

Georland's enemies - the artillery

Artillery pieces are by B&B and RAFM. The B&B Krupp gins have split trails, which I don't think are accurate, but I haven't been able to confirm this.

I acquired an Ebay lot of about 25 Wurttemberg gunners hence the over representation of their artillery arm - the first two rows of guns (and first four rows of gunners) in the picture above. In fact the Wurttembergers were the only German in the FPW range.

Prussian and Bavarian gun crews (Bavarians the middle of the three crews). These figures are conversions now available from John Cunningham. Most of the guns in this photo are RAFM. They have single trail carriages but the moulds are obviously well past their prime, with parts missing.

The Georland Army - High Command

Army Commander - so this will be the famous General Mercury. I am still thinking what to do His Imperial Majesty - possibly the same figure with a fancier paint job, and a larger oval base including escort and ADC.

Mercury with Divisional and Brigade Commanders

The Georland Army - Cavalry

I have been painting up and organising my various S Range Franco Prussian War figures, along with some Crimean figures which jointly form my Second Empire/Red Trouser French forces.

These are partly for FPW gaming but also for my intention to refight some of George Keef's campaigns from the 1870s and 80s as detailed in the History of Georland blog.

Figures are individually based on MDF (20x20mm for foot and 20x40mm for mounted) and then placed in movement trays accommodating six infantry in two ranks or three cavalrymen abreast. An infantry battalion is four companies of six figures and a squadron of cavalry two troops of three figures each.

Cpmmanders and some infantry unit command stands us circular bases of different sizes, showing different levels of command.

I'm going to photograph and post these over the next few days but here are the French (and Georland) cavalry for starters.

Spahis

Chasseurs d'Afrique

Dragoons

Cuirassiers

Commanders (including the famous General Mercury)

The Georland Army - Artillery

French Crimean War Horse Artillery

FPW gunners

Not the best photos I'm afraid, I will try to redo them some time. I also had difficulty with the straighten tool in photoshop for these two pictures.

They do display the basing and movement tray system I am using.

The guns are from the B&B Wargames 20mm FPW range. There are two different type of field piece, 4 pdr and 12 pdr.

There are also an S Range Mitrailleuse, two S Range Gatlings (which I may or may not use), and an Imperial Modellbau Mitrailleuse, available from the Hagen.de shop.

 I am currently awaiting more gunners of both sorts.

Drout's Artillery were one of the key units of the Georland Army and I suspect this will be represented by the Crimean Horse Artillery figures.

The Georland Army - Infantry

My Georland Army will use Minifigs S Range French figures, mainly Franco Prussian War but augmented by some Crimean War red trouser era (Second Empire). This seems appropriate as George Alfred Keef's soldiers were Franco Prussian War types bought in bilk in the 1870's, although his figures were German-made 40mm demi-rondes.

So we will start with these Crimean figures:

Line Infantry

Imperial Guard Infantry

Zouaves and Turcos (the same figures, just different paint jobs)

Then the Franco Prussian War Infantry units:

Imperial Guard

Chasseurs a Pied

Zouaves

Turcos (the same figure with a different paint job)

Naval Infantry

Voltigeurs

Line Infantry (three battalions)

I still have to further research the Georland Order of Battle and work out which units these figures can represent.

It's beginning to look a lot like Georland....

Progress report on Georland for 2016

My main wargaming projects in 2016 have been building my Interwar forces, assembling a small Lamming Roman Army with British/German opponents, painting and organising my Minifigs S Range French Revolution and Egypt armies, and getting to a point where I can start some Georland gaming.

For the last few months I have been concentrating on painting and organising my Minifigs S Range Franco Prussian War figures with the intention of using them for Georland wargaming (as well as for Franco Prussian War).

Originally I had intended to use my existing and large collection of S Range Crimean figures, with British for Georland, and Russians for their opponents, supported by the FPW Germans.

However, as the FPW collection grew in size I decided to use it instead. This is mainly because the original collection of George Keef were Franco Prussian War figures of the time which were bought up cheaply. Obviously there are compromises to be made in identifying units designated as Highlanders or Grenadier Guards with French types, but this somehow seemed true to George Keef's original figures and therefore appropriate.

(Of course I could have taken this further, e.g. by using Irregular Miniatures Shiny Toy Soldiers range, but issues of cost and space rules this out). If I was starting from scratch and money was no object then I would have loved to go with Spencer Smith Classic Range, although the idea of gluing all those arms on would put me off.

I think a lot of any wargames project depends on your aesthetic - the look and feel of the thing - and I think I have got this sorted out. I am very happy with the S Range figures; they are simply block painted, with unflocked bases. Figures are on individual MDF bases, 20 x 20mm for foot and 20 x 40mm for mounted figures. Exceptions are generals and some foot unit command stands, on round bases of different sizes denoting rank.

Figures are then placed in movement trays, accommodating 60 x 40mm internally for infantry and cavalry, and 80 x 40mm for artillery (gun and four crew). The basic cavalry unit is the squadron, with two trays of three figures each (total 6) and infantry are 24 - four trays of 6. This allows for casualty removal and fits well in the storage I am using for the figures. The movement trays can accommodate blanks - MDF bases of the correct size - if I don't have the exact number of figures for a unit. A small number of light units are using 20mmx 100mm movement trays.

I have decided I will be using a hex based set of rules to de developed from Command and Colours Napoleonic. I hope this will only need a few tweaks to ranges etc but I haven't started work on this yet. I also haven't started in sorting out scenarios and orders of battle from the Georland Journal, or working out which Georland units my FPW figures can represent.

I have a Corsec Engineering fleece mat - open fields design with a 6" hex overlay. I am waiting for some 1" tall MDF hexes for hills, and have also found some 4" tall polystyrene hexagon cake making blanks. These are ever so slightly smaller than 6" but I hope have potential for providing higher hills, either as is or by carving with a serrated knife.

Finally I have been collecting from Ebay built HO gauge German railway scenery kits which look generally suitable for around 1870. I don't mind then being in a smaller scale than the figures - I have always been comfortable with 15mm buildings with 20mm figures, for example. "Proper" 25mm buildings would be too big for my table and the railway models option probably gives a wider choice of suitable buildings. Most of these buildings are by Vollmer, although one or two are Kibri.

Headquarters or hospital building

Grand houses

Apartment Buildings

Factory, chimney and houses

I am also photographing the troops, but my camera lights can only be used for 10 minutes at a time so this is slow going. I will be posting pictures here, and on my History of Georland and Lone S Ranger blogs, so they should be hard to miss.

The plan is to start gaming in January or February.

Rospak peltasts

I was contacted by Alan who had these Rospak Peltasts for sale. There were 18 figures, one of whom has a broken javelin.

THESE FIGURES HAVE NOW BEEN SOLD

Interwar Half Track upgrade

I recently acquired two Shapeways Burford Kegresse MG Carriers by Fitz to replace my earlier dogy scratchbuilds.

These are lovely models and a great improvement on my earlier efforts. My thanks to Fitz for producing a model of a vehicle I never expected to be available (along with the Russian MS-1 and T-27s he has done).

Fitz's Shapeways shop, which has all sorts of goodies for 28mm, 20mm and 15mm, can be found at this link:

Fitz's Shapeways Shop

Interwar Half Track upgrade

I recently acquired two Shapeways Burford Kegresse MG Carriers by Fitz to replace my earlier dogy scratchbuilds.

These are lovely models and a great improvement on my earlier efforts. My thanks to Fitz for producing a model of a vehicle I never expected to be available (along with the Russian MS-1 and T-27s he has done).

Fitz's Shapeways shop, which has all sorts of goodies for 28mm, 20mm and 15mm, can be found at this link:

Fitz's Shapeways Shop

More Interwar Pathe News

Two interesting clips which have recently been posted on the VBCW Forum. The first is called Battle of the Machines - Longer Version 1930

  

 It has some great pictures of loads of Vickers Medium IIs, from the Salisbury Plain Northland?Southland exercises. Clearly the crews preferred being on their tanks rather than in them where possible. No sign of lances with the cavalry. It is also particularly interesting to see the Carden Loyds with the QF 3.7" howitzer - it looks like two Carden Loyds per dun, one towing the gun on its tracked trailer, the other the crew in a tracked personnel trailer. It is particularly interesting to see the guns being loaded onto the tracked trailers for motorised towing - they seem able to get into/out of action very quickly.

The second is Tanks 1935

  

 This has interesting shots of two Medium Mark IIIs and is very helpful for vehicle markings etc. At c3.15 it has what seems to be an MG-only armed command Mark II, which I have never come across before.

Happy Valentine's Day

So you can all pick your own Valentine...