Polish 10th Motorized (The Black Brigade).

I now have a complete platoon and support, plus tanks for my Polish Black Brigade project. The only thing left to do is finish off some more heavy weapons (mortars and HMGs). I have enough minis to do a second platoon, but that will have to wait until later.

The miniatures are all True North, now owned by Old Glory. They are decent figs, but I am hoping to see Battlefront release their own models of this unit once they start their early war range. The True North figs are slightly too big when standing next to the Command Decision 15mm Germans I have, but that's no big deal.

I had to do some conversion work to get some of the poses I wanted. The packs did not come with any advancing LMGs. I had to take one of the prone LMG gunners, snip off the gun, drill out one of the rifles from a rifleman, add the gun, and the sculpt on new hands with green stuff. Not difficult, just time consuming. I did 4 of them in two different poses. I think the conversion came out pretty well, though part of the reason I am not rushing into a second platoon is the fact that I don't look forward to doing that again...

Now completed:

Command section, motorcycle combo, 4 sections, a truck, 1 armored car, 6 Vickers E 6 ton, 4 TKS (one with 20mm cannon), a 7TP tank, HMG, and a 37mm Antitank gun.

Enjoy!



Platoon (minus 1 truck).



One of the sections of the one squad platoon (their TO&E is rather odd).



Support weapons.



The LMG conversion.



Vickers E 6 Ton.



TKS Tankettes. I love these things. Armored go-carts. Yet one of these little suckers, commanded by Roman Orlik, knocked out 3 German tanks (including a Panzer IV B) in one action, followed by a second run of 3 kills, and a final run of 7 kills in one day.



The 7TP, one of the best Polish tanks. These could go head to head with pretty much the best of German armor in 1939. Unfortunately for the Poles, there were too few. A number of them did some damage in a major counterattack around Bzura before being knocked out.



Armored Car. Fast, cheap, and packs an MG and 37mm gun. Just don't get hit.

So that's it! I just wish someone did this unit in 28mm...

Pennsylvania Bucktails.

Work has begun on my Civil War Skirmish project. First up is a group of 10 Union soldiers of the 150th PA Volunteers Regiment (The Bucktails), known for their distinctive white tail deer tail pinned to their hats. This Regiment saw action from Chancellorsville all the way through Gettysburg, Petersburg and through the end of the war.

This is just the first of my Civil War units. Most of them will be bucktails, but I will also paint up enough generic Union infantry to be used in any theater.

Miniatures are all Old Glory 28mm. They are one of the few manufacturers I know of who specifically make this unit with the tails on the hats (Redoubt is the other). I like these figures. They have good detail, lots of good poses, and a lot of character. Old Glory even produces several packs of casualties so I should be able to put down one casualty per model during a game to give the battlefield a realistic look.

Here are some shots of the unit (plus a wagon).























Cookie and his wagon...



Detail shot.

Do you smell something, comrade?

Well, the horde is almost complete. I have a few of the toxic waste barrel zombies to finish up, but that's about it. It didn't take long to do these guys, surprisingly. I found that a nice quick drybrush of flesh, followed by a rotting flesh green on top followed by a few dark red and a purplish bruise color for washes finished off with an overall dark wash to add depth really gave them the right look. The only thing I did to add detail was pick out a few bones in khaki and white mixed. Oh, I also added a gloss finish to the guts and painted the eyes with a red/orange spot. I'm very happy with them.

Enjoy!



Close up of a few of the gang.



Some blurry "comin' atcha!" shots.



And a toxic waste barrel zombie for good measure. I will be using these for markers or spawn points in a game. This makes me think of that old Chevy Chase movie where he gets toxified (Modern Problems).

The question remains...will 46 of these bad boys be enough? You can never have too many zombies on the table. My Soviets are ready to take on the horde. All I have to do for them is a few of the support weapons I just picked up. RPG launcher (zombies go 'splode), a second PK LMG (head shot!), and a flamethrower (whoosh!). Though the last thing you might want are zombies that are on fire.

The whole thing gets a game test run on Monday at the club. Now I just need to come up with some rules and special events cards...