CEF Artillery Detachment - part 3...The Finishing

Howdy everyone,

I hope all has been going well...I am pretty pumped...as I said in Part 2, I had finished my two guns, I am now finally able to get some pics and get a post up!! I'm pretty happy with the finished product...the guns themselves were pretty easy to paint-up...I just used vj 924 Russian Uniform and then a lighter shade of 924 for highlights.  I did pick a few details out overall, but for the most part, the guns are a quick easy go.

This is one of the first times that I've actually attached a figure or two to the base...completed the basing...and then painted the figure.  It takes a little bit of finesse to manoeuvre around the base features and to get in the harder to reach places.  As well, this is probably the first time that I've added figures to the base after I've already completed painting and detailing the base...more importantly, added them and tried to make them blend-in...

Again, I'm pretty happy with that result...I laid down a bit more sand around the base of the individual figure and tried to match the terrain colours as best as I could.

Anyway, enough babbling...here are the pics.

Cheers.

Voila, the finished products...2 guns with crew...one with ammo carriage and the other without...I also modeled each gun with their own 'brass pile' of spent shell casings.

Profile view of the guns... 

Overhead...my main disappointment is with my improvised ammo...because I used a small brass tube, I could not crimp the front to look like a projectile...or on hindsight I should of filled the base with filler or clay...oh well, maybe for my German guns...or more Canadian gunners in my future... 

...rear view of the gun positions... 

Gun 1 with brass pile and neat organization of ammo for the fire mission...inspired by my own experience on the guns... 

...a 'touched up' pic of Gun 2...

CEF - Artillery detachment...work in progress Part 2

Howdy everyone,

I hope you have had a great summer...I have enjoyed my summer hiatus from the internets and am pretty pumped to get back logging and posting my gaming progress.  First off for the month, an update on my Vimy Ridge-esque artillery positions.  To be fully honest, I was able to recently complete them, but I'm pretty happy with the fact that I have actually catalogued their build from metal and dirt to functioning gun crew.

I layed out the initial bits of the gun platform in part 1 getting a feel for how busy and crowded the base would be...I also laid down some beams and sanded the base.  Moving forward from this, I then base coated the models in black and went to work with the base colours.  I used the base part of my painting guide for my 28mm Stormtroopers and went to work.

I quickly had my first couple of layers down before I remembered to take any pics...so you kind of miss out on the Flat Earth and Beige Brown layers...

  

First attempt at vj Tan Earth...I was hoping things would pop more...they didn't, but it was a nice transition from the previous colour... 

 

At this stage, I used another dry brush of vj Tan Earth on the contours of the base and edges of the platform beams...

 

 

The 'finished' product...bases ready for the crew and guns...I dry brushed the base and beams with vj Iraqi Sand and for the final touch I used strong wash to highlight the slats, cratering, and 'boggy' parts.

Next, the guns themselves...vj 924 Russian Uniform base coat with highlights on detail areas including brass on the recoil cylinder, wheel hubs, and breech assembly areas.

 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pics...part 3 is coming and I'm really happy with how they turned out.

Take care.

 

CEF - Artillery detachment...work in progress Part 1

Howdy folks,

It has been quite sometime since I dedicated time to conducting research, so for the past 4 weeks or so I've been googling, reading articles, and made my way through 5 books on the subject of Vimy Ridge.  With the 100th anniversary coming up in April, my buddy Ed (Mr. Maersk Grozny) and I are going to put together a Vimy inspired gaming table for Cangames 2017.

Inspired by my research and some of the images I've been able to find, I have taken this knowledge and put it into action in basing my Canadian Artillery Detachment.

Originally I had hoped to build up a similar looking position as pictured above, however with the size of the Battlefront bases and not wanting to overcrowd the base I went with the look below.

As you can see, the real estate gets pretty tight.  So with that in mind I adapted my approach from the pictured gun position above and started building a suitable gun platform.

 Work in progress picture #1 and #2... 

Unfortunately the picture is very very yellow, however I think it shows my attempts to show the duckboards and planking that were part of the construction of artillery positions in the build-up to the Easter assault.  An excellent resource in this case has been the book "Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment"...it is a series of essays which cover the build-up, fighting, and aftermath of the battle.

 Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment

Great War - CEF - 2nd Platoon

Happy Canada Day everyone!!

Just thought I'd put up a quick post to celebrate July 1st and thought...hey, what better than some pictures of my latest WW1 installment.  I had actually painted these fellows up by the end of January, but had not completed the basing.  With the arrival of TY, this platoon was put on the back burner for my Sov horde of T72s...

So, near the end of May I collected these warriors from the WIP pile and finished up the basing for them...this time, I elected to not colour the interior of the craters to get the mud bog effect...I went instead for a little clarity on the gaming table and just coloured the craters with a strong wash to help differentiate the platoon from the these fellows.

My plan over the course of the summer is to finish a few random figs from the WIP pile, some 28mm...I'm thinking modern...and then near mid August get back to finishing my CEF troops...I have another rifle platoon, some artillery, and machine guns to finish up.

Enjoy the pics...and at the bottom, a couple of Canada Day inspired pics and a link...

 

2 Platoon...CEF, 49th Battalion...Loyal Eddies 

 

A few team close ups...grenadiers and riflemen

Lewis team... 

Rifle team charging forward

 

The Company so far...2 x rifle platoons with Company OC, 2iC, and 2 x sniper/marksman teams 

A view of the troops in line...

A random pic of the mid point of the company, 2 different basing styles beside each other...

the crater colour is more apparent in this pic

Having fun with a filter...action pic... 

So, again happy Canada Day...enjoy something maple...have a beer, some back bacon, and put on your favourite Rush tape/cd/mp3...

-BobandDoug.com-

Take off, eh...

 

 

-CBC.ca-

Great War - Canadian Expeditionary Force - first platoon

Hey folks,

I kinda turned to you all at the end of last month and laid out my tail of whoa and heartache and the disappearance of my gaming mojo.  It was truly sad and horrible...sometime over September and early October...Mo...my mojo, just went away.

And who suffered...well, the fine body of little soldiers inspired by the real world heroism of the Canadian Expeditionary Force from World War 1.  My overall goal was to use Battlefront figs to properly represent Canadian forces that fought with my focus on Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele.  I started September full of steam with a platoons worth of figures basecoated and ready to go...

Like many plans...this one did not survive first contact...for some reason, the painting at hand was soul sucking...I blame my Death Knight project...anyway...in the revival era of October, I put sand to base and finished painting up the remainder of the platoon and then made and painted their bases.

I was very surprised and happy that the bases came up as quick as they did...I tried very hard to emulate the wet and rainy battlefield of both these battles.  I took the time to 'sculp' craters that the troops had to slog through...I used sand for my bases so the 'sculpting' took some time, patience, and buttload of glue...but I'm very happy with the results.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

An extra command stand that I painted up...

 

The Platoon...

 



Command stand in the front...follow me...

 

Group shot from the front...

 

Rear profile...I like this shot because it showcases the multiple craters that I made up...after some online searching of battle shots and movie captures from the "Passchendaele" by Paul Gross, I settled on Vallejo Green/Brown with light dusting of Tan Earth and Army Painter Strong Tone on the edge.

 

 

The Lewis teams took extra effort making the berms work, but I'm very happy with the results