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

Vimy Ridge...research, check-in

Howdy folks,

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm looking ahead to a long-term project for 2017 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Canada's victory at Vimy Ridge.  I've been very interested in collecting a WW1 CEF force as well as do up some terrain that although inspired by Vimy could work for other Great War battlefields.

As a start to my research I've been collecting a variety of Vimy related reading as well as images, documents, and other books on trench warfare with the goal of getting some detailed looks at how the trenches were constructed and their general layout.  This was part of my objective with my fall visit to the Canadian War Museum, especially their mock-up and diorama of a typical trenchline.

A couple of gems I found over the past few days was a big-picture map from Canadiansoldiers.com with a great overview of the offensive.  I also found a Canadian Corps level map that showed the regimental, brigade, and division boundaries of the units involved in the assault.  Finally, I found a great map from the Birth of a Regiment (website on the history of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry).

More to follow as the research progresses.

 
www.canadiansoldiers.com, overview of regimental locations and objectives 

 

www.cbc.ca, overview of unit objectives and axis of attacks

 

1:10,000 topo map of Vimy Ridge trenchline and unit boundaries...awesome find.