1914 Belgians - part 3

 

Cavalry involved yet more head swaps.  These chaps began life as Italeri ACW troopers which with a 'paint conversion' served in my fictional Balkan-style Forbodian army for several years.  Most of their chums have gone to another project and the remaining three had new shako-wearing heads from Scale Link.

More cavalry were converted from a Britains hollowcast set with the same head swap treatment.

1914 Belgians - part 2

A few of my Belgians are pre-painted metal castings.  These would normally be vastly expensive but were bought at a discount.  We've already seen the two Tradition cyclists.

First up is a nice boxed set of eight line infantry from Alymer in Spain.  This consists of an officer, as standard bearer and six marching squaddies - all wearing the old-fashioned shako.  As in my world a company is six figures, this neatly makes a rifle company and a battalion HQ.  All I've done is stick them to mdf bases.

Then there's this Carabinier medic complete with dog.  I can't remember the maker but it's a lovely piece.

There are a few more metal figures but as they were converted and/or repainted I'll cover them later.

The Last Redoubt - Belgium 1914 - part 3

 

As they galloped (and pedalled) into contact the world held its breath. Imagine then everyone’s surprise when the charge succeeded! This effectively ended the German 5th division's offensive capability, a further blow being the untimely death of the divisional commander killed by a stray artillery shell. It would be ungallant of me to identify the nationality of the responsible gunner, right Simon?

 

By now the German 6 division had crossed the canal in strength and was approaching Louvain from the north east. Helped by corps assets, German gunners had battered the defenders of  the village sufficiently that the surviving Belgian guns were withdrawn to Antwerp, together with the far more important horse drawn field kitchen.

 

At this point we called Endex and talk through what might have happened next. We agreed that the  that the German 5th division would regroup and be reinforced over the next couple of days and the delay would effectively prevent the Germans sealing off Antwerp for that period of time. We talked through everyone’s objectives and individual victory conditions. On balance , the Belgians did slightly better than their opponents.  In terms of the victory points for objective locations, honours were even.

 By popular acclaim the “men of the match“ were the Belgian cavalry cyclists and armoured car crew. Clearly then these are the weapons of the future.

 Everyone claimed to have had a nice day and I was particularly pleased to have deployed my 54 mm Belgians so soon after completing them.  My thanks as always to the players for entering into the spirit of the game and providing such fine entertainment.

 Without wishing to cause undue alarm I can see possibilities for a sequel to this game. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Finally, for those of you wondering about the game's title, I refer you both to the individual objectives and the following quote:

“Accent is the last great redoubt of prejudice.”― A.A. Gill

1914 Belgians - part 1

Following a flood of requests (well OK, one) for more info on my Great War Belgians, here is part one of their story.

I'm sure that most of us are familiar with the fabulous illustrations in the Funcken books.  This painting of the 1st Carabiniers is very atmospheric!

My starting point was the Deetail French Foreign Legion figures - including some of the newer plastic-based copies made by DSG.  First step was to lop their heads off and trim away the havelock (neck cloth).  I took the opportunity at this point to make a few other changes - such as replacing the officer's sword with a flagpole.

New heads came from Tradition Of London.

New paintwork began to transform their appearance...

...with final detailing in the form of the yellow piping being added with paint pens.

.

Here is one with a pair of Tradition cyclists.  I picked them up for rather less than half price at a Paris Eurofigurines show a couple of years back.

And no - before you ask - I haven't built a dog-pulled MG.  Yet.