Flames of War... and FINALLY! Another blog post... Polish Infantry

So, I have been snowed under with mountains of work combined with travel AND a new modelling project which bit deep into my focus.

When this happens to me I struggle to put my head above the parapets to see whats going on in the world and I will generally go neck deep into a painting regime and won't come up for air for a couple of months... and a Flames of War Polish army which I had sitting in a cupboard for about 4 years finally grabbed me by the throat and shook me like a British Nanny!

I have now finally come up for air and looking behind me I have a LOT of Polish elements for a Flames of War Early War game complete.

I decided early on that I would hammer a Piechoty Battalion hard (thats Polish Infantry, as opposed to  motorised or cavalry) and whilst I have completed a lot of stuff I will focus this particular blog on the infantry side of things.

The Polish nation that gained its independence from Russia (and the Soviet Union) in 1921 following the end of World War 1 and the Miracle on the Vistula was, under Marshall Pilsudski essentially an armed camp with about 20% of the Gross Domestic Produce earmarked for military expenditure.

Sadly by 1936 Pilsudski was dead, the military hierarchy was riven with internal factions and friction and a highly incapable demagogue was hailed as the national saviour. Edward Rydz-Smigly was, as Pilsudki put it, a tenacious and stubborn army commander who collected accolades by the bucket BUT demonstrated very little that indicated an ability to think strategically at a national level... and of course the Polish defensive plan that fell apart so comprehensively in the first three days of September 1939 demonstrated this.

The Polish armed forces however, were a hell of a lot more competent than a lot of their commanding officers at senior levels.

The Polish infantry in particular was a tough breed who knew that their countries very existence depended on them fighting to the limit and past any edges!

A person that I once knew, who also collected a Polish army (at 20mm) put it very succinctly that the Polish army was never out fought, only out manoeuvred.

Because of these underrated troops performances I decided that I would start my Polish adventure with the Infantry.

All of the infantry so far. Two full companies (and one with a platoon of naval infantry) and each with a HMG platoon, a Battalion Commander and attached Pioneers and Sappers

A vista view across all of them

A close look at the platoons 

...and on to a closer look:

Battalion Commanders of Infantry would march to battle and be accompanied by the Battalion allocation of 81mm Mortars as displayed here.

Each  Piechoty company would have the option to have a platoon of HMG's attached to it. Three Heavy machine guns were old and heavy BUT provided some much needed fire support to the infantry when they launched one of their attacks.

Polish Infantry Platoons were large and unwieldy but one of the things it did have in its favour was a lot of screaming madmen who were fanatical about their country's survival!

Shown here is a full Polish Piechoty platoon of three sections of 19 men each, with one NCO and one LMG operator, a platoon commander accompanied by a 40mm Mortar team and a 2 man Anti tank rifle team.

Each infantry platoon (as shown in the two photos above)  would also have the option to be accompanied by a 2 man 40mm knee mortar and an anti tank rifle as well as the platoon commander.

The standard Light Machine Gun of the Polish army in 1939 was the American Browning Automatic Rifle (of BAR for short). Heavy and with limited capacity box ammunition it was nonetheless sturdy and reliable.

A polish anti tank rifle. Developed in strict secrecy before the war began, these rifles used squeezed Tungsten core ammunition which came out of the barrel at such a high velocity that almost no German armour was proof against it, other than the PzKpfw IV... of which there were very few around!

One of my personal bug bears with the Polish army of 1939 is the reproduction of colours of the uniforms... and I have seen all sorts. It took me a while to sort out a colouration that I was satisfied with BUT I did manage it so Ive put the instructions here for any of you who may wish to paint Polish:

Undercoat:        Primer
Basecoat:           Matt Black

                                Basecoat                             Highlight                          Extra(?)
Uniform           Brown Violet (887)           Green Brown (879)        Filter for NATO vehicles(AK076)
Helmet/ Tin      Russian Green (894)        50/50 +Brown Violet (879)
Webbing           German Field Grey (830) Green Grey (886)
Puttees              Graveyard Earth (GW)     Kommando Khaki (GW)
Boots                Chocolate Brown (872)    Flat Earth (983)
Pouches            Chocolate Brown (872)    Flat Earth (983)
Canvas Packs   English Uniform (921)     Khaki (988)
Bedroll             Scorched Brown (GW)     Flat Earth (983)
Rifle Body       Scorched Brown (GW)      Vermin Brown (GW)
Metal Bits        Gunmetal Grey (863)
Collar Tabs       Intense Blue (925)
Flesh                 Beige Red (804)               Light Flesh (928)

Flames of War - Polish Armoured Train 1939

So its been a little while since my last post again and as I am a day away from heading out to film in Peru for September I thought that I should do another blog post just to prove that I haven't actually been inactive.

So... on the back of a serious customer services cluster f*** from Hawk War-games I made the decision not to buy any more of their gear and not to play their games... or to say anything good about it from here on forwards and instead devote some of my mountain of creative energy to another period that Im passionate about.. and thats the Second World War.

Now, since my last blog and turning my back on Dropzone Commander I have decided to paint up another army that has always been close to my heart, and thats the Polish army of 1939!

There are so many misconceptions and misunderstandings about this army that it beggars belief the main one of course being that their cavalry charged tanks with lances, their aircraft was destroyed on the ground... and that they just rolled over and played dead!

...oh yeah, and they used trains with guns... well at least this one is true. The Polish had 10 of these behemoths on their books, dating back to the first world war and the Russo Polish War, as well as another 6 improvised and/or training trains that were mobilised after the Nazi's strolled across the border.

Battlefront miniatures are the only manufacturer in the world that do a full model of one of these trains. The train they purport to represent is Pociag Pancerny No53. (Armoured Train No53.) This train in the 20's had the name Smialy (Shmee-ah-weh) which means 'Brave' and all of the other trains had similarly evocative names but in the late 30's the names were all ditched leaving just the numerics.

The model itself has, I think, some historical innacuracies the main one being the configuration of the tender. There were three locomotive and tender combinations that had a more angular tender superstructure mounting a turret from one of their Samochod Pancerny (Armoured Car) wz.29 which were allocated to PP51 (Pierwszy Marszalek), PP52 (Pilsudcyk) & PP53 (Smialy)... but anyway, we try not to complain, but rather just to get on and paint the damned thing,

One of my pet hates is that no matter what polish material I have seen painted on different sites I have never been convinced of the colouring of the vehicles. So I went through a research process in order to determine the colours that the Polish military used on their vehicles and finally came up with, what I believe, is a colour scheme that is pretty close to perfect....so without further ado:

 So here is a view of the complete train. We have the two artillery wagons shunted on either end of the train, the locomotive and tender in the middle pulling the assault wagon which would carry the communications equipment and a platoon of about 40 infantry.

The Locomotive & Tender

The Assault Wagon

The Artillery Wagons

So, how did I actually paint these monstrosities and come out with the colouring that I did? Airbrush baby, and a lot of it. In 1937 Poland changed its vehicles camouflage schemes to have a more soft edged feel which is why I opted for the airbrush, and ironically the colouring that I opted for was the same process as that I used for my Dropzone Commander UCM army which meant happy days.

Undercoat:

Grey Primer with Black Basecoat

Camouflage Airbrushing:

1. Base coat of Tamiya XF-58 Olive Green

2. 2nd Camouflage Colour of Tamiya XF-57 Buff

3. 3rd Camouflage Colour of Tamiya  X-9 Brown

4. Once dry the whole miniature is painted with AK Interactives Tint for Nato Vehicles to unify the colours and give them a contiguous feel

5. Once dry the profiling is done with AK Interactives Wash for Nato Vehicles, this will provide the deep contrasts that all of the armour plates and rivets have around their edges.

6. Once dry the excess is rubbed off using Cotton Buds and White Spirits and allowed to dry.

7. Once dry a layer of varnish is applied so that all of the acrylic stages that follow won't have their paints contract.

8. With Vallejo's Chipping Colour a sponge is used and the chipping colour is lightly dappled over the surface of the vehicle.

9. The edges of the chips can be painted manually with more chipping colour to emphasize certain areas

10. The edges of the larger chipped areas are lined using Vallejo's Iraqi Sand

11. Final layer of Matt Varnish is applied

and that as they say, is that! There is obviously room for shading each of the camouflage colours and apply more weathering but Im painting the army for gaming and I want it knocked out as soon as possible.

the majority of this army is now painted but I haven't settled on a basing scheme that Im happy with yet.... so you will have to wait until I do before you see them!

Peace!

UCM Reinforcements...

Well its been a while since my last post and its not as if my posts are prolific anyway.

The reason I have been flying under the radar however is that I have been finishing off my Dropzone Commander United Colonies of Mankind army...

... and finish them I have!!!!

Well, at least to the point where I have a few assets to add as time goes by but I have probably one of the biggest UCM armies of any player of the game... and its all painted.... and has just won Hawk Wargames (producers of DZC) painting competition.

A couple of posts ago you will have seen the majority of assets for the army that I had back when I began collecting... now I'm back.... and packing heat!

So, without further ado, I thought I would introduce you to the new assets that I have for the army. In a post in the near future I will put some photos up of the entire army laid out, but for now we just have some individual and unit photographs.

First of all the Phoenix Command Gunship

No UCM army is complete without its Doomfridge.... now I am a real fan of Cato's Ferrum Drone Base so decided to appropriate her Drone Bases' runway... Im also knocking one of these together for my other Drone Base as well.

Of course its nice to have all of these big guys to waltz around the table attracting more fire than the Australian Outback but its the little things that matter right?

So firstly its probably worthwhile having a snapshot of the UCM's armoured assets all lined up on display.

Some opponents of the UCM such as the Post Human Republic pack some series firepower squeezed into impossibly indestructible tin cans (for t'is a common insult to cyborgs). Having an Energy 11 double rotary cannon with chin mounted chain guns, all packed into a fast and nimble aircraft is a good thing... banding 4 of them together with the Phoenix Command Gunship is enough firepower to scare anybody... and here is my UCM Falcon squadron

UCM Fireblades are one of the newer, lighter and faster armoured vehicle designs, this one packing one hell of a Flamethrower. I haven't really come up with an effective use for these yet... but Im sure that their time is coming, although it may coincide with Urban scenery with some proper Favelas!

One of my new favourites is the new UCM Katana light tank. This moves almost twice as fast as the standard Sabre battle tank and packs twice as many cannon trading a single point of armour and a single point of energy on each of the cannon.... a collection of these tanks represents a healthy option for building killing... and if you team them up with an Eagle Heavy Gunship... the cradle world is your Oyster!

One of the newest troop types in the game, I haven't actually had a chance to give them a feld test BUT the very fact that they have to be transported by Bear APC and is not allowed the Raven mkI even as an option makes them a little vulnerable to my mind... but then they do get Indirect Barrage Fire.... hmmmm pros and cons!

The next latest troop type that I have introduced into my taskforce is a healthy selection of the elite Praetorian Snipers. These guys are classed as Scout troops and deploying them means that it is a hell of a lot easier to call in air strikes and/ or intercept missions over the field of battle. This in itself makes them worthwhile... that and the fact that if they are in Raven A's they can rip onto the table from nowhere and do a smash and grab on objectives... well worth it.... and of course their sniper rifle if deployed correctly are absolutely lethal!

The more I play UCM the more I like to dispense with the wheeled transport to replace them with the smaller, nimbler, rocket toting Raven A's. Fast troop deployment with a healthy supporting missile batteries these vehicles are worth their weight in gold in my opinion and I can see more of them in my future!

One of the necessaries of the army are the Raven B's. Light dropships that are necessary to carry the much underrated Longbow placed artillery pieces... oh yeah and the Woverine Scout Buggies of which it can carry two each! Again, when tooled up with missile silos these make nimble support assets that can really hurt an opponent!

I haven't used Wolverines in my games yet but I think the vehicles are really cool and I know that when I have my lists refined more, and have identified that I need spotters and reconnaissance troops in greater numbers I know that these savage little vehicles are going to come into their own... Until then, here are some more pictures...

So... thats it as it stands at the moment. There are at the moment in my collection still to paint 4x Condor Dropships, 1x Seraphim Strike Fighter, 1x Eagle Heavy Gunship and a blister of Exo-armoured troops that I am waiting to arrive...and of course another Doom Fridge...

The reconquest is well under way!