PSC The Great War - Tank Expansion

While I was in the mood for painting 15mm WW1 figures and tanks, I decided that I would get out the tanks that came with the Tank Expansion set for PSC's The Great War and finally give them a lick of paint.

I'd promised myself I'd do this since they first arrived, but until now they've been languishing in their box.

The Kickstarter stretch goals on this launch were particularly generous and I'd ended up with quite a sizeable tank force; -

• 3 x A7V's (one additional one sent as a damage replacement - however I was able to repair this back to service)
• 2 x MkIV "Beutpanzers"
• 3 x MkIV Males
• 3 x MkIV Females
• 3 x Whippets

The vehicles were delivered in basic paint schemes; -

• The British MkIVs all over Green with white/Red identification flashes
• The British Whippets all over Green with white/Red identification flashes and orange paint on the exhaust pipes
• The German MkIVs  all over Grey-Green with Black Maltese crosses
• The German A7Vs all over Grey-Green with White edged, Maltese crosses

To give them a lift I painted in some detail and added a little weathering. For example; -

• Dark Grey tracks
• Mid Brown un-ditching beams
• Orange brown exhausts
• Purple brown and Camo Beige "splodges" as camouflage on the German vehicles

I then gave them all a Grey Wash followed by a dry-brushing of Iraqi Sand. I added vehicle name decals from the stretch goal set received with my French Army Expansion set, before a quick spray of Army Painter Matt coat.

I think these now look a great deal better and will be useful for both the board game and as wargame pieces in a table top game.

They are to be honest, lovely little models, with fine detail that is crying out for a better paint job. If you are looking for 15mm WW1 tanks then look no further, they're very good value too!

PSC The Great War - French Army Expansion

I signed up to the French Expansion Kickstarter way back when finally receiving the finished article in September 2018 (see http://timstanks.blogspot.com/2018/09/pscs-great-war-french-army-expansion.html).

I commented on my initial thoughts then, so won't repeat myself. This is just an overview of what I have done to finish the figures off ready to play.

I decided that I would mount the figures four to a 40x30mm mdf base as I had done previously with both the British & German armies. To indicate how many lives each group of four had remaining, I added a Minibits dice frame and micro-dice.

My thinking here was that the figures could be used with other rule sets as wargame units with the dice left off the bases.

The new "Special Troop" figures (Sniper, Flamethrower etc.) I based on a 20mm dia. mdf circular base

I purchased the bases at Colours 2018 and didn't really do my homework first..... I therefore bought larger Micro-dice/Frames than I'd used previously (though they're easier to see!) and I'd previously based the  Grenadier figures from the original game on 15mm dia. bases not 20mm.

Oh well....

The figures are now moulded in  a blue flexible plastic and I first washed them in detergent to remove any grease etc. before painting commenced.

As flexible figures invariably shed flaking paint over time, I decided to use the moulded colour as my "Base Coat" to minimise the risk. To add depth, however, I decided to give them an overall  wash of a darker colour.

So the first job after gluing them onto lolly sticks ready to paint, was to give every figure an overall coat of Army Painter blue wash. Sadly my detergent wash failed to remove all the release agent and the wash did not cover well.

A second wash gave the same result, so in desperation I washed them all in Mentholated Spirit which finally did the trick.

So all figures received an overall blue wash.  Once dry I painted the details; -

• Boots, Webbing straps, Rifle Wood work and Rucksacks - Leather Brown
• Haversack, Rolled Shelter, Gasmask - German Camo Beige
• Gasmask Filter, mess tins and Gas Mask case - Dark Grey
• Hands and face - Flesh
• Rifle receiver and details - black
• Bayonet Blade - Boltgun Metal

Then all these above areas received a coat of sepia wash.

The bases were given an overall coat of camouflage green (tool two coats to cover burnt edges of mdf bases) and once everything was dry I added some railway scatter to break up the surface.

Finally one spray coat of Satin Varnish followed by Army Painter Matt Coat when dry.

This was a quick and dirty method of getting these figures ready for action and works very well.

To go with this expansion, PSC have added French Tanks as options. The rules for their use came with the expansion as stretch targets, but the vehicles had to be purchased separately.

As luck had it, Firestorm Games were selling off their Battlefront Great War range and I picked up two C1. Schneider tanks at 50% off. Then at Crusader 2018 I picked up another Battlefront Schneider together with a St. Chamond for £5 and finally I rediscovered two Peter Laing FT17's I've had for many years.

All these were given a rather garish paint scheme (as per the Battlefront Great War rule supplement) so they can be fielded as part of my new French Army.

And very nice they look too. All I need now is some free time to try them out......

PSC's The Great War - The French Army Expansion - figure painting

Just a quick post to prove I'm still alive.

Family holiday + another work trip abroad have limited my blogging time these past two weeks.

However I've done some modelling and finally got around to playing a game with my TravelBattle set - more of which in  a future blog.

One of the challenges I've been facing myself with these last few weeks, is how to tackle the new softer plastic French army figures I'd just received from PSC.

Two problems came to mind; -

1. There's loads of them!
2. Soft plastic and acrylic paints .... will the paint flake off.

These days I tend to look for a suitable spray paint to base coat my figures to try and speed things up. But I couldn't find a suitable blue anywhere. Even if I could....would the paint stick?

Then I had a light bulb moment!!

"What if I just left them the colour they came in and just painted the details? Better still what if i coated them in a blue wash first to pick out the detail and then painted everything else?"

To test my theory, I picked a figure up and tried to coat it in blue wash (Army Painter).... epic fail 😣 the wash just pooled due to the release agent coating the figure.

I should have known better! So I gave the figure a light scrub in some detergent solution, dried it and tried once again. Success 😁

Once it was dry I painted the details (flesh, weapon, webbing, boots etc) and then in turn, washed them with sepia wash.

Result was a very quickly finished figure that looks just fine, And it appears to hold the paint well too. When I base them I'll spray them with varnish so I think they will be just fine.

PSC's The Great War - The French Army Expansion

Finally it has arrived. PSC are really making a name for themselves with late delivery (originally due for delivery in June 2018) on Kickstarter projects!

Having so far bought the original game (on Kickstarter) and the first expansion - Tanks (again on Kickstarter) I felt obliged to back the latest offering too.

I must say the production values are well up to the standard of the previous too, though, if I'm honest, without the attractive stretch target additions, I'm not sure it's particularly good value for money at £45?

In the attractive box was one 15mm French army pre-cut from the sprues, in a new softer compound plastic. In total there should be 48 infantry, 3 MG teams, 3 Mortar teams, 3 Grenadiers  and a further 14 "Special troops" - a new feature for the rules. In fact I had 68 infantry figures so cannot moan...

French Special troop Types including Flame Thrower, Officers, NCO's, Chauchat Gunners, Engineer etc.

In addition there were 18 "Special Troop" figures to add to each of my existing British & German armies from the original game.

The rule book only covers the St. Chamond & Schneider tanks - not the Ft17

The rule book includes new rules for French troops, their tanks (which, whilst offered as part of the Kickstarter, I didn't purchase as I already have some perfectly good Battlefront examples) and how to use the new Special Troop types in games. Also there were 20 or so new scenarios which include several for the fighting around Verdun.

British Special Troop Types - Officers, NCO's, Lewis Gunners etc.

Two quick reference sheets were included as well covering the new troop types & new terrain hexes.

Quick Reference Sheets

 Finally there were three sheets of (high quality) card terrain hexes to add to those I already have from the first two boxed sets.

Terrain Hexes & Counters

The stretch goals rewards were decals for tank nicknames, an additional set of battle dice, more scenarios (on a loose sheet) a Rather small tank data card & French victory tokens (in card).

Kickstarter Stretch Goals

But best of all were two complete "replacement" armies in the new plastic (already cut from the sprues) including the 18 "Special Troop" figures for each army - British & German - these will retail post-kickstarter for £19.50.

My extra British Army 

This I think was brought about by the unhappiness that dyed in the wool board-gamers felt having to cut the original (hard plastic) figures from their moulding sprues!

The MG's are now single piece mouldings

Whilst I admit, it was a challenge not to damage the British infantry's bayonets whilst doing this, it wasn't all bad. I'm more than happy with my original figures so I don't really need these for the game itself.

Additional German Army

 So I'm currently unsure what to do with these - I guess they could make a good start towards a couple of Square Bashing armies?

Sorted ready for painting etc.

PSC's The Great War - Speed painting the figures

On opening my parcel from PSC I was very excited to see the amount of components with the game. I was slightly disappointed they hadn't lashed out on a bit of bubble wrap to protect the box top and extra scenario sheet from the artillery sprues - both are dented from being packed so tightly - but that's a minor point.

The printed card components are all really good quality as is the folding game board. This will make a good portable gaming surface for any wargames - green one side, brown the other.

The large number of 15mm figures all look lovely. I haven't tried to remove them from the sprues yet so I haven't had a chance to see if the British bayonets break as easily as they say that they do, on the web.

Looking at the sprues got me thinking that maybe the majority of painting could actually take place whilst the figures are still attached?

If this would work I think it would greatly speed things up and get them on the table ASAP. So I'm going to experiment with one of each sprue.

Firstly I primed them in white using GW Spray primer,  then using Vallejo Acrylic English Uniform and Field Grey slightly watered down and with a bigger than normal brush, I painted all the uniform areas taking about 5-6 minutes for both sprues. The detail on the figures is good and I had to dab the paint on around rifle slings and such like.

The way the figures are attached means that there will be either touching up of helmets, uniform or bayonets once they are cut off. Not too bad. The figure bases are attached to the sprue at the unseen underside so facilitate you painting the bases whilst on the sprue as well - a real bonus.

As they are primarily gaming pieces for this board game, I'm not going to texture the bases just paint them grass green. However they are really good figures and I suspect they will be forming the core of many a 15mm WW1 army over the coming months.

Much as I love the artillery bonus figures (£24 if I'd had to buy them) I can't quite see yet how you use them in the game? I've only skimmed through the rules once so may have missed something. If anyone can tell me please get in touch.

Finally I've just had a look at my bonus metal generals. All I can say is good sculpting.....poor casting. Half of the group suffer from the moulds having been out of alignment (one I thinking s so bad it's unread usable) the others have a fair bit of flash. Shame really, but again I'm not sure how you'd use them in the games anyway.

More to follow

Peter Laing - 15mm Miniatures

I was looking on the Internet the other day an saw several references to the figures of Peter Laing. Many were complementary of their charm and simplicity but inevitably there were the usual comments from some TrollGamers about them being the worst figures ever.

Personally, I remember the figures with nostalgia. They were the first metal figures I was able to afford, after all those years playing with Airfix polythene figures. They also introduced us all to the world of 15mm scale.......where would we be without that?

The first figures I purchased from Peter Laing were from his extensive WW1 range. I was about 14 at the time and a friend introduced me to the range. I think at the time infantry were about 4p each and cavalry 8p.

There used to be a 1/8th page advert in each month Military Modelling which usually covered an entire historical period from his range. I believe he had around 1000 items available which would put some of today's manufacturers to shame

Later, when I decided to buy a few more figures to increase my WW1 armies, I contacted Peter direct and went out to his house to collect them as he lived in a village just North of Hereford where I lived.

He was a dear old chap, probably in his 60's then, and took the time to show me his manufacturing process. 

In those early days, the likes of Milliput and Green Stuff hadn't been dreamt up yet, and Peter's figures, horses Cannon etc. were nearly all carved from solid laminated plasticard. The wagon wheels etc. he made masters from brass - brazed or soldered together.

He showed me how he vulcanised rubber disk moulds as well as his centrifugal casting machine and then let me have a discount on the figures as there was no postage to pay.

I next had call to purchase some figures after Barry Lovell (of Timecast fame) introduced me to WW2 infantry action games at our local club. The rules were by Jim Webster (if I remember correctly) and they had been published in an early Miniature Wargaming magazine. The figures he used were from Peter Laing's WW2 range.

I purchased a 1:1 British company and a reinforced platoon worth of Germans as enemy. This range was ahead of its time and the figures surprisingly well thought through. 

For each nationality (British, U.S. Or German) there was a sidearm equipped officer figure, a SMG armed NCO, an infantryman advancing with rifle at high port, an LMG and No.2 and a Light Mortar and No.2. Lovely figures, perfect for the task.

Sadly he didn't ever get around to producing MMGs or AT Weapons or indeed vehicles. I used the stokes mortar and Vickers MG from the WW1 range and scratch built PIATs and Panzerfausts for the Light Mortar guys to carry. I also scratch built MG34s on tripods and used WW1 helmeted crew figures.

This prompted me to try my hand a casting for the first time. I scratch built a jeep and M5 halftrack which I cast in white metal using Alec Tiranti Silicone moulds. I was very proud of these - even sold some to Mr. Lovell! So proud that I thought I'd take some to show Peter.

He loved them and added one of each to his display cabinet. Our conversation moved around new ideas and he shared with me a prototype 6 pounder antitank gun he'd just cast. I still have two in my collection. He also showed me a prototype A7V tank he'd built using sheet steel and brass rod. It was to be cast in two halves, spilt down the long dimension. Sadly these never appeared....

He also spoke of giving up and retiring, he and his wife were moving away. He asked if I'd be interested in buying him out, but sadly as a fairly poverty stricken 20 year old with a young family, this was never going to happen.

I later heard that he'd sold the moulds to John Mitchell who lived close by (Malvern I seem to remember). John had been buying figures from Peter for years and selling them as ready painted starter sets for wargamers with basic rules included.

I remember him with a stand at a militaria fair on the Three Counties Showground in the late 90's early 2000's selling the painted figures as collectors pieces.

Sadly I've no idea what happened to the moulds after that.

I've included some pictures from my WW1 armies for interest. They are a mixture of helmeted and early war figures and the pictures show pretty much all of them. I think I've one more Mark IV somewhere and two more Renault FT17s.

When I get a moment I'll put up some pictures of my WW2 figures, the 6pounder, jeep and half tracks.

Does anyone else still have some PL figures in their armies? 

(Unpainted WW1 French )