Tuesday, May 31, 2016

7th (British Columbia) Battalion, CEF

One last battalion to finish off the 2nd Brigade, 1st Canadian Division. The 7th Battalion, CEF, was originally recruited from militia units in British Columbia.

All of the figures in the 2nd Brigade are from Old Glory Miniatures

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


7th (British Columbia) Battalion, CEF


Detail of the formation patch. The red patch of the First Division surmounted by a red semi-circle (red for the middle brigade of the division and the semi-circle for the second battalion within the brigade).


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Well… What to do next?

I guess I have a Trench Mortar Battery to paint to truly be finished the 2nd Brigade.

Then perhaps on to the 3rd Brigade while I’m waiting for the rest of the miniatures for the 1st Brigade to show up…? I only have a one full battalion to paint to finish up the brigade plus a few figures for one or two of the other battalions to bring them up to strength.

At some point I should take pictures of the brigades of the 4th Division that I have finished as well… 

Sunday, May 29, 2016

8th Battalion (Winnipeg Rifles), CEF

The 8th Battalion, CEF,  was originally recruited from 90th Winnipeg Rifles. While most of the battalions of the CEF sported cap badges with a maple leaf motif, the 8th Battalion had a cap badge with a running devil with a scroll beneath emblazoned with the motto “HOSTI ACIE NOMINATI” – Named By The Enemy. The enemy, in this case, was the Metis of the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 who apparently referred to the Winnipeg Rifles at the Little Black Devils on account of their dark rifle green uniforms.

The 8th Battalion was part of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Canadian Division.

All of the figures in the 2nd Brigade are from Old Glory Miniatures


Painting Update

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


8th Battalion (Winnipeg Rifles), CEF


Detail of the formation patch. The red patch of the First Division surmounted by a red triangle (red for the middle brigade of the division and the square for the third battalion within the brigade).


I actually have one of the cap badges (the hat is a reproduction).


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The final battalion in the brigade – the 7th (British Columbia) Battalion.

Then… onto the first brigade…? or maybe finishing up some stuff for the third brigade? I’m using Wargames Foundry figures for the First Brigade and though I have a few on hand, I don’t have enough for the entire brigade. I ordered enough this past week to finish up the brigade, but I’m not sure if they’ll be here quite quick enough. I do have a few figures to finish up for units in the Third Brigade. The Third is made up of two units of highanders using the very first miniature I eve modeled and cast, one unit of highlanders from Old Glory Miniatures (which is mostly completed – I just have two or three extras I need to bring the unit up to strength), and a unit of figures from the Foundry. 

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

5th (Western Cavalry) Battalion, CEF

Whew! Four posts in one day!

These are some of my oldest Great War figures. Most of these were painted over a decade ago. I may have even bought them from Saber’s Edge when they were still selling miniatures! Two of them are newly painting and the rest have had their helmets and formation patches touched up.

The 5th (Western Cavalry) Battalion, CEF was originally recruited from Militia Cavalry units in Western Canada – but went off to war as regular infantry.

All of the figures in the 2nd Brigade are from Old Glory Miniatures


(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


5th (Western Cavalry) Battalion, CEF


Detail of the formation patch. The Red patch of the First Division surmounted by a Red circle (Red for the middle brigade of the division and the circle for the senior battalion in the brigade).



Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably more of the 2nd Brigade. I have the figures – all ready to paint. Most of the 3rd Brigade is done, I think, and I need to order a few more figures for the 1st. I guess I’d better get on that!!

Odds and Extras and Other Minor Distractions


A few other things made their way onto, and subsequently off of, the workbench this week…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):



Casualty Marker from Old Glory Miniatures



Other Assorted Distractions


Bad Guy with a gun from Copplestone Castings. I’d actually painted this chap up ages ago, before getting on with the Great War project. I actually finished him up at the same time I painted Jules and Vincent, but when I went to take a picture of him, I noticed a huge chunk of paint had been scraped off his lapel leaving shiny bare metal!? So I left him on the workbench to fix up.


Spare Highland officer from Brigade Games


British Colonial Officer drinking tea from Tea Time Miniatures


British Paratrooper officer drinking tea – also from Tea Time Miniatures


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

5th (Western Cavalry) Battalion, CEF

10th Battalion (Canadians), CEF

Starting in on the 1st Division – or adding to it, rather, as I already have a few of the units done… or… PART of a few units done… This one, for example, I had painted the officer and one of the NCO-looking guys (holding rifle and pointing) YEARS ago… They’ve been touched up a bit – new colour on the helmet and repainted the formation patch to match the rest of the rest of the troops.

The 10th Battalion was originally recruited from militia units in Winnipeg and Calgary. The sailed to England in 1914 as part of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Canadian Division.

All of the figures in the 2nd Brigade are from Old Glory Miniatures


(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


10th Battalion (Canadians), CEF


Detail of the formation patch. The Red patch of the First Division surmounted by a Red square (Red for the middle brigade of the division and the square for the junior battalion in the brigade.



There are actually two lewis gunners pictured in the group shot above. The pack of lewis gunner came with 8 or 10 - of which I only needed four. half of the Lewis gunners were prone and the other half were standing with gun out in front of them presumably to be used as though it is braced on something (like, say, the parapet of a trench), as above, when defending trenches.

Don't get me started on the prone figures...

At least Old Glory has a FEW kneeling figures I could add into the mix... one per unit... but at least not ALL of the other figures are standing while the Lewis gunner is prone. 


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Odds and Extras and Other Minor Distractions

Then the 5th (Western Cavalry) Battalion, CEF

40K Again


We finally got around to playing a game of 40K with my friend Aaron and his boys. They are the entire reason my kids ended up starting to build 40K armies and what inspired me to finish up my Imperial Guard (well… ONE of my Imperial Guard forces…). I’d had 40K stuff before… and the kids had one or two miniatures (things we’d planned to use for other games or the 40K RPGs – like Only War  or Rogue Trader), but it wasn’t until we’d heard they’d bought into it and were planning to play that we got going on our stuff. In the last year The Boy has cranked out just over 900 points worth of Orks. The Girl is working away at her Eldar – but she has so many other things she’s working on, it’s hard to stay focused. Mind you, they’re ELDAR and she’s started with her Elites, so she could field half as many points as the boy with two characters and a unit of Howling Banshees…

The Boy took along all his Orks and the Girl took all her Eldar (plus my old Harlequins – that I painted 25 years ago!). I took a pile of Imperial Guard and figured I’d sort out what I could field once we got there.

The original plan was to have everyone field whatever they had and I would make up for difference on our side with my Imperial Guard (Aaron has a few Ultramarines, his boys have Chaoe and Tyranids… Yes, I know, Tyranids don’t ally with anyone – we’re ALL food to the Tyranids… but I figured maybe the Orks caught a few they were using as “pets”..). When we got to their place we found one of his boys had taken ALL of their codexes to school… and left them there!? So we had NO IDEA what any of their stats or rules or points were… so we just ended up playing with what me and the kidz brought – which was okay because The Boy had lots of Orks and I had lots of Imperial Guard and so everyone got a few units to play with.


THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Setting up. The Boy and one of Aaron’s set up his Orks on one side of the table. I took the Imperial Guard Company commande


The Boy and one of Aaron’s set up his Orks on one side of the table. I think they had five or six units of Boyz (mostly with sluggas and choppas and one units with shootas), some MegaNobz, some Lootas and Burnas, a Weird Boy, a Warboss and a buggy.


On our side I took eht Imprial Guard Copmpany command team. Amanda and one of Aaron’s boyz each took a Platoon Command and two Guard Squads, Aaron took my unit of Ratlind Snipers.


The Girl had her Farseer, a unit of five Howling Banshees, and a few of my old Harlequins.


It was a smallish table and ended up pretty packed with stuff!


We ended up only playing through two turns as there was a  LOT of explaining of how the game is played – though one of Aaron’s boyz had clearly read ALL of the fluff in the Tyranid codex – they were completely ignorant of the actual rules of the game…


Guard and Orks! The Guard went first and moved a bit to get in range and then started blowing away orks. After the first turn I tried to convince them all to stay put and just shoot at the orks as they approached as they would likely mess up in close combat…


Every single unit and every single weapon has it’s own special rule that we needed to keep looking up… Hopefully by the end of it everyone had a GENERAL sense of how the game is played and were sufficiently motivated to getting back to painting their miniatures!


Aaron’s ratling sniper took out a few Orks…


On the Orks second turn the Weird Boy teleported the unit he was accompanying BEHIND the guard lins and shot up one of the squads pretty good! That was a fun moment – unfortunately we had to call the game as it was getting late so they weren’t really able to take advantage of this.


Buggy rolled into the swamp and got totally bogged down.


It was a little frightening seeing that swarm of orks tearing across the table and not being able to take out nearly enough of them!

Over on the other end of the table, The Girl’s Eldar had rushed into close combat with the Orks and the Howling Banshees were wiped out! The Harlequins held their own… Sort of… Two were shot down by the Orks shooting before they entered close combat. When they did the Harlequins killed a few Orks  - but that wasn’t nearly enough. The Orks then caused three wounds – but amazingly the harlequns saved two of them. So the harlequins won the round of close combat and the Orks fled – the harlequins almost wiped them out in a pursuit – missed catching them be 1”…

I think overall The Girl was a bit disappointed with the performance of her Eldar, but I pointed out that the Eldar units seem to be pretty specific in what they do and need to be used in coordination with other Eldar units – the Guardian defender may be boring – but they might give her force a base of fire that could weaken the orks enough that when her howling banshees DO charge in they can just mop up what’s left… I’m pretty sure her Farseer could have been used far more effectively… but she had no idea how to use it and nor did I (as I currently have no psykers in my Guard force I had little idea how they work at all, let alone how to best use an Eldar Farseer).

I think everyone had some fun. Hopefully the next game will go quicker. Hopefully it will have inspired them to get back to painting (I refuse to play with OR AGAINST unfinished figures!) and maybe reading the rules (in addition to the fluff!). 40K isn’t my favourite miniature wargame – not even in the top 20… but it was fun enough and I’ll play it again – especially with these guys!

I hope I can get them playing some historical games some time... maybe Bolt Action...? 


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Finished up another battalion of Great War Canadians – I should have them posted shortly. 

Saturday, May 21, 2016

9th Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division, CEF


All the miniatures for the 9th Brigade are from Brigade Games.

(well, with one exception…)


9th Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division, CEF






Unfortunately Brigade Games doesn’t make a Stokes mortar, so I’ll have to find another source for the attached 9th Trench Mortar Battery at some point


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Onto the First Division I think… or maybe some Germans…?

58th (Central Ontario) Battalion, CEF

The 58th (Central Ontario) Battalion, CEF was mobilized at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario in April 1915 and joined the 3rd Canadian Division as part of the 9th Brigade in early 1916.


The miniatures for the 58th Battalion are all from Brigade Games -as are all the figures in the 9th Brigade.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):



58th (Central Ontario) Battalion, CEF

Again with the prone Lewis team… oh, don’t get me started…



Detail of their formation patch - The Grey patch of the Third Division surmounted by a Blue triangle (blue for the junior brigade of the division and the square for the 3rd battalion in the brigade).

This finishes up the 9th Brigade. I’ll post a picture of the whole group shortly. This also finishes up all the figures I have for the 3rd Division (with the exception of one of the Trench Mortar Batteries). I should get a picture of the whole division, too… Might have to clear off the game table for that…


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Pictures of the entire 9th Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division, CEF

Then onto the 1st Canadian Division!

Trench Raiders and a Sniper


These guys don’t fit into any of the regular battalions I’m working on for the Vimy project. I picked them up to use with the other guys when playing skirmish level games.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


Trench Raiders from Brigade Games


Sniper from Great War Miniatures.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have finished up the 58th (Central Ontario) Battalion, CEF, and with it the 9th Brigade, and with that, the 3rd Canadian Division! I’ll have separate posts with those later today. 

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

60th (Victoria Rifles) Battalion, CEF

The “Vics” of Montreal was the junior battalion of the 9th Brigade in April of 1917. After the battle of Vimy Ridge the survivors were split up and absorbed by other battalions and the 116th (Ontario County Infantry) Battalion took their position in the Brigade.


(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):



60th (Victoria Rifles) Battalion, CEF

The figures in this battalion, as with all the figures in the 9th Brigade, are from Brigade Games.




Detail of the Vics formation patch. The Grey patch of the Third Division surmounted by a Blue Square (blue for the junior brigade of the division and the square for the junior battalion in the brigade.


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

One more battalion (58th Central Ontario) to finish up the brigade – and the division! 

Monday, May 16, 2016

The Guns of … April?

While working on my next battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary force for the Great War I happened to finish up a pair of guns…

(April because this is all ostensibly for the battle of Vimy Ridge which was in April)

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


These guns are from Renegade Miniatures.


I like renegade miniatures. They’re a tad on the chunky side, but they are solid (and durable!) and easy to paint.



The gun was easy and straightforward to put together.


The Renegade gun kind of dwarfs the other gun I have from Wargames Foundry

I’m not really sure I will make use of these… well… ever… the guns would be located nowhere near the actual area represented on the tabletop. I mostly just picked them up because… well… I got them back when I got the rest of the  Renegade Miniatures stuff – a few years back – back when the pound sterling was still down (relative to the Canadian Dollar) AND they were still doing 5-4-4 deals on the regimental packs! (It looks like they’re still doing 5-4-4 deals, but they’ve done away with the regiment deals…)

I suppose I could set guns out on other tables, but if I wanted to start representing the guns with miniatures I’d need an awful LOT of guns  - and guns ain’t cheap!!! I had it in mind I might just do the guns that were organic to the division and represent each battery with one team… but there were two brigades of Artillery per battalion, each with four batteries. An 18 ponder gun team (with the current exchange and postage rates) costs $16.20CAD from Irregular, $36CAD from Great War Minatures, $32 from Gripping Beast/Woodbine (or $29CAD each – if you buy a battery or two!?), $83.70 from Old Glory (If ordered from Old glory USA - admittedly most of that is shipping!? It looks like if I ordered it from the UK it would only be $25…). Even if I went with the cheapest option (Irregular) for the field batteries (three of the four batteries were field batteries, the other was a howitzer battery), that would be almost $400… just for the field batteries…


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

One of the last two battalions (58th or 116th) of the 9th Brigade… Then it’ll be on to the first Division… or some Germans!?  







Sunday, May 15, 2016

The Girl's 10th Birthday Party

This past week my daughter turned 10. To celebrate we arranged a little party for this weekend. 



She started off around 1pm running a game of Kobolds Ate My Baby for a few of her friends. The adventure involved the Kobold player characters trying to scrounge up ingredients for King Torg's Birthday Cake (ALL HAIL KING TORG!). One of the ingredients was "Human Babies".

She is a soft-hearted Game Master and only two of the Kobolds died in the process of procuring said ingredients. And they only actually died because one of them was starting to annoy her... so a flaming piano fell out of the sky. The other casualty was due to standing too close to the annoying one when said flaming piano fell from the sky....



Then another friend showed up and there was an epic game of Munchkin Legends (bit of a John Kovalik theme going on here...).

...and then there was cake.



ALL HAIL KING TORG!



Some 10 year old girls might want fairies or princesses... mine asks for Torg: King of the Kobolds... (do I have the awesomest daughter ever or what!?)

(last year it was a Cthulhu cake...)


Thursday, May 12, 2016

43rd Battalion, CEF (Cameron Highlanders of Canada)


I’m on to the 9th Brigade this week to try and finish up the 3rd Canadian Division.  I finished up the 7th Brigade last week, and finished the 8th Brigade two years ago. After the 43rd Battalion (pictured below) I only have two more battalions (58th and 116th) to finish up the 9th Brigade – as I had painted up the 52nd (Northern Ontario) Battalion last year.

The initial members of the 43rd Battalion were recruited by the militia 79th Regiment (Cameron Highlanders of Canada) in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


the 43rd Battalion, CEF (Cameron Highlanders of Canada)

All the figures from this brigade are from Brigade Games. I don’t’ love these Brigade Games highlanders. I’m not saying I hate them, or “they’re awful” or anything – they have a lot going for them; I like the chunky rifles that might survive a fall from the tabletop… They are very simple and easy to paint… I like the kilt arpron… But there are a few things that drive me just crazy. Their jacket looks more like a WW2 battledress jacket (which highlanders, at that time, wore with their kilts…) than the cutaway jacket the highlanders of the Great War were issued. I suppose I could have corrected this with a LOT f green stuff… but I was just too lazy (or, actually, didn’t think of it unitl now… but then also realized I would have been too lazy had I thought of it before…) they have no respirator, but I can live with that. Also the Lewis gunners… first of all, Brigade games doesn’t even MAKE a highlander with a Lewis gun, so I had to convert this team. Second, I am, in general, no fan of prone figures for wargaming – as they take up more space than other figures (and messes up the nice, neat, even lines of figures in my storage drawers), they can’t be stood up in trenches, or be seen when next to hedges or walls, etc. But what drives me REALLY CrAzY is when a light machine-gun team are the ONLY prone  figures in the entire line!? if there were a few crounching and kneeling figures I could live with a prone figure or two – but when EVERYONE ELSE is standing and advancing and the only prone figures are two odd machine gunners… ugh.. so annoying. Because the figures come in packs with two teams one is advancing and one is prone, I briefly considered buying TWO MORE PACKS just to have all four teams advancing like the rest of their units… but as the packs are $16USD that would have meant spending anther $32USD – just to have two more advancing teams… which would be ridiculous.

Oh, and they didn’t even come with a bipod…

(mutter, grumble…)

I digress…


Detail of the formation patch. Grey rectangle of the Third Canadian Division, surmounted by a blue circle – blue for the 3rd brigade in the division, circle for the senior battalion in the brigade.


One of these things is not like the other (I mean, other than the prone Lewis gun team…).

Okay not ALL of the figures in this unit are from Brigade Games… Terry passed on some spare Great War Miniatures a couple months back, and as I already had a piper for the 42nd Canadian Infantry Battalion (Royal Highland Regiment of Canada) – which are made up of Great War Miniatures figures, I kept this one aside for the time being. When I got to these guys I thought I’d paint him up as a piper I could send along with them. Of course that messes up my 15-figure-per-battalion (which also messes up my storage as 15 figures takes up exactly one and a hlf rows in my drawers… of course the storage situation has already been ruined by the PRONE LEWIS GUN TEAMS… so…)

(I’m just not going to let that go, am I…?)


I had a few spare highland officers so I painted them up and will stick them in the 9th Brigade  or 3rd Division headquarters…


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More of the 9th Brigade… or possibly some guns…?

Once I finish off the 3rd Division, I’ll probably get to work on the 1st Division – as I have some of those miniatures – the 1st Brigade, at least, and part of the 2nd.  

Sunday, May 8, 2016

7th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division, CEF

Having just finished the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, I bring you the entire 7th Infantry Brigade of the 3rd Canadian Division, CEF:



All of the figures used of the 7th Infantry Brigade are from Great War Miniatures.

elements of the 7th Infantry Brigade Include:

The Royal Canadian Regiment

Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry

42nd Canadian Infantry Battalion (Royal Highland Regiment of Canada)

49th (Edmonton) Battalion

Attached are:

7th Trench Mortar Battery

1st Company, 3rd Canadian Machinegun Battalion


Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry


Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry was raised in 1914 by Montreal businessman and Militia officer Andrew Hamilton Gault. The regiment was named for the current Governor General’s Daughter, Princess Patricia of Connaught. It was apparently the last privately raised regiment in the British Empire. Initial recruits were mostly made up of British ex-servicemen.

The Regiment preceded the rest of the Canadian Expeditionary Force overseas and joined the 80th British Brigade and were the first Canadian unit to see action in the Great War. A year later in 1915 the regiment joined the newly formed 3rd Canadian Division as part of the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade.

This was the last unit I had to paint to finish up the brigade. Also in the Brigade were Royal Canadian Regiment, 49th (Edmonton) Battalion, and 42nd Canadian Infantry Battalion (Royal Highland Regiment of Canada). As I already have the 8th Brigade finished, I need only finish up three more regiments in the 9th Brigade to finish the 3rd Canadian Division!


(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

As with all the units in the 7th Brigade, these figures representing the PPCLI in my collection are manufactured by Great War Miniatures


Detail of the formation patch.

The formation patch was a grey rectangle for the 3rd Division, surmounted by a green semi-cirle (green for the senior brigade in the division, semi-circle for the second battalion within the brigade). The PPCLI was one of few battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary force that wore a cloth shoulder title to distinguish their unit – the little red arc above the formation patch which would have the white letters “PPCLI” on it.


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I’ll probably post a picture of the entire 7th Brigade.

Next I’ll get to work on the three remaining battalions of the 9th Infantry Brigade to finish off the 3rd Division and maybe some of the guns I have...?

I guess I should work on some Germans at some point!