First Regiment of Japanese Infantry Completed

Over the last weekend I finished the first batch of Japanese Infantry from my Russo-Japanese War collection. These four stands a part of my first regiment.

Infantry Regiment No. 29

 

I intend using my own home grown rules, that started off as a variant of Fire and Fury, but now bear no resemblance to Fire and Fury at all.

Under this system I will raise a Japanese infantry division, which will consists of two brigades each of two regiments, each of 10 stands each of three figures. Attached to each division will be a machinegun company of four stands and between four and six batteries (each represented by a single stand of one gun and crew).

A Russian infantry division will be similarly formed, except the number of machineguns will be two stands.

Of course with me no wargames project will complete without the buildings and terrain to go with it. I already have plans for a pagoda, a Chinese village and a system of fortifications. Watch for details of these in the future.

Prussian Napoleonics

I just dug up these images of my Prussian Napoleonic Landwehr infantry.

I painted these Warlord plastics a couple of years ago and photographed them in front of the Bohemian Village Buildings described in an earlier post.

 

Building a Bohemian Village

I builtthese some years ago to go with my Austro-Prussian War armies, but they only sawthe light of day in a game in November.

Theoriginal idea for these came from some line drawings of Bohemian villages in aGerman book on the Austro-Prussian War. Nearly all of these were woodenstructures with thatched roof, and these suit my modeling and painting style.

I set outto create six buildings, but finished up with five, four farm buildings and abarn. Each was to be built on its own base, with walls, fences and gardens – anarea that could be clearly defined as a built up area. Three of the  five buildings areshown here.

For onebuilding, the two storey farm and barn in one, I recorded the constructionprogress in photos and I will describe the construction progress here:

1:Construct the basic cardboard form. This is quite rough and glued together withPVA. The approximate location of doors and windows is sketched on the surface.

2: I gluedthe cardboard form into the shaped polystyrene that will form the model’s base.

3: Textureone face of the building. I use a two part epoxy putty called EmerKit. I applythis across the surface of the model to a depth of about 2mm. I then sketch anoutline of what I am going to etch into the surface. First I mark out thewindows and remove the EmerKit from the surface of the model. The I marked outthe door and window frames. Next I textured the door and other wood surfaceswith a scalpel blade, going back to mark nail holes where boards have joined.Finally I marked out the pattern of the stone wall, using a tool to press outthe shape of the stones and then putting a few irregular dents on the surfaceof the stonework. Once this is done I leave the material to harden.

4: I thenwent around and completed the etching on all the sides. I always work on oneside in a sitting and allow it to harden before starting the next – too manytimes have I put my finger on areas just completed and had to re work them! Onwhat would become the back of the building I added the steps and the railings,made from matchsticks. I added the stone chimney.

5: The nextphase was the thatched rood. For this I covered the whole roof area with alayer of EmerKit that was around 5mm thick and then scribed the thatch effectwith a craft knife.

6: With allthe basic etching work done I went back and added shutters to some of thewindows. With Green Stuff I added door hinges and the bar on the barn door.With this the work of the building was completed and I was ready to start onthe model’s base.

7: Thefirst step with the model’s base was the adding of a rail fence, built frommatchsticks. Then went around the areas I began to cover the base with Emerkit,working on the front of the building and the stone wall areas first, beforecovering the whole base. I added a couple of details like a stack of firewoodby the back steps and a spare wagon wheel leaning against the house. Iroughened a few areas of the base that would not be covered with grass flock,where bare earth would show through.

8: I thenpainted the model, weathering it as I went. Finally I added two trees which Ihad made earlier from twisted wire and tissue paper and flocked the base.

First figures of my new project arrive!

Yesterday I received the first package of figures of my new project - the Russo-Japanese War. This first package contained 60 Japanese infantry from Tsuba Miniatures - two full regiments in the organisation I have chosen. What beautiful figures!


I will start painting over the weekend, after I have bought a few more paints.  

Welcome

This is my first ever post on my very first blog, so forgive me if everything is not working properly.

This blog is intended to be a bit of a ramble through my obsessions: historical wargaming, historical study and travel.