The Great Re-Basing

 Never, in the field of miniature conflict, has so much been done for so many by just one fool.

Despite not posting on this blog as frequently as I was posting in the past 12 months, I have been very busy in my wargaming life. What happened is that the game 'O' Group by David C.R. Brown was released and I really like it. So the majority of my wargaming efforts have been directed, once again, towards WW2. And this, Dear Reader, involved a great deal of rebasing figures and painting up a shed load of new figures.

The figures below are a mix of Plastic Soldier Company, AB Figures, Italeri/Esci, Simons's Soldiers, Aldler and others that come form I know not where. AB make up the majority in most cases.

The first lot I rebased were my British. These were first because I had almost enough to create the full battalion with only a few additions that needed to be included.

These are not very glamourous pics. These were the first one's I took before I realised the enormity of the project set before me.

8th Army: I did these a couple of months back. I had a platoon of individual figures and they translated to one company. That meant I needed to paint two more companies or about 60+ more figures. This is the same pattern I had to follow for most of these battalions 

These late-war German infantry were the second battalion that I got ready. I wanted to try a game of O Group so I needed two forces. I had enough figure to make up two companies so I needed to about another 30+ figures to fill out the rest of the battalion.

Like with most of the other battalions I had a few heavy weapons already done. But it was a pain in the arse to have to rebase these. I some cases I just added their base to a new mdf base and added some flock.

Not happy with one German battalion I decided to make a Panzergenadier battalion too. These started out as a 1:1 platoon of Hermann Goering Division troops. Now I have a battalion of them. They have 18 MG34/42's. They have the potential to be lethal. I needed to paint up an additional 50 odd figures to get these guys up to speed.

You can't have 8th Army without the DAK to fight them. I had enough figures for a platoon, a pioneer section and a motorcycle section. I needed to add another 60 odd figures and I still have enough figures on stand by to make up a motorcycle company.

Soviets: I had a bunch of these painted but they were all disorganised and in various states of completion. A big order from Eureka and they were ready within a couple of weeks. Once again, I had about enough for a single company and I needed to paint up another 60+ figures to make up the rest of the battalion.

Some of the figures in this battalion were inherited from my friend Jim Lawrence who passed away a while back. His wargaming stuff went in many different directions into many different hands and I ended up with a whole lot of Russians (mainly tanks).

This bunch of Dog Face G.I's is the most recent battalion I finished. Once again I had a company but needed two more. This time I was able to visit Eureka and picked up another 60+ figures to get their numbers up.

Notice I said: Most recent? I'm just about to start on finalising a battalion of Fallschirmjager in Mediterranean kit. I have two companies completed and I just need to finish the third.

And last but not least:

One thing needed for O Group is Patrol Markers. These can be cards, disks, markers... What ever you want. In Chain of Command patrol markers are used pre-game and then they disappear when the fighting starts. In O Group they stay around and play a major part in the whole game. So I wanted nice looking markers. These were the first I made but now all of my battalions have them. That amounts to another 60 something figures that needed to be painted.

(P.S. These Russian Patrol Marker figures are some of the figures I inherited from Jim so I left his paint work as they are. They'll see plenty of battles.)

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So that's a lot of painting that I've done since the start of the year. About 400 odd figures or somewhere around that mark. I used a lot of mdf bases too and I got them custom cut by Viv at Knights of Dice. So many thinks to you Viv.