To the green fields beyond...

.. probably football fields in this case.

War is full of strange things. Maybe one of the stranger sights during the Great War would probably have been an attack on German trench lines on 1 July 1916. After eight days of constant but little effective shelling German defenders crawling out of their dugouts could see men storming across no man's land frantically kicking footballs before them.

Back to the Great War

"Das Wort Operation verbitte ich mir. Wir hauen ein Loch rein. Das Weitere findet sich. So haben wir es auch in Russland gemacht"

-Generalquartiermeister Ludendorff-

Another year, another Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (The ninth so far and and the 6th I'm taking part in) and yet another project. A little more than 100 years ago World War I, or the Great War as it is also known, ended after claiming the lives of millions of soldiers and civilians alike. The tragedy of the whole conflict, especially on the western front, is in my opinion perfectly epitomised by the quote with which I started this post. Translated into English it reads like:

More German Infantry

It's been a few days since my last post. Work and private issues have come in the way of either blogging as well as painting. Actually I still don't really feel like wielding a brush, but at least I've managed to get a few figures done I had standing around half finished for a while. As for blogging it actually felt good taking a break away from it for several weeks. It can be such a drain on already sparse free time that I felt I'd need to readjust my priorities.
But enough of that now. On to the miniatures!

Infanterie greift an - Early War Germans

First of all apologies for not having commented on some of your blogs as of late. Blogger seems to have a glitch as there are a few blogs I simply can't comment on, no matter what I try. WhenI try to send my comment it simply vanishes. Not sure if it's maybe goofiness on my part, so I'll keep tryin'.

Achtung - Panzer!

I was eyeing the plastic Panzer 38(t) from Warlord Games for a good while now, but as I currently wasn't into Early War WW2 I saw no imminent need and thus was in no hurry to get me one.
Well, this immediately changed with the release of the Blitzkrieg 1940 supplement for Chain of Command by TooFatLardies. It's not only crammed full to the brim with army lists for the six nations involved in Fall Gelb and Fall Rot along with rules amandments for even more period flavour, but also contains five new scenarios to give you even more Blitzkrieg for your bug. Well, you see... I'm quite impressed with that latest offering from the Lardies.

Oggi Parliamo Italiano

Well, let's talk Italian for a change. Over the last months I've been painting away on a small Italian unit for fellow Blogger Pat, well known through his blog -Wargaming with Silver Whistle- and Author of the rather excellent "Setting the Scene: Winter Wargaming".
Right now he's working on a second book focusing on the Mediterranean. I've painted a few figures previously for him which featured in his first book and as he asked me if I'd like to paint something for his upcoming book I took the chance to help the Regio Esercito Italiano to "their place in the sun".

2nd Soviet Tank Rider Squad

Due to the ongoing heat wave in this part of Europe I've barely touched a brush over the last few weeks. It was only in the early hours when temperatures outside were down to a bearable 24°C (which didn't mean the flat has cooled down as much sadly), that I got in any painting time. Instead of finishing off the afore mentioned Italians I made best use of what little time I had before the heat struck again, and finished off a second squad of Soviet Tank Riders for Chain of Command.

Viva España! - Some terrain for SCW

Well, to be perfectly honest I actually should be sitting on my desk and paint some WW2 Italians I promised to get done for a friend. And actually most of them are more or less done already... just the finishing touches. Ok, who am I kidding here?
Truth is I got distracted by Pats (Wargaming with Silver Whistle) *latest blogpost* about his upcoming book Setting the Scene 2. Loads of wonderful pictures to get inspired by. And inspired I got...

Chain of Command - Somewhere in Holland 1944

Just a few snapshots of a recent game of Chain of Command we had at my place. It saw an American advance column facing off against German Fallschirmjäger somewhere in Holland late summer 1944.
Both forces were regular and had minimal support, i.e. no tanks or other flights of fancy.
The Germans started off with a Force Morale rating of 10, where as the Americans had to make do with a mere 8.

The attackers table edge

SCW - Yet more Republicans

It's summer. And as in every summer thus far the hobby is placed on a backburner while other things get priority. So these guys were sitting on my painting table for quite some time now. To be perfectly honest it wasn't only the summer though...