söndag 14 juni 2015

Chain of Command – a Polish 1939 platoon!

Hi there!

I've promised myself that I wouldn't be one of those blogging nerds that never make updates, but just as I promised myself never to buy a figure again every time I spend my savings on another minature army it didn't hold. Well, anyways, here are some (half-crappy) pics of my recently finished Polish platoon for Chain of Command (or any other rule-set, for that matter).

Do broni!


The figures are soft plastics from ”First to Fight” and HaT-figures. I like the FiF ones, although they have some failings, such as weak weapon sculpts and strange proportions in the kneeling figures and most of the guys feet – they all have very big feet. They are however a big improvement over the old HaT ones. Using some of my ”secret” dip (GW's agrax earthshadthingy mixed with matt varnish) and a some highlights helped helped a bit though, in my humble opinion.
The uniform was painted in Vallejos English uniform, highlighted with Green Brown. The polish uniform varied a bit in color, and one could easily paint the figures in for example vallejos Brown Violet for a greener shade (as suggested in the FiF's magazine that comes with the figures). In 1/72 (20mm) scale I think it's bit to dark though, but that's me.

The figures used. Got the FiF ones from my father, by the way - the man who is to blame for my wargaming madness...

Pluton!


The HaT-figures.

Figures by First To Fight. I'm sorry for the bad picture...I'll try to do better next time.

And some comparison between the HaT and First to Fight figures (didn't se any on the great interwebs):

Left - First to Fight, right - HaT.

Left - First to Fight, right - HaT.

Left - HaT, right - First To Fight. It's a replica of the Polish rogatywka in the background, just so you'll know...

Oh, and I am quite sure that the HaT-sculptor has put the gas-mask and breadbag on the wrong sides – a lot of my men are not following regulations!

Speaking of regulations – the Chain of Command rules have got the number of polish soldiers i a -39 platoon wrong. In the armylist (found here) there are only 18 men listed in a squad, though (according to all sources I could find, especially this great site) they should number 19 soldiers each (making the total in a platoon of 64 men - a LOT to paint...). The fault Too Fat Lardies have mad is that the BAR-rifle, used as a platoon support machine gun, had a four men crew, not three as listed in the rules. I belive that this miss is due to a misreading in the Polish soldiers manual (Regulamin Piechoty, that I've found here) from 1934, that's recently been translated to English from polish. The translator is a very capable person and a great wargaming aficionado, and to be honest it's easy to misread the document.
However, to prove my case, on page 53, section 110 in the Regulamin Piechoty anno 1934 the number of men in a squad is given like this (for the polish-speaking readers out there);
(…) obsługi ręcznego (lekkiego) karabina maszynowego, którą stanowią: starszy strzelec - karabinowy,celowniczy, 2-ch amunicyjnych. In english it translates to ”the crew of the (light) machine gun are; senior rifleman (strzelec and karabinowy both translates as ”rifleman”, problaly used here to underline the privates weaponry), gunner (celowniczy), two (2-ch, i.e dwóch) loaders (amunicyjnych).
So that's four crew, not three as listed in the Chain of command rules. The number of riflemen (14) is correct though, with one junior leader (though one of the fourteen men was another senior rifleman).
It's also worth noting that every soldier in the platoon was cross trained in using the BAR, meaning that it should fall last in most situations.
This last part leaves some questions regarding the rules, as I'm not sure if Too Fat Lardies should make the BAR a weapons team, instead of having as simply a part of the rifle section. Does the current rules mean that the crew members not firing the BAR function as normal riflemen, or should the be busy loading the gun – thus making the weapon crew-served? Hm...I think I should write some mails!

EDIT - after consulting this matter with the CoC-forum, I now know that there is a "new" list out there, with all my concerns solved and answered. The wz.28 BAR is now a weapons team, and is crewed by four men, making the squad 19 in alles. For those not having found the new list - such as myself - the link is here (dropbox link, with all the extra lists for CoC).

So, now I'll just paint some of my other projects, and then it's time for some 1939 Germans...

/Bartosz