T&T Great War in Palestine/Mesopotamia Project

[guitarheroandy]

Hello! This is my first foray into the world of Great War and T&T (although I have played the rules a few times with James Morris with his Italians and Abyssinians, this is my first attempt at a 'project' of my own)

These are the first 5 models for my British force. As yet, I'm not sure exactly how far it will go, but a friend of mine has about 30 Turks, so that's my starting point - so 3 units of infantry, a machine gun and a hero. I'd like to add an armoured car and some cavalry later and some Indian troops, especially if I decide to buy some Turks to 'bulk up' the opposition.

Anyway, these are Coppletone models. They were undercoated with Plastikote 'Coffee Creme' hobby paint (from Hobbycraft in the Uk) They were then basecoated with Foundry flesh light (all flesh); GW Beached bone (Wolseley helmets & webbing); a mix of GW Shadow Grey, Foundry white and Foundry Slate Grey light (shirts). Boots were Foundry charcoal (mid shade); guns were Foundry spearshaft dark with barrels GW gun metal. The shorts and putees were left as undercoated. They were then given a brushed on thin coat of Army Painter dip. When that was dry each colur was highlighted with the basecoat colour, with all the khaki bits being highlighted with Foundry Rawhide light. They were then given a thin coat of GW brush on matt varnish before 2 thin brushed on coats of Testors Dullcote. I really like the effect and painted them in little over a week, not much more than max one hour at a time and not every night - super fast painting for me!!!

Comments and criticism welcome. I hope you like my shirt colour - not TOO blue!! And I hope the rifles are about right (wooden barrel covers, please note! 

[Westfalia Chris]

Very nice! I'm quite interested in how this will turn out, as my interest in WW1 in the Ottoman Empire has been piqued by the purchase of a NAM book on the subject and revitalised by the most recent issue of Wargames Illustrated.

I'd be interested to read what you plan with regard to organisation and rules. The basic set should cover it nicely, both for infantry as well as any hardware. We also have an free PDF addendum for artillery on the site that gives greater detail for various types of guns, which might come in handy for WW1-era games.

[Plynkes]

Not too blue and avoided membership of the Wrongly Painted Rifle Club! Someone has been paying attention. Hurrah! 


Smashing. I think the helmets are worth remarking on, I particularly like the work on them.

[Mr.J]

Very very nice. Great paint jobs! Lovely sculpts too but their notoriously large size puts me off getting them. Are they significantly taller than other 28mm minis?

[Trooper]

Nice stuff indeed. They are lovely little figures those Copplestone Brits, just a pity he went for stubby, and too short Lee Enfields, which is strange when I think how nice the Moisin Nagants are on the BoB Russians. However as the Captain says, you haven't given them Lee Enfield muskets. Excellent work.

[aircav]

Lovely work Andy  

Did youget sorted with the aircraft?

[discok3]

Impressive stuff esp. the helmets..they look marvellous.
Army Painter is a cracking invention as long as you don't overdo it which you haven't thereby creating a realistic look to your boys.
Not so perfect they've just come off the parade ground and not so dirty that you could be accused of being slapdash with the brush...perfect in other words!
Please show us the rest as they get finished...looking forward to this thread as I agree with Chris re. interest piqued in this genre

[Aaron]

Great work there! A boardgaming buddy's grandfather was a doctor at Gallipoli, although a Turkish one, and I am painting up some Turks for him at the moment. It has given me an ill-timed urge to pick up some Brits that this thread is doing nothing to diminish!

[guitarheroandy]

Thank you all for your feedback thus far. 

I'd be interested to read what you plan with regard to organisation and rules. The basic set should cover it nicely, both for infantry as well as any hardware. We also have an free PDF addendum for artillery on the site that gives greater detail for various types of guns, which might come in handy for WW1-era games.

My infantry will be in 'platoons' of either 10 men or 9 plus a leader. This will help should I expand the force to become a GW 'Great War' rules army. Also, 10 men is the 'max size undere core rules and seems 'right'. I have planned to have one platoon including a Lewis gun in my initial set-up. Am worried that giving Lewis guns to all 3 platoons would unbalance the game, although that is not based on anything other than gut feeling!! Please let me know what you think.

If I get cavalry, I'll end up buying a command pack and 2 packs of troopers, so will have potentially 9 at my disposal

Lovely work Andy 

Did youget sorted with the aircraft?

Not yet..am painting the infantry first, band still need to contact James.

Very very nice. Great paint jobs! Lovely sculpts too but their notoriously large size puts me off getting them. Are they significantly taller than other 28mm minis?

Yes...quite a bit! I bought a Woodbine Design (Gripping Beast) section pack in Khaki Drill, intending to do mixed units, but will have to field them as a separate platoon due to size difference. I think that Renegade models might be pretty close to Copplestone. If so, I will use their cavalry and use the spare Copplestone models for head swaps so the cavalry are wearing the tropical helmets too.

Am painting the rest of this first platoon this week, then will tackle the Gripping Beast models to see how they match up when painted.

Cheers

Andy

[Westfalia Chris]

Thank you all for your feedback thus far. 

My infantry will be in 'platoons' of either 10 men or 9 plus a leader. This will help should I expand the force to become a GW 'Great War' rules army. Also, 10 men is the 'max size undere core rules and seems 'right'. I have planned to have one platoon including a Lewis gun in my initial set-up. Am worried that giving Lewis guns to all 3 platoons would unbalance the game, although that is not based on anything other than gut feeling!! Please let me know what you think.

Sounds reasonable enough to me. I guess the "feasible" number of automatic weapons depends on the type of scenario you are playing. I wouldn't mind giving a larger number of LMGs to an attacking force versus entrenched defenders, as well-emplaced HMGs tend to be quite tough. Having some mobile firepower may actually balance things out.

For "open field" actions I agree that limiting them would be sensible. Anyway, you can always modify your plans after you played a handful of games in this configuration.

That said, I am not at all familiar with British TO&Es for that theatre, and don't know what would be "paper" and "real world" strengths.

[tim1966]

Looking good - they look like they are out in the desert. "God created Hell and when he saw what he had done, thought it was not horror enough - so he created Mesopotamia in Hells wake... then added flies." Old Arab saying.

[OSHIROmodels]

Smashing. I think the helmets are worth remarking on, I particularly like the work on them.

Seconded, that man there. Great stuff all round Andy 

Just one quick question though, there seem to be lots of tiny black spots when you see the real close ups, just wondering where they have come from?

cheers

James

[discok3]

Hadn't even noticed until you mentioned them....perhaps they are the flies?!