Brand New Honourable Lead Boilersuit Company Schutztruppe Figures in 28mm!

As readers of this blog will recall, I have always loved the old 28mm line of German Colonial figures once produced by the Honourable Lead Boilersuit Company.  Today I received an unexpected but most welcome message from Richard at HLBC who remembered my interest and an old email query about his figures.  Much to my delight, he told me that he has just reimagined and released a new line of German Colonial figures in 28mm and they are magnificent - easily the most detailed and accurately uniformed figures available.  Naturally, I  just placed a large order.

There are plenty of excellent figures for use in German Southwest Africa, including those wearing field caps as well as the classic "sudwester" slouch hat, and a beautiful patrol of camel riders, complete with proper harness including the bucket style rifle holster used by mounted troops in the colony.  There are also seebataillon in 1900 Bortfeldt helms, and machine gun sections for each head type.  But there are also east Africa Schutztruppe Askaris, Schutzruppe in 1904 Bortfeldt helmets, and East Asian Expeditionary Force (in 1900 Boetfeldt helmets and side cocked straw hats)!  All are stunningly and meticulously detailed with proper uniforms and equipment, and there are even heads wearing all the different hats and helmets to convert other figures for your table.

It is a wonderful return to a fantastic range.  I will lobby for more additions (Hereros and Namas?  Heliographs and Feld Lazaretts?) and look forward to painting some of them up in the near future!

Askari Releases Mounted Schutztruppen

Askari Miniatures has filled a much needed gap in 28mm Colonial German wargaming with the release this March of four sets of Mounted Schutztruppen - horses and camels.  They are the same excellent quality as previous releases of Schutztruppen in this scale, which run closer to 26mm than true 28mm but still work with the larger scale.  The sets includes six troopers on either horses or camels, and a 3 person command pack with bugler, NCO and officer for each time of mounted troops.  One interesting feature is the ability to include rifles either in their scabbards or withdrawn.

I plan to pick up several of these sets.  Mounted officers are very rare in this scale from any current manufacturer, as indeed are mounted troops.  The camel riders will only be used in the final expedition of the Nama War in 1908, though they were around in SWA afterwards.

Osona Scenario Development - Armored Trains and Herero Rifles in 1904 (Part III)

Osona gameboard
Armored Trains and Herero Rifles at Osona Skirmish

Here is a work in progress: the main elements of a scenario I'm designing to wargame Leutnant Voigts' Maschinengewehr Expedition by train to relieve Okahandja on January 13, 1904 and the fight near Osona station.

For scale, the train bridge over the dry Swakop River on the base map at left is 16" on a 3' x 4' table.  There is dense bush near the river on both sides and the cliffs to the East are as steep as those at Otjosongombe described in the Jones/Alvarado Herero Wars Scenario and Rules Book (which forms the basis for the modified rules used for this scenario). The river banks are steep as well.  The stone house near the North edge of the board belongs to Herero Councillor Barnabas.

When play begins there are 3 Schutztruppen scouts in the riverbed at the bridge led by Unteroffizier Bahrs. The rest of the Germans have entered from the South with the train and are repairing the rails at the south end of the bridge.  The Germans have one pair of Zwillinge (twin) locomotive engines pushing from the rear served by two white engineers and two native train crew.  In front of the engines are a water tender and two open cars reenforced with sandbags.  The second car has a machine gun served by 3 men.   The train can be used as excellent cover for men on the far side but must stand still or move slowly.  The machine gun is vulnerable to fire from above if the train stands still. 

Lt. Gustaf Voigts was a resourceful officer and has multizug leadership abilities under the Herero Wars Scenario and Rulebook rules.  He has 28 Schutztruppen on the train in addition to the machine gun crew at the train and enough officers (Lt. Maul, Lt. Boysen and Deckoffizier  Uhlmann) to field 4 Schutztruppe Zuge.   Some of these, however, are needed as laborers assisting noncombatants Eisenbahn-Direktor Henning, Senior Mail Clerk Bartoschad and Postman Wolter with repairing the track and telegraph lines.

The German objective is to repair any breaks in the line or wires and advance off the Board at the north end with the train.  The yoke rails have been repaired at the south end of the bridge when play begins.  They can earn points by repairing track and telegraph wire, clearing any derailed cars, and killing Hereros and Herero leaders.

The Hereros have 8 horsemen who are scouting downriver of the Bridge when play begins, four 8-man Zuge concealed in the dense thorns north of the bridge, and four more Zuge concealed on the cliffs to the East.   There are two more Herero Zug that enter from the NW in turn 3 with Samuel Maherero himself.   Accounts vary as to their actual numbers and for game balance I've kept them lower than the Germans estimated.  We do not know who lead them, but candidates include Ouandja, who was at Okahandja, and both Assa Riarua and Samuel Maharero who were both at their hilltop refuge at Osona (not the station where the action took place but 20K sw of Okahandja.  At the actual fight, the rails had all been disabled when the Germans reached each section (derailing the lead car the final time).  In this scenario, the Germans can discover that the rails north of the bridge are disabled if they scout north of the bridge before the train crosses.  Otherwise the lead car risks derailing and the Germans will have to try to push it over off the embankment and clear the tracks before they can proceed with repairs and advance.  The yoke rails have been removed on the north side of the bridge and the Hereros can disable two more sections of track if they are not interrupted (in the dense thorns north of the bridge and opposite the stone house).  It takes 2 Herero Zuge to remove a section of track each turn and two German Zuge to repair it or overturn a train car.  The Hereros will start to remove rails under cover of the dense thorns closer to the bridge in Turn 1 and will only break off if attacked.

The Herero objective is to drive off the Germans and prevent the train from passing on to Okahandja.   They can earn points by disabling track, killing the train crew and killing Germans.  German wounded rules apply. 

I'm working on rules for train speed, spotting broken track and derailments.  Ideas welcome.

Back to the German-Herero War Painting Table: What's on Deck in 28mm?

The last four months spend researching and developing a skirmish scenario based on the historical battle of Uitkomst have been an exciting and rewarding interlude for me, as I hope they have been for those of you who have been following along with the 12 part series that resulted from that effort.  Although I am considering tackling a second battle scenario from this period, I don't have the bandwidth to take on that project right away: certainly not while also addressing the huge backlog of figures that await my paints and brushes.

It won't surprise readers of this blog that I now possess a large number of Boer figures in 28mm scale, mounted and on foot, that I should start painting in earnest so I can begin play testing the Uitkomst skirmish.  They are a selection of mounted (Black Tree Designs, Foundry and Redoubt) and dismounted Boers (all of the above, plus North Star Africa and Empress).  The Black Tree horsemen are just slightly larger than Foundry's but usable together.  Redoubt's are both stylistically different and as a rule slightly too small for use with Black Tree.  For Uitkomst I'll be using five of Black Tree's and three of Foundry's mounted Boers, and a probably will favor North Star and Empress for the foot figures.  Redoubt's Boer horse holder is not ideal, with extremely long legs and a rough and ready sculpt, but I have not yet found a good alternative.

I've got 12 Mounted Hereros to paint (Empress Natal Native Horse with the spears removed from their quivers), and a really neat idea for one of the Herero's most effective war leaders - Assa Riarua.  Then there are the German civilians who fought at Uitkomst (represented thus far by figures from North Star, Foundry and Redoubt), and a growing number of vehicles with draft animals, drivers and figures representing native handlers (Treiber) that are needed for scenarios such as Groß-Barmen in the Jones/Alvarado Herero War Scenario and Rules Book

I may start, however, with a scenic vignette, featuring an ubiquitous sight characteristic of the terrain in central and eastern Hereroland, along with one of its associated denizens.  It provides a welcome contrast to an otherwise flat and mundane landscape of thorn and savannah, not to mention a bit of cover.  Your guesses are welcome in the comments, but you will need to wait for the big reveal...

Lead Pile Status

I've been a tad distracted by significant life events and have not been able to paint up more of my backlog of miniatures for a month or two, but that should change soon.  I have a couple dozen Herero foot from various manufacturers (Perry, Askari, Foundry, Northstar) primed and ready to go, and I'm excited to move on to some of the German field artillery, Landungskorps and Seebataillon (and a few more scenics, including some unusual African wildlife).

On the other hand, I now have my very own copy of Dr. Roy Jones and Eric Alvarado's much anticipated Herero War Scenario and Rules Book and have been trying to restrain myself from reading it cover to cover (in case I wish to play any of these myself without knowing the other side's information).  It is a labor of love and an outstanding contribution both to this hobby and to the history of the period (some of it only available in English translation through Dr. Jones' good efforts). I am also grateful for the kind mention made of this blog more than once within their book.

The Jones/Alvarado book is based on the venerable The Sword and The Flame rules and expansions by Greenfield Hobby, also no longer in print.  Various editions pop up for sale from time to time and as I am unfamiliar with this game system I'm in the market for the 20th edition TSATF rules, or barring that the 1994 3rd edition.  I believe the Herero War rules are playable without an edition of TSATF for reference, but for someone just starting out it may prove very useful to have on hand.

I have no pressing deadline by which I need to finish painting up all the figures required for these scenarios, but I would like to start playing them this year and so I may decide to give priority to completing the orbat for some of the smaller encounters so I can take the rules out for a spin.  That could mean that some figures, like Herero mounted troops (some of which I still need to acquire in appropriate 28mm scale), will be deferred while others (Herero infiltrators and shock troops, German artillery and sailors) move ahead in the queue.

I've decided that I really like the old German colonial line of figures that sadly are no longer produced by the Honorable Lead Boiler Suit Company for my Schutztruppen, and have been adding them piecemeal to my lead pile whenever I am fortunate to find them available secondhand.  Last December I got in an international bidding war on eBay and watched three excellent sets (not especially well painted, each of 6 to 11 figures) slip through my grasp, but I did manage to get in under the wire and purchase 11 of the Schutztruppe figures (all since repainted) for a very steep price.  Yesterday I won three unopened packs with 10 of these same figures for half what they originally sold for ($10.50).  If I get enough of these, I will paint some as Hereros in captured uniforms. 

Painted Honourable Lead Boilersuit Company Schutztruppe

The Honourable Lead Boilersuit Company no longer produces 28mm figures from its German Colonial line, but I have been fortunate to find several lots on eBay that have allowed me to put both mounted and dismounted Schutztruppe in the field.  I've repainted, and in some cases rebased them, and can now put four HLBS Co. officers, a senior NCO, seven riflemen and a maxim gun team on the field, along with the first of ten painted mounted figures.  A few of these have been previewed here before, but yesterday I finished the vast majority of them and a photo gallery appears below.

There are three duplicate poses, although in one case the figure has a bread bag and canteen that its twin for some reason lacks.  I painted them in different uniforms (khaki feldrock or kord waffenrock), which is particularly striking when comparing the two officers, below.

HLBS Co. German Schutztruppe painted for Southwest Africa, 1904

Major (left) in kord waffenrock uniform; Hauptmann (right) in khaki feldrock

Three figures painted in kord waffenrock uniforms

3 figures in kord waffenrock and the same three 3 in khaki feldrock

Command Group (Hauptmann, Oberleutnant Adjutant, Hauptmann, Major, Feldwebel) and mounted Ritter

Maxim Gun team and Feldwebel

First Batch of Painted, Mounted Schutztruppen (25mm - 30mm)

DSWA Schutztruppen on Horseback, Various Manufacturers

Mounted Rider with Slung Rifle (Matchlock 25mm)

The German Southwest Africa Schutztruppe was mounted infantry, and during the German - Herero War of 1904 the riders fought most of their engagements on foot.  The Jones - Alvarado Herero War Scenario and Rules Book, scheduled for release next month, calls for just a single 8 man mounted section with an officer and NCO and six troopers.  Three mounted command figures are also needed. 

This still presents a challenge, as there are only a few sources for mounted Schutztruppen in 25mm or 28mm scale, and one of the best - those from the Honourable Lead Boiler Suit Company - are no longer in production.

Nevertheless, I managed to find 10 HLBS mounted figures, including an officer, NCO and eight riders, in an unpainted condition on eBay.  They are 28mm scale, came from a seller in France and were a steal - not always the case.   I have painted one of the HLBS riders up in a test batch of 4 mounted figures, one from each manufacture.  The results are here before you.

The single rider, above, is from Matchlock

HLBS, left and Tiger Miniatures, right: 28mm

Miniatures, cast using molds from Falcon Miniatures USA .  I have found Falcon to be singularly unresponsive to requests for its own offerings.  Not so with Matchlock, which has many but not all of the falcon Line available.  This figutre is in true 25mm scale and looks positively hobbit like next to the largest figures from HLBS and Tiger miniatures (at right).  The Tiger trooper, closer to 30mm than 28mm, came in a set with 2 riders on camels, but I swapped out the mount for a horse that came with another set with 2 riders wearing WWI era Tropenhelms.

The last figure, below,  is a German officer from the Old Glory Boxer Rebellion range that came in the Great Powers High Command set of six mounted figures representing the various powers that fought in China in 1900.  It is a hefty 25mm scale that works with 28mm figures.  He required a little bit of putty to fill in a gap in the brim of his Südwester hat but is one of only a couple of options for mounted German commanders available that will work for this period and his horse is suitably spirited.

Old Glory German High Command Figure (Boxer range, 25mm)

Alternate View, Old Glory German Commander

I have decided to use the Tiger and HLBS figures for my gaming table.  Possibly I will paint one of each as Hereros in captured uniforms, perhaps one of them as a Herero commander.  That will still give me enough to meet my needs for mounted Germans, though I would very much like to have another Officer figure.

No manufacture of mounted Schutztruppen thus far has sculpted horses with proper tack and associated accoutrements, including the bucket holders for the rifles that were attached to the saddle in front of the rider's right leg. There is a good possibility, though, that Askari Miniatures will produce mounted Germans this year. They are closer to 26mm in size, but beggars cannot be choosers and I am sure will be as admirably detailed as their dismounted compatriots.

Tiger Mounted and Dismounted Figures (really 30mm, esp the officer)

Mounted Schutztruppen: Tiger, HLBS, Old Glory, Matchlock/Falcon

First Batch of Painted and Based Herero Figures

Mix of figures from Perry, Black Tree, Foundry. North Star, Askari and Empress

This is my first effort at painting up the very large number of figures from numerous manufacturers that I have pulled together for this project.  I'm still getting a feel for both painting and basing, and this includes everything from how to get the eyes right to finding the right mix of colors.  I decided to start with the Hereros, and these are the result.

I decided to paint up examples of each of the figures I am using to represent the Herero during the German-Herero War of 1904.  They range from Empress and Askari, which are closer to 25mm, all the way up to Tiger which approaches 30mm. I am using Vallejo paint and have given them simple bases.  One or two of them were actually cast as boers but make excellent Hereros in European clothing.  I'll describe the process further in subsequent posts, but for now, here they are to enjoy.

Black Tree (from a boer set)

Perry Mafeking and Askari Herero

Tiger, North Star, Brigade Games, Foundry, Black Tree, Redoubt

Tiger, Redoubt, Foundry (some of the largest figures)

North Star Africa! range  Matabele rebels make great Herero!

Brigade Games, Black Tree and Foundry.  The rider and kneeling figure are boer sculpts.