OFFENSIVE MINIATURES 28mm SOVIETS

The wonderfully named Offensive Miniatures have been slowly putting together a range of 28mm WW2 Soviets, with some very nice character figures suitable for VBCW Communists:

Junior Officer/Command Figure

Commissar with Megaphone. An excellent addition for a mightily
overworked Commissar Moody and his megaphone van

Standard Bearer with Red Flag

The latest additions to the range were shown at this year's Salute - a nice variety of AT Rifles and AT Teams. Very useful as many ranges have AT Rifles with completely prone operators, which takes up a lot of "base space" and can be quite uninspiring:

No idea when the AT Rifles will make it into production, but worth checking back on the Offensive Miniatures SHOP here from time to time.

Add Edit: Alternatively, if you can't wait for Offensive Miniatures' latest AT releases, Warlord already produce a very interesting array of Communist AT Weapons:

WARGAMES ATLANTIC RUSSIANS (WW1) and BRITISH (WW2)

Two new 28mm sets, from Wargames Atlantic, with obvious potential use/conversion potential for the VBCW, have just been released:

The BEF of 1940. Some equipment can also be used for the Home Guard of 1940-1941,
30 figures for £25, now available from North Star.

Russian Infantry of WW1. Again £25 for 30 figures from North Star - enough to
form the infantry elements of a WTDW VBCW Platoon "straight out of the box".

As always with Wargames Atlantic 28mm plastics, its the profusion of "alternative/interchangeable heads" that make these box sets so useful:

Wargames Atlantic WW1 Russians with WA "budyenovka" headgear - ideal
militia types for the Presteigne Soviets! (Photo: Beasts of War)

Note: for a whole Platoon of budyenovka wearers, see this earlier post here.

STUDIO HISTORIA - 28MM "ARMY REGULARS"

 A very nice 28mm BEF Command Group from a relatively new manufacturer - Studio Historia

Studio Historia BEF Command Group. Lovely figures, lovely painting - and a lovely cup of tea!

Studio Historia are running a BEF Kickstarter called "For King and Country", which is already substantially oversubscribed - see HERE. This promises lots of BEF goodies by way of STL files for printing, but the figures themselves will no doubt make their way in to Studio Historia's Online Shop in due time - see HERE. Excellent stuff for anyone gaming 1940, or putting together a VBCW "Regular" Platoon in 1938....

Already in the Online Shop - Studio Historia's MMG Support Weapon and crewmen

SHINY STUFF - WARGAMES ATLANTIC BRITISH WW1

Wargames Atlantic have announced the release of their long awaited set of 28mm hard plastic WW1 British Infantry:

We're promised a release date of 31st August 2023, and the set looks as if it will be extremely useful for VBCW conversions (plastic Lewis Guns at last! lots of different British heads!) or even as the basis for an entire VBCW Platoon (30 figures, or 3 sections according to the WTDW Rules, for somewhere between £22.50 and £25.00 RRP).

The only slight problem is that the "release date" may vary massively from the "able to purchase" date. The last Wargames Atlantic set we looked at, the "WW2 German Sentries" set, had a release date of 31st March 2023 - but they are still unobtainable in the UK in late July. Wargames Atlantic's own "release schedule" is presently showing them simply as "en route" to the UK (and everywhere else other than the US), so there is no telling when they might appear....

Still, if you're thinking of putting together a British VBCW force sometime next year, or the year thereafter, these Wargames Atlantic plastics might be just the figures for you...

28MM NUNS with GUNS

Anyone enthused by THIS PREVIOUS POST and in search of suitable 28mm VBCW Nuns might check out the webpage of Troublemakergames. While their range of Nuns are not newly released (apparently they came out in 2019), they don't seem to have received much publicity:

28mm Nuns with double-barrelled Shotguns - very VBCW !

28mm Nun Artillery Crew - useful for "Big Guns", mortars or vehicle crews

28mm Nun and 'Holy Ghost'. Possibly useful as a unique anti-tank device ?

The range is obviously directed principally at the 40K enthusiast, with lots of ridiculous "Sci-Fi" weaponry, but some careful figure choices and limited conversion work could produce a force of VBCW Nuns without much difficulty. Where else can you find Nun Cavalry ?

Nuns on "Little Donkeys". Chop out the GW style weaponry, replace with wire and home printed
VBCW pennons, and "Cha-a-a-rge !"........

VBCW PARATROOPERS (MARK'S LITTLE SOLDIERS)

Some recent blogposts have focussed on the well known role of Reichsmarschall Goering and his Fallschirmjager during the Hereford VBCW, including the ever present possibility of daring glider actions at the request of His Majesty's Government.

A surprise entry into the Hereford VBCW - Goering's Fallschirmjager "drop in" on
The Battle of Mortimer's Cross (aka the Autumn Big Game 2019)

The initial landing zone. Farmer Roo's Herefordshire fields are here clearly recognisable - and his
subsequent claim for "damage to crops by damn' furrin' parachutists" is documented and filed in the Ludlow VBCW Research Library. This much reproduced Fallschirmjager Propaganda-Kompanie photograph [see, for example "Mortimers Cross : Then and Now" (After the Battle Publications, 1990)] was originally printed in the limited circulation pamphlet "Gebirgsjager und Fallschirmager ein der Englischer Kreig" (Munich, 1938)

Gathering supplies; Fallschirmjager preparing to combat the advance of the
 Presteigne Communists (with supporting Boy Scouts) towards Mortimer's Cross.

Every action, however, provokes a reaction - particularly so in the Hereford VBCW (witness the ongoing "tank race" between, amongst many others, the BUF and the Communists). But how could the VBCW Opposition factions recruit Very British style paratroopers? Thankfully - and some say not a moment before time - Marks Little Soldiers have now come to their aid:

 

Copplestone Castings MLS-SL16 "Slovskan Paratroopers"

Copplestone Castings MLS-SL17 "Slovskan Paratrooper Officers"

If we detach Mark's paratroopers from their 1930s style Central European Imagi-Nation background, they happen to be pretty much perfect for (very) early War British Paratroopers: 

British Paratroopers in training, Ringwood, late 1940.

Training completed and Thompson SMG in hand - 1941

Some rotters and spoilsports might argue that 1940/1941 is a little too late for Hereford 1938, but there is no doubt that the British were experimenting with paradrops as early as 1925, and indeed exhibiting this method of warfare at the 1930s Empire Air Shows:

It's not Arnhem, admittedly : a Very British parachutist prepares to drop for the first time
from the wing of a Vickers Virginia above the Hendon Empire Air Show, 1936.
 Further info at the artist's (David Rowlands) home page
(the white silk scarf clenched between his teeth may have been
 designed to muffle any wholly UnBritish screaming...)

It is not much of a stretch, therefore, to use the Mark's Little Soldiers figures as Very British paratroopers as early as 1938. Not only that - given that the Red Army, to the astonishment of the world, dropped 1,500 soldiers by parachute at their September 1936 Military Manoeuvres - it may very well be that the Presteigne Communists will be interested in a few recruits, too:

"Health and Safety" demonstrably at the forefront of Soviet military thinking (as so often)
, are these "Red Paratroopers" at the 1936 Soviet Military Manoeuvres, or "dropping in"
 on the Hereford VBCW in 1938? Breathlessly, (like the paratroopers, no doubt),
we can only await future blogposts...

SHINY STUFF - 28mm PEAKY BLINDERS

Ooh, shiny! Officially released at last Saturday's "Salute", Great Escape Games have added a 28mm "Peaky Blinders" gang to their gangster game, "The Chicago Way": 

GEG's Peaky Blinders - 7 figures for £20

Flat Caps, SMG, rifles, pistols - and Arthur's jolly useful Lewis Gun.

With Birmingham being only about 90 minutes away from Hereford by train - via a direct train line - it can only be a matter of time before the Peaky Blinders make an appearance in the Hereford VBCW....and if you want to convert three more figures to make up a "Went the Day Well" section - or perhaps an A/T bomber crew - THIS POST might help! 

Alternatively, you could pick up some of the "Brummie Mafia" figures from Empress Miniatures:

Empress Miniatures BCW9 - Arthur's Lewis Gun again!

Empress Miniatures BCW 10 - including Alfie Solomons from Camden Town.

SHINY STUFF - PLASTIC 28mm REVIEWS

Well, not exactly "shiny stuff" - none of the figures are recently released, and all of them are plastic. However, Anton's Wargames Blog, one of the blogs on our Blog List (to the right of these posts) has compiled an extensive (and lavishly illustrated) list of reviews of a lot of the 28mm figure releases over the last few years from the Perries, Wargames Factory, Wargames Atlantic, Victrix etc. - see HERE. Definitely the most useful (and best illustrated) list of reviews available on the web, even if a lot of the sets are not specifically relevant to the VBCW. Those that are, however:

(1). German Sentries

Most obviously useful, with appropriate "side cap heads", as BUF or, in original helmets, as "German Auxiliaries". See HERE and Anton's photographs and review HERE.

(2). French Resistance

Drop the Sten Guns and Schmeissers, replace the Bren Guns with Lewis Guns (if you're fastidious), avoid the French style berets and stick with the plentiful "bowlers, caps and trilbies" heads - and there's lots of scope for various types of VBCW militia in 1930s civilian clothing. See HERE and Anton's photographs and review HERE.

(3). WW2 Italians

Mussolini's "Ice Cream Intervention" in the Hereford VBCW is, of course, well known - this set is perfect for assembling an "Italian Intervention Force". See Anton's photographs and review HERE.

(4). French Infantry 1916 - 1940

VBCW Anglicans tend to be "French uniformed and equipped", so this set is especially useful for the Anglican League. See Anton's photographs and review HERE.

Otherwise, browsing amongst the sets that are not obviously useful for the VBCW can always throw up ideas or information. Anton's "Plastic Horse Size Comparison" PHOTO is useful, and for those building a "VBCW "Non Aligned Farmer's Force", the Great Escape Games' "Gunfighters Set" (with dynamite sticks, shotguns, long coats, waistcoats etc.) looks eminently convertible, possibly with some replacement heads, for "Leaders, Characters and Specialists".........

Gunfighters Sprue. Photo from Anton's Wargames Blog

SHINY STUFF - HER LATE MAJESTY

Bad Squiddo Games have an interesting "new arrival" in their webstore, a bundle collection of 3 figures and 2 corgis in commemoration of Her Late Majesty, all for £20:

The same figures are also available individually in the Bad Squiddo webstore, but at significantly greater prices per figure. If one is inclined to a little lese-majesty, the "coronation gown" figure would also make a wonderful Queen Elizabeth, wife of George V, and therefore a central "Yorkist" personality figure for the VBCW. Alternatively, the "Silver Jubilee" QEII (in blue) might make a very superior Chairwoman of the local Women's Institute....

....or find an Austin K2 Ambulance for your Platoon!

SHINY STUFF - WARGAMES ATLANTIC GERMAN SENTRIES

Well, not shiny exactly, as they're hard plastic, but...

Anyway, in the summer of last year, Grey for Now Games released a new "WW2 Commando Raid" game called "02 Hundred Hours". Not quite our thing, although there was an interesting mix of 28mm metal and plastic figures representing WW2 Germans, many of whom would be usable (most with head swaps) in the VBCW as jackbooted BUF.

The Grey For Now 28mm release - top figures metal, bottom figures plastic.

It appears that the plastic figures came about as a result of co-operation between Grey For Now Games and Wargames Atlantic, for, after a decent interval, Wargames Atlantic have now made the same plastic figures available in a separate, dedicated box, labelled "German Sentries":

Yay! German Sentries - 30 figures and 10 Alsatians for £25.00!

Very decently priced and capable of being modelled in lots of varied poses, these 'straight up and down" sentry figures are just the thing for guarding installations, searching and patrolling, standing at road blocks (aka presenting a tempting target) - or, with a little more conversion, serving as engineers or pioneers if you've already built your BUF Bridging Column.... 

Notes: A good review with illustrations can be found HERE

SHINY STUFF - MARK'S LITTLE SOLDIERS AGAIN

Well, the long awaited "Fourth Wave" from Mark's Little Soldiers is finally out, and jolly VBCW interesting it looks too -

Copplestone Castings MLS - Wave 4

The civilians (top left) include a useful nurse, a running pilot, a fine lady and a mysterious gentleman; while the Workers Militia and Navy figures inevitably generate some VBCW musings. The cavalryman (bottom left) is a lovely figure, with separate heads available (yes!) but it's as yet unclear how much he costs - the "pack price" is given on the Copplestone Casting's Website as £9.90, but do you get one, two or (maybe?) three cavalrymen at that price? If anyone knows, please leave a comment...[Update - apparently it is two cavalrymen]

Worker's Militia. The proletarian in the middle looks just right for a VBCW "Factory Militia".

Mark's Little Soldiers Instagram Page is great for keeping up to date with the possibilities of this range; now including a link to the Cornwall Wargamers Association who are apparently bringing a MLS game to this year's Salute. Well worth a look...

SHINY STUFF - GENERIC FASCIST DICTATORS

It's always the way: you wait ages for a decent 28mm "Generic Fascist Dictator" figure to come along, and then two come along at once:

Mark's Little Soldiers Generic Fascist Dictator

First up is the "free figure" to be given away by North Star with the "Wave Three" release of Mark's Little Soldiers. An excellent generic figure with jackboots and right hand high in typical fascist salute - he could easily be the Leader of any BUF Platoon. Although only available as part of the "Wave Three Deal" at the moment, it's said that all the "special figures" produced by Mark will be available for individual purchase in due course.

The second offering is a bit more eclectic - an STL file from a new US company, Trenchworx. The STL file, presently on sale at $3.95 (and presumably delivered electronically, so no P&P from the US), allows you to print two types of figure (as shown) - the one on the left would again be brilliant as a BUF Leader - or possibly, given his prominent specs, a BUF Intelligence Officer. Come to think of it, with the tiniest amount of conversion and a different paint job, he'd be equally excellent as a Communist Intelligence Officer.....hang it, print both - all you need is a friend with an STL printer!

SHINY STUFF SPODE

 Yes, it's that man again - Roderick Spode, Leader of the Blackshorts and 7th Earl of Sidcup:

Spode in 28mm

A recent 28mm figure from Steve Barber's Commission Range, coyly titled "Fascist Leader" but instantly recognisable. See Steve's Commission Range HERE

The Hereford VBCW Campaign is very fond of P.G.Wodehouse's comic creation (Note 1). JP, co-creator of the campaign and Wodehouse fan, has long played (amongst others) Eustace Spode, brother of Roderick, with a full "Blackshort" Platoon (including the Sidcup Highlanders):

JP's Eustace Spode and Blackshort Infantry

JPs now Veteran Blackshorts advance with Tank support

Unfortunately, as a result of the Spring Big Game 2022 ("The Fall of Leominster"), Eustace Spode is presently in Communist captivity. His notorious brother and a second force of Blackshorts (painted up from Copplestone Castings Back of Beyond British, and therefore nicknamed "Imperial Blackshorts" [note2]) were recently fielded by Rob B. - hopelessly outnumbered, however, they went down to a heavy defeat at the Autumn Big Game 2021 ("Advance to Leominster")

Rob B's Spode conversion plus Imperial Blackshorts

Spode is thought to be "on the run" in Herefordshire (and beyond), seeking to raise new forces in order to return to the fray and free his brother Eustace from the "dirty Reds". Might be time to paint up another Spode personality figure........

Notes

(1). “The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone. You hear them shouting "Heil, Spode!" and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: "Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?” (The Code of the Woosters)

(2). This might also be a wordplay on "Imperial Dalek", however.....

MARK'S LITTLE SOLDIERS

Mark Copplestone has produced a new "Tintin" based range which, although 30mm and in 'toy soldier' style, has a few figures which might prove useful for VBCW gaming:

A rather British looking command group - with obligatory map table.
Definitely suitable for VBCW Royalists ?

The distinctly Germanic looking Opposition. BUF types?

A pilot, a spy, a fashionable lady, a nurse. All suitable for any VBCW army.

The "first wave" of releases are now available to purchase from North Star - see HERE. Mark also has further pictures on his Instagram account - see HERE. "Wave 4", whenever that may be produced, promises "Red Militia" and "Naval Infantry", which may prove very useful indeed (although no pictures as yet). And even if none of the figures appeal, the sole pack of gaming accessories may prove helpful:

Explosion markers!

A very nice new range, worth keeping an eye on. The Lead Adventure Forum has a dedicated thread that can be found HERE, and Mark's own Instgram account HERE has lots of charming and evocative photos. 

VBCW ARTILLERY OBSERVERS AND MORE - FIRST CORPS

Artillery and mortar observers are vital in the VBCW, but just like medics, suitable figures can be difficult to come by. If you're tired of using unidentifiable "finger pointers" or "that guy with the binoculars" as "spotters", the excellent First Corps Home Front range now has just the thing:

First Corps Home Guard Observation Team - £6

It's worth checking out not just the "Home Front" range, but also the funtastic "C20th Follies" figures and the website as a whole - including WW1 and WW2 ranges. The sculptor, Mark Fuller, posts as "Tin Shed Gamer" on the LAF, and this thread is not only full of inspirational photos, but also gives early notice of upcoming releases...

First Corps Fire Pump and Crew - just what Lord de Braose, Governor of Hereford and
Lord of the Marches, needs to invest in to quell the growing criticism
 of Hereford's lamentable anti aircraft precautions.

VBCW Products - Bad Squiddo Games

"Medics" are usually a key part of any VBCW Platoon HQ, but suitable figures can be difficult to come by. Thankfully, Bad Squiddo Games has recently produced these lovely 1930s/1940s nurses that will be instantly identifiable on the tabletop:

Bad Squiddo Nurses - £10 for 3 figures

Its also worth looking at the Bad Squiddo range generally for VBCW female figures, as they have been quietly building up quite a range - Landgirls, WAAFs, ATS with rifles, "Womens Home Defence" figures, etc. etc. For any Yorkist player, however, pride of place must go to the only known 28mm figures of the Duchess of York (aka "the Queen Mother") and her eldest daughter, Elizabeth, in ATS uniform (aka "HM the Queen"):

"Princess Elizabeth & Mum" £10 for 2 figures

 Bad Squiddo Games are HERE