Paint Table Saturday 27 March plus Podcasts

Before getting onto the "Paint Table Saturday" part of this post, The goodies I mentioned ordering last Sunday have all arrived over the course of the week.

From North Star:

 From Warbases:

As you can see, I also bought some brushes to try out. I didn't take photos of the foam trays I'd ordered from Products For Wargamers because, let's face it, they're not really interesting enough to take photos of (well, not until they have figures in them).

6mm ACW Progress

Oh, yes, the real "meat" of this post. On Thursday I added the basing texture mix to all of the bases. As I was doing this, I realised when I got to the artillery and limber bases that ~I should have left the guns and limbers off. Fortunately I had only done one of each at that point, so I quickly removed the others - they'll be glued back on at the end.

I left them alone yesterday, to give the texture time to fully dry and adhere. Today I did the drybrushing:

The drybrushing step also acts to remove any loose grit and sand.

I'll be adding static grass to the bases tomorrow, then adding the guns and limbers back to the bases I'd removed them from. I'll need to dig out a couple of flags to add to some of the command bases.

Podcasts

I was remiss last week and forgot to post the podcast link. Which means you're getting two links today!

Last week's:

 

This week's:

 

Wednesday Workbench 24 March

 

It would appear that I have manged to get further along with things than I'd expected . I got the varnishing done today and have also got all the figures off the painting sticks and glued onto the bases. That means I will be able to start on the basing mix tomorrow, rather than on Friday.

Union

Confederate

Casualties, gabions and cannonball piles

Having painted all the casualties and gabions, I realised that I don't have room for them on the cavalry and artillery bases. I could, perhaps squeeze some casualties onto the mounted cavalry bases, but I suspect most will end up on the bases of future infantry additions (at some point I need to add some more to both armies).

Paint Table Sunday 21 March

 When I said last Saturday that I should have everything from my 6mm ACW project painted, varnished and ready for basing by this weekend I am sure that you expected me to get distracted and fail. Well, you were partly right. 

I didn't get quite as far as planned, but this time it wasn't the result of distractions. It was actually due to feeling crap for a few days after my Covid vaccine. However, I have bounced back and got plenty done over the past few days.

The equine casualties, limber teams and horses for the dismounted cavalry were finished this morning.

On Friday I took advantage of good daylight to finish clean-up of my US Paras. I started gluing them onto bases yesterday, but didn't quite have enough 25mm squares for NCOs; I haven't glued the 60mm mortars and crews onto bases yet as I haven't decided quite how I want to do them.

I've placed an order for some more bases (an assortment of what I might need). While I was "splashing the cash" I also ordered some more foam trays and some more US Paras - looking at the Chain of Command list I realised that I would probably want another rifle ssquad as a support option. As the LMG teams come in packs of two it made sense to add enough riflemen, SMGs and carbines for two squads. Of course, as I have two 60mm mortar squads, that would actually give me enough for two full platoons if I also bought another command pack...

This afternoon I started work on the remaining 6mm ACW bits. I finished painting the gabions and cannonball piles and made a start on the human casualties...

...and I've gone on to do a bit more on them this evening. There's not much left to do - flesh, hair, boots, belts, muskets and equipment. I should be able to knock that out quite quickly tomorrow.

Tuesday will see me cleaning my brushes and paint table, then sorting out the bases for the figures (and digging out the basing materials I used previously). Wednesday should be a day of varnishing everything and Thursday should see me gluing the figures onto bases. I can then add the basing mix on Friday. All assuming there are no distractions, of course!

Madaxeman Podcast #70

 I was going to post this yesterday but forgot! Oh, well, no harm with a slight delay.

In this episode we discuss:

• Aztec, Tlaxcallan and other central American armies as an option forwargaming
• Whether there are really just three "Biblical" armies (in terms of the figures)
• First opinions on the "O Group" rules

In "I'm Sorry, I Think You're An Arse" Adam takes the stage again to rant about the ongoing suggestion that the (historical) wargaming hobby is greying.

We also have Andy's quiz and the inevitable wittering and waffling about what the seven of us have been painting and buying.

Paint Table Saturday 13 March

 I've been quite productive since Wednesday's post. 8 limbers, 4 guns, 16 artillery crew, 16 horse-holders and 96 dismounted cavalry fully painted. Despite a few distractions!

With those done, my next job is to paint a lot of horses:

That's 48 horses for the dismounted cavalry stands, 48 limber horses and 15 dead horses to add to bases. I should get those finished over the next two days. After that I've got some human casualties, some gabions and some cannonball piles to paint which should also be quite quick. I should have everything painted, varnished and ready for basing by next weekend.

Another Black Soldier At Arnhem

You may remember that back in September 2019 I wrote a series of posts for the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden. One of those posts was about black soldiers who fought at Arnhem. In that post I detailed the three that I had been able to confirm - Trooper Bolton of the Recce Squadron, Private Roberts of the Pathfinders and Corporal West of 156th Battalion. I was sure there were probably others.

I'm currently reading Ian Ballantyne's "Arnhem: Ten Days In The Cauldon". In the chapter about Wednesday 20th September he mentions another black soldier from the Pathfinders (21st Independent Parachute Company) - Sergeant Joe Smith. It was one who I had thought (from photos) possibly could be, but nothing I had read made any mention of his race (the black-and-white photos didn't help - in some he appears as light skinned as everyone else, in others he looks heavily tanned) . Following the reference in the book, I found the original article where Joe's son had left a comment. 

Sergeant Joseph (Joe) Norris Smith

Joe Smith was born in London in 1918. His father, Norris Smith, was an African American actor-singer who had come over to Britain with a production of "In Dahomey" in 1903 and then decided to settle.

After leaving school, Joe worked as a laboratory assistant. He joined the Territorial Army in 1938 in Salford as a member of the 39th Searchlight Battalion RE (later the 39th Searchlight Regiment RA). He transferred to the Glider Pilot Regiment (it's not clear if he completed his training as a glider pilot) before being selected in 1942 by Major Lander (the original CO) for the 21st Independent Parachute Company, where he was one of the first batch to complete parachute training at Ringway. He also trained as an assault pioneer and drill instructor. Prior to Arnhem, he served in North Africa, Sicily and Italy.

Sicily

Joe was one of the small party attached to 1st Parachute Brigade for Operation Husky, tasked with parachuting in about 90 minutes before the main glider landing to mark out two landing zones for the brigade's glider-borne equipment. He and Corporal Brown were assigned a drop zone just north of the Primasole Bridge. Some time after landing, Joe realised that his pistol and grenades had gone astray during the jump, so he acquired an abandoned Italian "Truppo Speciale" carbine.

"At 0800 hrs Corporal Brown glanced across the bridge and out of the morning mist came Sergeant Smith, as calmly as if out for a country walk."

Italy (Taranto)

Although not parachuting in, the Company did take part in the operations around Taranto. On arrival the new CO, Major "Boy" Wilson (actually the oldest officer and oldest parachutist in 1st Airborne Division) sent them out to scavenge some transport. Joe managed to take away a motorcycle "while what seemed like half the Italian Navy" looked on.

In San Severo, the Company bedded down for the night in the Town Hall. As they were leaving in the morning there was a complaint that the toilet had been damaged; Joe obtained pen and paper and wrote a note saying that General Montgomery would reimburse them for the cost.

At some point during the move from Foggia to Apricena, Joe took over from Sergeant Binick of 1 Platoon who had been evacuated to hospital with hepatitis.

Arnhem

By the time of Operation Market Garden, Joe was platoon sergeant of 3 Platoon. He was great friends with Sergeant Kenneth "Val" Allerton (the platoon sergeant of 2 Platoon). and the only person in the company who knew Val's true identity (Gerald Lamarque; he'd adopted the Allerton name after jumping ship in Ireland in 1940 so that he could join up for the war. Allerton/Lamarque was later imprisoned for murdering his ex-wide's boss who had been sexually pestering her; while in prison he wrote "The Cauldron" under the pen-name "Zeno", a fictionalised account of Arnhem). 

"Leading The Way To Arnhem" includes several anecdotes relating to Joe at Arnhem, many of which involve bottles of whisky or brandy.

After Arnhem, Joe was one of several NCOs given field commissions and sent for officer training. The sources differ at this point. Paradata suggests that he remained with the company until its disbandment in 1946, then transferred to the Lancashire Fusiliers and later to the Royal Army Pay Corps. His son says he served as an officer with the Parachute Regiment and the SAS. The short bio in "Leading The Way To Arnhem" (I will note that my copy cost less than half the price it is currently going for!) says he was posted to 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment. I suspect that the information on Paradata is wrong as he doesn't appear in any Pathfinders photos from Norway and Palestine.

In 1951 he was promoted to Captain and retired with the rank of Major in 1962. After leaving the Army he became a teacher, retiring from that profession in 1982. He was a founder member of the 21st Independent Parachute Company Club.

Wednesday Workbench 10 March

 

You can probably guess from the primed-but-yet-to-see-paint figures above that I have finished painting the Confederate cavalry and generals. And your guess would be right:

Mind you, it was today rather than Monday that I finished them. I got a bit done on Sunday and all was looking good for getting them finished on Monday when I got yanked away to do an admin task for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. It took rather longer than expected. The yesterday I had my regular duty as "Minion of the Day". 

Fortunately I managed to drag myself back to the paint table this morning and spent a few hours getting them finished.

The figures currently on my workbench are a mix of Union and Confederate troops - dismounted cavalry, horse-holders. artillery crew, guns and limbers. They should be reasonably quick to paint up and if all goes well might be finished this weekend. That just leaves me with the horses for the dismounted cavalry and limbers, plus some casualties  and a few bits (gabions and cannonball piles) to add to the artillery bases. They shouldn't take too long to do either.

On Saturday I mentioned that my MDF tokens for "O Group" were about to be shipped. It turns out that they had been shipped, but our post was delivered late on Saturday so they arrived after I'd checked - I found them on Sunday morning.