1940 - Eric Knowles Style….Part 2

After the photographic onslaught that was the Germans it was only right that the next post should comprise the French. Again, no armour to speak of but it is an impressive collection all the same.

Fortress types

Colonial infantry support and artillery

Colonial infantry

Infantry

More fortress types plus guns

Artillery and some unpainted support

More artillery

Even more artillery!

Armoured infantry

The unpainted but not unorganised bits and bobs

Motorised infantry with some unpainted stuff

I must confess to being mystified as to why with the 1940 collection there does not appear to be any armour other than that of the Belgians (in the next post). Knowing Eric I can only assume that he had stockpiled the material for this and the box full has yet to be found or perhaps he collaborated with another gamer that had the requisite vehicles? I doubt if if we will ever know as Bill is quite certain that all the boxes I have are in fact all the boxes there are. Who knows?

There are some of Eric’s conversions in this collection - he would press gang vehicles from the most unlikely sources and ‘paint them into something suitable’ - and the two turreted fortress guns are of his own design. 

As usual all this is up for disposal although currently under review by an interested party. Any enquiries about the French should be emailed to me - roguejedi@btinternet.com

Next up will be the Belgians and some Dutch.

1940 - Eric Knowles Style…Part 1

This is largely a photo dump type of blog post as these will describe themselves far more eloquently that i will be able to!

To start with we have Germans.

 

Wagons and Limbers

Artillery

A slightly damaged glider

Eric’s heavy mortars

Fallschirmjager support

Fallschirmjager

Fallschirmjager recce - again featuring some of Eric’s conversions

Fallschirmjager artillery

Wehrmacht Recce - a lot of Airfix figures in this one as well as conversions etc

Air landing support

Air landing infantry

More Air landing infantry

Phew! There is quite a lot of stuff although the big omission appears to be any form of armour. You cannot have 1940 Germans without tanks so I am wondering if another box is lurking somewhere, waiting for Bill to uncover it!

All of the above is available to buy so should anyone be interested then please drop me a line - roguejedi@btinternet.com

Belgians, French and British to follow and if you think this lot is impressive wait until we get to 1944!

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em!

Direct from the Rapid Fire website and costing the princely sum of £5 each,  the basic rules and some extras - paratroops, gliders, amphibious landings etc. The website is really useful with plenty of free downloadable stuff as well as the various scenario or campaign guides available to purchase.

Eric was incredibly well organised in respect of his WW2 collection. All of the completed units are described in their storage boxes and the unpainted figures are bagged by sub unit with a small card inside telling exactly what they are and where they fit in at a higher level. This has proven to be really helpful as I sort through the collection. As Eric used the popular Rapid Fire rules (no doubt with some of his own ideas incorporated!) in a moment of whimsy I figures it would be useful to pick up a copy of the latest version which duly arrived this morning. 

I have seen and used these rules in the past but not for some time. They give a good fun game and are a sensible way to model WW2 formations on the tabletop without going over the top - quite how Eric coped with using divisions is frankly beyond me but it would have been fascinating to see his armies in action under his command. Sadly I know of no pictures or reports of this phase of his wargaming career but of one thing I am certain - his scenarios would have been carefully thought out and with a great background story to support them.

For my own part I would only fight at battalion or possibly brigade level at a push as this would give a good game with all the usual WW2 ‘bells and whistles’. For a more detailed experience there are plenty of other rules that cater for this axle of operations - ‘O’ Group being a popular set. 

It would be a simple matter to organise battalion sized formations to use with Rapid Fire from Eric’s collection and such is the size of it that the missing figures would barely be missed!

Something else to think about then.

Both Ends of WW2 in NW Europe

Not what you would have expected to find in a WW2 collection! 30mm Higgins (Jason) figures as identified by Aly Morrison and the legend that is MSFoy! There was a single box of these hidden away in a box of German 1944 SS armoured vehicles!

The great sort out of Eric’s WW2 collection has begun in earnest with the arranging of the umpteen boxes full of models and figures into their nationalities. As expected this was a fairly straightforward undertaking and so I now have a better idea of what is what. I will post pictures in due course but for now I need to really tidy up the boxes as many of these are damaged beyond repair, as well as being too large for the contents in many cases.

The collection contains a selection of forces for both ends of the war so for 1940 there is a large French Army, a substantial quantity of Belgians, a brigade of British infantry and for the Germans there are paratroops, infantry and air landing infantry complete with a glider, along with a bridging and assault boat detachment.The Belgians have a lot of unpainted kit - especially the famous Chasseurs Ardennais. Oddly enough the only force that has any armour is the Belgians and pretty much all of it are Eric’s improvisations. There are however, plenty of support weapons available.

There is also a large box of German wheeled transport. I suspect that Eric may have used these for both ends of the war although it is all painted in early war grey.

For 1944 the selection is rather more expansive. The British have a complete armoured division plus the 1st Airborne and the Polish Parachute brigade as well as Commandoes. There is also a set up for Burma which includes brigades of British, Indian and Chindits. The Germans have a pair of SS Panzer Divisions, a paratroop division, a Volksgrenadier division as well as a coastal division complete with fortifications. There is also a whole pile of American stuff. There are are a couple of anomalies though.

There is some Russian heavy artillery and AA and even a selection of Italian heavy weapons - but nothing to go with them!

On top of this lot a box of Ottoman Turkish stuff appeared - mainly artillery (no surprise there then!) but with a cavalry unit and some wagons. There are also some native porter types which may have served in Madasahatta but I would have to check.

I have managed to extract the unpainted stuff and that will be the first of the collection for disposal.

Most of it is for the Germans - I have yet to take sort out the Belgians and French - with the British close behind. All have been organised as per the Rapid Fire rules (I have just ordered a copy of the ‘reloaded’ version for reference) and Eric very carefully organised the figures into sub units with a small piece of card telling what they are. There is usually a high level TOE accompanying the unit as well.

A German Coastal Division

A German Volksgrenadier Division

A German Fallschirmjager Division

A Germany Cavalry unit - described as an infantry division recce regiment

A Regiment of British Commandoes

A Brigade for the 14th Army - one battalion each of British, Indian and Chindits

A battery of British SPs

A battery of 3.7” AA guns plus crews

A ‘spare’ infantry battalion

A box of metal Recce vehicles - Dingoes and similar

A platoon of US Pershing Tanks

I have yet to tackle the French and Belgians as they also have unpainted figures attached to them.

Plenty to do then - not least of which is identifying the figures that Eric used - as usual they appear to be from a number of manufacturers….

The Evolution of a Trireme

A and B incorporated a couple of requested tweaks from me - one of which was inspired by that all round good guy, Kaptain Kobold (thanks old chap!) - but my instructions on certain ares were not particularly clear. The final model will incorporate the hull and oar section from A, with the oars reduced in size slightly, and the out riggers from the third model from the top along with the card ‘screens’ of the same length.

By way of a change I received in the post a couple of days ago two samples of triremes following the first version and which incorporated some minor changes. We are not quite there - due to my rather vague instructions - but the next one will be it. My design process is generally quite clumsy and vague and I am sure that Martin at Warbases must grown inwardly as he sets to work to translate my scribblings into something tangible. Between the two of us we eventually muddle through and I take my hat off to him for his patience!

The final adjustments concern the size of the oars - I have requested a reduction on each side of 5mm as the Kaptain Kobold inspired reduction of the angle of ‘sweep’ from 45 degrees to 60 meant that they stood further out from the hull than previously. I also moved the locating ‘slot’ for the oars forward toward the bow by 2mm so they more central. I reckon this will be it.

I have ordered a single example just to ensure that it is all good to go and once signed off the order will be for sixty ships in total. The rules are more of less complete and the only other thing I need to organise is a hexed cloth (2” across the flats), build a Greek temple and paint the models. Simple eh?

It is when you say or write it quickly!

 

Three Steps to Heaven….

Altogether now…”Now there, are three steps to heaven…” So sang Eddie Cochran (and Showaddywaddy back in 1975) but in this case it refers, literally, to the steps I have taken in respect of Eric’s WW2 collection. I have no idea why this particular song should have come to mind only that getting the car full of stuff into the man cave involved, yes, you have guessed it, three steps.

Step 1.

From the car to the ‘office’ - the desk at the top is my workstation for work or, as my boss whimsically describes it, where the magic happens….

Unfortunately the office was not big enough for everything so the stairs were pressed into service. It was all going up there anyway!

Step 2.

After what felt like having climbed the north face of the Eiger - a veiled reference to the umpteen number of times I went up and down the stairs - the entire collection sits proudly blocking the landing with an overspill into the bedroom on the right

Step 3.

Finally, everything is in the man cave. The table you see is full underneath as well whilst wooden trays of 1944 British and Americans round along the left.

Trust me, this looks a lot worse than it is as Eric tended to follow the Amazon style of packing for much of this collection. A myriad of boxes that are too large for the contents - yes, there is some minor damage to a few vehicles - and are in poor condition with crushed sides and all sorts. Just visible in the picture above are some of the nine cucumber boxes Eric had used - he also made extensive use of them for the 18th century collection - some of which have the date of 1994 stamped on the side…

I had a chance to take a slightly closer look at what there is as I was lugging it up into the man cave. Obviously I will have a better idea once I can spend some time with all but a provisional list looks something like this:

1940 French including Colonial types

1940 Belgians

1940 British

1944 British - Infantry and armour

1944 British Paratroops

1944 Polish Paratroops

1944 German SS - infantry and armour

1944 German Volksgrenadier

German Falschirmjager - not sure which end of the war yet!

German Infantry - again, not sure which end of the war yet!

German bridging unit

1944 German Coastal and Fortress troops

1944 British 14th Army

1944 US - infantry and armour

Russian heavy artillery

With all of these in addition to there is a ton of support and command, recce, AT, engineers, AA and artillery of every imaginable calibre. Everything is organised, as far as I can see, to brigade level and upwards for use with Rapid Fire. 

There seems to be a lot of Britannia figures and vehicles and whilst a big chunk is painted the amount of unpainted stuff is considerable. If you need five Pershing tanks let me know…

There is also a box of Ottoman Turkish artillery for the 17th century as well as a selection of traction style heavy artillery tractors.

Did I mention the German cavalry regiment plus support?

This is going to be a huge undertaking to sort out and also to see what, to be frank, is unlikely to find a home. There is a substantial quantity of Eric’s conversions - some of which work better than others - that as Bob Cordery pointed out, would be great in an imagination style environment.

The great sort out will start this weekend and the first order of business will be get the nationalities in their separate piles and also to replace some of the more damaged boxes.

By the way, there are three Matchbox/Revell Jagdpather kits still on their sprues but without decals.

This is going to be fun. A lot of work, but fun….

The Eagle has Landed

What the interior of twenty year old Honda Civic (luckily with five doors!) when full to the rafters with WW2 goodies looks like! For the record I could see out the rear view mirror over the 1944 British Armour….

And from the side - you can just about make out the box of unpainted figures on the front passenger seat!

As mentioned previously, yesterday evening saw me take the quick forty minute drive to visit Bill at Maison Knowles, deep in the Essex countryside, to relieve him of the WW2 collection of his father. The pictures above give you an idea of the size of the task and yes, the front passenger seat was occupied with a large box full of unpainted figures!

As I type this the collection is still in the car and so will be unpacked at lunchtime and transported into the man cave for a proper sort out. There were a few surprises - not least of which was a further box of Ottoman Turkish bits and pieces that were missed off from the original haul. 

This is going to be a significant undertaking and so I will be spending some time organising and re boxing a lot of it into something more manageable. There appears to be quite a lot of Corgi die cast vehicle, some items of terrain, some large calibre artillery and more rear echelon and support stuff than could shake a large stick at!

There are troops from either end of the war including French, Germans, Poles, Belgians, Russians, Americans and British (including the 14th army for Burma). Plenty to be getting on with then!