Early and Later Polish - Part 4

Feudal & Medieval Polish - Part 4

Baggage and wagon fortifications.

The later Polish DBMM army list allows for the army to take 24 Temporary Fortifications based on their historic use of unhitched wagons. Most 15 mm scale wagons are far too large to fit on a standard DBx type 40mm wide base and are often very wide too. When I was building my Medieval German list a few years ago I needed 12 TF wagon elements and used the Irregular 10mm scale Hussite Warwagon code TC50 which normally comes with horses and crew. The wagon also comes with a separate side piece to represent the protective sheets of wood hung from the side of the wagon.  

Here is the picture of the unpainted wagon taken from Irregulars website.

See http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/ for their 10mm range. You will notice the side board glued to the wagon which I didnt use for the TF. A quick email to Ian at Irregular got me an order of another 12 wagons with sideboards but no crew or horses which being 10mm scale are of no use to me. I put the side boards to one side in my spares bag for use later on.

Irregular Miniatures TC50 10 mm Scale Hussite Warwagons

The castings require very little cleaning up and once sorted out I hot glued them onto 40mm x 20mm MDF bases which I had already affixed magnetic sheeting underneath. Black undercoat to hide any bits I missed when painting then a very dark brown base coat, medium brown dry-brushed highlights and then finished off all the metal wheel rims in armour colour. Once it was all dry they were then black washed to emphasise the detail. The bases were then covered with Vallejo Earth Brown paste, edged in a brown contrast colour, clumps of static grass and spray varnished to finish. Very easy to do and whilst simply finished look ideal when placed next to 15mm scale figures.

Finished to use as 15 mm scale TF unhitched wagons

In Poland there is a company called QR Miniatures which I had not heard of until recently. See http://www.qrminiatures.pl/ for their website which also includes English wording. They do a nice range of Early and Later Polish figures including warwagons. Unfortunately the warwagons are sold in sets of two each of a different design. Here is the picture taken from QR Miniatures website of their finished warwagons. The wagons are not particularly expensive and since they are not in common use in the UK quite distinctive looking. I order other troops which are in the to be painted pile and will be blogged in due course.

The left wagon is the unhitched version which comes modelled sunk into some earch and the wheels are moulded with a solid look behind them. For me I like mobile warwagon models so decided that these would be ideal to use as Polish Baggage elements. The side boards are separate pieces but being that they are not assembled it allows you to pick and choose which boards you attach to the wagons. I decided that since these are going to be baggage wagons I would used the discarded Irregular 1 0 mm scale sideboards instead of the sideboards supplied. A quick clean up, glueing to magnetised NDF bases and the attached the spare sideboards and I ended up with a fair representation of protective wagons that would have been deployed on the outside of a encampment at night. They were painted in exactly the same style as the TF wagons but I then affixed some home produced waterslide transfers on the side boards to make them stand out. I have the later option to create some crews on sabot bases to go inside the wagons should I wish to do this or fill them with baggage bits and pieces.

QR Miniatures Code PTM12 Unhitched Polish Warwagons with Irregular Sideboards 

Here is another picture showing the finished baggage elements being protected by the Wagenberg fortifications.

I will be finishing the other warwagons later on as I have some other things to before they are completed.