Wednesday, January 28, 2026

15mm Swedes for the late TYW and the Deluge: More Mercenary Reiters

And here they are - the pictures of another finished unit of "Mercenary Reiters" this time consisting completely of cavalry from Warlord's Epic "Pike&Shotte" range:

As you can see, the operated eye is still causing me some problems – in this case, I overlooked some mould lines, which are then clearly visible when painted.

15mm Swedes for the late TYW and the Deluge: Mixing Epic with 15mm?

8:34:00 AM Utgaard No comments

I'm continuing to expand my Swedish forces for ‘By Fire and Sword’.

Having already completed the basis for a ‘Field Skirmish Force’ last year, I now need to expand it to a ‘Garrison Skirmish Force’ and later the corresponding ‘Task Forces’.

I still had a box of ‘Thirty Years War Cavalry’ from Warlord's Epic range, which a friend had given me years ago and which now came in very handy.

Fortunately, the figures in the Epic Pike&Shotte range are slightly larger than those in Warlord's other Epic ranges, as the following size comparisons with BFaS figures from Wargamer.pl show:

Wargamer-Dragoner - Warlord Reiter - Wargamer Reiter - Wargamer Command

It is clear to see that even within the original BFaS ranges there are significant differences in size. If you place cardboard strips under the bases of the Epic figures to even out the height, you can use them without any problems.

However, I would avoid mixing Epic and other figures within a unit, as this is quite noticeable because the Epic range is much more ‘delicate’.

And the same goes for the infantry ranges as well, especially as even 15mm ranges differ in height:

Epic - Wargamer.pl - Totentanz - Totentanz

Warlord Epic and Wargamer.pl 15mm go well together but are both significantly smaller than 15mm Totentanz Miniatures.

Trying to paint Oak Leaf Typ A camouflage on 15mm

11:20:00 AM Utgaard 2 comments

I tried my hand at an Oak Leaf Type A camouflage scheme on 15mm figures for the first time – a test run for one of my main projects in 2026.

The figures are from Battlefront, the jackets are painted as Oak Leaf Autumn, and one of the helmets as Oak Leaf Spring.

Conclusion for now: it's still too early for such details, I need to train my hand-eye coordination much more after the operation, but the result is at least acceptable.

I also need to choose stronger contrasts, at least for 15 mm.

Anyway, here are the pictures of the completed Panzerschreck team:

Painting: Civilians and animals for 15mm and 28mm

12:00:00 PM Utgaard No comments

In order to continue adapting to the new circumstances after my eye surgery, there is only one thing that really helps: practise, practise and practise some more.

As I still had a couple of civilians and animals on my to-do list.
Since these mostly serve to decorate the gaming table and therefore tend to remain in the background, they seemed to me to be the most suitable objects for practice.

I tested different colours and techniques, focusing primarily on training my spatial vision – let's see what ultimately proves to be the best long-term solution for me.

Fleeing 15mm civilians with a really big dog to guard them!

A shepherd whose dog is currently grooming itself 😎

15mm cattle

Pigs and piglets for 28mm - the piglets can be used as pigs for 15mm too!

My shepherd at work.

Terrain: Making templates for my 15mm buildings out of scratch

11:42:00 AM Utgaard 4 comments

This is my first post of the new year, so I would like to wish all my readers a happy, prosperous and, above all, healthy new year!

When I moved to Bavaria and switched from 28mm to 15mm (and 10mm), I wanted to keep my buildings playable, as I was used to with my 28mm buildings before.

However, this quickly proved to be very impractical at a scale of 15mm and smaller, as they are simply too small and awkward to handle, especially when my preferred multi-bases come into play.

So I created templates of the floor plans and storeys, used wooden strips to represent the walls, and voilà, you can now easily place and move figures in buildings and immediately see which figures are positioned where – without having to constantly remove roofs and storeys.

A small and quick craft project that didn't strain my eyes and marked my start to the new year in terms of my hobby.

Terrain: Some more Fields and Grasslands

11:46:00 AM Utgaard No comments

Over the last couple of days I added some more pieces to my growing terrain collection; nothing spectacular, just a few wheat fields and grasslands.

A 28mm AWI figure on the left with 15mm in support - works for both sizes.

Terrain: Testing new versions for a terrain mat

8:21:00 AM Utgaard 4 comments

Even though my last terrain mat turned out well, it still has a few disadvantages for me:

The acrylic-sand mixture on fleece is flexible in terms of adapting to the ground, but the mat can only be stored and transported when rolled up.

Combined with its size of 2.40 m x 1.40 m, this naturally makes it quite bulky in terms of transport and storage.

In short, I am testing other versions/solutions, and here is my next mat - for testing purposes in a size of 1,80m x 1,20m.

The base is a 5 mm thick fleece used in pond construction. I brushed this fleece with a hairbrush from the pet accessories section and then treated it with various acrylic paints, designing both sides of the mat.

One side represents more fertile areas, while the other side can represent arid regions or even desert.

Side One for the fertile regions:

The other side - arid and desert regions:

This mat also turned out quite well, but after I had painted the fleece, it became quite stiff once the paints had dried and like it's predecessor can also only be stored/transported rolled up only.

The next version is therefore already in the works 😎

Self-made weathering powder

10:37:00 AM Utgaard No comments

Just a quick update Today.

Since I run out of weathering powder while weathering the last houses (The first try to paint after my eye surgery - some more 15mm Mediterranean buildings completed), I made some new mixtures using different pastel chalks creating my own mixtures for weathering roofs, walls, dust on vehicles moss, rust and so on.

It´s quick, fun, the colors are exactly how I want them and it´s also much cheaper than buying the ready-made stuff.

Chain of Command v2 BatRep: Flank Attack

11:10:00 AM Utgaard No comments

Max and me continue to play through the scenarios of CoC v2 bit by bit. On Saturday, scenario 5 was on the agenda: ‘Flank Attack’.

As usual, we played it twice, so each of us acted as attacker and defender once.

To cut a long story short: the defender won both games, but both were very exciting and hard-fought, and the decision was very close – my platoon from the HG Division even managed to capture the farm (one of the two possible objectives), but was then unable to hold it due to increasing losses.

The games grabbed our attention to such an extent that we only took a few photos – so today there are only a few snippets to see 😎

The battlefield – a small farm in Sicily, surrounded by fields and orchards. The attacker's goal is to secure the strategically important crossroads or the farm for the main force to advance.

2 sections of my HG panzer grenadiers were able to mount such a concentrated fire from their LMGs ...

... that the LMG section of Max US Armoured broke.

US Armoured advance in cover of an orchard using Marching Fire ...

... while at the same time an M20 Scout Car try tied to soften up the HG defenders with the HMG. But suddenly the Germans brought a 5 cm PaK into position ...

... which forced them to retreat.

In the end, I managed to bring his Force Morale down to the point where I could start the Final Countdown without Max being able to secure either of the two Objectives at that point – and with only 4 phases remaining and dwindling Command Dice, there was nothing he could do to change that.

Pictures from our second game, in which I attacked with my armoured infantry from the HG Division:

Both the US Armoured and my Panzergrenadiers attempt to secure the farm, and both sides suffer heavy losses in the process.

With all hands on deck and firing from all barrels, the Germans advance, but ultimately fail due to fierce resistance from the US Armoured and are forced to abandon their attack.

The much bigger problem was that Max had managed to draw me into this fight, into which I had gradually thrown all my resources.

This enabled me to storm the farm, but I was then unable to hold it in the long run due to his concentrated fire, especially as my force morale gradually collapsed.

The first try to paint after my eye surgery - some more 15mm Mediterranean buildings completed

6:55:00 AM Utgaard 4 comments

Since my eye surgery back at the beginning of August I wasn´t able to paint or build anything for a long time and I will struggle to paint miniatures for much more weeks to come as I still largely lack three-dimensional vision.

This means I cannot properly judge the distance between the tip of the brush and the surface, amongst other things. That´s why painting details becomes a real challenge for me.

Novertheless I could complete my mediterranean buildings for my "Gela 1943" project, but these can (and will) be used for the complete mediterranean area of course.

Painting the individual roof tiles was extremly time-consuming with the current handicap, but also a good practice for adapting to the new circumstances.

After all but I´m pretty happy with the result 😊

Eye surgery – hence a forced break from blogging for the time being

10:41:00 AM Utgaard 3 comments

As I had to undergo surgery on my left eye last Tuesday due to a detached retina, I will not be able to paint any new models or update my blog for at least the next 2-3 weeks.

I hope that I will be able to continue working on my projects after that, and then there will be updates here on my Blog again.

Terrain - Building an Oasis

4:47:00 PM Utgaard 2 comments

My next project - a model an oasis for our wargames set in North Africa and the Levant including a water basin, water channels and of course showing it´s agricultural use:

Overview of my Oasis.

I was not aiming for 100% accuracy of detail, for example in terms of the plants depicted.
On the one hand, terrain for wargames has to be reasonably robust, which means that many techniques from diorama modelling cannot be implemented, and on the other hand, the scale itself sets its limits when it comes to realising it in the model.
The main thing for me was the modelling of the different levels/storeys into which the cultivation of the different types of fruit and vegetables in an oasis are divided.

Schematic illustration of the layers of an oasis

The inhabitants of the oasis developed a three-layer farming system: The tall date palms sheltered shorter trees, and below these trees grew even smaller shrubs and plants.

Date palms are widespread and there were grapevines, pomegranate, and fig trees. Also found here are annuals, including lentils and cereals but also simple grasses, which are needed as fodder for the cattle (mostly goats).

And before I get to the photos of the terrain pieces I built, one more note:
I am aware that the use of wooden buckets for drawing water in oases was the exception rather than the rule and that bags made of goatskin were used in the majority of cases.

In my example, the bucket simply arrived at the oasis with a caravan and was exchanged for dates etc. - which is quite plausible if you look at the following drawing of an oasis near Suez from the 19th century: