The Great War in Greyscale - 'The Old Contemptibles' 1914 British Infantry

The popular perception of the British army during the Great War is that of the conscripted, citizen-soldier; the resigned amateur-warrior who doggedly did his duty for King and Country. While this is largely true of the British war experience from 1915 to 1918 it is definitely not the case during the first year of the war.

Dismounted French Dragoons of the 18e Regiment

I was going to post some of my first 1914 Brits in greyscale but I really couldn't face any more monochrome this week so I'm going to run with these lads instead - all in their Napoleonic technicolour glory.

This batch of dismounted dragoons have been patiently sitting on my workbench, mostly done, for nearly a year now. They came as part of one of the Perry plastic boxed sets. I have quite a few of these in the parts bin and thought I should get some more fielded so to be better able to play Peninsular skirmish games. 

Pulp Adventures - Heroes in Greyscale

As a counterpoint to the cultists of a few weeks ago, here are some doughty heroes ready to do battle against the forces of the remorseless Dark Gods. 

This trio is from Artizan Designs' excellent 'Thrilling Tales' range of figures.

28mm Kingdom of Spain Infantryman, 1808 - 3rd Regiment of Volunteers ('Seville')

Okay, I know I'm not exactly lighting the world on fire with this post but hey, it is what it is. 

Earlier this summer I visited Phil's great blog Diary of an Infrequent Wargamer and found that Capitan Miniatures has this great painting competition where they will send out a sample figure you paint it and email back a picture of the finished product.  'Cool, I'm in!' says I, and about a week later an envelope duly arrives from Spain containing a 28mm infantryman awaiting some paint. 

The Great War in Greyscale - Belgian 'Minerva' Armoured Car

The Belgian army of 1914 was quite ill-prepared for a general European war. Its army was relatively small, indifferently equipped and not well-respected even by its own population. To further compound this general malais the Belgian armed forces had no defined set of war plans to provide a strategic focus in any prospective war. Granted much of this can be explained by the unique political position Belgium held at this time. As being a guaranteed neutral power it had to contend with the possibility that any of its neighbours could be a potential hostile force. (Indeed, some of France's pre-war planning seriously entertained the idea of violating Belgian neutrality in order to deny the Germans that avenue of approach.) So instead of having several plans to meet a variety of contingencies Belgium simply chose to have none.