A Platoon of Poles

Buck

A squad of Polish soldiers, 1939

The theme for Fall In 2016 in November is Poland.  I have always enjoyed the early WWII campaigns, including Poland.  I have quite a few 20mm / 1:72 scale figures, but I have been slowly duplicating my 20mm WWII collection with 28mm figures, which I like better.  I signed up to run a very large 10mm Look, Sarge, No Charts: World War II game, the battle of Lvov in Poland in 1939, and two 28mm skirmish games with Combat Patrol ™.  Since I didn’t have 28mm Polish, I needed to get a platoon painted up quickly.

A closer view of the Polish squad

To assemble a platoon of Poles to run my Combat Patrol ™ games at Fall In, immediately upon returning from Historicon in July, I ordered a platoon of Poles in 28mm from Warlord.  It took several weeks to file, prime, base, and paint these 60 figures, but I finished them this weekend.

Polish Anti-Tank Rifle Team in the Platoon HQ

I block painted the figures and then dipped them in the lighter brown shade from Army Painter.  This is the first time I tried to completely dip figures with Army Painter rather than brushing it on the figures.  I am pleased with the effect.  I don’t see myself using this technique on 18th century figures, where I will want the brighter colors, but I am pleased with the speed and effect on WWII figures.

Company Mortar that I may attach to my Polish platoon for special missions

Polish squads could be quite large, as large as 18 men, including two leaders and a  version of the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) produced under license in Poland.  My squads are a little smaller than that, at 16 figures.

Polish 75mm field gun

Warlord, one of the few — perhaps the only — manufacturers of 28mm Polish infantry, also makes a 75mm gun and a 37mm gun.  I didn’t quite get the color right on the guns, but they are passable.  Neither gun would be organic to a platoon, or even a company, but again, they will mike nice attached support weapons for specific scenarios.

Polish 37mm anti-tank gun

The platoon HQ

The platoon HQ should be five men, including the two-man anti-tank rifle team.  The machine-gun would not be organic to the platoon, but might be assigned by from battalion or company for specific missions.

There is nothing like committing to run games at a convention, when you don’t have all the figures to run the games, to provide the necessary impetus to get painting done.  I am very satisfied with the platoon and will be quite happy to field them on a gaming table soon.

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Author: hawksgameclub

7 thoughts on “A Platoon of Poles

  1. A platoon of precisely painted Poles perfectly pictured in a purposeful panorama!
    (They turned out looking great, too!)

    1. I can see why; it really gives them a nice depth and contrast. I may have to break down and get some eventually as well.

  2. These look great Buck – would be awesome with some Polish tankettes ( and are pretty darn cool as they are)! Not familiar with the dip – how does that work? Btw 60 figures? You certainly cranked them out!

  3. Well, it took a couple weeks to paint 60 figures. When I am assembly-lining a bunch of figures, I try to paint one color a day. Before you know it, the figures are done.

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