15mm WWI Casualties and Accessories

I'm in the process of running a 15mm WWI campaign at the local club, and now that I have about a platoon's worth of infantry for the French and Germans complete, I'm focusing on adding some more special pieces. The rules I'm using are TFL's "Through the Mud and the Blood", and each player has a particular big man who is his own unique character, with a bunch of detail elaborated beyond the base rules. 

When ordinary soldiers are killed or wounded, the game doesn't track them any further. But when a big man is hit, he might soldier on in a reduced capacity, be gravely wounded and have to be extricated from the fight, or be killed outright. When a character is gravely wounded, the cry goes out for stretcher bearers, and these poor gentlemen have to make their way forward under fire and try to reach the injured man. 

These are Peter Pig's 15mm WWI German stretcher bearers. Each team consists of 3 pieces, the two bearers and the separate stretcher. The pack contains two such teams, as well as two extra stretchers. They don't offer a French set, but I'm thinking I can replace the German heads with French ones and just fudge the rest in the painting. In 15mm it should look alright. But we'll see. 

Who are they trying to reach? Casualties of course. Here is a set of Peter Pig's WWI German casualty markers. There are three different pieces in a pack of 8.

This isn't quite enough to represent the average failed attack (or successful one, come to think of it) which tends to look a lot worse, but it's a start.

Of course, any WWI project is going to need a healthy (or rather an intensely unhealthy) amount of barbed wire, so I've begun work on my wire sections. I've got about 4 feet so far, and this is the prototype I'm working from.

The base is made from sheet styrene cut into 4" x 2" pieces. To that I glue cut down stumps of toothpicks for the posts. Then I paint white glue over the base and cover it in a generous amount of sand. I also glue a few pebbles around the base to represent larger stones. Then the base is undercoated a dark brown and drybrushed with a few lighter shades. The posts are painted a light khaki color and then given a thick dark brown wash.

The wire itself is from Gale Force 9. At first it is bright silver and very new looking, so I soak it for a few days in a plastic container full of vinegar and salt. That rusts it up perfectly.

I'll probably add more wire to each piece to give it a more tangled look, but for right now I'm focusing on churning these out. From the profile it looks a little more gnarly.

Wire or no wire, the attack must go forward.