Norway for the Norwegians!

Following a large number of blogs, the temptation and urge to drift off onto other projects are a constant threat.  With an uptick in WWII-themed gaming of late, I could resist this temptation no longer.  While I have not pulled the long idle 15mm WWII project from mothballs just yet for a game, I was inspired to push some lead into the painting queue. 

The primary focus of my WWII project is early war in general and the 1940 Norwegian campaign specifically.  Looking back at my notes, it becomes quite clear that this collection has not seen action on the table in nearly ten years.  Ten years?  What possesses me to maintain a collection that is out of the box once per decade?  Well, my answer is that a steady stream of books on the 1940 Norway campaign continues to reach the market and I simply cannot help myself from picking them up.  With every book, I am re-energized to take one more look at moving the project onto the gaming table.   

Anyway, off the painting desk today are thirty Norwegian infantry including two machine guns and crew.  The figures are from the always excellent 15mm Peter Pig range.  Peter Pig Norwegians?  Those thumbing through the Peter Pig catalog will find no such range of figures.  What I used as Norwegian proxies are WWI Austrian infantry in greatcoat.  To my eye, at this scale, the WWI Austrian uniform looks very similar to the WWII Norwegian uniform.  Well, close enough for my use anyway.  The real purists will likely laugh at my substitution but, for me, these ersatz Norwegians work. 

Maybe I will resurrect my old Drive on Bjerkvik scenario and give it another game.  After ten years, I may have difficulty scrunching around for my game notes.  For that which is undocumented, I will fill in the gaps.