Baltic Independence Wars: German Freikorps and Landeswehr

A few years back, our local gaming shop franchise went through a reorganization that caused them to clear out their shared warehouse. They were offering non-GW plastics at steep discounts and I was able to obtain a box of Wargames Atlantic Great War Germans for only $5 US. I wasn't sure what I'd do with them at that time (my existing Great War collection was for East Africa), but I couldn't resist the deal and added the figures to the pile. Fast forward to 2024 and I decided I'd combine them with the Empress Miniatures Freikorps figures I'd been admiring to create a skirmish force for the Baltic Independence Wars 1918-1920.

Now I was no expert on this force and their uniforms and equipment; my knowledge didn't extend too far beyond the relevant Osprey Publishing titles. However, I did my best to paint something that will pass casual inspection. My reading indicated there was a fair amount of variation in the feldgrau and steingrau uniform fabrics due to material shortages and varying quality of fabric dyes, so I intentionally incorporated that into my painting to help differentiate the various squads.

Command Group: I really liked the character of the Copplestone German Mercenaries from their Back of Beyond range, so opted to use them as my command.  I painted one as a Freikorps commander and the other as a Landeswehr commander.  They were joined by an Empress medic and an artillery observer from Great War Miniatures' artillery crew pack.

Freikorps Infantry Squads: These were predominately created from Wargames Atlantic plastics, with a few metal Empress figures thrown in. The WA figures were sculpted in a heroic 28mm format with very bulky bodybuilder style arms that often stuck out at strange angles (other hobbyists have commented on this previously). This was particularly noticeable with the MG08/15 arms. As such, there was a significant style difference with the Empress figures, which were slighter and sculpted with thinner proportions. While a bit obvious at table level (at least to me), I think they blended in well enough when observed from above.

Freikorps Pionieren Squad:  Again, these were WA figures with the exception of the Empress flamethrower team. I added the skulls and crossbones to the helmets to help flag that they were an elite squad.

Freikorps Stosstruppen Squad: WA figures with a single Empress grenadier figure. The MG08/15 was removed from the squad and more Bergmann MP18s added for close assaults.

MG08 Team: Another set from Empress. I really had difficulty getting the machine gun handles to fit properly in the gunner's hands and overall found the gun fiddley to assemble. As a result, the gunners feet didn't set properly on the ground, so I did my best to hide it with rocks and grass.  

FK96 Field Gun: This artillery piece and its crew were from Great War Miniatures. The crew pack came with 6 figures, but as Wikipedia says it used a 5-man crew, I used the extra figure as the observer with my command group. There were no assembly instructions provided with the gun, but I was able to eventually figure things out with reference photos.   

Baltic Landeswehr Infantry:  This unit was created from Empress miniatures.  To help differentiate them from the Freikorps units, I used the Vallejo German Uniform color to give their feldgrau a bit more of a blueish hue. I also painted the Baltic blue and white pipping onto their shoulders; the pattern wasn't as fine as I hoped, but was the best I was able to create.

Baltic Landeswehr Cavalry: Great War Miniatures. I didn't find a good reference for the uniform these miniatures were wearing, so I did my best to make them look reasonable.

And here is a close up of the figures to allow a size comparison (L-R): Wargames Atlantic, Empress, Copplestone. The WA figures were the bulkiest, but didn't stand out too badly when compared to Copplestone. The Empress figures were definitely in a style of their own. I think they would likley fit in more with the Great War figures, but I didn't have a standing GW figure for the comparison shot. One interesting bit was that while the rifles were similar in size across WA and Empress, the WA MP18s were much smaller when compared to the other manufacturers.

With that, this half of the project was finished and I was was happy with the results.  In the future, I'll be working on a joint Latvian/Estonian force that will either oppose my Freikorps when I need to supply both armies for a game, or can be combined with them if I find an opponent with a Bolshevik force.