Book Review - "With the Help of God and a Few Marines" by Brig Gen Albertus W Catlin, USMC[Ret]

Earlier in May I acquired three new WWI books for my collection. I finished the first of these over the weekend; "With the Help of God and a Few Marines" by Brig Gen Albertus W Catlin, USMC [Ret]. This particular book focus, as most WWI Marine books do, on the fighting at Belleau Wood.


This is quite an interesting read, Catlin was the colonel of the 6th Marine Regiment and was wounded during the battle (fairly early) by a sniper. There are some very nice small maps in the book that help place the action and where the initial American defensive lines were, something missing from some of the other books about this action. While most books about Belleau Wood are decidedly pro-Marine, Catlin ups the ante quite a bit when writing about his and his men's experiences in the battle. Speaking for much as WWI being a grand adventure. He makes the action at Belleau Wood almost seem like a walk in the park from the Marine point of view with the Germans constantly on the run and unwilling to fight the Marines in hand to hand combat. He is very disdainful of the Germans in his writing. Nor does he speak about the army regiment that went into relieve the Marines (although granted it was very brief, the Army units were torn up by the German opponents quite quickly). He does speak about heavy Marine casualties but its almost in passing, definitely a "good way to die" attitude. He does make excellent use of letters that were written home by Marines in the 6th Regiment although again many of these speak of it as a grand adventure with all the hardships being handled very matter of factly. I think the book "His Time in Hell; A Texas Marine in France" by Warren Jackson (probably written in the 20s) helps offset this perspective quite a bit.


While the bulk of the book does focus on Belleau Wood the last third does cover the other actions that the Marines were involved in so it does give a nice overall perspective of Marine participation in WWI.


That being said this is a good book and I think it has held up well considering it was written 98 years ago. It is a good companion volume to go with "The United States Army Second Division Northwest of Chateau Theirry in World War I" (1927) by John Thomason. While the publication date for Thomason's work is much later it was originally written write after the war at the request of the Army. Which the Army then refused to publish because of the emphasis on the US Marines that made up the 4th Brigade in the 2nd Division.

Library Additions - Expanding my WWI collection

I admit that my interest in WWI is fairly narrow. While I have a number of very good overall WWI books long term blog followers know that I'm definitely focused on the USMC and its contributions to the war effort. I stumbled across a sale this week and managed to snare three almost new books to add to my collection. Two have been on my list for a while but the third had managed to escape my attention for some reason.

The one I'm really looking forward to starting is: "With the Help of God and a Few Marines" by Brig Gen Albertus W Catlin, USMC[Ret]. This memoir was written by Gen Catlin in 1919 while the repercussions of the war were still spreading. Catlin was the Colonel of the 6th Marine Regiment and was wounded through the right lung during the fight. This should be an interesting read since it was written so soon after the battle for Belleau Wood.

Next up is: "Miracle at Belleau Wood, The Birth of the Modern US Marine Corps" by Alan Axelrod. This one has been on my list for a while now and I can finally cross it off. This is supposed to be a really good account of the battle and it will be interesting to compare it back to Catlin's work on the subject.

Interestingly enough the picture on the cover features an Army gun crew manning a 37mm gun during the short period that the 7th Infantry Regiment relieved the Marines for 5 days during the action.

The last one, and one that was pointed out to me on TMP, is "Through the Wheat, The US Marines in WWI" by Brig Gen Edwin H. Summers, USMC [Ret] and Col Joseph H. Alexander, USMC [Ret]. While I think there will still be a focus on Belleau Wood this one appears to encompass most of the actions that the USMC participated in during their time in France, Belleau Wood, Soissons and Mont Blanc are all mentioned on the jacket.

Looks like I will have some reading material for the next couple of weeks at least!.

Trenchworx - French WWI FT-17 - Finished

I'm content with the way the mud dried overnight. I probably should have done it in two parts the first coat with a darker, wetter looking mud and the second with the lighter, drying mud. I see some things that I will probably go back and fix, but these are for the gaming table and they should look really nice on the game table supporting my Marines.

My picture fu is weak today though:

Trenchworx - French WWI FT-17 - Pt 5

I was able to get back to the FT-17s tonight. They are basically finished at this point. But it takes time for the mud and weathering mixtures to drive. There are pictures below, but I'm actually not quite sure how the mud color will look until after they have dried completely. They should be dry by morning and I'll be able to finish them off tomorrow. I dried to add some mud texture with just the pigments that didn't work as well as I had hoped. So I made up a mud concoction using Golden regular gel (dries matte) and mixing pigments into it for the color. I think they are going to look pretty good, but ultimately they are just for the tabletop anyway and will definitely look good there.

My stash of weathering brushes.

Pigments from Secret Weapons Mud Set that I purchased a number of years ago. Pigments go a long way.

After rummaging through my MiG pigments I decided on Vietnam Earth as my third value.

Its hard to see but I heaped pigment into the treads and other places and then applied a wash of paint thinner to hold it into place. This method fixes the pigment in place but it can still be rubbed off unlike using a fixer which seals everything into place very effectively. The down side, well Paint Thinner, work in a well ventilated area!

Here we are after adding the mud mixture made from the gel medium and pigment colors. It needs to dry before I can really determine what the final color is going to look like

Trenchworx - WWI French FT-17 - Pt 3

Three straight evenings with the FT-17s. Tonight I went in and added the black borders between the camo colors. I think it went well, I tried to keep a loose hand on the brush and not be particularly picky about the control. I think I achieved a nice jagged, and inconsistent look. Very pleased with it. I then painted the tracks with a darker older looking rust color as a base color I hit the muffler with it too. I like the color so far I think its going to be a nice base for the upcoming rust work. I then went in with a gloss coat. I need to dig through and find some decals to use, nothing to fancy though.

I need to let the gloss coat dry overnight and I'll continue on with the first steps in the weathering process. Well after I get the decals on or maybe not, there are plenty of examples of WWI tanks without any kind of markings.

All the basic paint is in place now.

Bright and shiny now!

A big bonus for today, not one but two packages in the mail. The first was a bag of doors and windows from the Tichy Train Group in S Scale. Looking forward to dressing up Calamity with these! The second package was from Noble Knight Games and it contained the Weird War II US Battlesuit from West Wind that I ordered. I hoped to get this one done in time for spot in the Weird War II painting group on Lead Adventure. A quick look at this casting shows that I definitely have my work cut out for me though. Its going to take some serious file work.

Trenchworx - WWI French FT-17 - Pt 1

I know this seems odd but I started another project tonight. Now there really is a method to the madness here, I have received some new paints to try out. Based on who is going to produce them I decided that I really needed a vehicle to try them out on. Since I haven't done any WWI miniatures for a while the FT-17 from Trenchworx seemed like a good choice.

So tonight I cleaned, assembled and primed the three FT-17 I received from the Trenchworx kickstarter almost exactly a year ago.

I accidentally deleted a few of the pictures I wanted to show you but here is pretty much where things started and ended this evening.

Here are all the parts cleaned up and ready to be assembled. The tracks are just dry fitted to the body at this point. These were supplied with rare earth magnets to help hold the turrets on and make the guns interchangeable. I opted not to do this.

Here they are fully assembled. I see at least 4 different colors of resin being used in the production at this point. I really can't tell the difference between any of the different colors.

Here they are all primed and ready for paint. I used the Badger Stynylrez Grey Primer. This is a water based acrylic polyurethane surface primer. The more I use it the better I like it. I do apply it with my airbrush and I haven't had to thin it during the process.

Close up of one of the three vehicles. I'm hoping to get these done relatively quickly.

These are beautiful models. They maybe a little expensive but I think they are well worth the price.

Review - The Weathering Special; WWI

My interest in WWI has been growing and after completing the Trenchworx Rolls Royce Armored Car I have been looking at taking another swing at my WWI troops. With three Trenchworx FTs on the workbench I decided that I needed a little more research material. Yes, I have plenty but can another "how to" book really hurt? One of my friends directed me
to a special edition of the weathering magazine specific to WWI.

This is a product of Ammo of Mig Jimenez. And yes that is the same Mig Jimenez that started both MiG and AK Interactive. Ammo sells essentially the same products as the other two companies the difference being they have MJ now! Whatever his failngs may be as a business man his modelling and painting skills are fantastic.

The Weathering Magazine is a regular publication and this is their first special issue. The issue starts off with a brief history if the development of the tank and the approaches taken by each of the major combatants. I found this both useful and informative. Definitely take the time to read it. The bulk of the issue focuses on the builds of a French FT, a French St. Chamond and a Britsh Mk IV in German service. Each build features a plenty of step by step pictures and text and explores a variety of techniques. I enjoyed all three builds and I'm itching to get back to the work bench and start work on my FTs. My only really criticism is that the pictures tend to be a bit on the small side and some if the descriptions could have been more detailed.

I would recommend this issue to any tank modeller. The techniques are appropriate to any period. The issue also comes with a small pamphlet titled "The Great War; The First Tanks 1914-1918". This is a camouflage guide featuring the vehicles in British, French and German service. It includes color swatches as well. It is a handy little guide to have on the workbench.

And yes, I realize the pictures are side ways. But I wrote this entire post from my phone. I'll correct them when I have computer access again.

Trenchworx WWI Rolls-Royce Armored Car - Finished!

I'm calling this one done. Here is one Bulletproof Ghost all finished. Trenchworx did a bang up job on this kit. I highly recommend it.