A busy week of Wargames goodies

It's been a very busy week of goodies for the Wargames table and bookshelf.

A couple of eBay purchases turned up. Some lovely Crann Tara British in campaign dress which will be prefect for Cuba or elsewhere.

Some of the British, (and dog).

Then another eBay purchase, this time 19thC. Highlanders for the Crimea. I'd always wanted to have Crimean War figures and this project is turning into a labour of love. I can't wait for Great War to restock so I can get my mitts on some Rifle Brigade. Then I need to flesh out the Russians with some skirmishers and add the Cossack artillery I'm painting.

A trip to Ballater on Saturday meant a visit to Deeside books. And I seldom if ever leave without something under my arm. This time it was Hellion's book on the battle of Sheriffmuir - "Crucible of the Jacobite '15" by Jonathan Oates, half price no less. Check them out online do...they have an excellent history section and also some rarities.

I did some painting too, making a start on the rowers for my landing boats for Havana and Manila as I now have oars supplied by Graham H's printer. I plan on mounting the oarsmen on small plastic "seats" made of square plasticard tube. This will allow a stand of troops to fit alongside them in the boat. For a mock up I have used some 6mm dice, which are roughly the size needed, and it seems to work out well. The book is moving along and I'm am ready to start drafting the first scenarios.



Lastly I must mention another book I received this weekend. I'm not really a modern history fan nor do I know much about the modern "troubles" in Northern Ireland other than what I remember from tv as a kid. However I had the good fortune to work with the author a few years ago and a very fine chap he is indeed. The book in question is "A Winter in Belfast" by David Ellis. It is his diary of a tour spent there during 76-77 whilst he was in the Parachute Regiment. It is very clearly written and both forthright and frank and I'm finding it  an excellent read.

19th Century - Guns & Greens

My Crimean War game of a few weeks ago was good fun, but the British lacked some guns and could have done with deploying a screen of skirmishers. With North Star and others being out of stock of Great War Crimean stuff I decided to repurpose some spare artillery crew from the Foundry Sikh wars figures which I bought from Graham C. The only difference between them and their later Crimean War colleagues is the addition of a peak to their forage cap it would seem, so they were swiftly painted out of their white summer campaign trousers and back into blue. For guns I borrowed two British Napoleonic models which were not stuck to the base of my 1815 army.  The result below I am quite happy with and I'm sure they will see service soon.

Crimean Gunner

The British Guns

On a different note I received a photo of some new 1859 Austrian Jäger which Pirans Warriors are soon to be releasing.

At present there is only a single jäger figure on offer so I have been holding off as I'd prefer a mix of poses on a base of skirmishers. I think these new figures are perfect and Terry tells me that more cavalry will be available soon too so I'm looking forward to be able to put a small all arms Austrian force on the table soon as another foe for my 2nd Empire French and a friends 1864 Danes. If one isn't too fussy...and I won't be... they would do for earlier or later fights in Italy, Hungary or against Prussia. Uniforms were different and more Napoleonic looking for the former two, and hidden beneath a greatcoat for the latter. Come time I may well look to expand the Emperors armies into these periods, but for now, these chaps will do.