For Sale - Figures

 After clearing out some books I decided to take a look at some of the armies I have not used for some time. 

First of these is my late medieval "Army of the Archbishopric of Hoegaarden" actually a mix of late 100yw figures from Perry and Citadel (ex Bretonnian Halberd and Spear) with few Front Rank figs added. These were professionally painted and the level of detail in them, especially the command figures is quite high. There are 208 pieces (cav and guns as 2pcs). 

I'm asking £475 for this army inc Uk postage.

The second set of armies which I am selling in my ACW collection. I have not used these for a good while. But there are two decent sized forces here -

There are; 

168 pc confederate army

124 inf, 12 cav, 2 guns and 4 crew ea, 4 casualties and 2 mtd command

169pc union army

121 inf, 12 cav, 14 dismounted cav, w/8horse and horse holders, 2 guns and 4 crew, 4 casualties, 2mtd commanders

Total of 337pc 

Plus Confederate ambulance and union prisoners vignettes 17pcs

Grant total 350pcs @ £2 per pc = £700 inc Uk Postage. More pics available. 

ACW STUFF NOW SOLD

Sikh Wars - Follow up

 Thanks for the kind comments regarding my last post.

I tested positive for covid on Sunday but between sweats, sniffs, coughs and splutters I have managed to do a little bit of painting and basing.

First up were some old glory Sikh's. Not as nice as the Foundry figures, nor the Studio miniatures range, but the same height as the former and so able to fit in and flesh out my my army. I painted these almost exclusively with citadel contrast paints, (trousers and metalwork were normal acrylics). I think they've come out pretty nicely. 

OG Sikhs, with Foundry Officer

I also managed to do some baggage camels. These are Empress Miniatures and very nice indeed. They too were given the contrast paint treatment - aggaros dunes as the base, with iraqi sand from Vallejo to lighten them up. Baggage was a mix of contrasts and acrylics. This give me 8 elements of baggage in total for my NWF/Indian armies. I think I will add a buffalo cart and bheesties which will make it a fair size and appropriate for the location - trains were often as large or larger than the armies they accompanied and in several cases were not large enough even then to provide the food and fodder required. For this reason they are an essential feature of armies in these areas. 

Whist raking around for more bits to add, I came across a signed copy of Donald Featherstone's book - The First Sikh War - on evil bay, so that got snapped up. He responsible for me taking up wargaming as his book "Wargames" was in my local library as a kid. I've never looked back.  It's nice to have this connection.

I have started to paint some of the Empress/Iron Duke sepoys. This will give me a further unit in shakos and also a unit of deserters....or mutineers. Sepoy uniform didn't change at all from the 30's to the Mutiny and that means I have a ready made army to start cover the first outbreaks and battles around Delhi. For the British units in shell jacket and cap from Sikh war ranges are fine, but even that semi formal uniform quickly gave way to improvised affairs. The Mutiny seems another period crying out to be gamed using TMWWBK - so I will!

Size Comparison - LtoR - Perry Afghan, OG Sikh, Empress Sepoy, Foundry Sikh, Empress Nz War 

(Although the foundry figure is smallest, his base is very thin and with a shim underneath there is next to no difference between OG, Foundry and Empress) 

Sikh Wars Game

 An off the cuff colonial game at the Club last night as it was the first for a few weeks due to holidays. This gave me a chance to get my Sikh Wars figures out, although annoyingly I left the Akali at home!  I also got to put my rather nice village and hill fort on the table too which blended in very well with the mat and bases. 

We doubled up the sides, using two 24pt "brigades" each with their own commander per side. The Sikhs deployed first, occupying the fort and village and stretching across the table following the road.  A small number of Sikh regulars and guns were backed by tribal infantry and cavalry. The British were a fairly balanced force of European and Sepoy infantry and cavalry with a couple of guns. 

The game was fairly balanced, and at the mid point it could have gone either way, but with the failure of two units on the British right to activate the Sikhs were able to gain the upper hand and despite heavy casualties approaching 50%, were able to get a win.  A nice fun game! (Edit - The buildings are by the Colonial Steamboat Company and were an Xmas gift from my wife)

I think TMWWBK is a decent rule set, we missed the blunders and bonuses from Rebels and Patriots so may add them for future games. We also allow pinned units to retire a full move but retaining their pin instead of remaining in place - unless a unit is surrounded it does allow them to pull back this way and stay in the game. Finally we think artillery is just a little bit powerful and next time we'll reduce the dice from 4/8 to 3/6. 

Looking forward - To the 16th and 19th Century!

First up, I'm having a problem. Something has changed in blogger, or in safari or in some settings somewhere and now I can't post on many peoples blogs. It might be at my end or it might be at theirs or it might be both but I am stumped, having fichered and fiddled with my settings I can't get it fixed. So apologies to anyone whom I've popped round to read and not left a comment to, (Aly, Chris, Graham and others). 

I said in my last post I would have a bit more head space and clearly I do. I have two projects on the go at the moment, the first is building up forces for the Marian Civil War and Gordon-Forbes Feud in North East Scotland in the latter half of the 16thC. On this I have three things to report. 

The first is the purchase, as a bit of light background reading and to support an excellent bookshop, of Rizzio, by Denise Mina . This short novella deals with the murder of Mary Queen of Scot's secretary David Rizzio. It is fast, brutal and atmospheric and reads like a screenplay for a cop thriller....as it should coming from an accomplished crime writer. I read it in a night.

The second is the following of the Renaissance armies posts on Matakishi's Tea House and his use of Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames for battles with landsknechts, conquistadors, elizabethans and lately border reivers. Currently my figures are based singly and used on movement trays for this period, but I was impressed with Matakishi's posts as he built each of his armies up and his use of roster sheets to track casualties for what are a very simple but very effective set of rules. Following his example I have decided to rebase my16thC figures using his model.

On that topic I bought some of the rather nice Peculiar Companions resin figures, specifically the Demi Lancers. These arrived earlier this week and are very well sculpted, cleanly printed and very well proportioned. Although they are marketed as a replacement for GW Empire types they lack the fantasy styles, skulls and other embellishments so are perfect for 16thC figures. Other figures in the range are useful as landsknecht halberdiers, reiters and fully armoured men at arms. Their landsknecht foot with arquebus are nice too, but the guns seem a bit large. Mine were printed and supplied by Sundered Studios

The second project is a fictional 19th century campaign based on a Russian invasion of Scotland in the early 1830's.  I have tried a simple conversion of using Warlord Crimean War plastic bodies and Warlord 1809 Russian Shako covered heads to represent the Russian infantry and it seems to be a close match to the pre helmet, but post napoleonic Russian uniform illustrated in the various Viskovatov prints. Graham H is working on British, specially some 72nd Duke of Albany's Own Highlanders, converting Perry Carlist war figs to highland bonnets. 

The cap pouch should be shaved off, and as the model is not wearing his pack the vertical straps are not present, but the shako is the correct height.

72nd Highlanders

As background to the Russian army I bought a copy of John Sheldon Curtiss's book The Russian Army Under Nicholas I - 1825-1855 which covers the Polish, Persian and Turkish wars as well as the Hungarian uprising and the Crimean war. Not a cheap buy at £50 but it's interesting nonetheless.

Last but not least the sharp eyed will notice I have added a new page to the blog. As my original posts for the Sugar Islands and Against Spain books were many months ago I thought this was a better way of keeping them to the fore.