British Navy and Egyptian Infantry

The last of my Imperial "troops" have now been completed.  They were two Naval Brigade Gatling guns and crews, three Naval officers, six sailors, and a platoon of regular Egyptian infantry.

The two Gatling guns are each manned with a crew of four gunners (one petty officer and three ratings each) and have a senior petty officer as the "battery commander."  The guns, senior petty officer (blue coat), and two ratings (brown leggings) are Ral Partha figures; the two petty officers in charge of each gun are Miniature Figurines (in yellow straw hats); and the other four ratings were cast by The London Warroom.

 The naval officers and ratings are a mix of manufacturers.  The officer in the center is the Parroom Station "Captain Jack Cole" figure.  The smaller officer on the front right is a Miniature Figurines. I cannot recall the manufacturer of the officer of the front left (unfortunately as he is a nice figure).  All six ratings are old London Warroom castings.

 

The Parroom Station officer will be my senior Royal Navy commander along the Green Nile.  I've decided to name him Captain Daniel Harrington.  He will be a distant ancestor of Admiral of the Fleet Steadholder and Duchess Honor Harrington. He is a nice figure with a stern gaze and is holding a cigar.

Finally, the Egyptian ground forces received their last troop unit, a platoon of regular infantry in the "older" white uniform.

As usual, my can click on each picture to get a larger image.

With the Imperial forces completed, I can now begin on the native forces.  This will be a larger contingent, consisting of a mounted leader, two 20-figure infantry units, three 12-figure cavalry units, and one 12-figure camel unit.  It will probably take me two months to complete them.  I'll posting pictures as they are finished.

Egyptian Cavalry

I am beginning preparations for my 3rd Annual George Carr, Sr. Memorial Colonial Game at the HMGS-Gulf South Convention in New Orleans in June.  The scenario will involve a small Egyptian garrison along the Green Nile branch of the Nile River that is under attack by a large group of former Madhists, Beja, and desert Arabs, all led by the Agandar of Karres, a successor of the Khalifa. [NOTE:  Who can guess from where I obtained the name of the Arab commander? I'll give the answer later this month after I have completed the Egyptian infantry and British naval figures upon which I am currently painting.]

The first figure is my overall Egyptian commander, Major Sariati Pasha.  He will be in command of the Egyptian garrison at the old British base at Wadi Zoum-Zoum (see Wadi Zoum-Zoum).  He is named for an actual officer whom I met while stationed in Germany and was engaged in military planning with a non-NATO North African country.  I hope he won't mind me borrowing his name.

The first unit of the Egyptian mounted column that will be used in the relief of Wadi Zoum-Zoum is a troop of the Egyptian Cavalry Regiment.  These 12 stalwarts are armed with lances, swords, and carbines.

They have also been trained to fight dismounted.

They will be joined by two other mounted units which were painted last year for my Assault on Fort Khalaam game.  This time they will play the roles of a troop of mercenary Baluchi cavalry and a troop of Bashi-Bazouk cavalry.

All of these figures are Ral Partha Victorian Colonials, which are still available from Great Endeavours.

I'm working on a platoon of Egyptian infantry for part of the Wadi Zoum-Zoum garrison and will be posting pictures of them later.

The Year 2009 in Review

I painted 652 points of figures during 2009, with every foot figure or gun counting as 1 point and every mounted figure counting as two points.  Of those points, 63% were Victorian Colonial in keeping with our group's theme of Colonial Adventuring and 37% were 18th Century.

Victorian Colonial

24 Imperial cavalry and 18 dismounts
26 Imperial gunners and 2 guns
3 Imperial mounted officers

180 native infantry
36 native cavalry and 12 native camelry
16 native gunners and 1 gun
5 native mounted and 4 foot leaders
1 Russian advisor

1 pack mule
1 Cigar Store wooden Indian

18th Century

92 infantry
24 cavalry
3 mounted officers
3 foot officers (used as additions to already painted units)
30 Eastern Woodland Indians
31 assorted rangers, frontiersmen, and light infantry
21 foot and 1 mounted special characters (lords, ladies, hangers-on, peasants, etc.)
1 coach with 4 horses and 2 outriders

In addition to all those figures, I designed and built the Victorian era Fort at Khalaam and a number of hills for my big Colonial game at the HMGS Gulf-South convention, Bayou Wars, June 2009.

I also assembled and painted Der Alte Kirche with graveyard walls and graves and the Eisenmuhlen cannon foundry for two "Big Battalion" games this past fall.  In addition to the 8 sections of gabions I painted for the Fort Khalaam game, I painted 12 other wall sections during the year.

Although I didn't accomplish all my goals for 2009, I did make a big dent in the pile of unpainted lead.  Of course I added to that pile and now probably have the same amount in it.  Oh, well, there is always this new year, when I'll be painting more Victorian Colonial, French & Indian War, and 18th Century figures and my Russian and Japanese pre-dreadnought fleets.

Walls, etc.

At MilleniumCon in November of 2008, I bought a batch of various types of walls - stone, timbered, and wicker gabions.  The only problem is that I can't recollect if they were made by Ed of Two Hour Wargames or Al of Askari Miniatures.  :^(  I'm hoping that one of them will add a comment to this posting and tell us how we can obtain them.

Added Comment:  As Ed said in his comment to this post, these products are available from Acheson Creations.  Looks like he has a large number of very interesting terrain pieces and various forts and buildings.

The first piece is a 2.5" segment of four wicker gabions.

They are pictured with an Old Glory Eastern Woodland Indian.

The second type is a 3" timbered wall that is constructed with log walls and packed with earth.

A Foundry British light infantryman is firing from behind it.

There are also two types of 2.5" stone walls, one with several upright wooden posts at one end.

 

Here shown with a Conquest Colonial Ranger firing at the enemy.

And the other is just a slightly tumbled down stone wall.

Shown here with a Redoubt Colonial Ranger.

I've already used the wicker gabions in my Assault of Fort Khalaam Victorian colonial game last summer and the gabions and the timbered walls in the 18th Century Action at Eisenmuhlen game from this past fall.

These pieces are cast with some sort of pearl gray plastic or resin that feels very slick.  Even after washing them in warm, soapy water,  I had to spray them with Krylon Fusion paint for plastic before my brush-on primer would stick to the entire surface.  But that was just a small bump in the road to getting them painted and not a reason to avoid them.

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Bland

The last figure completed in December 2009 (and in fact the last in 2009) is Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Bland, commander of the 1st King's Dragoon Guards.  Bland is a Dixon dragoon officer who will (eventually) lead three squadrons of the 1st KDG, although all that I have on-hand now is a single squadron, still unpainted.

Bland is a real person, the nephew and heir of Lieutenant General Humphrey Bland, colonel of the 1st KDG.  Although I don't think Thomas Bland was ever in the 1st KDG, he will be for my imagi-nation purposes.

He is painted as close to the uniform of the 1st KDG that I could get.  the only thing that I wasn't able to paint was the red and blue rolled blanket roll on the rear of the saddle and the blue line in the center of the gold trim on the saddle cloth and holsters.

He will also initially command my Brittanian forces as they battle the Gallians and Imperialists both in Europa and in and around the Capitania General de la Florida in the southeast of the Brittanian colonies in the New World.

Rangers, Frontiersmen, and Iroqouis Warriors

Joining Major Rogers (see yesterday's post) are the rest of his American Colonial Rangers (Set A from Conquest Miniatures).  Like Rogers and all the rest of the Conquest figures I've just painted, these were very easy to paint.

Along with Rogers and the Rangers, his command will also consist of six frontiersmen (Set A from Conquest).  These intrepid adventurers will mesh well with the rangers.

And finally, we have six stout Iroquois warriors (Set B, Conquest) to round out Rogers command. They are all armed with muskets and either a tomahawk, a round headed club, or a spiked wooden combat stick. Eventually I'll add another six Indian warriors so that Roberts command will have 12 whites and 12 Indians.

I'll soon be posting a picture of the interim Britannian commander of this band of diverse figures, which includes the light infantry, rangers, and colonial grenadiers from an earlier post.  I say he is an interim commander because he is a Dixon British dragoon officer.  He will eventually be replaced by a more universal looking command figure, part of a group of Old Glory figures I received for Christmas.

These will be the last 18th Century figures I'll be painting for a while.  Next I will start on some more late 19th Century Victorian Colonial figures - Egyptian infantry and cavalry, British naval brigade, and Arab opponents - for my annual Colonial game at the Gulf South convention, Bayou Wars, in June.

More December Painting

I've had this figure sitting on my painting desk, partially painted, for well over a year.  Even though I would see him every time I sat down, I just couldn't seem to get the urge to finish him.  But over the past month I've painted about 30 American Eastern Woodland Indians and suddenly it seemed to be the right time, even though "Chief Joe" is for my Wild West gaming.

Chief Joe was one of the free figures provided to Old Glory Army members during the 2007-2008 period, I believe, as part of the line of Western figures.  According to the write up provided with him, Chief Joe has seen a whole batch of American history, from President Lincoln's assassination through Bill Hickok's murder and the raid on Northfield, Minnesota, to the "Shoot Out at the OK Corral" in Tombstone.

Now Chief Joe will grace the streets of our mostly nameless Western towns in our Wild West games here in Jackson, Mississippi. 




This figure was actually painted back in June prior to the Bayou Wars convention in New Orleans.  But since I had him out as a guide while I painted the rest of his rangers, I thought that I would take this "more formal" picture.

His other eleven compatriots, all from Conquest Miniatures, are not quite complete.  Their picture will grace this blog before the end of the year.





This is the first post I've done using the new editor.  Although it will take me some time to get used to all the "gimmicks" and can say that I like it so far.