More Recovery Capers

The last lot of post Covid recovery capers has now been superseded by yet another another bout of health-related recovery consisting of mini-painting therapy (lots and lots of therapy!) after a Pacemaker implant. The whole thing was out-of-the-blue but after some unpleasantness and now no longer bed-ridden things are definitely looking up and generally speaking, much improved as evidenced by the amount of figures etc, I've managed to churn out over the past few months and weeks.  Well anyway - I was surprised as I literally had no idea. Anyway enough of this waffle and on with the show! 

The Imperial Indian cavalry officer is the last figure/conversion I did after painting my last commission job (Napoleonic Saxon Chevau Leger in the previous post). It finally gave me two units of Indian cavalry that fit in with colonial British forces from the 1880s right up until after WW1. I think the rest are Northstar (Artizan?) with Woodbine heads. The body was an early Japanese or Nationalist Chinese officer in flat cap so the head swap with some delicate Dremel carving kinda works. 

The next lot are courtesy of my mate Peter who gave me a ton of his extra lead some of which I've subsequently painted up for another pal. These are WW1 Turkish officers and a squad for Palestine (Artizan or Great War sold by Northstar?) The guy in the green with the Astrakhan cap could be a senior officer Kemal Ataturk or the like. The next lot (also Peter's 'extras') are Arab & Bedouin irregulars, soon to be reinforced by some superb Paul Hicks sculpted Arabs from Lon Weiss' redoubtable Brigade Games. Not so sure they were all as colourful as this lot but you know what? Don't care!!! They can be Abdul Bulbul Amir's 'Pride' squad!

The next I completed are my for intended Franco Prussian War (FPW) skirmish game project and follow on for the FPW Bavarians and Jaeger I posted previously. I decided that although I have a huge collection based three to a 60 x 25 for large scale battles (as once demoed at Cancon and posted years ago on this blog!) that I'm unlikely to put on any such large games again so will concentrate on smaller 1-150 figures per side larger-scale skirmish games. This requires individual basing but rather than re-base my entire collection I'll probably sell part off, re-base some and do the rest on single bases for the new Perry's plastics. Another innovation are the round casualty counters that I originally bought from the clever folk at Warbases UK for my Napoleonics but I've just finished for FPW games. Each counter can represent up to twelve casualties and look a damn sight better than the usual dice or markers. You can really do them up - a dead'un and a bit of flocking and you're good to go. Although probably more suited for the larger bases/big games I like the look of them so haven't decided whether to keep or sell them yet.

Also new were my Perry plastic Prussians! They are beautifully sculpted and show that Perry set the benchmark for extrusion molded hard plastic figures. They're part of the single based figures for skirmish games.  The idea is about 4-6 infantry, 1-2 cavalry and 1-2 guns per side. So far have two Prussian and four French units re-based as singles so just awaiting the release of Perry's FPW box of French. The flag is my own created with my CorelDraw graphics and my industrial-strength HP Laserjet colour printer. Woohoo! A decent printer at last!

 

Amongst the other figures I'm planning on selling are my old Foundry Württembergers and I have over 50 figures in seventeen stands (of 3 figures each) with three commands (and six unpainted with another command) plastered in markets all over the internet. I've also made sure to have the correct standard for the main command stand. It was done on my old inkjet printer so not quite the quality of the Prussian flag above but all matt varnished and guaranteed not to fade or fall off! Pedants may notice a slight 'frosting' on the finish of the Prussian flag. This sometimes happens when otherwise excellent Vallejo matt spray varnish contacts laserjet toner. It's a pain but easily remedied with a brush-on coat of Micro Flat Clear Finish for Models varnish from Microscale. 

I'm wanting $200 AU for them but will negotiate and split into smaller unit(s). They are the first of a number of Foundry FPW figures (the old 25mm?) I'm selling and a rarity  as they are no longer made and as I understand it the FPW range were amongst the first the Perrys sculpted when they worked for Foundry. You too can own a piece of wargaming history! ;-) 

The other project I've recently kicked off are my Back of Beyond armies for the terrific Setting The East Ablaze (ver 2) rules.  The first are the White Russians (in Chinese service) mercenaries. The beauty of these are that you can play them from early war Europe (1914) to the Back of Beyond scenarios in the Central Asia and the Far East until the 1920s. So far I've managed two units of infantry (Siberian Rifles), one of cavalry (Siberian Uhlans in flat caps) a Maxim HMG and an 18pdr Field Gun supports but my favourites are the Copplestone(?) Russian officers including the bemedalled General Fatsiev Bombatsky. His bloated eminence is a terrific pulp figure perfect for a White Russian mercenary commander! 

The Lewis gunner and bandaged head figure are conversions. The figure to the right of them is a Mongolian scout
(or Chinese bandit - take your pick!)

The White Russian mercenary force so far - with ACs

I've really enjoyed painting all of them. I've given the force a couple of Lancia Armoured Cars for good measure. Next on the list are Chinese Nationalist regulars, cavalry and a horde of warlord irregulars and bandits, followed by another horde of Buddhist Mongolian cavalry (a la Von Sternberg!) It promises to be a lot of fun when I finally get them all finished.

Russian Siberian Uhlans (converted figures of unknown make)

10th Siberian Rifles - Copplestone figures

Glad I've managed another post this year with everything that's been going on. My generous mate Doug is taking me out to my first wargame in months this weekend as frustratingly (but understandably) I'm not allowed to drive for a while. We're gaming 2nd Gaza (WWI in Palestine) and my Brits will have to advance across a mile of open ground against entrenched Turks. Yikes!  Really looking forward to it nonetheless.

That's it from Doc's 'Art of War' for now.

Doc Smith

Bring out yer dead... Napoleonic casualty figure fun (not)

 This 'retirement' lark is a bit different from expected.  Rather than more blogging time as you'd reasonably expect, on average its less - heaps less - as there seems to be long periods when I don't have a hope of getting to the blog.  I try and make up for it with similar intense periods of figure painting - although they too tend to be infrequent.  Still, shouldn't grumble as I pull a pension and get to sit on my arse painting and blogging, blogging and painting - on occasion - which is better than many can boast I'd imagine.

The painting list is a very long one and I've actually leapfrogged between one period and another - all over the place - as my fancy takes me.  It tends to be dictated by available time and things I am actually enthused about, rather than others I ought to do.  In this regard as lately I've been getting into Napoleonics again after a long absence, I have started with re-organising my armies on a Black Powder basis which means much bigger units. I've utilizing some of the non-standard figures that I've obtained recently or had hanging around for ages looking for a home and making up the dozens of casualty markers you need for a good old bloody BP stoush!  I've been helped here by using some of the new Perry's casualty figures from their rapidly expanding Nap figure lines.  I've also combined them with some old Foundry figures I've acquired.  Breaking with convention, I've used them to construct a few stands of figures as well as casualty markers.  Not unhappy with the results!

French infantry advance into a hail of lead!

The nearest two are Perry's, the two between them and the command stand are old Foundry. I love the Perry officer-being-hit figure.

I like the range of new Perry casualty figures, particularly the one of the grenadier carrying his unconscious comrade.  There is another with the the figure seated on the ground holding his musket in one hand and (wounded) leg in the other which is also a nice figure but the photo of him didn't turn out unfortunately. Actually having some problems with the photos I edit in Microsoft - they flip around the wrong orientation or distort sometimes - but only notice after you post on Blogger. Stupid bloody thing - never had the issue when doing them in CorelDraw - or Photoshop.

Unlucky Pierre and mate leaving the battlefield - makes a great marker!

The boys from the back - nicely designed figure - I remember the old Airfix box of Froggies had one just like it too!

I also did a range of others, particularly the Austrians which come in a range of interesting poses including the unique running man.  I feel the Perry's are giving the poor old Austrians some stick here as just about everyone did quite a bit of running away at some point (and some, like the Neapolitan's didn't do much else!) so I reckon they'll now have to do the same pose for each of their other Napoleonic armies. 

One Austrian running man

Two running Austrians!

Above, two Foundry versions

I am rapidly getting fed up with Blogger at the moment because it is screwing around with my images and making it a very long job to post them so I might just cut this post short and try again later.  I still have plenty to post on my Victrix Austrian Landwehr but I may try and short out the photo posting issues first.  Frankly anything that is more complicated than it need be or should be I just couldn't be bothered with - including @#%ing Blogger!!!

Empire French cavalry (again) and some dead horses!

As followers of this blog will know, I have somewhat of a fascination with French cavalry of both the first and second Empires (considering the number of posts, that maybe a bit of an understatement!)  Found some photos I'd taken of my Franco-Prussian War French cavalry that I'd forgotten about.  These and more (the cuirassiers I posted about earlier this year) are now ready for our big FPW demo game at the next Cancon gaming convention in 2013.  Just finished off the last two battalions of line infantry (and one of Algerians) and now with my wargaming scenario partner Doug, we should have enough figures to stage pretty much a full corps scale action (Froschwiller - see also some of my earlier posts on our test games).

French Dragoons - from the marvelous Foundry FPW range with a particularly wonderful officer figure - very hard to get!

The famous Chasseurs D'Afrique - arguably the most effective French cavalry of the war.  These figures have the taller shako-style parade cap worn at the start of the conflict - which they soon swapped for the soft kepi on campaign. Note the Spahi Algerian native cavalry behind them - they were the most effective French cavalry in the second  or Republican phase of the war.

French Guard Lancers in mantle with command in full uniform (the officer in the white 'parade' jacket) - again, some of the simpler but nicest of the Foundry figures in the range.

One of the things that came up with our test games was the number of casualties suffered by many of the units engaged and how to record these with markers during the game - we ran out of figure markers constantly and had no cavalry markers at all.  To help solve that little problem I found a really good use for my old plastic 20mm and some old broken Minifigs horses.

One Russian hussar, an Austrian kuirassier and uhlan (lancer) - alles kaput!

The French version -  a Carabinier, lancer and cuirassier - hors d'combat!

 and some dead 'orses!

Revell, Airfix, Italeri (plastics 1/72nd) & Minifigs

A dead cuirassier horse - being French they'll probably use the breastplate to cook a bit of him up after the battle!

 Carabinier detail

 Uhlan (Austrian)

Cuirassier (Airfix)

I was loath to use good 28mm horses as casualty markers - too expensive and fiddly to alter - then I found the old plastics when selling my 20mm collection. I know they are 1st Empire Napoleonics but  they actually fit in and look better on the table than other markers.  I've  mounted the horses (excuse the pun) on two overlapping card bases, the idea being that one casualty marker can represent up to four casualties per unit.  I've used exactly the same method on the casualty figures for the French and Prussian infantry. You can never have enough casualty figure markers in large Black Powder games!

Cheers,

           Doc

Bring out yer dead... again

Likely my final post for a bit as I get into uni work - an effort long overdue!   Just tidying a few things up figure-wise as I clear the study 'decks' of painting impedimenta & finishing off most of my casualty markers.  They are all infantry as making cavalry ones at 28mm is just too much mucking about - I have a few ideas mind - but it involves using some of the French cav horses i.e. for every marker, one less mounted figure so some careful consideration is required.  What I did think of though was using the old Airfix dead horses - I have plenty of 20mm casualty markers including a number I made up for cav. 

The above are a Russian hussar, Austrian uhlan and cuirassier, follwed by a French one & two horses, one French cuirassier, one Austrian.  I have another half dozen or so in 'production' which should provide enough for an average game.

I realise that they are a tad on the small size BUT they are about the same as 28mm infantry markers and as they are meant to be symbolic after all, shouldn't look too out of place.  Damn sight easier to make up as well!

The above are the 28mm markers - most converted casualty figures from the two Perry's French cav sets or from their metal casualty set.  My favourite is the Legere carabinier figure with bearskin courtesy of the dragoons (both on the back with outstretched arm are converted British fusilier figures).  The others are a mix of Foundry and ? - mostly earlier French.  I enjoy making little vignettes for many of them - the bits and bobs you get with most plastic sets providing plenty of accessories for the battlefield!

As always, any comments are most welcome and click on the pics to see the enlarged version.

Cheers,
   Doc