"The Petite Race for Africa" Pregame Photos MOAB 2019

So in preparation for the upcoming convention game at MOAB in Sydney Australia, I did some "glamour shots" of the miniatures and some of the terrain we'd be using. This was purely to grab people's attention as a sort of teaser and an attempt to convince players to sign up and register. I assume it worked because we had a full compliment of 8 players sign up for each of the two days.
Sadly the majority of these miniatures were NOT painted by me, but by Sven, the friend who puts on these events with me. Sven is a great painter and has the ability to churn out figures like there is no tomorrow in large healthy batches. We both have our strengths, but I could never compete with Sven's painting output and to the quality he achieves. He is available for commission painting and can be reached at here.
Most of the figures are from the Wargames Foundry Darkest Africa range while others are from the Northstar Africa and Copplestone Castings ranges. All great sculpts either way.
The last image is the short spiel that sets the background to the game which players received as part of their game information on the day.

More New Stuff for Indostan

Here are a couple more things for our Indostan game this weekend.

First up is a scratchbuilt palanquin. This thing has bothered me for quite some time, about 4 years actually, and I have already had a shot at building one here, but never completed it, due to its clumsy look. I finally bit the bullet and forgot about being able to fit an actual miniature inside and went with a fully enclosed model instead.

"Sorry gentlemen, I must leave you. My ride is here."

The palanquin is made simply from a foamboard base with thin cardboard sheeting. The supporting "pipe" is made from an ear bud tube, that goes directly through the whole piece. I was able to get the slightly curved roof shape (although it is a little hard to see it) by packing a few extra strips of card down the center of the roof.

The new improved Palanquin 2000

Whenever I set about to build anything my plan usually demands the piece to be versatile, hence I have made the bearers removable. This has two benefits. Firstly the palanquin can also represent a "parked" vehicle and secondly the bearers can be utilised for other projects (I see them carrying a tiger fresh from the hunt between them one day). The bearers, by the way, are Foundry Indian Mutiny figures. The poles are simply toothpicks that have their pointy bits inserted into the palanquin "pipe".

The second piece is a Front Rank ammunition cart. This is a nice model I scored years ago (a pair actually) from a car-boot sale, but like a lot of things has sat unpainted in a box. I'm a big fan of Front Rank and their vehicles are no exception. The cart comes with both a wicker and wooden cover, and includes traces for hitching the draft animals. BIG yoked horses were included in the buy, but of course for Indostan, one must simply demand oxen. They should probably have been painted for use by either the British or the French, in blue or red, respectively, but you know how versatile I like to be.

The wicker...

the wooden...

...and the oxen

More Royal Navy Sailors

With our first game of Sharp Practice in a LONG time drawing near, I have painted up some more Foundry pirates to fill the role of more Jolly Jack Tars (an interesting link on that term). They now number around 20 in total, including the totally inappropriate (but lovely) Napoleonic lot, all together making two nice Groups for Sharp Practice. Sailors' fighting prowess is treated with some seriousness in Sharp Practice, the rowdy lot being quite dangerous in close quarters. The following is taken from the rules :-

Matelots will use a wide variety of weaponry, pistols, muskets, cutlasses, marlin spikes, axes and boarding pikes. These will be vicious and nasty in fisticuffs and will scare the living daylights out of any sane landsman. In fisticuffs sailors so armed will get an enhanced number of dice, fighting with three dice for every two men (rounding up where required) before any other adjustments are made in the Fisticuffs section. If they win the enemy’s reaction will be one level worse. For example “Defeated by 2” becomes “Defeated by 3”.

They were all painted with "house paints" and Army Painter. (Click the images to enlarge)

The new "Jolly Jack Tars".

The group shot.

Foundry Sikh Nobles

Some of these have been seen before, but I thought I'd finally throw these all up together. As the post title reads these are Sikhs from Foundry's India range. I believe the dogs are actually "Blink Dogs" from an old AD&D range. (Click the image to enlarge)

More Foundry Gladiators

Here are some of my latest additions to the arena - all from Foundry. (Click the images to enlarge)

A barbarian Dimachaerus.

A Myrmillo with a face mask.

Another Myrmillo.

A dwarf Retiarius.

A dark skinned Thracian.

Royal Navy Sailors and Captain

While planning the start of our Indostan campaign, Dave and myself decided that the first scenario will involve some Pirates and the Royal Navy. We already have a handful of sailors and a stack of pirates that belonged to our late mate Rotary. Unfortunately he never really got a chance to game with them himself, so hopefully he can have a chuckle looking down on our little games.

To even out the Royal Navy I painted up some Foundry pirates, that Dave had bought for the very purpose, in royal blue and white. Although during the period there was probably no uniform to speak of, it gives the figures the impression of belonging to a crew. The other sailors are from the Foundry Napoleonic boarding crew, are so out of the time frame completely, but are such nice figures.

The Captain is a ring-in, one of the better figures from the Old Glory European Captains pack. Again there are many typical Old Glory shockers in there that suffer from contortionist like poses, broken swords and pigeon chests, but they are fairly priced at $20 US and can be used for many different purposes.

They were all painted with "house paints" and Army Painter. (Click the images to enlarge)

The Captain and some of his crew.

All aboard a little tender.

Some Foundry Gladiators

Here is a small collection of some of my old Foundry gladiators, painted many years ago when our group first got into gladiatorial combat. Some of them have had new bases attached and sand applied.  I've used a touch of Army Painter here and there to refresh my pretty ordinary paint job. The minis have been used off and on for years and have lately seen a revival with my latest renewed interest in arena combat.
In the day, Foundry was the only range with some decent gladiators, but since then Crusader have come out with a very nice set. The Crusader range, in my opinion, tend to be more historically accurate, having done a reasonable amount of research on the subject. I have a large pile of them at the top of the lead mountain. (Click the images to enlarge)

Dimachaerus

Myrmillo

Myrmillo

Myrmillo

Secutor and Retiarius

Secutor

Thracian

Put silk on a goat and it is still a goat.

What a wise Indostani proverb and so true. I have already spent way too much time (and money) on these hairy Foundry goats, which will basically act as counters for the following random event in Sharp Practice. (Click the images to enlarge)

Damn and Blast! Scared by the firing some local livestock have escaped, moving 2D6” away from the group each turn in a random direction. They will disrupt any Formation that they contact, leaving it unformed. They will halt once 9” or more from any humans.

When not disrupting the soldiery they will of course make for some nice scenic diversions to all the musket smoke and dust. As goats go they are probably not the best selection for an Indian setting, but a goat is a goat, to me at least. I have a couple from Magister Militum that are the short coat and floppy ear type, but the hairy ones will more than suffice. Next up are a couple of hat counters for the lost hat random event - I kid you not (get it? Kid you).

Hairy goat counters.

Peak hour - Indostani style.

Noble Indostani Cavalry

After the recent poll on whether to use a flash when photographing miniatures returned a fairly mixed response I have decided to return to photo taking without the flash. Most people said they would use it on occasion when necessary, but those who voted no, outweighed those that said yes. I am happy with the advice.

Below are some recent paints of what I am dubbing, Noble Indostani Cavalry. They are actually Foundry Mounted Sikh Nobles, but are close enough. They were actually pretty good to paint and with a good part of them being chain, relatively easy. They do require a bit of planning with their coloring, but should allow me to go even more garish in the future. The rightmost guy has parts of his plate painted green, which makes for a nice change to the all metal look. I have about 20 or so more of these guys to do, half of whom have lances. They are painted with Army Painter and the pics were taken without a flash. (Click the images to enlarge)

To flash or not to flash ...

While trying out some techniques with my camera today I took some photos with the flash on. Now I have always heard that this is a no-no when photographing miniatures, but these pics have got me re-thinking that. Is the flash picture that bad? Maybe for serious miniature painters who care to show their fine brush work, but for a simple wargamer like myself, I actually think the brighter colors are refreshing. I'd love to hear what you all think on the poll to the left - flash or no flash and why? (Click the images to enlarge)

With flash.

Without flash.

Mounted Indian Tribesmen Completed

Here are the horsemen from yesterday's post, Dullcoted, based and flocked. I always find it is hard to judge how well you have done painting until the miniatures are based - it makes such a difference. I only have two variants of horses and riders, so they do get a bit repetitious. (Click the images to enlarge)

From in front.

Showing their slung shields.

A low close up - they do look pretty intimidating.

WIP - Mounted Indian Tribesmen

After a long hiatus from painting and with the arrival of some cooler weather, I have managed to make a good start on some Foundry Mounted Indian Tribesmen. Dave was kind enough to give me a good head start with these by giving each of the gee-gees a base coat of their appropriate color. I do find painting horses a little tedious. Thanks Big D!

The forces of Indostan are seriously lacking in cavalry and these will go a little towards correcting the issue. I have two units of mounted armored Sikhs and another three units of mounted tribesmen to get done. That's a lot of horse flesh. Dave? Dave, are you there?

Below are a couple of images of the first lot. I have just applied the Army Painter Strong Tone dip. I always apply it with a brush and have never done it by dip. The scrooge in me couldn't stand to see the wasted dip after all that furious flicking! I find that I can move the dip around where it should be quite easily with a brush. It does tend to pool a lot in the creases in the clothing and on white, this can look a little too much. After it has settled I simply brush over it again to remove excess. Enough will eventually pool again to look right.

It really looks a mess at this stage after application and I always think to myself, I've just #$*!ed these miniatures. But I now swear by this stuff. Without Army Painter most of my painting would look very basic. When they are finished I will show the finished product and hopefully you'll agree. (Click the images to enlarge)

Shiny, shiny from the Army Painter.

I can see these running from the British volleys already.

Help a Lady!

A special post for Valentine's Day on the fairer sex. The Sharp Practice rules include many instances where ladies can turn up and will obviously require rescuing. I have already shown you Front Rank's fine example of an 18th Century lady here, but having scoured the Net she was one of very few appropriate figures. However I did find and purchase some from Outpost Wargame. The lady is from their Highwaymen range, with a figure both standing and mounted (that doesn't sound quite right - he he). I was a little skeptical about these originally, but after having them painted up for me, I think they came up very well. I opted to add no additional base because the figure comes with a substantial base anyway, just a tad smaller than the washers I use. Adding the washer may have turned them into true Amazons, and as they stand now are a nice mix with our other figures. I bought two standing and one mounted (he, he) ladies. (Click the images to enlarge)

An Outpost Wargame's "Pink Lady" with a Front Rank companion.

An Outpost Wargame's "Blue Lady" with an Old Glory companion.

Outpost Wargame's horses on the other hand are not for me. Although it looks OK in the picture the figure is poorly cast and just looks wrong. Thankfully Front Rank came to the rescue with a beautiful horse that suited the seated (that sounds better) lady well.

An Outpost Wargame's standing and mounted (he he) "Pink Lady" on a Front Rank horse.

I think you'll agree the horse and lady look well together. For completeness I have included an image of the original Outpost Wargame horse along side the Foundry one. The surplus horse will become a dead horse figure or  dog food/glue pot counter.

Front Rank horse (left) and Outpost Wargame horse (right)

Lastly I have tried looking for some parasol bearers for all these pale European types, sweltering under the Indostan sun and have failed miserably. If anyone knows of a good umbrella bearer, please point it out in the comments below. In the meantime I have scratch-built a parasol myself.

Scratch-built parasol and Foundry bearer.

The parasol is made from a tiny washer and greenstuff, with a sleeve and brass rod attached. It was very simple to do and will be easy enough to replicate. The bearer figure is from Foundry's Indian Mutiny range and required a simple bend to position it's arm. Happy Valentine's Day!