The Rosetta Stone (1799)

First, Happy New Year everyone!

This year's Painting Challenge focuses on libraries, and so I wanted to make sure I made my first entry about reading, specifically the words and symbols that we use to communicate out thoughts and ideas. 

Here is a small vignette depicting a group of Napoleonic soldiers and French academic savants examining the Rosetta Stone (perhaps only a few hours before it became a  British trophy). 

The Rosetta Stone was discovered by the French in 1799 during their ill-fated Egyptian campaign near the town of Rashid ('Rosetta') in the Nile Delta. 

As many know, the Rosetta Stone's importance stems from it providing the linguistic links between Egyptian and Greek, and three writing systems, hieroglyphics, demotic script (a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphics), and the Greek alphabet. The Stone provided a definitive key to translating Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.

The Rosetta Stone was later taken by the British as a war trophy, part of the Capitulation of Alexandria in 1801, resulting from their victory over the French in 1800. The Stone has been part of the British Museum's collection ever since, and is in fact their most viewed object. The Egyptian government has made requests for the Stone to be repatriated, but there has been little movement on this matter. With an increasing number of cultural objects being returned to their traditional owners, it will be interesting to see what the future holds for the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles and other priceless objects held in foreign repositories. 

I got the Rosetta Stone as a STL file from MyminiFactory. It's very cool in the sense that the file is from a scan of the original artefact. I simply reduced it down to scale to fit with 28mm figures. The assorted minis shown here are a conceit, coming from a previous Challenge years ago (and so will not be scored), but I thought it might be a bit of fun to have a scene depicting French scholars madly taking some sketches before the heathen British arrive to despoil their discovery.

- Curt

al-Docherty and al-Millsy's Flying(!) Camel Artillery - for 'Docherty's Dock' and Entry #9 for AHPCX

Mu'tamid al-Millsy steps back and grimaces in expectation of the coming catastrophe.' I don't know brother, this seems to be a very bad idea...'

'I think it's brilliant.' Dawood al-Docherty reaches forward with his lit linstock. 'If the thrice-damned French can have flying horse artillery then why can't we have the same, but with camels?!'

'Yes, I understand, but I'm just concerned about the 'flying' part...'

________________________

These figures were from a Westfalia Miniatures Kickstarter for Napoleonic Persians, way back when they were still doing Napoleonics (sniffs in pained remembrance). Wonderful Paul Hicks sculpts. They were an absolute pleasure to work on and I hope they get a smile from Dave and Millsy. Thanks Dave for the location challenge, it was great fun!

Entry #4 to the 8th Lead Painters' League: 'Francois, forget that Rosetta Stone, come look at this...'

This is a double-header weekend as I catch up with my past entries to the Lead Painters' League.

When we were in the midst of the Challenge I was swept up with the 'all-things-camel' vibe and so picked up a set of revolutionary war French dromedary troopers in order to submit to the group. I had them finished well before the end of the Challenge but then realized that I was short  a few entires for the Lead Painters' League so, sadly, I decided to hold them back.

Nonetheless, here they finally are - my tip-of-the-hat to 'The Wild Bunch', and specifically to Clint, who started it all with his wonderful Revolt in the Desert project. Seen here is a trio from Napoleon's French Dromedary Corps, along with a group of ardent French academics (savants) from l'Institute  d'Egypte in the midst making a groundbreaking discovery (or a horrible, horrible mistake...).

One of the savants is actually a cameo by Stephen Maturin doubling in from my Aubrey & Maturin submission for the Favourite Characters bonus round. 

My current submission to the LPL (the 5th) is a chariot-borne Boudicca in homage to my lovely red-haired, Welsh wife Sarah. If you have the time, please go check out the match to see her along with all the entries from the other 39 participants in the League. In the meantime I'm going to work on some French Indochina figures for next week's 6th submission.

From DallasE: 15mm Egyptian PT-76 (6 points)

From Dallas:

The model is a Battlefront PT-76 from their Vietnam/Arab-Israeli line. 

It's painted in mostly GW colours with some Vallejo. I used a "chipping" weathering method - using a bit of old sponge from a blister pack to dab on GW Mechanicus Standard Grey around wear areas. I might have overdone it a bit but I like the effect.

Nice work Dallas! The camo looks great and I really like the weathering as well. As I know both you are Greg are quite keen on your Six Day War project I'm sure we'll see more United Arab Republic stuff from you in the coming weeks.

This PT-76 will give Dallas 6 points.

From PhilH: 28mm Colonial Sudanese Infantry & Khalifa Command Stand (56 points)

Phil returns Michael's volley with his own with these excellent Sudanese infantry and a Mahdist Khalifa.

From Phil:

The Sudan project continues apace (well, apace for me). Tempted as I was to save everything up for a Millsy-esque points bomb, I decided against that folly. Today I bring you another unit for the Anglo-Egyptian forces: the Sudanese IXth infantry. The Sudanese battalions were regarded as the elite of the Egyptian army, being professional soldiers recruited for life from Southern Sudan and the Nuba mountains. The Xth and XIth were even recruited from old soldiers that had been captured by the Mahdi, served in his Jihadiyya before escaping en masse in 1885 and re-enlisting in the Egyptian army.  

Mine are officered by an Egyptian (in the final photo, painted pre-challenge), though it was also known for Sudanese to be promoted from the ranks. The IXth's conduct alongside the Cameron Highlanders at the battle of Ginnis led to them being presented a unique standard in 1886: of red silk fringed in red and gold with Kosheh and Ginnis as battle honours and a central wreath. Other Battalions carried a green standard with only an Arabic numeral. 

The uniforms of the Egyptian army changed quite a lot between the various campaigns. I've settled on having my Egyptian units in a white summer uniform and Sudanese in a blue with white trousers. All units were later issued khaki uniforms. 

Also rolling off the table is this Command stand for the Mahdists: a Khalifa and his faithful standard bearer. Both were part of my first challenge batch but set aside part way through. I pondered a while how to paint the Khalifa, given he has such a large robe aching for some freehand like patches in the Mahdist style. But for a religious leader, I was also tempted by the understated purity of a plain white robe. In the end I settled on white with a jagged edging in blue. The standard bearer is converted from a standing spearman, carefully trimming his cast on spear off and replacing it with the Flag Dude banner. 

Beautiful work Phil! I really like both of the banner bearers, especially the Sudanese trooper. The flags from Flag Dude have such excellent animation, and I love the all-in-one cost (I have quite a few myself), but I wish he would upgrade his image files to eliminate the jagged line art - there really is no excuse for it in this day and age.

This Khalifa and his uniformed Sudanese opponents will give Phil 56 points, placing him one point behind Michael in the Victorian Side Challenge. A tight race - well done! 

Worst Case Scenario #6 - Chariot Race to Escape the Red Sea

'So it is written, so shall it be done... or is that the other way around? Whatever, surf's up boys - get stuck in!'

We had friends visiting from out of town last week so I was trying to come up with a game which could accommodate around seven to eight players, be fast moving while easy to pickup. After looking through my stuff and doing a little bit of thinking I decided to resurrect an old scenario that I had run about ten years ago, a biblical chariot race where the charioteers had to escape the floor of the Red Sea in the wake (literally) of Moses' miracle.

It's around 1440 BC. The setting is somewhere along the Gulf of Suez. Moses has parted the Red Sea (or 'Reed Sea' as some believe) and his Israelites have passed through to take refuge on the opposite shore. Not easily deterred, the Egyptian Pharaoh, Rameses I, has sent in his army in hot pursuit of Moses and the hebrew slaves. 

This army is led by a menagerie of inbred Egyptian princes, each mounted on a chariot, and each keen as mustard to gain fame and glory in the coming subjugation of the Israelites. Well, as we all know, the jig was up when Moses 'turned the taps back on' and the Egyptian army, which was fully arrayed on the sea floor, is subsequently destroyed by the closing avalanche of water. 

BUT, what of the Egyptian princes? 

Styrofoam 'water-walls' and craft paper sea floor - the hobby at its most rudimentary form.

The game begins with the princes, all realizing that they are in mortal danger, turning their chariots about in an attempt to madly dash back up the collapsing chasm of water to safety. Each player leads a chariot team whose only goal is to survive this watery doom by keeping ahead of the onrushing water and ahead of the pack, no matter what the cost.

'Waddya mean these things don't come equipped with a flotation device?'

The bright side to all this is that the survivor(s) will have a much easier time at the Egyptian court, what with the royal bloodline being so watered down... (ba-dum-pish! rimshot!).

So the players girded their loins, tightened their reins, and cracked the whip, knowing only a few (if any) would survive the closing of the Red Sea!

The water wall (to the left) moved forward during the game, slurping up charioteers in its path.

For rules I used the excellent 'Charioteer' by Two Hour Wargames which I shamelessly fiddled with in order to create some over-the-top Cecil B. DeMille action. Accordingly we had giant crabs spooking horse teams, seaweed 'road hazzards' and enormous sea serpent tentacles whipping from the water-wall to bash nearby chariots. Yep, completely silly but fun. 

'Charioteer' does a very nice job of abstracting the pell mell of racing by simulating the dynamic of the pack of chariots as they try to pass, whip and bash one another in order to gain the lead position. As you can see you don't need much room for the playing surface and it's dead easy to set up. I would think that in 15mm or 10mm it would be very transportable for club games. There are even campaign rules for running your own teams of chariots over a season of racing, with tracking of victories, defeats, betting and dirty tricks. Very cool.

All of the chariots are from the Wargames Foundry biblical range and painted by members of the Fawcett Ave Conscripts.

As I was trying my best to keep the rules straight in my thick skull most of the game's details became a bit of a blur to me. I do know that Sylvain took the lead and, except for a few challenges, never relinquished it for the entire race. Nonetheless, behind our hurtling Frenchman it was a mad scrum of charioteers, each vying for positions at the lead, all the while the onrushing wall of water inexorably nipped at their heels. 

Hey, can we turn back? I think I dropped my iKopesh back there...

I do remember poor Jeremy attempting to bash Chad's team with his chariot but having everything go horribly, horribly wrong. He ended up as a spectacular out-of-control wreck, who finally came to rest three lanes (and a few places back) from his original position. All-in-all, three of the charioteers made it back to safety, meeting Rameses at the temple of Set to give him the bad news about his pursuit.

The mad dash to safety.

Hey Boss, about that Moses guy...

It was good fun, with the guys very much playing to the spirit of the scenario and the rules holding up admirably well under my half-arsed modifications. I look forward to trying them again in a race set in a proper 'circus maximus'.

What?!  Do I have to do EVERYTHING myself?

From IannickM: 28mm Casualty Stand of Biblical Proportions (20 points)

From Iannick:

Here is my last submission, a small diorama I call 'Feast of vultures", with dead Canaanite and Egyptian soldiers surrounded by vultures.

The vultures are from Foundry and were sent as freebies with my Shasu Bedouins. Not wanting free stuff to go to waste I figured I had to find a way to include these animals in my biblical project. Mostly it's for the looks but maybe I could use them as a marker of some kind.

Unfortunately this is my last submission; I was literally one evening away from finishing a 24 Canaanite spearmen unit, so very close, damn basing! I take solace in the fact that the contest made me paint that unit in 7 days which is a record for me.

A big thanks to you, it was my first time participating in the contest and it was a lot of fun. Kudos for not losing your sanity along the way... ;-) 

If vultures eating corpses can be beautiful then this is the bee's knees. Excellent work Iannick! I really have to see if I can get a couple of these as they're wonderful sculpts and this is a great purpose for them.

This grisly vignette will give Iannick 20 points. Thanks for participating and I look forward to seeing your Canaanite army grow over on your blog in the coming months.

From TimB: Ancient Egyptians, WWII Canadians, WWII Brits and Vietnam-era Americans (308 points)

Tim's beginning to stoke the engine for the last dash to glory and so sends in this impressive collection of figures extending from ancient Egypt, through the Second World War to the war in Vietnam. First up, above, is an ancient Egyptian family. These 28mm figures are from Black Tree Design. 

Next is a varied group of 20mm WWII Canadian infantry ranging from regular infantry, mortars, forward observers and a 25-pounder. These are a mix of FAA, SHQ and Platoon 20.

Then we have some British paratroopers and commandos in their distinctive red and green berets. These are Platoon 20 castings.

For a counterpoint Tim also shows us a pair of WWII German forward observers.

Finally, we have two Vietnam-era 105mm American howitzers with their attendent crew. These are by RAFM. 

This great assortment of miniatures will give Tim a very impressive 308 points allowing him to pip Ray and move into 2nd place! Well done, Tim!