First Painting of 2013

My first painting of the new year continued two themes -- American Revolution and clearing off the painting desk.

So I began with completing the painting of four Ral Partha pack mules/donkeys that I acquired sometime last year or the year before.  They sat, partially painted, on an upper shelf on my painting desk for months.

Four Ral Partha pack mules with their muleteers

My interpretation of William Washington's Regiment of Continental Dragoons uses Miniature Figurines figures.  I have had six troopers painted and mounted for several years.  Finally I obtained three command figures and three more troopers so I could upgrade the regiment to six 2-figure stands.

William Washington's Regiment of Continental Dragoons

The flag is purely speculative.  One of the command figures was a mounted standard bearer, so I had to come up with a flag.  I do not know if any of the Continental dragoons carried flags, but this regiment in my Continental army does.

Prussian Artillery - Completed

Last week I posted a picture of the two Prussian light batteries that I was preparing for my Chassepot and Needlegun Franco-German War game at the Colonial Barracks convention in November.  Over the weekend I completed the two batteries.

One of the two Prussian light batteries, armed with six 4-lbr Krupp breechloading, rifled guns.  The gunners are mounted on small steel bases with pieces of "business card" magnetic material attached to the gun stands so that the gunners can be removed as casualties occur.

These two batteries will be in support of the 11th Brandenburg Infantry Brigade, 6th Brandenburg Division in the upcoming game.  The Prussians are hoping that with their superior range and more effective shell fuses these guns will bring victory the the nascent Reich.

Prussian Artillery - WIP

The Brom's Colonial Barracks convention is the first weekend in November.  This year they have expanded it from just The Sword and the Flame rules and variants to any rules written by Larry Brom.

I am gathering troops to run a Franco-German War (AKA Franco-Prussian War) battle using Larry's Chassepot and Needlegun rules.  It will feature troops owned and painted by my buddies Lord Sterling and Doc Ord as well as mine.  But the Germans are a little short on artillery so I've been painting two batteries of Prussian light artillery (4-lbrs).

These six guns are really Ral Partha Colonial Egyptian Krupp guns.  But they are Krupps!  Each battery is represented by three guns and six gunners.  I've just glued the guns to the bases and will add the already painted gunners (Castaway Arts) once the glue dries.  The gunners are coming from some "heavier" Prussian guns that will be re-purposed as Prussian heavy 6-lbr guns, with new gunners also from Castaway Arts.

I've also got two batteries of French 8-lbr breech-loaders in progress.  Since my French force is loosely based on the Army of the Loire which fought the Germans south of Paris after the main French armies were defeated, I've taken the liberty of arming them with the newly developed 8-lbr breech-loader designed by de Reffye (link).  Unfortunately no one makes such a model so I'm using American Civil War 12-lb Napoleon gun-howitzers.  The carriage and barrel are close-enough for my purposes as I'm not too much of a stickler.  I'll post some pictures later.

Tower and Emplacements Finished!

I've finally finished the watchtower and the artillery emplacements for my Relief of Wadi Zoum-Zoum game at the Bayou Wars convention on Saturday, June 12 in New Orleans.

The tower was painted grey and then dry-brushed in desert tan while the base was sprayed camouflage sand and then dry-brushed in desert tan.

One of the three artillery emplacements (from the front).

And from the rear showing the wood revetments inside the emplacement.

All the figures are 25mm Ral Partha Egyptians and the gun is a 25mm Ral Partha Krupp in Egyptian service.

With the exception of repairing and repainting one of the river bank sections, I am finally finished with my game preparations!  Whew!!

Artillery Emplacement

As I continue preparations for my June convention game, I needed some field fortifications for the supply post at Wadi Zoum-Zoum.  Using some of the 1/2" blue foam that I rescued from a dumpster, I created three small artillery emplacements, each capable of holding one gun and its four man crew.

I used my battery powered hot wire cutter to shape the foam and then cut out a small base of Masonite (a type of hardboard invented in my home state of Mississippi), beveling the edges with a wood rasp.  The base was spray painted with a sand camouflage color and the walls of the emplacement was painted with a sandstone color craft acrylic.  The two were then glued together with Elmer's white glue.  Good enough right now for the first play-test on Saturday, they will eventually have interior wooden slat walls and a terrain application on the outside and the "floor" of the interior.  I anticipate that I can use these for just about any period from the mid 1700s to modern times.

Here's another view from a slightly higher angle.

The Krupp gun and the Egyptian gunners are Ral Partha figures.

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.

First Battle of Khalaam

Finally, a week after the battle, the battle report is produced. This report is in a different format from what I normally post. I constructed the report as a PowerPoint presentation using from one to four pictures per slide. I then converted each slide into a separate jpeg file and posted them to the blog. The reader must click on each slide in order to view them properly.

The rules used were The Sword and the Flame by Larry Brom, which may be obtained from Sergeants3 (shameless plug!).

And now Col Campbell's Barracks presents:
























Photographs are courtesy of Bill Hamilton, John Murdaugh, Ed Sansing, and Jim Pitts.

Troops are owned and were painted by Jim Pitts. Almost all are Ral Partha. The Indian lancer officer is Miniature Figurines; the two Haddabiera guns are Foundry Darkest Africa; the Russian officer is Askari; and the Niyam militia are London Warroom Abyssinians.

Terrain owned by Jim Pitts.

April Painting Update

As I prepare for a two game mini-campaign on the North Central Frontier in Victorian India, I have added another unit to the Haddabiera tribe who inhabit the Vale of Swat. This mini-campaign will culminate in the 2nd Annual George Carr, Sr., Victorian Colonial game at our regional convention, Bayou Wars, held in late June in New Orleans ( Bayou Wars ).


These are the venerable Ral Partha Pathan warriors. Although not readily apparent from this picture, all the warriors are armed with rifles of various types. It will join two other Haddabiera units that were painted many years ago. A fourth infantry unit, a cavalry unit, some gunners, and some mounted command figures are in the painting queue.

January 2009 Painting

January's painting total was an impressive 135 Olley points, consisting of 14 mounted figures, 104 foot figures, and 3 guns. But when one looks at the type of figures - all Victorian Colonial and almost all Dervish or Beja warriors - then the total is only impressive for the number, not the complexity of the painting.

Victorian Colonial native warriors, especially Dervish and Beja, are very simple to paint - brownish skin, off-white clothes, brownish shields, and weaponry. No turnbacks, lapels, lace on tricornes, etc., etc. But 121 total figures is still pretty darn good, if I say so myself.

You've already seen the Beja camelry and part of a warrior band in an earlier post, so here are pictures of most of the rest.

This is a complete Egyptian artillery battery organized per The Sword and the Flame (TSATF) rules that we use here in Jackson, Miss. It consists of three guns (Krupp breechloaders), one battery commander, and twelve gunners (four per gun). All the figures are Ral Partha (as with few exceptions are all the figures featured this month). The Egyptian gunners are supposed to be in blue uniforms, but I had already painted nine of the thirteen figures in white uniforms and wasn't going to change them just prior to a game. Maybe I'll repaint them later, or maybe not.

This is a complete TSATF Indian artillery battery armed with small mountain howitzers. Eight of the gunners and two guns were added this month to the officer, four gunners, and one gun that I already had painted.

This is a small part of one of the two 20-figure Beja war bands. They are armed with swords and spears, except for one warrior who has a rifle.

This is a small portion of the second 20-figure Beja warband. They armed the same as the first.

This picture shows the senior Dervish war leader (mounted, on left), a captured Egyptian Krupp gun with its crew, and a senior foot war leader.

Joining the Dervish war band that I have had painted for a number of years was two more, this being the first, consisting of 20 warriors armed with sword and spear.

And the second, also similarly armed.

A note: All the Dervish and Beja flags are courtesy of www.warflag.com .

I still have a 12-figure cavalry unit to paint to complete my Dervish forces, which will ultimately consist of two mounted units, five foot units, and two gun crews.

Next month, I'll get that mounted unit painted and begin work on my Pathan forces and maybe some British and Indian cavalry. With this year's theme being Colonial Adventuring, I will use it as an impetus to get as many of my Victorian Colonial forces painted as I can.

Disaster Averted

As I was working on my unit of Beja camelry, a disaster struck! I was using a container of Aleene's Tacky Glue to secure the riders to the camels. Everything was going OK until I felt glue on my hand holding the bottle. The bottle was old and the plastic had deteriorated, causing a large crack to open. I immediately summoned assistance from my wife and was able to get almost all the tacky glue into a medium sized margarine container. But I knew that it won't last very long and there was a lot of glue. So, I got my bucket of fine sand and bucket of spackle and mixed some basing material, using the tacky glue, sand, and spackle.

I used it to add basing effects to the 12 Beja camels, a Beja foot leader, and a whole batch of imagi-nation SYW era troops.

These are the Ral Partha Beja camelry after the bases had been augmented with the mix and then painted a base coat of burnt sienna. I'll do some dry brushing of tan and cream and finish the bases by adding some small rocks and grass. The riders still have to have their shields and weapons added and the leader (third from left, front row) his banner.

Here is my improvised work station on the dining room table with two battalions of Eureka Saxons. Their bases have been prepped with the mix. They are awaiting a coat of white glue prior to being dunked into my flocking mix.

And here are some completed figures, all Eureka Saxons, drying on some newspaper.

I'll have to admit I was discombobulated (that's "all shook up" in Southernese) by the tacky glue bottle splitting. I didn't realize at the time that it was that old. But later when I tried to recall when I purchased it, all I could remember was it was a long time ago.

"True" 25mm Figure Comparison

On Friday, poster "FirstBrigade" was asking about what metal figures would match with 1/72 scale plastic figures. He was primarily interested in Napoleonic figures. You can read the thread here:

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=148784

I've been wargaming long enough that I have a good selection of what is referred to as "true" 25mm figures - Ral Partha, RAFM, MiniFigs, Scruby, etc. This picture shows a small selection of those figures compared with Italeri and Revell/Accurate plastic figures.

From left to right: RAFM F&IW Highlander, Italeri Napoleonic Russian Pavlov grenadier, MiniFig Napoleonic Prussian fusilier, Scruby (now produced by Historifigs) Napoleonic Prussian musketeer, Revell/Accurate AWR British infantry, and Ral Partha Colonial British infantry.

The black line is 1" (25.4mm) from the base of the background, giving a rough comparison of figure height. As you can see, only the Scruby figure comes close to the height and heft of the two plastic figures. But all of them will match well in separate units on the gaming table. Our group here in Jackson, Miss. (USA) utilize these brands (and others, such as Hinton Hunt/Der Kriegspieler, Warrior, Custom Cast, and Hinchliffe) in our "25mm" medieval, horse and musket, Napoleonic, and colonial armies. You can see how they look on the gaming table by visiting our web site: www.angelfire.com/games3/jacksongamer , clicking on "Pictures of Games," and then scrolling down and looking at the various battle reports.

I hope that this has helped.