Building the "Royal" Kraal - Part 1

As I mentioned in my May Painting entry, we are running a very large Zulu game at our regional wargaming convention, Bayou Wars (http://www.bayouwars.org/), on June 21. As part of the game objectives, the Imperial expedition will try to burn the "Royal" Kraal. the pictures below show my initial steps in building the kraal. The outer wall will be made of slightly trimmed toothpicks (almost 500 of them!) all glued together. At first I was glueing them together in small batches of 12 and was planning on sticking them down to the masonite (mdf) base with Liquid Nails. But that didn't work too well. I finally constructed a simple jig using tape to hold the toothpicks in place and a ruler to keep the bases level before coating the surface with white glue. Two strips of 120 toothpicks each can be seen at the top of the picture, while a third is on the jig.

This picture shows two of the strips of 120 toothpicks set up around the masonite base.
They will be painted dark grey and then dry-brushed light gray to similate weathered wood. I'll use a mixture of dry-wall spackle, sand, and white glue for the earthen interior and exterior, suitably painted. The huts inside will be some paper-mache bird houses that I picked up from Michaels some years ago and painted to represent standard native huts.

More later as the project is completed.

May 2008 Painting - Finally!

Finally I get my pictures taken and posted of the troops I have added during May 2008 - a total of some 91 points (three guns and 88 foot figures). These are some of them:

The Carpanian Army added the Paulaner Fusilier Battalion, 24 strong, using Crusader figures. It will be paired with the von Stuppe Fusiliers to create a 48-figure "big battalion" for BAR games.



The Carpanians also added two guns to its arsenal, both products of the Eisenmuhlen Cannon Foundry. The first is a 12-lbr (an old Miniature Figurines gun) manned by Crusader gunners.

The second piece of artillery is a 10-lb howitzer (also Miniature Figurines), this time manned by Old Glory gunners.

And the Duchy of Courland has also been busy, uniforming the Duke's namesake Pavlovski Grenadiers. This 24-figure battalion will be paired with the Severinski Grenadiers to make a 48-figure "big battalion" for BAR games.

Among the extra and "one-of" figures I painted in May is young Alaistair Campbell, nephew of the Carpanian mercenary Scottish general, Seamus Campbell. Young Alaistair will accompany the Margarve's nephew, Siegfried Hapnich, across the water to fight with the Britannians against the Jacobite usurpers. You can read more about this on the Emperor vs Elector blog ( http://emperor-elector.blogspot.com/ ) and on Der Alte Fritz's blog ( http://altefritz.blogspot.com/2008/05/prestonpans-battle-report.html ).

Alaistair is a Front Rank figure and is my first real attempt at painting a Scottish tartan on a 28mm figure. The tartan is real simple, bright green base and bright blue stripes, but it looks fairly realistic from wargaming distances. I have Seamus and his 24-figure battalion still to do.

And finally, to complete my Colonial forces for the big George Carr Memorial Colonial game that we are running at Bayou Wars in New Orleans on June 21 (see http://www.bayouwars.org/ ), I painted a 20-figure British unit. During Bayou Wars it will be the 2nd Battalion, 24th Foot, joining its sister battalion, the 1st, in the Imperial expedition to chastize the Zulu. But there will be over 1,000 Zulu figures (over 40,000 warriors) versus the slightly less than 400 Imperial troops (about 16,000 soldiers of the Queen). A battle report will follow.

June's painting will not be as impressive as I have been working on magnetic movement stands for that horde of Zulus and some terrain for the game. I'll get back to my imagi-European (SYW) figures next month, beginning with a squadron of Carpanian dragoons.

April 2008 Painting

April wasn't a very productive month although I started a few units that aren't finished yet.
My first unit is composed of old Spenser Smith plastic cavalry, painted as the Constantine Dragoons of the army of the Duchy of Courland. The mounted officer and four of the troopers came to me in an eBay lot with a large batch of artillery. When I lamented on the OSW Yahoo group about what to do with the four troopers, Peter Constantine of the UK sent me eight figures, including the mounted officer.
So I made him the honorary inhaber of the unit and asked him to suggest a uniform, which was a red coat with green facings. I liked that color scheme and the Constantine Dragoons were raised. I used the new Krylon plastic spray paint to prime them black and then used craft paints over that. The detail on these older figures was severely lacking so it was a chore to get the various bits and bobs painted. After glueing them to metal bases (for a little heft) I attached them by twos to 2" square Litko bases.

The remainder of my April painting was Victorian colonials figures to start getting ready for the George Carr, Sr. Memorial Zulu game at the Bayou Wars convention in New Orleans in June (20-22 to be exact). George Carr, Sr. was a friend and fellow gamer who died of cancer late last year. He gamed with Larry Brom (of the Sword and the Flame fame). The first time I went to Bayou Wars many years ago, George and Larry ran a huge Zulu game and invited members of the Mardi Gras Crewe of Zulu to come open the game, which they did in their (modern) Zulu finery. It was something to remember. So if you are in the southeast or south central USA and want to know more, check out the details at http://www.bayouwars.org/ .

The above picture is my first battery of British artillery, consisting of three muzzle-loading rifled guns and their crew. For the Sword and the Flame, there are 4 crew per gun, but we're using Larry Brom's convention rules, "By Battalion, Volley Fire!" which only has 6 crew for the three guns. By the way, (blatant advertisement) you can get any of Larry's rules at his web-store: http://www.sergeants3.com/ .

And finally, I painted dismounted officers for two of my previously painted British mounted officers and a senior Induna to lead the three units of Zulus that I have.

Next month I have to finish a unit of red-coated British infantry which will be painted as the 24th Foot (of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift fame). May will also see more Imagi-Nations Seven Years War figures painted as I continue to prepare for the Big Battalion BAR game in Austin, Texas, in November. Details for that game, which will include Der Alte Fritz (http://altefritz.blogspot.com/) and Mssr. Chevert (http://www.oldregimerules.com/) among the gamers, can be found here: http://texasbigbattalions2008.blogspot.com/ .

So for April I painted 1 mounted officer and 12 Spenser Smith cavalry, 3 Ral Partha British guns, 1 artillery officer and 4 gunners, 2 foot officers, and 1 Zulu induna, all Ral Partha figures. Total is 13 mounted, 8 foot, and 3 guns, or 37 Olley points if my figuring is correct.