Christ is Risen!

No one sings it like Johnny 

Home from work. Life has been very busy here - work in particular has been extremely demanding over the last few weeks. The days have been longer and I have seen less of Mrs. Kinch than I would like, but the end is sight. Reflecting on things today, it was brought home to me what a great many things I have to be thankful for. A day for counting blessings certainly. 

Wishing you all a very happy Easter. 

The green blade riseth 

I was reminded of this by the redoubtable Alan of Tradgardland.  Stuff to move the heart.

Lancers in Green & Lest we forget

I fixed the green pennants on these chaps. Hopefully they will be doing their best for the Pasha before too long.

In the meantime, I found this in a box while looking for something else.  It is great war monument from Sergeants Mess. A crisp little casting this lovely sharply defined detail.  

I have no pressing need for it at present, but it was such a nice little model that I couldn't help putting it together. 

I had originally thought of using a standard grey plinth and dark bronze statue with some verdigris, but I think I might use this monument as a model. It's a bit brighter than I expected - which is no bad thing. 

Egyptian Lancers Finished

 

I’ve finished the Egyptian lancers and on the whole I’m reasonably pleased with them.  They aren’t going to win any awards, but they look well enough to pass muster at three feet. 

 

 

 

The lances are made from steel spears which were recommended (and a sample provided) by Mike Lewis of Black Hat. They were intended for 1/32 Prince August Highlanders, but not being able to find my drill has tied that up for a little bit. I added pennants made from printer labels, though I now realise that I sound have painted them green rather than red and white. Too much time thinking of the 17^thLancers on my part I think. Better fix that before I varnish them.

The saddle and tack are probably too complex, but I just painted around the detail where I could and it seems to have done the trick. I don’t think Mike Snooke & Co will be banging my door down for uniform tips any time soon, but for my purposes they’ll do. I probably could have done more research on these, but it would have taken time and to be honest, I just wanted to get on with it. Uncertainty has a terrible tendency to paralyse, decisions are deferred and nothing gets done – which is frustrating. But in the case of toy soldiers, where very little (if anything) is at stake, it seems silly to get overly precious about things.

 

Definitely a case where it is easier to get forgiveness than permission.

 

And a shot from the rear.

 

Does my fez look big in this?

I’m quite happy with how this little project panned out. All the remains to be done for Kassassin is an armoured train carriage and a gun to mount on it. What could be simpler?

Eight years a blog giveaway (free 28mm terrain)

A Toast by August Hermann Knoop

It was brought home to me the other day that I've been at this blogging nonsense for a while now. When I checked I discovered that Joy & Forgetfulness has been operating since the 10th of February 2008, which is a quite a bit in anyone's language. There have been approximately 750 posts in that time and 5219 comments. 

I 've made some great friends via this blog, some of whom I have had the privilege of meeting face to face and others with whom it has been my pleasure to correspond.  On the whole, it's been great and long may it continue.  I will keep writing so long as you lot keep reading. Thank you very much for all your comments and for reading Joy & Forgetfulness. 

To celebrate, I was given this rather lovely piece of terrain made by Capability Savage. It's an Old West style water tower, but would be perfectly at home for Colonials, American Civil War, Sci-fi or anything else you can think of. 

Some video of the tower, shot by Savage himself. 

Savage has suggested that a reader of J&F might like this tower and so I will be offering it as the prize in my "Eight Years a Blog Giveaway". 

I will draw names from a hat on the 5th of April. 

To enter you have to be a follower of this blog and must post a comment on this post confirming that you are interested. 

If you would like to have your name entered a second time (i.e. if you would like two chances to win) include in your comment an explanation as to why you read Joy & Forgetfulness and what you would like to see in the future. 

The tower breaks down into four pieces and is rock solid.  The basic structure is made out of wood and plastic rod. 

Best of luck one and all. 

Egyptian Lancers - Progress of a sort.

Having done all the trimming necessary in my last post, I got to work with greenstuff. Each figures has had a wire lance added and a green stuff fez with tassel.  These were a bit awkward to do and looking at them now I've made them too big.  Getting the lances to stick was another trial, but they're pretty solid now. 

A quick blast of white spray later and it's time to get base coating.  While the size of the fezzes seems to stand out a mile to me, I'm sure at a distance of three feet they will be less of a concern. 

I shall reserve judgement until we see them with a lick of paint. 

Egyptian Lancers

Kassassin

Having clearly set out my stall for what I wanted to bang away at this year, I have quite naturally done none of those things and attacked another problem entirely. Mike Dippel, who did sterling work on the Command & Colours website and other projects, wrote some Colonial scenarios, including one on Kassassin.  I had intended to bang out some Second Afghan War stuff, but Egyptian blandishments lured me away. 

Now, I have most of what is required to play this scenario, but I was lacking a unit of Egyptian cavalry and a railway gun.  I shall probably extemporise something for the railway gun, using a flat bed and a spare gun model, but the Egyptian cavalry were more of a puzzlement. 

Britains Egyptian Cavalry. 

I don't mean Britains Egyptian cavalry, of course. 

I mean Egyptian Cavalry made in Britain, but for Egypt. 

But by Britains. 

And possibly by Britons. 

I hope this clarifies things. 

Egyptian Cavalry

(picture stolen from Ross) 

Du Gourmand and I played a colonial game recently and I just wanted to playtest a scenario.  As a result, rather than using the full panoply of figures (which I didn't have anyway), I just popped three cavalry figures down to mark a unit.  Having played through the game several times, we realised that it didn't look bad and perhaps it might be something we should experiment with.  At least until full 12 strong cavalry units and 19 strong infantry units become available.  

But where to get three Egyptian cavalry figures. 

The base figure, an Italeri Union bugler.

The Good Lord has bestowed upon me many blessings, a beautiful wife, an excellent cat, great friends and a job I loves. I am duly grateful.  

Ability as a sculptor is not among my talents. However, I had this chap lying fallow and it seemed silly not to try. 

Cut away the bugle and the front of the cap. 

Now, there is every possibility that this may be the last post on this blog. I have attempted conversions in the past with mixed success, but three figures is certainly a record. 

No doubt this will end in tears and Joy & Forgetfulness will be upside down and on fire by the time I finish.  We shall see. 

If that is the case, gentlemen, it has been an honour writing for you.

Egyptian Artillery

The whole damn battery

Inspired by Bob's Turkish artillery, I got myself a box of Strelets Turkish artillery.  These figures are for the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, but they'll do very well for Turkish artillery in the Crimea and Egyptian gunners in the 1880s. 

There's a very officious looking officer type with binoculars. 

An 1873 Krupp gun. 

This gun is suitable for Egypt in the 1880s, though I'm going to have to scare up another one from somewhere.  These boys will be issued British guns for the Crimea, but for later service I'll need another. I have had a look at Irregulars Really Useful Guns, but there doesn't appear to be anything suitable. 

As plastic soldier review points out these fellas with ram rods are not really required for the 1873 gun that comes in the set, but will do very well for the smooth bores used in the Crimea. 

Having painted these, I've come to the conclusion that blue isn't that much more difficult to paint than white, so I may use the rest of the blue spray I used on these chaps to undercoat some Turkish infantry in blue coats. 

The whole battery from the side 

Du Gourmand and I played a Tel el Kebir scenario recently, based the modifications in Mike Dippel's Kassassin scenario.  Not to shabby though I say so myself, though it does need further playtesting. These chaps will be seeing action there again.