Painting Challenge Submission #11 - More Afghan Regulars for Second Anglo-Afghan War

Another unit of 28mm Afghan regulars for the late 19th century - metal castings from Perry Miniatures.

My eleventh and final submission to the 14th edition of Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is shown here - one more unit of 28mm Afghan Regulars for my Second Anglo-Afghan War project. These are metal castings from Perry Miniatures, sporting different head coverings from the last group. As with the previous such entry, this group is meant to represent a unit of infantry in the Osprey game "The Men Who Would Be Kings".

Opted for Khaki colours on these lads...

Some different head wear to capture the variety to be found among the Afghan forces of the period.

I opted for more of khaki look for this unit - still a bit of colour on the red facings and straps, but on balance not as bright as the previous unit of regulars. This choice was made in part to create some variety, but I also wanted to practice painting khaki tones so I could come up with a paint "recipe" that I like when the time comes to paint some of the British units.

Officer and musician to rally the troops!

So that makes four units for the Afghan side of this project - still not a complete force, but getting close. Not bad for a new project started from scratch!

A couple of the riflemen.

Afghan regulars ready to resist the British!

That's all for me from AHPC XIV, but won't be it for the painting...after the end of every painting Challenge, there are always a few projects that were "almost" finished by didn't get done in time. Watch for those to appear in the days ahead. Thanks for reading!

Painting Challenge Submission #10 - Afghan Regulars for Second Anglo-Afghan War

Afghan Regulars in 28mm for the Second Anglo-Afghan War; 28mm figures from Perry Miniatures.

The 14th edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has concluded. This edition of the Challenge was not a great one for me in terms of painting output. Moving to a new house during the Challenge period completely blew up my plans, and in the end I barely made it past the half-way point of the goals I had set forth at the outset. In particular, my plans to paint a Dogs of War army for Warhammer Fantasy were a complete fail - my brushes never touched them, and the models remain ensconced in a storage container of the basement at my new house. Oh well. I still got some stuff painted, and I'll have the last couple of submissions posted over the next few days. Here is one of them.

My tenth submission to the Challenge saw me going back to a historical subject - more troops for my Second Anglo-Afghan War project. Here we have a unit of Afghan Regulars for the period. These are 28mm metal figures from Perry Miniatures. They will join with the Tribal warriors painted earlier in this edition of the Challenge to represent an infantry unit for the Osprey game "The Men Who Would Be Kings". 

Making ready for a firefight!

Information about the uniforms of Afghan regulars in this setting is kind of spotty, and to the extent it is available, the consistent theme is a certain inconsistency in the reports...so I took some basics and just sort of improvised. I thought the red coats with yellow facings would make for a nice splash of colour, and an ideal combo to engage with the troops of the British Empire.

Officer and musician...had no idea what colours to use for the drum, so I just improvised with some green!

As always, the Perry Miniatures sculpts are top shelf, and it is a joy to paint proper metal figures. Trimming the flash is always a chore, and can be a particular issue with these Perry castings, but in general these are just a treat to work with.

These fellows are ready to skirmish!

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for a few more posts from the other Challenge participants, and I hope everyone can keep up the happy painting!

Painting Challenge Submission #8 - 28mm Afghan Tribal Warriors

28mm Afghan tribal warriors from Perry Miniatures, ready to close in on the British columns...

For my eighth submission to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge I switched gears to debut a completely different setting and a new project for me - the Second Anglo-Afghan War. These are 28mm Afghan tribal warriors, multi-part plastic figures from Perry Miniatures. There are 32 figures, enough for two units/groups of tribal warriors for the Osprey skirmish game "The Men Who Would Be Kings". 

An assortment of rifle-armed tribal warriors.

This setting seems to be popular among colonial wargamers, including several fellow Painting Challenge participants. Their various efforts through the years have intrigued me, and between looking at those blog posts, and a couple of "just browsing" sort of visits to the Perry Miniatures web site, I was intrigued enough to take the plunge myself. Reading through the "The Men Who Would Be Kings" rules sealed the deal for me...

Very basic hand-painted flag.

This project has been under way for quite some time. I had started the majority of these figures right around Christmas last year. But owing to the disruption caused by moving to a new house, I was not able to complete the basing and the (very basic) hand-painted flags until a couple weeks ago. So here they are at last!

I love the guy loading the jezzail!

These multi-part plastic from Perry Miniatures are fantastic. The metal castings are still better (because obviously) but the plastic boxes are very well done and have been an excellent way to accumulate a relatively large number of tribal warriors. I plan to add units of cavalry and regular infantry from the Afghan army, but the tribal elements would be core to any Afghan force and I wanted to start with them. 

There are lots of swords and shields in the mix too!

I tried to mix up the colours a bit, and sought out different bits of inspiration in the hopes of not completely f*cking everything up, which is always a risk when one comes to a new period/setting. The warriors are equipped with a broad mix of muskets, rifles, jezzails, swords and knives of various sizes, and even shields! It all gets abstracted in the rules, allowing for a nice and motley appearance for the tribal warriors.

This lot is ready for battle!

One area that still needs a ton of practice is the skin tones. I wanted to get some different skin tones, and it was quite hit-and-miss, owning in large part to the fact that GW paints I use have tended to be out of stock, leading to improvisation, and combined also with the fact that, in the chaos of moving, I haven't really kept careful track of what worked and what didn't...maybe this will improve when I get to the next round of Afghan units for this project...

A 16-figure unit of Tribal infantry for "The Men Who Would Be Kings", ready for action on the table

There are 32 figures in the photos, but there are a couple of pre-Challenge test paint jobs in there, so this only "counted" as 30 figures in 28mm scale for the scoring aspects of the Challeng. Not very much by the standards of current AHPC participation (Frederick would have finished this in a day!) but it still felt like a "points bomb" for me, which was. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more as the Challengers enter the final frantic week!

Battle Report - Sudan 28mm using Black Powder

Madhist battle line takes shape - very ominous

Last week the conscripts assembled at Dallas' place to play a Colonial game using the "Black Powder" rules.  I had tried Black Powder for the first time during my recent visit to Regina and was really impressed with the rules. I was hoping for a second successful run through with the group at our home base back in Winnipeg. 

The emir's standard

The scenario was a slight "what-if" type encounter, imagining a bold Madhist emir launching a probing attack against General Graham's force assembling at the port of Suakin in 1884. Irritated and keen to get into action, Graham sends a smaller force into a preliminary battle.

Camelry takes the lead - the beast are in a bad mood...

The table was 6' x 4'.  With the trusty Geo Hex terrain as a base, the setting included the ruins of a small trading station once run by the Egyptian administration in Sudan.  The British had to break the Madhists.  The Madhists had the same goal.  The break points were similar - first side to have half their units broken would lose.

The British had a battalion from the Cameron Highlanders (or the Gordons, depending on your interpretation of my brushwork on the kilts), a battalion from the Yorks & Lancs, a detachment of naval troops, a gatling gun and some lads from the 10th Hussars.

The Madhists had three big warbands of warriors with spears, a unit of cavalry with spears and carbines, a unit of camel scouts with carbines and two groups of skirmishers with captured Remington breech loaders.  They also had a captured Krupp gun crewed by Egyptian "volunteers".

Madhist skirmishers with rifles - likely captured from the Egyptians which had been previously "defeated"

This was only my second game of Black Powder, and the first game with the group here in Winnipeg, so I'm pretty sure I messed up a couple of rules.  But overall it was a great game.  Dallas, Frederick and Dave V. played the British side while Mike F, Kevin H. and Perry played the Madhists.

Another view of the Madhist attack

Black Powder moves very fast.  Because command success can vary, some units can cover quite a bit of distance if you give a bold order and roll well (or with luck - whatever :). The Madhists roared forward into the approaching British lines.  The Brits responded with crashing volleys from their Martini-Henrys and counter charges from the 10th Hussars.

Madhist religious leader at the forefront of the cavalry.  The "WTF?" token was used to indicate disorder.

The Hussars caused some dramatic damage on the Madhists on the British left, but ultimately they took a lot of punishment broke after a couple of turns. On the British right the Highlanders withstood charge after charge, breaking a couple of Madhist warbands but they were ultimately overwhelmed by the combination of cavalry and irritating Madhist skirmishers!

Madhist Krupp gun, with overseer and Egyptian "volunteers"

As the Madhist units wore away, the British tried to stick grimly to their battle lines, hoping to settle the matter with musketry.  But Mike F in particular was hot rolling the morale saves.  The finish was very close - with the Hussars and Highlanders gone, the British were one unit away from breaking.  On the other hand, so were the Madhists!  Who would claim glory in the Sudan?

The 10th Hussars ride to glory - and a break point

As with all such systems, there was heartbreak in the command rolls for both sides.  The Madhists could not quite finish the job, but they came close. Command rolls played a part.  The British firing line won in the end, but just barely.  It was very, very close, a great game by both sides.

Dallas brought out the movement trays for "War of the Ring" and they worked well for the British.  I look forward to getting my own sabot-trays for these figures and playing more Black Powder in the future.

I really enjoy Black Powder.  The rules are very quick, simple and very flexible.  They certainly have a lot of similarities to Warmaster, but they are adjusted very nicely to get this style of game. The guys seemed pretty engaged with them.  As I said above, it was only my second run through so I probably screwed up a few calls but overall I think we had the spirit of the game.

As you can see from the pictures, photos of the British are lacking - I am hoping Dallas will upload some he took when he has a moment.  In the meantime, you can get a look at a similar game from Regina here.
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Thanks for posting the report, Greg! I've uploaded the pics I took of the game with some captions...

The Mahdist battle line

Mahdist cameleers

Some of the frothing Madhists

British line formed up with Hussars on the left, Yorks and Lancs in the middle and Highlanders at right

Yorks and Lancs, fitting well in the GW WotR movement tray

Disrupted Mahdist mob

Hussars hit the Mahdist right flank

Mahdist mob about to evaporate; Hussars charge through into camelry at top left...

Hussars slam into the Mahdist camelry, outcome is not so good for the horsemen

Camels roll over the blown Hussars and move to threaten the flank of the Yorks and Lancs...

Camels slam into the infantry - a nice co-ordinated charge by the Mahdists

Mahdists win the combat but the British withdraw in good reasonable order

Highlanders are under pressure on the other flank

Mahdist horsemen charge in...

"Epic fail" for a failed order by the Mahdist boss...

...matched by a British blunder!

Ultimately, British pluck carried the day - huzzah!!

More Colonial Sudan - Madhist Armoured Emir and Cavalry

Death to the colonial oppressors! 

Another colonial Sudan entry for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. This is a group of Madhist cavalry led by an armoured emir and his standard bearer. The figures are all from the Perry Brothers' amazing Colonial Sudan collection.

Armoured emir, with cloth barding

Another view of the barding and the chain mail

Cool armour - not sure it stops a round from a Martini-Henry...

The emir and the standard bearer are riding horses clad in a cloth barding that is quite unique - you can still see contemporary examples of it online from festivals/celebrations in various parts of Africa today.  I tried to copy the example from the Perry Brothers' product listing on their site (the paint job on that site is obviously much, much nicer).

Standard bearer riding high - banner allegedly says something about serving god, but it may say "up with Queen Victoria's skirt!" for all I know...

The banner is from The Virtual Armchair General.  It's not the nicest banner I have ever worked with, but it is still OK and the service from them is top notch.  I recommend them to you for any gaming needs you might have.

Baggara tribesmen

Rider with a "liberated" Remington rifle

The other riders are armed with a mix of spears and Remington breech-loader rifles, likely captured from one of the multiple Egyptian expeditions crushed by the Madhi's troops as his rebellion took hold of the Sudan.

I experimented with a new macro lense for a couple of these pictures 

I almost went cross-eyed painting the cloth barding on the emir and the standard bearer, but I was pleased with the result.  The Madhists will now have a nice, scary looking leadership focal point the next time we get the Sudan figs out on the table!