Ruined Temple of ???

the Hellenistic pike next to "the temple".  I didn't realize I also photographed my markers for those units which have "legged it".  The chopped off legs are remnants of my plastic constructions and might make these as useful indicators for other rules.....

 Having done a "Roman Temple" and a Celtic Roundhouse for those respective armies, I thought I might need to make a corresponding Ancient Hellenistic something.  So a while back now - having just found these photos deep within the memory card - I put together a temple based on a small photo within a travel promotional pamphlet.  It is constructed out of a piece of foam core, pieces of styrofoam and card with columns made from very old cardboard tampon applicators.... Needless to say, my wife, now well past that stage of womanhood was surprised, firstly, she had given or that I had asked for such items, and, secondly, I had kept them for these many years!  

after a quick primer, colour of the styrofoam and card still visible.

Certainly no prize winning example, but it was a very quick build - no more than an hour and a half from first cut to finished painting, having primered it shortly after gluing and then painting it immediately after that.  

Added some terrain basing which helps the look of it.  Interestingly, the paint color of the "stone" has not changed from the first photo to this, however the camera certainly has noticed a difference! 

  

Somewhere south of Battleford....

The ‘birth’ of my new unit of NWMP newly painted last night.

 The North-West Mounted Police, were the Canadian Constabulary of the later 19th Century used in modern-day Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba “the Prairie Provinces”.  This is a vast area, some 1,780,000 km2.  For comparison, the UK is 243,000 km2.  The southern area of Saskatchewan, the primary theatre of operations during the North-West Rebellion is approximately the size of modern Germany.  For all this area of patrol, only some 500 officers were employed and so thus the very small contingent for my force made from conversations of the Perry American Civil War plastic cavalrymen.  The dismounted trooper happens to be a Brigade Games Boer with a new plastic Home Service head to represent the mounted infantrymen status of the contingent. 

While the historical relationship of the NWMP and the native aboriginal population was generally good, some of the Cree joined the Metis of Louis Riel in conflict with the Canadian government.  Under this guise, I created a very small scenario to use my newly painted NWMP contingent for that campaign and that of the native teepees built during the summer.

Not sure about the accuracy of this work but certainly presents an interesting portrait of the NWMP 

NWMP on parade at Fort Calgary. Note helmet and white gloves from which I took my inspiration. Actually doubtful that the patrolling troopers would continue to wear such gear but this IS wargaming and we all do the full-dress appearance of our miniatures, don't we?

The scenario has the NWMP to determine the belligerent status of the native encampment.  The camp was large with a woods to the south and unknown to the policemen, a slight escarpment in front of the camp.

 Cree tipi/teepee.  My tipis are from old conical drinking paper cups held in storage for many years!

The Canadians trotted toward the camp with careful view to the small copse of trees to their right. A high-pitched voice was followed by firing, wounding one of the troopers. In the commotion the NWMP were unaware of the firing from the escarpment (no hits from this direction at all, so presumably no effect or reaction from the otherwise involved troopers).  

The log marker represents a 'pinned' status, the blackened cotton ball (those often stuffed in oversized pill bottles are wonderful for this purpose) represents a shot from the Cree hidden in the trees. The troopers are converted from Perry plastic American Civil War cavalrymen. While the mounted fellows have retained their heavy gloves (which I have given them from 'green stuff') their dismounted companion has placed his under his belt on the back - also green stuff.

Recovering their motivation (making the pinning test) they moved away from the fire and toward the camp.  More firing came from the woods but to no effect. However the troopers were now startled from the close range fire from the hidden position in front of them, and the same trooper was again hit ( I diced to see which of the three would be hit)  Pinned once again, they waited the Cree reaction but none was forthcoming.  Unbeknown, the Cree were short of ammunition and arrows thus equally unable to continue the fight. (I rolled very low for the amount of shots the Cree could deliver)

But the policemen had their answer about the Cree attitude and decided to quickly retire to report. ( I rolled maximum on the dice for their morale/activation!)

Royal Marine Artillery (Napoleonic era)

 I recently pulled out an old reference page I had photocopied years ago and discovered that the rocket battery I had painted wore the Royal Artillery, not the correct Royal Marine Artillery uniform. Well...

Uniform plate from "Military Uniforms in America, Years of Growth 1796-1851, The Company of Military Historians, pg.81.

Actually it was just the shako cords and tunic lace from yellow to white but it does give a slightly different look and a distinctive unit on the table.

Successors on the thin side

 I have been smitten with the construction of ancient armies using the Wargames Atlantic skeletons and did some as Celtic Ancient Britons.  The WA sprues are obviously designed with a Hellenistic Greek flavour in mind containing pike arms which so far had not used. Pikes were used by the later Successor armies of Alexander fighting the incursions of Celts ( “Galatians” ) and even employing elephants.   Hmm, that’s kinda cool, and allows me to pick a third different army to play! I had a 3D print of a Woolly Mammoth printed which I then modified mainly by the tusks (I could not find a plastic skeleton model - at least to scale…) and begged wargaming friends for some spare ancient Greek type plastic parts who kindly provided enough to fill a 24 point Dragon Rampant force (thanks David and James!).  

The 3D print was extremely poor so needed to literally pore a bottles of liquid Super Glue over the model to prevent it from layering away as I stripped off the supports. Uggh!! Luckily avoided gluing my fingers together but certainly swore a lot in the process!  The purple cloth over the mid-section of the elephant seemed to be a common feature of the Hellenistic elephants - or at least to the modern illustrators and sculptors - and was needed more on the left side than the right side to cover the gap from missing ribs as the model was breaking apart in my hands! I needed to re-sculpt major portions.  

The model was a good in design however as the thin howdah could be removed and a more substantial one built on the flat surface with styrene sheets and corner pieces. The large Greek shields give more ‘identity’ to the model.  Finally, I added the thick ropes holding the fighting compartment onto its back with green stuff.  

The cavalry were constructed again with horses using melted down plastic sprues to represent the decomposing flesh.   Full torsos for the riders were used needing only to add skeleton arms, legs and, some helmeted heads.  Not really natural poses (They started as infantry and it is really tough to glue on stiff legs into place while also imbedding in a still curing green-stuff saddles!  But heck, these are the usual uncoordinated muscle-less skeleton dudes!)   Added the flowing capes from a medieval set and gave them a bit of color as being the elite Companions.  

Along with those figures for the collection, I made a temple out of styrofoam and wine corks while watching sports on the tube.  A thick layer of watered-down PVA glue (White Glue) gives a good hard coating and nice surface to paint.  

Roman Auxilia protecting the temple

Celtic chariots moving past the old 'white marble' temple

The Successors advancing on, rather a-historically, Imperial Romans in a recent game using a three-way fight scenario. The Galatians/Ancient Britons are facing more Romans on the other end of the table. The two would-be allies then fought against each other to a draw with the remnants of the Romans looking on....

I think I have now throughly quenched the ancients builds and currently have yet another British 1812 unit on the paint table.

the original French Zouaves

The famous Zouave military unit of the French Army started as a tribal enemy to the French occupation of modern-day Algeria in 1832 but within only a couple of years they were recruited. Its original commander designed the distinctive uniform based upon the tribal dress which, interestingly, did not much alter for another 150 or so years.  The ethnic makeup of the unit soon became all French in nature, but the uniform remained quite standard.  I am showing the earlier dress which included the green turban for the 2nd battalion.  The 1st wore a red turban; while later years had the turban in the well-known white as this had less a Muslim connotation.  The leggings are portrayed differently by various illustrators, but I went with black as this is a bit different than the usual brown leather look.  I am using the Perry ACW plastic versions which are modelled after the famous American 5th New York Volunteers who, in turn, modelled their uniform very closely to the French version.  Thus I only needed to modify the round American canteen into the black leather water carrier of the French (albeit of a slightly later era to be honest) and remove all the oval Union Army buckle badges. A common trait of the French of the era was to cover the ammunition pouch with a linen which I mimicked to give them that much more not-the-American-version look! 

Here they are somewhere in North Africa with a French occupied village in the background.  

A Canadian colonial clash

 The Battle of Batoche, 1885 

While the famous American conflicts against the native populations of the ‘West” were almost over by the time of this battle, Canadian expansion into the Prairies was continuing apace.  In the area of Saskatchewan, the indigenous Cree and Metis ( a mixed race and culture of farmers and hunters of French-Canadian and Native inhabitants ) were feeling the pressure on an ever increasing eastern homesteader possession; with Louis Riel the ‘spiritual’ leader of this very autonomous people. History has called this conflict ‘the Northwest Rebellion’.

While a few other major skirmishes had occurred, it was at the village of Batoche in modern-day Saskatchewan, Canada that the decisive battle to end their resistance to this pressure was backed by the military of the Canadian government which rested upon militia units from the eastern provinces.  These units made up of civilians were certainly enthusiastic enough but inexperienced.  The few Metis were often good shots and very experienced in ‘field craft’ but ill-supplied.  

Faced with the Canadian advance upon their ‘capital’ village, the Metis built small, effective and well disguised, three-man rifle-pits blocking the plodding Canadian advance by Frederick Middleton.   

The Metis rifle pits.  The figure within are Brigade Games Boers without any alteration.  Period photos show the Metis in similar attire.

What is interesting about this whole affair is the decisive battle was a prolonged four-day affair with only some 24 dead and 76 wounded total from both sides from the 1,166 engaged (Wikipedia). With my calculator at the ready, this is only just over 8% casualties over a lengthy 4 days. With an eight hour ‘work day’, this would have on average 1 casualty every 20 minutes or so.    No Somme, Cannae, Shiloh, or Little Big Horn here.  But with that, most rulesets have great clumps of miniatures removed from firing and combat.  Obviously this will not do.  However my new, go-to rule set of “The Men Who Would Be Kings” (a colonial set by Osprey Publishing) could be modified to accommodate the lack of casualties but still have units pinned, unable to effectively operate and have ‘morale’ issues to prevent much activity.  One other aspect of the battle was the ever decreasing ammuntion supply of the Metis.  They simply did not have the supplies needed.  Their fire had so decreased by the fourth day, along with the withdrawal of many who had given up the fight, that the Canadian soldiers frustrated by their commanders slow activity took it upon themselves to charge the Metis rifle-pits thus ending any further Metis resistance. 

The 'TMWWBK' rules are adequate but for two small changes.  First, any casualties would be limited to one per successful firing regardless of the actual number of hits. Pinning, not casualties, would be the important issue.  Secondly the Metis would set up in the rifle-pits designated as ‘hard cover’ and combined with their good-shooter ability and the Canadian militia poor firing, will have the unequal shooting which occurred.  However, the Metis ever decreasing ammunition supply would be handled by giving them a secret die roll (from the Canadian player) how many shots they would be allowed. I gave a 1d6 roll per rifle-pit;  but each day would see that amount decreased by one. Thus at best the Metis would have only 50% firing minus any further casualties or abandonments in the final phase of the game.   The Canadian player might see less fire power but would be unsure of the amount remaining thus continue with caution which was the trademark of the engagement.  

A “day” ( the historic battle lasting four days) would be 8 turns in length.  The Canadian player must have overcome all resistance to win.  If at the end of each ‘day’ (the 8 turns) and the terms of victory not met, the ‘day’ is over and the action pauses.  Immediately in the ‘morning’ the players can reposition their units with their morale afresh  (minus previous casualties of course ) in any new attack position along the start line for the Canadians or any available rifle-pit for the Metis.   

a Canadian Rifle unit in a staged photo.  During the game they did not reach this close to the Metis rifle  pits!

a red tunic clad Canadian militia unit. Indeed, some of the units sent by the Government, were still to wear their dress uniforms including the Home Service uniforms  

The TMWWBK rules are interesting as activation and morale are key aspects but can be very dice fickle.  The resultant lack of action and easily gained pinning effects are perfect for re-creating this battle. The photos are from my second solo play-test.  

The Canadian Militia, whose dress was very much influenced/copied that of the British home country, were in either contemporary rifle-green or red tunics.  As far as I know, the only source for miniatures are 1980s RAFM miniatures.  These are small “true 25mm” very stiff in posture and lacking multiple poses.  Thus I needed to create my own and used Perry Union ACW plastics. While not completely accurate, they do look the part and I needed to only to remove the oval badges and green-stuff the glengarry caps or, in some cases, add a Perry ‘Home Service’ helmet head.  (indeed some units wore these! )…. oh, and a different paint scheme, of course.  Much of the militia had no other uniform for campaign but their full dress version.  

The Canadian uniform of the era

The very dark green - almost black of the Rifle Regiments. I highlighted a dark green over a black base color on the miniatures.  

the model within the Park Site's pavilion 

I built my model rifle pits on this example.

Tower building

and multi-tasking…

Hey, I like watching American football like the next guy, but as someone with a stopwatch has suggested, there is only some 9 minutes of actual playing in the average American Football game.  The rest is the huddle, timeouts, or the color guy relaying statistics or making insightful observations like "You have to run the ball up the field to make the yards" . There are always the replays to cover the intervening time.   It is therefore easy to accomplish other tasks while “watching the game”.   Gluing hundreds of individual card tiles on a model’s roof is a useful way to spend that quality time.  

I just noticed the different colour of card in the roof tiles so a tracking of my progress can be seen.

 

The tower’s column core is a very thick card roll (ex-plastic wrap holder) on which pieces of cereal box card is glued.  The wood upper deck is a packing tape roll covered in wooden coffee stir sticks. The roof is removable with flooring to place figures if necessary. The lower windows are metal versions stuck on and yes, the main door is well high up the tower but I have constructed removable stairs so the inhabitants can make it a bit more defensible.    Now to paint the thing!

Poniatowsky -Polish Commander

Napoleonic fans will recognize this commander's name.  The dashing leader of the Poles for Napoleon, he struck a pose quite equal to Murat.  

DavidB, one of my wargame buddies spotted him in my last blog post.  I thought I had previously posted about him but can't find it, so I thought I'd give Poniatowsky a quick spotlight.

My version of him was created from a miscellaneous metal horse I had lying about, added plastic cavalry legs, a saddle and cloth,  modified the Poles's torso with a bit of green stuff, glued on arms.  [These gave me the most grief to be honest as I needed them to look like they were holding the reins.]  To the horse was added the lace and decorations to the horse (the horse coloration was apparently popular with him - and the much older Polish Winged Hussars if the classic 'uniformologist' Richard  Knotel's illustrations are to be believed).  Finally,  the square topped chapska, a Polish particularity, was a chore too much -- I simply cut off a poor lancers metal head...

Not my best work but who doesn't like bright pink (my version of "Polish Crimson") on a uniform! Heck, even the German SS tankers gave their black uniforms pink trim!

a Roman Fantasy

Purist historical players specially followers of Napoleonics, ACW, War of 1812, English Civil War, …well, all except perhaps those for the love of anything Roman, please look away now as I introduce my second only fantasy army…converted skeletons.

Frankly, the only fantasy army I can really tolerate are skeletons; probably because they are still human, albeit without flesh.  (Yes, yes, so some may consider zombies, but have they not essentially become a different species?? And they are more apocalyptic than classic fantasy anyway) 

Sitting in a box for years has been a Warlord plastic Early Imperial Roman collection together with accompanying Foundry metals (nice match those), but having already seven other Roman armies which I don’t play with, so it sat.

The idea started thumbing through an old war-game magazine had an article on “Broken Legions” showing skeleton/zombie Romans which looked interesting.  I had just a couple of old skeletons of unknown providence which were made as a ballista crew for fun. (see  previous post)

Anyway, one thought leads to another and so sorted through the box of plastics and metals to divide between those who should go to perhaps (??) a new “Infamy, Infamy” Roman army and those plastic types I could “sacrifice” for conversion into skeletons and for their equipment.

Careful counts were made to insure I had enough shields and heads (!) for the I,I Romans should I do those later.  

New Wargames Atlantic Skeletons were selected for the fantasy Romans (*)

I suppose with Jason and the Argonauts old movie skeleton scene in my head (see: short YouTube  ) with the remaining pile I went to work carving, gouging, removing, adding…

Used old wood dowels I had around for years to create a ruined temple.  Originally made for just one of the units but liked it so much I spread the wealth so having each unit have a bit of temple for its bases.  I found I could stretch the numbers a bit for a fourth unit.  Running out of dowel pieces for columns, I made "more temple" with a spare metal Foundry Roman officer becoming a statue atop a cork stopper with its head toppled to the ground.  ( …return of the Legions after the fall of Empire?…)  

The emerging legionaries is again inspired by the movie scene.  The four units are supported by a battery of ballista.  Surprisingly had two more ballista in metal in the box thus the other army has enough and so could use all the plastics for this contingent. 

As is becoming usual with my recent endeavours,  no idea when I might employ this new army, but, and while my wife hates this expression, it is not the destination but the journey is the true purpose of life’s travels. I had much fun (and time!) doing up this collection. However the more I look at it the less skellie and more Roman it becomes.

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(*) Timing is everything.  I mentioned my interest in this to my buddy WillB, who offered a bunch of half-done Warlord plastic types (nee-Wargames Factory) but then immediately thereafter the LFGS contacted me that the long awaited product ‘I ordered’ finally came in.  The two brands I consider not compatible so WillB’s have become medieval versions some with new 12th Century helmets/heads attached to be done later. A more traditional skeletal force to be sure. 

( Although two of the emerging legionaries are indeed originally his creations as he was inspired by the movie and lead me in that direction.)

Napoleonic Baggage.

“Napoleonic baggage” is what he brought to his marriage to Marie Louise….
…or perhaps the necessary wagons on which an army must exist.

Needing models for both the grand game and the newer smaller focus of all-cavalry actions, I based both horse and wagon onto thin bases, but then created the thick bases of the grand game for attaching them temporarily.
These are my Dutch-Belgians of the ‘Waterloo Campaign’.  The horses are Essex, the riders plastic conversions, and the wagon is of MDF wood from Warbases.

The double team looks better for the smaller scale game while a single team - below- is more representative in the larger scale game 

Scrap Iron

A tank model with this much damage is just scrap  iron  plastic.

My friend WillB builds his nice tank models then kindly donates the left over bits to me. This time parts of a German panzer including a partial turret and hull.  From those I glued on any and every bit or piece which he left on the sprue.  The gun really sets off the model sagging as it is.  I hope the whole image suggests a massive internal explosion.

The model is for my Russia winter 1941 theme for What a Tanker and will be a ‘terrain piece’ for the vehicles to move around or hide

a 20th C. Roman infantryman....

Inspired by a friend’s inventive mashup of Landsknecht armed with a MG34 WW2 machine gun (!) and images of modern soldiers with very Imperial Roman looking armour of which I have always wanted to create,  I have done my own plastics mashup of a Imperial Roman (c. 100 AD and an Imperial Japanese infantryman WW2 (c. 1940) both by Warlord Games.

Obviously the armour - the famous Lorica Segmentata must be shown - heck, not Imperial Roman without it - as would the helmet which I smoothed of details to get a slightly more modern look.  Steel colour was used but a more modern dull green could be effective for more current looking soldiers.  Two more quintessential Roman items are the ‘caligae’ [army sandals] and the ‘baltea’ [ the dangly straps in front of, well, the dangly bits ]. Both these were kept, but the main uniform is early 20th century.  The Japanese uniform has a long tunic covering the rump which was about the same length as the Roman one thus I painted in a dull red which is over the long sleeves and trousers painted a modern dull colour. As this uniform is from the 1930’s/WW2, I did not go for a baggier camouflaged version and so left the puttees which are painted in buff so giving a leather bound look instead (something picked up from the barbarians in the intervening years?).

Fun little project.

The large amount of plastic Romans I have might still be “amended”.  Looking toward making them the “Lost IX Legio”.  Lots of skeletons, mangled limbs, dead flesh and rusted armour. That could be an army.  Now to get some bits and parts.

I have cheated a bit and already created a ballista crew from the few skellie bits I had at the very bottom of a box for some reason….