Latest Workbench

With a little time off I managed to get a bit of painting done. I ma really pleased with my progress and if I can grab a bit of the basing departments time I should not be far off 4 Brigades of the British forces, plenty for a decent one night game. The Sikhs of course already have plenty of irregular troops in particular though some regulars to stiffen them would be welcome.

Here is a bunch of the latest off the bench, there will be some more by the time I post this so I will try to add them in as I go along.

After playing Chain of Command recently I was inspired to paint a few more modern figures so here are a bunch of Afghans for the 1919 Third Afghan War, still a long way to go with this project but I love the Empress figures.

These Sepoys in Shako will complete a third battalion for the Company forces. The loading figure is Iron Duke and also a head swap, he does look taller than the other older Foundry 25mm but I am sure wont look too out of place. The second picture has these based up with some of their pals, the light company and command are already with the basing department.

If you visit the blog you will already be aware that I had been scratching my head about the Gurkha's for this project. I have three already done, all Iron Duke Sepoy conversions. For this three I used head swaps from the old Foundry Indian Mutiny Gurkha's. Two Iron Duke figures and one Foundry. I quite like them.

For the Kukri's I used a spear head then bent it slightly to give me the look of a sheathed knife. I am reasonably happy with the outcome.

I have also been working through Sepoy;s wearing the Dhotti pants as I understand some units used these in hot weather on campaign. A mix of Foundry and Iron Duke for this unit.

Taking advantage of Foundry's Christmas sale I picked up 8 more of the Mutiny Matchlock men, these 8 will complete the twenty man unit. The other 3 bases are already with the basing department in York.

This one is a test figure for the Bengal Europeans. From the Foundry China range and also ideal for Afghanistan I have cheated with the shako. Never happy with the results of my green stuff experiments I have instead simply trimmed all the brass work of the shako and then painted it white. I am reasonably happy with the result. I have a battalion to paint so hopefully this method will work.

The trousers are a paler blue and are the lighter trousers these guys wore on campaign.

The last 6 figures to finish off the Sepoy battalion in Dhotti. The command all have white trousers so these will look quite different to the other units so far completed. Again a mix of Iron Duke and Foundry. The aggressive poses of the Iron Duke figures in particular will make this unit quite dynamic.

I am also still working through the Nottinghamshire regiment with their covered Shako's which I picked up already converted with greenstuff, the command base below takes me to to 3 out of 5 bases painted. Perry Carlist Wars British which are again lovely figures.

I have not been neglecting the Sikhs either. This NCO will go towards completing the unit of 20 odd year old Sikhs I picked up and add some much needed regulars to my current forces. Along with the 7 Old Glory figures the unit is completed.

I was also able to finish this mounted Dragoon officer to used as a Brigadier. Not sure of the make of the horse, the rider is Studio miniatures with a head swap and a sword hand swap too as the other one looked like a large carving knife.

I also took the opportunity to paint a couple of command figures from the Galloping Major range. Now these are lovely characterful figures which paint easily but way too big to mix with the other ranges I have, I thought though that the command figures being based separately for the leaders in SP2 may be OK. The first two have some out nice but still to see if they fit in on the table top.

So keeping pretty busy whilst I am off during the festive period. Started to paint a unit of Light Dragoon's as I want to replace my Studio ones with Foundry ones. I have also got stuck into an Elephant Limber donated by Mark. This is a left over from the first project we ever did nearly 30 years ago, I will re-paint it but keep to Marks original colour schemes for the most part. Cheers Mark. I also want to try get a few more of the Nottinghamshire regiment done before returning to work, this unit is half way there so shouldn't be too much of a stretch unless I get side tracked by the Elephant and the Dragoons of course.

So with all that said timing of this should be about right to say thank you for reading through my ramblings this year and all the very best for 2020.

P.S. I knew I wouldn't be able to resist.