Highlanders Back From Basing Dept for 1745 Rising

I had a little care package arrived to cheer me up from the Basing Department in York today so I thought I might get some images and share them with you.

There are not stacks of figures but its nice to get a little bit of progress to share on this colourful project.

Really pleased with these figures and in particular the basing that the department as done this time, its been as good as mine for a while but I particularly liked this batch.

A few leader characters with this batch Including the British Officer, love this with the big watch coat.

The Royal Ecossais Sergeant is another lovely character and really pleased with this one in particular. A number of the junior command figures are so nice I felt compelled to replace them in the ranks and base them separately as leader figures. 

The Highlanders are a bunch of different manufacturers and as already discussed on round bases for that irregular look, using 2 and 3 man bases to allow for different sized units.

The left hand base are all Warlord figures from the arrant scum pack in their ECW range so potential to be used as redshanks for my Elizabethan Ireland project.

The centre base has 2 redoubt figures, again ECW and even better fit for Redshanks in Ireland.

The last base has two musketeers so could be used as a skirmish screen with two other 2 man bases, the advancing chap is Front rank and the loading chap is a Perry AWI militiaman with a head swap. I will be getting some Bicorne highland musketeers firing to flesh out the skirmish screens for these guys. As the earlier models don't have cockades these are useful for highlanders on both sides and can be used to fill out ranks for either Jacobite's or Argyl Militia.

These two leader figures are Flags of War, really lovely figures, the Officer in his greatcoat very reminiscent of the officer in the "Like Hungry Wolves" Embleton book. 

The Sergeant has a simple but bright pattern to his plaid which I particularly like. Having both figures allows some flexibility when I organise a number of groups into a clan regiment for gaming purposes.

Steady progress but that was always the plan for this project, I now have two groups of Highlanders and about 8 leader figures! This project will press on very quickly when the next kickstarter is delivered in a couple of months time and I can start to finish partially complete units off. 

Hope you like them too, see you next time, stay safe!

More Sikh Wars off the Workbench

I have a bunch more figures off the workbench and finishing another couple of units off for the British this time. The Wargaming butterfly currently satisfied to flit from one unit to another in this project rather than project to project so getting a decent ammount completed, it cant last.

The first one to share with you is this British Officer, a Perry Miniatures British Auxiluary Legion commander from their First Carlist War range.

The time line is about right for these figures and this uniform is a good fit for the Sikh Wars project.

I do like this blood bay colour of the horse too, just the sort of hunter an officer might have brought from home with him to India.

This latest bunch of Sepoys finishes another battalion for me, a mix of Iron Duke, Foundry and a Perry Napoleonic Plastic standard bearer with head swap I particularly like.

The light company in green might be slightly early, they had green faced black uniforms by the mutiny and were starting to move over to rifles too, but they look nice and are very simple to paint.

A close up of the redcoats gives a good view of the head swap for the plastic standard bearer. The head is from one of the Foundry Sepoys.

The left end light bob is Foundry, the other three are Iron Duke/ Empress. Lovely figures which work well together.

A bunch of mainly Muslim irregulars will fill out the ranks of my Muslim hill tribes, a real mix of makes here. I particularly like the officer.

This Perry plastic Afghan has had a Sikh head put on so he can mix in with my other Sikh irregulars.

This Iron Duke figure will be joining others to make up a unit of Bahalwalpur matchlockmen.

These three metals are all different makes from left to right Studio, Foundry and Perry. All fit together nicely enough.

These four Bengal Light Cavalry bring this unit to a full complement now too, its a lovely colour scheme.

All Iron Duke / Empress figures with the exception of the lighter horse which is Mutineer Miniatures.

Talking of finished units here is the Sepoy unit glued to bases ready to flit over to York for basing.

The last couple of Afghans gives me the figures for a command base of Muslim hill tribes.

This is the second regiment of Bengal Light Cavalry finished, bit more of a mix here, they are nearly all Iron Duke with the exception of the Officer, a Wargames Foundry Indian Mutiny figure, the horses however are a real mix. More detail when they are back from the basing department.

So good progress, the collection will look much fuller post lockdown than it did pre-lockdown for sure. Now we just need to get to a point where we can get them on table.

Stay safe and I will see you soon.

Sikh Wars gets a Rocket

 Whilst I have not seen images of Rockets for the Sikh Wars I have seen a couple of references to their use by the British, in particular Flashman refers to them at Ferozeshah and thats good enough for me.

Of course nobody does a Sikh Wars rocket and crew but the Perry's British Auxillery Legion rocket from the First Carlist War range is perfect.

I also took the opportunity to try something slightly different with the light box, suggestions were to leave the internal light off and light it with LED's externally only and use a blue back ground, so I have both blue and white here, have to say not a fan of the blue but the external light seems to have worked.

The only minor change to the figures is to give the crew white cap covers for their forage caps except the officer, the uniforms are literally identical to those in use in India so this works really well.

I was tempted to have a cloud of smoke and a rocket leaving the launcher but I was concerned I wouldnt make a good enough job, the figures are lovely so I decided not to detract from them.

I am still experimenting with the long dry grass, clumps like this at different legnths I think work a bit better than previous efforts, I like the effect but will continue to improve on this with practice I think.

The rules for rockets are super eratic and they rely on luck far more than anything else on table, both Black Powder and Sharp practice which I will use these with have fun rules for rockets but as you may have seen from previous battle reports they can also be very frustrating for the user.

I will try the blue background again with redcoated Sepoys to see if that works any better.

I took the opportunity to get a few snaps of this base of Sikh irregular cavalry too as I based it at the same time as the rocket.

Again the white background seems to work really well and sets off the colours, even the pale ones.

The blue again whilst working just doesnt seem as nice to me.

Both figures are Wargames Foundry from the Sikh Wars range, with the trumpeter riding a Polish rennaisaince horse for variety.

So continued progress and focus on the Sikh Wars project and I continue to surprise myself by being able to stick with it for so long without getting distratced by other pretty things that "need" painting like the Jacobites, Elizabethans and Russian Civil War. I will eventually get around to finishiing those Great Northern War Swedes too. Promise!

Stay safe, see you soon.

Workbench update for Sikh Wars

 A bunch more figures off the workbench this week. Really pleased with the progress over recent weeks. Mainly regulars to start completing or partially completing some units for basing.

Regular readers will know that the butterfly in me has a tendancy to flutter from one project to another so its nice to see this project getting lots of attention and progress even if it is bits of units here and there.

First figures are Bengal Sepoys, all three Foundry from the Sikh Wars range and very nice too. This takes this unit well over half way, I will add a couple of Iron Duke flank company figures to this.

This senior officer will command one of my Brigades, he is a Perry First Carlist War British Officer and fits in really well.

The frock coat is typical but most officers would have worn forage caps for comfort, this Shako though adds something a little different to the figure.

As I already have two figures painted for ths units of Bengal Native Light Cavalry these Iron Duke figures take the unit over the half way finished mark. One rider in this pack comes with a turban oddly, with all the rest in forage caps, clearly he needed a head swap so I swiped an Indian Mutiny gunners head, the buglers horse is from Musketeer miniatures the other three are Iron Duke/Empress.

These Irregulars are Skinners horse and again I already have two so another unit over half complete. I had a little fun with these, most were donated by chum Chris Charlton (Cheers Chris) they were however not quite the correct figures for skinners, rather than replace them with the correct figures I greenstuffed sashes for them which I think look quite nice.

The lance armed Sowar is actually an old wargames foundry figure I picked up, again the addition of a greenstuff sash and I am really happy with him, the shield just adds to the irregular look. 

These seven Sikhs finish off the latest battalion of Sikh regulars. Happy with these. Nice and bright but contrast with the other unit colour schemes.

The full battalion will wing its way to the basing department when lockdown restrictions permit me to see my daughter again. Hopefully there will be lots of based figures coming back to West Yorkshire to photograph and share with you at the same time.

The first Bahawalpur regiment is also complete and ready more the trip to York for basing.  The end result here is exactly as I had imagined with a variety of shades of colour but still general uniformity across the unit.

Hopefully the next workbench update might see a finished Cavalry unit, maybe even two!

Stay safe.