British and Baluchi for The Sikh Wars

 I have been working mainly in small batches on my Bengal European Light Infantry and the Baluchi's for the Bahawalpur contingent.

First figures are these command figures, all Wargames Foundry Opium Wars range. Its quite an old range now but they still stack up really well in comparison to more modern sculpts.

I love the pose of both the Officer and the Seagent, they feel right. Although the Officer is charging off and the NCO calming things down.

All four of the Privates are also Foundry, a couple of figures in this unit are Perry Carlist Wars marines which fit in surprisingly well.

These figures all have brass fitings and badges on their shako along with pompoms, I have clipped and scraped these off to give me the effect of the shako being covered.

Again the Baluchi's are being done in small batches each with a limited colour pallette which will be mixed together when enough figures are complete. I quite like this off white colour used here with a blue-grey and orange to add a splash of colour.

The eagle eyes will have spotted that this is actually two Foundry Baluchi's and one Foundry Afghan for different units.

This next batch have a more yellow buff colour with a mix of blue, red and orange to add colour.

Three of these are the Foundry Baluchi and the fourt a Perry Afghan, the Matchlock man and the Swordsmen will go into diferent units of ths Bahwalpur contingent.

A peak inside my painted figures box file. Like the workings of a mad scientists brain! As I mentioned I batch paints just 4 or so figures at a time, I get overfaced with large units all the same and dont enjoy them. Once varnished the pinted figures are put away unitl a complete unit is ready to be glued to bases and dispatched to the basing department. There are about 8 part painted units for the Sikh Wars here. Sikh Cavalry, matchlocks and swords, Muslim matchlocks and Swords, Baluchi Matchlocks and swords and the Bengal Europeans which is the most progressed of the lot. 

So the next batches will likely be more Baluchi's but in particular trying to get the last 7 or so of the Bengal Europeans finished

Until then stay safe!

The Road to Corrunna Part 3

 I arrived in plenty of time excited to crack on with the game, which I have thoroughly enjoyed so far. Greta figures, rules, scenario and company best re-introduction to wargaming you cold get after months off.

Initial thoughts being to finish off the armoured car and then start pushing over the river. Ken was a little isolated at the other ford with his Carlists, so hoping to pin the defenders of the next village, clear the woods opposite then spread out to link up with the Carlists. Any plan is better than none I guess. 

First move my Cavalry come out first and I decide to close assault the armoured car before the propaganda team can rally it. I roll some pretty poor dice though and I am pushed back whilst the armoured car is recovered and moves to the opposite bank of the river.

Undettered I push my tankettes forward and open up on the armoured car and it finally succumbs to overhwelming fire power. This is good news, however it is now blocking the ford! Ken fires on the Republican T26's with his own T26 with limited success.

I push the Nationalist armoured car forward and push the burning Republicna car off of the ford, I then get some movement and take the Legion to the edge of the river where they discover a ford and start a firefight with Republicans in the woods opposite.

I then get movement for my Morrocans and bite the bullet pushing them across the ford. Lets hope they get over before they are caught midstream in the open. No sooner have I said this than Robs Republican Card is drawn and the Regulares start to take casualties mid stream.

With a whole bunch of figures gathered at the ford its not the ideal point for Lonnie to roll a 10 for Republican aircraft! As usual the bombs thankfully miss but the Morrocans take a bit of a beating from the aircraft machine guns.

Next move the Legion charge forward but are unable to get into the cover of the woods, fortunately they take minimal casualties from Robs republicans. Its the HQ companies doing all the damage bizarely.

Ken is focusing all our artillery and mortar fire on the International Brigade troops which are now starting to arrive at the front line. 

Another round of firing from our T26 sees equally dismal results. Outnumbered 3-1 in tanks we really need to make a bit progress here.

There are some pretty funny event cards, a laundry card losing the Colours sees one of Robs companies on a -1 morale for the rest of the game.

We meanwhile get lucky with the event cards and get quite a bit of extra artillery fire, rolling 4 on a D4 for the number of rounds of artillery this could be pretty useful.

Republican infantry have crept forward to occupy the Cemetry in front of Kens Carlists, some accurate fire sees 2 casualties and a pin marker on the Carlists troops.

Meanwhile the Regulares have crossed the river but after being hit several more times are down to just 3 men.

The FT17 is slowly clanking forward and we use it as a point of reference for the artillery and quickly get some casualties on Robs troops occupying the first building in the village.

The Legion now charge the Republicans in the wood and push the first unit out with heavy casualties, they are also able to capture a good supply of ammo, heavy fire from the remaining Legion and Regulares puts 3 pin makers on the remaining company.

End of the turn and we use our spending money to buy two trucks to shift our reinforcements up, I love these very effective conversions.

The Republicans most effective units in the woods are now their HQ units, An exchange of heavy fire sees anarchist HQ destroyed and Robs PUME forced back, the Legion however pick up a pin marker, The Tankettes are now pushing along behind the wood to support Ken's Carlists.

The Tankettes are able to line up behind the cover of the woods and start to pour some fire into the cemetry and Lonnies Republicans are quickly starting to take casualties.

At this point Lonnie roles for another aircraft which again attacks the Carlists giving them further headaches.

Republican armour and the T26's fire twice each and knock out Kens T26, things look pretty grim as we have nothing to counter the Republican armour now except two dynamentero's still on the wrong side of the river.

My Morrocan Regulares push forward towards the village hoping to make inroads whilst the Republican armour is still occupied but well aimed fire from the village supported by a HMG decimates and pins the lead unit.

Rob's son Will is throwing some good dice for the Republicans, the famous bull which should be causing havoc however is wondering around the edge of the table bothering nobody.

My tankettes are in a great position to support Kens Carlists and are able to destroy the troops in the graveyard, unfortunately though without some anti tank capability Ken is going nowhere. 

At this point Ken and I had a conference, the Armour superiority of the Republicans outweighed our infantry superiority, with three battalions still to come on we had every chance of winning still but would need at leaat a whole days gaming just to move the troops up which was unlikely to provide a fun game for anyone so we decided to end the game here.

I have very throughly enjoyed the whole gaming experience, great fun, interesting rules, fantastic figures, thanks very much guys hope to game with you again soon.

Thanks for reading folks and until the next one stay safe!

Based & Completed Skinners Horse

A trip over to York today and the basing department had a few goodies for me to bring home, including this iconic unit, Skinners Horse.

They are one of those units I didnt feel I could do without if I was doing India, I had a bit of fun when doing them. First of all though a big thank you to chum Chris who picked up these two lovely jungle bases for me from The Last Valley, absolutely lovely thank you, using tem in all of these photos. 

You might remember that most of these figures were actually Hodson horse with no cummerbands, I added greenstuff to create cumberbands for them along with the Old Wagames Foundry figure the rest are all Emrpess figures. 

I particularly like this shot of them galloping into action. The irregular horse, forunners of the Bengal Lancers, had a mix of weapons which probably included lances, I have dropped a couple in as a nod to this.

The troopers (Sowars) were expected to provide their own horses and equipment, usually bought from the regiment but uniformity of horse colours was less of a concern with these units.

In this close up you can see the Wargames Foundry lancer on the left, I dont think he looks out of place at all.

These guys will add a real dash of colour to the collection, not that it needs it!

Looking forward to a game with them in the near future, fingers crossed!

Mainly Royal Ecossais off the Workbench for 1745 Rising

 Wiht just 6 to finish I wanted to tyr and get the Royal Eccossais off the workbench and onto bases varnshed and ready. I did however get ever so slightly distracted!

Chum Chris sent e a lovely painted Sikh Civilian he had picked up, a decent paintjob so I didnt do much to it really, repainting the flesh and beard, highlighting the turban and sash then adding a jezail. I like how it came out.

The original being pretty good this chap probably took me 15 minutes to tidy up.

Whilst I was workign on the Royal Scots I thought I might run out a few more highlaners too, these four are all from Redoubt enterprises.

As with preiuose figures I am keepign the Plaid very simple.

The last of the Ecossais here, 6 of the 8 figures from the Kickstarter to finish off the unit.I particularly like the standing loading chap but they are all very nice indeed.

I will have a front rank kneeling and a rear rank standing so these guys add some much needed variety to the aiming/firing figures I already have.

There is still soem debate over the uniform these guys wore on campaign, personally I like this cut down highland version of the uniform with a couple of officers in more formal full French uniform.

These guys, unlike previous figures, come with cooking utensils etc hanging from their backs, with one of the kneelign figures having two knapsacks.

A close reveals some nice detail, I especially like the rabbit these guys will be having for tea.

Based onto 40mm deep by 35mm wide MDF this is the colour party which looks particularly lovely in this regiment.

To make this wrk I spread the command across the rear rank rather than all on one base, otherwise the kneelign figures would have ended up in the rear ranks as well as the front. Really pleased with how they look.

A bit of a closer look at the unit, probably my favourite figures so far for this project.

Thats it for now, probably moving onto Sikh Wars again next, until then stay safe!