Sikh Gorchurra Cavalry and Highlanders Workbench

 The butterfly has been trying to get out.

I decided to let it wear itself out with some colourful figures.

Firstly some Sikh irregular cavalry. Bit of a mixed bag as that is what was primed and ready to paint. I am a little short of mounted officers anyway so......

I purposely went full out on the colour schemes to get as much variety as possible, think I managed to achieve that.

This first figure is a Studio Miniatures Character from the Kickstarter, lovely single piece casting, however the sword it comes with is very short, more like a curved dagger so I removed it along with the hand and added a plastic one from the Wargames Atlantic Afghan Box set. Pleased with the outcome.

This chap is a Foundry Sikh with armour under a colourful jacket. 

Another foundry figure, this time an unarmoured officer. I have kept his horse pretty simple so I have more choices for the unit he might lead

Another armoured horseman with a real mix of bright colours. 

Moving on to the 45 this is a Front Rank British Officer for Barrells. 

Batch painting with a grey blue in this instance, really obvious the size difference with the two Front Rank figures and the Redoubt swordsman.

I have used some simple and rich colours, these guys will not be sharing a base or even a unit so I dont mind the massive size difference.

A further group, this time I wanted to throw in a nice Twany orange colour with the blue grey. It was a bit of a push but I think its worked, not too bright but I wont be adding loads of these.

The Redoubt figure looks HUGE here, not sure he is actually that much bigger,  I think the tawny works with the blue. The khaki certainly does.

The penny is to stop the Redoubt figure falling over, the firing figure is a Bicorne ECW figure and the right hand charging chap is from the Flags of War 1745 range.

These will be mixed in with the other highlanders in multiple coloured plaids currently in the painted figure box in preparation for our first game with these guys.

More to come, thanks guys for reading. Stay Safe.

43rd Bengal Native Infantry Complete

 The second of the completed units I have based myself is the 43rd BNI. I also completed a further mounted officer so lets look at him first.

This is another figure from the Empress mounted officer pack and in this case I have chosen a standing horse which I think suits hime quite well. I think he looks perfect as a brigade commander of infantry.

 He has yellow facings so may perhaps be from the 10th or 29th foot in Staceys or Taylors Brigade, possibly Staceys as the 43rd were brigaded there too.

Here is the battalion complete, I am a bit torn with these guys. The mix of the covered shakos and white trousers I think looks great but I am really not a fan of these particular Studio figures.

Like much of the Studio miniatures Colonial figures these old figures were withdrawn and many (but not these yet) were replaced with new much nicer sculpt.

Whilst they do have different heads its very difficult to tell so to add some variety I have dropped in some plastic Napoleonic British with head swaps to try and break things up.

The odd thing is that the torsos work really well and the heads kind of do when removed from the torso. The arms and cuffs are all wrong and the collar is too thin, they are not a million miles away but not my favourite figures by a lon way.

The officer with bandaged arm is Studio miniatures and a lovely figure, pleased with how is off white sling came out.

The standard bearers are the lovely Empress figures from the Indian Mutiny range, two musicians from Foundry Sikh Wars and the drummer next to the officer is plastic Perry Napoleonic with a metal bandaged head.

You can see the two other plastic figures here extreme left and third from left, they look OK and the ehads suit them strangely.

A close up of the first plastic, not wondeful but he will do.

You can also see second fromt he elft a further head swap for a bareheaded figure, this came out quite nice to bw honest.

So I remain undecided about these guys but it is another completed unit and a bit different to the others to add some variety.

More to come, until then stay safe.

AWI Sharp Practice AAR Welcome Back

 It is with a great sigh of relief and a big smile I share with you our first Sharp Practice game back at Steves after well over a year.

We kept it simple and fun, as always and was great to be back.

Our scenario has a barn full of ammunition next to a church with some local Tory Milita skirmishers guarding it. A force of Rebels (Patriots) are marching to steal the crowns munitions whilst another force of Crown troops and Natives march to stop them.

All good clean fun.

Chris Charlton Commands the "American" Forces:

3 x 6 units of Rifle Skirmishers with level 2 commanders

2 x 8 Continentals with level 2 officer

3 x 8 veteran Milita with level 2 officer

Level 3 Force Commander

58 men.

The Crown Forces were split between Chris Flowers and I:

10 x Jaegers Level 2 Leader

10 x Natives Level 2 Leader

2 x 6 Militia Skirmisher Level 1 Leaders

3 x 8 British Regulars Level 2 Leader

Level 3 Coammnder

56 Men.

We all got moving fairly quickly with Chris Charlton getting one unit of Rifles in the woods flanking the church, our two Militia skirmisher units lined the fence at the edge of the village whilst the regulars and Jaegers pressed towards the buildings and the Dastardly rebels did the same, Chris Flowers took his sneaky Native unit left to push through the woods.

Three moves in and my British are nearly in postion lining the fence and protecting the barn, Chris F has got his Jaegers into the church and started to inflict casualties. His Indians are moving at a snails pace, perhaps too focused on being sneaky or just bad dice! My milita skirmishers are adding the odd casualty onto Chris's formations, meanwhile Chris has opened a huge 26 dice volley onto one unit of skirmishers at long range and inflicted just the one casualty, he is now pretty stuck at long range having to reload and fire rather than close.

The Indians are finally in the woods as our skirmishers continue to trade fire, my British have turned to face and presented but unable to fire so far. a second volley from Chris is much more effecive inflicting 3 casualties on my regulars. The Jaegers snipe off one of Chris's rifles as do my skirmishers, losing one each in return.

Chris's rifles focus on the Jaegers in the church with no effect given the good cover.

Chris C's skirmishers are blocking his continentals from firing but as they are so close the casualties on the rifles are being spread over the Continentals too. My first British volley is less than devastating despite controlled volley and first fire.

Finally the Natives are in range and charge into the flank of the rifles in the wood,  The rifles are quickley dispatched being both flanked and un-loaded.

The Natives are now in a good postion to line the edge of the wood and cause some havoc amongst the continentals. Note the obligatory tray of biscuits in the background, out of the authors reach so they last longer.

Chris C pulls his rifle unit behind the Continentals who pour a volley into the British, the return fire from the regulars and Jaegers however starts to punish the continentals.

The Indians line the edge of the wood and begin to add their fire on the poor old continentals to.

The British regulars are also taking a pounding and the Milita skirmishers next to them are gradually being whittled down too.

Chris F holds his Indians back for one more turn to have a volley from all 9 plus 10 Jaegers, 2 skirmishers and 17 British regulars.

The effect is devastating the continentals start to fall back, a lucky shot also puts their commander out of action preventing any removal of shock.

The British havent got it all their own way however, the Veteran Patriot militia are whittling away at both the regulars and skirmishers and an event card sees the barn with the munitions catch fire from the last volley of the regulars.

The Coninentals are pushed back fiurther and their formation broken.

Chris Flowers decides to finish things with the tomahawk, the nearest unit is 9 inchees away so he uses a card to give himself 3 dice of movement which should be plenty, he rolls three 2's. Oh dear.

The British switch targets to the milita and start to inflict casualties, however a further event card sees them get excited and charge forward, perhaps just trying to escape the burning barn at their backs!

Chris/s Natives finally make contact with Chris C's continentals and wipe them out leaving the remaining Inidans on the flank of the militta.

At this point we call it a night, the Continentals and one unit of rifles have been destroyed and the Veteran Militia are not in a great position. The British regulars are also taking a pounding and now in the open but the Patriots are not in a position to win.

A thoroughly fun game and so pleased to be back, thanks Chris C for this last picture with the pyrotechniks added on to the barn. very evocotive.

I hope you enjoyed our little game I know I did. Until next time stay safe.