This morning the first order towards my new project arrived from Peter Pig and it's from the Colonial range rather than Wars of The Roses as I had been hinting at! To be honest I had been unable to decide for a couple of weeks which I wanted to go with first and I have no doubts that I will do both but for now it's into the Sudan with British in Khaki and Grey uniforms and camel mounted cavalry fighting hordes of nasty Mahdists. I'm approaching this primarily as an enjoyable painting project, at least to begin with and I have in mind possibly the Portable Wargame rules which would require a purpose built small square gridded board, could be fun.
The figures are as usual from Peter Pig wonderful little sculpts full of character.
October painting desk update.
Latest YouTube video on the channel describes what's going on here. I also mention my issues with Army Painter brushes of late and welcome any feedback on this or recommendations for a source of reliable brushes.
Was it really that long ago since I shouldered my musket to help preserve the Union and fight the Rebel upstarts as a member of the 42nd Pennsylvania 'Bucktails' ?
I'm delighted to report that Mark - who had been out of action for some time due to a hobby related wound - has now been able to resume casting the new sculpts made by Andrew Stadden that will complete the 20mm scale 'Little Big Horn' project commission. As usual the box contains a nice card of the example figures as you see below. I have to say that the sculpts are excellent and full of character.
So, the final box contains:
E Troop 7th cavalry (Grey Horse Troop) x 20 mounted.
Dismounted US cavalry x 60
Dismounted US horse holders x 12 plus horses.
Mounted Indian Scouts x 5
Dismounted Indian Scouts x 5
Final additional Indians! x 8.
These will probably be painted in two monthly batches, hopefully October/November as I have a fair bit of work ongoing at the moment. Speaking of which I have just painted and delivered 4 more French Napoleonic Epic infantry battalions over the last two weeks for Stephen, each of 80 figures and am currently back on Union ACW's for Noel having finished his ECW commission.
DBN 1776 or 1777?
For my own project I'm adding more light infantry to both armies. Just painted this base of British Light's as they would have appeared probably around 1777 and the Philadelphia Campaign. By this time the British light infantry would more commonly be wearing short jackets (as opposed to cut down coats) and 'Trowsers' that fitted over the shoe in gaiter fashion. The hats are un-cocked or turned up on the left (firelock) side. I follow an excellent YouTube site called 'Chris The Redcoat' and his video dedicated to this subject is highly recommended. (below),
I also added a second base of 17th Light Dragoons but forgot to paint the bugler in a white coat, blast! Made a casualty marker base to go with them, lots of cutting and filing involved.
On the terrain front I decided to add some fencing around my areas of broken ground (poor going in DBN) and found some excellent plastic fence on eBay for the purpose, just £4.50 for 10 x 200mm lengths! I did trim off the top section to reduce the height slightly as I'm using underscale 10mm buildings, I think it all looks about right now? For game purposes these farms can accommodate two bases. These Continental light infantry are armed with the Long Hunting Rifle thus classed as 'Jagers' and based 6 per base as opposed to 8 for lights and 10 for line. These dastardly chaps had a habit of picking off British Officers at long range, they were very good shots.
It's all coming together now and fits comfortably into my painting alcove on top of the desk. 750 x 750 for solo DBN to my own '1776' variant. I painted a quick backscene on 5mm foamboard which I hope will improve the aesthetic appeal of the battles.
With around 250 figures painted I can't go much further with this project but I'm very tempted by the Peter Pig Wars of the Roses range as a follow up.
A few photos taken today of the general set up and the British/Loyalist/Hessian force on the march!
Pleased with the simple backscene..
And the latest short video from 'Gruff Mumbling Productions' shows a general overview of the project
I continue to be busy on the commission front with batches completed for Old John and Noel.
I finally managed to get the 15mm Steel Fist cavalry based and finished off with tiny hand made/ painted flags (cornets) as I could not find any downloadable ones and had used all of the Epic flag sheets. I think they look fine so these will all be off to Noel before end of the week. This six regiments plus six command bases completes the ECW commission and we are now back to Epic ACW again with another four infantry sprues, additional metal command strips AND a complete set of the elusive METAL Iron Brigade! I note that Warlord are about to re release these in resin at long last.
For Old John I have painted the following rather large batch:
Ukrainian Cossacks, (Redbox, made in Ukraine), Registered Infantry (30) Zaporozihan Infantry (24) and Peasant Infantry (24).
WSS in Spain, Phillip V Grenadiers (BUM from Spain, Resin and somewhat 'soft' fragile but highly detailed). 1 Mounted Officer, 1 officer on foot, 10 Grenadiers.
French Gamaches Cavalry ( BUM from Spain, resin riders on metal Les Higgins horses x 6 plus 1 Minifigs standard bearer and one Irregular Miniatures trumpeter on Les Higgins horse.
Albani Dragoons mounted Drummer.
All in all a nicely varied and enjoyable paint. This week it's back to Epic Napoleonics for Stephen who has sent me an additional 8 battalions of French infantry in 80 figure units which will be broken down over a couple of months. I find two battalions (16 strips) is a comfortable weeks painting and Stephen is doing all the basing himself and adding flags.
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