Hi and welcome to the occasional mutterings of Dave Doc, a military modeller and some time gamer. Gaming and model making has given me a real education, History & Geography(obvious really), Artistry, Politics, Economics, Logistics, Project Management -you try building miniature armies without the last 3.
I will use the blog to record my creations & the odd occasion I actually do some gaming.
I have always been inspired by the aesthetic side of gaming. Playing on well constructed terrain using excellently painted units is always a joy.
Engineers are always a good source of scenario fodder I think . Build
a bridge, fort, be escorted to some place or other, so I have taken the
opportunity to utilise and convert some spare figures. These were Perry
gunners left over from the last gun battery. I have added a range of
tools into hands (tools from Thormarillion in Germany) having removed
the rammers. I also completed two waggons & 4 lots of stores (bits by Ainsty) sections . The mules for the waggon are
by Tiger Miniatures , again left overs from the battery limber teams -
all good recycling. The two waggons and loads are by Warbases. I have
left them without drivers etc for now as they will do service in other
conflicts I think - likewise I will probably revisit the missing traces
etc at some point this year.
The Officer of Engineers is an old Connoisseur figure who has gone native , having taken a shine to his tarboosh!
This will be the last Sudan painting post for a while - as the old man cave is wrappd up as work starts on creating the new and improved one..
There will be some more games coming up . I am also booked in to attend the Partizan show in May
One of the things that I found really interesting about building
forces for fighting in the Sudan was the variety of troops the British
Empire pulled in to fight in it. The New South Wales government offered
its support (LINK)
to the imperial cause and an infantry battalion and artillery battery
were mobilised. This was to become the first overseas deployment for
Australian forces. They did not end up doing much fighting and had only
very small losses as the British government abandoned any attempt to
overthrow the Mahdi who had taken Khartoum after Gordons death.
Never
the less they will still be represented - along with the infantry in
due course and I am sure they will participate in some "what might have
happened" scenarios. Of course they will also do service in some other
colonial campaigns too.
So here I have 3 deployed 9lb guns , 3 open and deployed
limbers with 12 crew. The guns are the Perry 9lb set from their new
Victoria's little wars sets. - I have replaced the cast metal firing
lanyard with thinner twisty rope and soldered this into position so it
nicely strong and rigid.
The gun teams have had a lot of work with all the various traces. The
rope is made from garden twisty wire - twisted together in a drill - I
needed to made 6 feet of the darn stuff to make the 4 traces per teams
these were then soldered into place and the wire is coated in solder
which makes it rigid. The riders have had milliput saddles made too.
The limbers and horse teams are all by Tiger miniatures . The guns and
crew are the Perry 9lb set from their new Victoria's little wars sets. I
could have got a ready made limber set from Wargames Foundry , but I
have seen it and it looked too small to me - I wanted this to be big! - I
know.... I blame the sun....
Well
to move your guns you also need limber teams - of which there are
3 teams with 18 horses, 3 limbers , 3x 9lb guns - and 4 riders - there
will be 9 riders eventually but due to a lead pile deficiency (hangs
head in shame) I thought - and still think I had some. So anyway I am
awaiting on a mail from a manufacturer re sourcing some as part of
pack so will just add these as and when I get some figures. The riders I
do have are a mix of various mounted figures I had lying around.
I enjoyed making these - something different
I managed to get all imperial troops out for a video review too
