The Fate of the Raja's Treasury

The most recent game with Phil here in GHQ featured a return to The Indian Mutiny. The scenario sees the rebels' close ally, the Raja of Rhanzlistan, seeking to safely remove his treasure from the path of the vengeful Imperial force lead by General Havelock-Robinson. While he waits anxiously for his Mutineer allies he has mustered what forces he can to delay the approaching enemy ~

The Raja's Household Guards, cavalry, infantry and war elephants, form the immediate guard of his person and treasury.

They are supplemented by batteries of artillery, some local and some from his household, and his personal rocket troop.

The Treasury, the immediate objective of Havelock-Robinson's force, is a hive of activity as wagons are loaded with as much treasure as they can bear.

The Raja has called out his Bhurpa allies to supplement his force, or rather act as canon fodder perhaps!

And finally the local riff-raff of the Badmash, who can at least stop a bullet!

Havelock-Robinson launches his assault by unleashing his Hussars on the deploying Rocket Men. They hastily loose off their rockets, sadly unsuccessfully, and are ridden down!

As thecGrest Gun of Bhyklabad opens fire the whole of the Bhurpa-Badmash wing surge forward to block the ferengi's approach.

Highlanders and Gurkhas join Havelock-Robinson's attack, supported by the Rocket battery manned by the crew of HMS Pinafore. Their fire is no more effective than the enemy's!

As Havelock-Robinson coordinates his attack the H.E.I.C.'s foot artillery comes into action under fire from the Raja's big guns located on the hills ringing his position.

The Raja's Household Guard infantry advance to block the path of the developing assault, supported closely by the War Elephants.

The North Staffords advance with steely determination in column formation, foreskin a volley for the bayonet!

The ensuing melee is devastating for the Guards whose losses are heavy. A morale check sees them flee on a throw of snakes' eyes!

Further disaster strikes the Raja's cause when the supporting artillery similarly abandons its guns and flees the action. To compound it the War Elephants are thrown back too!

The Treasury is a scene of wild panic as the recoiling War Elephants effectively block the wagons' route of escape!

Mounted Bhurpa warriors crash into the deployed artillery in a wild charge. Closing Fire sees them Shaken and loosing the ensuing melee!

The Lancers charge a body of Mutineer cavalry. There can only be one outcome...

...the Mutineers are scattered to the four winds! Their raw courage no match for the disciplined charge of the Lancers!

The victorious Lancers throw caution to the wind, lower their lances and charge into the Badmash. There can surely only be one outcome...

...No! The Badmash defeat the Lancers in the melee and they break  their morale shattered by the unexpected defeat!

The War Elephants have rallied and move forward to block the North Staffords once more. Tellingly they have little support and find enemy artillery deploying to their exposed flank.

Buoyed by their victory over the Lancers the Badmash charge on into the Gordon Highlanders. Colonel Calder calmly forms his men into line and gives the enemy a sharp volley! Casualties are rising for the Badmash.

Once more the War Elephants are driven back by the North Staffords, though the threat of the artillery to their right flank is removed by a wild charge from the Bhurpa Warriors. Still no sign of the Mutineers, no urgently awaited by the Raja!

The War Elephants again regroup and rumble forward giving the North Staffords time to form line and open fire on their advance.

The Gordon Highlanders make short shrift of the Badmash, whose morale collapses causing them to flee. In their turn the supporting band are also checked and find little appetite for closing and join the rout!

The 33rd make short work of the wild Bhurpa Warriors,  resulting their charge with withering fire and seeing them flee in rout. Still no sign of the promised Mutineer relief force!

Suddenly the Raja realises that his army is Broken and that his Mutineer allies have failed to arrive and have let him down. He takes a final rueful look at that portion of his treasure he must leave for Havelock-Robinson before joining with the carts as they rumble away!

Such was the margin of  his victory that local publicans soon cashed in on the General's fame by renaming their drinking establishments in his honour. This one seen only recently 'Oop North!

A Command Stand? Already?

Well now, one regiment is completed for the nostalgia driven project, so what could be more natural than to pick up the figures for a Brigade Command stand? There is method in my madness if you will bear with me. After completing the figures for the Livgarde til Fods I had a small window of opportunity for wielding the Brush of Doom before our friends from Adelaide arrived for a visit. Not enough time though for even one base of the next unit queuing in the old Lead Pimple, but enough for these three figures which form the Command stand for the planned Danish infantry brigade. They are from the venerable Wargames Foundry range of course {though they have cast with more buttons than the Livgarde figures!} with the base from Warbases ~

With Pam and Chris with us now there will be an  inevitable hiatus in any hobby activity here in GHQ. Disruption will extend beyond their stay too as the decorators will be in the following week, meaning GHQ will be performing its storehouse role again! More hobby stuff as and when is all that I can say for now...

Livgarde til Fods

As I mentioned in previous posts starting off this new venture with the Danish Livgarde til Fods was a no brainer when both Matt and Phil had urged me to prioritise them. Nostalgia is afterall a powerful driver in both our hobby and in our life as we grow older. So, here is my interpretation of the regiment in English service using the venerable Wargames Foundry figures. The flags are from David's wonderful blog, Not By Appointment, and the bases are from Warbases, as ever ~

Back when the world and I were young Phil's WSS army included this unit resplendent in bright yellow, modern research though has tended towards a more straw yellow coat colour. I wanted a nod towards their venerable antecedents and so compromised with using Foundry's Ochre triad but omiting the final Light stage. I also opted not to paint on the red lace which went up the coat front in a ladder design. As the lace is not modelled on I felt it was fine to ignore it. I had one or two issues with missing buttons, especially on the cuffs of some poses. It's a bit of a thing with me but at prices charged I really do expect more attention to detail like that in quality control. It's either a moulding or casting issue, either capable of being rectified...if there is the will.

Next under the Brush of Doom will be one mounted and two foot figures to populate the Command stand for the Danish infantry brigade. Circumstances have pointed me towards this smaller component of the WSS venture next as our friends from Adelaide are due to arrive on Friday for a week's visit. After this pleasant interruption I hope to start on the second Danish infantry regiment, Prince Carl's. The flags are already printed out, from David's aforementioned site, and so for a change I shall start with the Command figures for them!

Heatwaves! Don'tyajustluvem?

Well, unsurprisingly the answer here in GHQ is a resounding no! We arrived home this time last week from our jaunt Oop North, from breezy mid 20's to stifling mid 30's! Not really the kind of weather conducive to time spent wielding the Brush of Doom, hunched over my painting desk. Despite all that I have managed both to finish the baggage wagon set for my Wars of the Roses collection {see my previous post if you missed it, Paul😉} and to make a start on my War of the Spanish Succession project. Naturally following on from my conversation with Matt I decided to start with the Danish Livgarde til Fods, the famous Custard Men! 

It has soon become obvious that research has moved on exponentially since my Minifigs Franco-Bavarians of yore! My recollection of Phil's chaps is that their uniform coat was yellow, quite bright I expect back in the day. Surfing the net I came across the same unit painted more recently for one of his customers. The yellow is a much more muted straw yellow. Looking around others have chosen a similar shade also, some using Foundry's Boneyard triad. After mulling it over I have opted to go back to the future and chosen their Ochre, Shade and Mid. You will no doubt have your several opinions on my choice, but for me its a compromise in honouring their predecessors. As I asked before, where are they fighting now? Anyway, I have one completed base to tease you with ~

One complaint about the figures - missing buttons, especially on the cuffs, due to poor mould making or poor casting, but either suggest poor quality control.

The figures are from Wargames Foundry, sculpted eons ago by the Perrys. They are generic figures in the main which would have necessitated painting on the red ladder effect lace. You will have noticed I'm sure that I didn't take that route. They will do for me. Their range comes with a mixture of informal round hats and later tricorns. I have mixed the two in each of my first two units, though these sport a majority of tricorn hats, they are the Guards after all. Out of interest, I'm just the texturing, colour washing and vegetating the base away from completing the second base, hopefully later today when its cooler...

I have a second Danish infantry unit all ready to face the Brush of Doom along with a command base for the brigade. I will need to order a third battalion at some point to round out his brigade but first I need to replenish the warchest! On that point some explanation is due: I have orders in place with Warfare Miniatures for a cavalry squadron and some Staff officers and with Ebor Miniatures for my first British infantry battalion. They should help keep me busy for a couple of months...

At Last!

Back in the early Spring Phil and I tootled over to the Newark Showground to attend 'Ommer'ead. We'd actually resolved not to go this year, but the unexpected cancellation of WMMS lead to our plans being reappraised. One of my purchases there, from show stalwart Dave Thomas, was the Perry Miniatures baggage wagon set from their Wars of the Roses range. It has sat in the Lead Pimple ever since, the very definition of an impulse purchase if ever I've made one! Well last month I finally resolved to assemble the kit of parts and spray undercoat it ready for it's encounter with the Brush of Doom! It's not been exactly plain sailing I have to say...

Phil would tell you that my patience, in respect of hobby stuff at least, is not the greatest. Instead of thinking ahead about the painting process I moved right ahead to cleaning up and assembling the cart, the load, the oxen and the figures! Partly I confess because Superglue and I do not enjoy a disaster free relationship...

You'll hopefully recall this picture from an earlier post! It neatly leads me on to cataloguing my problems at the painting stage, starting with the oxen. The beasts' heads needed fixing to the bodies, but that meant fixing in place the yokes first. I assembled each pair, only later realising how fiddly painting them would be once I'd glued each pair onto their bases. Similarly with the cart, I glued the resin cast load into place on the cart bed and then glued the side pieces to the bed and load. I never thought about the painting stage at this point. If I'd left off fixing the cart wheels and fittings painting would have been more straightforward, but hindsight is a mixed blessing.

There was a good deal of overpainting, repainting and accompanying curses along the way either side of our trip Oop North and liberal washes of Agrax Earthshade to disguise the myriad mistooks! Most difficult at the end was painting the two civilian cart passengers as I fixed them in place again without considering the painting process on small pieces firmly attached to the whole piece. You can judge for yourselves, it would look good 'to a blind man on a galloping horse' as my late father would surely have remarked ~

I added the musician figure to create a bit of interest, its probably from their 100 Years War range. It was in one of Aly's packages for the deserving poor!

Agrax Earthshade covers a multitude of sins. It also helps the figures to stand out and look a little better than they really are!

As I hope you can see in the final picture, the musician adds a point of interest and colour to the mostly dull look of the baggage set.

Still, its done now, so on to other things in due course. I thought I'd round the post off with a couple of holiday snaps, à la Matt ~

Pagecroft Cottage, near Haydon Bridge and handily placed for the more accessible parts of Hadrian's Wall.

And the view from our cottage's front porch. It takes a lot of that to make you ill!

Finally, a  bit of Wall...

Hadrian of Wall fame!

At Chesters fort museum, a bronze tablet, the reward for 25 years service gifting Roman citizenship!

The wall from Housesteads Fort...

...bleak does not even come close to describing its location the day we climbed up to visit!

Reconstructed sections at Vindolanda,  both in timber and in later stone.

Gladiators immortalised in glass. I find it amazing how it survives!

Adapting to the posting, evolution of the Roman soldier's appearance on the wall.

The different styles of armour shown at the Roman Army Museum, a twinned visit with Vindolanda at £20 each for both. We split our visit to each over two days.

And finally, we never did encounter that ghostly Roman soldier though...