David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Thursday 25 March 2021

A few guns...

 ...big ones too! I set about adding some artillery to the army of Typoo Bhyka. I really liked the Indus Miniatures lion mouthed guns, bit couldn't find a source sadly. Instead I ordered four large guns from AW Miniatures. Their service was so brisk they'd almost arrived before I'd bought them! I'd already acquired the Native Gun Crews from Foundry so we were good to go.

I've based the artillery with three crew figures on 80x100mm bases from Warbases. The six figures in each crew pack have three fully clothed and three stripped for action. That enabled me to differentiate the two batteries, each of two guns, by using the stripped for action chaps to crew two guns and the well turned out chaps the other two. All the gun carriages I  painted Foundry Madder Red shade and washed with GW Agrax Earth shade wash. All the iron work I painted with Foundry Blackened Barrel light and highlighted lightly with the same company's Spearpoint. Two guns are with iron barrels of the same shades and two are Bronze Barrel, also from Foundry, the shade paint lightly drybushed  with the mid tone. The basing material is the mix left over from my Mutiny project, which will let the pieces have more use, and vegetated in the manner I used on the completed brigade I featured earlier.

Saturday 20 March 2021

The 14th New York State Militia...

 ... otherwise the Brooklyn Chasseurs. These are Sash & Sabre 28mm figures which I bought from Old Glory UK last year - whose mail order service was efficient and speedy I should say. I hadn't been able to fix on a suitable Dixon Miniatures figure to proxy for them, so I took the plunge! I like the castings, but somehow they never made it up the queue for painting, just languishing in the Lead Pimple. So, I asked Phil if he could fit them in sometime amongst his commission work and I'm pleased to say he accepted! This is the finished unit ~

Well, I say finished, but they were very nearly not! Stupidly I forgot to check that I'd ordered their flags, only to find that I had not! Doh! I put it down to age myself... I have sorted that omission out thanks to Flags of War, along with some others I fancied for the figures still lurking in the Lead Pimple! Phil has also got the Crusader Miniatures 79th New York Volunteer Infantry to paint when he can fit them in later in the year; we pensioners have to watch our pennies even at 'Mates Rates' from a friend you know! Still lurking in the ol' Pimple are three units of Dixon Miniatures ACW infantry, two Confederate and one Union. I hope to get those painted this year, sometime...well, you know how it is I'm sure.

Wednesday 17 March 2021

The Pendawar Fusiliers

 The third infantry battalion to join the Army of the Pendawar Presidency is the European battalion, the Pendawar Fusiliers. The figures are from Perry Miniatures of course, as are the MDF bases from Warbases. The flags were made for me to my specifications by good chum George Anderson. These complete what will be the army's second brigade of infantry, supported by No1 Battery of the E.I.C. Foot Artillery. The Brigade is commanded by Colonel Crump, a doughty servant of the Company over many years ~

I plan to switch now to painting some artillery and infantry for Typoo Bhyka's army which I hope will provide some light painting relief after the discipline of all the uniforms. Well, I can but hope...! In the meantime here's the whole Brigade laid out on the table in GHQ ~




Tuesday 9 March 2021

Their Lordships confer...

 ...before battle commences. Well, we can all hope for a return to face-to-face gaming here in GHQ and elsewhere! Continuing with the stated plan of interweaving command and other vignettes among painting whole units for the Army of Pendawar I've completed two mounted generals to command the whole army. The figures are from Perry Miniatures Napoleonic British in Egypt range, being from the generic set rather than the two sets of named commanders ~

Some of the detail on the figures seems to be very sketchy; perhaps the moulds are aging or perhaps it's my eyesight, or even a mixture of the two, who knows? Anyway, they are done now and will have to do. I've made some progress with the Pendawar Fusiliers alongside these, but the uniform details are slowing me down a fair bit. I guess they will take me the best part of March to complete, but as ever I'm always hopeful I can do better!

Thursday 4 March 2021

E.I.C. Artillery battery

 The latest elements to stagger off the painting desk and into GHQ for my Tales from Pendawar project are a couple of guns and crew from the Perry Miniatures' Napoleonic British in Egypt range. I did think about changing the guns for the standard look or even ordering some 12lb guns from AWM, but in the end I decided it didn't annoy me enough to justify the expense, so here they are, No1 Battery, E.I.C. Foot Artillery ~

And here on the table in GHQ with the other bits I've painted by the end of February for the project ~

Now it's on to the Pendawar Fusiliers next!

Monday 1 March 2021

3rd Pendawar Native Infantry

 I completed the four figures representing the Grenadier companies on the last day of February, which meant I had managed to exceed my target of two figures a day by about a dozen pieces. With them the 3rd Pendawar Native Infantry are complete and will join the Second Brigade with their colleagues from the 2nd Pendawar Native Infantry. The facings I chose were orange, to complement the yellow of the 2nd. Here they are drawn up in line ~

The third battalion of the Brigade will be a European battalion, the Pendawar Fusiliers, using the Perry Miniatures British in Egypt figures wearing the top hat and in marching pose. Their facings will likely be white, but I may change my mind along the way.

With the NI finished I decided to paint the two foot artillery guns and crew. I've completed the first of the two bases which will comprise the battery and hopefully the second will be finished this week. Then it will be the Pendawar Fusiliers as I said to complete the Brigade.