Getting a Toe Hold...

...on the Lead Pimple! Freed at last, even if only temporarily, from the treadmill of the Crimean War project I have embarked on a painting spree featuring odds and ends from the old Lead Pimple! First to pass across the painting desk for their moment under the brush were four British Horse Grenadiers for the SYW collection, the last of Jon's very generous gift last year. Only four as a Small unit in Black Powder games here in GHQ mounted on oval skirmishing bases. The figures are from Foundry of course and the bases from Warbases ~

Next up, Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond, a Wargames Illustrated  'Giants in Miniature' I received from Dan for one of the Quick Fire pieces I submitted. An inspired choice in a way given that the Tales from Rhanslistan setting seems it may receive an unexpected rejuvenation here in GHQ next week; but perhaps he might pass in Indian Mutiny or even in VBCW games? Here is the old reprobate anyway, just ready for a spot of Tiffin ~

Back to the SYW then in the shape of two mounted French figures, a General and his ADC. The figures are from the venerable Front Rank range now under the care of Gripping Beast down in Evesham. They will fill a gap in my French command bases nicely ~

Lastly under the brush are two more mounted SYW officers, by Foundry once again ~

They will make a characterful command base for my small Brunswick element in the collection, freeing Karl Frederick for more senior command duty.

Next in the queue are some Foundry Late Roman Clibanarii for old Pompus Maximus, a Front Rank Light Artillery piece and crew for the Italian Wars collection, and a handful of Footsore resin cast pre-release Vikings from Matt. On the down side though there is still no news of my Aventine order after 20 days, most disappointing.

Finally, as you must have noticed there is a run of games here in GHQ as I'm advised not to drive for four weeks following last week's consultation with a specialist about the broken bones in my foot. I had a bad fall last month and stupidly carried on regardless rather than seeing a doctor at A&E! As a result the injury was worsened, so now as a consequence no driving and only necessary walking. In a way a this is a self inflicted restriction! At my age I should have known better. As an aside though the NHS from GP to Radiology to Fracture Clinic consultant did me proud once again! Not all doom and gloom despite the media's best efforts!

Confronting The Lead Pimple

Not much has been happening on the gaming front here in GHQ of late: Jon has been very preoccupied with work and domestic matters, leaving him less time for our hobby; Phil has been away "Oop North" on a well deserved break after a difficult family time; John has been to the USA on holiday to celebrate his and Sharon's retirement from teaching; and me, well, I've been painting steadily this month, but so far nothing finished to show. I have also though been tackling my figure stockpile, readying things for the winter when I generally seem to paint a little more, I suppose with fewer outdoors attractions to lure me away. Of course, I don't really have the proverbial Lead Mountain of wargamers' lore, as Phil once pointed out its barely a pimple next to his and Jon's for example. So, with no completed stuff to show really, here is a pictorial overview of my very own Lead Pimple. I should perhaps forewarn you that my approach to figures awaiting the brush will not be to everyone's taste. First a general overview in three pictures~

For the Rhanzlistan Field Force ~ see the dedicated Blog for details.

From Dixon Miniatures, who else, for the ACW; Great War Miniatures

infantry; VBCW from Musketeer; and a Pulp durprise from Pulp Miniatures.



Trent Miniatures and a few Front Rank Miniatures which will swell my

forces for the Wars of the French Revolution project.

Now, for any who are interested in the detail rather than the broad brush approach of those pictures. Firstly, for my true and abiding interest ~

The Orphan Brigade

Union Cavalry at rest

Some assorted odds and ends which may, or may not, ever be painted ~

Generals Grant and Meade ponder their next move.

Sitting this one out! I don't even know when or why I bought these now!

For the Wars of the French Revolution project I have rather more in the waiting queue than I thought! But, never daunted I have one French battalion almost finished now! Three more to go now!
For the Allies ~

Front Rank figures for Dragoon Guards or possibly Household Cavalry.

Austrians: a Brigade of infantry with a Battery of 12lg guns and suitable command figures. Mostly from Trent Miniatures.

mounted figures from Front Rank.

Grenadiers and Fusiliers from Trent Miniatures.



A Battery of 12lb guns: crew from Trent Miniatures and guns

from Front Rank.



Infantry Brigade command from Front Rank

and Trent.



Allied Command ~ Mounted figures from Front Rank

foot figures from Trent.

For the French ~

Three Battalions of Infantry from Trent Miniatures.

An extra 12lb Foot Artillery gun and crew and a 4lb gun and

crew for the Horse Artillery. All from Trent Miniatures.

The Infantry Brigade command from Trent Miniatures.

And of course a Bonaparte! All from Trent Miniatures.

A fourth British Infantry Battalion of 1914 from Great War Miniatures.

Brigands and Militia from Musketeer Miniatures for 1940/VBCW games.



The Palanquin of Dr Byk Li and his daughter Lotus Blossom!

Figures from Pulp Miniatures of course.

Now I have no doubt that some may find my approach to managing the painting queue daunting. I have been approaching The Lead Pimple this way now for several years and have found it motivating and encouraging to have them all prepared and bluetaked to their bases, or even glued down and the bases textured in the case of single figures.Whenever I get bored with something, well, there is another project, unit or group ready for the brush and on we go with no delay and a chance for the muse to go AWOL! And we all know what a slippery little blighter that can prove to be...

The Discovery of Diablium

I've been tatting for a while now with a pack of Wargames Foundry Victorians which I picked up for £5 on a visit to the store in Nottingham earlier this year. They were entitled something like Victorian Scientists, just one pack at the back of a stack on one rack in the store. I've not seen any on subsequent visits or at shows, so whether more sets exist I don't know. I bought it even though at the time I had little or no idea what I'd eventually do with it: I guess we've mostly all been there though at some time. Anyway, I've decided it'll make a nice Objective Marker in both Rhanzlistan and The Great Detective games.
The set contained two figures, two scientific gizmos, a two part telescope and a wooden crate. Without more ado, I present Professor Cohx and Major Moore, RE, an important scientific/practical duo in games ~

The shiny black stone is going to be a meteorite in the games, which will prove to be the source of a new element, Diablium, a source of untold clean power, much coveted by the Major Powers and Criminal Masterminds alike!

For any purists out there, Professor Cohx is kneeling and Major Moore is overseeing the 'machinery'. You get a better shot of the Diablium in the second picture. At Derby this weekend I got a few more odds and ends for Rhanzlistan, mainly a Tiger Miniatures pack camel train, two camels and a driver for £4.00, my kind of price! I also paid rather more for some cattle, a donkey and some goats from Empress, somewhat less for a dog relieving himself from Redoubt!

More Firepower

As you might have noticed, if you've been paying attention that is, I have painted all the figures I acquired earlier in the year for my small Back of Beyond force. But, like most gamers I suspect, I did manage to acquire a few additional bits and bobs along the way, which I've moved on to painting now in the last days of the month.
Firstly, a machine gun for the Gurkhas ~ its the Sikh styled machine gun crew from Copplestone Castings' Indian Machine Guns pack, with two heads from spare Gurkha figures attached. Not wonderful, I know, but it will do for me ~

To avoid wasting anything, the Sikh heads have been reattached to the decapitated Gurkha bodies to make an escort for my Mountain Battery mule train, but that's getting ahead of myself for the time being. Next up we have the Empress Miniatures Jazz Age Afghans, or Bhurpas in our games: the Lewis Gun team, from the command pack, and the Maksim Gun and crew ~

Finally, two command figures for the Bhurpas, also from Empress, a Warlord and a drummer, which will allow me to move the more dignified command figure and his standard bearer to create a proper Bhurpa Command Base for our games ~

I've also painted a few more character figures for forthcoming Pulp-style versions of the game, but they are over on the dedicated Rhanzlistan Blog {See side bar for link}.

Chalk and Cheese

I've managed two games here in GHQ in the last two days. Yesterday Jon and I played an ECW game using my own A Crowning Mercy rules, and today Phil and I played out a Back of Beyond game marking the debut of the famous Rhanzlistan Field Force and using the Setting the East Ablaze rule set. Now, if I had been just going to mention the ECW game then I might have aptly entitled this piece Snatching Disaster from the Jaws of Defeat, as my Royalists were trounced in six turns by Jon's Parliamentary forces.

The Opening positions ~ Royalists nearest the camera

I'd like to say that it was largely the result of my reinforcements failing to appear, but if I'm to be honest it was largely due to my cavalry suddenly loosing the plot in melees against unloaded foote caught in the open! Disastrous dice does n't even begin to sum it up!!!

Royalist and Parliamentary Horse clash on the flank

I fail to score a single kill against Gell's Foote!

While I am repulsed by Fairfax's Foote to the left!

I lost in six turns! Prince Rupert of the Rhine was killed on the field by a musketeer! Somewhat of a disappointment does n't really even begin to cover the outcome!!!. Its worth noting that Sir John Gell's Foote in the Parliamentary army is undefeated in any game using four different sets of rules over several years! A true veteran regiment to grace any tabletop I feel!

Turning to today's Back of Beyond game, the outcome was slightly more favourable for my forces in the game, though it did seem to take forever to edge the game. There'll be a full report over on my dedicated Blog in due course sometime this weekend, but in the meantime here are a taster shot or two ~

The tabletop layout for the game

Brigadier Bykleigh issues his Order of the Day

I'll be adding a full report on the Battle over on Tales from Rhanzlistan soon. Pop over to get the latest news hot from the Frontier...

Almost there now...

The Rhanzlistan Field Force is moving ever closer to making its debut on the tabletop here in GHQ. Its not quite finished, but its just seven figures from being completed; or at least all those white chaps I showed in the first post about the project! I've still to sort out some artillery and a second mounted unit at some stage, but opportunity and finance are really controlling that move.
First new member to show you today: the District Officer for Rhanzlistan, Albert Atkinson ~

Albert is a Copplestone's Miniatures figure, representing the Empire on the ground, so as to speak, in Rhanzlistan. Next up, the first of the Shropshire Yeomanry, Sergeant Easthope. He's a Brigade Games figure from their WWI range. Not my favourite sculpt I'd have to say, but I hope I've done it some credit ~

Finally, the first of the Russian presence in Rhanzlistan, the Russian Mission, headed by the veteran of the Revolution, Hero of the Soviet Union and pilot extraordinaire, Ivan Justukov. He is supported by the Femme Fatale, Anna Pavlova, and the Commissar for the putative Bhurpa Freedom Force, Pietre Roczoff, and some drunken sailor in the background ~

These are all from the fine Pulp Miniatures by Bob Murch. I'd like to have added some of the Scots he makes, but for some reason they are portrayed in steel helmets! Odd folk sculpors some times...
I hope to add something to the RFF this weekend as a result of visiting Colours, but it all depends on the elusive finance...

My name is Bond...

...Howard Bond, Gentleman explorer and special agent of His Majesty in Rhanzlistan. A Copplestone Castings 'Jolly Good Chap'.

In addition, the Royal Surrey Regiment has been posted to the Rhanzlistan Field Force as of today. They are Pulp Miniatures, which I always enjoy painting as they are very 'paint friendly', which is important to we chaps of limited abilities and failing eyesight...

That just leaves the only cavalry unit the RFF has so far, the Shropshire Yeomanry I expect, and the Russian Mission to Rhanzlistan of course. I still need to sort out some artillery, but that will have to wait on a replenishment of funds sadly...

Ayo Gorkhali

"Here come the Gurkhas!" The latest additions to the Rhazlistan Field Force are the Gurkhas, in this case from Copplestone Miniatures.

I found them fairly easy to paint, though the castings left something to be desired in places, with vague detail formed. I don't really like to moan about sculptors, after all I have little or no talent for the art and even less patience, but it would be nice if there were officers in the correct uniform and support weapons too, after all he managed the latter for the Indian units, albeit with only one type of NCO.

I also painted four figures for the Command Group the the force: a mixture of Copplestone, Pulp Miniatures and a Great War Miniatures dispatch rider.

Next up on the GHQ painting station are four figures to represent the Royal Geographical Society's Expedition to Rhanzlistan, hoping to encounter the mythical Yeti or stumble on the lost kingdom of Shangri-La perhaps. But, most likely they'll just get lost and be slaughtered by some passing Bhurpas in a game... There are three Pulp Miniatures and one Copplestone in this group by the way ~ see an earlier post.

Our friends Pam and Chris from Adelaide are arriving on Friday for a stay, so don't expect anything new now until much later in the month, as real life has far more important things going on for us all now.

Off the Beaten Track...

...otherwise known as the Back of Beyond {Possibly twinned with Newark!} I've enjoyed the Back of Beyond games I've played with Phil, using his wonderful collection of Russians and Chinese. So much so that I've decided to have a force of my own, British of course, which can 'intervene' in the affairs of our fictional North West Frontier province of Rhawnlistan, not far from that hot bed of mutiny in the C19th which is Byklabad. Of course, the Russians and Chinese will also be 'intervening' as and when we get together for a game here in GHQ or over at Phil's OHQ. Now I want to say straight away, for Phil's benefit mainly, that this is not an outbreak of Darkest Africa Syndrome ~ named after my descent from "I'll just have an expedition of my own!" to the acquiring of a full collection in no time at all! Honest, I won't be going down that road this time......
Here's a picture of the whole force, now its all been cleaned up, spayed white and the figure bases and movement trays textured all ready for painting~

The figures I've been acquiring for the Rhawnlistan Field Force are sourced from a number of miniature companies: Brigade Games{through Wargames Command Post}; Copplestone; Empress Miniatures; Great War Miniatures; Pulp Miniatures {through Miniaturicum in Germany}; The HLBS for the Rolls Royce armoured car. As well as the RFF itself, there are a number of Pulp-type figure groups, as I hope to develop our games along the lines of a pale imitation of the campaigns of General Pettygree ~ http://generalpettygree.blogspot.co.uk/

The Diplomatic Corps

The Royal Geographical Society Expedition to Rhawnlistan

Mustapha Leihk, the 'Mad Prophet of Rhawnlistan'

Brigadier 'Tubby' Bykleigh & Staff

The South Staffordshires

The Royal Surreys

The Gurkhas

Bhurpa Tribesmen

And finally, the Russian Mission to Rhawnlistan, in the person of the veteran fighter ace of the Revolution, Hero of the Soviet Union, scourge of Wun Ung Lo ~

Ivan Justukov and the Russian Mission to Rhawnlistan

I hope to start painting these in July, when I come back from a holiday in Sunny Devon {well, here's hoping, anyway}. In the meantime I'm finishing two mounted and dismounted bases of Empress Miniatures Frontier Light Horse for my AZW collection. I also have some Dixon western gunfight civilians on the go and a German motorcycle reconnaissance patrol from Wargames Foundry to finish for 1940 games. I'll keep you posted from time to time as the Rhawnlistan Field Force takes shape.