Pendawar Presidency Body Guards

The last 3 of my order of 12 Sepoy Native Cavalry from AW Miniatures comprise three of the figures in full dress with laced jackets. I decided to utilise these as a Small Unit in Black Powder 2 terms and designated them the Presidency’s CinC Body Guards. Their uniform is inspired by that of the Java Volunteers in the period illustration below ~

 

 I mounted them on white horses to give the unit a bit of a lift and I must admit that I like the contrast of the red turbans with the dark blue jackets and yellow facings. 

Like their 1st Native Cavalry fellows they'll need a European officer at some stage. I would have tapped up Duncan for two British Light Dragoon officers and trumpeters as I have spare heads but it suddenly struck me hard that I can't do that any more... Never one to be daunted by circumstances though I've ordered up a pack of Irish Yeomanry (without carbines) from the Trent Miniatures remaining stock at Arcane as I remembered that Duncan had told me to use them as officers when he hadn't got a suitable figure in the range.

More on this Scale/Size issue

In an earlier blog post last month I wrote a shortish piece on the issue of Scale/Size discrepancies between different manufacturers of wargames figures. It was well received by those visitors who kindly took the trouble to leave a comment in reply, so heartened by this I thought I would return to the issue briefly if you will indulge me.

In part my reflections on the Size/Scale issue have stayed fresh in my mind largely because I have recently completed a unit of Sepoys for the 1st Native Cavalry regiment of the Army of Pendawar (see previous post if you missed them). Those figures by AW Miniatures were sculpted I believe to fit with the Redoubt Enterprises' Wellington in India range, so are on the stout end of the figure spectrum, a bit like me sadly. They were certainly much heavier than the Perry Miniatures or Foundry cavalry I've already painted for this project!

In the picture below I've composed three units here in GHQ awaiting varnishing: Perry Miniatures infantry in the foreground; Trent Miniatures British Light Dragoons in the left rear; and lastly AW Miniatures Sepoys of the Native Cavalry in the right rear. You are seeing these three units at the same distance you would see them if you were here playing a game with us in GHQ, as wargames figures are meant to be seen of course. Certainly if you allow for the somewhat enlarged turban the Sepoy cavalry sported I really think you'd struggle to notice any significant difference, especially during the heat of battle!

Of course you are not obliged to agree with me on this issue, or any other for that matter. They will do for me, and by extension for the other GHQ Irregulars, and really that is all that matters in the final analysis!
 

1st Native Cavalry Regiment

 Finding figures for the Native Cavalry regiments in my Tales from Pendawar project threw up only two choices as far as my web research took me: Redoubt Enterprises or AW Miniatures. As there has been ongoing grumbling on one forum board in relation to the newish owner of Redoubt in respect of decent Mail Order service I plumped for AW Miniatures for the required figures. I'd already sourced my native artillery pieces from them so knew the service was good. 

I ordered the larger pack of 12 cavalry, which brings you two different poses of both horse and rider. They were sculpted I believe to be compatible with the Redoubt Enterprises' range, so they are at the larger and bulkier end of the figure spectrum, the riders more so than the horses. This may though be to some extent amplified by the exceptional headwear worn by the troops; I find it hard to make a judgement. All the figures are not in the same jacket, which I found odd. For these at any rate the figures in full dress jacket with lace can represent the junior officer figures. The problem of a suitable European command figure for the regiment I've put to one side at present.

The first nine have been painted up as the Army of Pendawar's 1st Native Cavalry Regiment, using the same British Blue-Grey mid-tone and light-tone shades from the Foundry Triad, for the jackets. There is a further base of three figures to represent a Small Unit, in Black Powder terms, as the Presidency's Horse Guard in due course, but first it's the fourth and final Sepoy infantry regiment to complete that part of the project.

Looking over the Lead Pimple I see that besides those three cavalry figures there remains a unit of mounted tribal warriors and a European battalion of the Voluntaires de Bykli for Typoo's army and for the Presidency's Army of Pendawar a unit of Highland Infantry, sourced from my trip last month to Foundry, as well as a battery of artillery. While on the subject of trips I was sad to see Claymore cancelled for the second year recently, one of my favourite shows too.

R&R in Devon

 Sue and I are back home from a week's R&R in Stoke Gabriel, Devon, where we shared a cottage with old and dear friends Phil & Di. Our home for the week was Crab Cottage ~

As you'd expect from a British summer the weather was mixed but we managed to fit in lots of interesting visits along with generally chilaxing a fair bit! As you'd expect though, a good deal of history figured in our week ~

Brass memorial in St Saviour's church, Dartmouth.

Interesting facade to shop front, Dartmouth.

American WWII Memorial in Dartmouth.

Always amazes me the unlikely places our Industrial Revolution and subsequent rise to Empire got underway.

Heroes come from such ordinary backgrounds don't they? Makes me wonder what any of us might be capable of in the right circumstances. On the ferry entrance wall in Kingswear by the by.

Free French Naval Monument to their WWII forces in Dartmouth.

The Mill Pool dam at Stoke Gabriel, replenished by each high tide when the dam is submerged.

'William the Orange' without obligatory seagull headwear! The Glorious Revolution began at Brixham!

Replica of the Golden Hind, at Brixham, forever associated with Sir Francis Drake, well known Devon pirate, explorer and all round English hero!

A reminder of past activity in our fishing ports, found in all places on the wall of a loo cubicle!

Brixham monument to those brave souls lost at sea while out fishing. Puts your seaside F&C into perspective...

Speaking of F&C...

We didn't eat here by the way, but the facade of this shop did capture something of the eccentric nature of the English seaside town...

Hearts of Oak? Tree ring guide to history in Stoke Gabriel churchyard, in shadow of the biggest Yew I've ever seen.

The height of C18th town travel captured in miniature.

Insignia of Agatha Christie's DBE tossed casually, as you do, into a China cabinet in the kitchen!

Greenway, Devon home of said Agatha.

Sue taking in the sun and sights at the Battery down by the Dart in the grounds of Greenway.

Two books purchased at the Second Hand bookshop in the house for £4.

Just to finish, a reflection of a grand week's R&R...

Book Sniffer Pursuivant, 2nd Class

 While we were down in Devon enjoying a holiday with good friends Phil and Di we visited Greenway, Agatha Christie's home, now in the care of the National Trust. Like many Trust properties it boasts a decent Second Hand Book Shop. I sniffed two books: Connolly's Greece and Rome at War and Wellington at War in the Peninsula ~

Both books for £4, which I calls a bargain! Did I need either book? Not really I must confess, but the Connolly will be useful to Matt in his design work and the Peninsular War one just interested me. No accounting for taste, as they say... Why 2nd Class you might ask? Simples! I can't hold a candle to Phil's book sniffing prowess.

Faces, Flags, Bases, Shields even

 Following on from my earlier post on Scale,Size and Painting Standards I thought I'd offer a few positive reflections on bringing our wargames figures, units and armies to the tabletop battlefield. First though a disclaimer, I am not a good painter - just wander the web and you'll see what I mean I'm confident. My painting, as Phil would say, will do. In close up you can easily see my faults but then you don't see them on the tabletop battlefield at playing distance I'm equally confident. That is where they are meant to be seen after all; I'm a wargamer who paints rather than a painter who might sometimes wargame. 

Having established my starting point I want also to say that I'm generally satisfied with the end product of my efforts as they appear on the battlefield. I believe that is down to a number of important efforts on my part to do justice to the sculptor's work. Firstly if I may I'll refer to faces. Back in the early 1970's when I ventured into our hobby, via Alumwell Wargames Society, faces were pink usually using the Humbrol Flesh Matt tin. Even when progressing to early Plaka acrylic paint faces remained resolutely pink! Somewhere in the early 1980's it suddenly became fashionable to shade and/or highlight the flesh tones, probably as Colour Party Paints replaced Plaka on my desk. Then, in the 1990's starting with my Dixon Miniatures ACW armies I was painting in the eyes, because Trevor had gone to the trouble of sculpting in details. Since then my flesh painting has gone in several directions: the Foundry Triad system; Games Workshop washes and highlights to now either a base, a wash, and a base highlight or just a base and a highlight. Eyes, well only on Dixon Miniatures, and with increasing difficulty. Moral of the tale, a little effort lifts the figures into small persons in a unit but not portraits hanging on a wall. I apply this method to European and Asian figures alike and to all exposed flesh. It looks fine to me and has attracted some positive feedback so might help someone else find their own method.

Flags next: who can resist a decent flag or three after all? Back in the day I hand painted mine, though often using the black and white outline designs Hinchliffe provided with their Napoleonic standard or guidon bearers. Branching out into Malburians and ECW meant hand painting on the grand scale. Thankfully as my interests developed widely along came preprinted flag sheets, initially grouped idiosyncratically on sheets of half a dozen or so flags. They did save a lot of trouble, but have been long superceded by the intricate work of GMB Designs or Flags of War for example. I tend to copy my originals on my Lazer printer/copier onto thinner paper making it easier to fold into the staff and to animate. I like lots of flags if possible, I had great fun with my Italian Wars Papal Army of Alexander VI, Borgia that way. I also like large flags, often enlarging the originals by 10% or so. Not to everyone's taste but there you go. A little cash and time invested in flags is never wasted in raising the look of an army or unit.

Bases, the bane of many a wargamer's hobby efforts. I'll start by saying many armies you see at shows or on the internet are really based on far too dark colours. You need lighter base colours - earth's, grasses, vegetation and such - to lift the effect of the painted figures. It's a matter of the scale of colour I was once told by a professional artist and wargamer; the smaller the figure the lighter the colours need to be to convey the same effect. In my armies the one exception is for the games set on the Indian subcontinent where I mixed a darker shade of static grass by adding some brown to the Spring Green I usually use. But I kept the earth shades light as usual as well as painting the figures brightly and the overall effect remains uplifting of my modest efforts. I ought to mention Tufts as well here. While I do have the odd flowery tuft on bases in some armies I've inclined over the recent years to the less is more principle. After all not every battle was fought across cottage gardens or tulip fields! Again though, it's what works for me...

So, a combination of some effort with general flesh areas, but especially faces, combined with time and money invested in flags and an effort with your bases has the combined capacity to lift even modestly painted armies to a good visual level. For the Ancient, Medieval and Early Renaissance gamer this extends to Shields as well. My efforts back in the 1980's would frankly embarrass me today given the myriad wonderful shield transfers available at modest cost! My Punic Wars Republican and Carthaginian armies are lifted from my average painting efforts by the excellent LBM transfers, though I cursed them roundly when cutting out dozens!!! Again a little time and money invested is more than repayed in the end product! 

Well, there it is for what it's worth. Not much perhaps to show for nigh on 50 years of painting wargames figures but if it helps even one visitor resolve an issue for themselves then I've not wasted all those years... In the meantime I couldn't resist ending with this topical sign encountered last month near the Welsh border ~

Scale? Size? Painting Standards?

 A while ago I participated in an online forum discussion about differences in heft, height and the like between figures sold in the same range by one well known manufacturer. While the original poster couched his comments as if alerting newcomers to the firm/range it soon became clear it was little more than a moan that one figure was not a clone of the other. Now, I'm long in the tooth and probably set in my ways, but in respect the this old saw I'm probably and surprisingly rather liberal. That may be because some projects of recent years, especially the FRW drove me that way because of figure availability. Indeed 11 different manufacturers have figures in this collection. Recently my excursion into Pendawar has also drawn me to other manufacturers besides the core from Perry Miniatures.

Different firms and sculptors have always taken different approaches to the scale/size issue, they want you to buy their figures after all. When did 25mm figures stretch to 28mm for example? How did they measure the figures when deciding? And of course, neither is a scale either, but rather a size. Some folk seem always to be consumed by angst when considering figure size comparability. It's easy to see why you might worry for example when mixing Crimean War figures from Britannia, Great War Miniatures and Wargames Foundry in one unit. The differences would go beyond the range people might accept. But, in different units in the same game I think folk could be more comfortable.

Why? Well we see the game as a whole at playing distance, often standing above and back from the troops on the tabletop. When painting figures though we see them close up, warts and all, where differences seem to be exaggerated. A recent acquisition here in GHQ have been two new units for my ACW Union army, respectively from Crusader and Sash & Sabre. The rest of my army is almost exclusively by Dixon Miniatures, quite different size, heft and style. Very noticeable side by side but invisible on the tabletop ~

Dixon Miniatures on the left, Sash & Sabre on the right, 1st Corps mounted officer, I think, to the rear. The point I'm hoping to make is that unless your hobby is mainly painting wargames figures then the way to view figures is on the tabletop battlefield in a game.

Of course we all have preferences and favourite firms/sculptors/styles and that is to be expected, but to worry unnecessarily over toys in a game takes this to a new level of pointlessness. Scale or Size, call it how we may, is a subjective view from an individual perspective; to try to bring others to your view is like herding cats, difficult and ultimately pointless. Buy and play with what pleases you, there are no Gaming Police waiting to pounce!

This extends to painting styles and standards too. One visitor to GHQ once asked me to teach him to paint like I did. Once I'd recovered from the shock of anyone thinking my efforts worthy of replication I was forced to admit that it was the product of almost fifty years of trial and error compounded by changing fashions in the hobby and new paint products. In short, just keep on trying, abandoning what doesn't work and building on what does as you go. Helpful, well no I'd guess, but the only way forward nevertheless. The web is awash with examples, styles and tips all helpful in their way, but equally daunting perhaps to many. Hence the rise of the 'Dip' shading method of recent years promising more nuanced results without the necessary artistic talent and time.  The answer for many I'm sure, in fact Phil and I were using it on medieval figures in the early 1980's using Sepia Artist's Ink as the wash!

What I am hoping my reader has got from this is that this is a hobby and meant to be fun. There seems little point to me in wasting time and effort in unnecessary worry on issues beyond the individual's control. As my father was wont to say, if anyone comments adversely put it down to their ignorance and manners. Your toys, your games, your hobby after all is said and done.