AWI: Regiment Saintonge

 

Another BP unit down for the AWI BP collection, this time a French regiment Saintonge.

Actually got these finished in the lead up to xmas but the weather was not conducive to varnishing so couldn't snap some shots.

Standard BP unit, 'firing by company'

This is the first unit from the 3rd commission lot from Spiro at Pants of War.

These white units are more of a pain to get looking right than the more colourful units, so Spiro essentially block painted them with contrast and normal paints and I've gone through and shaded them, and done the finishing bits and bobs.

Despite being almost 20 years old (and long OOP) these Italeri figures paint up well; although I've sliced off the 'toy drum' that the drummer is molded with (see the PSR comments) and replaced it with a slightly oversized drum from the American Italeri box of the same period (which comes loose) - and now I see I've glued it on upside-down 😆.

The other 'problem' at this scale is that the French - due to 1779 regulations - mostly have the regimental colour only on their cuffs, which is hard to see (and piping around other parts which I'm not going to attempt at this scale). But hopefully the excellent flags from warflag.com help to distinguish units amongst the 'sea of white' that I'm sure will ensue. 

So next up, while I'm waiting for work to kick off next year, the regiments Touraine, Soissonois, and Royal Deux-Ponts.

PS: placing a glowing xmas decoration behind the unit seemed like a good idea at the time I was taking these photos.

AWI Loyalists

 The final standard infantry units for the Brits are done and probably the final thing I'll paint this year. 

Its only taken five years to get British line completed but it was worth it... 😂

To finish off the 'sea of red' created by the other ten line units (and some Grenadiers still to come) a splodge of green, Loyalist Green from early on in the conflict.

Loosely based on the Loyalist Regiment Massachusetts and Regiment of Fencible Americans - although flags have been swapped around for ascetics.

Loyalists - Massachusetts flag with blue facings.

This was another joint effort from Spiro at Pants of War (Commission: Lot 2) and some highlighting and shading to move the contrast paints closer to historic colours.

Loyalist Fencible Americans(ish) with speculative flag (read 'made up' - I'm speculating they had a flag) and white facings.

 

So, still two lots of French to come and another four Continental units off their sprew awaiting paint (might be a holiday thing)(and some militia which I've been putting off for years now). Still loving the detail on these IMEX/Accurate figures.

But having received some drummers with tricorns from Irregular and placing the grenadiers I'd brought against some Continentals, I've had second thoughts about using them as they stand a full head shorter than the Italeri figures - sad face.

So as bold as the Loyalist colonel standing above, his drummer clearly wondering what the last order he barked was, I've sent the Irregulars to Coventry and ordered some B and B Miniatures which stand the same height but are a little bulkier in style to the plastics - fricking onwards!

Kinda like the light dragoons painted previously, so why not... oh and some Butlers Rangers... and some Queens Rangers... for light duties, why wouldn't you?

... anybody want two BP units of unpainted, AWI British Grenadiers, circa 18mm tall, PM me 😁 .. to be fair on Irregular, they are excellent, well proportioned figures - just accurately 20mm (unlike the plastics which stand between 22mm and 26mm). I remain yours, pendantically JS.

Merry Non-Denominational Holidays 😄

Gaslands! Got the Bug!

 

Haven't played a game of Gaslands yet but after reading the rules, reviews and watching a few demos on YouTube, it was I game I decided I couldn't live without - coz Its like Car Wars but without the grid! 😁

I just gotta say it was oddly satisfying and addictive wrecking some Hot Wheels cars and making models from them.

It started slow with The Great Die Cast Shortage of '21 but my wonderful little buddy of a step son sorted through what was left at our local Warehouse (think KMart for US friends and 'big shop with heaps of stuff you didn't know you didn't need' for UK friends) and found the Kia (on right). Then lo and behold, 10 weeks out from Xmas, a shipment must have arrived in NZ from the states and the Jag came next.

Then, after going to down to buy a hose fitting or something as equally mundane, we came home with another 9 cars!

Killer Kia: Grenades and minigun

I got some templates and roads from a local firm Battle Kiwi and might do a sperate post for them coz their stuff is excellent. And then got the Implements of Carnage sprew 1, some dice and Warboys from Northstar.

Jaguar XJYes!: Also grenades and minigun

Just couldn't resist putting miniguns on these first two and in the spirit of the game, the team name for these guys is Black Knights of the Red Dragon.

And I can't describe the almost insane feeling you get when you drill out the cars.

And just how awesomely replete it is when you stick a Northstar figure in a Hot Wheels car.

Think I ended up drilling out everything we bought and then stuck most of the metal chassis in 1:1 solution of Dettol and water - hey presto, overnight, no more paint.

Drilled out Camaro and some of the awesome bits from the Northstar Implements of Carnage 1 sprew

Looking forward to getting some Mad Max type vehicles together using the Northstar figures and actually getting a game in!

AWI: Even More British

 

Two more AWI units down much thanks to Spiro at Pants of War, the first half of the second lot he's commissioned to do (of 4 lots! 😄).

This time its the last of the regular Brits and by the looks of it the colonel of the 3rd is as happy about it as me (he looks like he's smiling).

But having gone through every regimental colour with previous units I doubled up on yellow as the regimental colour for the 3rd - primarily as there seems to be more of these units in the theatre.

I've given them blue trousers to distinguish form the other yellow unit and as there are a couple of photos in the BP AWI supplement of Brits with blue trousers, I say its good and it looks great.

Yes, this chap may well smirk as his sergeant barks the order for the firing line of the 3rd to open up, as next up the first beige unit for the force.

The 44th regiment waits patiently to engage and I chose the regimental colour for this unit primarily as I really liked the drummer uniform with reversed coat. I must say that the contrast paints Spiro used have brought the details out for the uniform and the faces.

For tiny ~18mm figs (listed as 1/72 but don't go there - I already did in a previous post), this is great detail.

The 3rd's colours are from warflag.com and the 44th's are from warflag and then (because they have a distinctive wreath) I borrowed from other flags on Dr Google and munged the two together.

That these units can take there place with the other 8 finished units is something to smile about...

... and the drummer can continue to hope that his distinctive coat, in amongst the distinctive flags, doesn't make him an immediate target on the field, as he waits for the next two semi-regular units to arrive; two loyalist units in as equally distinctive bright green. 😀

Desert Forces

 

... or pretty much, what I did during New Zealand's second COVID lockdown.

So the goal was to do something with the hordes of 20mm figures that had been replaced by newer sculpts and companies and recklessly stuffed in a box, and had come home from far to many Bring and Buys.

The second goal was to find a game and a way to teach my stepson about losing during a game, especially your 'favourite' figure of the day.

The result was a Black Powder supplement - greatly simplified with the addition of heroes, magic, monsters and machines, desert scenery and the desert forces themselves - which were meant to be reinforced by Redbox's Dark Alliance Mummies and Anubis army, which have as yet, failed to show up from muster - international shipping being what it is.

Excellent Adventures - Black Powder Supplement

I grabbed Hordes of the Things, Warmaster Revolution and Black Powder V2 and munged the first two into the third. What resulted was an exceptionally fun, and funny, not to be taken seriously supplement which worked really well - with very little rule changes for core BP rules.

We had hordes, steam tanks, Giger-moths, stoic British infantry, and crazy magicians firing off their fizzing silliness all over the place. Instead of trying to 'win' the object was to tell the 'story' and not mind which side you were on or who won - I guess teaching how to lose before teaching how to win - sounds counterintuitive I know, but I don't think we've laughed so much in ages.

Terrain

Building upon previous desert escapades, we updated the Temple of Seth with a couple of extensions.

Then, 'build a pyramid' he said, 'from the bricks we made from das' he said, 'it'll be fun'.

Ten hours later and we have a small pyramid, which I have to admit, set the scene nicely, even for the pyramids in northern Sudan (who knew they had them???)

And of course you have to have an abandoned fort and a hastily erected stone defence robbed from said pyramid (see the 'good guy' photos for the stone defence).

The 'Bad Guys'

The bad guys, in a homage to Indiana Jones baddies, red and black theme and warriors from the Esci Set 238 Muslim Warriors and Italeri Set 6010 Saracen Warriors, flying horrors from Eagle Games Egyptian 'Age of Mythology' sprue, and a giant Djinn from the 25mm Ral Partha range.

Led by a great As-Sihr (magician) and hell bent on reaching the pyramid cemetery at Meroe to raise the dead and basically do 'bad things'.

Classic hordes of bad guys for your chosen heroes to fight, backed by a mighty Djinn hero.

The red and black certainly put colour on the board and the forces were finished off by further Eagle Games Egyptian sculpts of various monsters - used in a summoning/charm spell during the shooting round.

The 'Good Guys'

A lot of these were re-based from various HoTT forces and further photos can be found here.

Victoria's Forces

Stirling lads from various regiments stationed at Suakin, set out to chase and confront the As-Sihr forces. 

Mostly drawn from the old Esci Set 232Colonial India British Infantry and A Call To Arms Set 57 British Infantry Zulu War boxes of 1/72 awesomeness.

Including a regiment ordered to wear their red coats - one last time - to show the As-Sihr forces they were just as 'red' blooded as they were.

Inspired, many of the KRRC donned their old dark green for the coming battle.

The rest of the forces wore their new khaki smocks.

The special brigade (the only one with red epaulets) were led by their general.

Even a regimental chaplain volunteered to meet the As-Sihr and all their magical fizzing silliness, quoting "This maniacal fuddery-duddery just won't do!" - essentially a 'magician' that uses the Dwarven 'dispel magic' spell from Warmaster,

Envigoured by their comrades, the Camel Regiment joined in also, ditching their camels for local ponies - Italeri converted confederate cavalry.

Dismounted, the Camel Regiment loved to blow their own horn - Esci conversions.

Lost in the desert, a Major and his colleagues struggle on.

Some gas-powered Giger-moths for scouting and machine gun action.

A hero in a steam-driven armoured car joined the fray.

Along with a steam-driven tank (converted from Emhar, I think)

Sepoy Regiment

Worried by the rate at which the As-Sihr forces were drawing supporters from across the northern Sudan, the British dispatched reinforcements from India in the form of some Sepoys and cavalry. Drawn from the same Esci set above and Strelets Set 057 Bengal Lancers.

The general and some light foot troops.

A full regiment of Sepoys was a welcome sight given what faced the force at the Meroe pyramid cemetery.

As fierce as any British soldier.

Drawn from all over India.

The Indian 'lights' were a welcome addition for scouting and flank duties.

Those Caught In-between

The Mahdi's and Local Forces

Forces to make up the numbers on either side, depending on who they choose to support.

The addition of Red Sea pirates never hurt.

Madhist rifle-armed forces to make up more numbers.

A company of 'imports' from the Northern Frontier.

Most Excellent Adventures

So, having reused many very old bits and pieces, some most excellent adventures were had in the northern Sudanese desert. I might cobble together the additional rules for the future and wasn't really surprised that the magic from Warmaster fit right in to Black Powder given the lineage of these rulesets.

The heroes, machines and monsters required an adjustment of thinking for unit sizes (We only used Small and Tiny units for 'company-level' units), but all in all a completely unexpected success and now these figures can be used by a subsequent generation - as well as this one :)