Indian Mutiny Project - the Rebel Raja of Rhanipur's Citizen Matchlock Men

Another unit completed for the (fictional) Raja of Rhanipur's army for my Indian Mutiny project. This is a unit of citizen matchlock men. The figures are by Mutineer Miniatures. I kept up the colour scheme from the Baluchis I previously posted, so yellow, purple and pale blue are the theme colours. In reality, these men would have worn civilian native dress, but keeping the theme colours on them keeps the force looking cohesive on the table top as well as adding that splash of Hollywood technicolour that I'm so fond of.

Next up, the first company of HM 95th foot...

TMWWBK Indian Mutiny - The Raja Of Rhanipur's Mercenary Baluchi Matchlock Men

Here is the first unit for the Indian Mutiny rebel forces. These are Mercenary Baluchi tribesmen serving in the Raja of Rhanipur's private army in his Baluchi Battalion. They are Foundry models from the Darkest Africa range. They'll be Irregular Infantry, with antiquated musket (matchlocks) and poor shots (representing low rate of fire) but I'll upgrade their fighting stat to 5+ due to the fact that the Baluchis were fierce raiders and these models have huge and hulking great tulwars and little bucklers. They'll not be a lot of use against British/Company regulars in open battle, but they'll be tougher to shift if holding a prepared position in any scenario where the British/Company are attacking.

I wanted the three units of the Raja's personal army to be quite brightly uniformed to contrast with the mass of sepoy rebels who'll mostly be clad in off-white, so I chose yellow, purple and pale blue as they are pleasing enough together. However, I had no idea how bloody awful Foundry Bright Yellow is as a colour. It went on ok as a base coat over the white undercoat, but didn't take the dip wash well and was a nightmare to highlight due to low pigment strength. Still, after a huge battle, I managed to get them to look half-decent, so they'll do. They look ok at table-top distance and the bright colours will look good on a big 6x6 table if and when we take this project to a wargame show.

Next up: Rhanipur Citizen Matchlockmen 

Change of Focus - TMWWBK Indian Mutiny Project Finally Launched!

Well, I'm stuck in for a week all on my own-some with a temperature and a bit of a cough (joy!) and as it's all pretty mild thus far, I've been busy painting. I needed a break from chopping up Plastics for Elves and I've been reading a book on the Indian Mutiny so I dragged my sorry carcass up the loft and got out the Indian Mutiny figures I bought 5 years ago and made a start.
As always with TMWWBK, I have a factual basis for my games but a fictional setting, so I'm obviously in the 1857 Mutiny, but in the fictional campaign to subdue the rebel Raja of Rhanipur (back-story to come later).
The British East India Company force is build around two companies of the 53rd Foot simply because I wanted some troops in red and the picture in the old Osprey book (below) really drew me in.

The trickiest bit was that this regiment have red facings on their scarlet tunics so finding the right reds was paramount. Luckily, Foundry Scarlet is perfect for the facings and their Light Red is perfect for the tunics. The lighting has washed out the colour a bit on the pics below but I can assure you the choices are as bang on as you can get. 

The models are Mutineer miniatures. Lovely sculpts. The only snag is that the sculptor (Mike Owen?), while brilliant at these advancing poses, is incapable of doing decent firing poses. So the next unit, which is a firing line, aren't quite as good on the pose front, but they'll paint up well enough. The rest of my British EIC force is Iron Duke miniatures which are universally superb, if very slightly smaller than the Mutineer figures. 

Anyway, here is the first company of the 53rd Foot. Painting is my usual method that you all know well enough by now. The Army Painter Strong Tone dip is perfect for the Mutiny as it gives everything a slightly 'dirty' feel with these reds and off-whites.

Next up, the Raja of Rhanipur's Baluchi Mercenary Battalion...

The Great Arthurian Repair Project, Colonial Updates and Kings of War...phew!

Just a quick update tonight...


Firstly, after my...ahem... 'slight accident' involving the road and a large box of my beautiful Arthurians a month or so ago, I am pleased to report that all bar 4 of the damaged cavalry are now fixed (barring a wee bit of varnish and Dullcote). This is good, as I want to field them in next week's club Kings of War campaign game!! There are still about 25 infantry in need of a few fixes, but nothing as major as the cavalry - mostly just new spears or bows to paint.

Talking of Kings of War, here's my latest model for the Kingdom of Brythonia, a small kingdom near the Mammoth Steppes...and here's their Warbeast, a faffing great mammoth, courtesy of West Wind miniatures (albeit minus its Dwarf crew!) Apologies for cruddy pics...just snapped 'em quickly with the phone.

Eventually, this will be crewed by this fella (the one with the mahoosive axe!) from the brilliant Barbaric Splendour Barbarians Kickstarter that I have pledged for. I may also add a few old Grenadier barbarians to the crew as well (I intend to do a barbarian war band for Dragon Rampant, you see, so this will get dual use...)

Finally, my good friend Andy MacTaggart and I convened at the club on Monday to do the first play test of the 'Men Who Would Be Kings' game we are taking to Hereward Wargame Show this year. A couple of teaser shots below...as you can see, we have temporarily departed from the NW Frontier in 1897 and have gone back in time 12 years to 1885 in the Sudan! Watch this space for more details as play tests continue!!! 

That's all for now. Back next week for a full Kings of War batrep, all being well!! Toodle pip!!!!

Playtesting for Partizan - The Relief of Fort Passanda

On Tuesday, Andy MacTaggart popped over to Guitarheroandy Towers for a play test for the TMWWBK game we are putting on at Partizan in May - "The Relief of Fort Passanda". I'm not giving too much away, but here are some play test pics. The game worked well, but we will be making a couple of tweaks to improve it further.  Also, do excuse the part-painted and un painted minis - am still finishing the last few bits and bobs!

If you are at Partizan, do pop over and see us. The game will run in a similar way to the one we did at  the Hereward show last year - a 'demo-participation' so we can take 4 players to play it through with us. Looking forward to seeing you there...

British Fort for the NW Frontier

I picked up a superb little model fort from Colonel Bill's at the Hereward Wargame Show! I'd been looking for one for a while, kinda a bit like these...only smaller, obviously.

Luckily, Colonel Bill had one of the Unfeasibly French Foreign Legion desert forts left when I took a break from my demo game at the show and it was PERFECT for the job!!

Anyway, I've painted it up and aim to use it tomorrow in a TMWWBK participation game at the club.

Here's a few pics of the finished model, defended by The Guides Infantry...

The Men Who Would Be Kings at Peterborough's Hereward Wargame Show

Please forgive the lateness of this post - it's been a fortnight since the show!!

Here are some pictures from the demo/participation game that Andy MacTaggart and I put on at the first ever Hereward Wargame Show in Peterborough on 1st November.

The scenario involved a standard 24pt field force of British infantry having just burned a rebellious Jalfrezi Pathan tribal village (sorry...very carry On Up The Khyber, I know!!), withdrawing back to their camp while being assailed by a 24pt Pathan force, supported by about 20 pts of reinforcements that entered the table in random places. To help the British, a 20pt relief force left the camp as soon as firing broke out or the 'hills came alive' with tribesmen. We played the game twice on the day with one British and one Pathan victory.

We took great care over the table set up, using new gaming mats from Deep Cut Studios, as sold by Bigredbat Simon Miller in his online store. We were very pleased with both the layout and the scenario and most of the players who joined us on the day were full of praise for the rules and indeed seemed to thoroughly enjoy the games.

Anyway, on to the pictures...

Am just putting some paint on a lovely desert fort I bought at the show for my NW Frontier games. It's meant to be a French Foreign Legion fort, but it'll be great for my games! After that, it's more painting for Dragon Rampant...