New Colonial Wargame Rules

 

As Kipling once quipped, and I paraphrase, "a gentleman can never have too many books, too much red wine or too much ammunition" or colonial wargaming rules for that matter. This is a newly published set of rules that caught my eye and as it is currently discounted to a tenner, I have purchased a copy for a closer look. The author is well versed in the subject matter and has devised the system over many years, so it is well grounded in both historical and mechanical terms. It draws upon rules like The Sword and the Flame and The Men Who Would Be Kings but is a distinct system with a very interesting card based mechanism. I don't know if I'll do anything with it but it may be a stimulus to finish off  my 28mm Beja army or even excavate my old 15mm Patrols in the Sudan lead pile, who knows? 

In Stanley's Footsteps

 

I picked this up today in a National Trust second hand bookshop. It's one of those travelogue type books that follows quite literally in the footsteps of Stanley's expedition into the Congo. It's actually not bad and the juxtaposition of contemporary illustrations with photographs of the actual locations concerned is really interesting. Anyway, here's the blurb...

John and Julie Batchelor journeyed 3,000 miles in the footsteps of the famous explorer Henry Morton Stanley.They travelled by train,river boat,truck and dug-out from Matadi on the Atlantic coast of Zaire across Central Africa to Zanzibar on the Indian Ocean.Their trip included 900 miles along the Zaire River,where Joseph Conrad was once a river boat captain in the days when it was called the River Congo.They travelled also through the Ruwenzori Mountains,the fabled Mountains of the Moon,first seen and recorded by Stanley.An exciting book of travel and adventure.

All very useful for Darkest Africa!

Up the Nile

I'm going to be reading this now, a paperback copy having been left on the bookshelf here and asking to be picked up. I've really neglected my interest in colonial Africa wargaming, so thought this would give me a much needed boot in the right direction. I've looked all the way back to the first posts on the blog and they were about an In the Heart of Africa project believe it or not, so I really should pick it up again but with The Men Who Would Be Kings or even Death in the Dark Continent. It's not like I have a shortage of 28mm  Copplestone Darkest Africa lead in the pile!

Beja Base Bodge

 

I painted a complete Beja army for The Men Who Would Be Kings in 2020 but was really disappointed with the finish on the bases, so put the whole lot away for a rainy day. At the weekend, the weather was a bit wet, so I dug out a few of the figures and had a go at sorting out the bases. I wanted to see if I could make them less of a brown shade and more like a rocky desert in appearance, without having to repaint the whole lot. 

A heavy drybrush and some stippling with Vallejo Iraqi Sand and they look a lot better, so with a few tufts and scrub added, I think we're back in the Beja business. I have to finish off one unit and add some detailing, eyes, mouths, beads and so on, then they will be ready to use for a game, assuming that next year I paint up some Egyptians or British for them to massacre!

TMWWBK for the Mexican Revolution?

Shellhole Scenics Villistas..I have some of these!

I had an idea out of the blue today. Could I revive my 20mm Mexican Revolution project by using The Men Who Would Be Kings as a skirmish level set of rules? I think it would cover all of the angles, with Regular and Irregular infantry and cavalry as the common types, together with some Tribal Infantry for Yaqui Indians. The artillery and machine guns are there too, with the only think missing being vehicles, although they were very rare. A few extra add-on rules for things like grenades and aircraft wouldn't be too difficult to fudge either, as people already use the rules for WW1 colonial wargaming. I might be on to something so will have a think about unit types and characteristics, as well as a look for rules tweaks that other people have made for WW1.

Perry Sudan British Assembled

 

I've now glued together the twelve Sudan War British infantry for the One Hour Skirmish Wargames project, doubling up as a regular unit in The Men Who Would Be Kings. These will be undercoated next and then I can start painting them, using a slightly less conveyor belt approach than that used on the Beja army last year. I'll probably use an off white undercoat then paint up in layers after an initial overall basecoat of khaki, but it's all a bit experimental, so who knows?

Perry Sudan British Characters

It's been a while since I assembled my 28mm Beja army for The Men Who Would Be Kings. This is the other half of the project, at least to start with, a three man command group for the 2nd Devonshire Regiment in the Sudan c1884-85. The Devonshire's didn't serve in the Sudan but could easily have done so, being one of the regiments in India that might have been deployed instead of the Royal Irish Fusiliers. I've kept them in helmets without covers, which means that I can't use them on the NW Frontier but there you go. 

These three will initially represent the characters in the One Hour Skirmish Wargame Zulu scenario, in which the Zulus will be replaced by the Fuzzy Wuzzies. I'll change the names of the characters to something more West Country too, as it seems more appropriate to have a Sgt Coombs rather than Moynihan, for example. I'll add another nine infantry to this lot next, so that I can use them for TMWWBK as a unit, not just the five needed for the scenario. 

Perry Zulus

 

I recently sold my Warlord plastic Zulu army as I didn't like the models, so am now free to use Perry Miniatures instead for The Men Who Would Be Kings and, of course, for One Hour Skirmish Wargames. I have a box set of the Zulu War British infantry, so now have all I need for the Zulu scenario in the One Hour book, which requires only sixteen Zulus including ten with spears, three with muskets and three command or character figures. This will make an excellent little skirmish project but, in the meantime, I am going to paint up twelve British figures for the Sudan version of the scenario, which will also double up as a unit in TMWWBK. 

One Hour Skirmish in the Sudan

 

I collected my copy of One Hour Skirmish Wargames from Waterstones this morning and, after a quick skim read of the Zulu War scenario in the book, I'm thinking of adapting it to the Sudan c1884-85. This would be a quick little side project as I have a Beja army already painted for The Men Who Would Be Kings, so only need to paint eight or so British infantry from the Perry plastic box set. I also have the terrain needed but would plan to glue together a blockhouse, for which I have an laser cut kit knocking about somewhere. I might even start on this at the weekend, although it's yet another tangent off course as far as my best laid plans are concerned! 

Tally Ho! Here We Go!

 

As 2021 slips away here are my new and renewed projects for 2022....some of which might even get finished!? I won't be tackling all of these, it's more of a pick and mix smorgasbord of things that I can dip into as I go along.

AIR

Bag the Hun - Finest Hour solo campaign (1/600th scale) 

Algernon Pulls It Off - WW1 (1/600th scale)*

Wings at War - Khalkhin Gol Rules Writing (1/600th scale)

Wings at War - Flames Above the Falklands (1/600th scale)

NAVAL

Steamer Wars - WW1 Lake Tanganyika / Rufiji Delta (1/600th scale)

Find, Fix and Strike - Italian Fleet / British or German Fleet (1/3000th)

Bulldogs Away! - Cold War Imagi-nations Fast Attack Coastal Warfare (1/700th)

Grand Fleet Actions in the Age of Sail - Napoleonic French Fleet (1/2400th)

Broadside and Salvo - French and British Pre-Dreadnoughts (1/2400th)

LAND

Strength and Honour - Imperial Roman / Parthians (2mm)

No End in Sight - Sandbox Skirmish Post Colonial Patrols (15mm)

One Hour Skirmish / The Men Who Would Be Kings - Sudan British / Zulu War (28mm)

* added halfway through the year when I decided to would be fun!

2020 Review

That was definitely a year to forget. However, I did manage to make it a less than 'a little bit crap' year for the hobby, both from a project and wargaming point of view. I'm not going to go through everything I've done this year but just pick out some of the positives rather than the negatives, which seems like a good thing to do and a great way to finish off the year.

In terms of games played this year, I only managed to get to the club on a very few occasions, where I ran Broadside and Ram and What A Tanker introductory sessions as well as taking part in Cruel Seas and Kiss Me Hardy games, which I really enjoyed. As usual, I set up and umpired another spectacular AK47 game, which is a club crowd pleaser. I also ran a very successful Bag the Hun game at the Lard Day in March, which seemed to be a hit with most if not all of the players.

At home, however, I was able to play more games than ever before, both with the sprogs during lock down but also solo, which is something I often do even when things are normal. These games included an excellent AK47 bash and a Back of Beyond game with my eldest son, a whole series of Target Locked On games with my daughter and several brilliant Fistful of Lead games with all three of the kids. 

I also played half a dozen games of Broadside and Ram and Dahlgren and Columbiad, including a mini-campaign of linked 'What If?' scenarios with the former which were really good fun. The INWARD game this year was a semi-historical Dahlgren and Columbiad scenario, which was a great way to learn the rules, and I finally got round to re-enacting the 1864 Battle of Jasmund with Broadside and Ram, albeit with card counters not proper metal warships.

In terms of projects, I went a bit 'off piste' this year, although in the same ball park as my initial project planning at the start of the year. I started with a 1/2400th scale ACW painting commission which distracted me a bit, but I soon got back on track by completing two squadrons of 1/285th scale Spitfires, Fw190's and Bf109's of the RAF and Luftwaffe for the Come and Have a Go If You Think You're Lard Enough 2 day. 

I also finished off some 1/2400th scale broadside ironclads for my French and British fleets, then added a whole squadron of US ironclads and warships as well, which subsequently appeared in my mini-campaign. I even squeezed in some Danish ships for 1864 but half of these are now re-purposed as Chilean or Peruvian warships, with the rest of my 1/2400th scale War of the Pacific ironclads added in to complete that unplanned but enjoyable project. 

The things I hadn't planned at all came along as a direct result of lockdown and quarantine. These were the 28mm Beja army for The Men Who Would Be Kings, which I completed up to a point, as I'd like to re-do the bases when I get the time. I was happy with the figures, all ninety eight of them, but the bases are definitely up for improvement, being a bit rushed and not quite the right look. I also need to paint a matching British or Egyptian army so they actually get to see some action!

The enforced two week quarantine after our holiday, also gave me the time to scratch build some modular river terrain and two flotillas of river gunboats in 1/2400th scale, which is something that appeared out of nowhere but was actually really good fun. I'm still pondering the shade of brown that I used on the river sections, however, and may well go back and repaint them in a less red oxide shade. I particularly enjoyed scratch building and converting the model gunboats for this project.

There were a few more side lines and dead ends this year, with one or two projects still not finished, or even started in some cases, but overall it's been a fairly productive year all things considered. I've got some things to carry over into 2021, the 1/2400th scale pre-dreadnoughts and 1/3000th scale modern naval projects for starters, but also some new ideas for interesting projects that I'm definitely looking forward too....more about those in 2021!

Happy New Year!

Tarting up Terrible Tufts

Tarted Up into Winter Tufts

A while ago I bought some cheap desert and scrub tufts from a seller on eBay to use for my 28mm Beja bases, as they were much less expensive than the Army Painter and Gamers Grass ones that I normally use. When they arrived, I was disappointed to find that they were a bit too big but also very synthetic looking, with a nasty plastic shine not unlike a really cheap suit. After a failed attempt to dry brush them, I shoved them in my scenery box rather than in the bin. I've now ordered some proper tufts for the Beja so the ones I originally bought are surplus to requirements.

I had an idea today. I wondered if I could use some rattle can spray paints to upgrade them to something useable, so gave a few of them a blast with a combination of Halfords Camouflage Green, Camouflage Khaki and Appliance White, to create some pretty nifty winter tufts, albeit rather large ones. I think they look pretty good and the paint doesn't rub or drop off, so I'll have a go repurposing the rest of the brown tufts that I have as well as the buff coloured desert tufts, which will get a blast of green paint for use in the jungle, once I've popped up to Halfords tomorrow.

The winter tufts are now looking for a purpose, so I may use them for my 20mm What a Tanker! scenery or for my 28mm Battle of the Bulge terrain, which is a project that I haven't put together yet despite having a full platoon of US figures and armour already painted and based. Another option would be to use them for some 28mm Lion Rampant War of the Roses scenery, but I doubt I'll be tackling that project any time soon so they'll probably go back into storage until I need them. At least they won't be in the bin!

Beja Army Finished...well almost

I have now completed the painting on the last two units of the Beja field force for The Men Who Would Be Kings, giving me a full twenty four points of tribal and irregular infantry. I haven't finished the artillery unit yet but that's an optional extra and I have finished the sabot base at least. The tufts are a bit too big and don't look quite right, so I may well replace them with better ones when I can find something suitable. I now only have to assemble, texture and paint the sabot bases for the infantry units and I'm ready for a game, albeit without any opposition just yet. For a quick slap it on and hope for the best project, I'm quite pleased with the end result even if I say it myself, especially as it only took exactly a month to complete!

Beja Wash and Go

I've now virtually finished the painting on the Beja figures, bar a few minor details like the beads and sandals, so they are ready for an overall wash in dilute Citadel Gryphon Sepia ink, which I'll do tomorrow as soon as the metallic paint is dry. Once that's done I can tidy them up and add the extra highlights and twinkles to make them look a lot better than they do now. The leader figure in the white jibbeh definitely needs a tone down and some coloured patches for a start, as it looks like he's not followed the washing instructions and has over cooked on the Daz automatic.

Beja Bonus!

I didn't fancy painting this afternoon, having already painted the living room, so decided to base up the last, bonus unit for my Beja field force. I suspect that every Beja army for The Men Who Would Be Kings has one of these, even though the chances of a skirmish force wheeling out a Krupp six pounder would be slim to nil. Anyway, it's a respectable four points of firepower, which I can use as a substitute for the four points of rifle armed skirmishers that I've already built into the line up. The base was adapted from one of the Warbases movement trays that I'm using for the British infantry, delaminated to just have the top layer, stuck on a trimmed down terrain template, then with two of the holes blanked off and the whole lot textured with a filler, PVA and grit mix. I think it looks pretty good!

Over the Hump

I've pretty much completed the blocking in on the last two units of Beja for my The Men Who Would Be Kings project, so I'm hoping to finish them by the end of the week, if I don't have too many home decorating jobs to do. The next step will be to add a second highlight layer to shields, robes and rifles, along with the metallic bits on the swords, spears and guns. This will get me over the hump and well on the way to completing the field force, with just the sabot bases left to sort out before they are ready for a game, albeit against a yet to be assembled enemy. I'm also still enjoying the whole experience, which continues to be a very pleasant surprise!

Sudan Skirmish Sit Rep

I've now ploughed through two thirds of the Beja figures for The Men Who Would Be Kings project, so I'm looking ahead to the next phase of the painting and modelling schedule, with the aim to get everything finished by the end of the month. I've been busy this week with other things, so haven't moved the last 28 figures further than an overall ink wash, but plan to get a lot more done over the weekend. The next step will be to block in all of the black areas and then the clothes, which doesn't take too long but can be a bit tedious after the first twenty figures or so!

I've also dug out the Empires at War blockhouse kit and hope to assemble it in between painting the last of the Beja, although I'm going to keep it as simple as possible rather than adding much extra detailing as originally planned. Finally, I need to start assembling the British field force from the Perry Miniatures plastic set, which I'm using rather then metal figures due to cost. I'd prefer metal figures but it's too pricey, even if I only need thirty six of the them for the infantry element of the field force, so the plastic ones will have to do. 

Time to crack on!

48 down, 28 to go!

I've now finished painting the second and third units for the Beja force, so only have two units left before it's completed, not allowing for any extra bits I might add on later. These two units of sixteen figures were a bit of a slog but I now have only twenty eight figures left to paint, so it's all downhill from here. I'm still enjoying painting them too, which is a pleasant surprise!

Are we nearly there yet?

They don't like it up 'em!

Run away, run away!

I didn't quite manage to finish the two units of Beja Tribal Infantry for The Men Who Would Be Kings project over the weekend, but the finishing line is almost in sight. As of now, they have been ink washed and just need some highlighting before I tackle the bases. These will get a basecoat of Foundry Rawhide Shade, followed by some dry brushing and some desert tufts, so it's not too much to do before the figures are matt varnished, ready for a game. I'm planning to wrap them up tomorrow, so that I can move onto the last two units to complete the Beja field force by the project deadline a week from now. I have to say this lot have been a bit of a slog but I'm determined to get the job done, even though I'm still adjusting to the idea of banging them out in a rough and ready fashion.

Beja Back on Track

I've had a couple of days of decorating and DIY, so made little progress on the Beja units for The Men Who Would Be Kings project, but today I was able to move them on quite a long way. They now have all of the basic blocking in completed, apart from the metallic bits, and the tobes and shields have had a top highlight layer as well. I have used two shades for the tobes, half with the original Foundry Buff Leather that I used on the first unit that I painted, the other half in Foundry Drab. These will all be mixed together at random when I assemble each sixteen man unit, so that there is a realistic tribal look to the army. The last lot of figures may also get some of the tobes in another base colour to add some variety, possibly Foundry Moss or a similar dusty shade. I'm planning to finish these two units over the next couple of days, so that I can move onto the last Tribal Infantry unit and the Irregular Infantry skirmishers next week.