Trains Progress

Just a better shot of some of my trains in progress.  The locomotive and all of the cars are from Peter Pig though if you look closely you can see that some of the passenger cars have been modified into baggage and combination cars.  While they are all "painted" they are far from being finished.  The track is from QRF/Freikorps and not yet painted as desired.  With a little bit of luck, a lot more should get done this year - the great hazard is the siren song from my model railroad that has nothing to do with historical miniatures; I hear it calling me. 

The Fun of NEW STUFF!

I need to enjoy that sensation of new stuff since I really don't expect to add much more to my collections of miniatures.  I recently discovered this company, Crom's Anvil, while searching for items to decorate some African villages.  Someone on Lead Adventure Forum linked to this company and it filled the bill - both figuratively, and now that I've bought some stuff, literally.

Above is my little camp, maybe the head of the slaver's and his servants, maybe someone more noble and less despicable.  I guess it will depend on the game.  I might get rid of the sword adjacent to one of the bed rolls but, then again, I might not.  Below is just a different angled view.

Above and below here we have two shots of buildings - that are not from Crom's Anvil! and, no, I don't recall where I got them specifically - that will be part of a Station of one of the Powers.  Or, maybe the scientists or even a missionary station.  Can anyone say "African Queen"?  The tower I've decided to dub Dimbobgee, an ancient remnant of the famed Tongueincheekulus civilization.

Above and below are views of what will likely be the village of the dastardly La inspired character and her minions. Well, dastardly if you are opposing her but maybe a friendlier adjective if you are running her and her forces during a game.

And here we have a couple of views of one possible arrangement of the, probably, German East African seaport of Senktopf.  For those who don't get it, that is German for Mustard Pot - Bag of Mayo was already taken, more or less, by Bagamoyo.  Yes, that is some insight in how my somewhat twisted sense of humor pretends to work.

This piece is my favorite of all the structures I got from Crom's Anvil.  As you can see, for 15 mm gaming, the ruin is quite large, bigger than I expected.  And five of those six columns come as separate pieces!  Very cool.

Above is an aerial view and below is a end on view.  My archeologists will be digging about here for certain.

I have but one regret regarding Crom's Anvil: when I asked him to expand his range to include US desert southwest buildings he demurred.  Understandable since it doesn't fit with his vision.  But that doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed.  His are the best buildings I've found in resin in 15 mm to represent adobe buildings.  I may buy some more from him any way just for that purpose since the above will be painted to represent Africa which means likely too bright and colorful for the US southwest - 19th century style.  But I'll still be searching for an adobe Catholic church for my town.  

Ah, the smell of new stuff in the morning.

A Detour - at the pet supply store

I go to the pet store with this simple errand: get some flea and tick repellant coverage for the Guard Cat. 

That went just fine. 

Then. 

I. 

Detoured. 

Down the aquarium decor aisle.  

Oops.  

Below is the result.

Above are three buildings to enhance the Chinese-ness of my Peking set-up for the Boxer Rebellion.  It is China, after all.  Especially like the big item on the left, either an annex to the Hanlin Library or an outrider of the Imperial Palace.  Might use the one in the middle for my version of the clock tower in the British Legation, or maybe the one on the right, keep the other two together as a unit since their roof's match.

The above and the two following photos are for my Heia Safari/Slightly Cracked Colonials collection.  Does this item demonstrate that the origins of the Easter Island people stems all the way back to Africa?  Or, does it mean that the Easter Islanders got about further afield than is yet well recorded?  A discovery - eventually.

This purchase was absolutely inspired by Richard of War in 15 mm fame.  Just need to situate this in a large tree and I'll have quite the jungle "play" house.

Just a wee bit of a different angle.  What's that guy's name again?

And, last but surely not least, I've found the long lost entrance to the town of Guidonpole, Newzona.  It was one of the most famous towns of America's Old Southwest but little remembered today.  Why is that?

Oh, the backdrop?  The backdrop is for my long building N-scale model railroad.  Painter is typing at the moment - though some of the trees are adhesive stickers probably for scrapbooking but put to better use here.

The Better Battle

I'm guessing for most people the iconic battle of the Old West is the Little Bighorn with its imagery of the heroic last stand - a last stand that may not have occurred.

I've decided to make my cavalry versus native Americans main battle to be the Rosebud battle. Roughly the same number - and even the same individual - natives but a larger and more diverse army presence.  Rather than just the 7th cavalry, Rosebud has 10 companies of the 3rd cavalry, 5 companies of the 2nd cavalry, 2 companies of the 4th infantry, and 3 companies of the 9th infantry.  And unlike the slightly later battle where there are minimal native allies, Crook's force had the benefit of both Shoshone and Crow allies, roughly 250 of them.  And a good thing, too, because without them Rosebud might have been just as disastrous as the Little Bighorn was for Custer's five company command.

And as a curious what if, can run the battle without those allies - they might not have shown up or might have left earlier (unlikely on that last).  How would the 1876 war with the Lakota and their Cheyenne and Arapaho allies gone if both Crook and Custer suffered devastating losses?

To this end, I've ordered in some additional figures for infantry companies.  Already have more than enough cavalry.  And, since my Old West is more than just the war portions, I've added in some other figures like Mexican peasants - a new offering from Peter Pig range.  I've also added another four dozen long horns from the same source.

Switching gears, I've also expanded my Piratical collection with more Peter Pig government troops - currently too many Nappy type troops in the collection that I want to nix to take it solidly back into the early 1700's or maybe a bit later time period.  And with the new mountain tribe figures in their Vietnam range, I've added some of those figures to use as native villagers for my Maori and Polynesians.  Of course, my pirate games are only loosely based on history.  It's meant to be a fun romp of a game.  I did get one other item from their Vietnam range, a hut meant to be a school that I will be using for my Slightly Cracked Colonials.  In that vain, I'm waiting the arrival of some additional items from Old Glory, some buildings, some Waziri ala Tarzan type troops as well as more porters, Egyptians, and some askari to represent the slave trading Arabs.

Photo Fall Outs and New Directions

Just discovered that the photos of my painted African animals on my Steeplechasing Zebras blog have 'fallen' out for some reason.  This means I'll need to take new - and better - photos to post here.  And to go along with that, I've decided to push forward on getting my African animals all painted as quickly as I can, though doing the best job I can (not as good as some, but good enough - I hope).

Current count is at 780 animals with roughly one fifth of that number painted already.  And, of course, always hoping to add more creatures to the mix - better wildebeests, better chimpanzees, more gazelle/antelope sculpts, vultures, etc.

I suppose, once I complete the animals, some humans and their various architectural and nautical achievements, appropriate to the time and place, will need to be painted.  Also need to work on the flora and orogenic elements - the latter, generally, being smaller bits like kopjes.  And not to forget the world of insects.  What, insects in 15 mm?!  Well, termite mounds anyway.

There is a duty I feel to complete this collection and get it photographed and posted on the internet.  More on the why behind that in due time, hopefully timely time.

Oh, and as part of the better photographs, I have some artist's stretched and framed canvasses to paint up to use for backdrops.  I guess I need to watch some re-runs of Bob Ross's wonderful Joy of Painting episodes to 'brush up' on how to quickly paint landscapes.

To go along with this - since this will be a lot of photographs and other elements, I've created a 'page' called Special Galleries within this blog to contain it all with the first gallery being an African Gallery (borrowing from War in 15mm calling them galleries but fitting tribute or, if you prefer, the sincerest form of flattery).  See off to the right of the home page for a link to push to get there.  Will remove the word (eventually) once there is something there to see.

Two Hundred Units for One Period

Well, two hundred units of foot, not including cavalry and artillery and commanders and outliers like limbers and carts and such, and maybe two hundred and two if counting a couple of special units.  Aw, but for which period?  Sorry, not telling just yet.

I was sorting what is likely my very last miniature order into my collections and passed that milestone.  That same order brought another period up to one hundred foot units.  Painted?  Are you kidding!?  For the latter period, over half, for the former, barely started - but started.

Here's to 2019 and the hope that much more progress will be made this year than over the last few busily distracted years.  And that's both hobbies progress, not just miniatures but model railroad, too.

Primary goal for 2019 is to get two or three new periods up to the point I can put games on the table and make major progress on the Boxer Rebellion (which might count as the third period but maybe one of its cousins to make a fourth, we'll see).

It's all very mysterious.  Or not.

The ACW Reprised

Here is a shot of my ACW game getting underway earlier this month at a local convention.  Union forces are entering from the right, the south, out of Georgia.  Confederate forces are already deployed and tasked with a fighting withdrawal in the last days of the war.  Union forces needed to be aggressive to achieve a victory.

Numbers were nearly equal for infantry but the Union had a solid qualitative advantage and two-to-one superiority in artillery.  Ended with a minor rebel victory.

Two elements I added to the game were a problem for the Union.  First, the train stalled most of a division until it ran backwards and then derailed - the crew having jumped for their lives (it's state in the photo here is derailed - except for the passenger cars).  Second was the red herring about worrying about Confederate cavalry in the briefing for the Union players.  It was a very near run thing, though, because the Confederate's took more casualties than the Union and they couldn't afford any losses.  The Union could have lost two thirds of its force and still won the game as long as they heavily damaged the Confederates.  Of course, the Confederates had their own challenge trying to protect both northern corners of the battlefield at the same time.  Two more turns and I expect they would have lost the northwest corner - except for that one incredibly damaging volley that decimated one unit.  But I still think the Union would have pushed through given more time.

Even with those challenges, I'm confident the Union would have prevailed if they'd been as aggressive as their briefing said they needed to be.  The vagaries of war, even on a gaming table!

As to the train, well, I'd just gotten the track and wanted to put it in a game.  The locomotive and cars are from Peter Pig, the track from Total System Scenic/QRF/Freikorps - roads from the same source except the darker, wider road in the foreground, right.  I made that myself.  Both the trains and the track need to get painted to completion.  I might also do some additional painting on the roads.

Fences and farm fields, yes.  Buildings?  No.  Have plenty of buildings, both painted and not, just chose not to use them for this game.

We used the Rank and File rules with the D8 option for morale instead of a D6.  I've now retired Johnny Reb 2nd edition, just takes too long to prepare and too many opportunities for gamesmanship as opposed to sportsmanship.  Must be over ten years since these figures saw the gaming table - and ALL of the infantry got rebased in the month or so ahead of the game, over 1,100 figures!