Crimean War? Surely not?

Great War Miniatures have announced today that they are starting a range for the Crimean War and so I have now started to think about whether I might get some of these figures, of course. I like GWM Great War figures without actually thinking they are (as was their intention) the ne plus ultra of World War One in 28mm. They have two sculptors and this is, I find, very apparent in matters of size and proportion. Some of the figures, such as the Early War British are lovely (although not as nice as the Musketeer Miniatures ones) but some, such as the Early War French I don't like as much. In addition they all tend to suffer from a rather old-fashioned "big head syndrome". I don't know whether the Crimean figures will have similar issues but the one they have put up on the Miniatures Page looks more than acceptable.

Anyway, in 28mm there doesn't seem to be much competition which begs the question whether anyone is really interested in the period. For me it has never been a period that appealed that much. Odd, given that it features a British Army in all its Victorian (and inappropriate) splendour. Partly, perhaps, it is too close in time to Waterloo and given a choice of two periods with redcoats and traditional cavalry I'd be more likely to go for the Napoleonic option. For a more modern war the American Civil War offers a more engaging choice with many and varied sized engagements and terrain. Basically my mental image of the Crimea is of (only a handful of) battles fought on freezing cold treeless, featureless terrain and rather too much siegework for an enjoyable wargaming period. The ultimate decision will be made, I suspect, by the figures themselves but these aren't due until 2010. If these are really spectacular (as they have the potential to be) then I may look at the period anew. Perhaps buying the Garry Douglas Kilworth novels might be a good (or bad) idea, especially given that, after the Crimea, his hero Jack Crossman ends up involved in the Indian Mutiny.

Something of a gamble for GWM I would have thought...

Paint some buy more

French Militiaman

I'm so delighted with the number of figures I have painted in the last two weeks that I have just gone and ordered a load more. None of this "Pledge" nonsense for me!

The Galloping Major French Indian War figures have now arrived (very quickly, I should add) and they are much better in reality than the pictures on the website indicate. They are, as Giles has said, larger than the Conquest figures but that is probably all to the good as it means I will be able to supplement the range with Redoubt figures/accessories if necessary. I don't think they will be particularly quick to paint, though. I may paint the French Militia at the same time as the Carthaginians as they have a similar palette utilising natural cloth colours and leather.

I have ordered some more Belgian Askari and a mountain gun for my Force Publique so I can get it large enough to field at Guildford one evening.

I have also ordered some A&A Miniatures Carthaginian veterans (also sculpted by Mark Sims) to boost the Crusader figures I am painting at present. This will give a bit more variety in the units as there are only four poses at present but the addition of the A&A figures will give eight which will look a bit better. A&A's postal service is appalling: it can take six weeks for figures to arrive so I am not holding my breath!

Finally, the Mutineer Miniatures Indian mutiny figures by Mike Owen are just available to buy so I have ordered a pack of each.

After all this, however, I am finding that I have hardly any time to paint. My daughter and son seem to dominate the computer (which is in my study) for homework during the week so I only get a few minutes a day it seems. Never mind, yesterday I based the FIW figures and some Great War Miniatures WW1 Scots I bought in Ian Allan's shop near Waterloo station. I also bought a book there called The German Army at Cambrai by Jack Sheldon which I have not seen before. It contains a photograph of one of the lorry mounted anti-aircraft guns the Germans used at Cambrai although no one makes one to my knowledge. My World War 1 Mark IV tank is so nearly finished I may fast track it over the next few weeks, especially now that I have some transfers from Brigade Games for it.

My next overseas trip is on the horizon for three weeks time but its only a couple of days at the UN in Geneva so isn't going to be too disruptive.

First painted Mutineer figure

Painted by Piers Brand. Can't wait!

Canadian poppy

For some reason I am usually in Canada at this time and tend to end up with the Canadian version of the remembrance poppy (although you can buy them in Canada House in Trafalgar Square. This year, however, I have a British poppy.

As in the UK, Canadian poppies were produced by disabled veterans but the demand is such (16-18 million a year) that they are now produced by a commercial company on behalf of the Royal Canadian Legion. In Canada, of course, Remembrance Day is a public holiday and that is when the main remembrance services take place (not on the nearest Sunday as in the UK).

An army in two weeks!

Force Publique for Darkest Africa

OK, it's not much of an army but given a few added askaris (which I've already painted) it's probably a viable force under Chris Peers' Darkest Africa rules for taking on my Azande in the next week or so (we'll probably have to wait until after Guy's exams the week after next).

Forty-eight figures from start to finish in 15 days which must be a record for me. I will write about the Force Publique in more detail over at my Darkest Africa blog in the next week.

Now it's on to the Carthaginians!

Back at work...

Well I struggled into trendy North Soho today to show my face in the office just in case they all thought I had died. Fortunately, everyone seems genuinely concerned for my welfare and the girls are rushing to make my tea whenever I need it! My former PA is taking me to lunch and my new PA starts next week, which is great as I haven't had any help for about eight weeks now. In reality my "new" PA is my old PA from my previous job but I have persuaded her to come and work for me again. She will make my life a lot easier! Now it's back to trying to set up our operation in Canada; which should keep me occupied for the next 12 months or so.

First painted Ranger from the Galloping Major site

Talking of Canada, I am getting increasingly tempted by the Galloping Major French Indian War range. Already they have French Militia and Mohawks and now they have previews of Hurons and Rangers up on their website. http://www.gallopingmajorwargames.com/ Given that I am also looking forward to the new Indian Mutiny Range from Mutineer I shouldn't really start another period but my recent burst of activity on my Force Publique figures (36 completed so far since last Sunday week) has got me energised into painting again.

Very much our favourite general at the Hampton School multi-award winning wargames team! We won three trophies in a row at the Model Engineering Exhibition in the mid-seventies and they wouldn't let us compete any more!

"Mass, not driblets!" as Heinz Guderian once said and perhaps my tactic of only painting six figures at a time has prevented me from doing more. I am very down on my aim of doing six figures a week this year so for the next few months I will try to work on some bigger units.

Next up will be a unit of 20 Carthaginian veterans for Zama. I have based and undercoated the Crusader figures and started by painting the flesh on one figure last night (even though I haven't quite finished the Belgians yet). Not quite as straightforward as I had hoped as getting the flesh colour in around greaves and helmet is a lot trickier than on the Force Publique figures but they have a lot of armour (chainmail, helmets and greaves) so there is less cloth to paint. After I have done those (which should take about three weekends, I guess) I am going to move on to the Zulu War British I have started. I probably have about 40 figures to paint so suspect that will take me up to Christmas. I have quite a lot of leave left so will try to get some time off between Christmas and New Year. Next up, after the Zulu Wars British, will be a unit of Ligurians for Zama from Gripping Beast.

I'm sure that this is all hopelessly over-optimistic but who knows?

I have just noticed that Games Workshop are issuing two of their flat Realm of Battle game tiles in a pack for just over £50. Annoyingly, they are just the standard ones from the full set with irritating skull pits and what have you but I can see myself getting some more of these. I have finished one of these tiles now and have some others well on the way. It looks like their promise to come out with river tiles etc. is going to come to nothing. Just too expensive for the current economic environment I suspect.

Right. I need to book a flight to Geneva!

Not the kit I went for...

I decided that I needed to get out over the weekend and after a short, experimental visit to Waitrose on Saturday, where I acquired an anaesthetic bottle of Peter Lehman Barossa Tempranillo, I went to Kingston with my little boy yesterday.

I had to take my daughter to a school play rehersal in Kew so she could be a munchkin all day. This is a somewhat curious piece of casting given that she is nearly 5'8" tall; but they are short of competent dancers it seems. Anyway, rather than drag all the way back home and then back to Kew to collect my daughter Guy and I decided to go back only as far as Kingston to have lunch and visit Games Workshop and Modelzone. We had watched James May's Toy Stories about Airfix Kits on TV last week and had got it into our heads to get a 1/48th Spitfire. Now my usual style would be to get the big 1/24 scale one but given I have had the engine of the Hurricane on my shelf for years without progressing it and have the Stuka in the loft we decided to be rational and go for a smaller one. Unfortunately, I managed to pull my stitches which strated to bleed and we had to beat a rapid retreat back to the car and left Modelzone without said aircraft (probably just as well).

However, before this I happened on a model kit I did buy. Blow me they had a 1/350 scale model of the Jeremiah O'Brien; the Liberty ship I visited in San Franciso last month. Well, I had to get that! About 280 pieces and 15" long. I haven't made a model ship since...well I can't actually remember. It may be a model of HMS Suffolk I built 15 years ago. I used to enjoy Airfix ships more than aircraft when I was younger although all that getting the two halfs of the hull aligned was a nightmare! Fortunately, the Trumpeter model has a one piece hull which is, cleverly, the below the waterline section so you can build it as a full hull or waterline model. I remember that the Airfix Graf Spee was like this but that involved some very dicey hull cutting. This is a much more elegant design solution!

Interestingly, Modelzone also had another 1/350 model of a ship I saw on my travels last month: the USS New Jersey. This is moored opposite the Philadelphia waterfront in Camden New Jersey. I didn't get a chance to go on board this visit but hopefully will do next year.

Force Publique as at Saturday evening

On the Darkest Africa front, progress is steady on the Force Publique army. I'm hoping to have the first batch finished today. I was due to go back to work today but they have told me to stay at home another couple of days.

I have to sit still more it seems so am pondering on what dreadful film to watch this afternoon. I am torn between Carry on up the Jungle with Valerie Leon in a fur bikini and Ray Harryhausen's swansong Clash of the Titans. Decisions, decisions.

Not dead yet..

Force Publique. End of Day 2

Well I have returned from the hospital to very little sympathy from my wife ("you call those stitches") and a great deal of pain. I have been given some marvellous painkillers but unfortunately I can only take them every six hours and they seem effective only for four... Having surgery, however "keyhole" in a very sensitive part of the anatomy was very worrying but the lovely (and very expensive) team at Ashtead Hospital did a great job of stopping me getting stressed.

Force Publique. End of Day 3

I am still finding moving about quite painful but have been able to sit in my chair for a couple of hours a day and do some painting. Progress on the Force Publique force is going rather well and just shows what I can do when I apply myself (and when I don't have to go to work).

Olinka Berova: the only two reasons to watch the dreadful Vengeance of She

I have to spend some time with my legs up so have been watching a series of enjoyably dreadful 60s and 70s films as I really can't face daytime TV. So far I have watched: The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967), She (1965), The Vengeance of She (1968), The Valley of Gwangi (1969) and Warlords of Atlantis (1978). I also watched the slightly later Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), which I started watching live but then moved on to the DVD when I got interrupted by an "are you still alive" phone call. Much to my surprise much of the latter was filmed at my old college, Brasenose, including Lecture Room XI where I once did bad things with a girl from Somerville during the college ball. No chance of that at the moment.

Oh well, musn't grumble, as old people say...

Painting again...

Force Publique: Day 1 progress

Well, after six weeks of no painting I actually picked up a brush and started painting again today. Needless to say, not on anything that I have already started but on a whole new army, if not a new period. My little boy said that he wanted to play a wargame next weekend and having discussed some options he has settled on a Darkest Africa game. Now, Mr Copplestone's DA figures were the first metal 28mm ones I ever bought and I have a substantial number of them. Many are actually painted (although the early ones not very well). I decided we would do Azande against... Well, that is the problem. I don't have any historical opponents for them. I could field a British Colonial force (and may well have to) but I suddenly got it into my head that I could paint a whole Belgian army in a week. Yes, I know that my usual output is six figures a week but I am home for the next seven days.

I have to have an abdominal operation tomorrow and have been advised to spend the rest of the week recuperating. Hopefully, this means some painting time. Of course I may be too tired and having never had a general anaesthetic before I may have a stroke and end up dead or a vegetable. My wife is full of happy stories about people she knows who went in to have a wisdom tooth out and ended up as a vegetable. This would be annoying as it would mean I would have failed in my attempt to live longer than the 50 years maximum most men in my family seem to achieve. But I have looked at my lead pile and it is vast so this should give me enough kudos with the Lead Gods to channel the force in my favour.

Anyway, I jolly well need to come out the other end as I have just seen the first photographs of Mike Owen's new Indian Mutiny range for Mutineer Miniatures and they are completely lovely.

Hope to be back soon!