What a load of Bullocks!

This post originally formed my entry to the second of the bonus rounds for the 'VIII Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge'.  Rather amusingly titled, Big Freakin' Gun, this was one of those wonderful opportunities where the theme fell perfectly for the miniatures that I already had – well mostly!  I have always loved artillery on the table top, it just looks impressive and the Challenge has given me plenty of opportunities to indulge in this over the years, whether that be Russian Field Guns in the Crimea, the Naval Brigade seeing off the Mutiny or Māori Warriors with a captured Carronade. 

Returning to the theme of BFG and I was instantly reminded of a piece of antiquated artillery from ‘Redoubt Miniatures’ Wellington in India range.  I had picked it up a couple of years ago with an idea that it could have been pressed into service during the Mutiny by a particularly brave, but desperate group of mutineers; I mean, just look at it!  I loved the chunky, solid wooden wheels of the bullock cart and the sheer improbability of the piece and decided that this was perfect for the round.  The difficulties started when it came to crewing the beastie.  I had some ‘Mutineer Miniatures’ Irregular Indian artillery crew that looked suitable and based them on card whilst I scratched around for an idea as to how to bring everything together.

I believe it was at this point in the project that I fell afoul of what they call mission creep!  You see, I also remembered that I had picked up an ‘Indus Miniatures’ (available through Wargames Emporium) Indian artillery piece, resplendent with its lion’s head muzzle ornamentation and what could be better than a BFG?  Well two BFGs of course!  The Indus piece was bought for exactly the same purpose as the Redoubt one, it just looked so cool!  I now had two guns and one crew, what to do?  In the end I decided that the Indus piece looked ready for firing and so would have the crew whilst the Redoubt piece needed some form of assistance in transportation.  

A bullock cart needs bullocks and lo and behold the new ‘Iron Duke Miniatures’ range (available through Empress Miniatures) have a set of bullocks along with a couple of nicely sculpted Indian drivers.  So with bullocks in hand* and a bit of careful matching on the base widths, I was able to create a series of units that could, in theory, be interchanged.

*not an expression to say out loud in polite company.

Although pleased with my efforts. something wasn’t quite right, I needed a limber!  Back on to ‘Empress Miniatures’ and the missing item was ordered up, and what a fabulous piece of casting it was too.  The only down side was that I had already positioned the yoke spars on the original bullocks and didn’t have the heart to remove them so, for the time being, it will have to suffice until I am brave enough to do it properly.

Purely as an aside the ruined walls and doors are from ‘4Ground’ and purchased as a set in one of the ‘North Star Military Figures’ clearance sales.  They are very cleverly done as for what appears like random damaged brickwork can actually be slotted together in a number of different ways giving variety to your terrain building.  (16 pieces in total)

2nd Punjab Cavalry Command

Part two, as it were, of my 'Mutineer Miniatures' Punjab or Sikh Cavalry, this time the command group.    Those of you who have a copy of the 'Indian Mutiny' from the Osprey Men-at-Arms series will hopefully recognise the officer in the middle from its cover illustration, resplendent in his cold weather poshteen, which in turn rather dictated how the rest of the unit would evolve.  The choice of red for the alkaluk might be contentious as different colours were certainly worn by other ranks, but the red certainly gives them some presence so happy to ride the derision of the 'button counters' on this one.

Fighting with distinction at Delhi and Lucknow, the 2nd Punjab Cavalry were made up of Sikh cavalrymen that remained loyal to the crown during the mutiny.  The Sikh religion forbade the cutting of hair, including facial hair and many would sport wonderfully fierce beards so I was delighted to see that this detail was carried through into the sculpting of these miniatures.  Having failed to source the appropriate guidon, the standard bearer has been given a bamboo lance for the interim period.

2nd Cavalry, Punjab Irregular Force, 1859

Nineteen officers and other ranks of the 2nd Punjab Cavalry received a total of twenty-three Order of Merit awards, including four advancements, for gallantry during the Indian Mutiny. The photograph, shown below, was published in the 'History of the Second Punjab Cavalry from 1849 to 1886' (London, 1888), and shows some of the recipients of that award.

Back Row: Dafadar Bishan Sing (3rd Class) & Jemadar Jeewun Sing (3rd Class)

Middle Row (seated): Ressaidar Hukdad Khan (3rd Class, advanced to 2nd Class) & Risaldar Bishun Sing (3rd Class, advanced to 2nd Class)

Front Row (seated): Jemadar Shere Sing (3rd Class, advanced to 2nd Class), Dafadar Punjaub Sing

(3rd Class) & Dafadar Sirmook Sing (3rd Class).

2nd Punjab Cavalry

A very brief post this morning (with no fooling) to showcase the first of my Punjabi Cavalry, the command group should follow shortly.  Some gently ribbing from a few of my fellow bloggers (Thank you Pete and Millsy!) has seen these chaps push past the London Bobbies to get to the front of the paint queue.  They are from 'Mutineer Miniatures' and were lovely to work on with plenty of detail to snag my brush.  

Paint Table Saturday#18

Progress continues to be made, albeit painfully slowly.  All the composite parts for the final bonus round, aptly titled, 'Last Stand' are complete and whilst perhaps not as grand as I had hoped it will see me complete for of my personal targets of entering something for each of the these themed rounds.  The  2nd Punjab Cavalry have had their mounts painted, but still an awful lot of work to be done.  The Matabele warriors are still proving a bane insomuch as I just don't seem to be able to drum up the enthusiasm to get them finished.  

With 'The Fourth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge' entering its final fortnight, I have just realised, somewhat alarmingly, that I will lose a day's painting next Saturday due to work.  The plan, so that it is,  will be to try and complete all those units started, but just in case I have a purple patch of production, I have promoted some Imperial Infantry to the painting table.  

Paint Table Saturday#15

Yes, I know it's a day late, but the truth of the matter is I seem to have misplaced my painting mojo!  What with the recent school inspection and subsequent down time, it has been nearly three weeks since I wielded a paintbrush in anger; this calls for some drastic action!

The Matabele are still lingering on the periphery of the painting table, but in a bid to ring the changes, I have promoted this unit of Sikh cavalry to pole position - oh and upped my target tally in the '4th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge' to a 1,000 points from the meagre 600 that I started with. 

Elephant Towing Carriage

Having only just extolled the virtues of 'Mutineer Miniatures' in the previous post it may seem a tad unsporting that this post, regarding their elephant towing carriage, sees a quite moan from your truly.  This powerful pachyderm was certainly quite a chunk of metal, but was not as well sculpted as the resin version I had previously done, with the two halves of the body needing a fair bit of filling with the ubiquitous green stuff.

That said once I had finally completed the preparation stage it proved to be an enjoyable project, combined with an additional 18/24lb siege gun to give the forces an additional punch.   

The return to work after the festivities has been incredibly busy and as a result I seem to have struggled in keeping up to date with the many erstwhile weblogs that I enjoy following. In fact today has been nearly entirely spent furiously painting artillerymen in readiness for another entry to count towards my tally in the '4th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge'.

Hopefully normal service will return shortly! 

Naval Brigade Artillery

Having had the good fortune and foresight to have had the school holidays coincide with the start date of the '4th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge', I found myself blessed with a couple of days of dedicated painting time, once of course a substantial amount of family and festive related duties were completed first! This invaluable time was just what I needed to get my challenge off and running and what better choice of subject matter than a return to the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and the always enjoyable 'Mutineer Miniatures'.

 Having had some success with the Naval Brigade, back in 2012 (was it really that long ago? See 'In the Navy' & 'Naval Brigade Command') it seemed about time that my jolly Jack Tars were given some much needed support in the shape of this 18/24lb siege gun and crew.

There is a reassuring quality to all that 'Mutineer Miniatures' produce and these fine sculpts are no exception; they were certainly a joy to work with having very little flash and good strong poses.  It has also been a refreshing change to return to the Victorian era and a more historically bias; frighteningly it was August when I last posted any such miniatures that could fit these parameters!  

Rebasing the 42nd!

A quiet weekend here at 'Awdry Towers' saw very little done, hobby wise, apart from the rebasing of these hairy Highlanders!  The last unit that needed to be brought into line with regards to their base size and a surprisingly relaxing process, which proved just the tonic for the unnecessarily stressful cricket match where England narrowly squeaked past New Zealand in yet another rain affected match!

 

Once again these were from 'Mutineer Miniatures' and the original post detailing my thoughts behind making them a unit from the prestigious 42nd Royal Highlanders can be found here.

 

With the Highlanders safely housed in the 'Warbases' movement tray (yes, I must make these match the bases!) that should be it for the moment with regards to the rebasing as I can't bring myself to take on the Light Division just yet and anyway there is just far too much frippery awaiting in the painting queue!

Mutineer Rebasing

I suppose it was inevitable really!  Having recently completely the 'Badmash Militia' I put them along side my other, somewhat dusty, mutineers only to groan at the discrepancy in their bases.  The original chaps, again from 'Mutineer Miniatures' had been done when I was even less focussed as I am now, if that were possible, and when I had no real idea about what I would do with them when completed, they were simply a cathartic diversion. 

(the original post can be found here)

As a result, I treated each individual miniature as a little treasure or victory and felt that the lipped bases rather added to this; now perhaps a little wiser, and with the knowledge that there are some rather splendid skirmish rules out there, it seemed appropriate to have a more uniformed appearance.  

Although it has proved to have been a busy week at work and that I didn't feel suitably alert enough to do any painting in the evening, I've managed to get this little job off the table and jolly pleased I am too.  Reunited with the Militia, below, and safley housed in a 'Warbases' movement try.

Badmash Militia

These fearsome chaps were yet another planned entry for the 'Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge' that I sadly didn't manage to progress any further than their black undercoat!  Having reunited myself with them, I was hopeful that I might be able to get them off the table relatively quickly, but then I decided to do stripes!

These were from the wonderful 'Mutineer Miniatures' and besides my mutterings were actually a joy to paint.  Wonderfully animated and full of character they will add to the slowly growing mutineer force.  I now need to decide whether or not to rebase my earlier efforts! 

I also managed to finally get around to following up a lead that Andrew Saunders from 'Loki's Great Hall' had alerted me to that of 'Tajima Miniatures'.  Great product and service and as you can see a nice variety of scale with the tufts; certainly worth a look.

Private Widdle...

of the Queen's Own 3rd Foot and Mouth Regiment

Having painted up the wonderful 'Mutton Chop Miniatures' Sidney "Dirty Laugh" Cohen, I was left looking at his sidekick 'George Hartree' (again a thinly disguised alter ego for 'Carry On' star Charles Hawtrey) and wondered 'what if?'

What if, with a bit of converting, I could bring about a transformation to represent the luckless Private Widdle, infamous for losing his woollen pants to the Khasi of Kalabar whilst patrolling the Khyber pass.   The idea proved too tempting to resist and before long a set of three 'Carry On Up The Khyber' miniatures was dreamt up using a combination of 'Perry Miniatures' Sudan range and a 'Wargames Foundry' Indian Hill Tribesman. 

Before and ...

After much snipping, filing and swearing they started to take shape, but not before I had to rebuild Widdle's chin due to an unfortunate run in with a scalpel blade - the project nearly came to an abrupt end at this point!  The Indian Tribesman, now representing the ruthless 'Bunghit Din' had his shield removed and now proudly shows off his new trophy; Widdle's underpants!  Finally I couldn't resist a little fun with the Sergeant who loosely represents Terry Scott's character, 'Sergeant Major MacNutt'.  If you are wondering why he appears to have a football corner flag sticking out of his back then watch the trailer below.

after!

It has to be said that this was hugely entertaining distraction and already the thought has crossed my mind to to create a Sir Sidney Rough-Diamond.  Mind you if Mr Hicks would oblige in creating a Kenneth Williams look-a-like then what would be more apt than the the Khasi of Kalabar himself?  'Carry on up the Khyber' remains one of my favourite of the 'Carry On' films to this day, not just because of the subject matter, but of the childhood memories it evokes; memories of a seemingly much more innocent time.

I was having so much fun setting up the photographs that it seemed churlish not to give 'Nellie' a run out.  More on her can be found here.

Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond on hearing news that the Native revolt has reached the gates of the British Embassy: 

Do? Do? We're British. We won't do anything... 

Indian Hill Tribesmen

As this will probably be the last post for April in seems only right and proper to continue the Indian Mutiny theme to the end of the month.  These three are from 'Wargames Foundry's' Indian Hill Tribesmen range and were original bought as part of 'Flashman's Follies' all the way back in January.  

As with the previous miniatures from this range they really were rather well sculpted with bags of character and plenty of opportunities for creative use of colour, albeit heavily influenced from the usual source material and some period prints found on the infoweb.  What with the chap wearing the poshteen and loading his jezail, it would not be too much of a stretch to see them doubling up as Afghan Hillmen as well.  

It was also a great excuse to dig out the old 'Rocky Outcrop' and have them clamber all over it again!

The month of May promises to be a much more diverse month with regard to painting and modelling; although there are  so many ongoing projects to complete the 'Salute' purchases are proving to be far too tempting to resist  and have already muscled their way onto the paint queue!  It certainly promises to be interesting!

I've also just noticed that the counter at the bottom of the page has just ticked over 40,000 hits!  Wow, thank you all that pop by and read these inane ramblings, especially those that take the time to leave comments.  It makes all the difference.