Halfway to Kabul

Halfway to Kabul indeed. Well, figuratively. I am still in England, where I plan to stay for a long, long time yet. I even like the weather. However, my plans for some colonial wargaming are coming along rather well. I managed to complete two more units of  the Honorable East India Company and very soon I will have a solid core of forces to take on the Afghans, Sikh and, later on, the mutinous sepoys.

Naturally, I have gone for the coolness and not the complete historical accuracy factor. And what can be cooler than the uniforms of the Bengal Horse Artillery? Maned helmet? Check. Blue, red, white and gold uniform? Check. Dinky 6-pounder guns? Check. So I went ahead and ordered some in 15mm from Black Hat Miniatures, together with a set of their gorgeous 6-pounder guns.

They came out quite well, especially considering they are 15mm. One was slightly miscast, but nothing some "modelling skill required" could not fix. However, I did have trouble with one of the gun carriages. In cleaning  the flash between the spokes, I broke a couple. OK, more than a couple. I binned it and in my next order I'll get some 9-pounders instead as the Bengal Horse Artillery used some in the Sikh Wars. Purists may also note that the gunner handling the shot will have a pretty rough time sliding it down the scales 6-pounder barrel. We don't like gaming with people who notice things like that.

Another part of my order was some Sepoys. You are spoiled for choice. Covered, uncovered shako or foraging cap? Winter or summer uniform? Personally, I like the winter uniform, with the smart blue pants and their red stripe. More like a dress uniform. I also went for covered shakos in order to cut down on the gold braiding. In choosing poses, I prefer the advancing pose. It looks good whether the troops are marching, forming a line or engaged in combat. A command pack, a flank company pack and troop lack gave me my first unit. I painted them up in batches of five each (roughly two afternoons work per batch). In choosing a regiment (which would affect the colour of my facings), I went with the 31st Bengal Native Infantry. A regiment with a long history that fought in the Mahratta Wars, First Afghan War, the Sikh Wars, and the Indian Mutiny on the side of the British. You can read about the regiment's history on Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Queen_Victoria%27s_Own_Rajput_Light_Infantry).

 

I downloaded some regimental and John Company flags, resized them, and glued them on the poles. Yes, the regiment number is wrong, but if you like to bring up things like that when you are gaming with me, I will throw my dice at you. Hard.

I still need to get some more infantry for my force (British regulars this time). I got tired of all the braiding, so I ordered some Gurkhas from Irregular Miniatures. They'll be part of the Sirmoor Battalion fighting the Sikhs, the sepoys, or general unrest in the frontier. I know they did not fit in Afghanistan during the first war, but they look pretty nice with their rifleman green uniforms. However, they have no faces (not the best work I've gotten from Irregular, although they paint up nicely). The Afghans that were a part of the same ordered look quite handsome, and I'll paint some up soon to see how they measure up. 

That's all for now from rainy old England. Model on!

We are the Law!

Back to science fiction again, and this time with a very British subject; Judge Dredd.  He's been a seminal character of the British comic book scene, and although he is well represented in 28mm, his first appearance in wargaming was in 15mm. Back in the day, Laserburn included some not-Judges in their miniature line. These are still available from 15mm.co.uk and, despite the age of the sculpts, they are rather nice figures. I got some of them a while back, more on a whim than a desire to wargaming the conflicts of MegaCity One. I painted them and found the, to be excellent figures, full of character, so I ordered some more and now I have a pretty complete little force. I will probably get some Judges on motorcycles with my next order plus a few more codes to round out things out.

Here is my force as it stands now. In the foreground are four troops in a riot police load out. Shields (with some weird projection in the front which could be anything from a tear gas nozzle to a static field projector), batons, sidearms and body armour. 

Following them are police officers with grenade launchers. These can be used for anything ranging from teargas, non-lethal rounds for crowd control or plain old grenades or shotgun pellets. Some are dressed as the riot police squad (I think these are the sergeants, but you can use them as plain old riot cops) and some have partially open face shields and no body armour.

The final row includes a cyber mastiff and a figure I use as its handler,  and two more miniatures armed with sidearms. These I plan to use as a force commander and a sergeant.

As I said, these are very good miniatures, especially when you consider their age. They need some cleaning up (the riot police in particular),the detail is not as refined as the newer stuff and they may look a little anaemic and short when compared with newer offerings. However, their detail is great for table top standards, they paint up like a dream, and I never pay too much attention in size discrepancies. At any rate, if you hunker for some 15mm Judge Dredd action, it's all you're gone get. 

That's all from foggy London and the Greeg Geek workbench.

The Yellow Boys

It's funny how we end up starting projects. Last year's visit to the Imperial War Museum cured me of historical wargaming for quite some time. Their WWI exhibit is a sobering experienced and so is the stamp collection on the Falkland's dead. I could not bring myself to paint anything historical after that.

A couple of months back, I picked up a book on the First Afghan War, more on a whim than anything else. It was 3 quid, hardly a sum to break the bank and the conflict did offer some minor interest. The book was "The Return of a King" by William Darlymple and it offered a very exciting glimpse into India and Afghanistan of the 1830s and 1840s. The description of one of the cavalry regiments, Skinner's Horse with its commanding officer Sikander Sahib (James Skinner) was particularly evocative. 

Yellow tunics, red belts and turbans, lances and matchlocks, what's not to like? I spent sometime debating whether I really needed to start collecting miniatures from another time period (seriously?) and after some debate, I spent roughly ten pounds to order three packs of Skinner's Horse from Lancashire Games. These are for the Sikh Wars where the regiment also fought, so they were close enough to what I wanted. 

Needless to say, unpainted they don't look like much, especially the horses. But the detail was there and these are aimed to mass combats, not skirmishes. Whatever faults would be hidden by the mandatory three feet of distance and the unit itself.

Not wanting to spend more time or money than necessary, I did not order an Osprey Book on the Honorable East India Company or the Sikh Wars, I looked around on the web. Lots of images around, including some from a reenactment group. Google them, they are spectacular. This however, from, the Army Museum if I am not mistaken is breathtaking.

These are probably of Skinner's Horse at the time of the Afghanistan invasion. Needless to say, the figures I have did not look like that exactly. However this has never been a problem in the past, nor will it be in the future. After about a week of work, I had my unit.

As you can see, they fall into that much maligned wargaming category; they paint up well. However, they will more than look the part on the gaming table. I am not sure I did justice to the regiment's original colours (the yellow does not look close enough to the one in the paintings but it looks closer to the one the reenactors use). The white trousers are barely visible, but these are one piece castings, and reaching all the details was not easy. I painted the saddle blankets red, yellow and white, having seen all colours used.

I like the end result. Painting Indian skin tones was an interesting exercise. So was manoeuvring my brush to reach all crevices. Will I paint more First Afghan War miniatures? Yes, they are very colourful and the unit histories are fascinating. I ordered some Bengal Horse Artillery (whose uniforms have to be seen to be believed) and some Sepoys. Will I game them? Maybe. I am thinking about getting either Colonial Adventures by Two Hour Games or Larry Brom's The Sword and the Flame. My units will be based so that they can be used with both of these systems.

That's all from the Greek Geek workbench and London.

Micro Machine Madness

Despite not writing for quite some time, things have been busy on the Greek Geek workbench. Three more warbands for Song of Blades and Heroes have been completed, but real life barely allows enough time for me to paint.

If you are marginally interested in science fiction and not been hiding under a rock for the last few months, you probably know that a new Star Wars movie is coming out right before Christmas. The franchise has fortunately been acquired by the Mad Mouse company, something that might do away with some of the political incorrectness of Episodes IV-VI but will hopefully help us get rid of the complete and utter nonsense that came to movie screens with Episode I (and the crap that followed). Another thing that the Mouse company is well known for is milking a franchise for all its worth. That means tons of merchandise, including some very useful Micro Machine sets. Now, SW and MM go way back, and searching eBay will help you net tons of figures and vehicles, some at reasonable prices, some at perfectly silly ones (but, hey, it's your money). A recent visit to the local toy store netted me a pack of three micro machines, just shy of a five-pound note. Naturally, these were washed, dried, repainted and mounted. 

Here is the first figure, an Imperial Scout trooper on his jet bike. It was an easy enough repaint and it is based for skirmish war gaming. I plan to get at least one more, as the reconnaissance element of my Imperial force, when I get around to painting one. 

The Rebel Commando was a bit trickier, as it is originally painted as Luke Skywalker. The information on Rebel Commando uniforms during the raid on Endor is not great either. I just took a look at picture from the movie and just improvised. The uniform may be a bit off, but it looks the part, and it's all I am going for.

Both jet bikes and riders were roughly 18mm in scale. That makes them large 15s or small 20s, but as they are mounted on bikes, the difference will not be noticeable under war gaming conditions.

The final figure in the set was an AT ST walker. This is closer to 6mm scale and it was based for Horted of the Things. Using some other Micro Machine sets and some 6mm figures, I think I can make a creditable effort in reproducing the Rebel and  Imperial forces for the battle on the planet Hoth. It is an interesting side project and one that won't be exceptionally pricey. 

Finally, I have started a slow return to historical war gaming. By accident, I read a book on the First Afghan War and got hooked on the history and diversity of the units involved. As a result, I ordered some 15mm lancers for Skinner's Horse from Lancashire Games. The order was small, but three working days later, my 12 horsemen had arrived. They are old school, one piece castings, with lots of character and good war gaming detail. More information to follow.

Lizardmen!

Another cloudy summer morning here in London. Apparently the definition of summer is different in the British Isles.

I finally put the last touches yesterday on the Splintered Light 20mm Lizardmen set (despite the 20mm label, they work just fine with other 15mm miniatures). It's been sitting on the lead pile for a few years now, and I decided to finally paint it, as a warband for Song of Blades and Heroes. Point-wise and figure-wise, it's closer to two or three warbands, so it's excellent value in that respect. For $25 you get 21 figures; all of them excellent castings, with good detail and minimal clean-up required. While being in the lead pile, a couple of small bits and pieces broke and I had to pin and glue them in place. Nothing difficult and the repairs are not visible.

So what do you get in the lizardman set? First of all, a command set with a Leader (or Champion if you prefer), a stanadard bearer, a musician (who can very well substitute as a Leader) and a Shaman. All are have stats in the main SOBH book, so there is no need to use the Warband Calculator in the Ganesha Games site. You get two lizards that look like komodo dragons and are quite hefty. There are 8 warriors armed with stone swords (flint or obsidian, your choice) and turtle or tortoise-shell shields. Ranged combat capability is supplied in the form of  3 figures armed with longbows and 4 armed with shortbows. These are the only ones not outlined in the rulebook. I decided to call the shortbow-armed lizardmen "scouts" and give them Q3+, C2, Amphibious, Tailslap, Shooter (Medium) and Stealth for 46 points. The ones armed with logbows will be straight shooters with Q3+, C3, Amphbious, Tailslap and Shooter (long) for 56 points. Total points for all 21 figures (using the profiles in the book and those listed above) is 1114 points, quite sufficient for 3 300-point warbands. I consider roughly $8 per warband a pretty good investment.

 I decided to go for an old-school scheme. In my view, these look very much like swamp- or lake-dwelling lizardmen, so I went for greens and yellows. Painting was done with the Army Painter colours and inks. Basing them was also simple and old-school; brown base with green flock. And with that, on to the actual miniatures. The pictures are not perfect as I am used to using more natural light; good luck with that in the UK.

 Command 

 Lizards

 Shaman

 Scouts

Long Bows

Lizardman Warriors

All in all, pleasant figures to work with, another project completed. At some point I will order the mounted lizardmen from the same series, just for completeness' sake. Splintered Light is one of the best miniature manufacturers in 15mm and well worth their money.

"And they shall know no fear"

Wow! It's been a year since I have last written here. Long time. Well, life has been interesting. New country (England), new city (London), new girlfriend (this one is sane), new workplace (still drilling teeth though). My addiction to lead and plastic miniatures is still the same, and unfortunately, I am in a country where you can get almost anything you want. Most of my collection is back in Greece, so I had to get some new miniatures.

One of the things I really liked about British wargaming, was Games Workshop. Seriously. Their fluff is excellent, they had some very interesting games (Warhammer Ancients is still an excellent system in my book, and who can forget Man O War and Blood Bowl?). Unfortunately, their prices and incistence to make only 28mm miniatures put them out of my league. But wait, there is always a solution. What if I buy 15mm proxy miniatures? And use rule systems that are better suited to skirmish games, like Flying Lead and Song of Blades and Heroes and In The Emperor's Name? Would that work? Why the heck not?

There are quite a few 15mm proxies for Space Marines out there. Which is surprising, as GW smites with Cease and Desist orders anything that comes close to infringing their copyright. Thankfully, they can't do that to the game that was one of the inspirations for Warhammer 40K; Laserburn. Laserburn is still around and the rules and miniatures can be bought from www.15mm.co.uk.

When it comes to Space Marines, I really like the Ultramarines, because of their blue and white uniform and their plain simple vanilla Space Marine flavour. So I got me a bunch of Imperial troopers and started painting them. This is the first batch: 

 Space Marine in Dreadnought armour. Armed with rocket launcer, storm bolter, flamer and grenade launcher.

 Space Marine in Terminator armor carrying a plasma gun.

 Space Marine in Terminator armor armed with Heavy Bolter.

Space Marine Sergeant with Terminator armor. Armed with Storm Bolter(s)

As you can see, they are not really GW Space Marines. On the other hand, as GW borrowed heavily from the Laserburn fluff, they are not that different either. Khurasan has some that are pretty close to the originals, but I just felt like going old-skool here and I can't say I am disappointed. I also have some of their Imperial Troopers to use as Space Marines in normal power armor and some Disciples of the Redemption to use as Chaos Space Marines. Those last ones are next on the bench, so I guess you'll see what they look like by next weekend.

Until then, keep on painting and gaming! Goodnight from London.