The Men Who Would be Kings - Regular Naval Forces

 I have titled this post as "Regular Forces", as it is to be a multi Nations Force, although the majority will be British.

Majority of the figures units were given to me by a friend, Aled Charles, who had no use for them. Some were painted, some not. Apart from the German Sailors, the figures and support weapons are from Redoubt Enterprises (Now available from Grubby Tanks) 

German Sailors, one full unit and eight figures. I will at some point purchase the extra four figure required to finish the unit! These ere painted by Aled. 

The next unit was a part finished British Sailor unit, once again donated and most painted by Aled. I matched the paint scheme for five figures to finish it off.

My next unit were painted as Royal Marines.

Some Support weapons

Krupps 75mm

Gardner Gun (Minus Magazine, Missing)

Gatling Gun

Commander

I had some Cannibals, so I painted them up for Tribal Slavers!

The Men Who Would Be Kings - Afghans

     A friend was looking to do a new period, so we decided on the 2nd Afghan War, using the very easy to learn rules "The Men Who Would Be Kings" from Osprey Publishing. 

    These rules a by no means perfect, but a great starting template and with some minor tweaks of House Rules are a fun set of rules to play.

    He was to do British and I was tasked to build and paint an Afghan army. I purchased a box of the lovely Perry's box of plastic warriors. and within a week they were ready for the table. But like most periods, I like to do both sides, so alongside this project I was also putting together a Naval force of German and British matelots (gifted to me by a pal and already painted) , Some Royal Marines and some support weapons. 

I started this project on 6th March 2024 and painted the first three units as Irregular Infantry of twelve figures and painted each unit in subtle colour coding, Red, Blue and Green!  

     

I already had this  Artillery unit, so it just needed basing! 

My next unit had to be some Cavalry and I had in my Stash of Shame some Perry Metal Arabs from their Crusades range. I had ten, so they could be Tribal (10 figures) or Irregular (8 figures).  

I was then kindly given a box of the Wargames Atlantic Afghans and this is a work in Progress picture at the time, along with some other figures from the Stash. These have been since finished and I will photograph and attach later. 

  

This unit required four figures to finish the unit, which are now purchased and primed. Two were kit bashed to make a Standard Bearer and Commander of the unit.   

     In early April of this year (2024), Wargames Atlantic released some Afghan Cavalry. Here is a short review of the figures pre paint! 

Afghan Cavalry from Wargames Atlantic (youtube.com)

I used some of the WA Infantry heads, as the Cavalry ones were lacking character IMO.

Infantry head used 

In June I added to my force with some Artisan Metals, beautiful sculpts, although not many poses. 

I now have, in true "carry on" style, The Kahzi of Kalibaar, Bung Ditin and Pvt Widdle in disguise! 

Some Herati Regulars and some Irregular Artillery (Artisan miniatures)

 

The closest figure has been kit bashed to make up the last artilleryman required  

Another box of Wargames Atlantic Afghan Cavalry, and this time made up as eight Regular cavalry and four tribal elders/ commanders.

 

Crusaders & Seljuks Turks - Armies on parade (You tube videos)

 

Both these armies were started in 2012, and were completed around 2015, although a couple more units were added through "lock-Down". Based on and around 1st Crusade. 

Crusaders 

Crusader army for the First Crusade, 28mm figures (youtube.com)

Seljuks 

Seljuk Turkish army for the First Crusade 28mm (youtube.com)

Osgiliath - the building of, Lord of the Rings

 Here is my "how to, in a month" from starting to build to 99% completed. 

In January 2024, a Pal and I organised a large Pelennor Fields battle which took five players at my local club in Wales The Carmarthen Old Guard, based in Five Roads, near Llanelli. 

Link: (1) Carmarthen Old Guard (C.O.G) Wargaming, RPG Tabletop & Board Gaming Club | Facebook

Down the pub after the game, Dan mentioned he had a couple of the Osgiliath buildings and what a great game that would be fighting over the ruins. I said OK. I have some buildings half built, let's do it in February and we got cracking. 

I had made two buildings which I purchased from ebay and another club member kindly donated four more unmade ones. I had a couple of Age of Sigmar ruins and I bought some extra bits from ebay:

Jawar3d | eBay Stores

First Job was wash all the buildings in soapy water, then undercoat an Earth Brown Aerosol, then paint all the woodwork and floors a medium grey. I use emulsion paints when painting scenery, as it is more hard wearing than model paints and does not require varnishing.

 I also dabbed large areas of the grey on the walls, to give depth when dry brushed. here you can see the grey "bleed  through" the white.

After the white dry brush, they all got based on 4mm plastic. 

Next job, PVA (straight) and glue wallpaper (floor slates), super glue any big bricks, used old 20mm plastic bases for pavement slabs (snipped and scored for damage) 

Then PVA 50/50 water mix then on with the builders Sand 

Some of the pieces needed ramparts, so coffee stirrers and some left over plaster bricks were on the agenda, then a coat of watered down Chocolate brown emulsion (avoid painting the wallpaper floors), when dried overnight, dry brushed white & greys.

Then flocked with an Ochre flock and dead vegetation tufts and all ready to go

Game pictures to follow! 

Napoleonic Austrian – 15mm- Shako II

 

This Austrian army, wargame wise is based around 1809, with combinations of helmet and shako, mainly as these are what I had collected over the years at Bring & Buys, etc, so a lot of various manufacturers from Mini-Figs series 2 (even maybe series 1 in there somewhere)Battle Honours, Fantassin, Old Glory AB Figures and others, I am sure.

Although I had acquired quite a lead pile of Austrians, I never needed to paint them as my Pal Harry always supplied them when I lived in London. So when I moved to Wales the stash was looked at for painting. Also the majority of scenario books from Michael Hopper involved mainly Austrians against Napoleon.

So, in July 2021 I took stock of what I had in the way of Austrians. With approximately 1000 Infantry, 100 Cavalry, 10 guns & crews, and about 30 Commanders, I made a start. I did have some already painted, but the forty five or so years had not been kind to them, so they needed a revamp. The army was finished in March 2022. Since then I have finished a few units that were missing a couple of figures, but as of today the Austrians now have:

27 (24 man) Line Infantry Battalions, 5 (18 man) Grenadier Battalions, 1 (18 man) Jaeger Battalion, 5 (24 man) Grenzer Battalions, 5 (20 man) Militia Battalions, 14 Cavalry Regiments, 7 Guns, 4 Limbers and about 40 various Officers. The four base Battalions are for the larger formations adopted by the Austrians and in the rules can take an extra kill before breaking. I have some left overs and will see what units they might make, possibly more Skirmish stands or some more Militia maybe.

You Tube video here> (2) 15mm Austrian Napoleonic Army (Shako II) - YouTube

Grenzers    2nd Rate as formed, best used as Skirmishers                                                                        

 

Hungarian Line Infantry

 

Line Infantry                                                                    

 

Line Infantry & Militia

Light Cavalry                                                                     

 

Chevaux-Leger

 

Dragoons & Kuirassiers

Skirmishers                                                                      

 

Artillery

 

Sappers                                                                            

Grenadiers

                                            

Commanders                                                                       

 

 CiC plus ADCs