Shameless photography in lieu of real progress

The Royal North Surreys have been sitting in my painting tray for weeks now, without a photo of their latest paint; and also un-photographed are the (now undercoated) Aetherines I bought from Brigade a month or so back.

As the men of the Royal North Surrey check the perimeter, Captain Carruthers and Lieutenant  Pootling-Twelp confer with Captain Yates of UNIT, and sometimes the Northdale Rifles; Sergeant Bromsgrove looks on, while Colour Sergeant Jeffries guards Ensign Jensen and the Company Colours (flag from the Warflag site - a generic British flag from the Napoleonic Wars looked like the best bet - http://www.warflag.com/flags/napoleon/napbritain1.shtml ).

Captain and men of the Royal Aeronautical Corps "Aetherines", wondering why they are not currently in their habitual natty blue jackets and trousers. Simply because I haven't gotten round to painting them, that's why.

Bobbies from Scotland Yard, with their English Electric Truncheons, and officers of 'Special Branch' (I'm sure it was called the 'Special Irish Branch' at this point) with rifles, Inspector Le Strange (probably), the Good Doctor and the Consulting Detective, from North Star Military Figures' new 'In Her Majesty's Name' range.

Lord Curr's Company, a quixotic and mercenary company of ne'er-do-wells, disgruntled ex-servicemen, and aristocratic adventurers, including Lord Curr himself armed with an 'Arc rifle' (electric rifle), from North Star Military Figures.

Having recently taken delivery of North Star and Osprey's new 'In Her Majesty's Name', both the figures and the rulebook, coming so soon after my purchases of 'Various Victorians' and the Brigade Games British in Rebreathers a month or so ago, I feel quite faint with excitement at the cornucopia of VSF-y leaden goodness (they probably don't put lead in any more, probably showing my age there).

I certainly have a lot to paint in the coming months - and hardly a red coat in sight (it's quite possible I will paint up one of the 'Incorrigibles', Lord Curr's men, in a Rifles uniform, so I can use him for the Northdale Rifles or UNIT as necessary).

Others of Lord Curr's men I can easily see being pressed into service should I ever get any further with my long-touted VBCW project; they're very versatile figures I think, some of them could be from any period from about 1870-1940 or there abouts.

More WIP pics of the Royal North Surreys

The First Battalion of the Royal North Surrey Regiment served on Mars between 1886-95.

After their return to Earth, they were re-deployed to Africa to serve in Kitchener's Expedition to the Sudan.



Royal North Surrey command




Captain Carruthers




Lieutenant Pootling-Twelp




Colour-sergeant Jeffries wonders if he really has anything to do, now that Ensign Jensen seems to have lost the flag




Dashing and handsome Captain Yates, seconded from UNIT as a special advisor

Royal North Surreys on Mars

What do you think it is, Captain?



 Officers and men of the Royal North Surrey Regiment - accompanied by Captain Yates of UNIT - investigate a Martian settlement, unaware that they are themselves under observation from unfriendly eyes.

I bought a new 'Insane Detail' brush from the 'Army Painter' range, and have had a fun afternoon painting in details I just couldn't do with even the best of my other brushes. Eyes, that look something like eyes, for instance. Now I have to go back and paint loads of details on the whole of the North Surreys.

Also pictured is Captain Yates, who will serve as an officer for UNIT, or when I'm feeling a little more pseudo-historical, for the Northdale Rifles. Or, when I'm venturing into the rarified future world of the Very British Civil War, the British League of Fascists' Militia.

Family tree

Whimsy's family tree This is a draft of the family tree of Whimsy Pootling, circa 1895. No painting so far this week (been ver' busy with real life), but soon I hope...

WIP of some new Chaps

Officers and Men of the Royal North Surrey Regiment

Well then - 15 Officers and men of the Royal North Surrey Regiment (affectionally known as the 'Really Not Sorry' Regiment), which (according to the 1939 film of 'The Four Feathers') takes part in Kitchener's Expedition to the Sudan in 1896. This photo must show the Regiment somewhat earlier, as they are mostly in 1879-pattern uniforms; however, their blue facings suggest that they must be from the 1880s, after the Childers Reforms of 1881 - unless, co-incidently, the Royal North Surreys used blue facings before 1881.

Captain Carruthers, doing a vital job of guarding the hats.

Group Commander for GASLIGHT purposes will be Captain Carruthers (seen in his natty and anarchronistic red jacket, even though red officers' tunics circa 1880 didn't have breast pockets like that, it should be khaki as it's of a design from around 1900).

Joining him are Lieutenant Crispin Pootling-Twelp (cousin of Whimsey Pootling) and Sergeant Bromley, and their men.

Lieutenant Pootling-Twelp and Sergeant Bromley

Men (parts at least) of the 2nd Company the Royl North Surreys...

Also pictured are Ensign Jensen (even though the rank of 'Ensign' was apparently abolished in the Cardwell reforms of the early 1870s), and Colour Sergeant Jeffries (because he looks a little like Lionel Jeffries), with their troops.

Colour Sergeant Jeffries and Ensign Jensen

Men (most of them) of the 1st Company of the Royal North Surreys...

Who the chaps in the khaki jackets are is mysterious. They were intended to be an 1880s incarnation of the Wessex Rangers (from the 1980s TV series 'Spearhead') but I later realised that the regiment was actually the Royal Wessex rangers. I'm now trying to find a non-Royal non-Guards non-Fusilier non-Rifle non-Highland Regiment, that I can use these chaps for. And then I'm going to try and work out how I got my maths wrong and ended up painting two of them as North Surreys, not in khaki as I originally intended. I may have to do another 2 khaki chaps and 6 more North Surreys to get back to where I need to be...

Not sure who these chaps are...

Latest acquisitions

Well, it's been a quiet old time of it since October, I really haven't got any painting done, but in the meantime I have done a few other things. Had Christmas and got several groovy new gaming-related things - the GASLIGHT Compendium and the Dictionary of Imaginary Places, for starters - and with a bit of spare cash I managed to accumulate, I've ordered and otherwise bought some new minis.

First up, from Baker Company, a company I didn't know anything about until the guys at the Lead Adventure Forum recommended them, come 9 British command figures (from their Zulu War range) - an eight figure command pack, and an Ensign:

These include a Glengarry-wearing officer, who will be joining my UNIT troops as their commander, Captain Yates, allowing me a bit more freedom with what I do with my Commodore Lethbridge-Stewart figure - in GASLIGHT games, he'll probably become a Group Commander, I'd think.

The package arrived extremely quickly, and even got a discount because the original shipping charge was more than the actual postage. Great service from Baker Company!

Next, from the lead-pile of the inestimable Whiskyrat, respected denizen of Lead Adventure Forum, come some minis I've been calling 'Various Victorians and Manly Chaps (Mostly Moustachioed)'. Some are moving slightly into Pulp territory, but I don't care.

 Some will see service as regulars, some civilians, and some, very likely, as militia-types, colonists resisting the counter-attacks of Martian, Venusian or Atlantean natives.

Is it just me, or does the chap in the middle have a tiny head? I may give him a pith-helmet to see what happens, but it does really look small compared to the others. No idea which manufacturer it's from; most of these figures are Foundry I think, but I don't recognise this one.

Also from Whiskyrat is a somewhat amazing Warzone 'mini' - though the term has little meaning for something this size - a 'Mercurian Maculator', also known as 'Giant Gorilla with a Gianter Gun'.

Taking the Various Victorian and the Mustachioed Manly Chap for scale, this gorilla is about 36' (getting on for 12m) tall. Trying to justify this in game terms may be a little tricky, though in some ways the gun is the easiest bit. Obviously, it's been converted from a big gun on an aether-ship. So now I have a size for aether-ship guns - about 13 or 14'. How to stat the model for GASLIGHT however is another question.

Finally, this morning my order from Brigade Games arrived - 10 British Troops in Pith-helmets and Rebreathers, and an Officer for the same with some kind of hand-held Maxim gun, who will be my first unit of Aetherines. No pics of them yet but they're the ones I posted in October as a wish-list. well, now the wish has come true!

Thanks very much to Danny at Baker Company, Whiskyrat, and staff at Brigade Games - you've all made me very happy! 

Of course, now I have to actually paint them... expect sporadic updates!