Some British Cavalry

These chaps started out as some Perry Plastic American Civil War Cavalry (link to the Perrys' shop here). They're nice sculpts, of course, because they're Perrys', and easy enough to work with, but they are only 4 to a sprue (you get 3 sprues in a box) and they come with head, body, legs and left arm all as a piece so 'out of the box' there's not much variation going on. You can add different hats (the sprues come with slouch hats and those little caps that might be called kepis or might be forage caps but what do I know?) and right arms (a selection of right arms is provided so you can give your cavalry swords, pistols or a few other options - there's a bugle-arm and an open hand for holding a banner pole) but that's it.

Here comes the Cavalry... I shall have to look at the lists of Fictional British Army Regiments but an early contender is (Prince Rupert's Own) 43rd Regiment of Horse. Mainly because it's the only fictional cavalry regiment I can recall off-hand. 

We all know by now that if you have a red coat and  Pith Helmet you must be British, so I painted their jackets red and stole a dozen Pith Helmets from some some Wargames Factory Zulu Wars British Firing Line troops (no link as it seems these don't even exist any more) that I have lying about. I also tried swapping some arms but the Perrys' are a bit smaller so it wouldn't be possible. The uniforms are also different but I wouldn't have cared - I'd paint over any details that didn't fit anyway. The cavalry minis have plain sleeves and the infantry minis are sculpted with a kind of pointed cuff surrounded by some curlicue like the following image:

British Infantryman, Anglo-Zulu War, c.1879 - don't know the source as I found it on Pinterest and can't read the signature, sorry. It may say 'Girard '69'. It may not.

Anyway, the majority of my British Infantry look something like this (but with white Pith Helmets, and also blue rather than green cuffs, as they're the 'Royal North Surrey Regiment', and 'royal' regiments had blue cuffs). Had the two sets of arms been compatible sizes I'd have maybe had to scratch off the cuff detailing for the cavalry, and paint something suitable for the infantry - but it was not to be, the arms were too different in scale.

So, back to the cavalry. I gave them red jackets and painted a white band around their cuffs - what I think are referred to as 'jampot' cuffs. I painted the troopers' helmets khaki and left the officer's white. Though the uniforms are ahistorical I don't really care - they're close enough for my purposes as generic 'British' cavalry of the broad period 1870-1885.

I have an Officer (white hat and sword), I painted a Sergeant's stripes on the arms of a chap with a pistol, I gave one a bugle and another a staff for some kind of unit flag (these last two options are included on every frame). There are 6 regular troopers here, most with unsheathed swords, but one with a pistol.

At the back are two chaps who don't, as yet, have right arms. What I'd like to do is give these two VSF-y weapons - preferably, something that can be used as a lightning gun or galvanic projector (or what might be called, in a sci-fi context, a 'laser-rifle'). My plan at the moment is to use the two spare arms for holding the unused banner-poles. These are open-handed right arms supplied one per frame.

The two chaps who will hold the Lightning Guns, to my broken old eyes anyway, somewhat resemble Christopher Plummer and Sean Connery. 

Two of the cavalrymen, destined for life as Galvanic Dragoons, probably. Sorry about the terrible picture, I'll try to get a better one...

This I think will be enough to give the unit a bit of VSF clout, but also allow me to field 10 perfectly normal British cavalry if necessary. However, what I don't yet have is the Lightning Guns. I shall have to try to bodge something together as I did with my UNIT force (whose Sergeant Benton carries a peculiar device constructed from bits of sprue). However if I can find a source for something suitably laser-rifle-y, perhaps I can use that instead.

Of course I also need to fix up the flag for the flagpole. Maybe it's time to flesh out the early history (and iconography) of (Prince Rupert's Own) 43rd Regiment of Horse...

Whoever I decide these chaps are, I guess I'll be statting them up for GASLIGHT and IHMN.

Back to the Future

I don't really have anywhere to post about 40K. This blog was originally about VSF, then some VBCW crept in, and just Imagi-nations stuff in general. So this is probably the place for it. But I may as well admit that this blog is just 'everything that isn't Sword'n'Sorcery'.

I haven't been visiting LAF (link) much lately. I haven't been painting, I haven't been playing, I've just been messing about with flags and alternative histories. I have at least 3 unplayed games lying about (GASLIGHT and In Her Majesty's Name for VSF, Setting the East Ablaze for Back of Beyond) that I'd like to take for a spin but I just don't get round to it.

What I have done recently is get the paints down again and do some work on the piles of lead, pewter and plastic in the loft. This has lead to me actually completing my Space Marine Battle Company (at least, as near as damn it). I have painted six Tactical Squads of Ultramarines (with some alternative Sergeants and special/heavy weapons troopers should I want to take Plasma Guns or Heavy Bolters in lieu of Flamers and Missile Launchers); 2 Devastator Squads (I had to bodge a Missile Launcher Marine with some wonky parts and some broken guitar string); and one Assault Squad (the other Assault Squad is waiting on having its ammo pouches and holsters painted brown - the last thing I have to do for the 100 battle-brothers of the 2nd Company of Ultramarines). I still need to finish a Command Squad and I don't have eight Rhino transports for them but I've done all the troops and that gives me a certain satisfaction. As 9th Edition is being released now, and as I started this during 4th Edition, it has taken me a while, and probably the army is unplayable (I gather there are now Super-Marines now called 'Primaris' Marines but I don't know anything about them, except they're 'better'), but ho-hum.

I rewarded myself with a visit to the LAF and found something that I had missed on many of my last visits. About three years ago, some of the lunatics over there decided to co-operatively build a Space Marine Chapter (link here). This would have colouring and iconography derived from the forum - the Chapter's colours would be based on those of the forum and the Chapter Icon has been taken from the artwork on the forum. The letters 'LAF', possibly in Greek form (lambda alpha phi, λ α φ ) would also form part of the Chapter's iconography in some way.

I love co-operative world-building. I'm always trying to do it, whether that's the Atlantis Campaign I was involved in, or the as-yet unsuccessful attempt to run a Ruritania Campaign. Over on my fantasy blog I've attempted to get involved in a variety of co-operative world-building ventures and even tried to start some.

So, a co-operatively-built Space Marine Chapter is right up my alley. I still have a few random Marines knocking about from my many ebay purchases building the Battle Company over the last 15 years or so, so I plan on donating a few to the cause and painting them up as members of the Lead Legion, a Chapter hailing from the Lead Mountains of Attica. Here's my take on the painting scheme anyway, with a little excerpt from the forum pages to hopefully show how the colours relate.

Space Marine originally from the Bolter and Chainsword Space Marine Painter, here - http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/smpbeta.php

I've simplified the Chapter Icon even further than the proposed version on the LAF thread. I really hope there are some transfers still in existence, because I don't fancy painting that 10 or 20 times if I don't have to. I might be able to paint a white circle to put the transfer over though!

This will I hope keep any further itch to paint Space Marines satisfied, for a little while at least.

Because photobucket is shite

OK - this is the best photo I could get I'm afraid, as the light was starting to go, and apart from that, I'm a muppet who can barely tell one end of a camera from the other.

I'm not sure who these chaps are yet - a Royal Regiment to be sure (hence the blue cuffs) but whether they're the Queen's Own Martian Infantry (a distinct possibility) or part of the First Battalion of the Royal North Surrey Regiment in their Martian Expeditionary Force uniforms (they were there 1886-95, according to this post, though maybe the bulk of the uniform is a bit earlier than that) is still up for grabs (a bit of both, probably). Once upon a time, they were my Aetherines - apparently I undercoated them 5 years ago but never got round to painting the rest. Well, here they are. Maybe I can still use them as Aetherines but I've abandoned the planned blue jackets - they just didn't look very good.

I'll be statting these guys up for GASLIGHT and IHMN. Probably, I'll paint Sergeants' stripes on one of them and use them as a 10-man unit.

Hey! I actually posted something VSF-y!

Unidentified British Troops looking all soldierly and that.

Apologies and other such fumblings

Well; real life (and also other gaming projects) took a bit of a toll over the second half of last year, but in the midst of it all I put in an order with Ironclad and snagged a bunch of their lovely minis. Some Prussians and whatnot, which will be going to wards my Ruritanian/Astro-Hungarian Empire forces (some for use on Earth, some for Mars...), and few other things.



 And then I got another set of Northstar miniatures for IHMN, this time the 'Whitechapel Anarchists' set. Still havent played a game, but maybe someday!



And I've just put in a Reaper order - mostly for other games projects I have to admit, but including a couple of Steampunk-esque figures - possibly for use as some of Kaptein van Dango's Sky Pirates, maybe - because I had to really.



Yes, there will be photos - at some point; no, none of this currently has any paint on at all.

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.