Thanks to the three people who voted!

The poll as to whether I should give my walker pilot a Pith Helmet or a Glengarry Cap has now closed - and, perhaps in line with expectation, it has ended with a convincing win of 100% of the (three) votes being cast in favour of Pith Helmets.

I suppose I'd better tell you why I've decided to give him a Glengarry then.

I'm hoping to use my VSF forces primarily for Battles by GASLIGHT (BbG) games. In BbG, individual units are grouped together into commands which activate together, when their group commander activates. As my entire combined British (and allied) force for GASLIGHT consists at the moment of 11 units (though many are unpainted as yet), I thought it made sense to split the elements 3,4,4 - that's obviously the most even way to do it, and if I get round to it, I might add another unit to the '3'.

As my Aetherine Group - consisting of 10 infantry, a mechanical walker (the Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine Dreadnaught I showed a few weeks ago), a steam tank (the Space Marine Rhino, likewise) and a heroic Aetherine special character in a flying armoured suit - already had four elements to it, it made sense to switch the second walker, the open-topped one I needed a pilot for, to my UNIT group, which up until that point only had two elements in it - a unit of 10 infantry, and a commanding officer.

So my entire force would be:
(Command Group 1)
Commadore Alexander Cameron Lethbridge-Stewart;
10 Uniformed Naval Infantry Territorials;
UNIT Mechanical Conveyance, 'Stormwalker';
To this, I may add a steam tank, which may be called (for reasons as yet not entirely clear) 'Mrs McNulty'

(Command Group 2)
Sergeant Jack Ironbridge, Royal Aeronautical Corps, in experimental Rapid Action battlesuit;
10 Royal Aeronautical Corps Aetherines;
Royal Aeronautical Corps War-walker 'Goliath';
Royal Aeronautical Corps Steam Tank 'Victorious'

(Command Group 3)
Colonel Reginald Hammond-Mustard;
10 troops under Major Smith, 1st Battalion the Trumptonshire Regiment;
10 troops under Captain Skarpvulder, Combined Atlantean Rifle Brigade;
10 troops under Overseer Zedeldun, Morlock Atlantean Native Infantry Corps

Some painting, but no pics yet

I managed to get some paint onto a few minis yesterday - test schemes for my UNIT 1891 troops, and the beginnings of the scheme for my Dwarf Britannia 'Combined Atlantean Rifle Brigade'.

I've been thinking about GASLIGHT because it's my intention to actually try and play some games of it this year. To that end I've been thinking about how to build, paint and stat up my forces. 10 chaps in a unit seems like an obvious place to start, with a small number of characters.

It occurred to me that, as I'm unlikely to be playing British and Ruritanians at the same time, I might be able to get away with using some figures as either British or Ruritanian. So, along with serving as Kolonel Kartoffeln-ohne-Umlaut, my yellow-jacketed Zendarian Vampire Hunter, the chap at the bottom here (from Westwind Miniatures' Vampire Wars range) could also serve as Colonel Mustard, redoubtable British commander... similarly, his companion (not shown) with a monacle and sabre might make both a fine officer for any Molvanian Jaegers under Ruritanian command, and also (cunning use of dark green jacket and trousers here) as a leader for my UNIT troops, who have essentially a Rifle Regiment uniform. No lesser personage than Commodore Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT's commander. I think 'Commodore' is equivalent to 'Brigadier' anyway.

I didn't find out until recently that it's thought that the dark green of the rifle regiments might have been inspired by the British employment of Jaeger regiments during the American Revolution. So it sort of seemed fitting that the same figure could stand in as a commander in either army.

Because I'd also mixed up some khaki for UNIT's Glengarries, I thought I may as well get it on the Dwarfs' Pith Helmets. Not sure if it works, we'll have to see when the rest of the scheme is done (basically standard British infantry of the mid-late Victorian period - red jacket and blue trousers).

Then as I was painting a dwarf I had another idea - I have some Warhammer Dwarfs with guns, only I've never been much of a fan of using black powder weapons in Warhammer, so I wondered about making them a unit for GASLIGHT too - the Morlock Allied Native Infantry Corps. That may need more thinking about, but it does potentially mean I'll be able to field 5 units of infantry fairly quickly (redcoat Dwarfs, 'native' Dwarfs, UNIT riflemen, Aetherines, and my lovely Line Infantry from Ironclad). Quite pleased with the way my little force is developing...

Yet more excuses

Well, what do you know? Not only did I not manage to get my first entry in to the Lead Painters' League, I haven't posted any pics of my Aetherines or UNIT troops either. I can only plead being busy, but I hope to begin rectifying the situation soon. Honest.