The Building Blocks .

I have been sorting out the figures I have for my 45 project , the Highlanders will be from the two boxes produced by Strelets . This is first box they do and has a total of 39 figures in it , they have three of these sprues plus a command sprue which is common to both boxes . The figures are a bit of a mix from the good to the 'Hmmm !' this box has three figures with spears (?) rather strange !! , I think I will have to attempt to turn them into 'Lochaber' axes .

This is the other box which has 46 figures in it . These are rather better, mostly armed with broadswords plus a useful standard bearer , not all of them have 'targes' (shields)  so I will have to add these using techniques I haven't used since converting Airfix 'Robin Hood and his Merry Men' about forty years ago ! .

This is the 'command' sprue which is included in each box and has several casualties and a mounted officer on it, as well as some useful broadsword armed figures . The amount of flash seems to vary from box to box so I have some cleaning up to do and am going to have to convert some of the figures before mounting them ready for spraying a black undercoat . I'll post more when I have got some ready.

First Troop Done !.

Well 'Christmasy things' have got in the way of any serious work on the various projects that need finishing but I have managed to get these figures done and gloss varnished .

There will be another Troop of Horse and a command group to paint up to complete this Regiment of Saxons but I'm taking a short break from 40mm figures to finish off some other things . There doesn't seem to be any info on Saxon cavalry musicians uniforms and I could have resorted to the reversed coloured coat  but instead went with the white coat and lacing on the sleeves etc .

A Merry Christmas To All !

The season's greetings to all out there in 'bloggerland' .

Saxon Cuirassier Regt. Von Plotz .

I have decided on which unit to do for my cuirassier figures - it is the Saxon Regt. Von Plotz - here illustrated from the www.kronoskaf.com website.

I've got the first two figures painted , here they are in their unvarnished state . I have somewhat simplified the uniform and made a few amendments to accommodate the quirks of the cast figure which is something you have to do with the older Prince August moulds as they are rather generic . I hope to get the unit finished this week if everything goes to plan . I am very tempted to start on my new '45' Jacobite project but have various things to finish off before I plunge into painting masses of tartan . 

EBay Finds .

Over the last six months or so I have been slowly buying up 40mm Prince August SYW cavalry off EBay from a seller who I think must be getting rid of somebodies collection and they vary from the unpainted to the half painted and painted . I have now got enough for a regiment of Cuirasser and a unit of Hussars .

The castings are very nice, think they have been cast from the proper Prince August metal rather than the scrap I use . 

Even a clever officer conversion , by adding a hand and sword from a infantry officers mould .

The first squadron based up ready for undercoating . I'm now going to have to choose a regiment to fit the figures , will have to be Germanic with that cuirass - Saxon maybe ?

Jacobite Battle .

As people know I'm doing the 45 Rebellion next year , so 'A' said why don't I bring my 28mm Jacobites around for a game . 

I was planning to use 'Black Powder' for my games but 'A' brought round these rules from the 'Paper Soldiers' series . They are rather old fashioned D6 type but engineered just for the Jacobite Rebellion .

The rules have a small sample battle in the back of the book which we played through twice in the evening - I won one, 'A' the other.

The rules are meant to be used with the cut out paper soldiers in the book , which you can photocopy to get extra units , I don't think I would be bothered as I think cutting them out with scissors would be rather fiddly - and I like painting figures .

A rather blurry photo of 'A' pointing out a dramatic manoeuvre he is about to command . This game has spurred me on to get the project started BUT I must get the outstanding figures to paint finished . 

The 2019 Project .

Well with my wife being on holiday this week and the interruption of 'real life Christmassy things' I have got almost nothing done hobby-wise . This has however given me time to consider what my major project for the coming year will be . Let's face it there was always going to be another one , so I've stopped trying to fool myself - there will ALWAYS be another new project in the offing (when the paint brush falls from my dead hand it will be mid - new project - I hope ! ) So the new project for the coming year will be the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 .

I was looking through the various ranges on the 'Plastic Soldier Review' and was struck by the figures from 'Red Box' which are rather nice , they do 'Highland Infantry' , 'British Infantry' and 'Militia and Lowland Troops' . There are no cavalry or artillery so converting these will be a challenge , on investigation I found the Zvezda Russian Dragoons for the Great Northern War will do with a bit of doctoring . Above is my initial order for the Government troops .

For the opposition there is a limited choice of two boxes of Jacobites from Strelets . Sourcing these was more problematic - none on eBay and the U.K. plastic figure distributers hadn't got any ! . 'A' gave me a link to a Polish model site which advertised them but on ordering it seemed they didn't ! after an exhaustive search and much rending of clothing and hair (model companies say they have them but when you place the order - they don't !) I tracked some down in Italy, thanks to PayPal and the efficient mail order from the Italian company (Lucky Toys) I have LOTS of Highlanders . I will give some close ups  of the figures in another posting - they vary from the good to the odd , but I think I will be able to make something of them and I do like a challenge . 

The Earl Of Cardigan

Here we have the commander of the Light Brigade in the Crimea , Major General James Brudenall , the Earl of Cardigan . Its a Strelets personality figure from their 'Into the Valley of Death' box set. 

On the left - the real Earl , in the centre the Strelets figure , right Trevor Howard as the Earl in the 1968 film . Strelets can do some odd figures but their personality one are very good in capturing their subject in miniature . 

We will draw a sad veil over the films idea of a liaison between Mrs Duberly and Cardigan …..

Perhaps the two figures have to remain 6" away from each other on the tabletop  ?

The 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own)

Got another regiment done for my Light Brigade, this time  a hussar regiment - the 11th Hussars - 'Prince Albert's Own' , nicknamed the 'Cherrypickers' or the 'Cherubums' due to their crimson trousers. The figures are of course Strelets , only one photo of them as the battery packed up in my camera . Next up their (in) famous commander Lord Cardigan.

Sunday Morning Casting .

Ceasing the opportunity of the absence of dog and wife I have been up early and got the last company of my Prussian Fusiliers cast up, based and ready for spraying . I have now got the little plastic spigots (must be some sort of heat resistant resin) that fit into the body molds , which leave a hole for the heads to fit into and this has sped up the process  . I have done quite a bit of venting on the molds which has produced almost perfect castings each pour , so got them done quite quickly  ! .

Toy Soldier Poem .

Shamelessly borrowed off Facebook from the Paperboys Page .

Well We Have Done It ! .

This Morning myself and Charlie did our thousandth mile , I started recording the mileage on the 31/01/18 and it has taken 43 weeks and that works out of an average of 3.3 miles per day . I missed recording any miles on 9 days - due to illness, bad weather and travelling to and from holiday . I've only recorded mileage when I've been walking the dog so going round to the shop etc . has not been noted. 

Here is my co-walker Charlie (posing nicely for once) being a Spaniel he has probably done at least 1,500 miles with his constant toing and froing . I am going to continue recording our mileage till the end of the year to see what the final total will be .

I thought I would take a photo to commemorate of 1000th mile , so took my camera with us . Unfortunately there was nobody about to take the photo so I had to balance the camera on the top of a field gate and put the timer on . This is about the fourth attempt (and not a brilliant one at that) - it fell over about twice taking shots of the sky and another that was very blurry and there was the problem of keeping the dog in shot (his interest in the project was waning after the second failure) so that is why I have a worried look on my face. I'm pleased I've done it and will give it another go next year.

The 30th (Cambridgeshire) Regiment Of Foot.

Back to the painting table with a vengeance this week and have completed the next regiment of foot for my Crimean British force this being the 30th , another battalion of Pennefathers Brigade . Note Mrs Duberly sheltering behind their ranks.

Lots of dramatic poses amongst the Strelets figures ! .

Having a multitude of spare figures I have decided to give each unit a separate base of  skirmishers mounted on some round MDF bases I had handy - here's the one for the 55th Foot.

A rather more lively one for the 42nd Foot. I've started painting up some Hussars for the Light Brigade which I hope to photo in the next few days .

Mrs Duberly On Parade .

My wife has been on holiday the last week so we have been doing 'real life' things and I haven't got too much done , but I have got Mrs Duberly finished. I made a guess at her colour scheme which is a dark colour - so I went for blue . I gave the figure a gloss coat of varnish and then a matt one and did the base up . I'm pleased how she has turned out and it does bear a resemblance to the real lady I think . In a moment of serendipity I came across the above book in my local bookshop - "Mrs Duberly's War - Journal and letters from the Crimea" so it will be interesting to read about the lady behind the plastic figure. 

Interfering with Mrs Duberly .

Not as racy as it sounds , several weeks ago I asked if anybody had a Airfix Maid Marion figure (http://tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2018/09/does-anybody-have.html) to convert into the Crimean personality Mrs Fanny Duberly . Very kindly fellow blogger Springinsfeld sent me one - so fixing a new scalpel blade to my knife I set off CAREFULLY cutting back the medieval harness on the horse and the cloak she is wearing to try and reform as a Victorian lady .

It was easier than I first thought , I added a straw (?) hat to her head using 'green stuff' , the hardest part was getting the horse to fit the base (much bad language and cursing of Airfix) and I resorted to a pin through the base and into the horses stomach to hold it in place . 

The original Mrs Duberly with her husband in the Crimea . 

Whilst I was on a Crimean bent I decided to do another six Hussar figures for my Light Brigade .

I also cleaned up another regiment of British infantry and based up the Earl of Cardigan to take command of the Light Brigade . I've got a new can of black undercoat and so will get these sprayed ready for painting and will post an update this week .

TSATF Sudan Game .

As the Egyptians advance to secure the bridge the captured artillery manned by captive Egyptian gunners encouraged by a Dervish overseer opens fire ! .

- and causes casualties on the Lancers who dash to cross the bridge before the Dervish infantry can arrive . 

The movement in TSATF is determined by dice and the Lancers took forever to cross the bridge and received several rounds of fire and were forced to retire as the Dervish tribesmen move up .

The Hadenoa tribesmen move to attack the Egyptian left .

Two units of  Dervishes are directed to the bridge and arrive to drive the shaken Lancers back .

The Egyptians are having more problems - one unit commander begins to behave oddly ! and the unit is not moved forward as ordered ( an overdose of Hashish ?) 

The Egyptians go on the defensive ! .

The Egyptian line drives off an Dervish attack .

The Nordenfelt gun comes into action ! .

- and is overrun ! opps ! 

Hicks Pasha joins the Bashi Bazooks to try and save the situation - but the Dervishes get to charge first and in the following melee Hicks Pasha is forced to flee (in his memoirs he says his horse bolted !?) , the cavalry fled the field leaving the Egyptians without leadership ! .

The end of the game , the Egyptian retire with a bloody nose , the Hadenoa  having taken heavy casualties are happy to let them go and retire parading their captured machine gun with them ! . An excellent game TSATF delivers once again .