A work in progress and a change in painting style .

After painting lots of O.S. 42mm and plastic Jacobite figures I felt like a change so I decided on some Samurai personality figures . There is a newish box of figures for 'Test of Honour' call 'Unlikely Allies' and this figure is the Clan Envoy , I have shamelessly pinched the colour scheme from the box art as I can never think of convincing coloured clothing for Japanese figures . I used my wet palette and Liquitex artist acrylics to paint him . I going to paint the others up in the next week or so and I am liking the change of painting style and pace . 

Goverment Grenadier Companies .

I've painted up the Grenadier figures for my British Government Regiments of Foot . The figures are plastic 1/72nd 'Red Box' figures , my project is the Battle of Prestonpans but I'm also going to do some "what if " scenarios and there is evidence that later on in the campaign the Duke of Cumberland combined the Grenadiers together as was the practise on the Continent which these figures represent . 

They are from the regiments of (L to R) Lascelle's , Thos. Murray's , Lee's and Guise's . I have only one battalion to paint now to complete the Foot for my British army. 

Buddhist building work.

I've had this 'Sarissa' mdf temple gateway building for over a year and have been putting off building it as it looks very complicated , however having a bit of 'Test of Honour' renaissance I though I'd give it a go . The above model took an entire day of labour and enough bad language to last an careful man a year . I thought I'd be clever and spray some of the wood work before punching them out for building . 

The interior walls are grey card and were awkward to add and fitting the upper storey was the devil .

The roof structure was easier to assemble .

The roof is made from grey card which has to be bent to fit the rafters .

This proved easier than I thought , I use superglue to glue things together , I make sure I dry run things before gluing them .

The finished roof , there are some minor tweaks to do but I want to leave it overnight to set properly .

One thing I discovered is if you get superglue on your finger your mobile phone finger reorganisation won't recognise it ! .

The finished structure - very impressive . The red paint needs touching up and the base and roof tiles want a coat of paint but that's about all.

A close up of the gate entrance with a couple of monks for scale . I'm pleased to have got it done but wouldn't want to repeat it in a hurry .

Dag Tufekcileri .

I've been painting some more figures for my 40mm (Turkish) Sublime Porte to combat my other Balkans war Imaginations . These are the dreaded Dag Tufekcileri , rile armed irregulars which will count as Light Infantry sharpshooters using 'A Gentleman's War' . They are of course Irregular 42mm and I think they are listed as Janissary in campaign uniform (?) . They are in action in a game taking place even as we speak (as it were) and not shinning with martial prowess - newly painted figure syndrome . 

Wargaming humour No.28 .

The author muses if he needs more figures ? (of course he does !) (not sure if I could carry a sailor suit off ?)

Second hand find .

Just been to the local hospital for my yearly eye check up and whilst waiting I had a rummage around in the WRVS book boxes - they run the refreshment kiosk and always have some second hand books for sale (mainly Barbara Cartland 'bodice rippers') and I came across this rather battered copy of  ' Operation Warboard' , I was aware of this book but have never had a copy before . It was originally published in 1976 and this one is the paper backed version from 1978 , it has been well thumbed and has that musty 'old book' smell , whoever owned it obviously used it for gaming as there are scribbled notes in pencil throughout the book which adds character to it . On the front cover it says 'Wargaming at it's best' - Wargamers Newsletter - a fine testimonial indeed , so I'm going to sit down with a cup of tea and biscuits and have a read - has anybody ever used it to play WW2 games ? . 

Charity Shop find .

I do scan the charity shops for any wargaming related content but with not much success , however the other day I was looking through a box of diecast model cars when I came across these two figures . They are a couple of (German ?) 54mm pilot figures in metal rather nicely painted (needed a bit of touching up) by a firm called 'Thomas Gunn' . They are obviously aimed at the collectors market and 'Thomas Gunn' figures seem to be quite expensive on eBay so I think I was lucky to pick these up for a modest sum and they will now join my collection of World War One Pilots .

Modern Firepower .

With war clouds threatening the Sublime Porte has been seeking to modernise it's army by importing Gatling guns to add firepower to it's infantry and cavalry units . Here we see the new weapon being inspected by members of the General Staff. The figures are Irregular 40mm from their Balkans range and the Staff figures are from  the Deutshe Homage range.

Here we see Hannay Pasha instructing gunners on the correct firing procedure , It's a little known fact that Sir Richard Hannay spent a short while serving in the army of the Sublime Porte as a military adviser .

He also tried to improve communication methods within the army (with only mixed results) . The Sublime Porte is smarting over the 'Walker Incident' * and is seeking to provoke a confrontation with Treboria who they suspect in having a hand in it .

 *http://tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2019/08/mr-and-mrs-walker-get-arrested.html