God Save the Queen!

Done! It took longer than I liked, but I finally finished the small starter army for the British in my Crimean War project. I'm hoping to get these lads on the table soon to throw some dice against their Russian foes, which I finished back in January.

This was a great diversion from other projects and only took about four months to complete both sides. No army is ever really finished and I already have a few more units to add; but I have the attention span of a goldfish and I've already waded into the next project - the American Civil War! More on that soon...

Making a Start on the British for 1854

With the initial goal met for my Russian army, it was time to turn to some opponents and I decided to start with the valiant sons of Great Britain.

My starter army goal is similar, but not identical to the Russians:

• Three Units of Line Infantry (12 models each)
• One Unit of Light Infantry (12 models)
• Two Units of Cavalry (6 models each)
• One Gun (1 gun plus 3 crew)

The Light Infantry will be rifles so I can paint something besides red coats. I'm undecided on the cavalry, but they will either both be heavy (Scots Greys and Inniskilling Dragoons) or light (Light Dragoons, Lancers, or Hussars). Great War Miniatures doesn't currently offer British Lancers or Hussars and I might need to get creative, plucking these from other theaters (the Carlist War BAL and British Intervention Force 1860) covered by Perry Miniatures. There might be a few inaccuracies, but I'm not terribly bothered by that for this collection. I am aware Wargames Foundry makes these, but they are tiny compared to the GWM range.

I really to want to add "brigades" (two units, possibly supported by a gun or detachment of light infantry) of guards, highlanders, French, and Ottomans. Of course I'll need to double the size of my Russian army as well, adding naval troopers, light cavalry, and more Cossacks! That's how these things go when megalomania sets in!

With these armies complete, I'll have enough to play a small game of A Gentleman's War or Neil Thomas's Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe. I'll probably end up making my own - it occurs to me that Donnybrook would work with a little tinkering since the units are so small. I'm not planning on refighting any of the historical conflicts of the period and may explore alternate history narratives such as "what if the Austrian Empire had joined Russia?" to broaden the theater (and the collection).

More soon!

The Russian (Tiny) Horde

I've been steadily painting, but for some reason blogging is a chore right now and I can't seem to be bothered to post on a regular basis. The blog has become more of a personal hobby diary for me rather than "Look at what I'm doing!" Regardless, my starting Russian army for the Crimean War and A Gentleman's War is finished! It's remarkably satisfying to reach a set goal.

My initial goal was three units of 12 infantry, but I've decided I want the Russian units to be 16 models strong and have a couple more packs on the way (alternately, I will be able to field four units of 12).

Artillery is one of the strengths of the Russian army, so I decided to field two guns for this tiny army. I plan to add limbers soon, but for now I'm happy to deploy them reversed with the crew marching ahead to depict them on the move.

I've painted these dragoons as the 1st and 2nd squadron of the same regiment (distinctions on the hat trim). Russian cavalry units tried to have the same color horses throughout the regiment and I thought black would make a nice contrast to all of the brown and tan greatcoats.

You can't have a Crimean War Russian army without Cossacks! I'm going to definitely build more of these ruffians, but I only needed one for my initial goal. According to A. V. Viskovatov, the flags of the Don Cossacks were the same as the line cavalry. They bore the inscription "For the Deeds of the Don Host to pacify Hungary and Transylvania 1849." Several regiments may have had other slogans, but I'm keeping my flags as generic as possible.

This has been a fun project so far. I have the British mustered on the painting table and I'll post my plan for them and some initial photos soon!

A Gentleman's War - Crimea 1854

I've been in a bit of a painting funk this year. Although the blog often gets neglected, I've normally continued hobbying "off camera", contenting myself with quick Facebook posts on various groups. For some reason, I've painted almost nothing this year apart from a handful of models to finish my King of Buccaneers 4Play PDF (see the last post) waaaaaay back in January.

Something needed to change. I bought a whole new set of paints (Two Thin Coats from Duncan Rhodes). My amazing wife suggested we turn the spare bedroom into a dedicated studio (more on that in a future post... I'm still arranging things) so I have a whole new room for my hobby. I have a pile of projects that could use attention (a handful of units to finish my Boyne collection, British for the AWI, my SYW Imagi-nations, the Sudan... sigh), but somehow I couldn't get motivated to tackle them. What I needed was something to jumpstart the painting routine that used to be part of my weekly life.

I turned to the piles of books that are scattered through nearly ever room in my house for inspiration. There HAD to be something around here to give me a kick!

A Gentleman's War. Howard Whitehouse... I love the book he wrote on the Colonial era (Battle in Africa 1879-1914). Did I ever read A Gentleman's War? When did I even buy it? Skipping ahead a bit, this was it! The rules are fairly conventional and owe quite a bit to Charles Grant and Donald Featherstone with the addition of a turn mechanic inspired by Larry Brom's The Sword and the Flame (all freely admitted by the author). If you've read my blog in the past, you know I'm a fan of all of these. The book is a delightful read and provided the spark I was looking for.

The core rules are presented for the H.G. Wells era in the decades before World War I, but will work for any Horse & Musket period (and there are chapters dedicated to earlier periods). I have models for several different conflicts in this broad category and if it were just a question of playing games with the rules I could have gotten stuck in right away. Tilting at these windmills began as a quest to get me painting and for that I needed something new. Having just read Flashman at the Charge (again), the choice was an easy one. I toddled off the scour the web for 28mm scale models for the Crimean War!

There seem to be several good choices, but I'll skip the process I went through and just say I settled on Great War Miniatures. I always enjoy painting sculpts by Dave Andrews and Aly Morrison. I am planning out to start with VERY small armies... three or four units of infantry, two or three units of cavalry, and a couple of guns per side. I'm not basing the collection on any particular battle or brigade and will start with Russians and British. They will probably end up fighting over some fictional corner of the Ukraine far removed from the famous historical battlefields.

To ease back in, I picked the Russians first as the great coats would make for easy brushwork. My initial goal (and initial purchase) was:

• Two Units of Line Infantry (12 models each)
• One Unit of Grenadiers (12 models)
• Two Units of Dragoons (6 models each)
• One Unit of Cossacks (6 models)
• Two Guns (1 gun plus 3 crew each)

I'm not a huge fan of the appearance of 12-model infantry units on the table, but another goal of this project is to realize completion. A Gentleman's War allows for larger units and if I manage to finish both sides, I'll explore expanding the infantry to 18 models. I am basing figures individually so I'll be able to reorganize things easily. I will also be able to use the collection with Donnybrook!

So here are my first two units...

In my head canon, these are "companies" because I just can't think of 12-model battalions, but they will be grouped into "brigades" for game purposes. I intend to paint separate command figures who will be scattered through the brigade, creating an appearance similar to my SYW units. 

I DID enjoy painting these and have the next models on the desk. I'll take some proper photos on terrain once I get a few more units ready. More (fingers crossed) soon!