Corp Camel Artillery Train Conversion Part One

Not exactly a great leap forward but after consulting someone 'in the know' about matters concerning Uniform I have learned that the Artillery would have been in- direct quote verbatim from the Perry site:

"16. Royal Artillery
This is their probable uniform at El Teb. A Forester’s drawing of the battle of Ginniss depicts them in what looks to be a mix of home service dark blue trousers and either dark blue or khaki frocks. Puttees are either dark blue or khaki."

So. I've decided upon using the existing Camel Corp packs for the sake of simplicity and the following mini's:

Whilst it does mean cleaning up another couple of camels and four figures it is certainly easier than filing away at the Empress Royal Artillery mini's that I had started to think of using and will save on putty time too so I can put aside the hour a day I do for putty use for one or two days! Hurrah! I'm trying to do a little putty work converting mini's for an hour a day with a view of building up to doing full sculpts. I realise that this may be a long way off but if you don't start somewhere, where will you start?

Well, that's the components of the vignette sorted out so the next time you see these mini's 

(assuming I don't have a drastic change of heart about the mini's accompanying the gun) they will be painted up and based.

Bye for now. 

Puttee Work- See What I Did? (Taken from Shooting Leave Blog)

Hi,

OK, terrible pun in the title of this post aside..... got me coat and heading out the door as quickly as my legs will carry me! Actually that's a double pun if one thinks about it.......

Very quick update before the KRRC get their black undercoat- I've sculpted the puttees and riding boots in the case of the officer where they were lacking on the backs of the legs of the troopers.

Nothing special, but some quick pics are called for in celebration:

Bye for now.

Looking for 'in scale'Ammunition boxes for Sudan Royal Artillery Camel Train- any idea?

Hi folks,

Just a quickie as I'm pressed for time.  I've got Sick of it All in Newcastle as part of my Birthday do from last week tonight (NYC Hardcore Band- we toured with them in the early 90's). Have to prepare for that- cut hair, pretend balding pate is not there- pretend I'm fitter :>)

OK, I'm looking for some ammunition boxes that I can attach to the sides of the camels, something like the pictures below:

If anyone can think of a source then I 2ould be a very happy man as it will save me having to sculpt them. (I only have my metal sculpting tools at present and a lot of my modelling gear is in my ex girlfriend's garage!).

Here's another pic of what I've got thus far. Mini's are from Perry Miniatures British Camel Corps Command and British Camel Corps,rifles on hips the gun is an excellent resin casting from North Star form their North Star Arsenal which has some great stuff including a Maxim Gun that will be seeing service a later battle that I plan to put on. It is of course Omdurman. but enough of that for now. Let's stick to the Second Battle of El Teb for now!

Also, if anyone has any ideas about what miniatures I could use as troopers, either mounted or dismounted for the vignette then please do speak up as I'm a bit stumped on that one, the only pack thus far is the Perry Miniatures Naval Brigade Command pack below:

There are a couple of miniatures that could be feasibly used but the uniforms are obviously well out. What I really need is some British Royal Artillery chaps walking along with the camels.... again, i don't mind converting (I actually like it!).

Cheers for now.

Conversions- Mounted Kings Royal Rifle Corp and RN Camel Screw Gun Train

I've had a pretty busy day today so I'm pleased with the work that I've got done tonight. Basically I've cleaned up the Perry Mounted Camel Corp troopers which will be used as the Mounted versions of the Kings Royal Rifle Corp for the Second Battle of El Teb. They will be accompanying the 19th and 10th Hussars as part of Rear Admiral Sir William Hewett's Cavalry Brigade in support of the Infantry Square.

I've started with the cavalry for one simple reason, although I love painting horses, they do take up quite a lot of time and as the Cavalry Brigade had been re-mounted on Egyptian Ponies (they suffered the rigours of the Sudan much better than the original British horses). I'm guessing that there wasn't much leeway for finding mounts of a similar colour so the horses will all have to be painted in different colours which adds to the time it will take to paint them up.

I've got to put in an order for the rest of the Cavalry Brigade which I'll be doing very soon. That of course leaves the infantry, rather a lot of them at that (taken from Warlord Games, Blood on the Nile supplement for Black Powder):

1st Infantry Brigade:
Commander: Brigadier General Sir Redvers Buller
3rd Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corp- 16 mini's.
1st Battalion The Gordon Highlanders- 20 mini's
2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers-16 mini's

2nd Infantry Brigade:
Commander: Major-General J. Davis
Royal Marines- 16 mini's
1st Battalion The Black Watch- 20 mini's
1st Battalion The York and Lancaster Regiment
Gatling Gun (RN Crew)

So, back to what I was saying, for me it will be easier to get the cavalry/mounted infantry done and dusted first then move on to the infantry who do not require Egyptian Mounts!!  I'll be adding some KRRC on foot in the event they see fit to dismount- that will be in my next order to Perry Miniatures

In the pic below you can see the mini's prepped ready for some putty action tomorrow:

As well as the KRRC I've been working on a vignette style 'unit' which will depict a Royal Artillery camel train carrying a 7pdr Screw Gun. Again, I've collected the component parts including a really beautiful resin 7pdr Mountain Gun from North Star (I'll be ordering a few more too as they will be more than useful on the NWF!!), the camels and I'm still deciding whether or not to try to convert some of the royal Perry Miniatures Navy Command pack into troopers assigned to the Camel Train or to go with Mounted Models. Time to sleep on that one methinks.

Cheers for now.

Beja Base Two Complete.... Another Four to Go!!

..........and that will only be one unit done out of the five that I'm initially aiming at!!

It took a little more time than I had imagined (birthday celebrations getting in the way) but I'm happy to say that the second Beja base has been completed. I'm still messing around with the composition, which one reason the miniatures are only blue-tacked onto the bases, another is that they haven't received their traditional coat of Humbrol gloss followed by the matting down process. I use HMG varnish for matting down. If one was to take the 'old' Dullcote recipe out of the equation then HMG is about the flattest Matt varnish available. I find the 'new' Dullcote recipe to leave a satin sheen which I really do not like one bit. So, HMG Matt varnish comes highly recommended form these quarters!

The second lot were all metal (from the Perry Miniatures Mahdist range) and were very different than their plastic companions to paint. I found them easier to get into for some funny reason and I'm sure that it's not just a case of getting used to the different undercuts etc that are presented by plastics. Perhaps it's just a matter of me getting more used to painting up plastic models. Something that I quite enjoy, they are after all a bit of a different challenge than the metal models.

Here's a few pics of the Beja as they were a few minutes ago on the painting table. The varnishing process will help smooth out any jumps in tonality just as a wash would do.

The Two Bases:

A Couple of Close Ups:

New Remastered Pics of Beja

I finally managed to get Photoshop to run properly on my new laptop so I can now present more 'real' images of the Beja and in particular the skin tones and what I was saying in a previous post about the reds I had added to the first two of the Foundry Musket Brown triads. The last i found needed no red adding as it was certainly red enough!

Without further ado:

Hope you can see the difference a bit of lighting can make!

Cheers for now.

Interlude; John Jenkins Designs Vignette: General Gordon's Last Stand

I've just noticed this striking vignette on the John Jenkins Designs website featuring the Anglo-Sudanese conflict.

I simply has to include them here as they look so, well, marvelous:

The archetypal depiction of Gorgon's Last Stand

A Close Up of Gordon Pasha's Last Moments

Cheers for now.