Wargame Butterfly? Me? Hmmm....

While the blog has been quiet for a few weeks, I have been anything but quiet when it comes to the hobby. However, I have to confess, I've been massively distracted and wandered off down a few different paths. That said, in my defence, it's not been a matter of new projects, it's been more a matter of taking several projects to the next stage.  

Having said that, one of those probably qualifies as a new project. Why? Because I bought the figures to start something new, even though they don't qualify as a recent acquisition. In time honoured fashion, they were bought on a whim and by the time they arrived my ardour had begun to cool. No longer, I'm pleased to say.

So, what happened? Well, my regular opponent Dave was eager we should give Infamy, Infamy a try. Fine with me, but I have to confess that my knowledge of the broad scope of time that falls under the banner 'ancient period' is not a slice of history I know much about. Naturally, it follows that I don't have any figures for the period in my collection. However, the idea of asymmetric warfare on the borders of the Roman Empire had some appeal. It also coincided with a sale at Victrix. 

That was convenient, because one bag of their Germanic Warriors includes 60 figures, probably just enough for a force for Infamy, Infamy. Order was duly placed; figures arrived; I made up about six of them; became distracted by another project; put them aside, and, there they remained for almost a year.

Jump forward to recently and Dave and I played a game, finally. Dave had Romans, but no Germans, so we proxied some of his Saxons. We both enjoyed the game and needless to say it was the impetus I needed to get moving with those Victrix Germans. In the end it has been a remarkably quick project that is almost complete. It's the 'almost' that's held me up blogging about it, but I thought I'd not wait any longer.

I gave some thought to how I wanted the figures based. The most versatile option would be to base them individually and use sabot bases to move them around in groups during a game. My only issue is that I find sabots have a habit of making the units look too regimented (and yes, I know, you can get sabot bases with the slots in irregular patterns, but there's something about the fact the whole sabot base is square or rectangular that still creates the illusion of a uniform shape. Call me fussy). 

I decided to go down the same path I did for my Mahdists for the Sudan. I would base the figures in 3s, 2s and individually. That way I can remove casualties; keep an irregular shape to the groups, but also have the convenience of multi-based figures to aid movement. It has worked well for the Mahdists.

It wasn't until I'd painted most of the figures that I realised I had run out of suitable MDF bases for the multi-figure basing. Order has been placed and I'm now waiting on delivery to base those figures. In the meantime at least the individually based figures are finished.

The Victrix set gave me enough figures for five groups of ten and a number of leaders, which pretty much gives one of the forces recommended in the army lists in the Infamy, Infamy rule book. Of course, the key phrase here is 'pretty much'. I think we all know what that means.

I needed a few small additions. Groups of skirmishing/missile figures are useful and these can include slingers, archers and javelins. I thought I could solve the slingers quite simply and without purchasing more figures. 

I had a box of Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors and the set includes lots of hands with slings. The easiest solution seemed to be to use the bodies and sling hands from Gripping Beast. To help them blend in and match the other warriors in the force, the heads would come from those left over from the Victrix set. It seemed like a good idea, but it didn't work quite as well as I hoped.

Two things bugged me. Firstly, the Victrix heads appear too big for the Gripping Beast bodies and, secondly, the Gripping Beast poses lacked the dynamism that is so apparent in the Victrix figures. Looking at the Victrix set I could see how several of their bodies would lend themselves well to representing slingers. The solution was to buy a spare sprue online and just make use of the Gripping Beast sling hands. As it happened I thought a few of those GB heads would work okay on the Victrix bodies, which they do. It was the simplest of conversions. By turning the heads on the bodies so the figures were facing side on, it was easy to create an entirely new configuration that gave me the dynamism I was after.

Once painted I was much happier. These looked the part.

I also thinks this speaks to the versatility of plastic figures. I understand completely why some people dislike them, but as someone who has made plastic models all his life, I don't have any issues. In fact, quite the opposite. 

The two figures below are based on the same Victrix torso/body. Aside from the option of using a different head, the only real difference is how the heads are angled. As I've done with nearly all the slinger conversions, the heads are adjusted to face sideways rather than forwards. The end result, a very different looking figure, without the need for complex surgery.

In terms of basing, aside from the 3,2,1 scheme for the main body of warriors, the leaders are on slightly larger bases that will line up with the larger bases I'll use for three figures. To these I've added rocks, these are to help identify which figure corresponds to which leader card while playing the game.

So, that's where I'm at with the Germans. Hopefully I have the remaining figures based soon and ready for a game.

At the same time I've been diverted to painting up a few more figures for my Hundred Years War collection. These are all based on Perry Miniatures plastic sets. I put these together a few years ago to play simple skirmish games like Lion Rampant. To be honest, they don't see much action these days. Lion Rampant works well enough as an introductory game or a quick game on a club night, but it feels too much like a squad based action than something from the medieval period. 

More recently, I've joined in several big games set during the Trojan Wars using Midgard which I've enjoyed. By good fortune I stumbled across army lists for the HYW that the rule's author James Morris had put together. 

I don't have enough painted figures for a game, but I do have quite a few unassembled plastic frames of various Perry sets in my stash. They've been sitting there for far too long and this was a good reason to pull them out and get painting while my mojo was raging. I probably needed to paint up about 30-40 figures to give me what I need in extra figures for various types like archers and men-at-arms.

First to be completed were three bases to represent English leaders/heroes and another dozen men-at-arms. To distinguish the commanders I've based these in twos on a round base and made use of a set of flags I have for the period from Battle Flag.

Having used some of the Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors in my attempt to create slingers for my Germanic warriors I've also been inspired to try and do a speed paint job on a couple of dozen of those to give me a rather generic force that could be used to represent anything from peasant levy to tribal warriors to armed serfs. So, in short, a very busy workbench at the moment, but too many works in progress and not enough completed projects to warrant a blog post. More to come!

Naval Brigade for Sudan

I've added a unit of Naval Brigade to bring a touch of colour and swagger to my British force for the Sudan. There is definitely something slightly incongruous about a bunch of sailors fighting Mahdists in the desert but I think that's all part of the appeal.

All the figures are from Perry Miniatures and are grouped together for use playing the Sharp Practice variant for the later colonial period. This gives me three groups of eight infantry with a selection of leaders.

I particularly like the set of command figures. It includes a very nice selection of different characters.

The set also includes a mounted officer.

These now join the 7 pounder screw gun, also from Perry Miniatures.

And a Gardner Gun, again from Perry Miniatures.

While there is always room to add more for now this gives me enough options for British infantry and support weapons to cover most of my game needs. Of course in this hobby there is no such word as 'never' or 'finished' so I'll avoid boxing myself into a corner by suggesting this is the end of the Sudan collection. Let's just say, it's the end for now.

Wounded leaders and a Mahdist gun - more for the Sudan

With CanCon only ten days away I'm putting final touches to everything I will need to run the four participation games of Sharp Practice set in the Sudan. The last remaining item was to find a couple of prone British figures to use as markers for when a leader takes a temporary wound that has him incapacitated for a while. 

I have created figures already for leaders that take a wound that remains with them for the duration of the game (you can see how I made these in this post). 

In their case I use a standing figure with a bandage, but for those who are literally knocked off their feet for a while I like to use a prone figure. The quickest solution I could find was to use the two prone figures that come on the command sprue in the Perry Zulu War set. Of course the uniforms are not exactly the same, the main difference being the lack of puttees, but in several other respects they are very similar. The only modification I made was to trim the lace off the jacket sleeves. I thought about having a go at making puttees, but given the figures are glorified markers and may never even see use in a game I thought I'd fudge it a bit and rely on the paint to do the work.

When needed I simply substitute the existing leader figure with the prone figure. Should the leader dust himself off and get back on his feet again then the original figure is returned to the base. Obviously their main role is to serve as game markers, but they also help to tell the narrative and that certainly makes it worth going to the effort of creating them. 

The other addition is a Mahdist gun and crew from the Perry Sudan range. This is a very atmospheric set with three of the crew representing captured Egyptian gunners pressed into service by the Mahdists. A dejected looking lot who are suitably attired in ragged clothes and shackled at the ankle. The fourth figure is their Mahdist overseer who is about to compound their misery by giving one of the gunners a beating.

I've based the gun and two figures together and kept the other two on separate bases so I can remove casualties. I used the sanding tool on my Dremel to make recesses in the gun base so that the figures can all fit around the gun and blend in.

As I said in my post reviewing my 2022 gaming year, the Sudan project grew from a modest start and has taken on a life of its own. It's not finished just yet (if any project can ever be truly called 'finished'), but I think I'm close to having most of what I need for the scale of games I'm playing. On the workbench at the moment are three groups of Naval Brigade infantry and their leaders; one more group of regular British infantry and another twenty Beja spearmen. Once they're completed I think I can be reasonably satisfied I have the units I will need to cover most of the likely scenarios I'd want to play, but hey....never say never, eh?

Cavalry for the Sudan

The Sudan project started off with quite modest ambitions but I've found the Sharp Practice variant has delivered so many enjoyable games that it's inspired me to add a few additional units. The one thing the project has been missing is mounted units, so I've rectified that by adding a unit for both the Mahdists and the British.

These are all from the lovely Perry Miniatures Sudan range. The units are based on a standard Sharp Practice mounted unit of eight figures plus a leader, which is convenient as Perry sell the figures in sets of three.

For the Mahdists I've decided to mix up the groups to include those with rifles, spears and swords rather than have them as a homogenous unit with the same weapons. I'm imagining each warrior arrived with his own mount and choice of weapons.

The British represent the 19th Hussars, who all carry their sword but are also equipped with a rifle. A few of the figures lack the usual animation you'd expect from the Perrys but they work well as a group.

I don't know what it is about painting mounted figures but I find I labour over them. Perhaps it's the fact they aren't complete until you have done rider and mount and so the time from start to completion seems to take that much longer. Whatever it is, I'm always happy at the end but don't always enjoy the journey.

Wounded leaders for the Sudan

A leader in Sharp Practice can incur a wound that leaves him with one less command initiative for the remainder of the game and my solution to remembering who these leaders are has been to either create a specific base or to replace the figure with one showing someone wounded. For the Sudan project I've opted to do the latter.

The Perry plastic set of British infantry includes an arm in a sling which makes this a relatively easy thing to do. The set also includes a bare head and I thought that might look good bandaged. The solution was simple enough, I sculpted one using Milliput to give me two distinctly different figures. The one with the sling is dressed as an officer while the other works as an NCO.

I enjoyed doing this, if only because it wasn't complicated and I managed to achieve exactly the result I was after.

The figures fit into the leader bases I have created. 

It's a simple matter of swapping one figure for another in the case of a wound. Not only does it work as a suitable game marker but it helps to keep the table themed and adds to the narrative.

For those who are knocked off their feet and suffer a temporary wound I like to use a prone figure. The Perry plastic Sudan set doesn't contain any casualty figures but there are two prone figures that come on the command sprue in the Perry Zulu War set. Of course the uniforms are not exactly the same, the main difference being the lack of puttees, but in several other respects they are very similar. The only modification I made was to trim the lace off the jacket sleeves. I thought about having a go at making puttees, but given the figures are glorified markers and may never even see use in a game I thought I'd fudge it a bit and rely on the paint to do the work.

In the case of the Mahdists I've made use of the Perry metal set of casualties. In this case the prone figures are used to represent a leader who has suffered a wound that has put them out of action temporarily.

The standing figures of men being hit are used in the same way that I use the wounded British figures - to represent a wound that will last throughout the game.