Imagi-Nations WIP or What I Have Been Doing Since October

Recently I obtained from Glenn, a great deal of painted Airfix figures. Some of these figures will be able to be used for the V&B Waterloo project. The rest will be used for my Duke, Elector, King (DEK) project that I have set in the nations of the known world in the D&D setting of Mystera.

More Klantyre Highlanders.

Why? Because the known world allows for a range of both European and Non-European forces, and the nations have a wealth of background material. Of course by advancing the time line by 700 years and eliminating the high magic of the setting, allows for a great deal of flexibility in ignoring items that I dislike, or won't work for a DEK campaign. (More details are located here).

In a previous post  I detailed how I intended to use painted Highlanders surplus to Napoleonic gaming. As such the forces of Klantrye in Glantri have gained another two stands of infantry. 

Yet more Highlanders. Klantrye now has a sizable infantry force.

Included in the figures from Glenn was a collection of Airfix French Artillery that at some stage had been converted with a great deal of imagination to French Imperial Guard Foot Artillery with the addition of material to the Shako in order to make bearskins.  Given that I already have plenty of purpose built figures for that unit, I decided to do something very different.

Big headgear, bright colours, and a dedicated gun! 

I decided to model an elite unite of Himaya (warriors) from the Mumlyket of  Kadesh. Kadesh has a long traditional of military excellence, so it makes sense for them to adopt the latest military systems and equipment into their army.

The gun was produced by Plastic Soldier as a game component for their remake of 'Hold the Line'.

Both units would be rated as having shock, but the dedicated gun probably gives the Kadesh troops the edge. 

I purchased years ago a set of  German G.M. 0024"British Army in Egypt: Madras Regt". PSR reviews a similar set of figures here, and their comments about the material the figures are made from is rather generous. The material crumbles easily and should not be used to make figures!

Not all modern troops in the Sind region are in the employ of the local rulers!

.These figures (and the other two stands I hope to make from the set) I plan to use both as East Indian Company Sepoys and as Sepoys of the Minroth East Sindindian Company stationed in Sambay, Mumlyket of Jalawar.

Thyatis is the major military power of the background, and I have arbitrarily decided to give the majority of their infantry white coats. This is largely due the fact that I like the look of Ancien Régime troops in white coats!

Airfix British Hussars in use as Thyatian Light Horse face some WIP Shire militia.

WIP stand of Thyatian infantry.

While Thyatis is a major military power with all the trimmings, The Five Shires are not. They are a smaller power that doesn't have a large standing army. Rather they rely on trained bands and militias raised as required. Also, they are a nation of Halflings who call themselves the Hin.

WIP FDM 3d Printed Hin troops.

Same from the rear. 

Despite being classed as militia, many of the Shire Regiments do not suffer from being treated as militia as per the V&B rules. Rather they are often treated the same as regular linear infantry. 

A Regiment of Shire troops

Glantri and the Shires enjoy less than cordial relations.

DEK has provision for naval forces, so naturally I decided I needed ships. Rather then get ships in a sensible scale, I decided to make a cartoon scale navy using a mishmash of scales unrelated to either my figure or ground scale. This has frigates in 1/144 scale, 1st Rates at 1/180ish scale, and other ships at box scale.

A 3D printed 1/181 1st Rate Ship of the Line

A rather nice view of the stern

This is not a clever approach, but it is a fun one! I have been enjoying enlarging 1/700 scale STLs to larger sizes as I have always wanted big ship models!

The Mayflower under new management!

I am still figuring out exactly what ships go where, but I am definitely enjoying myself! The Mayflower was apparently a Fluyt design, so I am planning on using her as a generic vessel of the class.

1/83 Scale Revell Mayflower next to 1/144 scale HMS Southhampton

And since I have so many ships, I clearly need a Pirate Fortress. Below are my WIP planning photos for remodeling a rather broken and gutted Tracey Island Kat purchased for me.

A toy pirate ship which could be a ketch with asperations to greatness!

The island can host multiple V&B urban areas. 

It will need defenses to cover that nice beach...

Thank you for looking, and hopefully I will have some finished items soon to post on the blog!

Airfix Imagi-Nation Highlanders

 One of the side effects of playing Volley and Bayonet (V&B) with 20mm plastic figures is the accumulation of certain types figures in excess of what you can use. A classic example is that of Scottish Highlanders in British Napoleonic forces. 

Command stand for a Klantyre force

Given the scale of the standard game, it is extremely unlikely that you would need more than two brigade stands of Highland infantry, and even then, the Highlanders would typically only represent one of the battalions in each brigade.

Klantrye has a proud military tradition

Over the past twenty five  years  I have acquired a number of painted and unpainted sets of Airfix (and other brands too) Waterloo Highlanders (Click here for the PSR review) in excess of my requirements. Naturally I have hoarded these figures as they might be useful one day.

As I have been building forces for use with my Duke, Elector, King (DEK) 18th century imagi-nation campaign, I have been trawling through my collection of painted and partially painted figures looking for something suitable. Upon discovery of these painted Highlanders, I was struck by the thought that they could be used as well, despite being technically the wrong period.

The original painter's attempt at a tartan pattern is very subdued in these photos 

Indeed, one of the advantages of DEK is being able gloss over imperfections in uniforms as long as it has the right vibe. And since I have recently decided on the campaign background for my DEK campaign, these figures will work perfectly, and in numbers in excess of those normally needed for games of V&B in the Napoleonic era.

A proud regiment of Klantrye: The Glenmoorloch Borderers

The original painter made quite a nice impression of a tartan on these figures

And while perfectly nice sets of 18th century Highlanders exist, these figures have the advantage of me already having them, having a good range of poses that work well for making V&B stands of regular infantry, and of being quite forgiving of my restoration techniques.

Monsters For Silver Bayonet

Building forces for Duke, Elector, King still continues, but I have started work on another project..... 

I recently purchased some D&D prepainted figures for use in games of The Silver Bayonet (TSB). The majority of these monsters I hope to use in other games such as Broken Legions or In Her Majesty's Name.

Left to Right (LtR): Giant Scorpion, Roper, Pterafolk, Troll 

While only one of the above monsters has official TSB game statistics (the Troll), part of the attraction to the system is the ability to create new monsters as required. It also means that the monsters can be shaped by a gaming group's interpretation of source material relating to the monster. 

LtR: Gremlin, Halfling Rogue, Kobold Mountaineer, Hat Spanish Priest, Vegepygmy

Pterafolk faces off against a Hat Priest and a Warrior 25mm Spanish Officer

Roper about to devour  a Hat Priest and a Warrior Officer

Troll versus Hat Priest and Strelets US 1812 Militiaman

The adaptability of TSB is very attractive, especially as it can allow for the setting to be pushed back into the 18th Century merely by tweaking the game background. Another major attraction is that it will let me use a number of odds and ends figures that don't quite work with my Volley and Bayonet  armies.

Minfigs 25mm French Dragoons prepare to battle a Giant Scorpion

One of the forces that I am thinking of building is a group of French Dragoons with minimal specialists as part of the team, and treating each Dragoon as a standard infantryman. While the force will be at a disadvantage in some ways, quantity can substitute for quality in some cases.

A Roper is engaged by French Dragoons

It certainly will make for an interesting, if albeit short, campaign. It also will allow me to use some nice 25mm Minifigs Dragoons that don't really work with my 1/72 plastic French.

French Dragoons start bridge clearance operations

Yet More Airfix Imagi-Nation Figures

 Recently I refurbished some more Airfix British Grenadiers figures into stands for use with Duke, Elector, King. (Previous posts relating to this can be found here and here) 

Blue coats with green facings

The majority of the figures are blue coated, so currently there is a distinct imbalance towards blue coated troops with fur hats. Once I finish the recycling of the previously painted figures, I will start painting white,yellow, and red coated figures.  

Blue coats with pink facings

Blue coats with purple facings

Green coats with yellow facings. The base still needs flocking.

Frontal view of the green grenadiers

Green and blue coated skirmish stands

A group shot of the work completed in this batch

The last of the blue painted grenadiers. They should yield another three V&B stands.

The last of the green grenadiers - only one stand left to go!

Once these are completed I will start looking at my unpainted figures and figuring out what figures I can use for cavalry, artillery, militia, and regular infantry.

S&S Models 122-mm howitzer D-30

Recently I completed a trio of D-30s from S&S models. D-30s are a very useful artillery piece for gaming the modern era and the S&S model is a nice representation of the weapon system.

In CD terms each one of these models represents a battery of guns, so with the addition of  vehicles and personnel stands to represent transport and supply vehicles, gun crew, forward observers, and command elements, I can table an artillery battalion.

In CD terms this could look like the following (based on the organisation in GDW's Combined Arms and several real world ORBATs):

Artillery Battalion

    Headquarters:

        1 Command stand

        1 Forward Observer stand

        2 UAZ 467 (or similar light vehicles)

    Supply Company:

        2 Heavy Ammo trucks with trailers

    3 Batteries each with:

        1 D-30 122mm Howitzer

        1 Gun crew stand

        1 Medium Truck

 

Note that the above organisation could easily be downgraded by the removal of the Forward Observer, or upgraded by adding in additional elements that increase the capability of the unit.   

In order to maximise the utility of these guns I plan to create a number of vehicles and personnel stands representing a range of different forces. This would let me field the D-30s as part of Soviet, WarPac, USSR successor state, Middle Eastern, and Imagi-nation artillery units.

By doing this I should be able to provide artillery support to a wider range of forces without having to make a large number of  model D-30s.

IHMN Dreadful Fighting Monks

 As a slow burner project I have been creating small groups of figures for use in games of In Her Majesty's Name (IHMN). One of the forces that I have recently created is a group of monks loosely based around the Dread Monk list in one of the IHMN supplements. 

A dreadful bunch of mele armed clerics.

The rank and file monks are from Red Box Set 72086 Russian War Monks (click here for the PSR review). The Abbot (centre wearing the skull mask) is from Caesar Miniatures Fantasy set 103 - Undead (click here for the PSR review) and seems to have a suitable air of authority.

Abbot with firelock armed monks.

The war monk figures could also work as cultists (click here and here for my IHMN Cultists), but the Dread Monk list offers a different range of challenges to the cultist list. Besides, having both forces allows the possibility of having scenarios that pit Dread Monks versus Cultists!

The complete group so far - an abomination of monks!

In addition to the monks I decided to base up a couple of mummies that I had lurking around, as I figured that they might prove useful at some stage. Additionally I hope to be able to use them with The Silver Bayonet.

The three plastic Mummies in the rear of the picture are from the set of pieces provided for the Egyptian faction in the Eagle Games board game  Age of Mythology (click here for further information from PSR), while the mummy without headgear is a metal figure from Elhiem Figures.