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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The gun was produced by Plastic Soldier as a game component for their remake of 'Hold the Line'. |
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| 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!
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| 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!
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| Airfix British Hussars in use as Thyatian Light Horse face some WIP Shire militia. |
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| 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.
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.
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| 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.
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| A toy pirate ship which could be a ketch with asperations to greatness! |
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| The island can host multiple V&B urban areas. |
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| 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!
Quite an ambitious project you have going there Brian! You should have a whole lotta fun with that lot! Some colourful exotica among the more familar, too.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that your elite Kadesh guard unit should be more noted for indefatigable stubbornness rather than shock, with the extra firepower range the battalion gun affords. The reason I mention this is something I read recently. I don't recall who said it, but some 18th century figure of note said that 'if you don't want your troops to manoeuvre, encumber them with guns.' Against THAT of course, during the latter half of the 7YW, Frederick the Great 'encumbered' his infantry with 12pr battalion guns. So... who knows? Maybe the Highlanders are just more nippy about the battlefield.
Your pirate ship looks to be something more substantial than a ketch: a ship, withal, which a ketch is not - unless you are planning to lose the foremast on that vessel. You know, I'd call it a galleon (or possibly a carrack), a type that would be quite at home on the Spanish Main... And galleon sounds more ... piratish ... don't you reckon?
I'm looking forward to reading about deadly death defying deeds of derring do upon the dire deeps...
Cheers,
Ion
Hi Ion, Thank you for your kind words.
ReplyDeleteShock is an interesting concept to model in rules. I get the feeling from your comment that you are tying it to manoeuvre alone, rather than including firepower and mele as factors.
I have given the Highlanders shock as V&B routinely gives it too them - I imagine this is due to the perceived ferocity of their mele, plus like most V&B units they do move quickly.
The Kadesh unit gets shock due to a combination of firepower and mele. I left the large swords of the French Artillery figures on them as I wanted them to have a nassty reputation for mele fighting.
When you see the small pirate ships near the other ships you will see the difficulty I have with classifying them. I suspect the best approach would have to adopted the 18th Century RN Admiralty approach of having the catchall category of 'barque' for ships that don't fit the normal categories.
Cheers,
Brian.
What wonderful units and re-working of Airfix figures. The artillerymen with the added bearskins take the ribbon for 'best of show' for mine!
ReplyDeleteRegards, James
Hi James,
DeleteThank you for your kind words! - The Kadesh Himaya are a favourite of mine too!