Natal Native Contingent

A new addition to my Anglo-Zulu War armies, a couple of units of the Natal Native Contingent, made by HaT.

There should be 18 figures in the unit, but I just substituted some scenery for a couple of figures like Peter Gilder used to do and I think it makes it more of an irregular force.

One unit deployed as skirmishers

Most of the British amy for the invasion of Zululand

Here is the whole British army, I normally don't use all the units in any game, but it gives me lots of flexibility and if necessary I also have some Boers I can also use.

The artillery, the muzzle loader is Airfic but the two MGs are metal, I think from RSM. by the limbers are a spare infantry crew for the maxim.

Colonial cavalry RSM at the fron and two units of HaT Frontier Light Horse behind.

The rebased regular cavalry was shown in an earlier post, but here are the Natal Native Horse and Natal Mounted Police behind the mounted infantry.

Zulu War rebasing - British foot troops

It's quite a lot to rebase in 0ne batch, but here they are over 100 figures rebased and also touched up from the ravages of gaming. There are two infantry battalions , a rifle company, a dismounted mounted infantry section, a limber and a few oddments.

A close up of an infantry battalion.

Almost all the figures are Esci

Zulu War rebasing - British mounted troops

I've started the first of my rebasing projects for the year. I already have a number of the figures rebased to my current standard, but they make the figures based to my old standard look very dowdy. The first batch is all the remaining British/Colonial mounted figures.The command figures at the front are all RSM.

Colonial/Boer cavalry at the front (Newline) and Mounted Infantry behind (Airfix/Esci conversions)

Lancers at the front and Dragoons behind, both Jacklex.

The final figure at the rear is a Waterloo 1815 Sudan figure.

WSS Bavarian Cuirassiers

Another batch of cuirassiers for the War of Spanish Succession completed, Bavarians this time. The mix of figures are the same as the Austrians, using the figures from both Strelets cuirassier sets. I only extra is a commander, and I've also painted his Austrian counterpart (at the rear). With four units I could represent all of the Bavarian cuirassier regiments.

Regiment Arco at the front and Weikel behind

Regiment Costa at the front and Wolframsdorf behind

That completes my WSS project until Strelets manages to make any more new sets.

Vapnartak 2023

Up nice and early yesterday for the drive across to York. So for me it was 12 hours day.
I was helping with the Lance & Longbow as usual and the battle selected this time was the Ottoman relief of the seige of Buda 1541. Ready for the off.

Battle well underway - we managed to refight it twice, both times resulting in an Ottoman victory.

Some of the other games in progress, starting with the the Back of Beyond game by the League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers

Medieval skirmish using Lion Rampant set in the Baltics with the Teutonic knights

"What a Cowboy" by TFL I would have liked to have time to try this.

Viking Raid

My booty - the Natal Native contingent by out was a fortunate find as I have been looking for it for quite a while. The back copies of Hobilar on disk will reduce the amount of paper being stored. The additional rules for Rapid Fire Reloaded and Canadian Scenarios were what I needed, but I received an extra copy of the base rules with them. The female gunfighters will make an entertaining addition to my small western gunfight collection.

Overall a great day out as always, it was very busy for the first three hours, but the organisers have changed and it showed in their speed of dealing with the queue and less friendly attitude.

On the workbench - February 2023

A reasonable start to this year's painting given I have been on holiday as well. To start February off on a high note I'll be at Vapnartak in York on Sunday. Plans for this month include:

• Finish the WSS Bavarians - these are well underway
• 4 units of Napoleonic French Dragoons
• WW2 Russian crews for bren carriers and other 3D printed Russian vehicles
• Rebase Anglo-Zulu War British army
• Napoleonic Nassau Infantry battalion
• various odd 3D printed vehicles

Return to the Romanians

I had decided to sell off my Italian platoon for use in Russia as they are really showing their age and I already have Romanians for when I need some allies for my Germans. But when I sorted them out I realised that most of the Romanians needed rebasing, so I just added them to the workbench as a quick job.

There are enough figures for either two Rapid Fire battalions, or one platoon for. either the 1941 or post 1942 orbats.