Sunday in the Sudan

As is traditional after Phalanx we all particaoted in a big game over at Steve's in Salford. This year it was the Sudan. The Egyptians were defending the Riverside town and neighbouring village against a horde of Mahdists. The British plodded across the sand in the baking sun to their rescue.

My command, the cavalry and camelry

The Egyptians repel three assaults

Still holding on except the Mahdists have taken a building in the town.

By the end of play thanks to the staunch Egyptian defense there was no hope of success for the Mahdists.

Last of the Zulu's rebased

The fourth and final batched now reworked and rebased.

Third batch of Zulus

Beginning to get the hang of this. Plenty of odd repairs needed.

I've done the Indunas as well, not sure what make they are but should include RSM or Newline

Second batch of Zulus

I tried a slightly different basing, adding some railway cork balast to the mix.

It gave a much rougher surface but took far too much efort as it didn't stick well.

First batch of Zulus reworked

It's a long time since these figures were first painted, 1985 I think. So they are long overdue for rework.

Some of the old basing

The first batch of rebased figures

About a third of the figures had no shiels as Esci did not include enough in the pack, so I 3D printed some and added them where missing and a lot of weapons that had also fallen off over the years.

Old and new side by side.

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.

Pony Wars Saturday

Had a great day out on Saturday at our first whole day event run by Beacon Gaming Club at Elton Community Centre. Our game was a Pony Wars campaign game with Simon's terrain and figures.

The Preacher and his flock decide to leave Outpost Arrow escorted by the cavalry

Troops head out of Fort Laramie

Ambush!! The local Cheyenne snip atthe column missing the Cavalry escort but hitting the civilians

Oophs! the raiding froce discovered two troops of cavalry at a watering hole 3:1 advantage no contest!

Don't they look vulnerable!

Caught one early with a good move,

Close up of the impact, all over now!

but after that they were repulsed and my other units suffered a similar fate - US cavalry are tough to beat especially the way my dice were rolling for melee.

I decided to reurn my main force to our village only to find three troops of US cavalry in occupation

I tried an outflanking manouvre, but although I managed to catch one US troop and decimate it the rest wiped out most of my force

So as Doctor and the Medics say - "Going on up to the spirits in the sky"

Veldt Artillerie

Just what's need to support my Boers
Theses are two Krupp 75mm field guns and a pair of 1pdr pom-poms from Strelets, surplus crew has been used for command and loader teams
Maybe I need to add some limbers?

Addition just found this on the Oranje Vrijstaat Artillerie Corps Facebook page

Just found this awesome photo of the Krupp Vorrathswagen (supply wagon) from a Krupp catalogue kept in a Portuguese museum. This is the exact model the Boers imported as well and the limber I am restoring:

Extras for my French Foreign Legion

I am always tempted by add-ons to existing armies, so I had to add some more artillery and resting figures to my FFL
37mm M1916 mountain guns, one wheeled the other on a tripod togeth with gunners from Strelets.
A very nice camp scene again from Strelets
The same scene to go with my earlier FFL.

Foreign Legion Artillery

Some welcome support for my French Foreign Legion a couple of gun and loader teams with a pair of Canon de 65 M (Montagne) Modèle 1906 by Strelets
Plastic Soldier review found a number of faults in the uniform, but they are not really noticeable

More Zulus rebased

After my last rebasing I still had 48 rifle figures left. I sold off 24 kneeling rifles at Recon and retouched and rebased the rest to provide two more units.

This gives me six units of skirmishing rifles, which might seem a lot for the Zulus in the Anglo-Zulu War, but I also use the figures for other colonial games. I also need to think about rebasing the rest of the armies!

Zulu Riflemen rebased

Just to finish off the month some Zulu Rifles that I have rebased to the 1-2-3 style.

Having tried this for my Nine Years War French for Pikeman's Lament and liked it for skirmish units, so I though I'd use it for these Zulus who were beginning to fall off their old bases.

French Foreign Legion

But not the usual, these are painted for the period 1908 to 1920 for the Rif Wars. The figures are the new ones from Strelets for the period and they come with a very nice Hotchkiss machine gun.

A close up of some of the figures.


The desert patrol set has been altered so the Legionnaires are more correctly mounted on mules, with the officer on a horse.

A blast from the past

While working on my Ox Wagons I also rebased my venerable Jacklex British 4.7 inch Naval gun.

Although I do have the gun crew it has always been used in games as part of a convoy.

More details about the gun on Wikipedia

Reworked Ox wagons

When I worked on the Hat Colonial wagons back in March (link) I complained about the lack of Oxen and that I would reuse my old Atlantic Oxen. I also decided that I would rework a couple of the old wagons, rather than buying any more of the Hat version. So here they are together with some reworked Ox teams.


Here'e the original wagon on the left and the reworked version on the right. The HaT version is behind. Only the wheels and axles were used the rest is scratch-built.

British 15pdr BL guns

Another Strelets set and again this time I've used the crews for three different periods Anglo-Zulu War in blue(ignoring the putees) the Sudan in grey and North West Frontier in khaki (but it will stretch to WWI)

The guns are only used for the Sudan and later as the British Army reverted to muzzle loaders during the Zulu War.

I'm not sure about a few of the poses, especially the limbo dancing characters who should be adjusting the bearing by manoeuvring the wheels.

One wagon - three periods

I decided to create three different versions of the HaT General Service Wagon to provide support the my armies. From L to R Sudan, Zulu War and WW1 in the middle east.

Nice models that fit together well, especially as compared to when HaT used that very bendy plastic. I just made some head swaps to make the crews suitable for the different eras.