28mm Boer War collection for sale

I was recently directed to this eBay sale of a very nice 28mm Boer War collection:

eBay link

OK, truth be told, the seller is actually Captain Dan of RedOverBlue. He's an officer in the Canadian military and about to be re-posted to the wilds of New Brunswick, which as we all know is not the hot-bead of civilized life expectant of a gentleman officer in Her Majesty's service. You'd be helping him out by lessening the load he has to drag with him (and that much less his batman will need to unpack... what's that? no batman? Hummmph!). OK, truth be told... you'd be helping out his long-suffering wife more than anything.

28mm Boer War collection: up for sale!

Captain Dan over at Red Over Blue is considering selling his 28mm Boer War collection. He is looking for the right buyer so if you're interested, contact him through his blog. This is a magnificent collection which I've had the pleasure to push around the gaming table.

A Boering weekend

Spent the weekend in Trenton gaming with Michael and Daniel. The latter is in Kingston for a few weeks of training so we thought we'd take advantage of the proximity. Amongst our games was Daniel's Boer War set up. It's quite beautiful and apparently this is the first time he's played with this collection (figures and terrain) with a real live human being (canine opponents don't count!). We pulled out an old favourite, Piquet, and tried the Din of Battle 2nd ed. supplement. Some photos below.

Now, if I could just figure out how to post the video of Lieutenant Hoyt giving the briefing for the WWII micro armour game. "Pens down, eyes on me!"

 

 

New stuff & a question of aesthetics

As mentioned in a previous post, I braved a terrible Canadian blizzard of epic proportions (no, really) to collect my Old Glory order that had been fetched from Cold Wars by Vidal. Besides all the Boer War figures for Daniel and the Boxer Rebellion reinforcements for me, I found this gem:

This is Old Glory's Colonial river boat. It measures a grand 14 inches long and almost four inches across the beam. This is gonna look so cool with sandbag revetments for the guns (fore and aft) and a sun awning above the upper deck. I can see the British Marines wading ashore under the cover of her guns while assaulting a Boxer/Chinese fort along the Yanghtzee River on the way to relieve Peking. Hmmm, I'll need some suitable sailor figures. Ahhh, grand ideas!

And a question. I'm trying out some new movement stands for my six-figure Carlist Wars cavalry units. Do the figures look too far apart or is it merely a trick of the aesthetics? Does the contrast between bare wood and sculpted bases create an illusion of more space? 

Terrain building blitz!

I recently finished a week off from work, and with nothing else to do I dove into a terrain building blitz for my ongoing 28mm Boer War project. As a result I have nearly finished all the terrain required for this project. My recent completions include: barbed wire cattle fences, stone walls/sangars, long grass patches, boulders, modular roads, railway tracks, telegraph poles, a cemetery, and a British blockhouse.

I also finished construction on a small railway station, but this has yet to be painted. I have only to build some kopjes (pronounced "copies"). These will be simple foam hills with steep rock outcroppings and vegetation. I hope you enjoy my recent additions and would love to hear your feedback...

17th Lancers

In 1899 the debate over which was the better primary weapon for the cavalry: the lance or the sabre, was still fierce. Alas, Boer riflemen settled that debate quickly with their Mauser rifles.

I thought I would hop on the bandwagon and post some pics of my recently completed figures. My newest production is a squadron of 10 British lancers, painted in the colours of the famous 17th Lancers of Crimean fame. All figures are Old Glory. Without further ado:

I tried a new method in regards to the guidons on the lances. I cut the pattern out of normal printer paper, as I would normally do. However, between the two folded halves of the flag I glued a small piece of aluminium foil (cut to fit). This is by no means an original idea and I take no credit for it, I just can not remember where exactly I saw it! Regardless, I am happy with the results. The flags maintain a nice "wavy" effect while still being rigid. A bonus is that the foil provides a nice surface on which to paint the texture of the flag.

This squadron, though pretty, will undoubtedly prove to be useless on the table. But no matter, I prefer my troops to be pretty and useless than useful and boring. On second thought, I might have chosen the wrong project...

Really? A new project?

So, what's been happening? While Daniel has been jumping off on his Boer War project (see previous posts) and Phil has been languishing in his painting doldrums, I have not been completely idle. While in Quebec visiting Daniel over the Xmas break, I was able to see Daniel's progress on the Boer War. He's made some nice progress on figure-painting but, truth be told, although I wouldn't mind gaming the conflict, his attempts to lure me into painting and collecting as well didn't work. The Old Glory figures he's using are nice and his painting, as usual, is great but they don't seem to catch my imagination. Given my disinterest, the general conversation turned to what we could do as a group project that could satisfy us both. Now by group I should mention we meant at the time just the two of us (this has subsequently grown to include Phil but more of that anon).

We want a project wherein we could both collect both sides and get together two or three times a year to combine the collections and game. Given our geographical separation, two or three times a year may even be a little generous. But hopefully, the cooperative nature of the project could at least provide some painting incentive and maybe even some campaign possibilities.

Some criteria that would need to be at least partially satisfied for this project:

1) Small armies (or collections, more accurately): This one is particularly important for me since my painting output is lethargic at best. It would also mitigate the cost issue (although that seems always to have escaped me historically).

2) Singly-based figures: We've both come to like this option. It allows skirmish-style gaming and larger unit games using movement trays.

3) Colour: There needs to be some colour-based aesthetic attraction. While Daniel's Boer War figures are attractive in a Khaki kinda way, they don't really excite my visual senses. So, basically, little or no Khaki.

4) Exotic: It can't be one of the big gaming periods or genres. It doesn't need to be as obscure as the War of Jenkins Ear but does need to be out of the mainstream.

5) Figures: Obviously, there need to be figures available. Even better would be if there is an acceptable Old Glory range since Daniel and I just bought a new membership to take advantage of the 40% discount.

6) Ability to game large or small actions with the same collection: This is addressed partially by basing the figures singly but more to the point we're looking for a genre/period that would lend itself to small skirmish actions or larger unit engagements. Old West is an example for me of skirmish gaming that can't really be translated to larger unit actions (besides, Daniel already has an extensive Old West collection). We envisage figure collections where groups of figures could be used for 1:1 skirmishes with singly-based figures (say 10-12 figure groups as in Sharp Practice) or larger company/battalion-style games using the same 10-12 figure groups. It requires only a change of perspective (and perhaps rules, of course).

7) Research material (somewhat readily) available: I don't really want to turn this into a research project where I'm ordering rare primary resources from dusty archives. But a certain level of research and  learning is always interesting and entertaining. Are there Ospreys available to begin? What other resources are readily available? Campaign overviews, battle reports, uniform and organization information?

8) Variety: Not just in uniforms but also in organizations, battle types, even cultures.



After bandying about a few possibilities, we finally settled on....

The Boxer Rebellion!!

• Small groups of European and Chinese troops in a bewildering variety: Italians, Russians, Germans, Brits, Japanese, Austro-Hungarians, USMC, naval landing parties, river gunboats, Chinese regulars, Boxers with swords and various sharp implements! Naval artillery, machine guns, Cossacks, trains, and Charlton Heston!!

• Old Glory has a nice range that covers most (if not all) of the European powers and the Chinese and Boxers. Uniforms come in a great variety of colours from the white and green of the Russians to the red and blue of the Japanese (not to mention the red, black and yellow of the Boxers!).

• Small skirmish actions (in and about the Legation Quarter in Peking...see 55 Days at Peking with Charlton Heston as incentive!) and larger actions involving the relief forces moving towards Peking.
• Gunboats patrolling the river while landing parties assault river forts with modern artillery.
• Available research material inlcuding uniform info (two Ospreys exist and a fair bit of info on the interwebs too).
• Variety in uniforms, organizations, battle types (skirmish and larger), terrain (urban Peking and open field engagements along the river), and cultures.
• Did I mention the Bengal Lancers?

And to make it even better, it took little effort to recruit Phil into the madness. The first order for figures has winged its way to Old Glory and we've all been persuing the Ospreys.  More to come....

Boer War Terrain

     Continuing on with my recent bout of productivity, I thought I would display my recent terrain creations for my burgeoning Boer War project. I needed a surface to recreate the South African veldt over which my figures could be used. I've opted for a ground mat rather than terrain squares (as with my WW1 project). This was done primarily so I could place hills underneath the mat to create undulating terrain, but also in order to streamline storage and transport.

      I began with a simple wool army blanket, much like the ones used by firemen or first responders to warm victims. On top of this I put a thick layer of sand coloured latex based primer. While this was still wet I sprinkled fine construction sand. The results at this stage can be seen below:

Wool blanket w/ latex primer and construction sand. 

I used the construction sand in order to help give the surface a bit of texture and grit, while I chose latex based primer as it would prove to be more flexible once dry. Next, I put a very thick coat of the same sand coloured latex primer on top of the first coat (and construction sand). Once this was dry, I found that I had a very durable yet flexible surface to work with. The results of this stage can be seen below:

After the second coat of primer.

 After doing extensive research (read: google), I found that for the South African veldt I should be using a palet of greens, browns, and tans. I purchased some cheap dollar store craft paints for this purpose. Upon watering down these craft paints approximately 3:1, I used a large brush and painted them each on in large swatches. The results of this can be seen below:

Coloured swatches applied.

 I still was not yet happy with the results at this point. The colours seemed to distinct; there was not enough of a blend between them. I opted for some highlighting to solve the problem. I applied a heavy drybrush of very light brown (read: white with a hint of brown). On top of this I applied a light highlight of pure white, finishing the job. With a light sprinkling of ground foam ("smegma") I had lying around I had a complete ground mat.

Rolled up for easy storage

I left the sides unpainted so they could fold in upon rolling in order to contain all the "smegma"

I still have yet to perfect my system of hills. At the moment I am just using simple blobbish shapes cut from 1" pink insulation foam. 

With hills underneath.

 I am still working on more terrain required for this project, but I was able to scrounge enough to make a decent looking scene. I found a forgotten bag of spanish moss and put it to good use as scraggly patches of bush. The river is leftover from my previous Old West collection. Below are just some pics showing off the collection so far on the new mat.

Next time I will be constructing rocky outcroppings to turn these rolling hills into more abrupt South African "kopjes".