New Project: Acquisitions in the Post

Some new miniatures, for my In Her Majesty's Name game:

Brigade River Pirates, with RAFM Colonial Martians flanking

Rough Sailors from Brigade Games Victoriana line - these will provide my nefarious company some pistol-fodder.

These are well sculpted, with good animation and proportions, and fit in well with older 28mm miniatures, as shown in the photo.

B'Hoys Metro Police, with RAFM Colonial Martians flanking

Mid 16th-century Police from The Virtual Armchair General B'Hoys line - will represent the rank and file of La Sûreté.

These are fairly well sculpted, with good animation and moderate proportions: the greatcoat seems to throw the miniatures dimensions off slightly.  These also fit in well with older 28mm miniatures, as shown in the photo.

Overall, I rate the miniature thusly:

Brigade River Pirates
Animation: 5
Detail: 5
Proportions: 5
Variety: 5
Overall: 5 out of 5

B'Hoys Metroplotan Police
Animation: 4
Detail: 4
Proportions: 4
Variety: 4
Overall: 4 out of 5

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Æronef vs. Ærial Gunboat

Discussion on The Miniatures Page encouraged me to descend into the crypt and dig out my old 25mm aerial gunboats.  These had been used for a single game of Sky Galleons of Mars back in the mid-to-late 90s.

Above is a comparison of the Ironclad Aeronef vs the smallest British "Aphid" - although I think I was building the "Penelope" as I note the plethora of Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon and a rather prominent ram.

These are made of card stock and foam core on blue DIY/Dow insulation board formers, with thin wood decking. Ship plans are available in GDWs "Cloudships and Gunboats", now available from Heliograph Publishing Inc.

I am a little embarrassed at the poor quality and lack of important detail on these scratchbuilt models - my only defense is, in may callow youth, I was rushing to finish and we only played once, because we had issues keeping the stands upright. 

Later on, a friend of mine welded the pipes to steel railway washers, which gave them more stability.  Adding a few more washers, usually of a larger size, also increased stability - though these stands shown are not yet safe for any kind of carpet. A larger 4" OD washer is needed.

Being older and wiser, nowadays I would use a flange and pipe arrangement, or else cut these from clear Lucite. I will probably exchange the black rods for clear Lucite ones.

"Look Sarge, he didn't even paint the stacks..."
"...typical..."

The current project will be to refinish this and bring it up to spec, along with several others that are currently languishing in mothballs.

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28mm Aerial Steam Launch from Ironclad Miniatures

Pictured is a 28mm aerial steam launch from Ironclad Miniatures - picked up by yr humble correspondent back in 2008 (have I mentioned lately that I work slowly?). This model holds a special nostalgia for me, as back when we played the Space:1889 RPG, our British Army player-characters operated from one of these, along with our new allies, the Royal Navy.

The reader may be amused when I write that I primed this model about a year ago, and that it has gone away with me on vacation with every intent to paint it at least twice, but I could not decide upon the colour scheme.

The problem I had was that the Royal Navy (of which Britain's fledgling Aerial Service is part) have peacetime and wartime livery for Her Majesty's Ships. Peacetime vessels are painted with black hulls and buff upper works, while wartime paint is a mid-to-light grey.

Ironclad Aerial Launch - pictured are two RAFM Historicals for scale.

In the end, I went with a very dark grey hull with light grey upperworks, adhering as it were to the wartime colours in the peacetime scheme. I don't know why, but it works for me. I also found some vertical pipe-stands used in some of our old 25mm Sky Galleons of Mars games from the 1990's, one of which made for a handy flying stand.

This is a resin-cast model that is a joy to assemble. There were almost no bubbles in the resin, and they were confined to the underside of the deck. Nicely detailed with just the right amount of rivets. It does weight a respectable amount, and I'm probably going to add a larger base to the pipe-stand supporting it.

Armament consists of a single 25mm Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon miniature by Richard Houston - now available again from The Virtual Armchair General. This is labelled as "37mm" which translates to the 1-lbr HRC in Soldier's Companion.  The weapon is swappable with other miniatures, such as a Nordenfelt or Gardner gun or even a rocket tube, which would make for quite a nasty surpise for a wooden, Martian ship.

Let that be a lesson to the three-toed, yellow pongos...

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Painted: French Marine Artillerists from Askari Miniatures

My 28mm French Marine Artillerists (aka les Bigors) from Askari Miniatures have been waiting patiently for several weeks, as they were finished earlier this month - it's just taken me some time to take the photies.

Askari miniatures do paint up nicely.  I decided to opt for the 1889 uniform colours for the first batch of figures, I will follow up with either white tropical dress or, more likely, khaki for the next set. I have used Armory (and now Citadel) white prime since forever as it gives the miniature a happy glow.

"Tirer sur la vache..."

 Since the readers seem to like these battery-in-action tableaux, I'm including two for your delectation. The gun is from the Old Glory Spanish American line.

Nous sommes ouverts pour le commerce. Nur kasse.

The business-end of a piece de 90mm emplacement. Cash only.

Next to pick up some of Askari Al's Schutzetruppen, and the inter-colonial fun begins.

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28mm Martian Blockhouses

 Here's a nice eBay rescue:

These foam core buildings were picked up from eBay. They arrived painted dark grey with a kind of $40K look about them.  I repainted them and gave them a nice flocking.  Now I have some actual Martian-style buildings to use, instead of recycled Northwest Frontier adobe huts.

For Mars, I tend to prefer green flock to red flock, since in the Space:1889 environment, most combat is going to take place in the canal zones, where the vegetation is. To paraphrase the film Laurence of Arabia: "There is nothing in the desert, and no man needs nothing."

 Figures by RAFM, artillery by Parhoom and Old Glory

Also included are some scratch-built artillery risers - made of polystyrene/styrofoam with cocktail sticks and coffee stirrers as planking.  These are useful if your terrain has non-standard walls.


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Reviresco 2.95 Inch Mountain Gun and Crew - Painted

These were finished about a week ago - it took me some time to settle down and post piccies.

Reviresco minis seem to paint up remarkably well for figures that are two decades old or more. These are painted in duty smocks and tropical kit.  I must needs go back and paint in the eyes on the crew - also, a standing figure in tropical kit went missing during the painting process, which turned up a day or two ago.

Must flock those bases on the pack train. And order another two sets.

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French Marine Artillerists from Askari Miniatures

Shiney New for 2014, these were a pleasant surprise when I visited the Askari Miniatures website on New Year's Day.  Ali Askari and I had discussed the need for 1890's French Marine gunners to bring the campaigns of Tonkin, Indo-China and Madagascar to the tabletop - not to mention wargaming on Mars post 1889. These figures fill an important gap, as I could not find any other manufacturers who make them.

Packs come with four figures, one with arm raised, one firing, one standing holding a bore-sponge, one sighting with field glasses.  The figure with the sponge might be puzzling, where a figure holding a shell might have been  plus approprié - though would still be necessary to sponge the barrel for the older French guns in use in les colonies.

Animation is nice - a different pose for each. Detail is good. Proportions are also good - the figures seem a little larger than the previously released French Marine Infantry (comparison pics forthcoming).  I hope that Askari Minis isn't giving in to scale-creep - there are plenty of larger scaled colonial period miniatures available. 

Shown below with an Old Glory French Marine on the left and a RAFM British Martian "Sepoy" on the right.

From left to right: 1 Old Glory, 4 Askari, 1 RAFM

 

Askari Miniatures French Marine Artillerists
Animation: 4
Detail: 4
Proportions: 4
Variety: 4
Overall: 4 out of 5

Apparently, I cannot leave the miniatures of mixed manufacturers alone on the photo table, as when I had returned, the poor Old Glory Marsouin, outnumbered (but not out-gunned), was having the wind put up him by Les Bigors - allegedly for his hyper-active pose.

O Marsouin, ne vous regardez où vous sont en marche?

Ah, the joys of a friendly, inter-service rivalry...

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