Oh eBay, thou temptress

 

Oh, the shame

I regret nothing. Nothing!

Some cutting in, a few details, maybe some back-lining, and they'll slot right in with the Littler Britons.

Yes, yes, I fell down a rabbit hole.

 One dug by Lord of the Rings.

That'll teach me to watch a few episodes of Amazon's "Rings of Power".

I pulled out my pile of LotR shame, and oo-er, it's a big one.

I was thinking, Uruk Hai, Minas Tirith, Warg riders...

So this happened over the weekend.

They need finishing, but that is how I am heading. I think I have 8 or 9 painted and another 6 or 7 in various states. Enough to give Rohan some trouble.

The GW Uruks always suffered from bendy or plain old broken pikes, but I have salvaged a dozen which are now now on the paint bench.

Wouldn't a pike block of 60 of these fellows look good? 3 ranks, 20 files. And because pikes are Landsknechty, I had to do this:

Nothing like a Berserker with a two-handed sword for ruining your day.

And then there was Minas Turith. I have a few goodies and some scattered infantry, but, I want to go fairly big on this army, so went for this for the core of the army.

I'd add Citadel Guard and Guardians of the Fountain Court and probably more knights as well. However, I think this is a good start!

The High Command

So to speak.

Some years ago I inherited a random and diverse collection of French for Egypt. Some were Willies for the later battles of the campaign, ditto some Old Glory. I believe they were surplus from the Collection of Charles Grant which he's probably had in the 1990s while he was writing his books on the campaign and his series of articles for Practical Wargamer.

Some bits of this collection were useful and joined my current army which is my round about way of saying I painted something.

I forget which regiment this is...

Will he be the beginning of another regiment or will he hang about the Corsican Tyrant?

One just needs a large enough piece of plastic to mount them on.

I do like the uniform and will likely do a unit. I am keeping my French cavalry units fairly small as they did not get to Egypt in any great strength. The 7eme bis Hussars are 8 troopers and an officer for example, and that's the standard I'll build the two mooted units of Dragoons I have in mind as well.

Well, that's enough 'castles in the air' for one day.

Keep on smiling. 

The Ongoing History

 

In one rank

In two

I've sent the past dew mornings on basing the Mamluks and this is where I am, currently. I'm quite happy with how they look. I want to add some more 'rabble' infantry and push the cavalry part to twelve figures at least.

Things ought to look pretty spectacular when there are 24 or more on the table.

Just Passing Through

 Enthused after playing with my French infantry, I have gotten on with starting to base my Mamluk cav
alry.

I think I have posted here about the concept for the basing, so I won't go over it again.

Cha-a-a-a-arge!

The idea is to build up one large unit of Mamluks in the style you see in the picture; quite diorama-like with the smattering of infantry figures thrown in. The effect I am seeking is one of movement which I hope to emphasise with flags and banners. They will be the mainstay of the army. 

I will also build up smaller units of armoured cavalry and I hope, some camelry to really sell the diverse nature of the army. I want to create a large unit of 'rabble' infantry that I can break down into smaller units as scenarios demand as well as small units of musketeers that might be the private retinues of slavers and similar types.

Lastly, I would like to put together a unit of Janissaries because, well, this is officially the Ottoman Empire after all.

Numbers are still a work in progress, but 12 to 16 figure sub units suggest themselves.

Catching Up

 Sometimes I realise that a lot of what I am working on does not always make it to the blog, so to make up for that, let me post a few pictures of a long-term project.

Now, I simply need a horde of mamluks.

A Savant with an exciting piece of natural history to describe.

General Bonaparte passes the time with General Kleber.

A few of the 7ème bis de hussards. There are some more that need to be based.

The Long War of the Quar

 It seems the Quar have always been at war. When the first wandering clans of insect gatherers built their low, mud-walled buildings, it was as much to keep out other Quar as the wild animals. As they first learned to make tools to get food, they quickly learned to make tools to defend themselves. The mud walls quickly became fortified citadels, and then city-states. In five thousand years of civilization, the only constants of their culture have been the changing of the seasons and the threat of war.

So says the fluff. And there os a lot of fluff concerning the Quar and their world of Alwyd. The sustained and deep world-building behind the se figures and the associated game are strong draws. And then there are the miniatures...

Heavy shotgun team

A humble Rhyfler

There have been a few iterations of the Quar in miniatures, the 28mm, 15mm and 6mm metals that go back about a decade and just last year Wargames Atlantic brought out a plastic range to support their version of the game.

I love the slouched, somewhat down-trodden look of the quar. It reminds me a little of the underground comics from the 1960s. That's driven my desire to paint them in something of a Vietnam War style.