Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge #11 - Level 2 - Chamber 1 - Adventure's Landing

 Here's another entry of mine for the AHPC #11. 

The dark steaming jungle lies directly to port, the sunlight dances off the clear, shimmering, and bright aqua surf. The young LT wonders if this beach landing be contested or will it be a cake walk as his commander boasted? As the oarsmen struggle against the heat and humidity the French Naval Landing artillerists are cursing their wool uniforms. They soon, like the Legionnaires already inland, will discard the unwanted and inappropriate items and exchange them for locally made lighter fabrics. The excessive humidity deteriorates the European theatre gear rather quickly.

For this beach landing challenge I have chosen a French Naval Landing gun crew from Askari Minis. They are in the 1890's -1910's Naval Uniforms and are kitted out for a landing party in support of French Marines, Sailors, and Legionnaires fighting the infamous Black Flag Pirates of Tonkin. (I have Black Flag gunners on the painting table now!)

The small artillery piece is a French Mountain Gun, also from Askari Minis. However, this model is about 20 years old, Al has since made an even better retooled version of this gun that I will surely have to get. Askari Minis new retooled gun link.

I've painted this crew for my buddy Dan from the Last Stand Boatyard to be used for my favorite rules set The Sword And The Flame, though he's also a fan of the rules set, The Men Who Would Be Kings.

Chamber 20 pts, (4) 28mm figs x 5 pts = 20, (1) 28mm gun x 10 pts (it's a small gun, possibly only worth 5 pts?) - Total for this chamber: 50 Pts

What fine-looking Tars. As for the scoring, a crew-served-weapon is a crew-served-weapon ang gets 10 points if it's 28mm!

Tamsin

The Last Pack Train Out of Ahoogastan, NWF, 12 September 1879

 

The Last Pack Train Out of Ahoogastan, NWF, 12 September 1879 (Scenario borrowed from Jay Stribling)

Colonel Glenfiddich halts the column, as the dust settles he peers through his binoculars at the road ahead, he thinks what a perfect place for an ambush. Through the whiny of mules and the snorts of angry camels he issues the order to send out scouts to recon the treacherous path ahead…

The British (mainly Indian army units) are moving a supply train, out of Ahoogastan, headed for the Bulgur Pass, thence to Jellybad. These vital supplies must get through to the fort protecting the Bulgur Pass.

 The Pathans of Ahoogastan regard the British Mules as the finest of animals and feel that Allah created them just for use in the rugged terrain of Ahoogastan. They aim to steal every mule. The main object of this game is to have possession of the mules at the game's end.

 

My interpretation of the scenario, the Game table at our clubhouse in Fort Lauderdale Florida, Das Krieg Haus hosted by the South Florida Miniatures Gamers, SMG (2/27/21).

This is a scenario I’ve wanted to run for a very long time, I’d just not had enough pack mules or Pathans. Borrowing troops and buildings from my late friend’s collection, Bill Pritchard, I was armed and ready to run. My friend Jay Stribling form the long time Jackson Gamers wargames club ran this scenario for us in South Florida at one of our HMGS-South cons back in 2005. The game was a big hit and tremendous fun! However, things in Florida did not go anywhere near as Jay had planned for nor the way this game had went for him back in Jackson Mississippi.

Here’s the link from Jay's original scenario and AAR

Here's the link for the AAR from the HMGS-South con gam

The main premise of this game is to have more pack mules at the end than everyone else. The Pathans are every tribe for themselves while the Anglo-Indian force works together. The Pathans may not fire on each other outright but may melee with each other to capture the mules.

Scenario Specs:

Here are the scenario briefings for each side. I've altered them very slightly from Jay's original scenario profiles and put them in the same format as the 20th Anniversary The Sword And The Flame scenario book. I put all my TSATF scenarios into this format. I've also altered the map to suit my terrain and vision of the game. This scenario can play out very differently based on the personality's of the players involved.

                                                 Anglo-Indian Briefing

                                                  Pathan Briefing

As the GM I picked (6) hidden locations on the map as the starting locations for each Pathan command. I allowed hidden Pathan movement and hidden set up. The Anglo-Indian troops enter on one side of the valley and must get the pack train to the fort around the bend to win. The Pathans must capture the mules in the pack train for their victory conditions. The Anglo-Indian force must work together, however each Pathan tribe is on their own, are out for themselves, and must capture more mules than  their brethren to win, to the victor, the spoils.

陷阱与钟摆（The Pit and the Pendulum）Xian Jing yu Zhong Bai - Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge #11

My take on the next chamber, "The Pit and the Pendulum" is a Chinese version  of the tale. I thought about the theme and not having any medieval or fantasy figures in my collection this would suite the bill. My good friend Mad Guru from Maiwand Day blog fame asked his wife to translate for me. This is her translation, thank you Xinhua. 

          陷阱与钟摆（The Pit and the Pendulum）Xian Jing yu Zhong Bai 

A WIP shot with reference in the background

The merciless execution (Woo Ching Choo Jue) vignette comes from the Wargames Foundry China Range. It is originally made for the Tai Ping Rebellion, however I think it can be used all the way through the Boxer Rebellion. I intend to use it for the Tai Ping Rebellion, Tonkin in the 1880's, and the Boxer Rebellion 1900. Pictured here is one of my motivational reference pieces.

The standard is an image I researched and captured from the net, copied, flipped, sized, printed, cut, and glued to a .032 Piano Wire rod from any craft or hobby store. The finial is a bead from Hobby Lobby where I purchased the piano wire.

The figures are based on washers to sit in their magnetized boxes. I used wood glue, ballast, sand, and old coffee grinds for the basing materials and painted with craft store paints. Burnt Umber, then Honeycomb, then highlighted with Bamboo.

                                            Here's some close ups.

Painting challenge points scoring for this entry: (4) 25/28mm figures x 5 Pts each + 20 points for the chamber = 40 Pts + standard pts - ?

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge #11

 Yup, I’ve finally lost my mind.... I’ve joined a famous painting challenge, the guy with no free time who paints glacially slow, volunteer coaches multiple divisions of youth ice hockey, youth soccer, and youth flag football. What was I thinking?!?!

The Challenge is in its 11th season, check out this link for data, challenge history, and some of the awesome entries. These are some very talented and imaginative painters and hobbyists! 

The participants gain points for each completed figure and terrain piece. The larger the figure or terrain piece the more points are awarded. Here is the map of the challenge. Each chamber has a theme, if the entry is within the stated theme 20 additional points will be added to the score for that chamber. Four chambers must be completed before descending to the next level. 

My initial entry are some 15mm WWII figures. Here’s the link to my entry on the Challenge website. 

http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2020/12/sgt-guinness-ingenieure-vorwarts-hall.html?m=1#comment-form

Thursday, 31 December 2020

From: Jeff B - Sgt Guinness - Ingenieure vorwärts! 

1st Chamber "Hall of Traps"

Engineers Forward! - Ingenieure Vorwarts!

This is the first Challenge I've entered even though I've been following it for quite 

some time. So here is my very first submission ever! I’m certainly not worthy compared

to the extremely talented and very imaginative painters before me. However, I felt I’d

give it a go as I  needed inspiration and motivation to get some projects moving.

For this first chamber "Hall of Traps" I went with the lying in wait / stalking angle 

of the “Trap”.

A German pazerschreke team and 81mm mortar with FO lay in wait while supporting 

German Engineers take up positions to ambush unsuspecting allied armor and infantry slogging their way through the dense Normandy bocage country, June 1944.

Figures are 15mm Peter Pig and the FO team is Old Glory, all purchased about 20 plus years ago. They’ve sat in the same box I put them in once I primed them, doomed never to see the light of day, until now. The 15mm club project had fallen apart and they languished...

The mortar crew, FO, and panzerschreck team have the white infantry piping on their epaulettes while the engineers have the orange piping associated with that branch.

The paints are mostly Polly Scale with a few Vallejo and craft store paints. The figs are based on washers and the basing is wood glue, sand, and ballast painted over with craft store paints and flocked with 25 year old static grass. I’m not happy with how shinny and bright green the grass came out and will need to to something else with the remaining figs to be painted.

2nd Battalion 60th Rifles (Kings Royal Rifle Corps) Battle of Kandahar / Baba Wali - 1 September 1880

I have been working on my NWF collection for decades. I started my collection in 15mm and later changed to 28mm in the early to mid 90's. With multiple other gaming interests, two young sons, dedicated family time, playing and coaching ice hockey, I can rarely stay in one genre for long, hence the long term unfinished project. With my good friend the Mad Guru working on another epic NWF game, the Battle of Kandahar / Battle of Baba Wali 1880, I was motivated to paint up some units for use in his game. You can see pics and read about the preparations and progress on his awesome blog.  http://maiwandday.blogspot.com. He has been working on this game for about a year. I have been planning to fly across the county to join the game as one of the players and have committed to paint up and supply a couple of units. This post is about one of those units. Anyone even remotely interested in colonial gaming or the 2nd Afghan War in particular needs to check out both of Mad Guru's sites as they are a treasure trove of information, a visual treat, a source of inspiration, and one of the best blogs and websites on the web. www.maiwandday.com

For this project I decided to start with a unit of 28mm British colonial infantry, one of the plastic Perry Miniatures kits that I had gotten from a friend. These were already built and painted but needed touch ups, re-basing, and changes to make them the 2nd Battalion 60th Rifles - Kings Royal Rifle Corps 1880.

Here is the painting reference from the back of the Perry Miniatures figures box.

I painted all the waist belts, haversacks, 1871 Valise Equipment, bayonet scabbards, and rifle slings black. I painted the cap dark green as well as the puttees on one of the officers and the pants of another officer. The remainder of the work was touch ups, corrections, and basing.

Here's a bit of historical data for the 60th KRRC 2nd Battalion for this battle:

The Third Infantry Brigade
Commanded by General Charles Metcalfe MacGregor

2nd Battalion 60th Rifles (King's Royal Rifle Corps)
Commanded by Lt. Colonel Joseph James Collins. The 60th Rifles joined the South Afghanistan Field Force, Reserve Division, at Multan in October 1878. November saw some companies of the regiment on escort duty to General Stewart and various Royal Artillery divisions, before they arrivied via the Bolan Pass at Quetta towards the end of December. On 8th January 1879 the 60th Rifles marched through Kandahar, which had surrendered on the previous day. They had an expedition to Kelat-i-Ghilzai before returning and camping at the old 1839 British barracks at Kandahar (where Collins joined and took command of his regiment), until the end of March 1880 when they marched with Stewart to Ghazni, taking part in the action at Ahmed Khel. After some time in the Logar valley, the regiment eventually moved to Kabul at the end of July. After the march to Kandahar in August the Rifles were engaged with the enemy during the reconnaisance of Baba-Wali, and during the following day in the Battle of Kandahar that defeated Ayub Khan. They reached Quetta again on 19th September, and then onto Sibi, where Lt. Colonel Collins died of dysentery. With Macgregor they went out against the Marri tribes and then finally returned to Mirat on 24th November 1880.

       2nd Battalion 60th Rifles Kings Royal Rifle Corps advance on the village Paimal, Battle of Kandahar 1880

Here's some of the research I used: 

The following are WIP, work in progress pics trying to get these figs as close as possible to the references I'd found and was provided by other gamers, most notably friends Ethan "Mad Guru" Reiff and Nick "I can draw anything" Stern.

Before...

                       After the 1879 valise equipment and gear was all painted black