Perry Sudan British Infantry

I've just finished basing some of my 28mm Perry Miniatures British Infantry for the Sudan and I thought I would post a couple of pictures:

Rif Raf / Empress Comparison

As I was thinking of doing the Rif War as a new project I ordered a pack of figures from Rif Raf Miniatures to see how they scaled against my existing Empress (formerly Anglian) figures.  The Rif Raf figures are from their RIF6: Rif firing/loading muskets pack whilst the Empress ones are from their LEG2: Foreign Legion rifles firing loading and MOR2: Morrocan Regulares rifles firing loading (sic) packs:

As you can see the figures are noticeably smaller than the Anglian ones and are certainly giving me pause regarding using them together.

Sturmtruppen

To follow up on the last post I have almost finished my 28mm Brigade Games late war Germans (only the maxim teams to go). So I thought I would post a few pics.

Here they are:

You may have noticed that the officer in the centre of the last photo and the chaps with the Bergmann MP18s are actually from Copplestone's Back of Beyond range.

I have also posted some larger photos to my Picasa album:

Late WW1 Germans

Les Poilus

Here are a few pics of my 28mm late WW1 French. The figures are most Brigade Games with a few from Scarab Miniatures thrown in.

Here are most of them (but with the VB grenade launchers and grenadiers missing):

a close up:

some comparisons of Brigade and Scarab figures. Here are the NCOs (Scarab, Brigade, Scarab):

and now some infantry, alternating from left to right, Brigade then Scarab:

I have posted some larger photos in a Picasa album:

Late WW1 French

Distracted Again!

Whenever I have a small amount of spare time, not enough to really get into any of my main books, I often dip into one or two of my reference books. This is a mistake! All I manage to do is generate new ideas for projects. Here are the latest ones (fortunately all Stage 0 at the moment!):

28mm Great Druze Revolt

The revolution in Syria against the French is another obvious opportunity to use my desert terrain and also expand my range of French Foreign Legion periods.

I need to do some more research on this one but it would seem the upcoming Woodbine Design figures or the Artizan Foreign Legion may well be suitable. The Artizan Arab irregular figures should also be appropriate.

I would probably just start this off as a skirmish sized project with an initial "investment" of 20-30 figures a side but, if it shows promise, I might move up from there.

28mm Rif War

In actual fact I have been considering this one for some time, initially as a possible additional use for the Spanish Foreign Legion and Moroccan Regulares figures from my Spanish Civil War project.

The key issue is finding suitable Riffians. Rif Raf are the obvious choice but I have yet to see any pictures of their figures against anyone else's. My main concern is that, whilst a good sculptor, Richard Ansell tends toward the smaller end of 28mm. The other main alternative is Askari but with the worsening exchange rate this may be an expensive option!

I am also wondering about this as being another possible use for French Foreign Legion figures too.

28mm Sudan

Not strictly a new project but rather an expansion of an existing one (but under my rules it counts as a new project or else I would never be able to count any projects as finished!). My initial foray into this period (in 28mm anyway) is turning out pretty well and the Perry figures are excellent. So I am thinking about adding to them. Of course the key question is which direction to go...

Anyone else noticing a distinct theme here?

Quick Project Update

I've been working on progressing a few of my projects over the last couple of weeks although I have been getting a little distracted by possible new ones!

28mm Sudan

The Perry figures have turned out very nicely and I am in the process of basing them up on some pre-cut MDF bases from East Riding Miniatures (excellent service from them BTW). I have British infantry, some Egyptians, a Gardiner gun (with Naval crew) and a screw gun. The Mahdists are mostly Beja with a small unit of Nile Arabs. Now I have them all on the workbench it is clear I will have to expand the Mahdists in order for them to be properly intimidating!

I do, however, have enough for a game in a few weeks. Which will also allow me to get my Colonial Steamboat buildings and Nile steamer out.

28mm A Very British Civil War

I have just finished basing up my new Musketeer militia and I plan to take a few photos once I have a standard worked out for the workers. I have a new scenario planned and just need to write it up and paint one more vehicle for that to be ready. I also managed to get a couple more IRA with shotguns done at the same time.

28mm Spanish Civil War

I now have my additional Anglian (now Empress) Republican militia riflemen based up along with the Republican and Nationalist regular army figures. I just need to finish off the two HMGs and I'll pretty much have the SCW project in its final state (or as final as any of them get). Of course there's still the CTV...

28mm Early WW1

I have the additional 8 Renegade Germans in improvised gas masks and the final Maxim finished so that's pretty much the early period completed. I suspect I may want a few more French or Brits for particular scenarios but that would be exceptional.

28mm Late WW1

My Brigade Games and Scarab French figures are currently on the workbench nearly finished along with the Brigade Germans. I picked up the Scarab figures as Brigade didn't do VB grenade launchers but almost as soon as I had bought them Brigade brought their own ones out! In any case whilst I do prefer the Brigade sculpts, the Scarab figures mix in pretty well. Once they're finished I'll post a few photos to demonstrate. Just the trenches to sort out now...

28mm Early WW2

I have now got my Crusader French based up with the exception of the Hotchkiss and crew and the Foundry and Crusader Germans are on the workbench. I plan to convert a scenario from The Face of Battle scenario book Act with Daring, The Invasion of France: 1940 to our regular WW2 ruleset Nuts!

28mm Dahomey

The French Foreign Legion and native figures for this arrived from Dixon and so this has been promoted to a new Stage although it will be a few months before they are likely to hit the table.

28mm Sahara

I collected the additional figures I needed from Redoubt at the Cavalier show and these, combined with my Colonial Steamboat fort and buildings should give me the flexibility I need for quite a variety of scenarios.

Possible New Projects

The latest new figures from Brigade Games are making me think I might branch out in to Napoleon in Egypt. The preview pictures they have posted make the figures look superb and that's usually all the encouragement I need!

I have also been looking at the Artizan WW2 French range and considering branching out into the Mediterranean theatre of WW2 but coming it at it from the French perspective. It would allow me to use the figures for both North Africa (and those Colonial Steamboat buildings yet again - I'm hoping to get a good return from that "investment") but also Sicily, Corsica and Italy which may allow me to get away with some of my Peninsular buildings too.

Of course now I just need to work out how I'm going to store them all!