Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Over Two Years in the Making

Bit of trivia for the day. It seems the bugler who sounded the Charge for the Light Brigade at Balaklava was named William Brittain. Not the same spelling as the famous maker of Toy Soldiers but close enough to elicit a "Hunh! How about that.".
Oerberg Republican Constabulary galloping towards their assigned bases.

Just got to cut one more base and mount these lads up. I did some digging back through old posts and it seems they've been in the "to be done" pile since at least March of 2015. Practically new then!

I had a mental image of how they should look but couldn't quite remember what sparked it. The Blue and khaki smacked of Teddy Roosvelt and his Rough Riders so I looked them up and close but not quite right. Eventually I remembered a B&W lithograph in my old faithful, pages falling out old,  Boer War book. Sure  enough there they were, illustrations of the British South Africa Mounted Police, in action during the Matabele War  and Jameson's Raid. I must have imagined the colours at the time based on the B&W shading where the shirts were darker. As far as I can tell it is roughly right though in younger years I might have made an attempt to roll the sleeves up and open the neck.

Anyway eight had been bought to provide Mounted Police and ordinary Commandos for Oerberg so they've ended up in the right place.

Dismounted O.R.C's to follow along with non-uniformed Oerbergers ere too long.

15 comments:

  1. Lovely and shiny, they look great Ross.

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  2. Nicely proportioned in a world of chunky figures, then again, I am a chunky wargamer in a world of chunky wargamers :-)

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  3. Great looking figures!

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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    1. It is good when something turns out the way you pictured it.

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  4. Not bad Ross, only in the painting cue for two years....a new record, don't over work yourself now lol.....Like I should talk I count my lead pile by the decade lol

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    1. I think 42 years is the longest any figure has waited for me.

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  5. Those certainly do look very Boer War-ish - very nice!

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  6. Great paint job! Did you painted them with enamels?

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  7. These will fit right in! They honestly look very nice. Is the chap to the right in the picture wielding a sword? If so, would he be the commander for the unit?

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