Waiting for their ship of the desert to come in.

When I started on these, I was picturing this snazzy unit in  embroidered sleeveless vests and so on. Then it occurred to me that an almost never mentioned camel gun unit, which may have only appeared at one battle, might not have been an elite unit. Revisiting what few sources I have, it seemed like the regular infantry and artillery of the New Army all seemed to have worn very plain uniforms with sleeved jackets, no lace etc. Sighhhh .....  I mean I could have done them like some Emir's personal guard camel battery, but........

Anyway, here they are drilling with a very placid mountain gun while they wait for their camels.

I hope for their sake that the camels will be as placid as this carriage.

The crew were  converted from Schildkrot 1900 Prussian artillery crew, pretty much every one of my 40mm armies from 1799 to 1918 contains some of these gunners with new uniforms. 

Here is this lot in their underwear.

Up next, more infantry, maybe Turks, maybe French but I think I need to roll some dice.

Council of War

One more quick and easy figure ticked as done:

Rossi Pasha meets the commander of his Central European infantry.

Next up......... more infantry I think, but French or Turkish? or gunners either Turkish camel gunners or French Horse Artillery or......

For My Next Act

 This guy has nothing up his sleeve!

PA, new SYW general waving hat with sword arm replacing the hat arm, and a head from one of the Austrian light infantry moulds. The story of how an Austrian general came to command Mamlukes and camel guns might have been an interesting tale.

One More Done

Not my best work but they'll do. Maybe this weekend I'll find out the key thing: how lucky are they?

40mm 1790's French 20th Dragoons.
Prince August SYW dragoon bodies with Zinnbrigade British Dragoon heads.

Somedays I miss being able to see clearly both near and far and miss having a relatively steady hand that didn't twitch or jump at awkward moments, but overall I'm just grateful I can still paint at all.

There Once Was A Troop of Republican Dragoons

 and there will be again ere long.

Prince August SYW Dragoons with Zinnbrigade Waterloo British Dragoon heads.

In addition, I finally broke down, gave in to temptation, and ordered a pair of Irregular kneeling camels to give the Mamluke column some firepower once I've added swivel guns and crews. Each stand can replace a stand of Mamlukes....(-sneaky eh?)  and give the player commanding the Mamlukes some firepower.

OK This guy is a Persian but I found a reference to some Turkish/Mamluke cavalry being supported by camel guns during Bonaparte's Syrian campaign. Close enough for me.

Oh, and I'll have to add light artillery to the weapons chart.

The Sloppy Dozen

That's the first 4 stands of Mamlukes converted and painted. Just 4 more stands and a Commander to finish the Turkish cavalry.

They were one French Hussar and two cowboys, but they're all Mamlukes now!

I'm at that stage now when I start wondering "What was I thinking?!". The conversions weren't too bad, but painting the Mamlukes as individuals sure slows things down and neither eyes nor hands are what they were. On top of that, I've only started to learn how to get the best out of the new paints, so these are a bit wonky or splotchy in spots to say the least.

I think I'll do a Turkish commander next, then the French Dragoons, followed by some Turkish infantry and an enlarged village. Once I get that done, I'd best play a solo test game.

It Was Work, Honest

First non-solo game of the year. 

Old Longtime friends Les and Paul and I, got together  to try out the latest version of Hearts of Tin (aka A Whiff of Grape) which I'm planning to use at Huzzah!. 

The scenario was improvised, a small force holding the high ground against a larger force, with reinforcements arriving to help the defence. 

Rather than haul my stuff in town, we used Les' 10mm Pendraken 18thC figures, but this time, instead of treating each stand of 10mm figures as a stand and measuring in cm, we treated each 3 stand battalion as a "stand", and measured in inches. 

It worked great! We got a fair number of Les' units out and managed to set up, play till we agreed to call it, and then pack away, in about 4 hours. That was very encouraging as was the feel of the game.

Now, back to adding more 40mm Mamlukes!

Recalled To Life

A Tale of Two Campaigns.

 (With apologies to Dickens)

Well, it was a quick and easy conversion, with a quick and sloppy paint touch up, the job should have been finished more than a week ago but life, and a couple of games, interfered again and again. Still, they're done now.  

The Orleans Regiment at the time of The War of the Austrian Succession has become the French Republic's 13th Regiment for the War of the First Coalition, with full 'toy soldier' level of accuracy........  

Now, back to Dragoons and Mamlukes. 

A Charge Is As Good As A Rest

I hadn't realized how much I missed my multi figure based armies until I played that last 1790's game. What devil had wanted me to go back to single figures, something I'd almost never done until I wrote MacDuff for 25mm Colonial games in the 90's and finally played Charge! which I'd had since '73? The new rules using individual soldiers worked ok, but took twice the time and work to play, and added nothing really apart from a a few 'war stories' and photo ops. It had no more drama, history, or opportunities for generalship, than my old Hearts of Tin had provided, and took a lot of extra time and effort.

I decided it was time to  give myself a break from the 1790's. Atlantica always seems like a good place to go to escape from reality. Here's a quick look at what followed:

The Free Corps fighting to keep the Kapelle Territory free and independent for a little longer.

I decided that the scenario would consist of a column of Faraway Trading Company troops, backed by some battalions of the Queen's regulars, paying a visit to a native Kapelle village to collect taxes and punish resistance. The village elders had sent out messengers seeking help and Brigadier Zinn's Oberhilse Free Corps, in the pay of neighbouring Kyuquoit, answered the call.   

Mid-game, the Free Corps has managed to march on and deploy in the nick of time. Prolonged and bloody close quarter fighting ensued.

The struggle for the village was prolonged with the middle houses changing hands three times, and casualties were high on both sides.

Both sides had taken heavy losses as the sun sank. (3 turns left out of 15) Her Majesty suddenly appeared out of nowhere, surveyed the table, and ordered Larsen's Lancers to over run the mercenaries battery and sweep away the armed farmers, allowing her redcoats to secure the village. 

I forgot to time the game, and was interrupted a few times, but I think it took about two hours of actual playing time and victory (possession of the village) and wasn't decided until the last turn when the remaining troop of Lancers made their 2nd charge on the guns and rolled three 6's while the gun whiffed. The loss brought the defenders to their break point on the last turn. Soooooo close!

The rules used may be found here: A Whiff of Dice: A Hearts of Tin variant.

The struggle over the gun was bloody but HM was right and her soldiers cleared the rebels out of the town and forced, what she considered to be mercenaries, to retreat. Her troops paid dearly for their narrow victory but the merchants and land speculators were pleased.

Now, I return myself to the French Revolution........

Never As Easy As It Seems

The plan was to play a game this morning.

What happened was a lot of useful work refurbishing units and getting them ready to play.

A Faraway Trading Company column approaches an apparently empty Kapelle village. (But we know better)

Yes, having exhausted various ways to make every collection different in rules, level of play etc, I've finally decided the challenge is over and I'm going to be lazy again and just play what works for me. This 1840's game could easily be played with my French Rev armies using essentially the same weapons and tactics but since I have these guys and like 'em, and still have space for them, I'm not going to worry about it. 

Now it's a Sunday Solo 1840's Kapelle game using Whiff of Dice (aka Revived and improved Hearts of Tin) that I'm planning.

When I decided to downsize my table last year, I thought seriously about a 5 ft x 5 ft table but the room was cramped enough and I only had a 4'x8' board to work with. I whimped out and settled on 4'x5' table. While testing my convention game I jury rigged a 5'x6' surface and imagined a foot or two of sea to help fill the table while leaving room on each end for coffee cups etc. 

Well, I took down the temporary expansion and the 4x5 looked so forlorn, and having a square table had been so handy that I relocated or removed some shelf units, boxes etc and started collecting ends and scraps of 1/4" board of various dimensions. It was a bit tricky to get everything steady and level but I got there and touched up the old paint just enough to blend in a little.

I wanted to test the table and the rules but wanted a break from the French Revolution so turned to an older collection. 

5'x5'
Its the illusion of perspective that makes the square look longer than it is wide.

So, somewhere in the disputed Kapelle region, two armies converge on a sleepy little village at a crossroad....

Just A Quick Update

Another busy week, part hobby and brain workout with an even larger non-hobby part, but I managed another playtest of a slightly modified scenario. 

The rules have, I think, come together in a completely different old fashioned  style than when I started. They are back to a version of Hearts of Tin, having more echos of Joe Morschauser, than Featherstone, Grant, Lawford and Young etc. The scenario has been adjusted for 6 players though playable with fewer. 

Should have known my old white coated Orleans Cavalry would earn their keep if updated. Last turn of the game, a brilliant charge and die roll turned the game result on its head as they over ran the convoy capturing the Royalist convoy of arms and money on the last turn!

There's a dozen or so figures left to paint up for this scenario, then I need to get back to painting Turks and Mamlukes as there's only something like 10 weeks left to prepare!

There Are Good Reasons For Play Testing

 But its late, so, more on the topic tomorrow. 

Meanwhile, a shot of the adhoc 6'x5.5' table roughly 1/2 way through a solo test.

Recycle, Reuniform

Late last century......when I found the HAWKS running a "Not Quite The SYW" Charge! game at Cold Wars...'98?... using homecast Prince August and Meisterzinn figures, I was hooked! I bought my copy of Charge! in 1972 but had only played a few small 30mm skirmishes before getting sucked into WRG Ancients.

When I got home from that Cold Wars, I ordered 1 infantry and 1 cavalry mould, converted command figures where necessary with such a thin recruiting pool, and brought them down to join in the next time I went to Cold Wars (Y2K iir).  Well, the years have rolled on and my SYW troops haven't been making it to the table very often. As far as I can tell, my Orleans Cavalry last saw the table in 2019 and before that, well, its lost in the mists of time.

While browsing my Funcken Lace Wars, looking for something else, I noticed that the early 90's  French cavalry could be made from the PA charging cavalryman if I swapped their tricorne heads for my bicorne heads. That thought soon grew into: "If I did a head swap on my Orleans cavalry and repainted just the coats and belts, they'd work fine. My oldest cavalry regiment would see more action and I wouldn't have to wait until spring before casting more cavalry to add to the over crowded shelves and storage boxes.

" Gentlemen, I need a volunteer...."

Incidentaly, if anyone is wondering why the posts have suddenly slowed down its partly household winter duties and partly a trip to the dentist which resulted in an immediate, unexpected, extraction of 2 teeth. Ouchhh!  A week later its still sore enough to be distracting and demotivating but there are signs of healing so a test of yet another go at a the rules is imminent!   

Vive Le Roi!

 My Breton "Chouans" are now ready for battle the new (old) way.

The figures are a real mishmash.They started as a mix of 1837 Upper Canadian rebels, 1812 militia, pirates and spanish guerillas, conscripted for a one off game. Since then various additional figures have been converted based on the handful of pictures I've been able to find. 90% are original sculpts, home cast, then converted to fit the new role and to provide variety. The 10% include some Perry Spanish guerrillas and converted Prince August cowboys and SYW figures. 

All in all, probably no more that Hollywood levels of historical accuracy but that works for me in this context.

4 stands of pikemen, 6 stands of skirmishers with muskets and 2 leaders. The flag is the Bourbons' "unstained banner", a white cross on a white field. (I need to have another go at two shades of white.....) 

Having added a 5'x1' unpainted extension to my table I decided to throw one of my cloths over it. I decided that this one with fields, forest and roads painted on would make for the simplest setup. I need to add a few more hedges etc and round up some teamsters for the mule train, maybe add some more French cavalry (just because), and then give it a go.

The Next Step

After spending too much time worrying (like a terrier) at my rules, I decided it was time to test one of the scenarios I plan to run, a slightly bigger version than I ran last summer.  

Starting to lay out terrain and take note of what needs to be repaired, replaced, or added.

The tables at Huzzah! will be 5'x8'. My 5'x4' table at home just isn't really "doing it" for me in general and doesn't quite capture the full feel of the scenario. With one side needing to be up against the wall and me needing to reach the middle from somewhere I decided to just add a foot on one end, something that I had had an argument with myself about when I replaced the table top last year. I'd seriously considered a 5'x5' table then, but wanted the extra space. A few things have changed and I'm now testing a 5'x5' tabletop. A foot or so of ocean on one end of the larger table will nicely fill the table while leaving room  off the gaming cloth for coffee cups, tape measures, dice etc, 

By the time another minor snow event hits us on Friday, I should have sufficiently finished refurbishing, repairing and laying out terrain, and be ready to playtest again.

Battle for the Ridge: Day 2

Having pulled themselves together over the night, and the Scarlet Pimpernal having switched the rules without the French realizing it, the British were back on Saturday morning.

The French must have been celebrating through the night as the reinforcements were slow in moving from the town in the morning. This took a little bit of pressure off the Brits. 

A prolonged close range firefight ensued with the opposing cavalry shouting insults and taunts at their counterparts without either being willing to risking leaving a hole in the line. 

For what seemed an eternity, the two lines stood and traded point blank fire. Casualties were heavy on both sides but neither would give ground or risk a charge.

At last as the sun began to sink towards the horizon, the Debrouiller Regiment wavered. The General rushed over waving his hat to encourage them but a cannister round found him and the emigres broke. The situation was desperate! Col Grey took command and putting himself at the head of the 42nd and with the pipes urging them on, led them forward with the bayonet. Their battered French opponents broke and fled.

The hill was solidly in British hands and the French in full retreat.  

__________________

The main difference between this version of the rules and the one used in the first game, was that instead of a stand being removed for every 4 hits, the hits were accumulated until the unit had 8 or 12 hits depending on the troop types. That not only kept more figures on the table but it meant there was room to take a pounding and come back. 

There are still some minor tweaking to do but the biggest thing is to reconsider for the 100th time whether I can stick to the original idea in Morschauser's rules that had inspired the earliest versions of Hearts of Tin, and lump pointblank shooting with charges with cold steel into one type of potentially deadly combat called "melee" while all shooting at effective ranges is "shooting" or divide combat into 3 zones: long range shooting that has  minimal effect but can slowly weaken units, effective close range shooting that can break units, and charges with cold steel which are largely about opposed will but can also be bloody. 

My brain tells me that the long range shooting can be safely "factored in" (ie ignored) and close range shooting and cold steel lumped together. After all, that's what I've been doing for the last 2 decades since  Rob handed me a copy of Morschauser at a used book stand at a Cold Wars convention, but from the back of my brain, my older British wargaming roots occasionally urge a return to long range, short range and melee. In theory, its a mere matter of a modifier here or there but in practice, the whole thing seems to shift players' attitudes and choices in ways that often negatively affect the games, even if only dragging them on beyond the time available. 

There's also the variance between Morschauser's "every stand is a unit" and the traditional the battalion or higher is the unit unless its a man-to-man "skirmish" (in the gaming rather than historical sense). 

I'll have another quick consult with me and myself but I'm pretty sure we'll eventually back Morschauser in most of these questions if we can't find a compromise.

Battle For The Ridge: Day 1

The scenario I chose was the stripped down One Hour Wargame version of CS Grant's Reinforcements On Table from Scenarios For Wargames, but using a new version of A Whiff of Dice which was basically a variant of my old Hearts of Tin rules. The units were 3 stands of infantry, 2 of cavalry or light infantry or 1 gun and crew.  

The game began well for the British, they marched straight up under the heavy and accurate fire of the French artillery, gave three cheers and swept the French off the hill.

I was almost ready to call it here, but..........one can never be too sure of the outcome so I tin soldiered on.

A protracted firefight ensued while the cavalry charged and countercharged indecisively. Again I was about to call it when the French commander protested. So, to be fair I carried on with the French artillery, which had pulled back before the ridge was stormed, and its fire was accurate and inflicted a heavy toll on the emigres. The balance began to even out.

Once or twice the French commander seemed set to charge the hill, but always he paused and poured more fire into the shrinking line of redcoats and then took the redcoat volleys in return. Finally, the last card went down, French initiative! "En avants mes enfants! A la bayonette pour la republique!"  

(Hopeless I thought, they'd need to roll a handful of 5's and 6's AND have the British falter and threw low. What were the odds?) 

"Save the Colours!!"

My first impression was that the rules had worked well enough but the stand removal, a deep seated habit, was thinning the lines too quickly and spoiled the look with single stands representing a whole battalion as stands were removed making it look that the battalions were taking 75% casualties in minutes but remaining steady. It didn't look right and distorted the tactical picture.  I decided to rework it so that battalions could stay on table until they broke. Of course you can't just change one little thing without a cascade of side effects.......   It was mid afternoon before I was ready to test the rules again but that's for tomorrow's post!

__________

For those who missed yesterday's pic, here it is again to show the table during the early turns:

To be continued!

The Hurley Burley Is Done

It was a lovely day with light snow then rain then freezing rain,,,,just right for an indoor wargame. 

After a brief cavalry clash, the British infantry is ready to assault the hill.

Full report tomorrow.

Somewhere in Flanders

A Republican advance guard stands-to as dawn breaks.

To be continued...

When In Doubt, Fall Back to Bases......(sic)

When I started planning my games for Huzzah, I was thinking of a semi-skirmish game with two "GameMasters" and individual player goals as well as team goals. This sort of game isn't really "my thing" but that's where my 40mm French Revolution collection began, that's where "MacDuff to the Frontier" started, and that would allow Rob's 40mm Scarlet Pimpernel skirmish game collection and mine to collaborate to pull it off.

Dress rehearsal shot before flocking.

Well, things have changed. I'm going to be sole GM and the test games along with past convention experiences, have convinced me that what I'm planning is not going to work within 4 hours, with 1 GM and 6 gamers, unfamiliar with the rules and each having individual victory conditions and 30-40 individual figures to move on a 5'x8' table with only 1 active at a time, and a 4 hour window.

I needed to speed up play and simplify things.

My standard basing, all on 6cm wide bases. Nothing like semiflats for getting extra cavalry on a base!

There were a couple of options but it was nearly inevitable that I decided to fall back on my personal preferences. So, the armies are back on bases with "companies" as the lowest unit. These being grouped into battalions and squadrons with allowances for detached companies in certain situations. That in turned called for different rules and after a year of puttering about, I settled on re-writing "A Whiff of Dice" (click to see the set to be tested) as a variant of my old "Hearts of Tin" rules which were meant for this sort of things and have worked before. 

A Demi-Brigade with skirmishers deployed and support from artillery and cavalry.

I have some local volunteers ready to play some more test games when I'm ready, and the armies are growing rapidly. Something close to double would be nice but half again as much will do and what I've got now will be enough for some test games. 

The first test will be a solo game on Friday!

Close Enough

 The bases need work but I have enough units based to give a One Hour scenario a go.

To be continued...

Thank goodness, just forgetful, not too focused afterall!

There WAS  a game in January! I just didn't blog it properly, just a few pics and a comment in my Jan 2 post. Ok, it was a small, short game but......it was a game!

1 Jan: Refight of January's 1812 LaColle Mill game, but set in the 1790's West Indies! 

I'm not really ready for a Syrian game yet, probably won't be till mid-March, but once I base a few more units, I'll be ready to head to the West Indies. Maybe as early as tomorrow? or even this afternoon?  hmm  

I've got a pile of debased men  (hmm should probably have used a hyphen there) and some reclaimed bases (recycle, hoard, reuse), so just got to put them together, clear the table, decide on a scenario, lay out the terrain and sound the trumpets!

Oh that it should come to this

Work on the French dragoons is progressing, slowly, but progressing.

 

Slowly but...,

It struck me today that all this planning and plotting and casting and...... 

Well, let's just say that it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't played a game recently. More than a week I thought, and started flipping through blog posts.....Dec 31, 2022!!  ???   Oops!  January MIGHT have been the only month with no game since the blog was launched in 2010!

I won't bore you with all the distractions, duties, road blocks etc on top of the casting,  painting, conversions, and rules editing, nor make excuses about needing to prepare for  Huzzah! in Maine in May. 

Friday, the table WILL be cleared and reset, ready for battle. But what to play?

Recycle, Reuse, Recruit

Looking at what I need for my Syrian/Egyptian games, I decided that the French need some more cavalry. My Black Hussars are wrong in detail but by laying down my "Toy Soldier License", my Black Hussars will be allowed to serve anywhere they are needed. Eventually I'll add some regular Hussars and/or Chasseurs. 

Now, the majority of the French cavalry in Egypt were Dragoons so Dragoons are a 'must have'. I don't have a mould but by mixing and matching I can get close enough for my purposes.

The body of the unpainted Dragoon is the same Prince August SYW Dragoon body as I used for my 1793 Scots Greys by using one of my Bicorne heads instead on any of the PA heads. The French Dragoon head has been removed from a Meisterin Waterloo British Dragoon body and used as "close enough for a shiny Toy Soldier".

Having decided to switch the focus of my French Revolution games away from Flanders, I've started seeing which, if any, of my existing 1st Coalition and Republican forces can serve elsewhere without looking too far out of place for me, or needing a lot of work. There are some like my Hesse-Darmstadt Erbprinz regiment that just have no place elsewhere, so they'll stay as they are for when I do want to play a 1st Coalition game. Others I am going to tweak to fit in better in a wider range of settings. 

For example, when starting out, I hemmed and hawed about doing Friekorps Riflemen in round hats but ended up doing Hessian Jaegers in bicornes to increase the German contingent. Well, they are no use elsewhere but if I went with my alternate plan and did a head swap and paint touch up, they could serve almost anywhere from Flanders to the West Indies. It took a few hems and haws and a pause for caution then sat down and did it.

New hats, minor changes to the uniforms and they're ready to serve anywhere the King commands.
(The bases still need painting once I settle on a colour.)

Next up will be 5 more Dragoon head swaps, (and some casting of sword arms) and I'll be ready to paint my 1st Squadron of French Dragoons. 

Meanwhile, Back On Base....

 The reorg is well underway.

Black Watch on the right of the line as senior regiment (It was in the late 90's that I made the masters,  heavily converted for the F&IW in the late 90's, from a selection of Meisterzinn Napoleonic French bodies and muskets with LOTS of putty and with original heads, the first I had sculpted. ) Converted again for the French Revolution just before Covid hit.

The De Brouiller regiment we have seen (Meisterzinn bodies, my heads) but the sergeant with the colours was just painted today. 

These two battalions are on 6 figure "company" bases, 3 to a battalion ala Charge!. The Marines are on 4 man company bases. I was going to put them on 3 man bases and allow them to form up or deploy as skirmishers but I decided that the game will flow better if I put all the light troops on 4 man bases for easy recognition for new players. They can then count as infantry if formed up with bases touching or as light infantry if spread out. 

I've decided to go with the West Indies and Eguptian games, there is slightly more overlap of terrain and figures and something new for me. (well, new in 40mm anyway).

The exisring French and Turks are next then its back to painting more Turks, French, Royal Navy landing party and boat crews, as well as ex-slave guerillas. 3 months to go!

Next Step

This whole French Revolution Revival, (My largest collection was 15mm Fr. Rev, now long gone.) began at the start of the century when I saw Rob Dean's homecast Scarlet Pimpernal collection based on converted Meisterzinn homecastings. My efforts kept getting put aside until they went into limbo, only to revive just before Covid hit and the border closed.......sighhhh.... but I persevered. Since Rob's figures were all singly based, I did the same but the larger my collection got, the more I remembered why I dislike single based arnies, even if movement trays are available. 

A formation of 3 troops of Mamlukes. I'm very pleased that the new recruits, painted with the new paints,  have fitted in seemlessly with the ones I painted last year.
(Its more about the painter's style than the paints.)

Recently Rob decided to shut down his project and is arranging to have a mutual friend pass Rob's collection to me at Huzzah in May. (To help with storage on my end, I'm going to send back all of my Not Quite the Seven Years War Prince August units  to be donated to the HAWKS to use or gift as they like, keeping only figures suitable for the Quebec, Acadian and Louisbourg  campaigns). Yesterday I realized that this change in plans means that I don't have to stick with several hundred single figure armies but can go back to multifigure bases and the latest descendant of Hearts of Tin (nee  Morschauser Meets MacDuff  c2003-ish) on permanent (sic) bases rather than movement trays, thus not only speeding up gameplay but also reducing the shelf or travel space by 1/3. 

To make it easier to track hits, I'm adding little patches of long grass that will hold a small die.

Of course, this also means I need to add 2 figures to each of my infantry battalions......... 

Testing Testing 1,2,3

When I bought the set of Artecho paints, I didn't know anything about them except that they were acryllic and came in the same little soft plastic bottles as most cheap 'craft' acrylic paints but had the same colour names as artists oils and my old Liquitex acryllic paints which used to come in tubes. 

There's only one way to find out more really, and that would be by trying them. Imagine my surprise when I flipped open the lid and tried to put a dab on my palette and...nothing came out. Ah, must have a seal I thought and removed the lid. No seal, just nice thick acryllic paint, just like my old Liquitex in the tubes! 

Oh yeah, that got me excited, would they work like my old art paints? Would I need to relearn habits and techniques after having used the thin hobby paints for decades?   

1st hasty testing of the Artecho acryllic paints on metal.

Yup! But I enjoyed every minute of using them. I wanted to keep the painting quick and simple so stopped myself from getting into "model" mode, kept the lacing and trim to a minimum  and stuck to a simple painting with just a bit of shading so that they would blend in with my existing Mamlukes/Turks. I was also in a hurry to see them finished and painted them in a couple of short sessions today. 

It'll take a while to adjust my techiques and to relearn how to get the most out of the paint when blending colours, when shading (these guy could use a bit more), thinning it for washes, etc., but it was the most enjoyable painting session I've had in a long while. 

First Batch

These days my patience gets inpatient when I convert and/or paint more than a few figures at a time so I'm going to do the Mamlukes in 3's or maybe in 4's depending on what unit size I settle on. (4 or 6)

Anyway, the first batch of recuits have been hastily converted and are ready for priming and painting.

1 w carbine, 1 blunderboss, 1 sabre.
(All Prince August, 2 Cowboys, 1 SYW Hussar)

I think 24 Mamlukes would be a good goal though18 (3x6) or 20 (5x4) would probably do. These three will bring my total to 9......... still some work to do then.

 

New Recruits Muster for Inspection.

 "Have Mercy! They want me to make Mamukes from this lot?"

"You have done it before Master"

"So be it! Let us begin.