Looking for direction

In times of trouble

Life is a magnificent thing, but often confusing and contradictory. One finds oneself looking for answers and not be quite sure where to find them. Usually the thing to do is to make the best of it and try and muddle on as decently and honestly as one can.  

Recently, I found myself find with a problem and after much reflection, I had to ask myself one question. 

Gun artillerymen in kepi 

(image tealeafed from Bob's blog)

What would Bob the Painter do? I'd been puzzling over the conundrum of what colour to paint my French Crimean era artillery and I was having some difficulty coming up with some straight answers. I had consulted my usual first port of call, Wilkson Latham's "Weapons & Uniforms of the Crimean War", but I could find nothing of particular interest there. My Osprey collection covered the British and the Russians, so there was no help there either. 

However, to my mind the premier Crimean Wargaming site, is Bob's Douglas Miniatures - 20mm Crimean war. Bob has been painting a collection of vintage and recast old school 20mm figures for this Crimean project for the last few years and they are just lovely.  Painted cleanly and finished to a high gloss, they have a charm and simplicity all their own. 

Consequently, when ever I have a question as to how I should paint something Crimean, I turn to Bob's blog and see how the maestro has done it. 

French Artillery in shakos

(image halfhinched from Bob's blog)

Unfortunately, my painting time has been quite circumscribed of late, so what painting I get to do is late at night after work or class, while Mrs. Kinch and I watch an hour of something on the telly. I had saved some pictures from Bob's blog on my phone to refer to when I got a chance to paint my guns. 

My shiny new guns

However, as you've probably noticed some of the guns are in green and some are in a light blue, a fact which escaped a tired Kinch who painted the lot blue in a single sitting. Sigh.  I shall fix that when I have time. 

It just goes to show.  It doesn't matter how good the directions are if you don't read them properly. 

But the moral of the story is - hie thee to Bob's Douglas Miniatures - 20mm Crimean war blog. It is a treasure chest of beautiful things. 

Royal Marines at Battle of Kafr-el-Dawwar

A Royal Marine 

from Donald Featherstones Tel el Kebir, published by Osprey

I've been looking at the Egyptian Campaign of 1882 recently, mainly because I thought it would allow me to pit my Zulu War British against my Crimean War Turks.  There were only a few engagements, but while I was noodling around on wikipedia, I came across the battle of Kafr el Dawwar.  This an interesting engagement, not least because it was essentially written up as a win by both sides.  

Kafr el Dawwar is not a name familiar to English speaking ears, more used to the bombardment of Alexandria, Kassassin and Tel el Kebir.  It occurred at the beginning of the campaign and  was essentially a British probe of the Egyptian works (which were considerable) outside Alexandria. Urabi Pasha described it was a victory where the British were driven off, while the General Alison described it as a reconnaissance in force. Both sides were of the opinion that they achieved what they came to do - it's an interesting illustration of a situation that would never arise in a wargame. 

HAT Zulu War British infantry, 

soon to be joining the ranks of the Royal Marines

I haven't been able to find a map for the battle, so I've been trying to piece things together from General Alison dispatch and some other sources.  There aren't any Egyptian sources that I can find, but I've had a look at the battle site on googlemaps. 

The engagement/battle involved some British mounted infantry, some line infantry, an armoured train and some Royal Marines. Normally, I wouldn't be that concerned about the RM as I have red coated British troops, but it appears (at least based on Featherstone) that they wore blue in Egypt.  I didn't have any uniform reference as the Blandfords do not cover the RM. I was in this, as in most things in my life, blissful in my ignorance. 

There's no rational explanation for why, now that I know that the uniforms were blue that I won't be quite happy until I've arranged some RM in blue. It's like an itch that I can't quite scratch. 

Good thing I had some spare infantry lying around.  

French Cannon

Du Gourmand has been muttering about taking the French to the Crimea for a while now. Now as I'm reliably informed that the French may have had a few chaps accompanying Lord Ragans army, so I suppose I shall have to add some French to the collection eventually. 

I have a set of Strelets French artillery which comes with about fourteen or fifteen gunners and two guns. As my batteries are representational at best I only use three gunners per unit and needed to draft in some extra guns to make use of the extra figures. 

Rattling around the spares box were some italeri ACW artillery which are a reasonable match for French guns of the time. A quick coat of PVA later and these are heading to the painting table.

German Officers Liege

I picked up these chaps the other day. They are old and quite nice.  They are Strombecker 1/32 scale figures made of zinc. I had thought they were hollow - but it turns out that they not.  

My protestations that I'm not collecting a 1/32 scale army don't seem to be up to much. 

Quick blast of white spray and a lick of gloss paint should do nicely. 

Command & Colours: Tricorne

I came across this floating around in the blogosphere, hat tip to Old Trousers from Numbers, Wargames & Arsing About.  This is Tricorne, Richard Borg's take on the American Rebellion. Contrary to early reports, this game will be shipping with blocks rather than plastic figures or at least that's what it says on the manufacturers website. I'm not awfully keen on blocks, but to be honest I will probably play it with figures anyway. 

I have no great enthusiasm for the American War of Independence, but I am very interested to learn how Richard Borg tackles linear warfare.  There are suggestions that a Seven Years War version will be forthcoming if this is successful and that I would be very interested in. 

The game will cover the following battles. None of these involve the French unless I'm very much mistaken - though Du Gourmand is already laying in supplies of 1/72 figures in anticipation.

Bunker Hill -17 June 1775

Long Island (Grant's Attack) - 27 August 1776

Long Island (British Flank March) - 27 August 1776

Freeman's Farm - 19 September 1777

Bemis Heights - 7 October 1777

Bemis Heights (British Redoubts) - 7 October 1777

Monmouth - 28 June 1778

Camden - 16 August 1780

Cowpens - 17 January 1781

Guilford Courthouse - 15 March 1781

Hobkirk's Hill - 25 April 1781

Eutaw Springs - 8 September 1781

The game is not available yet, but can be pre-ordered here with a hefty $20 discount.  Unfortunately, the shipping from the US is equally hefty, so I'm in two minds at present. That said, Richard Borg has never written a game I didn't enjoy.

Refugees

This poor soul pushing his earthly possessions in a cart

I got these figures nearly fifteen years ago, painted them a little after and only finished basing them recently.  At the time they were used to represent Dutch and Belgian civilians fleeing in 1940. I have always felt the need to include civilians in my games, not out of any misplaced sense of guilt, but because it forces one to think about the reality one is recreating on the table.

Closeup

When I was a small boy, I saw a documentary called "The World at War" which was voiced by Sir Laurence Olivier. I remember it being very good, but otherwise little more about it, but one line in particular stayed with me. The episode concerned the end of the war and the vast dislocation and hunger that covered most of Europe at the time. There was footage, I think of German prisoners of war, and food was being thrown at them. Olivier was talking about how those born after the war will not really understand what they were seeing and said "Remember that is a real man scrabbling for a potato."

An elderly couple helping each other & a lone woman

I don't agonise over the conflicts I represent on the tabletop.  It is after all a form of entertainment, of vicarious living, albeit quite a staid one. I doubt Mrs Kinch worries about the victims poisoned, stabbed and shot in her Midsomer Murders.  I rarely people the empty villages and towns my troops fight over, but it would seem unjust not to give their inhabitants some scrap of the stage from time to time.

Thankfully this is not a real man scrabbling for a potato. 

Better late than never

A rather fetching landrover

I have not been my own master of late, shackled to books and earning a crust, rather more than I would like at present. This coupled with a shoulder impingement has made me crankier than usual. Trip to the physio is in order I think.

However, the arrival of this rather fetching landrover from the Depressive Diplomatist provided a sharp reminder that the Joy & Forgetfulness "Eight years a blog giveaway" was shamefully behind schedule. The Landrover (and accompanying snazzy card) was my booty from Edwin's blog giveaway and should be joining by BAOR forces before too long.

As for my own giveaway, I popped all the names into a hat this afternoon and drew out, Sergeant Guinness!

Gentlemen, thank you all for taking part. If the good sergeant could leave a comment below with his address, I shall pop the tower in the post shortly.