Royal Navy contingent

I’ve finished my Royal Navy contingent for my Suakin campaign … well, until I start work on the armed train.

Left-to-right: HMS Hecla’s company of Blue Jackets, commanded by Captain Arthur Wilson; RMLI company from HMS Tyne, Gatling gun battery, and company of Blue Jackets. Rear: Private Thomas Edwards (1 Black Watch) with a pair of ammunition mules. Front: Rear Admiral Sir William Hewett VC KCB and staff. Wilson and Edwards would be awarded VCs for their actions at second El Teb and Tamai respectively.

Progress on the painting bench

In addition to a number of finished or nearly finished terrain pieces, I have a handful of figures and equipment ready for shading and varnishing.

Bases are 2mm MDF affixed to thin magnetic sheet, and will be prepared with Vellajo sandy paste before painting.

It’s taken me far longer than it should have to get to this stage, but I now have some momentum, which is just as well because I have a large number of figures primed.

Gatling guns, limber, Hadendowa flag bearer, and the staff of my field hospital, with a couple of casualties.

Clockwise: Melton Prior sketching, Captain Arthur Wilson, and Colonel Frederick Burnaby. Bases have been prepared with Vallejo sandy paste, and are ready for painting.

Mahdist brass 7pdr mountain gun battery, with crew members converted from metal and plastic Perry Miniatures’ figures.

Half of the first Hadendowa rifle-armed band, with leader based separately …

… and the remainder. These are a mix of metal and plastic figures.

Two Victorian heroes and a Gatling gun battery

I haven’t painted anything smaller than a house for about three years, so it’s taken me a while to get my eye in. It also takes a while to familiarise oneself with the castings and mouldings, guides to uniform and attire, and develop a work flow.

Apart form the Beja riflemen and gun crews I’ve been working on a few British personalities, the British Field Hospital, and the Gatling gun battery. I have a Naval Brigade detachment and RMLI company primed, and have got the base coat on a Hadendowa camel band.

Colonel Frederick Burnaby was almost a metaphor for the British Empire’s might, a giant for his times at 6' 4" and 20 stone, a classic Victorian heroic adventurer. Having trekked solo through a Russian Asian war zone, he made a crossing of the English Channel by balloon, and endevoured to get himself attached to whichever military expedition was going. Famously he took on the Mahdist warriors with a shot gun at the second battle of El Teb.

Here’s a an article about Burnaby, and some details of the shot gun, in Guards Magazine:

Link

Captain Arthur Wilson, RN, of HMS Hecla, was in the thick of it at the second battle of El Teb too, protecting a Naval Brigade gun detachment by holding off the Fuzzy Wuzzys with the hilt of his broken sword, a feat for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

Melton Prior was an artist and war correspondent who covered many of the British Empire’s military adventures. Also always in the thick of it, his detailed sketches appeared in the Illustrated London News. I am reading his memoir at the moment.

Colonel Frederick Burnaby and Captain Arthur Wilson … both need a bit of dust adding to their boots.

Melton Prior sketching. I added reins from foil to his mount, since I plan to repurpose his servant to be an ammunition mule driver.

A Gatling gun limber on the right, showing that the lid was a single piece. A useful photographic confirmation of information I have gathered.

I have added hooks for fine chain to the gun carriages, added the handles to the Broadwell magazines, and prepared the hauling chains for the static and towed limbers.

Victorian heroes

The modeller in me wants to feature significant personalities individually or as part of vignettes. Apart from the obvious people – commanders such as Lieutenant-General Sir Gerald Graham and Vice-Admiral William Hewett – I have ideas for characters ranging from Colonel Frederick Burnaby, who needs no introduction, to Private Thomas Edwards of the Black Watch (the Royal Highlanders).

Fred Burnaby is well underway, but today I thought to add Captain Arthur Wilson, a hero of second El Teb. Wilson was captain of HMS Hecla, a depot ship. During the campaign against the Egyptians in 1882 his Naval Brigade ratings improvised protection of wood, plate, and sand bags for a locomotive and rolling stock, and mounted an Armstrong 40pdr RBL gun on a railway carriage. Just over a year-and-a-half later, during the second battle of El Teb in 1884, Wilson won his VC in the thick of the action around a Naval Brigade battery, engaging Dervish warriors in single combat.

I had a suitably animated officer from the Perry Miniatures’ Naval Brigade command code (SB14), but he had no beard! Now I am no sculptor, but a few minutes with a very small quantity of Milliput gave a passable result.

Captain Arthur Wilson’s record at VC Online
Link

The improvised armed train, Alexandria 1882, inspiration for a planned modelling project.

Wilson in the thick of it at second El Teb, February 29, 1884.

Now he has a beard this figure will pass for Captain Arthur Wilson, ready to pitch into the defence of a Naval Brigade battery. He’s in good company with Colonel Frederick Burnaby.