For you all love the screw gun …

The mule train for the screw gun battery is finished, with the components loaded and organised in order of march: axel tree, wheels, carriage, breach, chase (barrel), and ammunition.

I have followed the same principle I established for the Royal Navy Gatling gun battery [link], that is to model one weapon in transit to represent the battery of two guns on the move.

The converted infantry driver figures turned out alright after all, I think.

By way of celebration, let’s have some Kipling – the refrain from Screw-Guns:

For you all love the screw-guns the screw-guns they all love you!

So when we call round with a few guns, o’ course you will know what to do – hoo! hoo!

Jest send in your Chief an’ surrender it’s worse if you fights or you runs:

You can go where you please, you can skid up the trees, but you don’t get away from the guns!

The loaded mules with their drivers.

Season’s greetings

I have finally got the mules finished, and begun to think about the accompanying figures.

My first attempt is to model these from the Afghanistan/Sudan plastic set, with the addition of Empress Miniatures’ Oliver pattern water bottles, and a little ProCreate for webbing. The lack of walking poses may mean I need to rethink this. Wait to see.

I hope to have these finished before the end of the year, so that I can switch my effort to the late medieval period.

Meanwhile, I wish my ten followers and many more visitors a peaceful and relaxing time over the next few days.

The mules patiently await their drivers.

Screw gun battery mules: all six

I have been working on these on-and-off throughout the week, and now they are complete.

Six mules carrying the gun chase, breach, carriage, wheels, axel tree, elevation mechanism, and ammunition. Next I have to work on the gun crew figures which will accompany these.

The disassembled gun and ammunition distributed across six mules.

Screw gun battery mules: the first three

Today I made a bit of progress with the first mules for the screw gun battery, with breech, gun chase, and wheel loads.

I used lead for straps, fuse wire for buckles, and ProCreate for the various covers designd to keep dust and debris out of the gun components. So far I am quite pleased with how these have turned out.

Breech, gun chase, and wheels loaded onto the first three mules.

A bit of blog admin, adding depth, and a screw gun battery

I turned my hand to tidying up some code (I had broken the British Empire army units page), adding a short interview with the legendary Spike Milligan to the Preservation page, and providing a bit more depth where appropriate.

To the latter end, I have added some links to external pages with more information about the people who feature on the Characters page.

I am planning to model a screw gun loaded on to mules. I have two spare mules from the Empress Miniatures’ water wagon (ZWB79), which seem to be the same basic scuplts used for their Jazz Age Imperialism mountain gun battery (JAZ13). So the latter may provide the basis for this, with any surplus mules sure to be utilised.

That’s it for the moment while I make progress with my Wars of the Roses project.

Empress Miniatures’ Jazz Age Imperialism mountain battery looks like a promising place to begin for my mule-bourne screw gun battery.

Private Thomas Edwards and Naval Brigade Gatling gun battery

Private Thomas Edwards was seconded from his unit, 1 battalion The Black Watch, to the Naval Brigade as a mule driver. From the moment I read an account of his actions at Tamai I had a vignette in mind.

During the furious fight he defended the Gatling guns after members of the naval crew had been killed or wounded. Despite being wounded himself he remained with the guns throughout the action. Edwards was awarded a Victoria Cross, and here is his citation in The London Gazette.

Top to bottom: a period post card celebrating Edwards’ actions at Tamai; my vignette of a Perry Miniatures’ Black Watch figure and Empress Miniatures’ ammunition mules; Edwards with the Naval Brigade battery; and finally, more progress with the towed Gatling gun and limber.

Pack mule or pack horse?

Even though they represent conflicts I am not interested in, I have been deeply impressed with Iron Duke Miniatures’ releases, particularly Paul Hicks’ fine sculpting. The release of useful packs around the main ranges did interest me though, and I bought a set of mules from the THEM range.

Lovely models, but really quite large – the size of the horses I have from Perry Miniatures’ Sudan range. And much larger than a pair of Empress Miniatures draught mules (from their Zulu Wars range) that I have spare (since I modelled the water wagon in a stores vignette).

I began reading a bit about mules and how they are bred … and I have come to the conclusion that the new large ones are not overscale, but that the smaller mules are likely hinnies.

I plan to assign the new ammunition mules to the Naval Brigade Gatling gun battery, to be joined in due course by Private Thomas Edwards, 1st bn Royal Highlanders (The Black Watch) Regiment, with whom he would win a VC at Tamai.

Meanwhile I have been finalising the basing of my first Hadendowa Rub.

More pack horse than pack mule? Iron Duke Miniatures’ mules in the middle,. Empress Miniatiures’ mules at the front right, and eBob camels at the back, with bits of tuft on the table.

Oliver pattern water bottles

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am considering enlisting Perry Miniatures’ plastic British Infantry (Afghanistan and Sudan 1887–1885) to the ranks of my Sudan field force. Soldiers serving in the Sudan would have been equipped with the ‘Oliver’ pattern water bottle, which is quite different from the type the figures are moulded with. Initially this seemed to be a minor consideration, but as I thought about it I began to consider a conversion.

Firstly, I bought an infantry frame on ebay in order to explore feasibility, which would involve the careful removal of the moulded water bottle and substitution with a metal one.

I had already bought a set of helmets, packs, rifles, and Oliver pattern water bottles from Empress Miniatures’ Zulu Wars range. I’m going to need rather more than the six bottles included, so I advertised on the Lead Adventure forum, which has yielded an further ten … so far.

The water bottle was a coopered barrel manufactured in Turin by Guglielminetti Brothers. The bands and stopper were galvanised iron, making it relatively heavy for its capacity of one quart, or two pints (just over a litre).

The infantry frame and the Oliver pattern water bottles.

The water bottle which needs removing, and its replacement.

Surgery complete …

… not too shabby.

Infantry unit sizes and basing

I have been thinking about the sizes of my units from a number of perspectives: the number of figures specified by the rules I am considering (The Men Who Would Be Kings and Black Powder); the number of figures and different poses in each of Perry Miniatures’ packs; appearance – which will look right on the table; and cost.

With Blu Tack at the ready, and working with the figures I have so far, I considered: six other ranks plus two command figures, twelve other ranks plus two command figures, and eighteen other ranks plus two command figures. The six plus two option was for Naval Brigade detachments, since historically these units were usually small; but this just looked a bit mean when the figures were placed together on bases.

For now I have settled on twelve plus two for Naval Brigade detachments (I have enough figures for two of these), and eighteen plus two for other infantry companies (although I could see these going to twent-two plus two command figures).

I also need a couple of sergeants with fixed bayonets, so I will order an infantry command pack too. All this means that there will be a few spare figures, but I am certain these will find their way into other units or vignettes.

These combinations look right to me, should work with both sets of rules, and give a good visual distinction between the strengths of units from the different services.

I am likely to base four figures on a 60mm x 60mm base. This will give a slightly open looking deployment, which is informed by a post of Mike Snook’s on the (sadly, now defunct) Victorian Wars forum:

I have allowed a hypothetical one yard per two-rank file in calculating frontages, which is obviously an extra foot over the 24 inches of the ‘infantry drill’. There’s [sic] really two reasons for that. First this isn’t the drill square at Horse Guards, (where nobody fires volleys); rather it’s an undulating piece of rock-strewn desert. People give themselves that little bit more room to prevent the constant jostling effect that would otherwise arise from being dead shoulder to shoulder. Secondly, in order to fire, the book states that the rear rank men in the file come up on the left side of the front rank men. I have estimated the effect of these two things as being an extra foot per file. To be clear: two soldiers to each three feet of frontage where a company has turned towards the enemy and intends to fire a volley.

Naval Brigade, wearing sennet hats: six ratings plus two command figures.

Naval Brigade, wearing caps: twelve ratings plus two command figures.

The fellow on the left will be armed with a Martini-Henry rifle, which needs a sling and a cutlass bayonet.

First recruits and sundries

This post marks the beginning of a project I have been thinking about for over 18 months. At the outset I read Mike Snook’s excellent Go Strong into the Desert, which led me to seriously consider the early years of the Mahdist uprising for my miniature adventure.

I like the idea of improvised armoured trains, paddle steamer gunboats, and marauding slavers, while the romance of the Nile and the desert are major draws.

Just before Christmas I received my first deliveries from a handful of manufacturers and suppliers. 

I needed some additions to my scenic palette to allow modelling of mimosa for landscaping and, importantly, zarebas. Accordingly I bought some rubberised horse hair. I also bought brown short and long tufts, and tall shrubbery in yellow/green and natural hues.

I am considering The Men Who Would Bed Kings for rules, and gave the organisation of my forces some thought, but failed to form any firm conclusions about composition for the British. So I decided to order miniatures for Naval Brigade, Royal Marine Light Infantry, and King’s Royal Rifle Corps units, with some medics and war correspondents for vignettes; I settled on early war Beja (the Fuzzy Wuzzys of Kipling’s poem), and ordered two boxes of plastic figures, metal rifle armed, and camel mounted warriors, all from Perry Miniatures.

I also bought the Blood on the Nile Black Powder supplement, principally for the Fred Burnaby miniature, but it turns out to be an excellent source of inspirational photographs.

I bought Union Flags and White Ensigns from Flags of War. I will need to buy some flags for the Beja too … The Virtual Armchair General’s extensive range looks suitable.

My first Perry Miniatures order: metal Naval Brigade, RMLI,
King’s Royal Rifle Corps, and Beja …

… more Beja, and a handful of tents …

… and Blood on the Nile for the Fred Burnaby figure, (the volume is full of great photos).

A range of accessories including Martini-Henry rifles, assorted loads, packs, and helmets, and a water cart, all from Empress Miniatures; assorted crates and bundles from Field of Glory; scale chain from Green Stuff World.

Union Flags and White Ensigns will stake out the territory the plucky Brits are hanging on to!

I needed some additions to my stash of scenics, and rubberised horse hair for mimosa thorn bush.