Egyptian Lancers

After a hectic week's painting I've finallyfinished painting my Egyptian Lancers (for the Sudan).
Like all the other figures that I've finished (and safely stored away) they still require varnishing  and I have the spray varnish ready and waiting for when I finish the remaining figures I have for my Sudan project.
Finding information about these lancers was pretty difficult and I don't think it was my google-fu letting me down either. All the information came from a single, well illustrated,  site on the Ottoman armies.
The figures are all OG and are a peculiar mix of iniform styles, probably relating to the many uniform changes over the last twenty or so years of the nineteenth century. There were many lancer units  with varitions on the pennant (though all have a red upper half afaik).

They're based singly for "The sword and the Flame" rule set (now coming up to its third edition in a special 40th Anniversary edition), which is like rules Marmite,  (I like the former and hate the latter - just in case anyone is interested [ They're nor- Ed.])
As Imperial troops they have an Officer and a NCO plus 10 lancers, whilst 'native' forces generally have a single Officer/Leader and eleven rank and file.

I'm happy how they've turned out, despite my newly aquired ahsking hands!

In double ranks for the photo, though normally they'll fight in a single rank

The rear view for those that like this sort of thing

Another random view (padding - Ed.)

 They may have been a long time coming, but at least they're good enough for my purposes and maybe they will see action one day !

In other news, I missed a clinic appointment by ten minutes, so it's been delayed until next month (insert sad emoticon here)  to join yet another  hospital visit. Looking on the brighter side, I have made a lot of progress on my Egyptian infanry, all of whom should be completed in time to be the subject of next week's blog post (insert Smiley face here).

The above was the good news, the bad news was that I lost my camera last week (Wednesday to be exact)  and I've had to resurrect my old camera (a task that took a big chunk of time Sunday and today) - finding it, finding a Sim card (with space),  charging its batteries and remembering how to work it and download the photos !. The saddest part of this affair was the loss of the photo's of my friend's expedition into Jimland, though I'll recreate a few. 

Finally a big thank you to those five invididuals that commented on my post last week, it was the lowest number of comments I've ever had on a post iirc and although I tend not to take much interest in blog numbers (followers, posts, comments etc.) it was noticeable.

Once more, that's it for this week, thanks for taking the time to visit, hopefully there was something here of interest  and as always your comments are both welcomed and truly appreciated.

Footnote: I really, really miss blogger's spell-checker !

Sudan - Mounted Officers

Despite having to attend the hospital for an entire afternoon and a routine clinic vist this last week I did manage to finish off the six English Mounted officers for my Sudan project.
The six officers are all Perry miniatures and all are British, three regulars and three commanding Egyptian forces.

The three Brits commanding regulars.

The rear view of the above (obviously)

Chap in the centre is meant to be General Hicks

They have a mix of British and Egyptian equipment, as is fitting imho.

 I managed at least an hour's painting each  day over the last week , which has meant that the rest of the cavalry is well underway to being completed too and I should have either the Egyptian Lancers or the three Dervish command group figures finished by next week too - 'yay'.

In other news:
Saturday saw my friend take on the wilds of Jimland on Saturday in a very entertaining game, which I'll be posting about sometime in the near future, hospital and Clinic appointments allowing and of course all the other real-life impediments to our hobby not getting in the way either.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and hopefully you'll have found something of interest.

That's it then for this week, as always your comments are both welcomed and truly appreciated.

Global Progress

Despite only a single routine clinic visit last week I still managed at least an hours hobby-related session each day and still managed to not complete a single miniature ! IThe latter isn't completely true as I finished twenty horse ready for their riders. The photographs of before and after can be seen below.
I do have a single completed model, though not completed by me ! A friend offered to paint this piece for me as with my current failing eyesight I couldn;tdo it justice. The finished piece, a globe of the world (shown right) was painted to look like a 19th century one and will be part of the furnishings for "Gordon's Palace" , when the palace is finished.
There is slight damage to the piece, but I can't recall when it was done, nevertheless it's a fine piece imo and I'm very pleased with the overal effect.

In other news the chap who painted this for me may well turn up this weekend to experience the 'joys' of an adventure in "Jimland".

I did ask for Africa to be prominent !

The Indian Ocean is failry obvious too,...

...as is Eastern Asia.

America - at an odd angle, maybe not so recognisable.

Overall though I am very happy with it and it's far, far better than anything I could have managed.
Here's a couple of photographs of my other works in proigress ("Padding"- Ed.)

Before (bottom) and after (top obviously)

Before and after again

it may not seem a lot, but just the bases on the inkfantry took three hours for the two dry-brushed coats of paint.

So Ive made some  progress and it may be not as much to post about as one might want but I realised that last week was the closest date to the anniversary of the start of this log ; eight years later and some 411 posts later I'm quite pleased I'm still managing to post anything !

As an aside, I've just noticed that my blogger isn;t allowing me to splel-check, so apologires for my normally rubbish typing.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, hopefully there was something of nterest and of course your comments are always welcomed and appreciated.   

George's Next Expedition

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Yet another post about "Jimland" as I'm back from my short holiday break and didn't manage to finish anything before I left for holiday, no since I have returned.
I'm also full of cold (man flu) and have both a Doctor's and Hospital appointments over the next two weeks which will no doubt impact upon my hobby related activities.
Once more then, I'm posting on George Molyneux's second expedition into the wilds of Jimland, with #1 son, in the guise of George, leading the expedition and myself taking the rile of any dastardly deeds inflicted upon the column.
The photograph on the right show George's larger column with George at the front, (bottom right), Doctor Minden (centre) and the interpreter Hubert St. Edward (on the left), leading the column of bearers, soldiers and their lately acquired pack mule.









Once more, we have to rely on the journal of Frederick Cartington for the report of this expedition, so:

From the journal of Frederick Cartington:

"With their new found wealth, another expedition was quickly assembled by George Molyneux, impressive and full of bravado. They had the same three explorers, backed up by five soldiers, some twenty bearers with a pack animal;  the latter were all laden down with enough food for at least two weeks.
I was very surprised to find a single soldier and several bearers running into Jim's Landing a mere four days later with tales of death and destruction.
The soldier, related me this sad tale of woe:"

The column assaulted from the right and shot at from the left.

"We  were in good spirits as we left our camp just outside of Jim's landing finding several rations, no doubt left by some other expedition and headed North to where the trail veers off to the northeast. The next day we headed northwest then north cutting a trail though the terrain we'd already traversed once.
Even as we assembled the column ready for the third day a shot rang out from our left and one of our bearers fell dead,  whilst at the same time we were assailed by natives from our right ! It was only then that we realised that we had been the victims of a dawn ambush !

Panic seemed to be the order of the day, as the column split, we soldiers forming a ragged firing line to the rear, whist our leaders did similarly to the front.
The native rifle fire seemed particularly accurate whilst our own was ineffective to say the least.
Our leaders were felled quickly and everyone took it as the order "Every man for themselves" and we fled in all directions." 
"I thanked the man for his tale and wondered what the natives' actions were after the conflict."

 Some amazingly good dice rolls on my part for shooting cut down all the explorers by turn three with little to no effective return fire by the explorers, which, along with the failure of all their saving rolls was the Molyneux expedition's downfall  !

George;s route (red arrows) and the 'search area'

Though the expedition apparently ceased to exist, I though it a good opportunity for a rescue scenario, in which an expedition would be launched to search a seven hex area  for the natives. My thinking was that the explorers would have an additional saving roll after the action, representing the natives  trying to save them for later capture or inviting them to dinner if they were cannibalistic) or even other nefarious purposes.
The map on the left shows two arrows representing each day of the expedition and the seven red dots would be the areas where I'd suggest the 'white men', if they survived could be being held.
Giving each hex a 1in 6 chance of having a village per the normal Jimland rules) gives an overall chance of about 75% of the explorers being found, so a c=good chance they wouldn't be!
However giving the chance of finding them in any given hex as 1 in 3 then a 95% chance of finding them whether in a camp or village is far more satisfactory.
It remains to be seen whether  #1 son wishes to launch a rescue operation with a new expedition,  or if I'll undertake one with Max von Sackville's team.




That's all for this week, unfortunately once more a short post, but next week, maybe I'll have something new finished !

Once more, thanks for taking the time to visit and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.