Perry Miniatures Converted Mounted Infantry for El Teb New Pictures

This post is an updated amalgam of a few posts from 2015 with new pictures. The lighting wasn't great on the last series of pictures so I took the liberty of retaking the shots and added a number of pictures of the single bases for those interested in the detail.

When starting out on the creation of the unit one thing was clear; if I wanted to field the mounted Infantry as mounted then I was going to have to convert them. I bought one pack of SB40 British Camel Corp Rifles on Hips and one SB39 British Camel Corp Command. It was a more or less straight forward job. First file the space between the poor chaps legs so that they would fit neatly onto the horses and adding in the extra puttees as that part of the models had not been sculpted due to the miniatures having to fit on the camels. I also ordered two packs of the 10th Hussars so they would be supplied with mounts. I used Mike Snooks excellent book and guide to the uniforms of the British, Egyptian and Mahdists from the appendix of Go Strong into the Desert  to gather all the information regarding the uniforms of the Mounted Infantry who fought at El Teb. I was just about ready to go.

I plan on doing 12 dismounted Mounted Infantry for the purposes of well, then they need to dismount on the table top! They will probably be next though I think I have another 12 Beja to complete first from a unit that got caught up in the release of the Perry Plastic Afghan Tribesmen!

The Puttee work:

Overall View of the Infantryman Sitting Neatly on the Horse:

The painting process was quite a long  one (but not laborious) as it was new territory for me and I didn't want to get slip up on this project. In the end I think that they're turned out quite nicely and I have to admit to being a little proud of my efforts.

Pics.....

The Single Bases- Base 1:

The Single Bases- Base 2:

The Single Bases- Base 3:

The Italian Wars Volume 2- Agnadello 1509, Ravenna 1512, Marignano 1515, Helion and Company Publishing

Just a quick note to say that following on from the excellent The Italian Wars Volume 1- The Expedition of Charles VIII into Italy and the Battle of Fornovo Helion and company have just published their second volume in the series.

As I type it is on offer at Helion for £16.95 instead of the normal price of £19.95 from this link:

The Italian Wars Volume 2- Agnadello 1509, Ravenna 1512, Marignano 1515

I cannot wait to get my mitts on it and will review the book as soon as I have the time to read through it.

Second Early Byzantine Torsion Engine Added

I keep wanting to call the Torsion Engines Bolt Thowers, which they might well described as, but the image conjured up in my mind is that of my 1980's Citadel Orc and Goblin army which it does not sit well with my idea of an Early Byzantine force! 😅

As you can see the second in a series of four Torsion Engines is now complete. I am not suite sure what is is but out of all the Early Byzantine units I have painted up so far I think I have have enjoyed painting the Torsion Engines and the command bases the most. Certainly being able to play around with the composition and interaction of the miniatures has been a big part. I suspect that getting a unit table ready at speed, four miniatures per unit as opposed to 24, makes the four miniatures a strong candidate for such indulgent pleasure. I have a particular penchant for vignette style basing that dates back to when the Perry's released their metal Agincourt to Orleans range in metal, long before the plastics were available. 

All the images are "clickable" and the files are large, very large in some cases vis a vis it is a case of warts and all. I am pleased to say that I managed to avoid the varnishing annoyance in the unit painted prior to this one.

The Torsion Engines together in a battery; two thus far but four planned for the whole army. Who knows, it may be even more by the time I am finished!! I have painted the Engineers in the colours of the two Unarmoured Legions tunics painted thus far, off white/red and green/yellow respectively. I now have plans for four Unarmoured Legions and the next two bases of war machines will reflect the uniforms as they do in the picture below.

Lastly, just a quick picture (and a very large file!) to show how the uniforms of the Legion reflect that of the Engineers on the base.

Second Unarmoured Early Byzantine Unit Close Ups

 

I really surprised myself by managing to get up very early this morning and taking the rest of the close ups after only managing the first two bases yesterday- the lure of painting my new Boukellaroi/Bucellarri was too strong to resist yesterday! This is going to give me time to keep working away at the beautifully sculpted Boukellaroi/Bucellarri later today.

If you look closely at some of the images you will notice that there has been some sort of reaction between the Humbrol Gloss Spray and the Windsor and Newton Matt Pro Spray. I usually use Humbrol brush on Enamel as it is easy to control thus I'm wondering if this might have been down to possible "pooling" of the gloss with the spray? If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear from you as I really want to avoid a repeat of the problem. You can either leave a message for me by leaving a comment of contact me through the email facility on the blog.

The images are all "clickable" so you can really dig in if that is your thing. There is also a brief description of how I wanted the models to mesh with one another above some of the images.

The moment in a melee where the highest ranking officer in the unit has been forced into the unenviable position of having to take his place in the front rank in order to hold the unit together. Perhaps the standard bearer is gesturing to a possible flank attack?

Here the musician blasts out a specific note to indicate to the officer placed in the back rank (see below) to order the archers to loose.

The stand in the back rank officer moments after he has heard the blast of the "horn" to indicate that he needs to order the archers to loose.