Help Needed! Activation of Followers Widget???

Now Sorted Out- Many Thanks to Ray!

Hi, it seems that one problem that I wasn't aware of until now, was that my normal Blog Followers wasn't activated. I've been through the widgets list and I cannot find anything that would help me in my quest to turn the damn thing on so that it appears on my blog:

Shooting Leave (Victorian Colonial Warfare Blog):

http://allthebrave.blogspot.co.uk/

Can anyone out there give me some advice please- it would be gratefully received.

Darrell.

It's arrived!! BP- Blood on the Nile!! And a Free Fred Burnaby!!

I guess that I've let the goose out of the bag  but here are my first impressions of the book and the Perry Fred Burnaby mini that came free with the order from Perry Miniatures.

Firstly, the book is lavishly illustrated with diorama style pics of beautiful that really capture a glimpse of what some of the action Perry Miniatures with some cameo appearances from Foundry Miniatures, Empress Miniatures (?), Castaway Arts (?) and a few others I spotted that I did not recognise.  As I've said, the photo's are all set up vignette style and give a flavour of the action that's lacking in some rulebooks. Overall, the production quality in on a par with most of Warlord's black Powder, Hail Caesar products but this one seems especially good.

I ordered from the Perry's as I was really taken by the free mini of Fred Burnaby at the Battle of Abu Klea. This miniature is very understated considering the gallant and somewhat futile mess he got himself into during the battle that lead to his untimely demise. I really love this figure and getting an early casting is certainly worthwhile as the quality is always better no matter who you order the miniatures from.

Colonel Frederic Gustavus Burnaby was a very interesting man....  He joined the Royal Horse Guards at a young age and was prone to searching out any reason to go on Shooting Leave, but of a life of adventure. He was a pioneer of ballooning for example as well as travelling through Spain and Russia. His Russian adventures are described in his book, A Ride to Kiva.

In 1879 he began to develop an interest in politics and ran unsuccessfully for Birmingham as a Tory Democrat. He is noted as crossing the English Channel in a hot air balloon (certainly a more successful enterprise than his political career!) and by 1882 was on active service involved in the Egyptian Campaign and later in the Sudan. He fought at the battle of El Teb and acted as political officer to General Valentine Baker. He met his death fighting in a heroic attempt to save his countrymen at Aby Klea. and his loss was much mourned by the army. 

A giant of a man, said to be able to carry a polo ponies under each arm(!), he was larger than life when he lived and goes down as a living legend in his time.

I'll talk much more comprehensively about Fred Burnaby in a later post.

Cheers for now.

European Weapons and Warfare 1618-1648, Eduard Wagner, Re-published by Warlord Games

Hi,

Re-published by Warlord Games is Eduard Wagner's,  European Wwapons and Warfare 1618-1648, which I believe is a reprint of the book featured below:

This book seems to be packed with brilliant illustrations and would be a 'must have' for anyone new/not so new to the period! I can't say that i've ever read the book but I have sen copy before and it is packed with illustrations and well worth the £25 that Warlord are asking for.

Out of interest a quick look at the Amazon page revealed to me that for folk into other periods, Eduard Wagner is also responsible for writing or co writing the following books:

Swords and Daggers, Eduard Wagner

Medieval Costume, Armour and Weapons, Eduard Wagner, Zoroslava Drobná and Jan Durdík

Cheers for now.

Second Afghan War Mounted Officer Conversion

Inspired by a mini that I was sent to paint I was drawn into having a go at adding a poshteen to this Mounted Officer. The mini itself is a Studio Miniatures sculpt (I believe by Soapy??) and the castings are a crisp as you like. I highly recommend their range for the Second Afghan War especially their Afghans which as well as being beautifully sculpted and cast are really dynamic sculpts. I think Soapy has recreated some of his magic that was the Woodbine Designs WWI in the East range that he did for Gripping Beast.

The poshteen as you can see was sculpted using Pro-Create putty (Greystuff in my world) which I find is much easier to manipulate than Greenstuff as it lacks the tackiness of Greenstuff but retains the adhesive properties. I know statement sort of doesn't make that much sense but if you haven't used it, buy some and you'll see what I mean.

I was without my Clayshapers which I normally use when sculpting. They allow you to manipulate the putty but without the hard lines and messiness that general metal sculpting tools can cause. So, as a result, it's certainly not my best but I reckon that it's OK and should paint up very well. If I have one criticism (apart from some hard lines left by the metal tools) is that I think I've sculpted a little too much sheep skin but I'm now saying to myself that an Officer in Her Majesties Army could afford the extra wool :>)

Anyway, without further ado, here are the images:

Cheers for now.