Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Colonial Adventures => Topic started by: EnclavedMicrostate on 13 August 2023, 03:19:14 PM
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After a lot of indecision, I finally committed to starting a blog at last to document my various projects, and at the moment the one I feel I ought to push through on is my British expeditionary force for a hypothetical campaign in Japan some time in the 1860s. My main idea was that it would be a force intervening to support the imperial army in the event that the Shogunate proved more resilient than expected in 1868, but I can also conceive of an earlier scenario, say a situation in 1864 where Chōshū doesn't alienate the entire rest of Japan by burning down Kyōto and a broader coalition rallies against the Europeans.
That being said, I think I bit off a bit more than I could reasonably chew when I first began, and the project somewhat bloated beyond the sort of small sidequest I had intended it to be. Hence the blogging in the hopes it will get me to finish these and get them out of my lead pile, in time to be replaced by yet more things.
The original plan was to take a page out of the 1860 expedition to Peking in terms of organisation. I would do 9 units of infantry (6 British (including Marines) and 3 Indian), 2-4 of cavalry (again, a mix of British and Indian), and some artillery and supporting figures. Then I hit on the idea of doing a Shimonoseki scenario (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=139525.0), which meant suddenly doing naval brigades; I also found out about the presence of Baluchi troops in Yokohama in 1864, which meant a fourth Indian regiment, and I decided I wanted more variety in my cavalry, and ooh these siege guns look nice... let's just say things got out of hand to an extent.
Anyway, here is the blog post:
https://cohortsofthedamned.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-anglo-indian-intervention-force-in.html
And as a teaser, the first (and so far only) fully-complete element of the force, the Indian infantry:
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaB21UR_BJfjjsQHd_-1R4MFsRHKXa90rHPYjuOsV4Zu-elVfge5VihprULxW88IifJnIhN4iFwnVXbCKUvDVmgP6hwuun7gMBbZuMGa9jQgIA21CUGqTgAnhfOe2nbsiwFQQuKe9H4pbzzYj0QQdKvmQoGmYnvtaQMjbLx1DG5R_454FI5iXLzA/w640-h480/IMG_0144.HEIC)
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Good luck on your project!
So far... so good! :-*
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Great stuff :)
I started something similar quite a few years back but with most projects I start, it's all sitting there on a shelf. Looking forward to seeing you continue :)
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Well, that's the naval infantry out of the way, having finished the, er, three remaining officers:
https://cohortsofthedamned.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-anglo-indian-intervention-force-in_16.html
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmnYqtQGMA_wF3KLZ7NlsSS4ucQK9xbbgih33hsE4Z8TEWqBMGCubdugpJxrzhxKbxaBUwtWyzpoA6pmOry4MMkzT4JzZDp955FBOykwGvsIJRBOxm5yrMkmnbcSwqicDNps1baM07UIRmn6uPQkuZQbVI5sg7ccyly7nbICN6ov0_mvysMoZjkg/w640-h480/IMG_0151.HEIC)
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Looking good!
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Fabulous looking collection! :-* :-*
Historically speaking the British Army and Royal Navy didn't buy the Gatling until the very end of the decade but a little historical latitude is due such a magnificent force.
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Indeed – as noted, I had got the Gatling for my Nagaoka forces and done up the crew for fun, but it is technically the wrong model...
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It's not even a question of the model, there were no Gatlings of any type in British service in 1864. They had been examined two years earlier and rejected as unreliable.
Still, why not, it's not a huge stretch to add one.
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I suspect I've not been clear enough – I got it for use with the Japanese domain of Nagaoka in 1868 (who did have two Gatlings, but of a somewhat different type), but did up some RN crew because it came with them. The Gatling won't be an actual part of the 1864/8 British force as such.
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Yeah, my apologies, I misconstrued, not your fault. Lovely looking mob anyway, look forward to seeing the Japanese. Are you doing the French or some Americans as well?
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A excellent job!
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I've got a plan for the French but I don't intend to enact it yet. No plans for Americans.
I'll post more images of the Japanese at some point once I've given them all a bit of a touch-up, but those will be over on the Far East board.d
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Yes,I have everything but Japanese...
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I'm a bit late to this party, but your units all look good so far. Looking forward to seeing more...
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Beautiful minis! Well done.
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Some progress on the painting front though a bit too scattered for an update post (I thought I was done with the artillery and then whoops, I found a box with more), but I did break out a portion of the force to do a solo Kings scenario:
https://cohortsofthedamned.blogspot.com/2023/09/capture-crossroads-7-september-2023.html
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Delays on the artillery front still (not helped by a recent power cut) but some progress on the infantry:
(https://i.imgur.com/pdvgB9c.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/tXABW4t.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/T2A9stW.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/fVG0182.jpg)
And why yes, I did paint the Britannia on both sides of the regimental colours.
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Looking good! :-* :-*
Were you applying the Britannia Rule? :)
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Tragically no, I measured and designed the colours in millimetres rather than fractions of inches!
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Beautifully done miniatures.
Now, about those trays - please paint the part where the figures are standing so they don't stand out when a figure goes casualty, maybe add a spot of 'dried blood' in each compartment! :D (Never seen anyone do that, the spot of blood, might be fun.)
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Well, after a lot of dithering I decided to make a determined effort on the artillery, and I'm now mostly there, enough to feel comfortable doing up this summary post:
https://cohortsofthedamned.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-anglo-indian-intervention-force-in.html
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2E0ORc795foDE3ZalueBuMpe88UBdJrEVa_iGQfHJrr6KchgnlEVsRIMOV33baffV40l6VB6i3XaLoThHpFMqro96hsiydFF-lqcTw8i8ik1YAQnhzAtIQb5EyIvNBMrAREiHoq4xr4-98AaUJhmFZDTXI6QaKOJAlxcV8KXMVQ61WkkxbH9cdA/w640-h480/IMG_0301.HEIC)
Theoretically I still need to do a few limbers and an extra horse team, but neither is vital at this stage and I thought I'd rather get back to the infantry.
As a side note, does anyone have any idea what model of guns are depicted on the far ends of this 1864 photo? The guns I have should still be okay for 1868, but they don't seem to match any of the ones here, so I'm not sure about earlier scenarios.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Felice_Beato_(British%2C_born_Italy_-_(Group_Portrait_of_the_Royal_Marine_Battalion)_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Felice_Beato_(British%2C_born_Italy_-_(Group_Portrait_of_the_Royal_Marine_Battalion)_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
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Great project, I did something very similar a few years ago. It's a great period in history to game.
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Thanks for all the kind words all; things continue! With a Highland and a Rifles battalion done, that means all the infantry are now finished!
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzQjY2tS4W5myDfzwhoM9PMwfF2KRhip0muSQyYjC3ogxGxZWveBdgHLqlXcMsTx88AnUooh24Cf4_RyG6xG2eqDGtg-9q9Ow3r_WY7LDRXjR5scFUi06iIkIyiKYAqp1FmlCaCj9G2vDVo9b09Lp9t3fjXvaALKcjGYfCjWHEz-RLWSaZcKJ7pQ/w640-h480/IMG_0389.HEIC)
Description of the British regiments here:
https://cohortsofthedamned.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-anglo-indian-intervention-force-in.html
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:-* :-* :-*
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Long while since the last update, but November was busy with Real Life and the bulk of the remaining stuff is cavalry, which I'm always extremely slow with. So, in between two cavalry regiments I did a brief side foray: a mountain gun and two 3-man crews, one British and one Bombay.
(https://imgur.com/EfkNazQ.jpg)
(https://imgur.com/1blM5aZ.jpg)
I'm not entirely sure if the RML 7-pounder I got from North Star is period-appropriate for 1868, but I knew the screw-guns that came with the Artizan crews certainly weren't!
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So far, so good, there old chap!
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Cheers! Might have helped if I'd formatted the image links correctly the first time round... :-X
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At long last, progress resumes on this project, and indeed one of the final bits of progress before the end! With five regiments of cavalry now done, that means that all the combat troops I had originally intended (plus a few more along the way!) have been finished. That leaves a few support figures, but I suspect I won't be able to get them all finished before I end up away from home for a stretch; still, all being well I will probably (probably) be able to call the project done by the end of next month.
https://cohortsofthedamned.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-anglo-indian-intervention-force-in.html
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5neufcdr03C2YvP6YQkzJr3ELvBGC998LF4xFdR8pqnYztgRCJX-_kHkzImbFgFzGTH7cRPg0AE4ag08aq5nR_1g5ZRefU-bzpdajOLrxNimonkXk3LQnXX91IaZR_r3EbjxBwhf-xaQ_MfBcdlg2s4VL7Tllqj-nxp03VnOdR-Be8w8NCbq4vg/w480-h640/IMG_1140.png)
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Fine looking force!
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That cavalry looks good!
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Great looking army! :-*
As a side note, does anyone have any idea what model of guns are depicted on the far ends of this 1864 photo? The guns I have should still be okay for 1868, but they don't seem to match any of the ones here, so I'm not sure about earlier scenarios.
Looking at the photo, the guns are almost certainly smooth bore cannons.
I'll drop a link here to a site entitled "Field Artillery of the British Army 1860 - 1960:"
http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol024dh.html
Don't know how accurate it is, but if you look at the very bottom, it shows that, with the exception of the 12 pd Armstrong rifled breech loading artillery piece which was introduced in 1861, the British didn't really shift to rifled artillery until around 1871.
So I would guess you are looking at 8 and 12 pdr cannons in the photo.
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Not the most exciting of updates (as is the inevitable way, I have been distracted by some other projects), but we did take the British out for a bit of a spin last night, playing the solo rules from TMWWBK as a cooperative game. Report over on my dad's blog this time:
https://d6onod6.blogspot.com/2024/05/battling-mr-babbage.html
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Great thread - good to see those Perry figures getting some usage 8)