Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Colonial Adventures => Topic started by: 3 fingers on October 01, 2014, 02:51:17 PM
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Hi I did try searching,but then my head started to hurt,
Has anyone done Australian bush rangers,Ben hall,wild colonial boy etc miniatures
And what rules did they use in 28 mm .
Just thought it made a change from the Wild West.
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Dead Mans hand have announced a 'Down Under' expansion with new gangs.
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We used LOTOW.
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Blazeaway Miniatures:
http://www.blazeaway.com.au/AustralianColonial.html
Though from their main page, it doesn't look easy/possible to get these from them or their agents now:
http://www.blazeaway.com.au/Index.html
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I saw once where someone took Dixons Old West gunfighters in dusters and converted them to Ned Kelly's gang, The Rules With No Name iirc.
Foundry's American Civil War out west had some useful figures
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Blazeaway Miniatures:
http://www.blazeaway.com.au/AustralianColonial.html
Though from their main page, it doesn't look easy/possible to get these from them or their agents now:
http://www.blazeaway.com.au/Index.html
IIRC those were the old Greg Blake, Cannonfodder sculpts and pretty bloody ropey. Greg did some good stuff and some pretty bloody awful stuff.
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A friend painted mine and they came up OK as did the Aboriginals. Interestingly the Perry ACW rioters make good filler in a bushranging gang.
quote author=carlos marighela link=topic=71473.msg872893#msg872893 date=1412837040]
IIRC those were the old Greg Blake, Cannonfodder sculpts and pretty bloody ropey. Greg did some good stuff and some pretty bloody awful stuff.
[/quote]
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Yes, the sculpts are hit and miss. I think the Perry ACW rioters are a great idea. Hmmm, idea time.
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Does this indicate another gap in available miniatures?
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I'd like to see a sculpt of the South Australian Coorong Bushranger John Francis Peggotty :)
His 'story' is here:
http://coorongcountry.com.au/html/coorong-bushranger.html (http://coorongcountry.com.au/html/coorong-bushranger.html)
(http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e393/Captain_Darling/bushranger_zps63865a56.jpg)
Cheers!
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Interesting replies,certainly like the perry Acw rioters with firearms.
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Hm. The lack of aborigines is a bit of a poser. I'm surprised no decent range of them exists.
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A shame that Castaway Arts are not producing their Aboriginals ATM. I have my storage drawer containing them next to my keyboard and they are very nice. Slim, tall, weapons varied and my friend's paint job came up well.
Hm. The lack of aborigines is a bit of a poser. I'm surprised no decent range of them exists.
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I had couple books years ago and I think some aboriginal camps used to help feed the rangers and wasn't there a aboriginal sheep stealer/bandit ,
But I would thought a American west slave in tatty clothes with right skin tone and holding a spear or long thin digging stick would suffice?
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I understand where Scurv is coming from. I have a bag of ~100 15mm Aboriginal warriors. I don't know what to do with them yet - I wanted to do something colonial, but everything is so one-sided and frankly not pleasant.
I think I'll keep a few as trackers, and make the rest into a DBA or HOTT army which could battle Dream Time figures.
Scurv suggestion for using them as trackers / bushrangers is one I can agree with, but in the end it's up to you.
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I was tempted to use some of the North Star Africa Boers. Get rid of some of the top hats though...
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I use the Blaze Away Bushrangers in my Wild West games.
http://woolshedwargamer.com/2013/08/03/ethnic-gangs-in-my-old-western-town/
Cheers
Brian
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There were times and places during Australia's colonial history when/where bushranging and frontier conflict overlapped, such as Tasmania in the early 19th century (the bushrangers fought the Aborigines for their women), and, to a lesser extent, Queensland later in the same century. By the time the 'wild colonial boys' were active in NSW and Victoria in the 1860s the frontier had long since passed by; Victoria was completely 'settled', and only western NSW remained in contention.
A British figure manufacturer (not connected to great Escape Games or DMH) is planning to release an Australian colonial range in the next year or two.
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A couple of further points:
3 Fingers, I'm not really sure whether your question in the above post relates solely to bushranging, or whether you're making a muddied reference to frontier conflict, but as Scurvy points out, in the later 19th century there were a number of Aborigines who either identified as, or were identified by white society as, bushrangers. They were men who'd lived with and worked with/for settlers, and thus were familiar with both cultures, such as the Governor brothers (the historical model for the fictional Jimmy Blacksmith), Johnny Campbell, and Major. Some also place Western Australia's Jandamarra (Pigeon, to the whites) in this category, but although he was a former station hand and Police Assistant, in addition to his own firearm-equipped gang his 'campaign' involved a large proportion of his tribe acting independently in separate bands - so that three-year period in the 1890s when he was active has more of the character of a tribal uprising than merely an outbreak of bushranging.
Just in case you were actually enquiring about frontier conflict, and you're unaware of its extent, it's probably worth quoting from page 61 of the first volume of Henry Reynolds' comprehensive overview of that subject, 'The Other Side of the Frontier' (the other being 'Frontier'): 'Black resistance in its many forms was an inescapable feature of life on the fringes of European settlement from the first months at Sydney Cove until the early years of the twentieth century.' Reynolds quotes Edward Curr, a 19th century settler himself, who alongside a keen amateur anthropologist's interest in Aboriginal culture had first hand experience of conflict on three Australian frontiers through managing pastoral properties for his father (also called Edward). He said 'In the first place the meeting of the Aboriginal tribes of Australia and the White pioneer results as a rule in war, ... '. Reynolds also quotes a couple of other pioneers: 'I believe I am not wrong in stating that every acre of land in these districts was won from the Aborigines by bloodshed and warfare.', and of his own town another said that it 'had its foundations cemented in blood'. If you're interested in the subject these two books are the best starting point, but please recognise that they're just that; a deep understanding can only be gained from very extensive and wide-ranging reading.
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No i remember reading a book years ago and it mentioned someone visiting the camp of a native ,and he was a sheep stealer type,it had nothing to do with frontier conflict.
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Cattle duffing (rustling), too - which still goes on, only with the help of trucks, these days.
Overall, the situation in the 'outback' in the 19th century wasn't all that different to that of the American west. There were even occasional 'range wars' of a sort - although rival station hands here tended to fight it out with stock whips, rather than guns.
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Not really for a bushrangers game. I mean there would be black trackers working for the police but thats just a matter of choosing the brown paint and picking a ragged western type if you can find it.
Bushrangers were all about robbing people with western goods or gold or money or all three and thus aboriginals were not targets.
Oh as usual I was thinking of pulp. I started getting ideas for games ideas in Aussie backcountry using aborigine figures for the 30's rather than the bushranging era, since I figure the same figures might work for both: either traditional fellows with very little on, Or types with more western interactions, in which case, they might have some combination of simple pants, shirts, boots, and/or maybe hats that work in any sort of western or frontier time or place from the 1840's to the 1950's and from America to South Africa to Australia.
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Pending the release of dedicated bushranger figures, the best existing option is ACW guerillas with appropriate modifications, such as those made by Dixon. Unfortunately they're only available mounted. For matching mounted and dismounted figures there's a few possibilities in the Foundry Very Old West range, but they're only sold in packs with unsuitable figures. Maybe those desperate to get started could talk a friend into doing the pre-ACW border wars, sharing the cost, and letting them pick out what they want.
There are still Aboriginal people living the tribal lifestyle, so if you can get them, the Blaze Away figures are fine for the Pulp era. For detribalised Aborigines, a head swap between one of these and an African or African American figure in European clothing would probably work.
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Though, as has been pointed out, the Blaze Away figures are neither very good nor are they still available anywhere.
In any case, that's not pressing for me. It closes off a game idea or two, but nothing too terrible. But I'm really surprised that no other such figures exist.
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Me too. Unfortunately, figure manufacturers here in Oz other than Blaze Away have avoided the subject because of an overblown concern with the irrational prejudices, hypocrisy, and historical ignorance of a vocal minority, and even that company appeared embarrassed about having Aboriginal miniatures in its catalogue (you could almost sense the relief when they were deleted). Despite those figures being listed as Australian colonials, the proprietor often went to tortuous lengths to pretend that they were intended only for 'prehistoric' gaming, and to avoid mentioning the - frontier - war. Hopefully the forthcoming range I referred to will remedy the deficiency, and being British, the manufacturer concerned is geographically and politically distant from any tantrums of false national angst.
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Oh dear.
Feel better now?
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ROTFLMAO!
Oh dear.
Feel better now?
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After a closer look at those Dixon figures I've concluded that they're not really suitable for adaptation to bushrangers after all: they have distinctively American bucket-style stirrups. It looks like we'll just have wait for the real thing.
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I didn't know Ostriches were introduced to Australia that early. Well fancy that.
EDIT: Wait, where's that ostrich post gone? Bloody hell, way to make me look insane.
Ah, here it is -
I'd like to see a sculpt of the South Australian Coorong Bushranger John Francis Peggotty :)
His 'story' is here:
http://coorongcountry.com.au/html/coorong-bushranger.html (http://coorongcountry.com.au/html/coorong-bushranger.html)
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From a wargaming point of view its also right down the list of gamble conflicts, Mounted men armed with leaver action breach loading rifles vs people on foot with fire hardened wood and stone weapons. Who also it must be added never had the numbers needed for that sort of asymmetrical warfare and their entire way of waging war was completely different from the european concept of warfare an thus was totally unsuitable for combating this new threat.
Well, I think you just described every colonial war in history. So you just insulted nearly every gamer I know!
Luckily for us, manufacturers still continue to make Zulus, Maoris, Plains Indians, Masai, Ethiopians, etc..........
Maybe you should write letters to every manufacturer in the world asking them to stop and desist making those figures.
Even more, if you feel so strongly, why not give them your land back and return to whence your family originated.
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Bernie Clifton anyone?
(http://www.geocities.ws/comedy_tributes_uk/clifton03.jpg)
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Old Glory:
(http://www.oldglory25s.com/images/DWBC-02.jpg)
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..and also with a sword or a pack ostrich.
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The resemblance between the two is uncanny, ;D
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and:
(http://www.vitruvianzeke.com/Armies/AvesPics/Knights01.jpg)
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http://www.moddb.com/groups/humour-satire-parody/videos/blackadder-how-did-the-war-start
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From a wargaming point of view its also right down the list of gamble conflicts, Mounted men armed with leaver action breach loading rifles vs people on foot with fire hardened wood and stone weapons. Who also it must be added never had the numbers needed for that sort of asymmetrical warfare and their entire way of waging war was completely different from the european concept of warfare an thus was totally unsuitable for combating this new threat.
Most of the time a 'victory' was avoiding the people sent to kill you. Any small tactical victory under arms was a zero sum game because it more often than not led to a horrific and disproportionate response.
name one single war an aboriginal tribe won against the colonials. Not a battle or a skirmish but the actual war for control of the land. Zero zip nada and nil is the answer.
Which piece of your own verbiage does not describe all colonial wars from the Conquistadores until Ethiopia then?
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You're scenario would make for an amusing game, Bezzo, but I fear it's more Pax Limpopo (Eureka Miniatures) than historical: to my knowledge, camels weren't particularly common along the Coorong.
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It's clearly too early in the morning for literate responses: correction 'Your scenario...'.
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Scurv, I think you need some perspective. There are many Belgian Congo ranges. And I think no one will argue they were polite to the locals.
Europeans in Australia were not alone in its treatment of the current inhabitants when they arrived (wherever it was). The reality is humans all over the world can be cruel and I think a reason there isn't many Australian ranges is simple no interest (or perceived interest).
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its not an ostrich here its an emu too BTW 2 distinct and separate species. The ostrich is native to africa.
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Urm ... yes, I'm aware of that, hence I said -
I didn't know Ostriches were introduced to Australia that early. Well fancy that.
Ostriches were introduced into Australia in the 19th century in the same way camels were, but I didn't know it was that early on. If the story is accurate, I guess they must have been.
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If you want to put on a public participation game then I will even ensure the local aboriginal community gets invited so they too can have a chance of playing their own history in miniature!
I haven't seen many around here........
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I doubt that any remnant pre-Celtic populations would have much interest, Joroas.
Another likely explanation, Von Lucky, is the virtual absence of the sorts of sources of inspiration wargamers usually rely on to generate interest in a new 'period': miniatures; dedicated rules systems, or at least adaptations of suitable proxies; movies; articles; books.
In reality there are vast numbers of the latter two, but they're largely authored by academics within the confines of the disciplines of social and ethnic history with little understanding of military affairs, or the output of popular writers and local historians; very few military historians have given the subject any attention - two being John Connor and Jeffrey Grey. The current dearth of Australian colonial figures will of course be somewhat remedied by the forthcoming UK range, which will be fully supported in the hobby press with the requisite background material and rules ideas.
If you're looking for inspiration, keep an eye out early next year for the release of a local production from a young and enthusiastic Melbourne film maker on the final days of one of the most notorious 'wild colonial boys', 'Legend of Ben Hall' - initially as a short film. It's been funded through Kickstarter, and is to be released in time for the 150th anniversary of the outlaw's death in May. Once that goal has been achieved, the writer/director plans to produce a three hour epic recounting the entire Hall saga. He claims to place a high premium on historical accuracy, and has relied heavily on the advice of an expert NSW bushranger historian.
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I'd hazard the guess a cooling-down period is in order, for which I'll temporarily lock this thread.