Pendraken Painting Competition 2024

I haven't posted in a bit but I have been painting...I took a hiatus from my various projects to paint up some entries for the Pendraken Painting Competition. I can't believe it's been full year since I was in this same position for the 2023 competition. I still remember making the conversions to the little Italian tankette and trying to figure out how they were painted up in the Spanish Civil War. So much of my life has dramatically changed for me in 2023, it really wasn't a good year.  Here is hoping that 2024 brings more joy and less sadness. 

Anyway, I decided the competition would be a good opportunity to kickstart some new projects and resurrect a few dormant ones.

First up is an M24 Chaffee in French service during the Indo-Chinese war, this is "11". I added some homemade storage and a radio wire. The Chaffee (or Bison as the French called them in the war) is a small little bugger but they were thought of quite highly by the French as they offered good firepower, protection and low ground pressure. 

I didn't really do anything spectacular with the basing as these are, first and foremost, gaming pieces. 

Next up is a Viet Minh platoon with attachments. These guys are based for Five Core Company Commander. Each big base is a section of infantry, supported by some support weapons and attachments: a sniper, commander, bazooka team and heavy machine gun. I painted them in a mix of khaki, yellow green and grey green to capture the polygot nature of the uniforms.

The sniper is actually a Japanese sculpt but since the Viet Minh didn't have a sniper in their range and they used a lot of old Japanese kit, I figured it would be quite suitable. 

Next up we visit the late 17th century, specifically 1685 and the battle of Sedgemoor. I painted up Kirke's Lambs, the Queen Dowagers Regiment of Foot. I have painted this notorious unit before in 15mm. If you follow my blog, you may remember I painted up some of the rebels for the 2022 Pendraken competition, after that I let the project languish for nearly 2 years before I tackled these fellas. 

I also painted up Oxford's Regiment of Horse in their blue uniforms and blackened armor. What's interesting about these guys is that I first began painting this unit in 10mm in 2016 or so. They were less than half painted and languishing in a bin for about 7 years so dusted them off (literally) and repainted them I in their entirety. 

From 1685, we go back to the future to 1866 with the wacky invasion of Canada by Irish American veterans (Fenians) of the Civil War. First up, we have some Canadian militia. The mounted arm of the Canadian force is the Governor General's Bodyguard in their dark blue uniforms trimmed in white. The GGBG weren't present at the Battle of Ridgeway but we're involved in some of the peripheral actions.

Most uniform descriptions I have seen indicate the cross belt should be white however I saw a black and white photo of a trooper wearing a buff leather cross belt and decided it was a an accurate way of adding a bit more color to the unit. 

Next up we have a mounted officer of the Queen's Own Rifles (QOR) as he leads his men past a fence line at the battle of Ridgeway. The fence is courtesy of Pendraken's very nice fence range and I felt bad butchering a segment for the purposes of this base. I promise to use the remaining pieces in bits of scenery. 

I painted this mounted officer to represent Captain Otter of the QOR. As such, he sports a neatly trimmed mustache and brown hair. 

Next up is a mounted officer from the 13th Hamilton militia (same sculpt as the QOR officer) looking very triumphant as he rides past a fallen Fenian invader. I painted him up as a specific officer of the 13th but I can't remember his name.at the moment. The fallen Fenian was inspired by some beautiful artwork found in the Osprey volume (which was inspired by an actual black and white photo from the period) that covers the Canadian 19th century militia. 

Here is our Canadian army commander stand which depicts General Alfred Booker and a member of the GGBG acting as escort. Booker has a map of the area clenched in his right hand. 

Booker gets some criticism for his handling of the battle because he panicked when he saw some mounted Fenian scouts and ordered his units to form square in the middle of a firefight. The ensuing chaos forced the Canadians to retire from the field. 

 

Here we have 3 companies of Fenian invaders. I painted them in uniform bits described in Peter Vronsky's book about the Fenian Invasion and gave them a conjectural Fenian flag. The Fenians wore surplus ACW kit, some of which was trimmed in green, civilian garb and green uniforms bits.

The figures were sourced from the Pendraken ACW range. I quite like the ragtag look that's tied together by bits of blue and green. 

And finally we have some Canadian infantry, red clad 13th Hamilton and green uniformed Queens Own Rifles. I should state that I had some difficulty with the uniforms of the Canadians. They used very dark blues and greens that's were hard to replicate in miniatures and still be historically accurate. Hopefully I captured their look decent enough. 

And there we have it. Actually, not quite as I still need to finish up some 1973 Yom Kippur War Egyptians. They will also be based for Five Core Company Commander rules which are my default choice for 20th century conflicts at the company level. Stay tuned for them as I race against the clock to get them finished and photographed. 

UPDATE: I managed to snap some pictures of the 1973 Yom Kippur War Egyptians. I always imagined that if I ever gamed the conflict, I would probably do it in 3mm or 6mm and would probably focus on the armor aspects. Pendraken released their 1974 ranges and I really like the sculpts so I picked some up. I didn't really know much about the Egyptian uniforms so I was surprised to see them in their "assault vests". 

I'm fairly happy with the basing. I used a fiber past with sand glued once dry. The base color was craft paint "teddy bear fur", a diluted AP soft tone wash and then some dry brushing to even everything out. The figures are based for Five Core Commander.

Fenian Fever!

I've been working on my 10mm Fenian Invasion project. The plan is use the rules from the Army of Ireland boardgame and tweak it a bit to my taste and to the tabletop. Scale will be roughly 10/1 so each base is a company of about 50 men. That will give me about 17 or so bases for each side with some optional bases for hypothetical what-ifs. Let's start with one of the units that wasn't present at the battle of Ridgeway but may be in my tabletop refights...the Governor General's Bodyguard (GGBG):

The figures are Pendraken and the sculpts depict them in their campaign uniforms with the pillbox hat instead of the helmet. 

I used the Osprey book on the Canadian military from the period of the Fenian and Metis conflicts. 

I found some conflicting evidence regarding their bandolier. A black and white photo depicts one of these chaos with a natural leather bandolier although I have also read and seen depictions with this bandolier in white. 

Some Fenians charging at you in this picture. These are a mix of ACW Union and Confederates.

I painted these guys up in a mix of Union uniforms, Fenian attire and civilian garb. Green jackets and kepis and green trim on Union blue was also popular. I found the flag image online and scaled it down to 10mm and printed it out. I'm not sure if this one was at Ridgeway but it's too cool not to include on the tabletop!

Canadian militia charging right at you!

The redcoated Canadian militia depict the 13th Hamilton militia. There were about half a dozen companies of this unit present at Ridgeway. Some aspects of the Canadian uniforms were a bit tricky with the black/blue pants on these guys and the Queen's Own Rifles (QOR) blackish rifle green uniforms.

Speaking of the QOR and their dark green uniforms, here they are. There were about a dozen companies of the QOR present and I am halfway finished painting all of them. 

 

My Fenian Project v2.0

It was back in 1992, when I was flipping through Issue 15 of Command Magazine that I was first inspired to wargame the Fenian Invasion of 1866 and specifically The Battle of Ridgeway. There was an excellent article on the obscure conflict (and if you look at so many of the projects on this blog, you understand I love obscure conflicts). It had color photos of reenactors, color maps and a solid writeup. I was in high school at the time and the options for figures were a bit more limited in those days. The Fenians are fairly straightforward since they were primarily kitted out in ACW surplus and/or civilian garb. The Canadian militia was a bit trickier with the tunics, trousers, shakos and porkpie caps. 

(Queens Own Rifles)

(13th Battalion Hamilton Militia)

In the meantime, I purchased several other publications on the little-known invasion. Probably the best of the lot being Peter Vronsky's book on the subject. I even purchased a small portable boardgame in a tin in the battle (more on that later).

About 20 years later, I had tracked down relatively suitable figures for the Canadians in 15mm and painted some up...I even posted it on this blog. It took some effort to track down suitable figures and order them from a small manufacturer in New Zealand but that project stalled like so many others...

(The magazine issue that started the project...)

Years later, Pendraken released a decent sized range of Canadian militia specifically for the 1866 Fenian invasion. 10mm is my favorite scale by far but I had already gone through great effort to collect armies in 15mm and I had so many other projects in my lead pile.

Fast forward to now. Recently Pendraken held their painting competition and, on a lark, I submitted a couple of entrants into the ring. My Falklands Argentines here took second place. Ironically enough, the Argentines were purchased in part from proceeds from me placing in the 2015 Pendraken Competition with these buggers. I was very surprised and humbled when I found out my Argentines took 2nd place in their category, netting me a £20 gift certificate. I decided to apply that to a Fenian purchase from Pendraken. I also purchased some Canadian cavalry and artillery for what-if scenarios and figures from the ACW range for the Fenians themselves. The figures were sorted but what of the rules?

Ridgeway was a small battle with no more than 1500-2000 total participants, the vast majority of the combat seems to have been conducted in loose skirmish order. There were no massed ranks or Pickett's Charges in this one and some of the antics give the impression of a very amateurish donnybrook rather than disciplined combat. Casualties were very low, the Canadians didn't bring extra ammunition and their commanding officer mistakenly gave the order to form square when he thought he saw Fenian cavalry on the edge of the battle. 

I decided I would probably come up with some kind of home-brew quickplay ruleset for this unique battle. The company would be the unit of maneuver (giving each side around 15-20 units) and a company would be a single base with 4-5 figures on it in loose order. 

Back to that aforementioned boardgame I previously purchased...it had the rather catchy title "Army of Ireland" and it had some very simple rules that have a bit of flavor for the battle. I plan to borrow from these a good amount when I craft my own. 

At any rate, the figures are ordered, the brain is percolating ideas and I ordered another book on the subject to read when I ultimately embark on the project. As for the when...well, I want to tackle my high priority projects first this year but its possible we revisit this later in 2021. Hopefully its not another decade before I post on them again...

My Fenian Project

After years on the backburner, I have finally decided to embark on my 15mm Fenian project. One of the problems, is that there isn't a dedicated range for the Fenian Invasions. The good news is that you can use some Maori Wars ranges, the bad news is that Maori ranges won't provide everything and there aren't many 15mm Maori ranges (maybe two). These are BattleLines 15mm painted up as the 13th Hamilton Militia (present at the Battle of Ridgeway).


The bulk of the Canadian force present at Ridgeway were the 2nd Battalion, Queens Own Rifles (QoR). The QoR were essentially uniformed and equipped the same as the 13th Hamilton, but in Rifle Green as opposed to the Redcoat of infantry. The Battle Lines range are all in the pillbox cap, while probably worn at Ridgeway, the official headgear was the quilted shako. I plan to find some figures with a suitable shako and then conduct some head swaps.



These chaps are the Welland Canal Field Battery. So, where are the guns? Apparently due to haphazard care and security of their Armstrong guns, the British military took them from them as punishment. They continued their duties as infantry. These figures were a small challenge. I couldn't find figures in busbies wearing 1860s British uniform. I took Battle Lines infantry and conducted a head swap with 18mm Crimean War Royal Horse Artillery (Eureka). Maybe not perfect, but I am pleased with the results. While not present at Ridgeway, the Welland Canal Field Battery were closeby, and the Canadians will need all the help they can get to have a chance at the refight of Ridgeway!

Here we have members of the Dunneville Naval Brigade. They were assigned to the tug WT Robb. The Naval Brigade was with the Welland Canal Field Battery at Fort Erie and will serve as reinforcements for Ridgeway.









Hopefully I will have some more Canadians converted and painted up soon. If anyone knows a good source for 15mm/18mm quilted shako proxies, let me know. Thanks!