Irregular Wars: Woodland Indians Battle

I have always been interested in the Age of Discovery and the wargaming potential of the conflicts. The Irregular Wars ruleset allows me to recreate these battles. This past October I visited Jamestown, Virginia which rekindled my interest for the period. Unfortunately, there is no dedicated 15mm range of Powhatan Indians. I opted to go with the Khurasan "pre-contact" Iroquois as my generic Eastern Woodlands Indian battle. For Irregular Wars, the Woodland Indians have three primary combatant types: Veteran Warriors, Warriors and Scouts. I decided to use the Khurasan Noble Warriors with armor as my Veterans, a mix of bow, club and shield for my Warriors and lighter equipped Iroquois and allied Indians as my Scouts. Thus far, I have seven bases (or "companies") complete. I will be adding more later.

Veteran Warriors:

Warriors:

Scouts:

Battle:

 
I am awaiting an order of Freikorps Tudor English to start off my English Adventurer Battle. I am also contemplating an order of East Riding Miniatures and Grumpy's to supplement the Freikorps. In the meantime, I will continue to work on the Woodland Indians and some Spanish Conquistadors.

Its been almost a year since I last posted, at the request of a friend and fellow gamer I begin 2013 with a post and a "pledge"; the pledge will be to try my utmost to keep wargaming expenditures around $30 per month (which is a drastic reduction). So,what have I been doing? One is buying a lot and painting a modest amount of 10mm figures for Neil Thomas' 19th Century European Wargaming rules. Specifically, the Risorgimento and the First Schleswig War:

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!

10mm Yankees

I just finished this Old Glory 10mm Union Regiment. These guys are based om 1"x3/4" bases, so they can be used for Fire & Fury, Piquet: Field of Battle or Too Fat Lardies" They Couldn't Hit an Elephant.

Fuzzy Wuzzy Camels

Here are some pictures of my recently completed 15mm Fuzzy Wuzzy Camelry. Since there is no actual manufacturer of these guys, had to do some conversions ranging from minor to major. The Camels were either Essex pre-Islamic arab or Warrior Dervish. Other parts used were Stone Mountain and Minifigs' Fuzzies. Some of the riders have odd proportions due to my poor conversion skills, but they will do! Basing is for Too fat Lardies' TDLIUE.




The camels are either Essex or Warrior. The Essex camels have the padded blankets and more proportional camel bodies. The far left and right camels were minor conversions: shaving off bows, quivers, etc. and adding spears, shields and fuzzy 'fros.









The three Warrior camels (2nd, 3rd and 5th from left) used Dervish torsos with either Stone Mountain of old Minifigs upper torsos. The Essex camel (4th from left) uses an Essex lower rider and a Stone Mountain upper body.

10mm Zouaves by Old Glory...painted up as the 5th NY Vols, I believe...






Some Confederate infantry, also Old Glory. I probably added too many Union pants and made them look too hodge podge...oh well!





The two units face off!

15mm Colonials

I picked up some 15mm colonials recently. I managed to paint some up, but still haven't based them...

First up are some 15mm Spanish American War figures from TVAG. The top three are US Volunteer Infantry. There seems to be only one pose for the rank and file, and one pose of officer and standard bearer (not pictured).











The bottom three are Spanish regular infantry in field dress. There seems to be 3 poses for the rank and file (shown). You can't see it in the photos, but I attempted the rayadillo with a light duck blue and some small, fine white lines to give the impression of pinstriping. I didn't take much effort and I am pleased with the impression it gives.






Last up are some 15mm Stone Mountain Sudan range. The upper left 3 are Mahdi ansar with spear (one pose per pack). The upper right shows some British in advancing pose (also one pose variation). The bottom 2 rows show the mixed Fuzzy Wuzzy pack of spear, sword and rifle armed warriors. Very nice figures.