Quick and Easy Jungle Terrain

A friend of mine recently asked me how I did my recent jungle terrain.  Gazook!  I took pictures and forgot to post.  Here is a quick tutorial on making jungle terrain:

I've been using old CDs; simply put masking tape over the hole and then use either white glue or a glue gun to affix the bushes and rocks.  The bushes are aquarium plants and cost about $5.00 a pack.  The rocks came from my garden path.

Plants and rocks are randomly placed but I do put my miniature figures on the CD to make sure there is enough space for them to move around.

Once the terrain is dry I liberally apply watered down white glue and then cover with hobby sand.

After the sand dries I always put another layer of watered down white glue to help seal the sand in place.

Once the second layer of sand is dry I apply static grass.  I decided to this quick and easy so I did not dry brush the sand this time.

28 mm figures on the terrain.

Mounted Infantry Anglo-Zulu War

As I mentioned earlier I am getting back to my roots with 1/72 scale plastic soldiers.  I have decided to raise field forces for for both the Imperial Forces and the Zulus for The Men Who Would be Kings. 

Scale comparison: 1/72 HaT mounted infantry and Empress Miniatures 28mm.

As I already have Imperial units and have started Afghan units in 28 mm I thought building forces of large tribal infantry in 1/72 would be an inexpensive and visually impressive collection.  First up is a unit of British mounted infantry.

   
The mounted infantry consisted of two squadrons of 150 men each, a total of 300 enlisted, NCOs and officers. The men of the Imperial mounted Infantry were regular soldiers taken from several regiments within the British Army in South Africa. The men included troops from the 3rd, 13th, 24th, and 80th Regiments of Foot. The soldiers retained their foreign-service helmets and regimental tunics, but were issued with Bedford cord breeches, riding boots and a brown leather ammunition bandolier. They retained their haversacks and Oliver pattern water-bottles but discarded the rest of their valise pattern equipment for mounted service. 

The Mounted Infantry proved a versatile force for scouting and skirmishing. They would screen the main column and provide cover for advancing troops. They were more reliable and versatile than many other Anglo-Allied cavalry units because they had experience being regular British foot soldiers as well as cavalrymen.  During the initial advance into Zulu Land, the first squadron of Mounted Infantry was attached to No. 3 Column that made camp at Isandhlwana. The second Squadron was with No. 1 Column.

As the name suggests, the mounted infantry invariably dismounted to fight, telling off one man in four as horse-holders.

Of course I painted them with blue facings and it looks like none of the mounted infantry have blue facings . . . oh well.

In The Men Who Would be Kings a regular mounted infantry unit is composed of 12 figures and can move 8" making it a fast, hard hitting infantry unit.

Auction: Beautifully Painted Early Saxons or Western Barbarians

Along with my Late Romans I am bidding (I could not resist the pun) farewell to my ferocious Sea Dogs that have ravaged Britain for a least 16 or 17 gaming years.  The auction is located Here.

They are an excellent elite raiding force.

1 Foot Companions:  5 points. Warriors of course!
3 Noble Warriors: 15 points.  Extra armor, skill with weapons and flags.
3 Ordinary Warriors: 9 points.  We can fight.  Just point us in the right direction.
2 Skirmishers: 2 points.  One stand with bows and one stand with javelins.

Auction: Beautifully Painted 28mm Late Roman Army Wargames Foundry

It is time to bid adieu to my Late Roman Army, my faithful "Lantern Bearers".  Now that I am doing other periods, I need the space so I hope they go to a good home!  The Auction is Here.

I mounted them on 120mm wide bases for the game Dux Bellorum and Impetus. If you want to mount them differently just soak the bases for about 30 minutes in water and the figures will come loose.

For Dux Bellorum I envisioned this force as the cream of the Roman army stationed in Britain with excellent cavalry and solid infantry:

1 Mounted Companions: 5 points.  This is the Roman general and his personal retinue of Huns!
1 Cataphracts: 6 points. Well, I have some painted so why not?  
1 Noble Riders: 5 points.  Veteran and well mounted cavalry.
1 Mounted skirmisher: 2 points.  Armed with javelins, these local auxiliaries have been tracking and keeping an eye on the Saxon dogs.
4 Ordinary Shieldwall: 12 points. Solid Roman Infantry.
3 Foot Skirmishers: 3 points.  One unit armed with javelins and two with bows.

Back to my Roots: 1/72 Scale Figures

I was either 10 or 11 years old when I started buying my first 1/72 scale Airfix figures.  I would make the 15 minute walk to the Woolworth store (yep, carbon dating myself) and plop down that hard earned money to purchase primarily World War I and World War II miniatures.  In high school my brother Shawn (Semper Fi!) acquired a copy of the Airfix Guide to Napoleonic Gaming and we were hooked.  From then on out it was the Airfix Napoleonic figures that we purchased; I was the British and he was the French.  I was about 15 when I started painting my miniatures and was sad when I saw the paint flack off.  Now that I am older and wiser (Hah!) I am going to properly prepare my soft plastic miniatures for painting.

I've decided I am going to do the Anglo-Zulu war in 1/72 scale and I have been absolutely floored by the variety of manufacturers and figures that are available now.  The majority of the figures I am going to use are from HaT miniatures based here in the good ole USA.  Up first:  British Mounted Infantry.

The box of HaT miniatures comes with 9 mounted and 9 dismounted figures.  I am going to be mounting them individually for The Men Who Would be Kings so this is perfect.  

The box comes with 3 sprues with 3 mounted figures, 3 dismounted figures and 4 horses each.  Oh be still my beating heart - there are horse holders.  As these are mounted infantry and they dismount to fight I'm going to model the unit with 3 mounted figures, 3 horse holders and 6 figures firing.

A better look at the horses and the bonus puggarees glue to the helmets if you want to use them for the Sudan or later wars.
 

The back of the box to show better the contents of what comes with it.  The price was great: $8.95 plus about $4.00 for shipping from eBay.  In 28 mm using the excellent Empress Miniatures Range this would have cost me $70 plus shipping.

With soft plastic miniatures it is essential that you wash them in warm water with liquid dish washing soap.  The figures have a light coating of a material that makes them easier to remove from the casting process - it also makes it easier to remove your paint!  I used a brush to scrub them and then I let them dry in the old dish rack.

Next I primed them black and mounted them on wood bases for the painting.  I discovered to use more white glue than I do with metal figures.  I also gave up on modeling glue to glue the figures on the horses.  The modeling glue does not melt the plastic well to get the bound so I just used super glue which worked excellently.

I prefer using black primer so black it is.  Black gives me a more weathered look for the units when I apply the paint.

Figures mounted on wooden bases for painting.  Right before I started painting I remembered that in smaller scales to make the colors a little brighter in order for them not to fade into the distance at gaming distance.  I also decided I was going to pant these men quickly; no three layer painting and shading. The majority of the paints I use are Vallejo with some GW.

Since these would be the first 1/72 figures I have painted in over 40 years, I decided to forge ahead with a test figure.  From the pictures you can see I was okay with the results as some of the in progress figures are in the background.  I can't wait to get the whole unit finished.