Favorite Units I painted in 2022, Part 1

I'm continuing with my end of year wrap-up without a lot of commentary as my Beautiful Bride and myself are in the middle of a move. There are more details on the units that can be found by clicking on the links of the unit names which will take you to the original post.

My second unit of Mohegan Indians for the French and Indian War. In reality they could represent just about any tribe on the East Coast during the Colonial period through the end of the 18th Century.

I mounted them for Rebels and Patriots using the "3", "2", "1" method of basing which allows the creation of mini-vignettes. The above was fun to make and only took removing the base and bending the figure just a little to give it the impression of jumping over the log.  These great figures are from North Star's Muskets and Tomahawk range of figures. This pack is Indian Warriors 2 and can be found at this link on North Star's Website or if you are in the United States you can get them from Brigade Games.

High Elf General and Bodyguard for Dragon Rampant. These are the old metal GW Phoenix Guard figures which once again shows the versatility of the "Rampant" series of games. These were painted for Honorable Son #5 (The Skirmisher). The figure with the axe and sword became an accidental conversion when I broke the figures halberd. Keep those bits!

Okay, if I actually ranked them D Squadron, of the 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry would be in the top three. These are from Artizan Designs and are mounted for The Men Who Would be Kings.

If you haven't discovered WoFun Miniatures, you are in for a treat. I wanted to get back into Napoleonic gaming but did not want to buy the metal, put the plastic together or spend the time painting so I could have big battles again. WoFun miniatures are printed, color, flat plexiglass figures and I love them. I had an extra Dutch unit and easily converted them into the Confederation of the Rhine Battalion Number 3 (Frankfurt).

Here is my first force of Irregular Infantry for the game The Men Who Would be Kings which I painted as Pashtuns from the Afridi tribe though in reality they could be any tribal unit on the Northwest Frontier. They are Perry Plastics.

Speaking of Pashtuns, a major focus for me this year is the Northwest Frontier Uprising of 1897 - 98 and for my core Afghan Tribal force I am building 2 units of Tribal Infantry and 3 units of Irregular Infantry. In The Men Who Would be Kings the Tribal Infantry are primarily the "up close and personal warriors" while the Irregular Infantry focus more on shooting. Above is my first Tribal force and again they are Perry Plastics.

Sure it looks ridiculously large. Sure it's the size of a siege gun or fortress gun - but it looks cool! As soon as I saw the Large Cannon from WizKids at a local hobby store, it did not take long for the US $9.80 to exchange hands as I knew it would be part of my The Men Who Would be Kings Tribal Force to give the army of the British Raj trouble. The crew is from Artizan designs except the officer who is pointing which is another Perry Plastic.

Next: Part 2.

Third Quarter 2022 Update: How's the Plan (what plan?) going?

Rare photo of the Colonel on the Frontier.

Note: 3rd Quarter updates in Bold.

Well we had some unexpected setbacks - some happy and some sad. If you remember the 1st Quarter was almost a complete bust but I gained some momentum in the 2nd Quarter. 

So what happened in the 3rd Quarter? How did it go?

1. Well I had the disease that rhymes with dancer. After the surgeon removed a big chunk out of  my left leg, I did have fun coming up with a reason for the missing flesh and cool scare: I got it fighting space ninjas. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. (BTW I am dancer free.)

2. Three funerals and a wedding that involved some long range traveling.  I know it sounds like a movie title but time does pass on and I'm grateful that those who died are in the arms of Christ.

Here is the plan I developed for 2021:

But first - I forgot that Blood & Steel from Firelock Games was scheduled to be published.

My contribution looks more impressive than it actually was!

1. Continue to make my hobby self-sustaining as much as possible with eBay sales, commissions and the blog. By the way, if you are interested in having figures painted, feel free to contact me at nreinwald@yahoo.com. 

2. Scottish Units for the English Civil War. Nothing like already having unpainted figures to encourage you to save money - especially when you really want to paint them! My goal is to:

    a. Paint one to two Regiments of Foot. The actual number of regiments will depend on some conversions I need to due for musketeers as I have plenty of pike.

    b. Two units of Horse/Mounted Dragoons. No dismounted dragoons yet!

    c. One big honking cannon - pretty sure it's a Saker from Warlord Games but I'm too lazy to go up to the War Room and look right now.

The Scots will be painted later in the year (I hope! I really hope! Well maybe not)

Where is my cavalry?

3. Imperial Russian Army circa somewhere in my imaginary universe from 1880 to 1910. I've been having fun with my Fictional conflict of the Anglo-Russian War. Be a Daniel Mersey fan of many years, I use The Men Who Would be Kings (Paid Link) as my rules; though, I am thinking about giving The East is Ablaze a try. (Ministry of Finance) Yep, a sucker for Hollywood style and fun rules.

    a. One unit of Regular Infantry. (Ministry of Finance)

    b. One unit of Dragoons. (Ministry of Finance)

    c. One unit of Cossacks. (Ministry of Finance)

This one is iffy. Now I don't want to talk politics because this is a fun blog on Toy Soldies, but I wrote down my predictions in December about fuel prices, etc.; and not we do have high inflation and a recession in The United States. Time will tell whether the Russians will get their reinforcements. Plus I have been putting more effort, and some changes, into the Army of the Raj and Afghan tribal infantry.

"Where are my fellow Sowars?"

4. The British Indian Army.

    a. One unit of Sikh Cavalry (The 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry). Complete!

The 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry mounted with the alternative basing method for The Men Who Would be Kings.

    b. One unit of Bengal Lancers.  Complete!

    b. One unit of Highlanders. Purchased! I plan on painting them before Christmas.

    c. One unit of Gurkhas. (Ministry of Finance) Not yet purchased and will probably be delayed due to the current economic situation.

    d. A British Political Officer in Native Dress. How can you have the Great Game without a Political Officer? I'm planning on using a figure from the Perry Miniatures Hard Plastic Afghan Tribesman box. Done!

Not only did I do a Political Officer in Native Dress, but I did the fictional character Mahbub Ali "The Red Beard" from the classic novel Kim, by Rudyard Kipling.

Colonel Sir Robert Warburton, KCIE, CSI

Mahbub Ali, "The Red Beard"

In addition I did two more characters in the 3rd Quarter from the novel Kim:

Kimball "Kim" O'Hara AKA "Little Friend of All the World"

Teshoo Lama

     e. Remember that deal from eBay in 2nd Quarter? The Guides Infantry and the 20th (Punjab) Regiment have joined the British Indian Army:

The Queen's Own Guides, Infantry, Punjab Frontier Force

20th (Duke of Cambridge's Own) (Punjab) Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry

5. Afghanistan.

    a. Two units of 16 figures each of Perry Miniatures hard plastic Tribal Infantry

    b. Anything else will depend on tribute . . . err . . . subsidies from the British Raj or Imperial Russia.

Making progress on my tribesman . . . but there is a change of plans. After doing more research I'm going to do three units of 12 "shooters" and 2 units of 16  figures for the more melee focused troops. The first 16 figure unit is done, one of the units of "shooters" and 1/2 of a unit of shooters. I also coverted a Brigade Games figure that I had for one of the numerous Mad Mullahs and did a Victorian Sci-Fi Pashtun leader using some additional bits. In addition I purchased one more box of  Tribal Infantry. I also added the Afghan BFG!

First Irregular unit of Infantry - my shooters.

The Mad Mullah: Sartor Faqir!

First Tribal Infantry Unit.

First six figures of the second Irregular Infantry.

Major Ivan Rostov of the Russian Imperial Army and The Golden Sheik of the Pashtuns.

Russian gold and weapons are flowing into the frontier.

Special Characters for the Frontier.

Arithmetic on the Frontier.

6. French and Indian War. Did someone mention I'm a Daniel Mersey fan. Continuing on with the French and Indian War using Rebels and Patriots. (Paid Link)

    a. Finish one more unit of Native Skirmishers. Complete!

    b. One unit of French Regulars.  I'm estimating there will not be enough time.

    c. One unit of British Regulars or Colonial Regulars/Militia. As above.

7. Elite Heavy Elf Infantry for Dragon Rampant: This is a carryover from last year and won't take too long to finish these old GW Warhammer Elf Infantry. Complete!

I rebased Conan.

“Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, . . . and he needed a bigger base."

8. In Her Majesty's Name, 2nd Edition.

    a. Update my Adventuring Company's to the 2nd Edition. In Progress! Slowly but surely.

    b. Finish drafting and then play our campaign for 2022. Locally we had a multi-year campaign called "The War of the Witches" which involved, whenever available, friends, kids of friends, my Honorable Sons, and me (usually getting my butt kicked or being the gamemaster/umpire). With the victory of the Forces of Good (they had Teddy Roosevelt!) over the Forces of Evil (BWAH HAH HAH!) it's time to start another campaign. Two of the main, evil Adventuring Companies somehow managed to escape the defeat . . . and of course Professor Moriarty figured out which way the wind was blowing and helped (kinda). The first game will have the premier of my new Adventuring Company in the Highlands of Scotland.  We are still not sure if we will get one or two games in to start the campaign.

The campaign has been delayed but will happen and will bring us from Scotland to India and who knows where? Plus the return of everyone's favorite villain (BWAH HAH HAH!).

The fools THINK they won. BWAH HAH HAH!!!

    c. Do some odds and ends that will be needed for the campaign; you know - unexpected surprises! And here they are:

9. Terrain.

    a. Paint the roof of the mill and some other parts! I spent some time in New England visiting Honorable Son #1 (The Librarian) and his Beautiful Bride (The Doctor) plus Honorable Son #3 (The Engineer) and his Beautiful Bride (The Social Warrior) and was able to take a look at some real mills in the area. And some other areas of interest - but that is for another post.

I finished painting the mill but need to take some pictures!

    b. Put together an MDF Tavern that was given to me by Honorable Son #2 (The Captain) and his Beautiful Bride (The Lawyer). Looking forward to putting this together and using it on the tabletop. I still need to put it together.

    c. Scratch build a frontier fort. It's coming.

10. Play games! Two mass Napoleonic Battles. Epic!

    a. English Civil War.

    b. The Anglo-Russian War and the NW Frontier.

    c. The French and Indian War.

    d. The IHMN2 campaign (need to come up with a name of impending doom for the world). 

11. Secret projects.

    a. Getting back to my gaming roots. This will be the subject of a future post whether it is financed or not. (Ministry of Finance) Done! Back to mass battle Napoleonic's with WoFun Miniatures.

Converted Dutch Infantry into Frankfurt Infantry.

b. A board game/miniature project.  I'm estimating there will not be enough time! I actually started this. Honorable Son #4 has the new version of Ogre and I'm painting miniatures for the game:

Heavy Tank.

Ground Effect Vehicle (GEV): A fast lightly armored hovercraft.

Heavy Infantry.

New Project: Operation Heinlein! In anticipation of the release of Xenos Rampant, I'm test painting and thinking of what forces I want to build.

Hard plastic Space Marines (copyright Games Workshop requiring a Blood Oath and eternal loyalty to the Emperor) from Games Workshop (copyright Games Workshop requiring a Blood Oath and eternal loyalty to the Emperor) painted with Contrast Paints (copyright Games Workshop requiring a Blood Oath and eternal loyalty to the Emperor) with silly names so you can't remember what color to use which is why I keep a journal.

Hard plastic Rebel Soldiers from Star Wars Legion by Fantasy Flight Games. I really like this figure range.

Three months to go!