On Parade! Victorian Science Fiction – Foreign Legion

This posting from my On Parade! series, in which I’m slowly reviewing every figure in my wargaming collection, features my small Victorian Science Fiction French Foreign Legion force.

Have you ever started a club project in a rush of enthusiasm, only to peter out a few weeks later with only some dribs and drabs of painted forces completed? Well, this force is one of those.

The idea had been to build up a French force to do battle in a Victorian Science Fiction campaign against Colonel O’Truth’s British and Scott’s Prussians/Zendarians.

I couldn’t find a range of 28mm late-19th century French who conveyed that particular Gallic look I was after. So I settled on the French Foreign Legionaries in Foundry’s range of Western figures.  While they didn’t quite capture the exact look either, they were so character-filled in other ways that I couldn’t resist them.

One thing I really liked about these figures was their comic-book style. They are nice and hefty figures, with wonderfully chunky features and exaggerated expressions. I know some wargamers look down on such non-anatomically correct figures – but I think they have a charm of their own.  

For some VSF mechanical weirdness with which to arm my legionnaires, I bought a box of toys made by Bandai in Japan, based on the anime movie Steamboy. Although they were all differing scales, and not designed for 28mm figures, I thought that I could convert them to fit.

For example, the above armed steam tractor is in fact scaled for about 15mm figures. But as demonstrated by temporarily placing a 28mm figure behind it, it could possibly work as a smaller vehicle. As there is no room for a 28mm crew behind the gun shield at the front, I planned to convert the cannon into a gatling gun, connected to the driver’s position by guitar string conduits with which he could fire remotely.

Here’s a rather weird contraption to say the least. At the front is a peculiar bogie with road/rail wheels surmounted by the driver’s chair, behind which is a robot-like vertical boiler with arms. A raked horizontal boiler leads to the stoker’s cab perched just in front of the huge single driving wheel.

Again, it’s miles too small for 28mm (probably more about 10mm in this case). But with some work it could change from being a large road train to a much smaller sort of train-car-motorcycle thingumabob, with the driver sitting in the cab at the rear.

How long these models have been sitting ‘on the shelf’ can be gauged by the cobwebs and dust they are still covered in!

This walker is pretty good just as. I think in the movie it is actually a kind of diving suit. But here it could be a menacing armoured war-machine.

But how this tin-can could ever keep its balance in battle on those tiny trotters, I don’t know! It’s just asking for its legs to be lassoed and pulled over!

But in the end, as I’ve said, the project petered out, and here are the only figures I ended up painting for it. However, they are still very nice and characterful figures in wonderfully flamboyant uniforms, and so I rather like this little force. Maybe one day I’ll add its VSF equipment.

But in the meantime it is perfectly suitable for the period these figures were actually made for: the ill-fated ‘Maximilian Adventure’ to place a Hapsburg emperor on the Mexican throne during the 1860s, the scene of one of the Foreign Legion’s finest hours—the last stand at Camarone. I just need some Mexicans …

Don’t forget to visit my other On Parade! postings, in which I’m gradually doing inspection parades of every army in my wargaming collection.

I should be dead …

There’s a wargaming superstition that if you reach the bottom of your ‘lead mountain’  of unpainted figures, you’ll die.  Well, I’ve been at the bottom of my lead mountain for a few weeks now, and I’m pleased to say that I’m still hale and hearty!

I’ve had several projects on the go over the last few years, but all have now either concluded, or are awaiting the manufacture of new figures.

 

Samurai:  I’ve painted two opposing factions (or ‘buntai’) for 28mm skirmish gaming, and made a lot of terrain.  But I seem to have used up all my enthusiasm for this period in getting this far.  No other possible factions really interest me.  And I have no intention of taking this period beyond skirmish anyway. So I’ve got enough figures and terrain for now.

 

Pirates:  This project has been pretty well completed for some time now.  We only play with smallish units anyway, so adding more figures to my already more-than-enough collection would be overkill.

 

18th century ‘imagi-nation’:  I’ve painted all the units that were in the film ‘Barry Lyndon’, so the next step in this project would be to paint some totally fictional units.  I’ve always fancied the green and red uniforms of the Russians.  Whilst such a unit would be imaginary, it would seem stupid not to paint actual Russian figures rather than simply re-colour the uniforms of some other nation.  However, my manufacturer-of-choice for this project, Minden Miniatures, doesn’t do Russians yet.  So this project is now on hold until they do (in 2015, I’m told).

 

Napoleonics:  I’ve got more than enough battalions of British, French, Portuguese and Spanish to play a reasonable Napoleonic game.  Adding more will be just repetitive, and I never use all my units at once anyway.  I’ve also got hordes of individually-based ‘big men’ for leading my troops under the ‘Sharp Practice’ rules – but as most of them haven’t even seen action yet, no more are required.

 

Colonial New Zealand Wars:  I’ve now got a couple of sides sufficient for  large skirmish games.  Like my Napoleonics, adding to them at the moment would be just ‘more of the same’, for which I really have no need.  However, this is  period dear to my heart, so if Empress Miniatures ever make anything else for this period, I’ll be in like Flynn!

 

Victorian science fiction:  I’ve only painted one unit for this, and it is barely Victorian science fiction, being a French Foreign Legion unit as they appeared during Maximilian’s Mexican Adventure.  But I just can’t drum up any more enthusiasm to continue with this project.

 

American Civil War:  I have a couple of miscellaneous units painted up , but this period doesn’t interest me enough to buy any more.

 

What about starting a completely new period, then?  Well, I hate being at the start-point of a project.  There is nothing out there that is calling to me sufficiently to overcome the hurdle of starting from scratch.

So, where does that leave me?  Well, I’m seeing his as a holiday from painting.  I think I’ll just wait out until either Minden Miniatures (for my Russians), or Empress Miniatures (for new NZ Wars figures) come through.

Another possibility is to do some vignettes to decorate the battlefield, especially for my Napoleonics.  Perry Miniatures and Westfalia are currently making some very nice wagons and other background stuff, such as this lovely little sutler’s cart.

 

So, I aten’t dead yet!

 

 

 

Ironclad gunboats on the River Waikato in 1863

An old Police colleague of mine has recently written a book that will be of interest to colonial-period wargamers. The Waikato River Gunboats by Grant Middlemiss, and illustrated by marine draughtsman Harry Duncan, is the story of the gunboats used by the British during the invasion of the Waikato, New Zealand, 1863.

The Waikato Flotilla was purpose built for the New Zealand Colonial Government, and deployed during the British invasion of the Waikato 1863, when a force of 12,000 British and Colonial troops invaded the Waikato region.

To reach the rich pastoral land of the Waikato interior a reliable transport route was required to move the men and their supplies. The Waikato river provided that route.

The armoured iron gunboats of the Waikato Flotilla formed the base of a naval force and transport service to move the troops past the Maori fortifications along the river.

The Waikato Maori who took up arms against the British built sophisticated defensive lines along the river, and later inland, to stop the advance of the invading army.

This book tells the story of those gunboats and their life on the river during the Waikato campaign.

Here’s a poster by Harry Duncan, showing all the river gunboats of the Waikato Flotilla.

 

HMCS Pioneer, originally named Waikato, as she looked on her arrival at Onehunga from Australia in 1863.

 

HMCS Koheroa, built in Sydney and shipped to Port Waikato in sections where she were assembled in 1864.

 

HMCS Avon with reduced armour as she was deployed on the Waipa River in January 1864.

 

The small gunboats Ant and Chub, two of the four coastal sailing craft that were armoured with iron plate and fitted with an Armstrong gun and Coehorn mortar.

 

• The Waikato River Gunboats
• Author: Grant Middlemiss
• Marine draughtsman: Harry Duncan
• Over 80 illustrations on 124 pages in B5 format
• Website: www.waikatorivergunboats.com
• $NZ35.00
• Available by emailing the author: middlemissgrant@gmail.com or in New Zealand through PaperPlus stores

 

Here is the contents page of the book:

Preface ……………………………………………………………. 3

Overview of the conflict ………………………………………………… 5

Naval presence ………………………………………………… 10

Plan to invade: birth of the Waikato Gunboat Flotilla …………….. 13

Purchase of Avon ………………………………………………… 13

Avon arrives on the Manukau ……………………………………. 18

Maori threats concerning Avon ……………………………………. 22

From peaceful trader to armoured gunboat ………………………… 23

Construction of small gunboats ……………………………………. 29

Seizing Maori canoes ……………………………………………….. 34

Captain Mercer and his experiments ………………………… 37

Wreck of HMS Orpheus ……………………………………. 38

Avon deployed to assist rescue operations ………………………… 40

Intelligence from the Waikato interior ………………………… 40

Avon heads for the Waikato ……………………………………. 42

Battle of Koheroa ………………………………………………… 42

Avon reaches the Waikato river ……………………………………. 43

Exploring the Waikato ………………………………………………… 44

Avon in her first action ………………………………………………… 46

Maori fortifications July-October 1863 ………………………… 48

Consolidation of British position ……………………………………. 50

Arrival of gunboat Pioneer ……………………………………. 53

Battle for Meremere ………………………………………………… 61

Consolidating Cameron’s position ……………………………………. 66

Battle of Rangiriri ………………………………………………… 67

Capture of Ngaruawahia ………………………………………………… 74

Marching to the interior ……………………………………. 78

Establishing the Water Transport Corps ………………………… 81

Port Waikato naval dockyard ……………………………………. 85

Death of Lieutenant Mitchell ……………………………………. 87

Sinking of Avon ……………………………………………………………. 87

Arrival of Koheroa ………………………………………………… 90

Moving on to the Waipa Plains ……………………………………. 95

The raising of Avon ………………………………………………… 97

Move to Upper Waikato river ……………………………………. 98

The Royal Navy pulls out of the Waikato ………………………… 104

Epilogue ……………………………………………………………. 106

French Foreign Legion finished

My unit of Foundry French Foreign Legion in Mexico is now finished.  They are for my VSF project, which I have described earlier in this post and the following one.

I’m quite pleased with the overall campaign look of these guys.  And there is no doubt that foundry miniatures are some of the ‘fun-est’ figures to paint, with their exaggerated poses and caricaturish faces.

My next job will be to kit-bash some of those wonderful little Bandai ‘Steamboy’ toys posed behind the figures in this photo.  They’ll become the Foreign Legion’s automated weaponry.

French Foreign Legion for VSF (2)

Sergeant Morzycki at the controls of the gun tractor.

The infernal gun tractor.

Four new legionaires join my small force.

The first two officers I painted.

Capitaine Danjou with the secret weapon – no, I don’t know what it does, either.

The whole crew so far – the four newest on the right.

Slow progress, but I’ve finished painting four more of my Foundry French Foreign legion filibusters for my embryo VSF project.  Click on any of the pictures above to see larger versions.

I’ve followed the example on the Foundry website of painting some in red trousers, and some in white. Along with the various attire, this gives a real campaign look.

The basing is not yet done – I’ll save that for when all the figures are painted, so I can do it in one messy operation.

Oddly, the running legionaire with the red trousers is not shown in the illustration of this particular pack on the Foundry website. I’m not sure if it was a mistake that he was added to the pack, but he is a welcome recruit to my small force.

I’ve posed one of the legionaires as if he is controlling one of my Bandai gun tractors. Although the tractor is in actual fact scaled for about 15mm figures, I think it looks OK as a small vehicle in 28mm. As there is no room for a 28mm crew behind the gun shield, I’ll convert the cannon into a gatling gun, connected to the driver’s position by guitar string conduits with which he can fire remotely.

The driver will sit at the back where I currently have just put a standing figure. I’ll need to find a plastic figure that I can convert into a seated driver. Possibly a Perry American Civil War figure will do the trick, but I’m not going to splash out on a whole box to buy just two figures (I have two gun tractors to add drivers to). So if anyone has a couple of spare figures they can sell me, please let me know!

French Foreign Legion for VSF

After quite a long pause, I’ve at last lifted a paintbrush again and begun work on some French Foreign Legion characters for my embryonic Victorian Science Fiction force to do battle against Colonel O’Truth’s British and Scott’s Prussians/Zendarians.  So here are my first two painted figures, though they are yet to have their basing done.  They’re standing alongside their Bandai steam caterpillar gun.

It took me a long time to choose which VSF force I was going to do: French, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, Orientals …?   Though, in reality, it was always the French who beckoned, with their dapper uniforms and Napoleon III beards.

The problem was I just couldn’t find a range of 28mm late-19th century French who conveyed that particular Gallic look I was after.  The only range that got anywhere close was Mirliton, but they had limited poses, and when I tried ordering some to check them out, the postage from Italy to New Zealand was just too horrendous to contemplate.

So I settled on the French Foreign Legionaries in Foundry’s range of Western figures.  While they don’t quite capture the exact look either, they are so character-filled in other ways that I thought they would be delight to paint.   Just look at the panache of these (still unpainted) guys in the picture below.

Why are these figures found in a Western range?  Well, they represent the force who were send to Mexico in the 1860s as part of ill-fated ‘Maximilian Adventure’ to place a Hapsburg emperor on the Mexican throne.  This campaign was the scene of one of the Foreign Legion’s finest hours—the last stand at Camarone.

In fact, the first (and so far only) figures I’ve painted from the Foundry range are models of two of the heroic officers from that siege, Capitaine Jean Danjou and Sous-Lieutenant Napoléon Vilain.

On 30 April 1863 a small infantry patrol led by Capitaine Danjou was attacked and besieged by a force that may have eventually reached 2,000 Mexican infantry and cavalry.  They were forced to make a defensive stand at the nearby hacienda of Camarone.  The stalwart conduct of the defence has lent the Legion a certain mystique—and Camarone became  synonymous with bravery and a fight-to-the-death.

However, as I mentioned above, my force isn’t intended as a historical representation of the French Foreign Legion at Camarone, but as a totally fictional VSF force.   I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with some sort of cover-story why a force fighting British and Prussians seems to have an affection for wearing Mexican sombreros and serapes!

VSF steamtroopers

Here are the last of the Bandai VSF models I got in a parcel from Japan recently, all based on the anime movie Steamboy.

While these two steamtroopers look huge in my pics, from the stills I’ve seen of the movie I gather they are actually armoured suits worn by human soldiers.   But as they dwarf my 28mm figures,  they’ll have to be larger steam-powered automatons, even though their construction is possibly a bit too human – for example, the cloth breeches visible below the leg armour.  They don’t come with weaponry either,  so that is another issue that I’ll have to deal with.

It’ll be interesting to see how these steamtroopers work in the movie.  And I won’t have too long to wait, because last night I managed to buy the Steamboy  DVD off the New Zealand online auction site, Trademe.  I hope to have it in my hands sometime next week.

This brings me to an end of showing off the various VSF goodies that I received.  Here is a picture of all of them together, so you can get an idea of the differing scales (click on the picture for a much bigger view):

Now I just have to decide on the nationality of the VSF army for which these machines will form the armoured core.  My favourite Victorian-era uniforms are the dandified French in their baggy red trousers, epauletted coats and jaunty kepis.  However, despite intensive internet searching, I haven’t found a range I like.

Another  option might be the Austro-Hungarians.  I kind of like the idea of the creaky old double eagle empire.  And North Star do have a very nice range of 1866 figures.  Their uniforms are still nice enough, especially with the sky-blue trousers – but overall I do still prefer the gaudy French uniforms.

I could also have them as 1840s British, as I already have sufficient Empress Miniatures figures in my New Zealand Wars army.  The advantage is, of course, less cost, because I  already own them.  But the 1840s period is really just a little too early, plus one of my opponents is already doing the colonial British (another is doing Prussians, so that puts them off my radar too).

Anyway, it is a decision I can defer for now, because just doing the conversion work on the Bandai toys will probably take me a while yet …

Two too big and too little VSF machines

Today I’m showing off two more of the Bandai VSF machines that came in my packet from Japan, to add to the three others I’ve shown over the last few postings.

First up, here’s what I call by the technical name ‘trainy thing’.  It is a rather weird contraption to say the least.  At the front is a peculiar bogie with road/rail wheels  surmounted by the driver’s chair, behind which is a robot-like vertical boiler with arms.  A raking horizontal boiler leads to the stoker’s cab perched just in front of the huge single driving wheel:

While the trainy thing does look quite impressive in the above photos, it loses its majesty somewhat when you see the model posed beside a 28mm miniature.  In the picture below you can see the difference in scale by the diminutive size of the driver’s chair at the front of the vehicle :

So, what to do with such a difference in size?  Well, the picture below shows how well-known VSF and fantasy wargamer ‘Skrapwelder’ has used the machine as a kind of gun carriage for a tesla weapon.    The gunner kneels behind the upright boiler that powers the weapon attached above the single wheel.  I could do something similar.

The next vehicle from the packet poses the opposite problem.  This power unicycle with one large wheel  is far too large for a 28mm figure.  Check out the size of the saddle and the distance to the pedal on the larger cogwheel:

I’m going to experiment with a 28mm cavalryman or motorcycle rider  of some sort to see if it’ll still work, especially if I just chop off the pedals (why would it need pedals anyway?).  Alternatively, I could make some sort of swinging cabin inside the wheel – or even slung between two of the unicycles, as  I’ve got two of this model.  Any other ideas?

Finally, here is an anime music video that is set to a chase-scene from Steamboy featuring both these particular vehicles:

In case you want to know, the music is Il Treno Va by Toto Cutugno.  I like its ‘chuffy-ness’ – just right for VSF!

And, yes, there’s still another VSF goodie left to show off in my next posting …

Bathysphere time? Another VSF goodie …

I’m not sure what this VSF machine from the Japanese anime movie Steamboy is. It was amongst the goodies in my previously mentioned parcel of Bandai VSF toys from Japan.

I suspect it is some sort of bathysphere designed to plunge the ocean deeps. But despite diligent searching in Google Images, I haven’t located a Steamboy still that shows this machine in action, to be certain of its purpose.  The nearest I’ve found is this:

Anyway, a bathysphere won’t be much use in a VSF wargame.  So I’m thinking  I might make it into some sort of flying machine by adding a large rotor on top,  or suspending it from a balloon.  Then it can rain destruction on my enemies.

Anyway got any other ideas for it?

Keep watching … more VSF goodies yet to come!

More VSF goodies from Japan

As hinted in last night’s post, there were a few more VSF goodies in my recent parcel from Japan. These steam-powered self-propelled artillery, for example.

I mentioned yesterday that all these VSF goodies derive from a movie (anyone guess which one?) – so here are a couple of stills of the steam artillery in action (don’t forget to click on these pics to enlarge them):

There’s only one problem with this particular model – it’s rather small:

However, other wargamers have converted these to fit with 28mm figures. They’ve raised the boiler higher above the tracks, used the existing gun platform as the drivers seat overhanging the rear, and scratch-built a larger gun platform overhanging the front. Overall, they’ll look less imposing than in the movie, less tank-like and more akin to a WW2 Bren Gun Carrier – but nevertheless, very useful and characterful vehicles.

Here’s one last look:

Keep checking back over the next few days, as the packet contained even more VSF goodiness to be shown off!