The British Askaris on the workbench
Progress is slow but steady on the British askaris. The standard of my painting from eight or nine years ago is pretty woeful as it was before I realised that I needed glasses! As a result, I am re-painting most parts of them. The only thing I will leave is the khaki uniforms but will add some lowlights and highlights to sharpen them up a bit. I have also started the six figures I bought on eBay recently. This will give me 26 Askaris so with two Sikh NCOs that is 28 figures. The scenario only calls for 16 figures so that will give me ten spare. Either I will up the numbers of the figures proportionately for everyone or, more likely, I will devise a scenario requiring extra re-inforcements.
The total British forces required under the scenario are as follows:
Expeditionary force
Unit of 8 regular askaris
Unit of 8 regular askaris
Unit of 6 Sikhs
Unit of 14 local levies
1 standard bearer
1 Officer
Relief Force
Unit of 6 sailors
Unit of 6 sailors
One gunboat
However I am going to modify them somewhat.
Firstly, I will add a second officer to the expeditionary force. The scenario allows for the substitution of a second in command if the leading officer is killed. I think that this is a bit silly if he is not with the initial force in the first place. It adds 28 points to the British force but that isn't many to add to the others.
The Royal Navy contingent filed and based
I have found that I have enough figures for the naval force and will add an officer to that. I will also paint a figure for the Gunboat captain. I will need a gun and crew for the gunboat as my paddle boat is unarmed. Foundry make a set of Naval gunners and a fieled gun in their Zulu War range and although they will be much smaller than the rather large Copplestone sailors the look is similar so I will probably go with those.
Foundry Naval gunners
No comments:
Post a Comment