Can't have too many elephants...

 I'm always on the look out for new additions, and if the price is right...

4 quite decently painted elephants plus 9 crew.... though 1 elephant lacking a trunk, sure I can provide that myself.

Plus an unpainted elephant, some infantry and cavalry.

Total cost £31, so basically £6 an elephant. Total weight of figures 800g, not sure at current cost of metal but if it's £20 a kilo then the value of the metal alone would be £16 before postage anyway. So pretty good deal for them.

But my favourite elephant is still the mythical Garrison Carthaginian elephant :)

 

Dunwich. The real place.

On page 84 of  The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia there is a comment 'Lovecraft found the name Dunwich' in Arthur Machen's novel N, according to Robert M. Price. It refers to an actual town in Great Britain that the sea washed away.'

Just got back from a visit there...

This is still an issue today... sign on edge of carpark showing the marsh/heath.

This is a model in the museum (worth a visit!) showing how much of the area has been lost since the storms of the 1280s onwards.. The area is still losing about a metre a year! The yellow dotted line shows the current shoreline - the original town used to be a major seaport with a population of about 3,000. That red outlined bubble is supposed to show the current location of the museum - it's actually a bit further up.

So this is the view over the car park with the village in the back ground - you can just see the top of the church's tower at the right end of the village. The marsh is mainly to the right.

A view of the marsh from a few yards away from the previous picture. It's actually very dry at the moment, doesn't look a bit like a marsh!

Poster of the marshes and forest - the town/village is off-map at the bottom.

OK. leave the car park, basically turn the corner and there's the village. First in view is the local, The Ship.  The road through the village is straight, no bends. You can see the line of houses on one side of the road; they're close enough together for me to describe it as a terrace.

The other side of the road to the terrace looks like this... the hedge continues all the way down with a few openings where a house has been built behind it!

The museum. Well worth a visit!

View of the terrace (must keep stating that is my description!) from the museum to the Ship.

After the terrace there is a stretch containing detached houses - there are a few on each side of the road. Note the hedges!

To the 'modern' St. James church - could really do the entire blog on this but...

Other side of the church. That 'monument' in the foreground is the transplanted remains of a church that fell into the sea at the beginning of the 20th Century!

There is also the remains of a leper hospital chapel in the churchyard, the current church being built on the site of the hospital - this being because the long gone leper hospital had been originally way outside the village limits!

Then there are a Commonwealth War Graves area and cenotaph - a minor road turns off to the left at this point.

So a wargames setup would look something like this - very simplified and not completely accurate but a good impression. For wargames purpose, perhaps move the wood further forward?

Lovecraft type scenarios? Drowned villagers or lepers coming from the sea? Possibly following a flood that breaks through the sea wall? Or the drowned village being taken over by Batrachians and some divers find them? Or.....?

Plus you can see Sizewell B nuclear power station from the beach - so gives even more possibilities.

Some other options.

 Options regarding figures to use for pulp scenarios that is.

Firstly, it was only when I was painting the explorers with their pith helmets that I considered using these Garrison/SKT figures with the 28mm Pulp games. This lot were (quickly) painted a few years ago as a 'proof of concept' for a late Victorian army - never got past the first few figures...

Next, a quirky group of figures I painted back in the 90s - Admins Fishers, with a bit of repurposing/refurbishing could make reasonable cultists or similar.

Sizewise the Fishers are a good match to the RAFM, the Garrison/SKT troops a bit small but shouldn't look too out of place.

So overall these two ranges should be able to give me some useful figures for bulk/cannon fodder - already got enough figures to provide the backing players/cannon fodder!

Some RAFM Adventurers.

 The two men and standing  woman are from the M.U. Expedition to the Amazon set while the sitting woman is from the M.U. Expedition up the Mekong set.

 

I've gone for eyes plus shading look rather than block colours,

 

 

Have to admit I'm quite pleased at how they've turned out.

 

The intention is to catch up a bit on my 25/28mm pulp figures - they've been sadly neglected lately!

Fish have arrived.

They didn't actually come in the wheelbarrow, but that seemed to be the best way to get the box from the delivery point to the pond!

 

They arrived in 2 bags - one with 20 goldfish and 20 rudd, the other containing 20 sticklebacks. Pond wouldn't be right without sticklebacks!

 

Fish seem healthy and settling in well.

 All photos curtesy of my wife Sandra. Mainly because she had her camera with her so she could take her own photos...

Testing my eyes ...

 By trying for a better paint job...

OK, Few bits I could do a bit better, but fine for starters.

For example, couple of minor white spots where I didn't quite get 100% coverage!

The figure in question is SS56, Priest of Matri from the S&S Range. I might try a few more like this and look a skirmish forces.

G10, G15 - Catching up on basing.

 Hard to believe that it was in 2014 that I acquired Harry Pearson's figures. The purchase included 70 Greek slingers, G10, some of which I've just gotten round to basing. Plus some peltasts I bought   on ebay a while back.

G10, Greek slingers. 36 of them, a bit over half the ones I got from Harry.

 

They aren't in Harry's painting style so I assume he originally bought them like this.

 

These peltasts came in with a load of early Warrior figures that I bought very cheaply.

 

Lousy paint job, but being a choice of basing them as they were or redoing the lot I decided to just base them!

Another 'Bactrian' unit.

With 5 separate  Corps of Xerxes armies using soldiers dressed and equipped in Bactrian  style I was a little short on figures based on Herodotus. This unit will help towards the shortfall!

I've gone for a plain style for these.

 

The idea is that by doing various different styles they look like different nationalities!

Next lot may go for brighter colours and patterns!

Spartan Helots

 I already have one unit of this figure though not tied directly to Sparta.

Although I already have several hundred Greek light javelins, they are all shiekded, so these two units should prove to be very useful in future.

Somewhere in Europe - the battle

 

Everything just about in position. Except for the French artillery - they arrived late. Mainly because I forgot about them...

The Guard attempted to attack the Prussian troops in the cornfield flanked by the Bavarians.

Meanwhile the other French infantry regiment attempted to attack the troops in the churchyard while they also tried to use their superiority in cavalry to outflank the Prussian army.

The guns finally arrived and started an artilley duel with the Prussian guns. They completely failed to have any impact on each other throughout the battle. Incidentally, the horse teams are the Rose teams I did for my Rose ACW armies.

Forcing the right flank, the French took a lot of casualties - not helped when the Prussian cavalry charged into the Bavarians!

Things weren't really going well for the French on the left. The cavalry couldn't break through and the infantry  bounced.

Things were no better on the right. Especially as the Prussian cavalry were starting to make an impact! So the French decided on a tactical withdrawal at this point.

Which makes a lot of sense when you look at the respective casualties! Quite simply, attacking troops behind walls while in column without outnumbering them by quite a bit doesn't work. Likewise, having to cross a fence into withering fire is a bad idea, especially when the enemy has cavalry on that flank and you don't! I made a deliberate decision to split the Prussian cavalry but keep the French cavalry together - I thought that the French would benefit most by having theirs together - wrong, it was the Prussians who gained the most!

So an interesting battle that I completed in one day. Perhaps this will help me kickstart the Napoleonic side again? Need a lot more infantry regiments for meaningful battles!