French infantry brigade finished.

Nothing else to say really - now done 3 x 3 company batallions of infantry, 2 guns and a general. All on element bases.

All that is needed to complete the element-based basic army is a unit of cavalry...

20mm Rose '1897' Generals

 

In reality, Rose 'Duke of Wellington' figure. Not sure when these were originally designed, but they appear in the 1958 Rose catalogue! They make decent late fictional late Victorian senior officers of doubtful accuracy!

For some reason bridles rarely cast well on this figure - so on all of these the bridles are made of green stuff!

Although I call the early Garrison figures 29mm, in fact this is purely to distinguish them from the large 25mm figures. This comparison between a '20mm' Garrison general and the Rose version shows this quite well...

1897 French artillery etc

Had word from Amazon that the Osprey Sino-Japanese War book has been delayed, so today's post is slightly different to what I intended...

Firstly. finished the 'not quite' French 1897ish artillery - Rose 20mm ACW gunners with a Parrot gun acting as a generic late 19th C piece! By mounting the gun on a DBX base and the crew on individual bases the guns can by used for both individual and element-based games.

Colour scheme was meant to be the same as my 42mm guns but found out I'd run out of both new and old wood paint. So I painted the guns green instead.

Meanwhile, continuing with the other two companies (or whatever) of  infantry.

 

And some Jacklex Russians and more Arabs have arrived while I wait for the release of the Chinese.

 

20mm French War of 1897

 

Well, really they're mostly Rose dismounted Union cavalry, they're just painted French. I used Dark Sea Blue rather than Dark Prussian Blue for the jackets - does seem to suit French better.

24 figure 6 element battalion organised as 3 2 element companies.

 

Not really accurate as historical French infantry of the time, but fit in nicely as fictional 1897 figures.

 

The initial intention is to produce British, French and Russian armies based like this. Each army to consist of 3 6 element infantry battalions, 1 4 element cavalry regiment (elements represent HQ plus 3 squadrons) and 2 guns, plus possibly a machine gun. French and British armies will be Rose (with Jaclex officers and standards), Russians will be Jacklex, though probably Rose guns. These figures will complement the individually-based pulp battalions, with the guns serving for both.

Quick 'sorted figures for painting' update - on left, all the officers, standard bearers and artillerymen I need, middle marching infantry I need, on right what's left of the marching infantry.

French battalion finished

Should be enough of the single based French line colonial infantry for pulp uses.

Figures are a mix of Rose infantry with Jacklex officer and standard bearer. Flag just a basic paper tricolour from the internet - download flag, copy, reverse copy, put them together so that I finish up with both sides. Again, nothing fancy on this lot, just basic wargames standard. Future figures will be for the element based army.

 

Other countries - 20mm French Colonial

The Rose Colonial British are actually quite versatile - pity there were only 4 figures in the range (plus a casualty!). The officer is Jacklex.

Here I've simply painted the Rose figures up with blue tunics and red trousers. The French (and just about everyone else) seem to have had a lot of colour variations. In their case, different blues, sometimes including the trousers, Trousers could also be (possibly mostly?) white.

To a certain extent it would be easy to use lots of different schemes for an army. Here, I think a more stylised blue tunic/red trousers is better than a mix. My intention is to get the 'full' battalion of these on single bases witjin the next few days - though currently working on the 25/28mm Scottish Colonial battalion at the moment. I'll probably start doing both at the same time - Scots take a long time because of all those tartan kilts!

Having said that, the Rose ACW figures make quite good French in this scale. Next to him, the all blue figure suits as either Royal Marines or Germans. Of course, Germans could also be produced by painting the figure khaki!

There are lots of other variations possible. Add in the use of Jacklex figures and I've got quite a project/projects ahead of me in this scale.

Rose not Zulu War

 And Jacklex officers!

It's pretty much experiment/play time again. Or still experiment/play time. This time I'm looking at how to fit the Rose 20mm Zulu Wars range into the alternate pulp world with an extended/totally anachronistic timeline - you know, a world where 1879 fit quite nicely with 1930?

I've already made a start looking at Rose figures for pulp actions...

Now I'm trying some painted as more-or-less Zulu War but with black painted helmets. Question was, do they stand up as Home Service helmets in that scale. Plus query do I use Prussian Blue or Dark Prussian Blue for trousers? And why did I do 10 figure sections instead of 16? OK, 16 takes longer...

I did facings in 3 different colours. Reason? Can then call them as different regiments if I treat a 10 figure unit as a battalion. Of course, I didn't think that if I made them 16 figure units then it would fit in with a 4 element DBX unit! On the other hand,use them as 8 figure sections, then 3 sections would fit for a 24 figure/6 element battalion.

So units are 1 officer (Jacklex, no need to do head swaps!), 8 riflemen and loading figure as an NCO. Can't claim credit for that basic idea - pinched it (thanks Charles - and yours are painted a lot better than mine!)

So the idea is to see if  these figures will do as alternate universe/pulp marines or infantry for a number of nations, including French and Germans. Key words are 'will do'. The pith helmet is not really a good home services help except at a distance and with poor eyesight - but 'will do'. Alternat universe, alternate design. Hopefully, I can also 'integrate' them (with support from Jacklex figures) into my 1897 universe as well!

'Colour' is another issue. Every picture I look at has a different colour blue for British and French infantry! Some are very dark, almost black like French Napoleonic tunics. Others are more of a mid blue. OK, 20mm different to real life, the French especially were trying out different uniforms at that time anyway. I've never really been happy with British trouser colours - again, feel I should do them darker rather than lighter! So eventually I'll go with what I think looks better!

Rose colonials

Continuing with going through my Rose figures, decided next to do some British colonial troops to go with the 20mm Pulp figures.

 

As such, they are mounted on individual bases and again just painted to a basic wargames standard.

 

This lot are in sprayed khaki; I'll probably do a unit in red tunics later. I decided to paint the bases green rather than sand because ... well, mostly because...

 

This must be one of the most basic figures I've painted for years - as I mentioned earlier, the khaki was sprayed on and there are only 5 colours in total, including the base! As the Rose colonial Range didn't include an officer this one is an ACW officer with a head swap.

Rose ACW Confederate artillery

This gives me the figures needed to do the 3rd battle in Battles with Model Soldiers (plus a spare gun).

 

Two guns with crews in an assortment of uniforms.

Again, wargames standard with little detail but fit for it's purpose.

Although I have masters for the limbers I didn't have a mould made. As a wargaming expedient/experiment I've put 4 horses on DBX cavalry bases to see if it works - should do. A couple of the horses have needed a couple of places touched up since this photo - hadn't noticed that some paint had rubbed off.

That gives me enough troops to complete my current 'requirement' though will do more later.

Rose ACW Confederate cavalry

And now for a major drop in standards...

As it says on the box, cavalry squadron plus general.

 

As also stated, major drop in standards - didn't even get round to painting gloves and pistol!

 

On the other hand they match my criteria for these - basic wargames standard.

 This means that, when I get round to it, I can now do the first two scenarios from Battles with Model Soldiers.

The Confederates

Two regiments done. Considering I hadn't expected to start these before the New Year, I'm quite happy with that.

 

So I suppose my New Year priority is to complete the artillery and  cavalry for them.

Union cavalry and artillery

 These complete the initial Union 'army'.

Two Parrott Rifles, a 12 strong cavalry squadron and the general has been 'upgraded'!

One shortcoming of the range is the limited number of artilleryman poses! The gun barrels are painted in German grey rather than black.

The cavalry figure is supposed to have a slung carbine across his back... but this is missing on both the master and mould that I have!

Didn't expect toget started on these but might even get the painting finished before 'tree day' tomorrow. Gloss spray and basing don't depend on the tree, so if I do get the painting finished it gives me two regiments of Confederates I didn't expect to have. In theory, that would mean that could play the first game in Featherstone's 'Battles with Model Soldiers'. I mean, I could... seems weird, two units a side on an 8' x 5' table. Actually, I couldn't do it - my table is only 4' wide!

Union General.

 Finished cavalry and artillery, just not got photos yet. Have done the general though.

Seemed unnecessary to paint leatherwork on the horses' face on the cavalry, probably a mistake not painting them here!

Should also give him a beard.

3rd Regiment finished

Must admit, I'm really beginning to hate how that blue appears in photos - much better in reality!

 

As a whole they look quite effective and are a lot easier to paint quickly than Napoleonics!

Currently I'm working on a cavalry squadron, 2 Parrott Rifles and a mounted general. Put together, it's enough for one side of a battle - hopefully I'll get the other side sorted in the New Year!

Rose ACW

Part of the 'scratting around for interest in painting' effort.I've tried several times to get ACW armies going, coming across a couple of A4 boxes of Rose ACW figures made me think 'why not?'

Simplified as per my current norm. The uniform blue looks a lot darker on the figures than in the picture.

 

I initially tried to get a full 6 x 6 quota of stars on the flag; best I could manage was 5 x 5.

Because the black doesn't show up very well on the actual figures I didn't bother painting the peak of the kepis black. Honest, on the real thing you don't notice it!

 I'll see how it goes. Might get another unit done before Christmas then see about cavalry and artillery.

Rose artillery masters.

Somewhere someone mentioned that they thought they'd seen the masters for the Rose French Napoleonic gun (probably on one of the Old Metal Detector Rose blogs). That made me think people might be interested in them.

Most of my Rose masters are in tobacco tins or cigar cases, the 20mm (or, as described on the box, 25mm) artillery are in a 'normal' box. The 25 on the box definitely looks as if it originally said 20.

The masters are very neatly packed in polystyrene. The guns include limbers though I have not made moulds for these.

The French gun. The carriage is so similar in design to other nations I think I'll use it as a universal carriage.

British gun.

The American Civil War Parrot gun.

Garrison/Rose cavalry comparison.

Once I've 'finished' the Garrison Napoleonic forces I will (probably) do a couple of Rose armies. However, I had already done (years ago - hence better paint job) some Rose hussars so thought it might be useful to post a comparison between the two.

There is a very definite size difference, not helped by the fact that Garrison horses have their own base while the Rose horses are attached directly to the element base.

Different colour bases due to running out of the colour I normally use!

Will I use them in a 'mixed' army? Don't know - fact is, Garrison doesn't have many heavy cavalry, Rose much better in that area, likewise no Garrison French artillerymen available - and I'll use Rose guns for both anyway.