From DaveD - Sudan - New South Wales Contingent Artillery Battery & RIF (327 points )

One of the things that I found really interesting about building forces for fighting in the Sudan was the variety of troops the British Empire pulled in to fight in it. The New South Wales government offered its support (LINK) to the imperial cause and an infantry battalion and artillery battery were mobilised. This was to become the first overseas deployment for Australian forces. They did not end up doing much fighting and had only very small losses as the British government abandoned any attempt to overthrow the Mahdi who had taken Khartoum after Gordons death.

Never the less they will still be represented - along with the infantry in due course and I am sure they will participate in some "what might have happened" scenarios. Of course they will also do service in some other colonial campaigns too. On checking through the actual service records of the deployment  - I find a certain Private Mills!

 

Battery Mascot George taking things easy by the limber

So here I have 3 deployed 9lb guns , 3 open and deployed limbers with 12 crew. The guns are the Perry 9lb set from their new Victoria's little wars sets. - I have replaced the cast metal firing lanyard with thinner twisty rope and soldered this into position so it nicely strong and rigid. Plus there is battery mascot "George" ,  complete with ceremonial coat. (See what I did there Paul O? - play the cute dog card in miniature form!). This is a limited edition figure produced by Jon at Ainsty for those who donated to his Combat Stress appeal


Well to move your guns you also need limber teams - of which there are 3 teams with 18 horses, 3 limbers , 3x 9lb guns - and 4 riders - there will be 9 riders eventually but due to a lead pile deficiency (hangs head in shame)  I thought - and still think I had some. So anyway I am awaiting on a mail from a manufacturer re sourcing some as part of pack so will just add these as and when I get some figures.  The riders I do have  are a mix of various mounted figures I had lying around.

The gun teams have had a lot of work with all the various traces. The rope is made from garden twisty wire - twisted together in a drill - I needed to made 6 feet of the darn stuff to make the 4 traces per teams these were then soldered into place and the wire is coated in solder which makes it rigid.  The riders have had milliput saddles made too. The limbers and horse teams are all by Tiger miniatures . The guns and crew are the Perry 9lb set from their new Victoria's little wars sets. I could have got a ready made limber set from Wargames Foundry , but I have seen it and it looked too small to me - I wanted this to be big! - I know.... I blame the sun....

The limbered teams may only spend a small amount of time on the table as that - and most definitely are an indulgence (a mite expensive one at that) - but they look the part so well when you do see them out. We recently had the limbered naval brigade teams on the table - and it just looked so much better than having deployed guns turned around the wrong etc!

I have also been working through a few bits fixing holes in the TO&E of units previously painted - one unit needing a few bit was  Royal Irish Fusiliers. I have completed two open order skirmish stands (6 figures) for them as they did not have any. Plus an additional 6 figure close order to flesh them out to 48 figures strong.

There is also another separate foot figure that was lying around undercoated so I gave it tickle with the brushes.

The 2nd battalion R.I.F. - now all up to to strength!

25 foot , 4 riders. = 145 points
18 horses + dog =  82 points
6 limbers , 6 guns - could be 120 points as they are separate items - , but I think more like 15 points per gun and limber set. = 90
plus any extras for OTT modelling work!

And for your further delectation I have completed a short video review of all the Imperial forces so far.

I think i have also managed to eak out another  week or so of production before the man cave shuts down for a while so i will see what i can squeeze in this next week..

MilesR: Good Lord my head is spinning - so many finely painted figures, so many different nationalities, so many brushes used up....   Yet another astonishing entry from you Dave.  My tally comes to 327!