Sie kommen.

Bald, mein Junge, bald.

Queens Own Dorset Yeomanry. Musketeer Miniatures (Footsore Miniatures) Conversions 1.

I have some Perry WW2 Western Desert Italians on the table at present. A repeat of those painted up last summer. I won't be posting repeat photos but if you are interested they can be seen here. I spent a liitle time beginning the QODY conversions over the last couple of days. My desire to see some of these figures with the Woodbine Slouch Hat heads was dashed as the faces on these heads are quite broad in relation to the size of the slighter miniatures from Musketeer. They looked odd... with inflated faces. Sadly, the experiment failed and so it seems that QODY will all be in Wolseley helmets. This is not a problem. These first four figures are the Trumpeter and Officer from the British WW1 Cavalry Command pack (BEF 13) and two troopers from the BUF/Yeomanry pack (BCW 18). Some added green stuff to give some baggage on the saddle. A scalpel and file have removed the brassard that the BUF troopers had on their left arms.

They seem to be progressing to plan, although it is a little disappointing that there are only two horse variants within all these mounted figures. Had I the skill and inclination I'd try to vary the pose on one or two horses for variety.

Running short of green stuff. Must order some more. 

Queens Own Dorset Yeomanry. A Musketeer Miniatures conversion project.

A package was delivered yesterday. It contained some WW1 Cavalry figures from the small but perfectly formed range from Musketeer Miniatures, sculpted by Paul Hicks. The package also contained some VBCW BUF/Yeomanry figures (mounted and dismounted) and a smattering of “Black and Tans”, again by Musketeer Miniatures.

I await some heads from Woodbine.

The plan is to do some conversion work on all these figures to produce both mounted and dismounted Yeomanry for Egypt, Palestine and Syria. I’ve been mulling this over for quite some time and have finally got round to doing something about it. These figures, I hope, will give a unit of mounted troops that have a bit of movement about them, the Great War Miniatures cavalry being rather static.

The current picture at the top of the blog is Lady Butler’s painting of the charge of the Queen’s Own Dorset Yeomanry at Agagia, February 26^th, 1916. These new figures will represent the QODY.

I’ve been trawling the books and the interweb for images, particularly photographs, of the QODY from this particular period of their time in Egypt and Palestine. I like to do this for inspiration. The Western Front Association website has an excellent account of the charge at Agagia written by 2Lt J H Blakesley of “B” Squadron. It also has some interesting photographs of QODY in the Western Desert.

I also found an illustration from a book plate showing the charge where the QODY troopers are depicted wearing slouch hats! How can I resist having one or two figures wearing this?

 QODY went on to charge the Turkish positions at El Mughar on 13 November, 1917. I was lucky enough to see James Beadle's painting of the action there (below) at the Staff College, Shrivenham, some time ago. It was then that I decided that I had to paint the QODY.



 

 So watch this space as this will be a slow burner as I do bits and pieces in amongst commissioned work.

 

 Officer of the QODY 1916, The Keep Museum, Dorchester.

Brigade Games WW1 Indian Cavalry. Deccan Horse 6.

The completed mounted unit of ten figures. This brings the Deccan Horse posts to a close.

Next, a return to some Perry WW2 Italians with some interesting heavy weapons from Bolt Action. After that, something interesting with a Bolshevik twist. Of course, soon, the Empress Jazz Age Imperialism Scots and the much anticipated Mutton Chop WW1 releases.

Woodbine Designs WW1 Dismounted Indian Cavalry conversions. Deccan Horse 5.

The completed ten dismounted figures.
The officer comes from the Woodbine ANZAC command pack.

Woodbine Designs WW1 Dismounted Indian Cavalry conversions. Deccan Horse 4.

The start of the dismounted Deccan Horse. The decision was taken to use the Woodbine Designs WW1 Indian Army Rifle Section pack as a basis for these chaps. The knife, snips and file removed the bayonet, entrenching tool handle and the entrenching tool head from the small of the back and the agricultural application of some grey stuff to the rear of the turban gives an impression of the same head dress as worn by the Brigade Games mounted figures.

Brigade Games WW1 Indian Cavalry. Deccan Horse 3.

The three trooper variants.

Brigade Games WW1 Indian Cavalry. Deccan Horse 2.

The Command Pack. Hmmm.... a bit of white bloom on the varnish here and there to sort out. 

Brigade Games WW1 Indian Cavalry. Deccan Horse 1.

A "test piece" for the latest commission on the painting table. A slight conversion on the right arm and lance to give this pose. The client said he had become interested in some of the more "colourful" units that served in Mesopotamia and Palestine, so I suggested a departure from what would have been a plain khaki headress to painting the regimental pagri and giving the unit a spalsh of colour. The 20th Deccan Horse was requested. It took a bit of a hunt to get the infomation and eventually I found the 20th being being represented on some painted "Britains" figures. I took the pagri from that reference alone! I think these figures may well end up being part of a force to game not just the Great War, but also various Back of Beyond scenarios and the Third Afghan War.

Having spent a great deal of time since early January painting furiously to complete Jazz Bands, Dancers, Japanese troops and a number of torsos ready for the "Wake Island 192?" demonstration game that was on display at the Vapnartak (York) show today, it was nice to spend more time on just one figure. Nine more to go. Sadly, the only Japanese figures I managed to photograph were the cyclists. If you would like to see other miniatures that made their appearance on this demo game then click on the three Pulp Figures lables on the right of the screen. US Marine Corps, US Navy, Sailors, Construction Workers, Bing, the Fat Man and Miss Lamar will all be found there. 

Company B WW2 Japanese Cyclists

These figures form part of a group of twenty odd WW2 Japanese figures that I have been busting a gut to get painted, in the limited time I have, for the end of the month. They will form part of a display game at the Vapnartak  show in York in early February. The game is to be staged by "The Beast", a long standing client of Over Open Sights. These are very much "rush jobs" and all of them were quite fiddly to paint. Some of the sculpting falls short of the mark in places. I complained to "The Beast" who merely observed that I had become too used to painting up Perry sculpts. An accurate observation. Apologies for the third photograph. One of the bulbs in my lamps decided to blow just before this photograph  was taken, hence the darker area on the right.