Artizan Designs WW1 Arab Irregulars 2.

I've done another one! This is one of the two camel mounted variants in pack ARB021. I'll do the other chap, post him and then give a final posting when all ten figures are complete.

Perry Miniatures Brunswick Mounted Infantry Officers.

From left to right: Leib Battalion, 2nd Light Battalion and 3rd Line Battalion.

Artizan Designs WW1 Arab Irregulars 1.

Real "Sons of the Desert"! The obsession with camels reaches new heights.
Another nine will follow in due course. 

Okay, okay... my arabic calligraphy is not that good. This banner contains the Shahada, the Islamic proclamation of faith. The calligraphy was found on the interweb, copied, recoloured, shrunk to size, printed out and then overpainted by hand.
God is Greatest!

Perry Miniatures Duke of Brunswick and Staff.

An opportunity to paint something with a little more colour.... even if it is mostly black.

Perry Miniatures WW2 Italian "Elefantino" anti-tank gun.

 

Maintaining the dusty and desert theme, but this time in the 1940s.

The League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers' "Assault Across Suez, 1915" Demonstration Game, Vapnartak 2015.

I wish I could have been there to see the League of Extraordinary Kreigspielers' "Suez 1915" demonstration game at Vapnartak, York, yesterday.

A couple of photos have been hastily developed and sent via carrier pigeon to Over Open Sights HQ.
The first shows a vast number of British Imperial mounted troops and artillery support en-route to reinforce the troops resisting the Ottoman raid. In the image you can see the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, the South Nottinghamshire Hussars, Imperial Camel Corps, New Zealand Mounted Rifles, Australian Light Horse and the Deccan Horse. It came a quite a surprise to see units I have painted concentrated together. These figures reside in the collections of Steve "Ignatieff" Langan and Adrian "The Beast of Bukhara" Shepherd.

The second is a great photo of a Royal Naval Monitor (based on M33 at Portsmouth) built for the game by Cameron Thomson and turning her 6 inch guns on the encroaching Turks. She is beautiful. In the distance I think I can see Indian troops that were once on my painting table.

Darrell Hindley has posted a large number of photos of the game on his blog Just Add Water. Here are a few.

Ottoman Arabs on camels force the crossing.

By Jove!  A blast from the past... Copplestone Gurkha's done a while back.

Fantastic. Deccan Horse, Bikaner Camel Corps and Imperial Camel Corps. 

Three of my all time favourite projects. The RHA teams are a collaboration with "The Beast".

Latest pigeon brings in a couple more official photographs:

9.2 inch Howitzer.

The Honourable Lead Boiler Suit Co.'s resin and metal British 9.2 inch static seige howitzer.

Seeing the Royal Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner for the first time at the age of eight, was perhaps the moment when I first became interested in the Great War. This is an iconic piece of equipment. I am glad that it now sits in my display cabinet.

Private Sloper, Army Service Corps, and H.M. Tractor "Rosie".

While scavenging for materials in an abandoned farm near Poperinghe, Private "Knocker" Sloper of the Army Service Corps came across an abandoned tractor. "Knocker" was part of the A.S.C. Forward Repair Depot based just outside "Pop" and, with the permission of an indulgent C.O., he requisitioned the tractor, got it running, brought it back to the depot, gave it a coat of regulation khaki-green paint and called it "Rosie" after his Mum.

"Knocker" and "Rosie" spent the next two years hauling wagons and loads around the depot and both became famous for pulling Staff Cars out of the mire when they slithered off the road.

"Rosie" was returned to the farm near Poperinghe when the depot moved forward in the final 100 days of the Great War. "Knocker" drove her there, parked her up in the remains of the barn where he found her and covered her with a tarpaulin. He left three cans of fuel, a quart of engine oil and a brand new set of sparkplugs on the seat along with a letter apologising for the green paint and the dents and scratches on "Rosie's" bodywork.

"Knocker" returned to the Salient in 1928. He found the farm where he and "Rosie" had met some twelve years earlier. In the distance a small green tractor was pulling a harrow over a field.....

All this, of course, is pure fantasy but fun. "Knocker" is a Dixon Miniatures WW1 British cyclist figure with a Woodbine Designs head-swap. "Rosie" is a 1/43 1919 Citroen tractor produced by Hachette.

Painting Guides Update.

Today, a slightly extended guide to painting WW1 Turks has been added. This new edition includes the Arab Camel Mounted unit featured on this blog over the previous two posts.

NEW NEW NEW

Painting the Great War: The Indian Army in Egypt Mesopotamia and Palestine.

Just email me and request a copy.

Abdul, Jacko and Johnny were well chuffed to have been added to the painting guide. They could barely repress their excitement.

WW1 Ottoman Arab Camel Mounted Troops 2. The Completed Unit.

Coming soon to a Suez Canal, 1915, demonstration game in York.

Perry Miniatures Sudan Camel Corps figures with Woodbine heads and added Greenstuff.

What next, I have been asked... well a bit of a break as I have been painting flat out for a few weeks, but here's a clue.