Empress MIniatures Jazz Age/WW1 British Cavalry.

I have had these sitting on the "to do" shelf since I first purchased them at Colours, Newbury in September, 2023. Painted up as the Queen's Own Worcestershire Hussars ready for service in Egypt and Palestine between 1915 and 1918. I used this unit to experiment with a different technique for painting horses. I am pleased with the initial results but the process needed a little tweaking which, I reckon, I had cracked by the time I did the final two horses. This year at Colours, I came across the M&C Model Painting stand tucked away in a corner. They had a box full of "bin ends" of older AK Interactive paints from their Figure range (now replaced with the excellent AK Interactive 3G range of paints) at a knock down price. A few minutes of rummaging resulted in a fistfull of bottles, two of which were "Desert Uniform Base" and "Desert Uniform Lights" which have been used here on the troopers' tunics over a base coat of either VMC US Field Drab or AK3G British Uniform Base. Lots of movement in these lovely sculpts from Paul Hicks as befits a regiment involved in the last "arme blanche" charge against guns in Britsh military history at Huj, November 8, 1917.

The Charge of the Warwickshire and Worcester Yeomanry at Huj, November 8th, 1917 by Lady Elizabeth Butler, 1918.

More photo-lightbox experimentation. 1/1 Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars.

 Still playing about with new photo-lightbox. I have placed a graduated blue background into the box, just laying it on top of the foam sheet background that comes with the box. I also built up the base of the box by about three inches using some offcuts of timber....the foam background was then laid on top of this raised area. All I did after cropping these images was to hit the "Auto Adjust" function and this seems to have softened the harshness of the light. I am now happy with this as a way forward. These figures are converted Old Glory 28mm WW1 British Cavalry forming 1/1 Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars for my Palestine 1917 collection. These ten figures have been a very slow burn being over two years since the first figure was finished. These are not the best figures on the market but I do like the animation on the horses. Now for the dismounted unit!

Brigadier General C.A.C. Godwin, General Officer Commanding 6th Mounted Brigade, Palestine 1917.

 Half term holidays are here and that means some time away from screens and the accompanying headaches and eyestrain that go with teaching via video link. Having finished off the Berkshire Yeomanry and before returning to some commission work, I hit the lead pile and pulled out a Great War Miniatures early WW1 British Cavalry officer minus right arm, a Great War Miniatures early WW1 British Cavalry bugler that had been discarded due to a miscast rear leg on the horse and from the lowest layer of archaeological deposit, a Renegade WW1 mounted British Cavalry officer without horse. The greenstuff rectified the miscast horse's leg and a spare Footsore horse was located and appropriated. The "bits box" yielded a couple of plastic right arms (Perry, I think) and the Renegade figure had his pistol toting tight arm replaced and the GWM figure was made whole. All three were then given Woodbine Wolseley heads. A neat little job to get me back into the swing of things. Four days later and we have Brigadier Godwin, his Brigade-Major and a HQ bugler.

1/1 Berkshire Yeomanry, Palestine, 1917.

 The demands of remote teaching via TEAMS in Lockdown 3 over the past few weeks have left me, most evenings, with eyestrain, headache and faint nausea. The last thing I have wanted to do is paint. However, I picked up the brush to finish off something that has been sitting about almost complete but not quite for the past two years. This addition to my collection is a real mash-up. The horses are from Perry Miniatures, the mounted troopers are from Footsore Miniatures, the dismounted from Great War Miniatures (with an Officer from Empress Miniatures) and all have Wolseley heads from Woodbine Designs. It has taken five weeks to paint about half a dozen figures. 

Footsore Miniatures WW1 British Cavalry. The Completed Unit.

Here they are, temporarily attached to bases for the sake of photography. They will be based elsewhere. 

Time to lay aside the brushes for a while. June and early July is a horrid month for work commitments so I enter my annual period of enforced "down time. If I get the inclination there are a few one off figures (some of the Wargames Illuratrated figures and a Salute 19 miniature) in the pipe-line that will get done but then.... when the time comes.... I leave the Great War for a lot of late Victorian stuff. Looking forward to that.

The Big Push 8.

The Sherwood Rangers dismounted unit. Figures are Footsore Miniatures Interwar BUF/Yeomanry Troopers with Woodbine headswaps. Again, a mix of khaki serge and khaki drill.

I thought that was it but a bag containing another thirteen figures can to light last night! No rest!

The Big Push 7.

The Sherwood Rangers, Syria, 1918. A mix of six Mutton Chop British Cavalry, two Great War Miniatures  early war British Cavalry Troopers and two Perry Miniatures WW2 British Yeomanry command types. All the troopers have been given Woodbine Designs head-swaps to try to get that very late war in the Middle East look. A mix of khaki drill and serge uniform here. A few painting short-cuts have been taken on some of these figures as the clock is ticking and there is still the dismounted Sherwood Rangers and a number of miscellaneous figures to do before the game at Colours.