Before the next campaign report, I thought I'd slip in a bit of blog news. The Spanish Army (Peninsular Project - Stage 2) is done and dusted, including an extra battery of artillery and a unit of Husares Espanoles added after the initial orders. The Spanish Army now numbers 715 men and the whole collection numbers 2,699 men - making it my biggest collection to date.
Except for some WW2 Western Desert stuff, the lead pile was exhausted. I say "was exhausted" because that state of affairs ended, following a trip to the Fiasco show in Leeds, after purchasing a bit of stuff for my next project. The decision has been made - it's going to be the early campaigns in the Sudan.
The first order covers most of the Mahdist's required, and the bulk of the British for the First and Second Suakin Campaigns. The Egyptian stuff for the early period will be the next purchase and will be stage two of this new project. I'll do a roster at a later date.
Here is the order of Perry Miniatures, at home and laid out for checking. They were supplied by Dave Thomas. For reasons beyond Dave's control the order was shy 27 packs but 10 boxes of plastic and 198 packs of metal will be enough to be getting on with. Dave will post me the 27 absentees when they come in. Doing business with Dave is always a pleasure - every pack he said was there was there and I was so glad they mostly came in boxes rather than much bulkier blister packs. The order was quite compact but, blimey it was heavy (at a guess, something like 20kg).
This is the British pile. It represents about 14 units plus artillery and command. The infantry will be in battalions of 36 or 48 figures - with company stands of 6 figures. This makes figure scale for the British roughly 1:15.
This is the Mahdist pile. I've decided, possibly against my better judgement, to buy some plastic Mahdists to save on cost: They will mix in roughly 50%-50%. There are about 900 Mahdists in total (I think?).
The order also included a few additions for my early Crusades collection: Mostly comprising Armenians and Arab foot which I've been meaning to add for years - indeed, I've had a box of 40+ home made Arab glaives (to convert two units of Perry Arab militia spearmen into Adhath glaivemen) kicking around for about two years.
I may do these first. There are only 180 figures here.
Packs decanted, by unit or figure type, into plastic bags in order to save storage space. I had to carry this stuff about half a mile (to the bus station) and it got heavier and heavier with every step. I'm definitely getting too old for this lark.
The Sudan will be my last major project and it will probably weigh in at about 2000 figures, possibly a few more, when it's all done. After this project, I don't plan on doing any collections of over 1000 figures and when this one gets close to being finished I'd like it if someone reminded me of that!
13 comments:
You obviously have more money than sense
wouldn't be difficult, though I do detect a hint of envy.
Wonderful to see your Peninsula project finished - while looking at posts I have been negligent in rarely commenting on the games. I thought that it was about 3 years ago that you started it - but was amazed when i went back through the blog to see the first posts from 2015/16. Time flies and you've painted significantly more that I have in that interval.
I will follow the Sudan with some envy. I decided to do a Sudan project using the Sands of Sudan rules. But given how many of the Dervishes I would need I decided to do it in 10mm. So seeing your 28mm figures will be a 'pleasant challenge' for me.
Richard
No envy at all James. I am selling quite a lot of my stuff and am quite well off and retired.
Thats a mound of unpainted lead and plastic - I like the theory that it will be a "last project" - let's see how that works out for you! If it is any consolation, I have painted up a few of the Perry plastic dervishes and I think they come out very nicely. To my mind, Perry plastics are the equal or in some cases superior to their own metal figures, so I am quite happy to use them if the figures I need are available in their plastic ranges. Good luck with the Sudan campaign!
Very interested in this new "crazy" project ^^. Don't worry we, wargamers, are all a bit crazy, aren't we?
That's a lot of little boxes to get through!!
Hi Simon,
I actually bought this lot with half of the money received for selling about a third of my Punic Wars collection (which was always too big for practical purposes): It's simply a reinvestment of hobby funds. I only spend this kind of money once every five years (usually when starting something new), which probably puts me firmly in the category of the average annual spend of a fairly serious hobbyist. The point about buying big but seldom is that it ties me into a project (so I can't spend on "new shiny" for "new shiny" sake) and you can normally negotiate a discount on big (big for me, anyway) orders, which actually makes this lot a bit cheaper than it might look.
I think a lead pile of that size would paralyse my painting efforts. Do you intend to use the Sands of Sudan rules?
I do have a copy of those rules (given to me by a client) but, as yet a rule set has not been decided on. I may well come up with something on my own.
Rob,
P.S.
If I didn't buy big at first order I doubt I'd ever do anything. Something in me needs to know that at the end of it all, money or no, I'll have a game. I think it goes back to my teenage years when as a Forces (R.A.F.) kid I had to divide up 'my' first wargame collection with my wargame-buddy when his Dad got posted overseas. It was mostly Airfix minis for Ancient Briton, WW1 and WW2, and pinted like c*ap, but I hated losing a figure of it.
Since then, I think, it's always been all of both sides or nothing. Sadly, in a Freudian boy of 7 way, that kinda sums me up.
Ha! I know where you're coming from as also an RAF-brat. For me it was only losing opponents as I had always wanted both sides (started solo) but I doubt any of my 'armies' back then ever made it into double figures in terms of boxes of Airfix figures.
Delighted to see you dive into colonials. Hard to beat the Sudan for the variety of troop types and scenario options. Will be watching this very closely. I am working on a new version of my colonial rules with the Sudan and Zulu War the first to be addressed. Good luck with your painting efforts.
Cheers,
Chris
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