Hattin Project: Along the shores of Lake Tiberias

On the workbench:

 Britains Deetail refurbished lot.

 Timpo Action Pack Arabs (from scratchbox) conversions (red arm = too long, will be corrected).

… and beneath the almost complete group of eight converted Timpo figs with Britains, Dulcop, Airfix, Jean and Cherilea parts … now Saharian tribesmen on Saladin's hand.

 Exchanged headgear only (above)

 New stages in the painting of the Saracen recruits

 Foot Deetail Britains halfway new outfits

Hattin Project: More foot Saracens

Jarwajaraya & Bedouin Infantry

In support of the huge Muslim cavalry (Saracen Faris) force, footmen are needed to beef up most of their pressing actions. I have mainly figures from former Spanish firms Jecsan and Reamsa. Years ago I restarted collecting figures (my son was just born) around the few Timpo crusader swoppets I could find remaining on my parents loft. This  humble saracen force is now cleaned and sprayed in four basic colors to introduce some recognizable discrepancies, enabling easy game play. Here, four additional infantry units of 8 men and a foot officer are thus produced. Contrary to Deetail Turks/Saracens who are heavily armored, this pack has no or only light protection against Frankish steel. NOTE: painting on these is not in final stage. This is work in progress!

The light blue

The red

The black

Black close-up

The white

More units round the bend

This Disney Production figure was ample converted and subsequently painted
 into a Muslim infantry-officer.

Hattin project 54mm : muslim archers convertion

As we need manny archers, I started to convert these chinese Britains copies into an archers unit.

Hattin Project : Knights Hospitaller or Order of Saint John

These will form up 1 unit of archers, 2 of infantry (each of 8 figures), 1 unit of cavalry (4 figures) and a general

Hattin map: project for Crisis 2014 in Antwerp - 54mm Crusader game

We will be at Crisis Antwerp on the 1st of November with a 54mm Crusader game.
The tabel will be 4m on 2m. The Ayyubids of Salladin being dark  red, Christian army blue. Brown are hills, with on the upper left side the Horn of Hattin. The left corner the springs of Hattin, bright red a building.
A small square is 5cm by 5cm. Small units are infantry, others cavalry.

DIORAMAS

Dear friends, I recently came upon a site of dioramas. The paintings are almost perfect. The site contains many examples for inspiration.

http://en.diorama.ru/contest/borodino/

Avanti per Bonaparte in Dadi & Piombo #56

The Italian wargame magazine Dadi & Piombo published an article on Avanti per Bonaparte and 54mm wargaming.

Hoping to show you soon some pics of it.

Boers at large (added on..)

Figure conversions for Anglo-Boer 'in the Veldt' gaming

Reading again a book from the Simon Fonthill novels series by author John Wilcox during my holidays, a started thinking on a quick responsive variation on the 'About' rules. Both parties (the native Dutch Boers on the one side and the British khaki's on the other; made up of initially all (mouted or dismounted) cavalry figures. Conversion 'eager' as I am, I made a first practical step (read 'reconnaissance') on the subject.

General Koos de la Rey in front of a small Boer scouting party

Part of this interest originates from the fact that I'm resident in a neighborhood where the names of the streets are related to the military- and political leaders of the Boers in Transvaal and Orange-Free-State.
I have a Transvaalstraat, across me. And an Oranje-Vrijstaat Plein, a Christiaan de Wetstraat, a de la Reystraat, the Louis Bothastraat and the Martinus Steynstraat, within 120 seconds walking distance. That must have been in the background! ;-))

Basic figures used: Jean Hoefler cowboys, Timpo action pack Union ACW, Airfix Commando and cowboys, Timpo swoppet carbine, Airfix ANZAC sloppy hats, green-stuff. The latter for the ammo cross-belts. As you hopefully can see, not all are are supplied with these characteristic items. Additional facial hair is sculpted on the figs with green-stuff too (second from left in top picture, in the middle in the 2nd picture. I'm looking for Mauser rifles in 54mm scale that are affordable. 

Can use good ideas on the mounted Boers (Conf. ACW cav, the raiders from Replicants) to continue with. The British mounted light Inf. in irregular fashion (as described in the novel "Across the Veldt", mentioned earlier) can be either AIP Boerwar British cav. that get head swaps or 7th cav. / Rough Riders or a mix of those. Here are my first mounted Boer initiatives. Made of replica Airfix mounted cowboys, fairly trimmed down with the razor blade knife. Pinned up with part of already mentioned brands.  Feedback and/or tips are still highly appreciated!

I know some people find it wrong to molest fine toy soldiers. I simply want to get those that I want and enjoy the searching, cutting, fitting, glueing an tough-up'ping'. Sometimes I buy 2nd hand lots just for a few of the figures in it. I take those out and resell the rest again. Often for a similar value as that I bought them for. That's an element of the fun too. I intend to use the Jean Hoefler horses for the Boers Commando. They look like sturdy ponies to me.

 Green stuff is kneadable mass made up of two components. It hardens in about 12 hours. Here I use it for the bandoleers and beards on my figures.

The Simon Fonthill novels are over ten titles now. The series starts at about the first Zulu war, covers the India campaign, Egypt, the Soedan, the affairs at Transvaal and other South African to be colonies, China and more. I find them addicting.