Osman Digna Personality Figure

 

Osman Digna
Armies In Plastic conversion.

I decided that my army of Beja warriors needed to have a mounted leader to command them. Who better to have than Osman Digna?

Osman Digna
(Wikipedia)

Osman Digna was probably one of the best military commanders of the Dervish armies of the Mahdist War (1881 to 1899). He was a follower of The Mahdi in Sudan, although some speculate that he joined the cause because the British-run government in Egypt banned slavery, and Osman Digna was a notorious slave trader.

He was a member of the Haddendoa tribe of the Beja people in eastern Sudan along the Red Sea. He raised his first army around 1883 and immediately started causing trouble by attempting to capture Suakin, the largest Sudanese port city on the Red Sea. He later captured the fort at Suakin in the same year. 

Osman Digna Biography

Osman Digna is probably best known as the one who wiped out Valentine Baker's (Baker Pasha) Egyptian army at the Battle of El Ten in 1883. This caused Britain to send an army under General Graham to the area to rescue the situation and regain control of the area for Egypt. Graham defeated Osman Digna's army at the second Battle of El Ten, but with great difficulty. That was followed by the Battle of Tamai, in which the Beja army broke a large British square and nearly won a great victory.

Osman Digna seems to be quite a colorful character to me and that is one of the reasons why I chose to build a Beja army

The capture of Osman Digna in 1899

Neither Armies In Plastic, Britains, or John Jenkins Designs make a 54mm figure of Osman Digna. In fact, non of them make any personality figures as far as I know, which is a shame. That being the case, it was clear that I would have to make my own figure.

So let's get on to pictures of my conversion of an Armies In Plastic figure into Osman Digna.

The figure on the left is the pose of the original figure that I used for the conversion.
This figure had its original sword removed and replaced with a wire spear (North Star spears).
The figure on the right is the converted Osman Digna figure.

The picture above (and below) compare the original Dervish cavalrymen with the converted figure.

First I cut off the wicker shield from my figure with a sharp Exacto knife (is there any other kind?) and shaved down the army and fist with the sharp blade. Next I cut the head off of a Beja foot soldier, did the same with the cavalry figure, and simply swapped out the turban clad head for Beja head.

The next step was to cut off the sword blade of the cavalry figure, making sure to leave the hilt of the sword on the figure. I took an off-cut piece of a North Star spear and trimmed it to the desired length, and then pounded it flat with a hammer and a small anvil. I drilled a hole through the hand and inserted the piece of wire to finish the sword conversion.

So far so good, but something looked a little bit off on my conversion: the left arm/hand was kind of hanging out there doing nothing. So I decided that Osman Digna should be holding the reins of his horse. I drilled a hole into the hand stump and likewise drilled a hole through the snout of the horse. Then I cut a length of florists wire and threaded it through the hole in the horse's snout. I centered the reins wire so that both ends converged at the figure's hands and threaded this wire through the hands.

The end result was a very dynamic pose for Osman Digna, heroically waving his sword with his right hand and pulling up on the horse's reins with his left hand. 

The figures were then primed with Vallejo spray primer, painted with acrylic paint, and then sealed with a couple of coats of gloss coat sealer. I think that 54mm figures look better with a gloss coat. I did a little extra painted detail work on the saddle cloth to make the figure look more important than one of the rank and file warriors.

I also did a special paint job on another Armies In Plastic cavalryman so that I could have a leader of my Ansar contingent of the Mahdi's army. I haven't given him a name yet, but I'm sure that somewhere is the name of all of The Mahdi's subordinate army leaders. The Mahdi himself did not take a part in the fighting because he was the leader, prophet and The Expected One.

So this week I finished painting ten more Beja, 5 more Egyptian artillery crew, one British artillery crew, the two mounted Mahdist leaders and one extra rank and file cavalry warrior. I have another ten Beja on the painting table and this afternoon I primed 32 Egyptian army regulars. The latter will be painted as one of the Sudanese regiments in Egyptian service.

Egyptian Artillery Conversions Painted

 

Yesterday I finished painting the second of two Egyptian artillery crews for the Sudan Project. I have one Krupp gun and one Gatling Gun and crew. The Krupp crew includes the converted figure holding a trail spike, putting to good use a pose that I would not otherwise have used.

The other crew were simple and easy head swaps of Egyptian heads onto British artillery crew torsos. I think that the results look pretty good.

Vvv

Petco Visit Terrain Finds!

 

Cork Bark in the foreground looks like rock.
The two greenish mountains were made for turtle environments.

CLICK ON ALL PICTURES TO ENLARGE

One of my favorite places to visit for wargaming terrain is the Petco national chain store of pet supplies. The aquarium aisle is loaded with all sorts chotchkes and niknaks to decorate fish tanks and reptile terrariums. For example, resin treasure chests, sunken Spanish galleons and rock caves could all potentially find a use on the wargamer’s table. In the past I’ve found a Greek temple ruin, an Egyptian Sphinx and Burmese statue heads. Other items such as plastic plants can be turned into desert or jungle vegetation. Kitty litter is a good material for making stone walls. The list goes on and on.

Resin Buddha Heads from Petco

This Greek Temple Ruin has appeared in many of my Ancients and Sudan wargames.
The trees were made from artificial plants bought at Michael's Stores.

So yesterday I was looking for some cork bark to use in the making of some mountains for my Sudan Project. Lowe's and Home Depot let me down with regard to finding any large chunk pine bark, but there was a Petco store across the street from HD so I thought that I might as well stop in and see what I could find. While I could not find any bark (used to line terrarium floors), I did score a couple of great finds in the Turtle Area Aisle of the store.

The first item was a turtle platform that looks like a large mesa-like rock structure. I plan on repainting it in more desert like colors for the Sudan. The second piece, a jagged rock formation spire, is also perfect for what I am looking for in off the shelf Sudan terrain. Again, a coat of red-brown paint and some dry brushing of highlights will turn the spire into a nice desert terrain piece.

Here are several pictures of the Petco terrain "in situ" on my game table. The game mats are from Cigar Box Battle Mats.

An old Airfix desert building fits nicely with the turtle terrain and cork bark.

More Egyptian Artillery Crew Conversions

The number of artillery crew poses in the Armies In Plastic figure range is rather limited, so I started examining some of the Egyptian infantry figures to see if any of them would be suitable for conversion work. I found a pose where the figure is running or lunging - a pose that I consider useless for close order troop formations - and decided that I could repurpose the figure into an artillery crew man by removing his rifle and replacing it with either a ram rod or a trail spike. I already had ram rod poses, so I used the charging figure for this conversion. It was a simple matter to cut away his rifle and then drill holes through the hands so that it could hold a length of wire (an off cut from a North Star spear that I saved for a rainy day). I mixed up a bit of green stuff epoxy putty and fashioned the end of a trail spike to put on the wire. The raised foot was a problem, so I placed a ball of putty underneath the raised foot and then fashioned the putty into a tree stump. I am waiting a couple of days for the green stuff to dry, after which i will spray prime the figure, paint him, and spritz him with a gloss coat finish.

The Before (right) and the conversion After (left) of Trail Spike Man.
The other two artillerists are just simple head swaps.

My plan is to have enough Egyptian artillery crewmen to man one Gatling Gun and one Krupp artillery piece. I might add another crew to give me three pieces of Egyptian artillery for my Sudan army project.

I hope to finish off another ten Beja warriors today and then wait for the arrival of Beja reinforcements in tomorrow's mail. My original plastic Beja contingent was 100 warriors and my plan is to increase that to 200 figures. Thus each Dervish player will command 100 figures divided into two 50 figure units.

I have three Egyptian infantry companies of 16 figures each and my plan is to increase the regiment to four companies, or 64 figures in total. Then I will paint a second Egyptian regiment of Sudanese troops. This will give me enough Egyptian infantry to form a giant square with 32 figures on each side of the square and then two Gatling Guns on two corners of the square. Three squadrons (already painted) of Egyptian Lancers (3sqs by 12 figures per squadron) provide support for the infantry. This will be my finished Egyptian Army for my Sudan Project. 

Egyptian Gatling Gun Conversion in Plastic

 

My growing Sudan  collection of 54mm plastic figures from Armies In Plastic started with an Egyptian infantry regiment of three companies of 16 figures each. Anyone can game with the battle winners ( British army) but I wanted to have Egyptian regulars fighting the Dervish. In addition the 48 infantry figures, plus 5 command figures, and 36 of the old William Britain’s hollow cast Egyptian Lancers, I decided that I needed some Egyptian artillery.

So I decided to convert some of the AIP British artillery crewmen into Egyptian artillerists with a simple head swap. This entailed removing the British heads and replacing them with fez covered heads that I’d lopped off of some spare Egyptians. I used some of the “useless poses” such as the running figure or the “I’ll bash you over the head with the butt end of my rifle pose.”

The heads are easy to remove with an Exacto Knife. I then make a pin cut from a piece of a North Star spear ( see, there’s a reason to save all of those off cuts from you are trimming down the length of the spear or flag pole). Next step is to drill holes into the head and the torso, fit the pin into the torso, test the fit of the head to torso, and then glue the head and pin into place.

Here is a picture of the Egyptian artillery crew after the head swap conversion.

Here is the crew painted and ready to man a Gatling Gun.

I’ve had to assume that the Egyptians have removed their tunics before setting to the task of operating artillery equipment in the hot desert sun because AIP only provides the British figures in short sleeves I don’t know what type of shirt they would have worn underneath their tunics, but it’s not unreasonable to imagine that they’d wear European style shirts. So I gave them white trousers and grey shirts. The officer wears his tunic. 

I’m rather pleased with how nicely this simple conversion worked out and so I will do some more crew conversions to man a Krupp cannon. Below is a picture of the plastic AIP Gatling Gun that I painted. Originally I was not going to paint any of the artillery equipment, thinking that the paint would not hold up well to handling. However, as long as I had some new Egyptian artillery crew why not give them a painted gun too?

I painted another crew figure holding Gatling Gun canisters plus another GG and a Krupp cannon model.

New Blog Page Sidebar Added

I have added a new item on the sidebar shown on the left side of my blog page. It will track the number of the 54mm Sudan Project figures of that I have painted in 2022. As of today, the total number of new figures painted since I returned from Historicon is 36. Keep an eye on this sidebar and watch the size of the armies growing every day. Note that these numbers do not include the painted Sudan figures that I had painted prior to July 2022.

What Is A Skirmish Game ? (and All That)

 

Upcoming Projects In The Queue

There is nothing like a new project to dust the cobwebs out of your mind and to leave the unpleasant baggage behind you. That leads to the question: what is next on Fritz's wargaming plans? I'm not exactly doing something entirely new, but rather, embellishing some existing projects that were on the back burner while I got ready for Historicon 2022.

1)  War In The Sudan - 54mm toy soldier figures, plastic and metal

2)  The Great Prussian Raid Into Poland - 1/56 scale Minden Miniatures SYW figures

3)  Hannibal Versus Rome - 54mm plastic toy soldier figures

The Sudan Project:  My recent purchase of the Cigar Box "Rattlesnake Ranch" or desert cloth mats is what is driving my renewed interest in war games set in The Sudan. During the pandemic lock down, I probably painted around 350 to 400 Armies In Plastic Beja, Dervish and Egyptian figures of 54mm size. I built my version of the town of Khartoum to give my figures something to fight over and my storming the walls of Khartoum game was a lot of fun. The Cigar Box mats improve the visual appearance of my Sudan games and so I'm eager to take this game to a higher level and perhaps stage it at Historicon in 2023. To that end I have ordered more plastic Beja warriors so that I can increase my Beja contingent from 100 figures to 200 figures of foot soldiers. I also want to increase the size of my Egyptian infantry so that I could possibly field a full army of nothing but Egyptians (and no supporting British troops). 

Dervish Country

I have a lot of ideas about terrain which will allow me to place mountains and hills atop the game mat, or underneath the cloth for gentle elevations. I made such terrain for my Historicon game using a hot wire knife and I was starting to get adept in its use. I bought several more carving tools at Historicon and I'm looking forward to cutting up chunks of two-inch thick pink foam board to make the mountains in 54mm size.

I have a couple other sneaky ideas in the terrain and accessories category, but I plan to keep these secret until  I can develop it further.

The Great Prussian Raid Into Poland During the SYW: The Prussians launched several sizable raids into Poland during the Seven Years War designed to disrupt the Russian Army's supplies and logistics systems. It seems that this problem continues to vex the Russians to this very day. The object of the raids was the Polish city of Posen, where the Russians had substantial food , forage and gunpowder magazines.

General Wobersnow led an incursion into Poland during the Winter of 1758-59 with 7 battalions, 25 squadrons, and 12 heavy artillery pieces. This seems like a reasonable number of figures to put on my game table, hence my interest in doing something completely different.

Ziethen led a larger raid of 20,000 troops into Poland in June/July of 1761. His corps consisted of 24 battalions of infantry, and 47 squadrons of cavalry. This is a much larger army than the one of 1759, but it provides me with a number of scenarios that allow me to use my Minden Russians without having to play the standard battles (Zorndorf, Kunersdorf, Paltzig and Gross Jagersdorf).

My Prussian forces already exist and so my painting focus will be on adding more Russian light cavalry and Cossacks.

Hannibal Versus Rome  - This project will likely go onto the back burner as I focus my attention on the other two projects. Primary needs are some more Roman cavalry, a brace of war elephants, more Roman Triarii, and a few other pieces. There are also plans for 54mm naval wargaming.

Some Thoughts About Games At War Game Conventions

I know that some of my blog readers will be a bit disappointed that I am not going whole hog into a massive Seven Years War project. But quite frankly, my convention experience at both Little Wars in April and Historicon in July make me think that SYW games are not well received at American wargaming conventions. In both instances, I had a superb looking game that was second to none, however, I couldn't get people to sign up for the games in the numbers needed to move around all of the available figures in the game. Perhaps it would be best to host SYW games at the Seven Years War Association Convention and then go in different directions for shows that do not have the narrow focus of the SYWA

I think that the large big games are a no go at today's war game conventions and have become something of a dinosaur in this era. Or maybe we should narrow it down and say that large Horse and Musket/Black Powder Era games are not as popular as they used to be. Based on my observations at Little Wars and Historicon, WW2 large games still seem to attract players. I dare say that WW2 is probably the most popular period of wargaming today.

Smaller games, more specifically skirmish games seem to be very popular. I think that this is because an element of role playing is injected into the game and by their nature, skirmish games are shorter than the large games. A person can expect to finish a skirmish game in about two or three hours. For this reason, I chose to present a SYW skirmish game at both conventions. I figured that catering to the skirmish gamer set would generate more interest in my game (not withstanding that it didn't at both conventions, I still hold that I made the best choice in doing skirmish games this year).

Finally, Science Fiction and anything with zombies is a sure bet for attracting an overflow of participants to your game; however, I refuse to host a game that has zombies, vampires or space marines in it.

Sharpe Practice - Is It Really A Skirmish Set of Rules?

There has been a lot of buzz about the Sharpe Practice (SP)  set of rules from Too Fat Lardies (TFL) in the UK. Whenever someone on TMP asks for recommendations for a good set of skirmish rules, it seems that fifteen thousand people come TFL has done an exceptional job of promoting its rules, so kudos to them.

Given all of the buzz and excitement over these rules, I gave them a try at several conventions and really questioned whether these were actually skirmish games. I played in a Jacobite Rebellion scenario and it seemed that there were way too many figures on the table, all in established units of 18 to 24 figures. I think that I had at least three units of this type under my command. My memory is a bit foggy on this. There was a distinct absence of "role playing in the game" and was disappointed by that missing feature. There was really nothing in this particular SP game that said "skirmish game".

Is this a case of "The Emperors' New Clothes Syndrome"? In other words, have we been told so many times that SP is a skirmish game that we all feel compelled to believe it because gosh darn it, everyone else calls it a skirmish game. We become too embarrassed or lack the self confidence to go against the flow and be the only person who says "wait a minute, this doesn't seem like a skirmish game".

I ask these questions because I am looking for something that will "grab" people and make them want to sign  up for my games. SP seems to be popular and there are people who want to give the rules a test drive in live game conditions; and there are a lot of proponents of SP that will seek out games that feature these rules.

What Is A Skirmish War Game?

I don't have definitive sense of what constitutes a "skirmish game", but I know one when I see it. In my mind it is a game with a small number of figures under your control. Maybe you have one or two character figures and a few minions under your command and you are given a mission for the game. Accomplish this mission, and keep other players from accomplishing their missions, and you win the game. A good example of this is the Wild West gunfighter rules, of which there are many, but Desperado comes quickly to mind. You have two gunfighters under your command so there is no margin for error in doing anything that brings peril to your figures.  You get shot and you are quickly out of the game. Reminds me of The Hunger Games. I always feared "the sucking chest wound" whenever I played in a Desperado game hosted by Tom Kelley. LOL.

I saw a number of these types of games at Little Wars and Historicon so I'm thinking that low number of figures and small game is very popular these days.

However,  I like to play with a few more figures than two or three, so I'm looking for a set of rules that has up to ten or twelve figures under each players command. As an aside, why is the number "12" so popular in war games? I could see maybe stretching the number of figures in your war band up to around 20 figures, but anything more gets us out of my percieved definition of a what a skirmish game entails.

I am sure that there are as many definitions of "skirmish game rules" as there are war gamers on the planet. There is no right or wrong answer here. I am just present my opinion on this matter.

I will continue to look for a set of skirmish rules that I can use for the Horse and Musket Era.

ACW Game At Historicon

 

Overview of the game. Alex is in the back center explaining the rules prior to the start of the game.

I thought that the best looking 28mm ACW game was a refight of the attack on the Dunker Church during the battle of Antietam. Coincidentally, the next table had a giant terrain creation of the attack on Burnside's Bridge, from the same battle. Now I am extremely biased on my bestowing the honor of Best ACW Battle at Historicon to Dunker Church. Why? Because the game master was my nephew Alex. I introduced Alex to war gaming when he was a young teen and he has become an accomplished war gamer over the years. However, this was the first time that he had hosted a game at Historicon and I think that he performed quite well with his terrain, painting of figures (Perry Miniatures), rules and scenario.

The game table is set up. Rules and rulers are set out on the table for the gamers, and we are ready to go.
Note the colorful Fall foliage. which is awesome.

Nothing says ACW better than some snake rail fences. These are from Renedra.
Perry Miniatures.

One has to depict various corn fields in any recreation of the battle of Antietam and I think that Alex came up with a nice way of making cornfields. He used pipe cleaners, drilled into MDF bases and added a bit of ground terrain on each base. Putting all of the corn stands on the table leads to a convincing look in my mind.

Alex ran the game twice and I believe that the Confederates won both times. The victory condition for both sides was to capture or control the Dunker Church at the end of the game. The Confederates met that victory condition in both games.

We were short one player in the first game so I stepped in and commanded a battery of Confederate artillery near the Dunker Church. I deployed one section of two Napoleons on the high ground in front of the church and my second section was initially deployed on the high ground at the back edge of Miller Cornfield, facing towards the Dunker Church so that it could provide enfilading fire at any Union troops advancing towards the church. Out of nowhere, one of the other Confederate players grabbed my guns in the cornfield and trotted them down the road towards Hooker's attack. Huh??? I remedied that on the second game turn and turned the guns back around and headed for the church. There was considerable back and forth fighting near the Dunker Church, but in the end, the Confederates prevailed in this sector due to my exceptional skills as an artillery commander. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

In game two we had enough players so I hung around the table and helped people with any rules questions. Why? You might ask. Because Alex was using an ACW variant of my one-page Der Alte Fritz SYW rules! I have to say that the rules mechanics worked very well with Civil War era troops. Well, I would say that wouldn't I?

Hooker's Federals enter the Miller Cornfield to take on a Confederate brigade.

A long view of the table, showing off the total visual effect of the cornfields.

The famed Union Iron Brigade has a meeting with Hood's Texas Brigade.
Elite versus Elite troops.

Hooker's Federal brigade on his right flank decides to countermarch to the left, leaving an inviting flank in front of Hood's Texans.
I was baffled by this move.

At the other end of the table, a Federal brigade attacks Ramseur's North Carolina brigade down the Smoketown Road, in front of the Dunker Church.

A view of the Dunker Church in the lower left corner of the table.
The victory condition for both sides was to control the church by the end of the game.

I thought that both games were successful as the games had a nice pace to the action and the players were having fun. That's what convention war games are all about.

Oh, and there was that other game going on at the table next to Alex's game. Burnside Bridge with some very nifty terrain. They were using the Brother Versus Brother ACW rules by Ivor Janci.

Very nice looking terrain.

Good idea having a placard with the name of the game and the times that the game will be played .
One slight correction, it was not a Theme Game because this year's theme was battles in Italy.
However, that takes nothing away from what was an attractive game.

Cobb's Confederate Brigade defend the heights on the other side of the bridge.

Finally, I have to say that the Perry ACW figures are really, really nice. Alex did a fine job of painting them (he is a Golden Demon award winner for his figure painting) and I suddenly had that little voice in my year saying "ACW, you must do ACW".

The Sands (Mats) of the Sudan

 

Egyptian soldiers form a line to repel the attacking Dervish.
Armies In Plastic 54mm plastic figures that I painted.

Last week the Desert Cigar Box Battle Mats arrived, but I had not opened the package until yesterday. So I unpacked the two mats and laid them out on my game table to see how they looked.

Wowzers!

As you can see, I really like these game mats. They are sized at 6ft by 5ft which allows me to cover a 6ft by 10ft game table. My table is approximately 6ft by 14ft so I plan on buying a third mat to cover the extended table top.

The coloring is infinitely better than anything else that I could make with either felt or canvass. The contrast between the basic color and the darker speckles throughout the mat bring the whole thing to life. There are also some bits of dark greenery that could represent scrub bushes.

Here are a couple of pictures of the mat on my game table. The figures are mostly 54mm plastic figures from Armies In Plastic. I’ve added 24 Britains Highlanders to the right flank of the Imperial battle line. The zariba is made from either dry moss glued to a painted craft stick or some simple clumps of brown lichen. Lichen is always handy in a pinch.

As with all game mats  one can place elevations under the mat or on top of the mat. In this particular set up I have placed my hills under the mat, but eventually I plan to have above ground hills that I will lay on top of the mat. Since I will use this largely for 54mm toy soldier figures, such hills will have to be higher than normal, perhaps at 8-12 inches in overall height. Pink foam board is available in two inch thick boards. Home Depot sells 24 inch square pieces which are perfect for hobby projects. I could buy a 4x8x2 sheet and cut it up, but the precut pieces will do just fine.

Dervish riflemen take cover among the Acacia Trees

Egyptian regulars defend behind a zariba made from nearby bushes

William Britains 54mm solid cast Highlanders.
These are some of my favorite figures for the Sudan.

This is around 325 plastic 54mm Dervish and Beja warriors on the attack.

Dervish come cheaper by the hoard.
Armies in Plastic Dervish figures in 54mm

There will surely be a giant Sudan game played in the near future. Bill P and I can field a force of nearly 900 Dervish / Beja versus around 300 British, Egyptians and India troops. The set up on this table has approximately 100 Imperial soldiers and 320 Dervish. I think that a 3:1 ratio of natives to Europeans sounds about right.

With respect to rules, Bill has created a 19th Century Colonial version of his big battalion rules and we have been playing these over multiple years. All of our group of regular gamers are well versed in the rules so our games play quite easy. I’m also interested in trying out my copy of Sands of the Sudan, which are a new version of the rules that Peter Gilder used at the War Game Holiday Centre back in the 1970s.

Who know, I might even take this grand show to Historicon next year, I’m thinking two parallel 20ft by 6ft table, the Nile River with steamboats, and my whole town of Khartoum.

It’s time to move on from old news, get back on the horse again, and start thinking about hosting convention games again.