Bad News In The Sudan - The Movie

 

Head Cinematogher, Der Alte Fritz Himself visits the Sudan.

CLICK ALL IMAGES TO ENLARGE

I was thrilled to be able to throw dice and move figures around the table last evening as I journeyed to Chez Protz and the Pettygree Barracks to play a wargame. We staged a game with our 54mm toy soldiers featuring the British Camel Corps versus the wily Osman Digna in the Sudan.

The game was an excuse for me to pick up all of the figures that I left at the Pettygree Barracks last October, when we last convened for a wargame. We kept this game purposely small with only three players and proper social distancing. Our week day wargames always have a hard stop at 9PM so that there is time to pack figures, load up the car, and return home at a reasonable hour. I think that this is a good idea.

I elected to play Osman Digna's Beja and Haddendoa warriors from the eastern littoral area of the Sudan that is bordered by the Red Sea. Ostensibly, elements of the British Camel Corps were retreating back to a port on the Red Sea where they would board Royal Navy transport vessels and sail home to Olde Blighty. The Beja et al were pursuing the Camel Corps and ushering them out of their lands.

The initial deployment of forces on the table top. The Camel Corps are at the far end of the table
and the Dervish are in the foreground

"Escape From Suakin" - the movie

I will let the pictures and the captions tell the story in our exciting movie. There were no animals hurt during the production. Our film is based on a screen play by der Alte Fritz 

Our story begins with a close up shot of Richard Caton Woodville, Jr. who is the noted artist employed by The Illustrarted London News. Caton Woodville and his film crew scan the horizon looking for signs of a large Dervish army commanded by Osman Digna.

Times correspondent and illustrator, Caton Woodville (mounted), and his photographer
 were on hand to record the events of the day.

Narrator (James Earl Jones): The Crown Forces had set up a skirmish line of Camel Corps troopers ahead of a wet donga, where the main battle line formed. The skirmishers would fall back to the main battle line before the Beja closed in on them. Should the line along the donga become precarious then the Camel Corps were to execute a fighting withdrawal to the beaches and hope that the gunboats and transports arrived on time.

(Sound of war drums in the distance. A cloud of dust can be seen along the distant horizon. The dust cloud gets larger and larger as it approaches the British front lines. We pan back to Caton Woodville and we see what he now sees).

The Beja have been sighted by the Egyptian Lancers, who ride back to the
Camel Corps skirmish line to give them the news of their discovery.

The natives move rather quickly, eh wot?
The Camel Corps skirmish line must fall back before they are overwhelmed.

Armies In Plastic ("AIP") 54mm plastic Beja warriors are on the move!
The Camel Corps skirmishers skedaddled just in time.

The Egyptian Lancer reach the safety (really?) of the main Camel Corps battle line, deployed behind a wet dongha.

A close up view of the AIP Egyptian Lancers, expertly painted by Major General Pettygree.

(The camera pans back from the action, showing the sea port and the panoply of the battlefield)

Overhead view of the table top showing the Camel Corps battle line and the
 port  area where, hopefully, the transport ships await.

Major Glenbrook and his batman scan the horizon for the Royal Navy transports and gunboats..

(The tune "Rule Britannia" plays as the British gunboat steams towards the sea port)

The vanguard of the fleet arrives and attempts to navigate the harbor,
which is filled with many a treacherous sand bar.

(Music fades as the camera focuses in on a battle line of Camel Corps soldiers)

Three companies of Camel Corps and a section of Navy Gatling Guns defend the high ground.
The British troops have pulled back from the untenable position behind the donga.

The Beja surge over the donga. It's a good thing that the Camel Corps fell back to the next position.
The Beja war band second from the left has lost two stands of ten figures from a 50-figure unit.
The British concentrated their fire on one or two groups of warriors so as to whittle them down.
Should they close with 40 to 50 warriors, the British chances of surviving the melee are slim.

The left wing of the British army holds their ground closer to the donga.

Narrator (James Earl Jones): The British left wing held off the Beja for much of the contest, but eventually the Beja drew within charging distance and closed into contact with the Camel Corpsmen. Alas, the latter were obliterated by the ferocious Beja and the few British survivors fled for their lives to the beaches.

The left wing has a Gatling Gun and one company of Camel Corps.
The Beja can be seen amid the trees.

Bill P. (left) and Chuck the Lucky (right) take stock of their British forces.

Narrator (James Earl Jones): Meanwhile, back to the action in the center and on the right wing of the Crown Forces:

Egyptian Lancer spy an opportunity to charge into the flank of a Beja warband.

Tacka, tacka, tacka, here come the Lancers.
They crash into the flank of the Beja, who seem nonplussed by it all;
the Lancers are repulsed.

CUT!!!! The film director is very upset. Hey Lancers, you did not follow the script. You were supposed to win the melee! The scene will have to be refilmed later.

The right wing of the British force prepares to receive the Beja charge.
Note the Egyptian Lancers charging into the flank of the mob.

It's Picture Time! The 54mm toy soldiers are so photographic.
The gunboat is still trying to negotiate the sand bars in the harbor, rendering no help to the Crown Forces.

The grand finale of the battle; this is the stuff of legends and Victoria Crosses.

While the Beja - Lancer melee reaches a conclusion, another band of Beja crash into end of the right wing.

A desperate struggle finds six stalwart Camel Corpsmen from Sussex staving off the savage surge. Two go down and four live to fight a few more minutes. The Beja are pushed back.

Fresh from having defeated the Lancers, the Beja regroup and attack the Camel Corps
troopers who are hunkered down behind a wall of camels. The four remaining Sussex heros lend their weight to the fight.

Colonel Fred Burnaby wades into the Beja hoard, seeking glory and fame.
Now we are back on script.

CONCLUSION

Narrator (James Earl Jones): The British left wing was demolished by the Beja, but the right wing and center fended off the Beja and gave hope that they might successfully leave this dry, bloody and foresaken land. Osman Digna listened to the whistle of Royal Navy artillery shells overhead and decided that he had done a good day's work and it was time to melt back into the landscape and allow the remaining Camel Corps to leave his lands. 

***********************************

I hope that you enjoyed our film today. Stay tuned for Part III of The Sudan Campaign movies.

FILM CREDITS:

Major Glenbrook.................Wm. Protz

Captain Cavendish...............Chuck the Lucky

Osman Digna.......................Der Alte Fritz

Richard Caton Woodville....Hugh Grant

Freddy Burnaby...................Liam Neeson

Mrs. Glenbrook....................Emma Watson

Bobby the Dog.....................Rocket

Director & Producer............Wm. Protz

Costumes - British...............William Britains' and Trophy of Wales

Costumes - Beja...................Armies In Plastic and John Jenkins Designs

Cinematography...... ............James Purky

Film Editor...........................James Purky

Dialogue Coach......... .........Henry Higgins

Film Location(s) ................Wisconsin and Morocco 

Based on a screen play by Der Alte Fritz.

British Brigade of the Guards in the AWI

 

The flank companies of the British Brigade of Guards, circa 1777.
Fife and Drum Miniatures

Flank companies of the Guards form up in front of the Savage Swan public house
somewhere in Pennsylvania in 1777.

On November 22, 2010 I announced the formation of a new figure range of American Revolution miniatures done in 1/56 scale, sculpted by Richard Ansell. On December 2, 2010 the venture was formally name Fife and Drum Miniatures.

The very first figures in the F&D range were the British Brigade of Guards because at that time, no other company made such figures in 1/56 scale (suitable for 28mm and 30mm miniatures). 

British Guards Announcement

Announcement of the Establishment of Fife & Drum Miniatures

Over the years a couple of other companies have added the British Brigade of Guards to their product ranges (notably the recent announcement by Perry Miniatures). However, since the FD Guards figures are now nearly ten years old, they have been forgotten by some of our customers and I thought that it would be a good time to remind people of the Fife and Drum Miniatures British Guards.

Fife and Drum Miniatures web store

The two pictures at the top of this page depict the flank companies of the British Guard. These men wore a cap with a front plate and front brim. The center company men wore a round hat turned up on the right side.

Brigade of Guards center company soldiers on the march.

The British Guards packs available include the following:

BA-004  Guards Command (6 figures)  $12.00

BA-005  Guards Center Company Marching (8 figures)  $16.00

BA-006  Guards Skirmishers in Round Hats (8 figures)  $16.00

BA-007  Guards Flank Company Marching  (8 figures)  $16.00

BR-003  Guards Regimental Pack (30 figures)     $52.00 (13% discount)

Guards skirmishers, firing and cocking musket.
The officer figure is from the Light Infantry  set of figures.

Overhead view of the Brigade of British Guards marching into a Loyalist village.

Beware of women wearing a bucket yoke. Advance at your own peril.

Screen Credits

This episode of my blog features a very nice table mat from  Cigar Box Battle Mats. These pictures feature the New Europe mat ( New Europe Battle Mat ) #510. This is a really useful mat for smaller skirmish games or you can pair it up with some of the other European battle maps in the Cigar Box product range. I use the "New Europe 2" mat #660 for many of my games and the road on this mat matches up perfectly to any of the roads in mat #510.

The water well is made by Grand Manner in the UK, but alas, the company appears to no longer sell unpainted resin products and so you have to purchase their products painted, which makes them a bit dear to one's wargaming budget.

Herb Gundt made all of the trees, snake rail fences and buildings that you see in these pictures.

Some of the civilians are from Blue Moon and Perry Miniatures, as well as from the Fife and Drum / Minden range of Civilian Figures. I believe that Bucket Woman is a Blue Moon figure from their Sleepy Hollow box.

Custumes were provided from the painting brush of Himself, der Alte Fritz.

One Year Ago Today

 

My last wargame, played on Saturday March 7, 2020

One year ago today, the world seemed to shut down as it dawned on everyone that the COVID-19 virus was in fact a pandemic. NBC News asked viewers to look for the last photograph that they had on their smart phone before the Covid pandemic took hold. The above picture shows our group playing a wargame on Saturday March 7, 2020.

I remember coming to this realization when the NBA shut down its basketball schedule, including stopping one game that was in progress. Oh, oh, I thought. This is going to get bad. I'd better get to the grocery store and lay in some stores of food for the long haul.

Apparently other people had the same thought. When I arrived at the local Jewel grocery store the parking lot was packed with cars even though it was only 2PM in the afternoon. I filled up my shopping cart with frozen entrees, pizza, canned soup, bottles of water, and bleach. The toilet tissue and paper towels were nearly cleaned out by shoppers. The hoarding had started.

The next day, the paper towels and toilet tissue were gone from the local grocery store.

Masks were nearly impossible to find. I visited the local Ace Hardware store and the manager had a stash of N-95 masks that he was doling out - only 4 per customer. I think that I paid $20 for just four masks. I also bought the last bottle of hand sanitizer that was on the shelf. 

One by one, the various professional sports leagues were following suit with the NBA and either cancelling their seasons or putting them on hold. The NCAA announced that it was cancelling the March Madness College Basketball tournament. Yikes!!!!!

How we got through a year of the pandemic.

Apparently lots of people bought puppies or other pets over the course of the pandemic lockdown. We had rescued our dog Augie ( a Lab mix) from the local animal shelter back in February, so we were ahead of the curve on that one. We actual adopted Augie to replace our Golden Retrieve Tiberius, who had died from cancer in February.

Our new dog Augie

In order to relieve boredom, we started to bake things in the kitchen. My daughter Lelia and I made Civil War hard tack (inedible) and apple fritters from a Colonial Williamsburg recipe book.

We cooked and baked.

We had a formal afternoon tea once a week.

With all of my spare time (spare?) I embarked on a new war gaming project, using 54mm plastic toy soldiers to recreate the Sudan Wars and the Gordon Relief Expedition in the mid 1880s.

The new wargame project: 54mm Sudan War

I taught myself how to make 54mm terrain to go with my new toy soldiers.
This is a preview of a game that I hope to take to the convention circuit in 2022.

My wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.
We were going to go on a cruise down the Elbe River, but that got cancelled, obviously , and we celebrated at home.

Lelia took up painting during the pandemic and a local art gallery asked her
to  do a showing of her work in their studio. She even sold some of her paintings.

More afternoon teas.

We got another dog in October, a Golden Retriever puppy named Bella.

We had a presidential election in the USA. It seemed to go on forever.

We rediscovered having picnics in the countryside.

We kept our sense of humor. What else can one do? This was Thanksgiving Day
without any relatives at our home.

We celebrated Christmas and decorated the house for the holiday.

Augie and Bella had fun opening all of the Christmas presents.

We had no appreciable snow until February, and then it came down and down and down.
Almost two feet of snow over the course of a week.

Vaccines were available in February, but we couldn't get appointments.
It was frustrating and depressing. We sought out comfort food.
One night I just said "eff it, I'm going to the all night Walgreens and gettin' me some sugar!"

Our dogs Bella and Augie provided all the love and kisses that we needed to keep us in a positive frame of mind.

My wife and daughter finally got their first shots of the Moderna vaccine two weeks ago. I received my shot this week. Getting the vaccine does wonders for our frame of mind and gives us a sense of hope and that this is all going to end. Soon? I don't know, but I'm sure that things will never be the same.

As of today, over 530,000 Americans have died from the Covid virus. It was not a good year for the families of the people that we lost and there is no way that I can think that any good will come of this.

Spam Countermeasures May Be Required 😳

I have been scrolling back through some old blog posts and found that i was the victim of a major spam attack by Dr. Emu, Vampire, Dubai Carpet Cleaners, and some other naer do wells. I went back six months to clean the comments up.

I have decided that it is necessary to take the unwanted step of implementing comment moderation on this blog. I hate to do it, but maybe this will keep the spammers away if they can’t post their comments on my blog.

There are several alternatives and I thought that it will be helpful to get some feedback from the Hive Mind.

#1) Complete Moderation = I review all comments before posting them.

#2) install the Captcha filter = you have to pick out traffic lights and bicycles from some squares before you can post.

#3) moderation applied only to posts that are more than 14 days old = this makes it harder for Dr. Emu to go back several months to spam old posts.

I just turned on #3 moderation but am thinking of selecting one of the first two options for two weeks just to see what will happen. #1 might enable me to see how much spam comes in. #2 might eliminate it completely, although it is a pain in the butt for my readers.

Your thoughts please.

Your Enlightened Despot, About to Go Bonkers

Nearly There - SYW Prussian Artillery Battery Update

SYW Prussian Artillery Battery

 

The view from the front of the 7-gun battery.
Can you identify the types and poundage of the cannon?

The view from the right hand side. Note the third row of terrain blanks to create
more space between the  gun crew and the ammo wagons.

I am nearly finished with my SYW Prussian artillery vignette which depicts a 7-gun battery of assorted ordnance with crew, a row of empty spacing between the gun crews and the ammo wagons, ammo wagons, and finally, 4-horse limber teams. 

The blank pieces are only being used to make this vignette and will not be used in a game. I wanted to create more spacing between the gun crew and the munitions wagons for an improved visual effect so I made seven 60mm by 60mm square mini-terrain pieces. Some of them have a support figure or two: one fellow with a wheel barrow, two laborers carrying a heavy wood chest up to the gun position, and two gold brickers taking a rest, sitting on top of some ammo chests.

The munitions wagons are an assortment of Front Rank and Fife and Drum Miniatures pieces that I have collected and painted over the years. Now that F&D makes its own ammo wagons (2 and 4 wheel versions), I no longer use the FR models, although they are fine in their own right. I have three more munitions wagons painted that only need to be based to be completed. That leaves me with one more wagon to paint so that each of the seven gun models has its own limber and munitions wagon.

The limbers are a mix of models from Berliner Zinnfiguren (expensive at around EUR30 each) and Fife and Drum Limbers (at $7.00 each). The horses are a mix of standing RSM limber horses and walking Fife and Drum limber horses. The reins and traces on the limbers are made from fine gauge wire.

I have started work on the Austrian version of this vignette. The Austrians have three 12-pounders and two 6-pounders so I want to add at least two more gun models, probably 7-pound howitzers. I need three more limber teams for the existing five cannon, plus two more sets if I expand the size of the battery.

Some people think that painting all of the wagons and limbers is a waste of time or too expensive, but I think  that the effort provides a big payback in the look of the battery on the table top. And of course, you can add some rules wherein some of the artillery hits from cannon balls might roll through the rear areas of the battery and take a few limber horses, or God forbid, a munitions wagon. Boom!

I should have an update on the Austrian battery by the end of this week, so come on back to see more pictures.

ON DECK CIRCLE: I plan on painting 12 Prussian HR7 Yellow Hussars (wearing mirlitons, using the NEW shouldered sword poses instead of the charging pose). A dozen more HR1 Green Hussars in the same pose, but wearing fur busbies, are also in the painting queue.

When I get tired of painting horses, then I will tackle the IR15/III battalion of the Prussian Guards in mitre headgear.

The Most Versatile Pack in the Minden Range - CIV-003 Pioneer Set

Prussian Field Forge from Berliner Zinnfiguren. The smith and helper are made by Hovels.

Following on from the previous thread about the Prussian artillery park, I thought that I would post pictures of the field forge and repair station vignettes that I made quite awhile ago. In all of these photos you will see how I employed the figures from a pack of the Minden pioneers set to make some easy to make vignettes to grace your table top games.

Pioneer Pack CIV-003

Before we get started, I want to introduce everyone to one of the most versatile packs in the entire Minden Miniatures figure range. CIV-003 is a pack of four civilian workers that have a wide variety of uses. The set comes with a sprue of tools including a shovel, an axe, a sledge hammer and a pick. So you could paint them as civilians working on a road or building a house or what ever your imagination can create.

The genius to the set is that you can also paint the figures as SYW era artillery crewmen who have taken off their heavy wool coats so that they can be more comfortable working in their sleeveless waistcoats. For Prussians, simply paint the waistcoat and breeches a straw yellow; for Austrians, paint them fawn brown; red for the French; and blue for the British. I often put a rammer into the hands of one figure, let another hold the linstock match, and another holds the trail spike. I use one or two pioneers with the rest of the regular artillerymen in their coats to create a variety of uniforms on my artillery stands.

I also like to dress up my pioneer figures as artillery "matrosse-men", or the laborers who get to push and drag the heavy cannon into place. Two of the poses can be holding cable rope used to drag the cannon into position. I take a piece of fine guage wire and bend it back in the center of the selected length of wire. Then I twist the two parts of the wire together such that the twisted wire resembles rope cable. This is a very easy conversion to make. 

I often have some wire end cuts left over from my wire flag poles, when I've trimmed to flag poles down to size. I keep the pieces in the old bits box and save them until I need them to make wood lever poles that the crewmen might use to either lift the cannon carriage or perhaps to pry one of the wheels out of some mud.

Minden Pioneer set CIV-003 set painted as Prussian artillerymen wearing just their waistcoats.
Drag ropes are made by twisting two pieces of wire together.

This picture shows the four different poses in the CIV-003 pack, showing how diversified they are. 
The figure on the far right has been given a barrel rammer to show how these figures can be 
used as artillery crewmen for any country that used the sleeveless waistcoat.

I have seen other modelers make mealie bags out of epoxy putty and position the bags to make it look like one of the pioneers is carrying a bag of flour or something else. I've seen a pioneer or two carrying a flag that is resting on his right shoulder. Again, the possible uses for these figure is only limited by one's imagination.

The wheel repair vignette shown below demonstrates some of the uses for pioneer figures. Look at the two previous pictures for the figures carrying ropes. Now look at the wheel repair vignette below and see how those same figures appear to be rolling the replacement wheel up to the cannon. Another figure is seen prying up the axle of the carriage so that the new wheel can be slipped onto the axle. The officer waving his sword (useless twit!) is the officer figure from the Prussian Jagers command set.

Replacing a broken wheel on a Prussian 12-pound cannon.
The workers are from the Minden Pioneer set CIV-003.

Reverse view of the broken wheel vignette.

The Blacksmith's Shop

The Blacksmith set CIV-005 is a nice 3-piece set that includes one horse, a blacksmith changing the horse shoe, and a young helper holding the horse. I also used one of the horse holders from the CIV-009 set (two horse holders and two sitting wagon teamsters) to, well, hold the reins of a pair of horses. I used two RSM standing horses and filed off all of the horse tack so that only the reins and bit remain on the figure. Then I drilled a small hole through the reins of the RSM horse and threaded a piece of fine wire through the horse and through the hands of the horse holder. I envision the horse holder leading a pair of horses up to the field forge for some shoe repairs.

Minden Blacksmith and helper on the left from the CIV-005 set.
On of the horse holders from the CIV-009 set is holding two RSM horses,
with horse furniture and tack filed off.

The Artillery Gin

This tripod-like devised is called a "gin" with a hard gee, rather than with a soft gee that would make the word sound like the alcoholic drink. The gin was used to lift the heavy cannon barrels off of the carriage so that repairs could be made on the carriage. I first saw one of these at the Saratoga National Military Park and decided that I needed to make one for a vignette. 

I used the Minden pioneers, again, to make the workers. The two workers in the foreground are turning the cranking devise on the pulley to lift the barrel of the gun. The other two figures have attached rope to the trunions of the cannon barrel to help change out the barrel. An RSM officer is supervising the whole operation.

The gin was constructed from pieces of bass wood. I constructed two "gee-shaped" sections and drilled holes at the top where the wood pieces intersect. Then I pushed a small dowel rod (or craft stick from Michael's Stores) through the holes to connect the two vee pieces together. I also put some small craft beads onto the dowel to give it more diameter and heft. Finally, I found a block and tackle pulley from a ship modeling company and threaded some more wire through it to attach to the cannon barrel. The men will now crank up the cannon barrel using the pulley.

Work crew use a "gin" to lift the heavy brass barrel of the cannon off of its carriage
Minden Pioneer set figures were used. The gin was scratch built from pieces of bass wood.

The full "repair crew" vignette comprised of two vignettes that fit together quite nicely.

It is a nice change of pace to work on some one-off vignettes, especially after painting all of those cavalry and infantry figures in your wargaming armies. I have shown several different uses for the CIV-003 pack and I should point out that CIV-001 Agricultual Laborers Set 1 and CIV-002 Agricultural Laborers Set 2 also have a nice variety of figures that can be easily customized with nothing more than the color of the paint that you use and a few different tools to hold in their hands.

Why not give it a try and see for yourself?

Click on the link to our web store. Click on the pull-down menu at the top of the page, labeled Minden Miniatures and then scroll down to the Civilians tab and click this open. You will find all of the civilian packs mentioned in this blog post.

Fife and Drum Miniatures Web Store