Progress on the table: 19th Century Brits, Mahdists and Bolt-action,also some terrain all happening simultaneously!

Victoria's Little wars: 

Brits in the Sudan, and Bolt Action. Strange bed-fellows

On my painting/modelling table at the moment:

Perry's Sudanese Mahdist Ansar warriors

Squaring up to the British colonial troops. The Ansar are mostly done now, bar basing and highlights

While the brits have only had under coat, base coat and flesh base done

"Here they come, lads!: Let 'em have it!"

"Bismillah! Alah-u Akbar!"

Production line in action

Different historical periods mingling in friendly fashion whilst drying

...or less friendly fashion. Salah- al Din being unhorsed (and de-handed ? ) 

by Viking Hirdmen with greataxes

 

Does anyone else ever imagine the conversation going down?

(For Gottz zake, Hans! Go play viz your flamezrover somevere else! Can you not zee zat det Hauptmann is plannink ze next attack? )

Und how vood ve get zere? Der Hanomag is ztill being painted! And it has kein Ketten!

I say, old Chap! Coming along nicely, what? Spiffing! 

 Terrain for Bolt Action: 

Having been mildly embarrassed with my lack of suitable terrain for modern , well 1940s, gaming in 28mm, I immediately sallied forth to rectify the situation

 I quickly dug out my (now) obsolete 40K terrain, and fantasy terrain, and rapidly brought these into the 20th century. A couple of EWAR french houses and shops, some 20mm railway layout bits and a few pot-scourers, and away we go...the makings of a semi-ruined French village!

In this snap it looks MOSTLY ruined

But the bus-service is still running... Picked up some great pre-painted Corgi and Solido civilian period vehicles in approximately the right scale off Trade Me. 

At the best of times I find it a bit of an issue with Warlord's figures being at 1/48 and their vehicles at 1/56 ! So these little buses are 1/50. Close enough, I think 

While the Corgi US Command vehicle at 1/43 may just be a tad to big. 

Half-painted Heer stopping in for Gipfel und Kaffee (Coffee and Croissants) at the Patisserie 

 

Take a bit of old fantasy stuff, paint the floors, weather a bt

some EWAR stuff and scratch-built stuff, a HO/OO train platform...

40K, Mordheim, LOTR and EWAR bits coming together to form a ruined village and Eglise. Well, almost more like Monte Cassino, or the Vatican, by the time I was finished!

Now for some roads, of course, both tarred and un-sealed:

Out comes the crack filler. In-between we put in a bit of work on the Sudan.

PVA wood glue and sand

Dry overnight, paint and Voila!

 Within a day or two we have roads, the Germans have retreated to the other side of town, 

Or have they?

Opel blitz trucks are seen parked outside the ruined farm-house, as is a German staff-car

These Blitz trucks are the elongated version.

Some advance cautiously 

While the bazooka team

and sniper team move into position

The French doctor sighs. The ambulance will again be needed. 

All to soon...

...while back on the work bench a PzIV and a Hanomag are taking shape. 

Typical German engineering. Taking forever.

Reference for ANZAC Diorama, Gallipoli: More historic photos of ANZAC, British and Ottoman troops

Anzac Diorama: More reference photos for Chanuk Bair project 

The realities of war. A commonwealth soldier observes the body of a compatriot.

 The caption reads that he is handling stores, which could well be so, judging from the packed provisions (? ) water barrel and ammunition/food. The roll of cable suggests a different task to me though, and that barrel appears very empty. For some reason the guy also looks like a sapper to me. 

This particular photograph was censored at the time, as it showed a dead commonwealth soldier. The Kings College collection have some really graphic photographs of casualties that were censored and embargoed at the time. Some of the pictures still turn the stomach, even in today's permissive and desensitised world and the era of the internet.

Water supplies being filtered to remove impurities. Water at Gallipoli had to be imported from friendly territory around the Med or captured local supply. 

The harshness of the terrain illustrated. Very steep incline, with hardly any beach at high tide. Notice the line of horses tethered to the start of the undergrowth

Water being filtered before it was fit for consumption. Water quality was poor, shipped from surrounding islands or obtained from captured local sources.

View from one of the ridges. The light coloured specs are bodies. Hundreds of bodies, commonwealth and Turkish, both 

Evacuating  the wounded. I suspect this series of photographs may have been staged. Never the less, it gives us a good look at the uniforms. You can even see the hobnails under the boots that the Perry Brothers have faithfully reproduced in their miniatures that I am painting at the moment.

Field dressings being applied

NZ soldiers fraternising with the locals. There are several photographs of these two soldiers with the Turkish family. Clearly for propaganda purposes.

Exhausted New Zealanders asleep in their trench (IWM)

One tends to think that the troops were dumped at Gallipoli and left untill evacuated. This was not the case. This photograph is captioned " New Zealand soldiers returning to Gallipoli after leave on Lemnos" What it does show clearly is the wide array of headgear worn.

British Officers meeting with Russian Naval allies 

Some traditions endure. British Naval Officers taking tea.

British landing at V Beach, from the sea, and the ridge above

Brits dug in

Landings at ANZAC Cove:

ANZAC Divisional Officers landing

Terrain of the cove - Equipment, supplies and men piled high

Overview of the terrain

 

Once a foothold had been established...

Grenade practice. The webbing can be seen nicely in this picture, as can the variety of trousers, shirts and tunics. There is clear colour variation, even in the B&W photo.

ANZACs in the Trenches. Good detail of footwear and leggings.

Two Australians of the ANZAC in their dugout, named Spliter Villa for good reason. It is estimated that more soldiers died from flying wood splinters than from shrapnel. This was poarticularly true in the wooded areas of Europe (see my previous post on the Dellville Wood debacle, South Africa's WW1 equivalent of Gallipoli's senseless slaughter)

Field surgeon at work on Gallipoli beach.

One tend to think of Gallipoli as hot and dusty. When winter came it was wet, cold, and miserable

Frostbitten men awaiting evacuation

Frostbite victims in makeshift shelter

ANZAC Maori warrior braving the cold in the trenches

Turkish Uniforms

 

Staff Officers (I suspect a tad retouched)

ANZAC Soldiers with a captured Turkish Sniper

Turkish captives

Tending to Turkish wounded

Interrogation of captives

Note the huge variation of dress, mostly civilian. It looks as if pants and tunics were issued, but the enlisted men were free to wear anything underneath. Looks like both sides suffered from shortage of supply

Again the variety in Turkish Uniforms

A Captured Turk who was a barber in civilian life pressed into duty by the ANZACs

 

The omnipresent draught and pack animals. 

A donkey being given coco (!) Anyway that's what the caption says.

A Gallipoli pet. Light distraction was scarce in Gallipoli. One would have to presume that the donkey was pretty tame to allow this!

Indian Mule handlers

More on Donkeys at Gallipoli, and the story of Simpson and his Donkey

 

A cricket game played on the day of the withdrawal from ANZAC cove. A ruse to fool the Turks that all was business as usual in ANZAC Cove. I bet there was no sledging from the Aussie side that day!

Infantry Dress

Mounted Infantry - Huge variation in headgear, all within the same unit.

Rear view of mounted Infantry