Castaway Arts Camels

I finished some camels from Castaway Arts yesterday. The pack camels are from TR8 Camel Caravan and the other two are TR9 Kneeling camels, unsaddled; both are found in the Baggage/Transport section of the web page. 
They painted up nice enough, but what I thought was the hardest part was positioning the cargo on the camels. A quick email to Gerry at Castaway Arts pointed me in the right direction though. The camel caravan comes with a driver and guard, but I am unsure whether I'll use the driver at this point. I really like these camels and they will fill a very useful role in capture/escape scenarios or just good to spice up a scene. Although a little expensive, Castaway Arts have some really nice miniatures, and have always been very helpful. I have no problems recommending them - plus they're Australian! I have my eye on some of their beautiful pack mules next. (Click the images to enlarge)

The camel caravan

The kneeling camels

A Pathan and his camel 
(Foundry 28mm for comparison)

Artillery Crew and 6 Pounder

Here is Dave's first British artillery crew. Both the gun and crew are Front Rank and part of their Jacobite Government range. They were commission painted, but I can claim that I at least painted the gun. British might grows, albeit slowly.
The gun does look a little inadequate compared to some of our Indian ones, but you know what they say a large gun makes up for ;). (Click the images to enlarge)

Even More Indian Huts

Today I finally finished some more huts I have been working on for quite some time. Six in total, they include some that are a new improved design, including shutters and removable doors. The majority of them are for a swap in the States, but I'll be keeping two for our own table and as examples when I make more. Now if I can just improve that ground sheet! (Click the images to enlarge)

Some Preliminary Photos

Here are some pictures from our trial run of Sharp Practice - the ones I mentioned that were not worth showing, well, um, here they are anyway. A lot of the miniatures need their bases finished and some of the terrain is still work in progress, note in particular the red towel thatching. We are getting closer to being able to start this campaign for real and I believe our stuff will represent the British in Indostan well. As can be seen the photos aren't great, but you get the picture, no pun intended. (Click the images to enlarge)

Brave Captain Flashard commands the Line.

Cavalry closing on the Grenadiers!

A ragged charge.

Sharp Practice - First Game

We played our first game of Sharp Practice, from Too Fat Lardies last night, on the Anzac Day long weekend. My first impressions were very good. The rules revolve strongly around characters (Big Men) and a little role-playing brought the whole game to life.

I have to say I really doubted the smoothness of these rules when reading them, but was happily mistaken during play. I umpired and let Dave and Adam slug it out. I had taken a lot of pointers from the Sharp Practice Forum and tried to learn from the experienced players mistakes during their initial games. Some last minute comments read just before the game probably saved a lot of time searching for the more obscure rules in the book.

It took a bit of work, but I made a set of custom cards and tweaked the Bonus Deck slightly to give it a more Indian flavor. The scenario was a rescue mission to save an East Indostan Company official who had been captured by a local warlord and was being held in a village. Captain Flashard, the brave and popular leader of the Brits was determined to make a name for himself by stealing in and saving the day. I made up the scenario on the fly and it did not prove too well thought out, as the British had trouble getting into the village before every Indian on the table arrived to see them off.

After Dave had to leave unexpectedly I took over for a while and had a go playing. All in all I think the rules worked well, and I'm looking forward to giving them another bash.
Unfortunately no pictures worth showing at the moment, but a couple of noteworthy events were:- Sergeant Nobbs, a drunkard and a coward, who stood on the British left flank, fled the formation with his men after a couple of Indian musketmen opened fire, hitting nothing, but scaring Nobbs half to death. Later came a devastating Indian cavalry charge against a small group of Grenadiers, led by the eager Sergeant Uppem, who unfortunately failed to live up to his name and retreated with his men over a fence.
A really enjoyable game and the rules pretty much covered everything we will need - except maybe elephants - but I'll deal with that later.