Studio Miniatures Kickstarter delivers!

In this week's post I received my long awaiting 28mm Sikh War figures from Studio Miniatures.  This was the result of a Kickstarter I contributed funding too in late summer 2013. And what a parcel it was!

 

 

The parcel posted from the UK to me here in Ohio. Postage marked as 22 pounds!

Opening the envelope revealed the contents....lots of boxes and two clamshell packs.

Emptying out the envelope yielded the following...

One clamshell opened during transit and the contents were loose in the envelope. This must have happened late in the process and all the figures survived intact. (Hooray!) The KS personality figures from the stretch goals and the gun crews were in the clamshells, the 'battalions' of Sikh and British are in the white boxes.

Escapees from the packaging, but no casualties - not even the RSM with that long bayonet.

The infantry was well packed in each box

Some of the stretch goals included artillery crews for each two battalions ordered as part of the Kickstarter. The crews were in this clamshell.

The figures look great. Sharp detail and cleanly cast. Studio Miniatures has scored with the initial releases for their Sikh War line. Below are some images of more of the bonus figures.

 

 

 

Sikh General and water bearer

 

 

 

The British RSM

Mounted Sikh Officer

Projects, projects, projects...

I'm eargerly awaiting receipt of my 28mm Sikh Wars figures from Studio Miniatures. Earlier in 2013 I funded their kickstarter and it succeeded well beyond the initial scope of the projects. The many additional add ons caused shipping to be delayed, but the images I've seen so far are looking good!

Once I get the figures in hand, I can start completing the units I will need to field the troops used at the Battle of Sobraon. It was an ugly battle featuring a strongly entrenched gun line with flanks secured on a river. (Imagine if you dumped the central redoubt from Borodino into the middle of the Confederate lines at Antietam  and you get a rough idea of what the British faced.)

WInter is coming...

...and no, I don't watch Game of Thrones.

Got a few inches of the 'white death' blanketing the ground outside, so its a good time to dive back into my hobby related projects.

Drifting away from sci-fi for a bit, we've spent the fall immersing ourselves in Ares Game's "Wings of Glory" (Aka "Wings of War" by Fantasy Flight Games). We've had great fun swanning around the miniatures table blasting away with our fighters and bombers. I've acquired more Caproni heavy bombers than is likely healthy, but that's a post for another website.

I'm awaiting the completing and delivery of my 28mm Sikh Wars figures from Studio Miniatures. Then I need to get off my buttocks and finish prepping for games at CincyCon 2014.

But wait there's more! Thanks to my friend Scott, I've gotten the bug to play Star Trek: Attack Wing. So I've made a modest investment in a Klingon task group to field in casual play and maybe the occasional organized play event.

All of this leaves my 15mm projects more on the back burner than I would like. I need to get the paint out and work on something to feel like I'm making progress. Maybe put together a small game for CincyCon that gets some of these troops on the table. Perhaps something small?

Welcome to Tulwar and Bayonet!

Tulwar and Bayonet is a blog devoted to my hobby of playing tabletop miniatures games of the historical battles from the Anglo-Sikh Wars of the mid-19th Century.

I got started down this path in the 1990's when I was reading up on the colonial wars of Queen Victoria. The Sikh war was interesting as it was one of the few times that the British (or rather the East India Company) actually stood to lose battles that could indeed cost them the war.As it turns out, the Honorable East India Company won every battle, but the casualty counts were high enough to shock the British people and government.

Its a colorful period with redcoats, (on both sides) lots of artillery, cavalry and even camels and elephants. I plan to document my efforts at gaming this little know conflict covering both the rules I use for the games as well as the various figure manufacturers that make up my miniature armies.

Getting back to battery

Has it been two months since my last post? Wow - it really must be summer (and work, and the dog...and the myriad other things going on in my life these past few months).

Anyway, on the 15mm sci-fi front, I received a pack of bits from Topgun for their line of grav vehicles. Just in time for fall - I can add these kits to the workbench and get cracking on them. They'll be great additions to the 15mm Traveller stuff I enjoy doing.

So stay tuned and I'll work at getting something a bit more 'content rich' added to the site.

Summer, Girls and...Panzer?

Ah summer, time for diversions and relaxation. So if you are casting about for somthing to do this summer, allow me to recommend you spend a little time exploring the weird, funny world of Girls und Panzer. You'll find clips of the various 12 episodes scattered across Youtube and even the entire series on Anime Season or Crunchyroll. Its one of those things for which no explanation will suffice to convey what's going on. Let's just say its clearly science fiction with a fair amount of geek pride when it comes to WWII tanks, military history, gaming and movies.

Pzkw IV (in early war panzer gray)  battling Matilda II (in Western Desert tan)  in a street fight?

With Crunchyroll  you have to put up with advertising and edits of some of the funnier musical (musical?) moments.  Anime Season  has some odd - but comical - subtitle translation issues (as in gratuitous use of German instead of English) but the shows seem to be intact.

I could point you to the Wikipedia page, but its almost better if you watch it cold. But it you need a hook, I'll just share this flaky little video with you.

The Titan Gunship from Rebel Miniatures

Attended Cincycon last week and had a rousing good time gaming. In addition to the fine games, I acquired a new miniature - the Titan gunship/dropship from Rebel Miniatures.  The Titan is a larger casting (bigger than the Earth Force Saber class gunship, but you can see a clear family resemblance between the two miniatures. It's a nice casting if you are looking for something a bit larger to streak across your battlefield and pickup your isolated troops.

Here is a shot of the box right off the rack.

And we pop the top to reveal the contents

Nice! Not too much going on in here. Big solid pieces of miniature. 

Next we sort the pieces out on the table. Yep - the kit comes with six (6) rocket pods!

and a rough shot of what the final product should look like. Unlike the Saber, the engine pods are all integrally cast as part of the wing or the tail boom - a welcome feature!

Both in look and style, the Titan reminds me of another recent VTOL purchase - Khurusan's Doe gunship. Here you can see the two side by side. The Doe looks taller, but bear in mind that a.) its in the foreground and b.) it is sitting on its landing gear. In length and width the two kits have similar dimensions. The Doe is a bit taller, but not dramatically so.

The cockpit designs do vary a bit. Both use a tandem layout similar to the old Soviet Hind helicopterAs can be seen in the picture, the Titan has a pair of spacious cockpits compared to the Doe. Titan's layout reminds me of a trainer variant of an old Soviet IL_28, while the Doe is clearly inspired by the Mi-24 Hind.

Titan will make a great addition to my miniatures, providing a 'heavy' gunship that fits in stylistically with my existing Saber VTOL models. Look for more posts on assembly and painting of this guy!