Falcon Dayaks and Malays 15mm Complete

 

Yes, they are indeed Falcon 15mm. I found the original listings. The actual codes elude me as the descriptions are a tad generic. Warrior with spear sort of thing. I have two types of those. On to my best guesses.

Dayaks with spear and shield.

My previous post explains how I made the shields.

 

Dayaks awaiting shields.

 

Dayaks with parang and shield.

 

Malays with Kriss.

The fancier dressed leader figures in some of the units you see are Minifigs Indians.

Blowpipes, Grumpy 15mm in the mix.

 

Two units

 

Another pic' of the Rajah and his musket men. The Raja and pals are from Grumpy.  The musket men are from Falcon.

 

I'm pleased to have these and eventually they will star in "Flashman's Lady" type games. I need to work the stat's first. Of course Falcon figures are a rarity these days. I bought them from Colonel Bill's for a reasonable price. It is always worth keeping an eye on what he has in stock. Good stuff just seems to turn up there.

 

I Have Malays and Dayaks in 15mm

 

You don't often see 15mm Malays and Dayaks. So, despite the poor lighting I thought you might like to see these. 

I don’t really know who made these. Maybe Frontier or some other long vanished outfit. Falcon are a strong candidate. I say that because I have some Falcon Manchus and I can see a similarity. For the purpose of this post I'm going to call them Falcon.

Now, the question is what to do with them?  Initially, I thought TMWWBK and I still might try that. On reflection I’ll begin with Pike Mans Lament. It won’t matter as far as basing goes. Of course I could mix and match a hybrid system.

Before we get into that. Let’s think of the opposition. I’m minded towards a touch of Flashman’s Lady.  British Marines and Sailors then. Probably from Minifigs. I intend keeping that Force quite compact 24 Marines, 12 Sailors and a Ships Gun. 

Dayaks with blow pipes.  I have two types Falcon and Grumpy. The Grumpy ones are shooting.

These fascinating weapons blew a poisoned dart into the target. They were also used for hunting.  The poison induced paralysis. I’m going to field these in groups of 6 as high quality Skirmishers or Commanded Shot. Note the plug bayonet effect. Faced with close work the Dayaks liked to plug a blade into the barrel of their blow pipes.  Then they had a spear.

It might be fun to have blow pipes hits take effect in the next rather than current turn. That in turn raises the interesting question of what a unit does with living but paralysed comrades. Carry them and reduce firepower or leave them and reduce morale.  As I write this I can feel the influence of Yellow Ribbon.

Let’s consider skin colour here. I have used Oriental Flesh from Coat d’arms and given it a light wash of nut brown. It looks quite light complected. I’m happy enough with the result as jungle dwelling Dayaks don’t see as much sun as you might think.  Sea going pirates would be another matter. I should say the figure on the left is an Irregular Miniatures African.

On to the spearmen. These look dandy, one pose of course. That's how it was back then.  What they need is the typical Dayak shield.  Quite, but where from? I had a Dayak dilemma. See what you think of this. 

Not bad I think. What I did was take images of actual Dayak shields.  I reduced them and then printed them out two images side by side. Then I cut them out, folded and glued both sides together with PVA White Glue. Once dried they were glued to the Dayak.

The bases you see here are unfinished. I want them to look Jungley.  As yet I know very little of what jungle ground looks like. We will be seeing the complete Malay Dayak array shortly.  I'm working on rating them according to Mr Mersey.

The British Sailors and Marines will take a bit longer. I find uniformed troops mostly do.

Crimean War Russian Artillery in 15mm

 

Russian armies liked lots of artillery.  Big guns and big batteries.  The Russian artillery had a good Crimean War.  Including, you may wish to know, sounding the death knell of wooden warships. 

My Russian batteries will have 3 cannon and most of them will be 12pdr's.   The gunners will be "Trained" and I'm flirting with the addition of the "Elite" suffix.  That won't make them better but will keep them firing.  That is important what with the Minié and all.

For Crimean War games I will be using Republic to Empire and Field of Battle and Battle Command. A battery in the last two comprises 2 guns. In Republic to Empire it is 3 for the Russians.  I'm showing both today.  They are, of course, the same guns.

 

Field of Battle/Battle Command above.  Below Republic to Empire.

Republic to Empire requires a larger deployment space for artillery and also that guns are withdrawn  to refit after a certain amount of firing.  That sort of granuality is what I want for Crimean War games. It may not suit all.

I intend achieving the demarcation by positioning the limbers to indicate the extent of the artillery position.

Of course this means buying limbers or cassions or what have you.  In short, more expense.  Once again it will not suit everyone.  I decided to do it, having reached the age of "if not now, when?  I may have to buy more limbers.  That said I'm limiting it to one per Battery. 

On the current count I have 3 batteries Republic to Empire style and two limbers.

 

Happily, I have a Minifigs Napoleonic Cassion somewhere that can be pressed into service.  All good, except I have enough guns for another Russian Battery.  It may have to do without for the time being. 

Unfinished Business-Outstanding Projects

You may have noticed that of late I have been completing projects, some of them quite big.  This is deliberate policy rather than hobby whim.  There is a certain satisfaction in this.  Job done, as it were.  Let the games now begin- sort of thing.

I still have some outstanding projects that demand completion.  At least that’s how I see them.  Let’s see what’s in the queue.

First is Gonzalo-a game for the Great Italian Wars.  Gonzalo is written. It was completed about 2 years ago. 

I re read it again this week.  Satisfactorily, it is clear as games systems go. By which I mean readers could play it without puzzling what they should do next. 

I thought it timely to knock out a couple more units.  Gascon Crossbows for the French should you have wondered.

Then, I thought again about the basing system I used for Gonzalo.  Currently it uses multiples of 30mm frontage.  

I’m minded to change that to multiples of 40mm. For the pure look of the thing you understand. Gonzalo is base size agnostic-providing you use the same sizes for both sides.  

As part of this I see the Genitors and Stradiots, looking better on hexagonal bases. Thus giving a visual clue to their fighting style.

Anyhow, the die is cast. 

You can see the new Gonzalo basing system in the pic’s above.  Lots of rebasing to come.

Next is "Never Mind the Ghulams" a Crusades Game. As the name suggests it owes some inspiration to "Bill Hooks". It works nicely and we will be seeing more of it shortly.

Very much in the same vein is Flodden which covers the Wars of Henry VIII should you wish an Anglo-centric shorthand.  This needs more work but not that much more.

You may know of my Spanish Civil War game Arriba é Non Pasaran. That’s done and it works beautifully.  Should you be curious you can see a couple of games elsewhere on this blog. It seems games can be professionally printed for a reasonable cost.  I may do this for Arriba é Non Pasaran.

On the horizon is a game for the Nine Years War in Ireland, Tyrone’s War if you like. Currently, that’s in the active development stage. I have written quite a lot on that conflict and you can follow my thinking by clicking the relevant tags.

I’m also about to return to the Spanish Conquest of Mexico.

A lot to do and all of it pleasant labour. 

Of course, this is merely the plan. 

Men plan and the Gods laugh.  Mike Tyson had thoughts on the durability of plans too. No doubt I will get side tracked. Luckily, it is said it is the journey that counts.

Meantime Dear Reader, a belated Happy New Year to you. May some Joy come your way and your endeavours be garlanded with success.