The Taiping Rebellion "T'uan-lien" Part 1

I really find the Taiping Rebellion an interesting period of history.  This war occurred after the Opium Wars.  England went to war with China to ensure that the Chinese stayed addicted to Opium.  The Chinese government realized that England was doing that and tried to resist.  It ended very badly and caused unrest amongst the local peoples.  In 1846 a man by the name of Hung Hsiu-ch'uan claimed to be the younger son of Jesus.  He started writing and speaking about his visions and God's plan for China.  In 1850 his followers started fighting with the Imperial forces.  By the time to war ended 1866 it was estimated that 20-40 million people had died.  If this is true the Taiping Rebellion was second most bloodiest war being beaten by WW2.

I find this period interesting due to the unique weaponry and tactics involved.  There are masses of unruly Chinese mobs clashing wielding old rusty swords and spears.  There are black powder weapons that were antiques to the critical Western eyes of the time.  The British sponsored a mercenary company called the Ever Victorious Army.  It was led by an American until his death and then a Englishman by the name of Gordon.  This unit was trained in the Western way of fighting.  It did not always live up to it's name but the unit was generally successful.  The Imperialists and the Taiping forces gave no quarter to the enemy.  There is a lot of colorful uniforms and the Chinese love flags.  It allows for some great modelling opportunities.  Since this is a period that is not gamed very often I will have many opportunities to convert existing models.  And I have already started this.

Here is my first attempt at Taiping Infantry.  These are my T'uan-Lien soldiers.  They are common farmer militia.  My osprey book says that the soldiers wore coolie hats in the summer.  These are Vietnamese style coolie hats.  That detail will be really hard to pick out at 6mm.  I want to use Japanese Ashigaru for C'hin Dynasty troops.  They look very similar to the terracotta men that were from that period.  6mm is a great scale for conversions because some details can be covered or obscured.  That means more creativity for me!!!
I used GhQ's Viet Cong individual infantry.  I trimmed away the ak47's and the m16's (What?  Yeah, some of the guys had m16s) and the grenades from the soldier's belts.  It was a little tricky to do some of soldier's arms.  I believe that as I keep doing this I will find more creative ways to make the guys hold the spears.
For the spears I clipped a straight pin down to spear size and glued it onto the model.  I wanted to add some Ji style halberds but it was to hard to do with super glue.  That will have to wait until I get a sauder gun.  This unit has three flags.  One will be a dragon banner, another will be the leader's banner and a third one is there to round out the flags.  I just primed the models.  I look forward to painting them!

Dorothy's House....no curled up socks to be found!!

I have a lot of stuff to cover today.  I want to start with my 15mm terrain projects.  These two pieces sat around for a few months unfinished.  Nothing annoys me more than partially completed projects.  It seems lazy and impulsive to dive into an idea without completing it.  This first picture is my pig pen.  Wait a minute.  I am getting a head of myself.  I need to give credit to matakishi's teahouse.

http://www.matakishi.com/

He is strictly a 28mm man.  I took some of his stuff and converted it down to 15mm.  I also used a different medium for creating the pieces.  I believe it is unique enough that I am not copying him.  The first set of pictures are of my pig pen.  I do not have any pigs to put in the pen.  I guess the rebels have taken all the livestock away on previous raids.  I will be using this for my pseudo African conflicts.  If you look in the back ground you can see some other 15's and some of the colonial governments tanks.  I will do more with that in another post.

This is the barn house.  You can see the outhouse in the back where the colonial farmer drops deuces.  You may be wondering why I have American style buildings in Africa.  Well, I changed theaters after I made this stuff.  My colonial farmer studied in the US in college.  He was so struck by the rustic qualities of the South that when he got home he built a farm based on of that influence.

The next bit on the list.  I wanted to make some unique suppression markers for Spearhead.  When a unit is fired upon there is a chance for three things to occur.  It can be one of three things.  It could be nothing, a suppression or the destruction of the platoon's combat ability.  If a unit is suppressed you have to mark the unit.  This will cause to unit be unable to move or return fire until it rallies.  I made a bunch of explosion markers using circle bases, wire and tree flock.  I sprayed painted it black and then painted them to look like big explosions.  I am wary that the suppression markers are a little on the big side for 3mm.  The next few sets I make will be smaller in size.  I think these will be big 155 artillery barrages.  

My next thing is a very tiny side project.  I have some 1/6000 scale ww2 warships.  I love all things Italian about WW2.  The battle of Cape Spada is a small cruiser clash that occurred in the Mediterranean.  Two Italian light cruisers (Bartolomeo Colleoni and the Giovanni dalle Bande Nere) were chasing 5 British H class destroyers.  The destroyers lured the two cruisers into the range of the HmAS Sydney and a destroyer.  When the smoke cleared the Colleoni was sunk and the Bande Nere withdrew to safer waters.  I went out and picked up the ships for less than $20.  I am going to use the free rules Seekreig 4 to play the engagement.  Here is the scenario if you are interested in reading more http://www.ghqmodels.com/pdf/wwii_micronauts_scenarios/2.pdf.
At some point I would like to own the entire Italian navy.  It was on the smaller side in terms of numbers.  These ships paint up extremely fast.  If you look at the Sydney you may be able to see the naval camo on the hull.  The two Italian cruisers are in the last picture.  Italian ships were interesting with their top deck recognition.  I usually do not like to show models that are half painted.  People want to see painted models and not primed stuff.  I am moving this up the list for painting because it is a small side project.  I also plan on doing the Battle of River Plate.  It is a engagement of the German pocket battleship Graf Spee against 3 British cruisers.

This class of Italian light cruiser is called the Condoterri II.  There were 4 ships in the class.  The ship model had 4 series.  Each series were slightly different from each other.  In terms of guns they had 6 6" guns and 4 4" secondary AA guns.  These ships were fairly fast but were severely under armored.  I think the Italians based their ship designs on the premise that they would be attacking the French.  It would be neat to do a few hypothetical battles with French and Italian ships.

I have also started painting my DbA Athenian Hoplite force.  I am really happy to be getting started on that.  Stay posted for more news next week.

Athenians and Sumerianianianianianianianians

I have the start of two of my projects here.

The Sumerians were painted earlier in 2014.  The pikemen's spears were clipped off and replaced with cut down straight pins.  I used a thumb tack and poked a hole in the hands of the models.  I then stuck the pin into the hole and used super glue to hold it in place.

After the accident the pikemen had some of their spears knocked loose.  As you can see in the photo about half of the spears survived the collisions.  That proves to me the technique is pretty durable.  Notice the loose spear bits in the middle of the cutting board.  The models are Irregular miniatures.  I am missing the blade unit that the DbA 3.2 list requires.  That will have to happen in a later miniature purchase.  I will do either Assyrian Auxilia with spears or Hebrew Light/Medium Spearmen from Irregular.

Here is my Athenian force.  It is ready to be primed and painted and flocked!  I used Baccus 6mm Greeks for this.  I bought a Greek army pack for $40.  The pack will give me this Athenian army AND a Thessalian force.  That book the models are resting on is the DbMM army book #2.  

I clipped the 4 man strips that Baccus casts their models on to make the Irregular spear units that are listed in the army book.  You can see the thin metal bases with a few figures glued to it.  I always put a few figures onto the base and the rest of them are on wooden sticks.  After everything is painted I will glue the hoplites to the bases.  I like DbA as it gives you a little taste of an army without breaking the bank.  The other nice thing is that I have a decent start on a Later Greek Hoplite Athenian (or Thessalian) army.  

Plans are starting to take shape... 2015 painting goals!

I am still recovering from the car accident we suffered from in December.  I have made some more solid wargaming plans.

I am doing Spearhead WW2 in 3mm.  My addiction for 1:1 scale wargaming has taken over.
Speaking of that I decided to do 6mm WW2 with the Schwere Kompas set of rules.  The designer is a nice guy.  I am modding the rules so that each base is a team and the teams link up to for a squad.  The rules usually call for a stand to be a squad.  One inch is 100 yards in the game.  I want to make it 3 inches for 100 yards.  The focus is much more of a platoon scale than the company level.

DbA is still the same.  I have my Greeks and my Sumerians need their spears re-pinned.

I have a little set of modern rules called no end in sight.  I am going to do individually based 15mm models.  My theater is a pseudo African country at some point in the 60s or 70s.  I am taking a lot of artistic licensing with my unit choices.  I am excited to see how it all turns out. The rules are great too.  Check them out at wargames vault.

And finally my last project is historical in nature.  It is the taiping rebellion that took place from 1851-1866.  I am still in the research phase because I know nothing about Chinese history.  I could go into more detail but I will refrain.  It is very interesting.  I will say that most of the armies involved used hand weapons and a smattering of old Matchlocks.   compare this to the civil war going on in North America at the same time.

Here are my painting goals for 2015 in order of priority:

3mm Russian early war (this should be fast as 3mm paints quickly. It is really the basing that is time consuming).

DbA Sumerians
DbA Greek Athenians

6mm DaK platoon w/ support

15 mm African cold war

Random 6mm and 15mm terrain projects
(Terrain making never ends)

Backburner=
Converting GHQ Viet cong soldiers into chinese infantry in coolie hats with bamboo spears.

I will try to post at least every other week with updates.

PS  I am not paid to plug any of these games.  I just like them!

Rules, rules and more rules

I have become a rules caddy.  Life has prevented me from really getting any gaming in.  I did almost finish painting a 6mm SumerIan DbA force.  The car accident I was in messed up the pikemen's pikes.  I fractured my right hand in two places and sustained a traumatic Brain injury.  My wargaming hobby has been put on hold for the last month.  The only thing I can do is read rules.
It has given me some perspective on gaming goals.  Typically I have at leat three gaming ideas at once.   One of them is always ww2.  I have gone through several government sanctioned streamlining programs.   I made a corporate decision to only deal in 6mm models.  I gave myself some political breathing room by allowing some kick backs in the 15mm arena.  But for the most part I am solely a 6mm man.

DbA is going to be a keeper for me.  I was introduced to it by a really nice guy at a hobby town UsA.  I loved the simplicity of the rules.  I had plans for a Mongolian army in 20 mm but we parted wayS.  The great thing about 6mm is that you can build a force for $20 - $60.  My 6mm SumerIan army pack from irregular was about $35.  It gave me enough models to make the SumerIan force and a good start on an Elam force and a Zagros highlander army.
I also have a baccus 6mm Greek army pack in the mail.   That will hopefully give me a later hoplite Thessalian and an Athenian army.  I have plans for a Theban and Spartan force.  I want to eventually branch out into DbMM.  That is a great set of rules.

Ww2 has several options. I have some 15mm plastic soldier company American infantry.  I also have some ghq German DaK infantry, heavy weapons and a few half tracks.  I could go the bolt action rules in 15mm or Crossfire in 6mm route.  I have gotten into the close combat pc game model lately.  I used to play close combat 3 all the time back in the day.  Naturally I want to reflect that in my wargaming endeavors.  The 1:1 scale is definitely what i am into.  I saw someone do flames of war in 6mm.  It looked really cool.
The more i consider this decision the more perplexed i becoMe.  I like Crossfire but bolt action is a really nice system.  All of the rules and the supplements are pretty cheap in the Amazon Kindle bookstore.  I bought the Italy and Axis supplement.  I consider myself a Italian ww2 history buff.  The interest started when the original Flames of war italian army book came out.  I am not sure what intrigued me but i have kept the fires burning.  I do not know everything about Italy during the war.  I just enjoy it aS a subject.  The supplement has a infantry squad based on the  Italian navy'S marines.  I had no idea Italy had these San Marco marines.
I have to decide to do Crossfire or Bolt Action.  My basING plans for 6mm are on the team level.  One small FoW base would have 3 DaK infantry and one LmG gunner.   6 bases of these guys and three pennies with 2 models on them is a platoon.  the penny bases are squad leaders.  So two bases of 4 men and a penny base with two men make one squad of 10 men.
Bolt Action is based differently.  One model would be mounted on one penny.  The BaR team is a bigger 3 man base.  My bazooka team is mounted on a team base too.  My 2nd Lt is on a 25mm base.  This is to set him apart on the table.  The general rule is infantry men are on single bases.  Weapons teamS are based together.
I wish I had photos. Given my injuries I am unable to do photos.

To be honest I like both rule sets for different reasons.

My next (and final) rules decision is Sci fi.  I like epic  Armageddon and dirtside 2.  I am leaning more towards dirtside 2 because the basing is by team and a unit of infantry is a squad.  Epic'S units become more brittle the smaller they are.  I always wanted to leave a detachment behind to defend something.  Anything separated from the main unit body is destroyed. You could house rule this but the fact is a four stand unit will be ripped to shreds.  Dirtside 2 lets you leave a squad behind with no loss in combat power.
Epic has no system to make units.  Dirtside lets you design every unit. One thing I look for in a Sci fi or fantasy game is the ability to create your own units.
I have created my own Sci fi universe.  I based all the factions off of the epic army lists.  I will say they have no comparison with their 40k brethren.  I looked at the army lists and made up my own stories.  I think it is fairly unique.   That will be for another post.

There you have it.  I really like ww2 and ancients as wargaming eras.  Secondary eras include Sci fi, fantasy and black powder / horse and musket (30 years war, American War of Independence and the French and Indian wars).  I am glad I came to terms with wargaming periods.

Handguns and other stuff

Whew.  Work has been all consuming.  I have not had any time to make an entry.  That is mainly my fault.  If you want something to happen you have to make time.  My wargaming interests have gone back to their roots.  Well, my roots are Warhammer 40k.  I will never go back to that money sponge.  I try so hard to like 28mm models.  I really wanted it to work as a passion but alas... it failed.  My 28mm Blitzkreig Germans were sold on eBay.  I still have my ancients.  They are sitting on my work space for all eternity.  I really, really, really want to like 28mm models.  6mm models always seduce me with their grandeur and sense of depth and scale.  Like I said I went back to my roots.  My goal of having one game for each genre has been met.  I have chosen to stick with DbMM for ancients, Epic Armageddon for sci fi and Spearhead for WW2.  All of these games are fairly simple in the mechanics department.  Epic is a little fiddly with a few bits here and there.  That is quite a relief because I do not have the means to keep buying new rules whenever a new set catches my eye.  I suppose I could try and squeeze in Piquet Hostile Realms onto the list.

I bought a handgun near the end of July.  I did this because of all the crime I have witnessed in Salt Lake City.  I tried to stop a shop lifter after he stole a woman's purse.  Okay.  It seems silly to pull a gun on a thief.  I have also seen lots of drug deals while at work and at the apartments where I used to live.  I watched two groups of teenage boys start a fight.  My family was 10 feet away from the incident.  They started to pull knives.  Two cops were shot and killed in 2013 in the Salt Lake valley.  I do not feel very safe here.  I am also worried about the safety of my daughter and my wife.  I plan on getting my concealed carry.  I take my handgun with me everywhere I go.  Utah allows open carry with no permit if your firearm is in a visible holster and 2 actions away from firing.  Here is my handgun:

This is an IJ-70 9 x 18 Russian Makarov.  This pistol has very few moving parts.  It is a blow back design.  That means that the force of the round sends the slide back to eject the casing.  The monster honking spring then pushes the slide back into firing position.  The pistol is known for it's reliability.  I have fired it at the range.  It does have some kick but it is fine.  I really wanted a Russian Makarov but figured I would never be able to afford one.  Luckily for me I traded my black powder rifle and $100  for the pistol, custom grips, 3 functioning magazines and a case.  The guy selling it wanted $313 for the entire thing.  That seems a little low to me but maybe that is due to the fact that this is not actually a military issue Makarov.  There are few differences.  The major one is the adjustable sites.

I do not want to be a victim.  I carried a weapon in the Army and feel very comfortable carrying one (or sticking it in my glove box).  There have been so many shootings lately.  I want to protect myself and my family.  What I am not trying to do is be a gung ho gun fanatic.  I was not like that in the Army and nothing has changed.

And now for something completely different...

Hello folks.  It has been a while since my last entry.  I have been super busy with the job and the wife and the pooper.  This Saturday and Sunday have been slow and consequently I have been able to paint.

I have settled on three main projects for the next few months.  Money is tight and I am unable to buy anything new.  That is actually a good thing b/c I hate accumulating new things and never painting it.  It is very easy to get into that habit of running off after that shiny new thing and never finishing what you start.  So after a spirited question and answer phase I decided to show some maturity.  Erm...sort of.

I was working on my Germans for the past few weeks.  I decided to take a break from that and work on something new.  Well, it is not new to me because I have owned these models for quite a while.  What was one project has become three projects.  I am not sure how that happened but there are people working on it.  I decided to pull my Wargames Factory Numidians out of the Spiderman lunchbox!  And the 6mm DaK infantry came with them!!  Oh, there are some German Barbarians I converted from WgF Saxon infantry too.  I have no plans for them b/c they still need big, bushy beards sculpted on them.  You cannot have barbarians without lots of hair.

These guys are not Barbarians.  I remember reading those 2nd edition AD&D manuals.  Everything was backwards.  The wizards were old, hairy hermits with beards they have been growing for twenty years.  And all the barbarians were smooth skinned and clean shaven dudes in furry sling shot briefs!!  By the way I loved that movie as a kid.  My cousin and I used to watch in constantly.  They do not make movies that way anymore.  No one would CG the buffalo shots like the ones in this goofy movie.  If an emerald fits in your navel you get to be queen!  What a concept.  

I digress...I am painting some new guys for the moment.  

These guys are from Wargames Factory's Roman line.  They are supposed to be Numidian light infantry.  If i remember correctly they are advertised as being converted into dozens of different historic ancient era soldiers.  The only limit is your patience with sculpting.  I have decided to use them as either Sea Peoples Soldiers or Persian Greek levy infantry.  On the latter half I see them as Ilyrians or very poor Greek farmers.  The Persians come through and they capitulate to them.  It works for me as the Persians had subject soldiers from multiple countries.  I balk at the fact that my knowledge comes from wargaming rules and not a historical book.  Oh well, this is all fantasy anyways.  In addition to these 8 guys I have another group of primed soldiers on 40mm x 40mm bases ready to be painted.  These guys on the 1x2 stands are the back rank.  

I am not quite sure what rules to use with them.  I am trying to keep game rules down to three basic categories.  These are one (count 'em, ONE) historical set, one fantasy set and one sci fi set.  The good news is that my sci fi choice is Epic Armageddon.  They are a free download on the Games Workshop website.  You can also find all sorts of great army lists here  www.net-epicarmageddon.org .

The one difference is that I choose to use miniatures other than GW approved minis.  There are great 6mm models out there that are a fraction of the cost of the GW ones.  This means I also have to change the names of units, etc.  I have a whole backstory to support a non-40K world.  

That is all for this week.  I hope to get some more painting finished in time for Turkey Day.