3 August 2013

"Thou Shalt not kill" - 21st Lancers in the Sudan

As this project has unfolded it was always a desire to add to the units I already have with loads of old metal purchased from Chris Cornwell in the old days when he was still selling Connoisseur Sudan figures around the traps, as well as to update and refresh older units that were painted many years ago.


Such an example is this unit, the 21st Lancers, famous for their charge at the Battle of Omdurman and the motto at the head of this blog as an infamous nickname given to them by the British Army prior to their great charge.  Of course Winston Churchill was an officer in this regiment at the time and the movie "Young Winston" and its Sudan scenes were a very vivid memory for me as a young man piquing his interest in this period many years ago.


This particular unit, or at least the Officers and troopers were originally painted for my collection by the most talented Gerry Webb of Castaway Arts fame many, many years ago.    In fact Gerry was a most wonderful Prime Minister Gladstone in my very first Sudan Campaign, made even better by the fact that he was located in Cairns some 3500 kilometres away from my  and the other players hometown of Perth.  He based his political decisions based upon the limited information I allowed him from the campaign, battles and inter-action of the other four Imperial Commanders.  This worked very well.

Anyway, back to the unit.  They were originally mounted upon Elite horses however the desire was always to replace these with Connoisseur horses and to refix their lance points and pennons with the very clever Front Rank one piece items available.  I am very happy with the final result.


It also shows the change of basing colour scheme which is slightly "browner" and more to the scheme that I can garner from the old pictures of Peter Gilders Sudan collection.   Quite happy with the look on the desert boards and the contrast between that and the older style basing is better in my opinion.

4 comments:

  1. Very nice unit; I like a lot their bases, perfect!

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  2. Excellent! The bases are more in line with what I remember of Peter's table. I like the 21st, but my personal Sudan favourites are my uncle's old regiment, the 10th Hussars.

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  3. Beautiful unit Carlo, you have done a fantastic job on repainting those fine fellows. They are one unit I am sadly missing from my army of the Sudan....but I guess I am more Early War rather then later....buggar.

    All the best

    Vinnie

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  4. Not bad for an old fella, nice to see you do some figures...very nice. I am more a fan of GMB Pennons and wire but each to their own. A very sweet unit.

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