RFCM

Judging by the standard of writing I have seen popularised around AI - it will likely read like an article from the 'Grauniad'... Certainly don't trust it with adding up yet... as you rightly say, that is our hobby!

Neil

After the success of my first Svaneti tower, I'm working on a second one with attached buildings. The Orthodox church is all but finished now. It is quite cathartic converting all those foam scraps into tangible scenic pieces. At some point I will have to turn to the actual figures again! I've had some success using PP 16/62 Cossack heads on Irregular Caucasus infantry to inject more variety...

Neil

That Georgian rabbit hole is deeper than I thought - as the recent scenic builds suggest. I belatedly realised I'm effectively assembling four armies much like I did with my AK forces. I'm getting there but there is still a long ways to go...

Neil

I have to say I now far prefer 15mm. I first dabbled with them in my teens and got into them again at Uni when I could not transport my bulky 25s around. I've accumulated a lot of 25s since and more recently plastic multipart figs but the faff far exceeds the creativity imho. The sheer effort to create scenery and even wargaming standard paint jobs in the larger scale just takes up so much time (and that is from principally a collector-painter's pov!) All the while the 15s were in the background. PP rekindled my interest and being able to recreate epic scale cavalry charges and scenery more easily now makes it my go-to scale. There is also so much more available now that are great sculpts and poses. When I first started it was pretty much only Peter Laing and Mike's Models...

Neil

Thx guys!
The stonework was made by using a propelling pencil to draw the stone layers on an insulating foam surface that holds the detail - subscribing lots and lots of ovals of various shapes and sizes etc. It is a relatively quick but tedious process. Make sure you add the corner quoins and detail around the windows and doors first.
Last up is the orthodox church which has better quality dressed stonework. It is actually trickier to do since the stone is of more regular sizes and shapes.

Neil

More scenery for the 15mm Caucasus campaign. The Georgian church is still on the workbench. I have however completed a representation of a Svaneti tower, one of the 3,500 towers that are dotted around the highlands of Georgia... They are a cross between a Pele tower and an Afghan watchtower...

I used strips of foam to make up small gullies and dunes etc. as partial scenic bases. Most of my scenery is for visual effect but if you wanted to distinguish just scenics from rule-affected terrain features you could perhaps vary the base shapes... more rounded for pretty stuff and more regular template shapes for others perhaps?

Neil

An excellent conversion... well done!

The bridges are found all over the Ottoman and Byzantine world. There are even double and triple arch spans to be seen in Epirus. One thing strikes me is they may connect communities etc. but are only really good for foot and mule traffic. Certainly not intended for wheeled vehicles - locals might just get a cart over one gingerly. That makes anything larger than pack artillery 'challenging' to transport to say the least. With C18 and eC19 6pdrs coming in at 3/4 ton on their carriages that is probably the upper limit of what could be trundled carefully over one of these. More likely a 3-4pdr battalion gun was probably all you could reasonably manage with limited resources. Mule-borne pack artillery did not really come into service until the late 1820s.

Neil

Thank you all for your positive feedback.
This is one of the positives to come out of my 'annual leave' which has been spent mostly convalescing from Flu. Thankfully our hobby is full of 'pottering' activities when painting is not really an option...
Creating a plausible 'hilltop' village has always been on my bucket list since I first started gaming NW Frontier in 15mm with Peter Laing and Mikes Models eons ago. It has only taken me 40+ years!
Next up a Georgian church to finalise my scenic triumvirate. The shell is built and it needs to sit on a hilltop probably on an 8" x 8" base.

Neil

First pics of my completed Georgian (Caucasus) highland village and packhorse bridge in 15mm.
In a nod to PP (while not strictly adhering to any specific set of rules) I'm trying to compress all my scenic builds onto a restricted template. In this case a village on an 8" x 12" base. Some Minifigs Russian Napoleonics are added for scale. This was a weird one visually for me since I'm so used to modelling single storey buildings. The two storey fortress houses had livestock on the ground floor with living quarters above with external access by stairs for extra defence. Similar in many respects to Afghan highland villages though materials are different. The long building is my take on a Caucasus 'Boseli' or stable converted into living quarters above accessed by an external gallery. The packhorse bridge is a common Byzantine/Ottoman design found in upland areas to span mountain gorges and streams/rivers. It spans a 5" wide river and is on a 4" x 12" base. There are RW examples in Epirus as well as the Caucasus. My one is based on a C12 example in Besleti, Georgia.

Amen to that Martin,
Great service over the years from everyone at Irregular. I like to think there's probably some of Ron's castings among my collection and will smile as I paint them and use them.

Neil

Nowhere near anything ready yet, not even figures a.t.m. but will crack on nonetheless even if I don't meet the deadline

Neil

Quote from: martin goddard on August 04, 2025, 09:16:47 PMEssex use a 60% tin 40% lead. It is called "L" in the trade.  It is much cheaper and easier to drill/file.


martin

Thanks for the info Martin. I am grateful L is softer to work since I use a pin vice for all my head swaps, wire spears etc. Soon to clock up my three score years, it is harder going... The PP 'head wiggle' replacement method with the better quality metal certainly helps things along though.

Neil

As the saying goes in my line of work when I train Curators in object marking techniques... the only real COSHH guidelines you need are wash your hands and don't drink the paint! Everything in moderation.
I don't know whether there is a secret recipe or guild for casters out there but I notice figure metal quality is quite variable. Essex are noticeably easier to work than Minifigs which is easier than AB and other lead-free pewter devotees. Piggy men are harder to drill but hold detail better.

Neil