Mummies...

 For possible Egyptian tomb or similar games, a couple of mummies....

French Foreign Legion

Finished rebasing the Foreign Legion figures I bought painted and also have painted the others I had purchased.

Desert table changes...

I wanted some summer blue sky backdrop boards with minimal clouds to reprsent being a bit deeper in teh desert. I bought a set of summer sky ones made by Art Printers ID Backscenes. These I  fixed with spray mount adhesive onto white faced hardboard.

the basic setup with the sandy'ish coloured felt I use for the table surface....

I only had enough dune sections on cardboard for one end of the table and made up some more to get be down most of the back of the table.  Here is a setup using my felt covered lumps and bumps with the card backed dunes and other bits placed against the back scene boards.

Camel caravan on the move...

and of course my French Foreign Legion fort ....

New arrivals - French Foreign Legion and their opposition...

 New arrivals, a 'little' project for desert games .. Redoubt Enterprises Foreign Legion and Arabs (tuaregs)..

Spotted some nice painted of 40+ foreign legion tfigures o get me started and another job lot with about 15 figures. Broken figures discarded to the melty pot and some repaired using bits of other bad pose figures. Leaving me with enough for most games I can think of...

Tuaregs.. a couple of lots of Ebay spotted at the same time... metal cast spears replaced with wire ones and a few minor conversions on some figures done ...

Some more off another Ebay lot,  nine mounted on camels

and four on horses, these all had broken off gun barrels and have been remodelled to some extent and given other weapons... 

I've got out the desert setup I use for the game table and will be making some improvements....

On the island of Eggano.... there be Dodoes ?

In the 1920's researchers had found a little known entry in the diary of a 17th century ships captain, the entries are summarised below...

"The ship had stopped at Mauritius and had taken some dodoes on board for food and having reached the island of Eggano off Sumatra had gone ashore for water - as they lay at anchor some of the remaining birds had escaped and somehow get ashore."

A couple of expeditions (one German and one British) were in the area and were sent to investigate....

---oXo---

The dodoes frolic and chase each other in the interior of the island....

while others look after their nests.... 

---oXo---

A landing party from the German submarine U-69 has gone ashore to search for dodoes....  (this section from a game played recently - hunt the dodoes)

The landing party move inland ...

they disturb a small flock of birds ...

Aha, look ! two dodoes ....

they run after them and try and restrain them... its a struggle - the large birds wriggle and flap their wings

Finally as they have the first two secured, they spot another two and manage to catch-up with one

All three secured they move the dodoes back to the shore where they landed.  One group encounters a small komodo dragon, which they managed to skirt around ...

Another group encounters a large ape, which looks at them for a bit and wanders away ...

all back safely to the bluff above the shore; before they put them on the inflatables, they will have to make some cages.

The officer in charge is concerned that they may not be able to get them into the submarine - they may have to call up their support vessel S.S.Wittenland to transfer them aboard.

Alarmed by the presence of visitors to their island the natives move out from their village to investigate ....

---oXo---

Meanwhile on the other side of the island, the British geographical expedition to the area had also been ashore ...

The landing party capture two dodo's and just push off and get moving in their launch, when some natives arrive on the beach ...

the launch reaches HMS Winscombe, the precious cargo will taken on board ...

Article in Miniature Wargames - If you go down to the temples today ...

I thought that  the game had something extra as a setup and submitted an article to Miniature Wargames. The article appeared in MW April 2023 issue 480. 

(for original blog post game report see http://carryonchaps.blogspot.com/2022/11/if-you-go-down-to-temples-today.html)

Laura Lambert ....

A follow on of sorts from the game 'Last Leg to Ngongoloo' (see this post...)

Laura Lambert-Odd had accompanied her friend Lady Penelope the expedition to the interior (Laura usually drops the second part of her double barrelled name as it is rather odd).

Laura came to ... her head throbbed, she vaguely remembered dodging a spear ... she ripped a bit of cloth of a shirt in her backpack and improvised a bandage around her head. Her gun was broken, but still useable a some sort of hand weapon. She stood up and got her bearings...

she around moved slowly checking if any of the others were alive ... no...

There was no sign of her friend Penelope (hopefully she had got to safety..) . Laura hid in a thicker part of the jungle till the late afternoon and headed up towards the village they had passed by in the morning...

she approached cautiously..

she tried out her basic swahili to ask for help - they were friendly ... and willing to assist her...

they took her to safety the next day to the mission at Nbusi....