Steampunk British Infantry - 18/05/21 Update

 I've given up on 'part numbers' for these posts as I'm working on a couple of related 'regiments' at the same time!😁

So, the story so far...

After getting my recent creative diversions out of the way I have returned to my 'Invasion Mars, 1899' project by starting to paint my first 'regiment' of British for the campaign. These are my heavy assault infantry - Grenadier Guards - with the Mk. 1 (diving suit) space clobber!

It's nice to see a unit of my peg soldiers in progress, it reminds me of why I started this blog in the first place (even if they are not Molatarian infantry)!

The scarlet I am using for the suits is Vallajo's 'Gory Red', crimson was a bit to bright for my liking and this more muted red is more to my liking though it's a bit of a pain to paint with and needs a couple of coats to get good coverage. Still, it's worth it.

I'm gone for a coppery brass for the diving helmets and again - just my luck - this paint is a bit of a pain to use as well...

It's going to be a bit of a slow slog to work my way through these five figures in order to complete the unit AND I haven't even completed the 3D printing of the arms yet! The delay here was due to my fancy-nancy 'space rifle' design which is turning out to be a pain to print properly. I think I got a bit over-ambitious for the scale and should have stuck to my super simplified design ethos of my earlier peg soldiers' weapons. 

Anyway, in the end I managed to get a passable print, though it still needs some cleaning up...

Above: Hard to tell what's going on when all the print supports are
on but hopefully it will do the job once it's cleaned-up!

And in the meantime...
While scratching my head over my Grenadiers' guns I cracked on with the prototype for my second British unit - a Light Infantry trooper in a Mk. 2 suit...

You can get an idea from the above pick how the space rifles should turn out as I have primed the arms for this little chap. And while I had my red paint out I made a start on painting his uniform.

In all I hope to make three British infantry units (of six soldiers each), the Grenadiers, a Light Foot and a Marine detachment. I'm going for six in a unit as in this 50mm scale and using a version of the Portable Wargame rules for a small table 'battlefield' this will keep the overall numbers manageable for a game.

Aside from the infantry there will also be a section of 'cavalry' (steam mechs) and a artillery section (one gun). The mechs will pose quite a challenge as they will be quite big.

And that's all for today, it's just banging on with these figures in a little painting production line!