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The Stouthearted Praetorian Guard part 13 – Ox and some other things.

For your viewing pleasure today we have OX. Another member from The Last Chancers but now recruited into the Praetorian Guard

Ox is an absolute brute of a man. He fears nothing and loves nothing apart from his heavy bolter. He sleeps with the damn thing and even showers with it, when he does shower that is, which is rare.

Ox is a no nonsense soldier who follows orders to the T but has a clear dislike for any rank above a sergeant, unless of course it’s Colonel Schaefer. Ox loves Schaefer like a father. More on Schaefer another time.

Here is Ox.

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In the last picture I was trying to show his “arrow branding.” I’m not sure if I managed to make it look like a branding or not?

I decided not to give him any red garments of any kind (as per the rest of the army) as I see him as a bit of a rebel/rogue type. As he’s built like a brick shit house I can’t see anyone giving him a hard time about uniforms haha.

Last night I watched a movie on Netflix called “Black 47” which is what 1847 in Ireland was colloquially called. The movie was based during the time of the Great Famine or Great Hunger. Starvation and disease spread across Ireland and caused the deaths of  1000s of people between 1845 and 1849. ‘47 was, by far, the worse year for this time. The movie, although fiction, really detailed what it must have been like during those horrific time’s. The plot focuses on an Irish soldier, who had been overseas fighting for the British, who returns home to learn that his family has been pretty much wiped out by the local British constabulary and it’s hierarchy. Needless to say the Irishman is none too pleased and goes and gets a little payback. The action is intense and the fact that everyone is firing one shot muskets and pistols really adds to the tension. Imagine, hastily, trying to reload a musket as your target is doing the exact same thing! It’s an absolutely brilliant movie that I highly recommend.

Here’s the trailer.

 

I’ve also been listening to a variety of different podcasts and if you’re anything like me you’ll love Red Coat History brought to you by Christian Parkinson. You can find it on Spotify and any other place you listen to podcasts. He also has a website so see here –

https://redcoathistory.com

After listening to this I decided it was time to get my hands on the Rorke’s Drift set from Warlord Games. So, watch this space for some 24th foot and Zulu’s.

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Cheers

IRO

 

32 thoughts on “The Stouthearted Praetorian Guard part 13 – Ox and some other things.”

  4. he certainly wont tolerate being pissed off will he, i am going to look for the film you recomended, looks really good, no wonder no one in this world likes the british, we were awful in years gone by. and one of my distant relations fought the zulus in the transvaal, capt james beard. Nice work, i have clicked to follow if thats ok..

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    1. Us British (I live in Australia but was born in slough and lived there until I was 7) were ignorant bastards up until World War One I reckon haha. Honestly, Black 47 is a great film. It’s slow in parts but that slowness sort of adds to the heaviness of the whole era. Wow, I’m fascinated with the Anglo-Zulu war. Do you know much about your Captain Beard? Great name by the way. I have a Private Beard in my Praetorian Line infantry. I’ll follow back my friend

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      1. Well it’s no secret that the German, french, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and whoever else hate us, we have acted disgusting in the past, such arrogance but we have also saved a lot of countries too from being taken over.

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  5. Nice model! I was reading The Last Chancers in Index Apocrypha: White Dwarf awhile back, which had an article about the members of the team and their rules. GW should make some updated plastic version of the LC, as well as Gaunt’s Ghosts. Just to have a plastic Colonel Corbec miniature would be sweet!

    Just something random that I wanted to say, I got to see 1917 last night, it was so good! It was a mixture of emotions that haven’t that haven’t felt in a long time, I’d say it’s even better than Apocalypse Now.

    I think you and Waz mentioned 1917 on the podcast awhile back?
    I was wondering if you and Waz could possibly do a review or a discussion on the film, or talk about WWI. It’s probably too dark of a subject to talk about on the podcast, but you two are very good at discussing serious subjects, especially history.

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    1. I’d love some plastic LC and Gaunts Ghosts!!!! I want more imperial guard too. They have just re-released Valhallan Ice Guard which I was quick to snap up. We did a sort of review for 1917 which is a brilliant film. We both thoroughly enjoyed it. We can definitely discuss WWI in a future episode and yes it is dark but in last weeks episode we discussed necrophilia and you can’t get much darker than that haha.

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      1. If GW released official plastic Praetorian Guard, I’d imagine they’d disappear within seconds. Same as with any Guard that’s not Cadian.

        Plastic Mordrian Guard, Tallarn and plastic Death Korps of krieg would be my top three most wanted. I’ve always wanted an imperial guard army, just to have the human perspective of war and the frailty of Mortal life.

        What’s your plan with the Valhallan Ice Warriors? I’m surprised GW decided to make them made to order.

        Great! I’ll be sure to listen in immediately when that episode arrives on the podcast page 😀.

        Yeah that’s true, though I must of mentally blocked my mind hearing that story. It’s disturbing with the wax work and……yeah it’s pretty dark!

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      3. Which White Dwarf was that, I might have a copy as a reference. What’s the colour scheme?

        Have you ever heard of ‘The last stand at Glazer’s Creek’? That’s a really good praetorian Guard story worth reading.

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    1. Thanks man. You’ll love the movie. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into Rorke’s Drift. I’m especially looking forward to setting it all up as close to historically correct as possible. I’m even planning on having every member. I found a list of all the people that were manning the place so each miniature will be an actual person. Crazy? Yes. Fun for me? YES!!

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  7. Oh those pesky Brits, when will they learn to settle down eh? Film sounds good I’ll have to give it a look (heard some guy on the news the other night going “Why doesn’t Ireland just rejoin the UK?” Ummm…well, they didn’t exactly have a lovely time last time sonny-Jim…).

    The difficulty, and delicacy, of reloading back then must have added hugely to the tension of a gunfight. Makes me think of the Battle of Killiecrankie which was fought near to where I grew up, we did a lot on it at school and then when I worked in a shop the tourists were always asking about it. Essentially the redcoats fired (uphill, looking into the setting sun) and then tried desperately to reload, whilst the Jacobites fired once then charged down at them. The redcoats were using plug-bayonets (i.e. the bayonet plugged into the end of the barrel so once it was in place you couldn’t fire again – so they had to wait until the very last moment before fitting it). Imagine that, you’re trying to reload as fast as you can, then you hear the other side start yelling and running at you wielding bloody great swords, and you’re completely unarmed until you manage to get the knife to fit in the end of the barrel, and you can’t see what’s going on because the sun’s in your eyes! No wonder the poor sods routed!

    Oh and as for Ox he’s great, I always enjoy a hulking guardsman lugging a heavy bolter around. The branding, to my eye, definitely comes across as branding rather than anything else (as in I’d have known it was branding without you telling me).

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    1. Ooooh I’ll have to look that battle up. Silly Red Coats probably thought, mich like they did with the zulus, we’ll clean this riff raff up quick smart. Despite my fascination with red coat battles and wars and the fact that I am British by birth I am not naive to the fact that the Brits were a right bunch of arrogant bastards haha. I think Ox, so far, is my favourite of the Last Chancers. Not sure if I’ll get alllllll of the team but I still have a few more to paint. I just ordered the re-release of the Valhallans haha. Crazy!

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      1. Whilst you’re looking it up it’s worth checking out the Battle of Dunkeld as well (happened at the end of the same war and gives the Redcoats their big victory to balance out the gubbing they got at Killiecrankie). Again took place very close to where I grew up, you can still see damage from bullets in some of the old buildings in the town. The Redcoats were defending the town but were heavily outnumbered, and all their cavalry and other troops were withdrawn. The way I heard it there were two officers further up the chain of command and each thought that the troops left in the town were under the command of the other, so neither gave the order to withdraw (or possibly that’s just an excuse because they wanted rid of the guy in charge of the defenders and hoped he’d get killed – in which case they succeeded). During the battle the troops defending the town ended up stripping lead from the roofs and making it into musket balls so they could keep firing. The commander of the defenders was shot and crawled into one of the buildings because he knew it would affect the moral of his troops if they saw him die. The town burned down with them in it but they still managed to get a victory out of it. When the Jacobites (highlanders) retreated they said they were “fit for fighting men, not for fighting devils!”

        Aye, the history of the British Empire got pretty bloody at times. In some ways it’s understandable, you can’t build an empire without breaking a few eggs and all that. I’m sure there were some people who knew what they were doing was wrong and tried to do things differently, and some who thought they were fighting for a noble and just cause, and some who were just bastards along for the ride – same as in any nation and any war at any point in history. Ultimately it’s all history, we can learn from it and try not to repeat it, but I’ve never understood why some people get hung up on guilt and recrimination for events that happened long before they were born. What troubles me more are the people who see those times as glory days and want to go back to that or who thinks that being British makes them superior to the rest of the world and gives them carte blanche to act as they please.

        Yeah, you say now that you won’t get all of the Last Chancers but it’s a slippery slope (and once you’ve got most of them will you be able to stop?). Enjoy the Valhallans, I must admit I got a real nostalgia kick when I saw them (although I’ve firmly restrained myself from buying any – I’ll settle for seeing what you do with them instead).

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      2. I loooooved the history lesson and story telling my friend and I’ll definitely be looking into both battles. Any nation or any one who thinks they’re better than someone else is a bit of a douche in my book. I’m excited to paint the Valhallans

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  8. Totally agree with our learned friend Wuda said, very well put. When I saw the Ox I actually thought you had done a model of your fine self !! Ha aha !!
    I like the look of the movie, my mob were chucked out of Scotland for irritating you English lads and shuffled of to Ireland only to suffer there under the same ,so my to many grates to remember grandfather scampered to Auss to start a new life away from all those troubles in 1850, which proved to be a grand idea, funny thing is Dad liked to think of himself being of Scottish heritage whilst I relate to being Irish even though both of our connections were so long ago, weird eh!

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    1. That’s quite a story. How far have you traced your family back? I’d like to trace my own one day. My grandma says, apparently, our family line can be traced back to a duke who had some fun with a maid. The maid was part of our family haha. I’d love to find out if all that is true or just my grandma telling stories hehe.

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  9. Ah, the Irish Famine. Brutal history, and because of it many Americans of Irish descent are here in the US (including yours truly). As for OX, nice fig, nice paint job, though if I am to be honest he has a bit of strabismus. I have had that happen to me more than I would have liked – and this video helped me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhH-GWvHG00) with that issue.

    As for Zulu history, I recommend The Washing of the Spears – amazing history of Shaka to Rorke’s Drift. https://www.amazon.com/Washing-Spears-History-Nation-Under/dp/067163108X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=37ZM1350V0EIZ&keywords=washing+of+the+spears&qid=1582820345&sprefix=washing+of+the%2Caps%2C140&sr=8-2

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    1. Hehe he is a bit. I’ll check the vid out and I’ve seen the other video. I’ve pretty much watched everything there is on Rorke’s and Islandwana. I’m picking up the Rorke’s Drift set this weekend so be prepared for WIP posts haha

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