I have been neglecting my Peter Laing 15mm figures a little of late.
Alan the Tradgardmastre of the Duchy of Tradgardland kindly sent me some spare Peter Laing mounted and dismounted colonial and ACW cavalry with bush hats.
I started painting them as US 7th or Union Cavalry.
Then I spotted a Britain’s hollow cast Mountie in a display cabinet at home, and this set me thinking.
Wouldn’t a unit of Royal Canadian Mounted Police or “Mounties” be an interesting use of these figures?
So using this figure and an old 1930s Player’s cigarette card for uniform reference, I set about painting some Mountie test figures.
Downsizing to painting 15mm after months painting 54mm figures was a bit of a change.
These figures could also double up as redcoat colonial infantry or Imagi-Nations troops for the Bronte Angria / Gondal sagas.
And finally, what roles did or do the Mounties undertake? What scenarios might suggest themselves, having a bunch of Mounties?
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/history-rcmp
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-West_Mounted_Police#history
There are many interesting small skirmishes or battles that would form interesting and imaginative scenarios with my Peter Laing butternut Confederate figures as rebels. I have a small group of unpainted Peter Laing Native Americans to paint up who might be ‘Hollywood useful’ for all this. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Duck_Lake
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Frenchman%27s_Butte
Rewatching Gary Cooper in North West Mounted Police is also required.
Fun Fact – Francis Jeffrey Dickens (# O.29)
The son of famous British novelist Charles Dickens served with the North-West Mounted Police from November 4, 1874 until March 1, 1886. He also commanded Fort Pitt during the Northwest Rebellion, 1885.
Blog posted by Mark Man of TIN, 25 November 2018
Looking the part!
You’re on the right track for scenarios.
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Thanks Ross!
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Peter’s figures always were easy to re-purpose, but I love the idea of Boers as RCMP!
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Thanks Ian, I think the Peter Laing Boers, cavalry, settlers figures from AWI, ACW and Colonials all work together quite well. I look forward to some border skirmishes.
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What a neat idea to create Mounted Police for small scale skirmishes.
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I look forward to bringing the Mounted Police into some small scale skirmishes like this one I ran last year
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/20/a-skirmish-in-angria-close-little-wars-rules/
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Try to avoid any of the ‘singing Mountie’ musical films as with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald or you’ll give up on the RCMP or NWMP completely.
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Thanks for the warning but Too Late! I listened very carefully to the Peter Laing Mounties this morning and I heard the very faint tones of both Nelson Eddy and the Monty Python Lumberjack song with its Mountie Chorus being sung. I regret playing suitable Mountie music on YouTube whilst painting them. I tried reading the following article to them but it had no effect – https://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/1062/968
Instead the section on “Mounties In American films” just got them overexcited again: “films such as The Law of the Yukon (1920, dir. Charles Miller), Nomads of the North, (1920, dir. David M. Hartford), Bring Him In (1921, dir. Earle Williams), O’Malley of the Mounted (1921, dir. Lambert Hillyer), and Law of the Snow Country (1926, dir. Paul Hurst), Canada is defined as a virtually empty space, a densely forested and mountainous wilderness, or alternatively, a frozen wasteland populated by the occasional French-Canadian lumberjack, mad trapper, singing Mountie, saloon girl, and “Indian.”
Sounds a good enough cast of stereotypical characters to me!
I’m sure I have a suitable Peter Laing figure for Jeanette Macdonald somewhere to do the usual stand in as the Governor Generals Daughter.
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