The Duchy of Alzheim

Alzheimer Artillery

2012-02-15T08:08:00.000+11:00

Artyillery has always been a bit neglected in my armies. I can't explain why. I like cannons. They're good. I like painting them - I have a large collection. I think it's because I don't really like painting gunners. Easy enough to see why as the Spencer Smith gunner is easily the most misbegotten, flat, flash-encrusted, two-dimensional creature ever to roam a war games table.And why is the bloke with the rammer carrying a hanky? Anwer me that!

Still, I was pleased with how the guns came up. They are Battery 'C' (Howizers) of the Royal, Loyal and Efficient Train of Alzheimer Artilery. I will now embark (cursing no doubt) upon Battery 'B'.

Now, in other news, the recent sad attempts of certain bloggers to drum up interest in their paltry blogs* has made me do a little counting and I have realised that, with another couple of gun crews and some infantry subbing for engineers/ponooniers that perhaps I might just be able to put on something similar. Perhaps this weekend. I may need to use the odd house brick instead of some bulildings, though. How Old School is that?

*What? :^)

Another Flag

2012-02-10T07:57:00.000+11:00

I thought it might be nice to have a more generic "French" flag for my French Marines to bear whilst defending the Legations in Peking.

Amy stripped the detail out of the FPW flag for me.

A Good Impression

2012-02-07T07:49:00.001+11:00

I'm currently building a small force for French for a Franco-Prussian War demo game at CanCon in January of 2013 and was casting around for some flags for the two Infantry Regiments (times three batalions each) which are to be my contribution.

I'd just about decided on these from Warflag:

http://www.warflag.com/flags/fp/fpf1corp1d.shtml

which are a very nice offering. Then I found myself remembering these from the Vintage Wargaming blog:

http://vintagewargaming.blogspot.com.au/search/label/flags

I turned to Amy, source of many of my flags, and asked her to re-do the former in the style of the latter.

She's good, my missus is.

The Collection Rationalisation

2012-01-31T08:09:00.000+11:00

Sounds like the name for an episode of The Big Bang Theory, doesn't it?
I have somewhere in the region of 250 Eureka Saxon infantry and 40-50 of their Arquebusiers de Grassin that I have decided to move on as they are no longer really fitting in with the Spencer Smith/Holger Ericson direction in which I am taking my collection.
The figures are mint and in "as new' condition.

I'd be looking for $AU1.50 per infantry figure or $AU3.00 per mounted figure (there are a few).

Some pix here:
http://mavisming.blogspot.com/2007/07/painted-eureka-saxons.html

and here:
http://mavisming.blogspot.com/2007/07/review-of-eureka-100-club-saxons.html

If anyone is interested, please drop me a line at : colonialwargamer@gmail.com

Making Hungarians

2012-01-30T07:42:00.000+11:00

For no good reason the conversion bug hit me last night and I felt the desire to start working up some RSM Croats for the seven Years' War into Hungarian infantry for the 1740-45 period of the War of the Austrian Succession.

As may be seen in the Knoetel print above, there were decided similarities between the uniforms of the two, especially that of the Kokenyesdi Regiment, so I decided to proceed on that basis.

The raw material, RSM Croats. The similarity between these and the illustration is obvious. Note how good they look in three ranks! Just like the real thing!

Step one. Cut down the Klobuk (the tall felt hat) to a size more in keeping with the Hungarian template. Step two will be to add the red 'bag top" to the hat. Time for some Greenstuff.

Regiment Sachsen-Gotha

2012-01-29T18:36:00.000+11:00

A bit of a quickie post this evening. I wanted to show off the first few figures of the latest of the Saxony-inspired Imperial Regiments.

Based on Sachsen-Gotha's Regiment of the Seven Years' War, they depart fropm the original in the headhear of their Grenadiers; those of the real thing being more in the Prussian mode.

Completed Regiment "Markgraf Lubomirsky"

2012-01-26T21:56:00.000+11:00

Showing off the Grenadiers' hats.

Has it only been twelve days since I completed my last regiment? This one has had me by the throat and I've not been able to let it go.

This regiment is based on the Saxon one of the same name.

The drummer is rather anachronistic, being accurate-ish for the War of the Austrian Succession, while the rest of the unit is painted for the Seven Years' War.

Just another view showing off the Ensign. This is the seventh Spencer Smith unit I have painted for my collection and the first I have done without lapes for whatever that may be worth. I'm intending to do one more with pale blue Lapels for the Imperials and then turn to Cavalry.

Sometimes it's not worth posting a comment on a blog!

2012-01-20T07:58:00.000+11:00

I've been called a lot of things on the Internet before, but this is a first!

Salm-Salm-Salm Regiment now complete

2012-01-14T08:35:00.000+11:00

As ever, I am posting in very great haste as I am about to shoot off out of the front door, but I wanted to post a couple of pictures of the now-complete Salm-Salm-Salm regiment.

Regimental flag is by the ever useful WarFlag.

In the background lurks the finally completed Obrist of the Alzheimer "la Rosee" Regiment, finally back from leave!

A couple of Landsknechts

2012-01-08T07:48:00.000+11:00

I've spent the past couple of painting sessions working on a couple of Willie Landsknechts. I've carried on the theme of the past fgew months and these two fellows hail from Alzheim and the Empire around 1500-1520 - at least, that's what it said on the woodcut.

These figures were an absolute delight to paint, and their anatomy, posing and animation are a sight to be seen. I think these are some of Surens' finest.

Looking back and looking forward

2012-01-04T00:42:00.000+11:00

Sleepless at a quarter-past-midnight, I've decided to get out of bed and write myself to a standstill.

Looking back over the past 12 months, I am as ever somewhat amazed at how much I have acheived on the one hand, and how little I have actually finished on the other.

On the credit side of the ledger, I have been very productive; taking the Spencer Smith project, I have either bought or painted nine regiments of foot, six of horse and a pair of batteries all of which are in a state where I would not be ashamed to put them on a table and play a game with them. On the debit side, I have yet to do so! Likewise the "Old School ACW" project - I spent most of 2010 getting theresources in place and have so far played exactly one game with them.

While I am being hard on myself, there is the "1565 Project" which in my usual style got off to a flying start and is now little more than a disjointed collection of (albeit nicely-painted) bits.

I suffer from a lack of an opponent and a regular close peer group (sorry online world, but you're just not the same as the real thing!) who would keep me better stimulated. I'm sad to report that I find solo gaming both a bore and a chore. Note - join a club! This is a state of affairs that I really need to address to move forward.

On the positive side (and looking forward) I am currently involved in a group project to put three (!) demonstration games on at CanCon 2013. They will be Isandalwana, 55 Days at Peking and a yet-to-be-finalised action from the Franco-Prussian War - the last I am especially hopng to be deeply involved in as I want the chance to paint some of the Spencer Smith "Classic" FPW figures.

Equally on the positive side, I am fizzing with enthusiasm for my Willie Landsknechts just now. Whether they will develop into a "proper" army or just a collection of stuff I like... well, let history be the judge of that. If nothing else, at least they will tie in with the figures I have for the "1565 project". Or maybe that may morph into some sort of Wars of Religion beast.

Again, on the plus side, I have just about finalised a deal on some old Ral Partha Renaissance/Condottiere figures. And, yes, I do realise that this is doubling up something terrible. Nonetheless, these are really lovely sculpts and do I really need a reason? True 25mm by Ton Meier. They look like Swiss and Landsknechts for the most part that I have an eye on to mess about with for the early Italian Wars. I am seriously thinking of turning them into DBR armies as they would fit the basing really well. The small army sizes for DBR mean that I could create 3 or 4 factions should campaigning appeal.

A final mooted project would be a Willie Old West Cavalry versus Indians grand skirmish. Again, I love the figures and I am certainly NOT thinking of the Little Big Horn. Really. Not.

No, really.

Salm-Salm-Salm Regiment

2012-01-03T19:55:00.000+11:00

Happy New Year to all, and as the painting round starts to crank up again, I thought I'd post a couple of work-in-progress pictures of the latest regiment of the Imperial Army. Thirty figures down and another 23 to go to finish up the current painting challenge.

Regiment Salm-Salm-Salm is the personal plaything of the Imperial Minister to Alzheim, Herr Salm-Salm-Salm. A wily minister, he will play no little part in the dramas soon to unfold.

Hoka-hey! It is a good day to fight; a good day to die!

2011-12-27T19:12:00.000+11:00

Among my small pile of Christmas lead were a few Willie bits and bobs including this rather splendid Apache.

I have painted him as Crazy Horse as he may have appeared on the day of the Little Big Horn with white spots on his body representing hail. His horse has been painted as though it has lightning bolts on it's flanks.

You'll note I had to use a piece of brass rod to prop up the horse as the one leg actually attaching it to the base was sagging under the weight of horse and rider!

I also got a few other Apaches and Comanches as well as a few US Cavalry. not to mention a half-dozen Landsknechts in Pluderhosen who would not look out of place in my "Siege of Malta" project.

The Gestalt Dragoner Regiment

2011-12-20T16:38:00.000+11:00

Today I applied the last coat of spray gloss varnish to the Gestalt Dragoons of Colonel Zigmund Freud.

Hurrah!

Progress Report

2011-12-17T12:54:00.000+11:00

I was wanting to post a brief update on the latest of the Imperial Cavalry Regiments I was working on.

Just to refresh your memories, this is one of the "before" shots of the unrenovated figures.

Here are the latest "after" shots. As you can see, I've completed 17 of the Troopers and three of the Officers. Only 7 Troopers and the Regimental Colonel to finish off and then I can start on a regiment of Imperial Foot I have been thinking about. I guesstimate there is about another day and a half's work to do on them before I'm done.

I'm open to suggestions for a name for this unit.

Doings

2011-12-12T14:28:00.001+11:00

Hello there. I've not dropped off the twig entirely, just been a bit quiet.

I've about finished off the last 18 figures for the la Rosee Regiment - if you remember from the "Grand Review" they were 17 fusileers and a mounted officer short-handed. That has now been remedied; the colonel needs a bit of paint and we'll be all done there. Photos to follow.

I am currently working at freshening up the paintwork on one of the dragoon regiments Gary donated to the project. The troopers glory in a mid-blue coat with yellow turnbacks, a red shabraque with a snappy yellow and black lace edging. I'll post some 'before' photos this evening.

Unlike the Comardo Dragoons, these will not get a full repaint, but more a bit of a touch-up and re-modelling. I will post some images of the test figure I am doing as soon as it's complted. These lads will be joining the Imperial forces. Has anyone a suggestion for a name? Perhaps something inspired by the Austro-Hungarian Army?

UPDATE: The first two test figures have been completed.

The officer - only the face, coat and lacing on the shabraque are original.

I finished retouching the first two of the Imperial Dragoons this evening and was quite pleased with the result. I think that the fairly simple "tarting up" serves to bring the figures in line with my own painting style whilst remaining pretty true to the spirit of the originals.

The trooper - untouched at the left and re-touched to the right.

Took about 40 minutes for the pair of them. Most pleasing!

Kalnocky Hussars - Finished!

2011-12-04T18:43:00.000+11:00

Not much more to say, is there?

Absolute agony to finish up all 28 figures in one go. Imagine painting 28 faces, 28 pairs of breeches, 28 swords etcetera, etcetera...

The Kalnoky Hussars

2011-12-02T15:28:00.000+11:00

For my next Imperial regiment, I decided to build a Hussar regiment and eventually settled on the Kalnocky Hussars on finding this portrait by David Morier in the Royal Collection (available online). I have been painting madly for the past week and a half and can report that the bulk of the work is done, up to and including the (much simplified) yellow lace and frogging. I'm painting in the rest of the fur detail tonight and will be knocking off the final details of betls, glove muskets and so on this weekens if all is well. Pics on Sunday night?

Afther these chaps are finished, it's on to the last 18 figures of the La Rosee regiment.

Grand Review

2011-11-25T22:08:00.001+11:00

I had a thought to take a leaf from Der Alte Fritz's book and conduct a grand review of the Spencer Smith Project. Maximilian von Browne, first General of Alzheim is conducting the review from the comfort of the Elector's Arms, a very fine Inn. In a rarae spirit of amicability, the Empire is also taking part, doubtless to spy on our dear old Alzheims preparedness. Truly the imperials are as vile as any Stagonian.

The Estaerhazy Hussars thunder past. Long in the Imperial service, they are well overdue to have their basing brought up to a more modern standard.

The Imperial Artillery. I note their mounted officer is out of uniform!

The imperial Infantry. De los Rios in the foreground, Insbruchen behind, and the Swiss to the rear. remember the French saying "Pas de argent, pas de Suisse!"

Alzheims brave artillery. Time to start on teams for the guns.

Von Browne agrees. As he ought!

Alzheims' Jager korps line the walls of an enclosure. Spanking chaps.

von Prittwitz' regiment. Perfection if I do say so. One of my favouurites.

Alzheimer infantry. The LeibGrenadier Garde, behind them are the LeibRegiment and then de la Rosee. The latter are short 17 Privates, their Colonel (who must be awol with his mistress) and their fahnenjunker. Oh! The shame!

The dread Black Genadiers? No, they just need new coats.

The Buddenbrock Cuirassiers.

The Brigade of Dragoons. The Marchmont Regiment needs to be rebased to match the Comardo Regiment. Apart from tht, perfection!

Work in Progress

2011-11-20T10:37:00.000+11:00

Balloonists' view. Note my daughters' non-military additions to Daddy's Fairy Castle.

You may or may not recall an earlier post on the military geography of Alzheim, but in I made reference to some old, second-class fortifications. On of the images was that of the fortress at Finke, although it just as easily could have been of that at Günzberg.

Obviously this is based on the fortress at Sarzanello.

My rationale is that it's an old renaissance fortress built when the Electors of Alzheim were mercenary princes hiring out their landsknechts to all comers and battling with their neighbours.

The Empire - de los Rios Regiment

2011-11-18T06:45:00.000+11:00

I've spent the last ten days or so painting the "de los Rios" Regiment. I finished off the Colonel's horse this morning, and so thought it was worthy of a couple of quick shots. I'm using quite a different style of painting than with the Alzheimers standard black undercoat, I decided to spray on a white base-coat/undercoat before lining each figure in black, then colouring in!

The Empire

2011-11-11T08:17:00.002+11:00

I’ve started to put together Alzheim’s enemy, The Empire.

Obviously, they are going to be based on the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I’m setting the date at about 1739-40. The Emperor is dying and the jackals are gathering…

I have a few units in place already; a Swiss Regiment in red coats, the ”Innsbruchen” Regiment in white with blue facings and the Esterhazy Hussars. I have started work on another white-coated regiment – the green-faced “los Rios” Regiment and will be working on another blue-faced Regiment after that.

After that, well, I’m not too sure as I don’t really have a finalised order of battle yet. I do have some Slavonian Pandours and half a Regiment of Hungarians on order from Spencer Smith. I know I’ll be building another two regiments of Hussars.

We’ll see how we go!

The Comardo Dragoons - Pictures

2011-11-09T21:22:00.001+11:00

The Dragoons obligingly gallop past for the camera.

As promised, I got out the Comardo Dragoons and the camera this evening and, as the thunderstorms crackled away above, got busy snapping away.

Conversion of the regular Dragoon trooper - yes, the flag-pole has been thrust through his foot.

In the Alzheim Cavalry, the senior NCO carries the unit's colours. His distinctive mark is metallic lace on his hat and shabraque.

Close-up of one of the regiment's Officers.

Ow, on closer examination, I could have been a little more thorough with shaving this chap's flash down!

The Regiment sweeps forward in line. On the table, this unit has a huge footprint.

The proud parent!

Comardo Dragoons

2011-11-09T08:42:00.000+11:00

I finished the final half-dozen troopers of the Comardo Dragoons this morning as I was getting myself and my little daughter Erin (2 and a half) ready for work and creche respectively. I am fortunate Erin creches at my place of work as will her little brother Sam (one year old on the 25th) next term.

What with packing bags, eating breakfast and an unusual trip to the naughty spot, there was no time for affixing the unit flag nor for any photography, so you'll all have to wait on this evening.

In the meantime, it's been quite good fun doing the repaint on this unit. To digress a little, when I received this extravagant donation of cavalry to the "Spencer Smith project" I was a little uncertain as to how to integrate the different units. I felt dreadful at the idea of pressing them into my service without honouring their already impressive heritage and so I've opted to repaint them in their original uniforms (OK, with some minor changes) and re-flag them with colours that acknowlege that which went before - the original colours will hang in the Alzheim and Imperial Armouries.

Thus it is that the Comardo Dragoons will retain their original red coats and green facings and their white lace. In the ongoing Alzheimer "tradition" they will get white small-clothes. Their saddle-cloths have changed from the original pale blue to green in harmony with their uniform distinctions.

One of the common troopers has had his sword cut away to allow him to grasp a flagstaff (see the coloured pics in the front papers of "The Wargame Companion" and you'll see what I mean) while the now flagless officer had been equipped with a deadly pin-sword.

Now I've said all this, I really feel like I ought to have done some before-and-after shots!

The Comorado Dragoons

2011-11-02T07:18:00.001+11:00

The first ten troopers of Alzheims Dragoon Corps.

Four Regiments strong, this corps are all dressed in red coats. The Comorado Regiment sports green facings, the Marchmont Regiment yellow-buff, the Speyer Regiment canary yellow and a fourth - yet un-named - will wear bright blue.

In the ongoing "tradition" of Alzheim units, their small-clothes are white.

I've got more cavalry for sale on eBay as well:

http://tinyurl.com/5w4yn8m

SSM Cavalry on eBay

2011-10-25T20:51:00.000+11:00

Currently surplus to requirements following the purchase of a job lot via Bartertown are these:

http://tinyurl.com/SSMCav

Bid early, bid often, bid unwisely. Help me refresh my credit card.

Weeks' Work

2011-10-24T08:24:00.000+11:00

Phew. On Saturday morning I painted the green bases and applied the varnish to these figures. The hatmen and ensign complete the LeibRegiment (IR#2 in my scheme); the grenadiers will go to the nascent Regiment La Rosee (IR#5) and the mounted officer and the Gunner will complete the complement for Alzheims first battery of the Field Artillery.

I really found getting through this many troops (24 Olley-points) a bit of a stretch considering my limited amount of time. They probably took me eight hours' which I snatch whilst getting ready for work and the odd-half hour after the kids have gone to bed in the evening.

"Mr Horne, Mr Horne, please Sir, what's your secret?"

"Consistency my boy. Pure and simple."

I think a more sustainable figure might be 12-16 olley-points a week. Food for thought.

The relatively easy bit! I assembled and painted some Italeri stone walls and the bridge. I glued the walls permanently in position as I could anticipate the paint just wearing off as time and juggling the bits about did their damage. The painting was not too much of a stretch, just a few lighter grays dry-brushed over a black undercoat. A touch of tan and green dry-brushing on the lower portions to tie it in with the non-existent ground-work.

Progress report... and a dilemma.

2011-10-19T08:50:00.001+11:00

No pictures today, but I thought I'd post a little bit of an update as to progress on the Alzheimer Army.

I've begun work on another 20 infantry, a Gunner, a foot Officer and a mounted Officer, having just finished a pair of cavalry to round out one of the regiments kindly donated a couple of months back. All scraped free of flash, undercoated, faces, hair, muskets, water-bottles and white small-clothes all painted.

Phew.

Pale blue coats next. I'm hoping to be finished by the weekend.

Most of these will go to finish off the LeibRegiment with a few leftovers going to the La Rosee Regiment which is slated next for completion. After this I have a difficult decision to make.

As you'll recall, I bought a large chunk of the Alzheim and Imperial armies from Phil Olley. One of the regiments would do extremely well as a Grenadier Garde Regiment and I am considering it for the Alzheim service as IR#1. It's pretty well perfect in every detail but for one... The coats are black.

You can see my dilemma.

What else? In other news, I've closed a deal with a gentleman on Bartertown that will yield me another sizeable job lot of SSMs of all arms - including some much-needed Hussars and Gunners - that will (I think) get me to about 8 Regiments of Infantry and 10 of Cavalry for the "SSM Project". I think that will do quite nicely; while I'm sure that although the Grants had about 20 regiments of Line Foot in their armies, that I never read of a battle they recreated that couldn't be fought with more than about 10 units of Foot and 6-8 or horse per side!

That being said, although I'll probably buy some Grenzers and Pandurs for Light Infantry in metal as we go on. And then, there are those Hungarian Infantry that SSM do in metal. Hm. OK, maybe we'll get to 10 units of Line Foot per side.

Then I'll stop. Honest.

IR#3 von Browne

2011-10-15T09:36:00.000+11:00

Not my best photography, but, nonetheless, here they are, IR#3, von Brownes' own regiment of foot. They are marching along behind IR#3, von Prittwitz.

Being part of a friendly competition in a group is a great way to motivate yourself. I've found a recent painting challenge a real boost and used it to push out 33 olley-points' of figures in the past ten days; a real first for me!

As must be pretty obvious now, i'm basing the Alzheim Army look on that of Bavaria albeit with the almost mandatory mistake on coat colour. Rather than the correct dark blue, I've opted for the rather more "heraldically correct" pale blue. You'll note that it goes quite nicely with the Bavarian flags that I'm using.
I sourced these beauties from Warflag and my partner Amy did me the kindness of sizing them correctly for my Spencer Smiths as well as getting them all into the one document - another version of "friends with benefits"!
Anyway, back to work - I'd like to get the Leibregiment finished and make some more headway into IR#5 "La Rosee" next.

UB 40

2011-10-09T19:18:00.000+11:00

Assembled Submarine with ballast can in place.


Showing detached ballast. Ready to surface Sir!

For a change of pace this weekend, I decided I'd try making one of the wooden toys I found in "Carpentry And Mechanics For Boys", by A. Neely Hall.

The model is of a Submarine that will submerge and, on touching bottom, release a can of ballast an then rise to the surface. It has been quite an easy build so far, although I've not yet gotten onto making the mechanism for dropping the ballast can. Now, apart from letting the children have it (madness, surely!), what ever shall I do with it???

Infanterieregiment Nr. 4 "von Prittwitz"

2011-10-02T19:14:00.001+11:00

In all their glory.

My first self-completed Alzheimer Infantry unit. Thank-you painting challenge.

The next dozen figures are cleaned ad primed and ready to go.

UPDATE: I started work on a dozen figures this morning. They will be mustering with IR #3 "von Browne" by the end of the working week, I hope. I'll follow on with another dozen and a mounted officer and then it will be time for a test game, I think, as both the Alzheimers and the Imperials will be able to field a brigade of Foot and a regiment of Horse each. Just need to paint up those Italeri stone walls up. I'm thinking that the starter scenario in "The Wargame" will do. Anything but Blasthof again!

Surplus Spencer Smith Cavalry for Sale ot Trade

2011-09-27T19:50:00.000+10:00

I never thought this would happen, but I have three regiments of Spencer Smith Cavalry surplus to requirements.

They are on the Charles Grant organisation, each being 24 troopers and four officers strong.

If you are interested, I'm looking to swap 1:1 for Spencer Smith Hussars, 2:1 for Spencer Smith Infantry or I have an interest in doing some element of the Boer War with Britains in the garden and am open to suggestions.

Otherwise, we can talk cash. Yum.

If there's no interest, off they go to eBay or Bartertown.

Those new chappies

2011-09-20T21:50:00.001+10:00

Well, here are some of the new lads, re-enacting one of my favourite images from The Wargame. As you will doubtless recall, Charles Grant threw away two light cavalry regiments to no real purpose during the Mollwitz game! As you will likewise recall, the Butyrsky Regiment was able to wheel and deliver fire against the flank of the "Austrian" brigade of light cavalry.

In my little mise-en-scene the actors are, from the left, the Marchmont Dragoons who are veterans already of the 2006 Sittangbad game; to their right and preceeding them into the witches' cauldron are the Esterhazy Hussars (whom I believe are originally from the Asquith collection). The Infantry playing the part of Butyrsky are the Battenburg regiment, whilst those which are about to receive the enemy at the point of their bayonets are the Leibgarde Grenadiers. These regiments are also, I believe, from the Asquith collection as re-painted by Mr Olley.

I am rather fond of the bright yellow carriages of the guns and they will immediately find their way into the Imperial Army, as will the Esterhazy Hussars. Likewise the Battenburgers, perhaps re-cast as a Swiss Guard regiment. Considering that the Alzheim cavalry has always clad it's dragoons in red (and indeed, I have another pair of red coated dragoon Regiments courtesy of the lovely Gary C) it will come as no surprise the Marchmont Dragoons* will be joining the Alzheim Service.

I feel that the Leibgrenadier Garde will also go to Alzheim, but they will probably have to accept that they will be wearing the pale blue coat of the Alzheim infantry if they expect to adopt the proud designation IR#1.

The Pyjama-trousered legs are my own, and very fine they are indeed.

More pictures tomorrow. Probably not including my Pyjamas.

*or shall they now be the Marchmont Dragoner?

The Great Leap Forward

2011-09-20T08:01:00.000+10:00

Events have moved on rather here at the jolly old Duchy of Alzheim.

I was pleased (OK, delighted!) to take delivery of a huge box containing Phil Olley's Spencer Smith collection. Phil had contacted me a few weeks back asking if I was interested in purchasing part or all of it.

I hesitated for a microsecond or two then emailed him back saying YES PLEASE!!!

So here they are. I spent most of yesterday evening and part of this morning to unpack them - I still have more bubble-wrap to peel off - and they are splendid. Three fine regiments of Infantry and three more of Cavalry and a fine battery of guns as well as sundry independent companies and a unit of light infantry.

So, thanks again Phil and I will be posting photos tonight when I get the chance.

What's tickling me at the moment

2011-09-16T10:21:00.000+10:00

You will all have had this happen to you at some time, I'm sure.

You are working away at what is going to be THE project for the next two years; you've spent huge amounts of money. You know how it goes.

Then you start noticing things.

http://funnylittlewars-gardencampaigns.blogspot.com/

Or:

http://www.rafm.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=RAF&Category_Code=PIW

I'm just hopeless, really.

Little Gems

2011-09-15T08:53:00.000+10:00

I got up at 05:00 this morning filled with a burning determination to win an eBay auction.

Well, win it I did, although not without a degree of buyers' regret.

On the bright side, this purchase will get me to the point where we can start having battles. This is a good thing. The infantry alone represent about 7 regiments worth of figures, so some progress can again be made.

The cavalry may be a bit surplus (except for the hussars), so I may sell some of them on to pay for further bits later on.

Painting Challenge

2011-09-14T08:50:00.002+10:00

Bit of a painting challenge on at the moment.

I'm pushing to product 120 Olley-points by November the fifth.

An infantryman is an Olley-point, a gun or a cavalryman are two.

Here then are my first 14 Olley-points. 106 to go.

UPDATE - The mounted officer is in fact Maximilian von Browne, one of Alzheim's finer Generals.

The Riders of Alzheim

2011-09-09T21:51:00.000+10:00

Forgive the very rough nature of these pictures. We got home from a day-and-a-night away in Castlemaine to find a big old cardboard box on the doorstep. I knew immediately what it was. I had to wait until dinner had been eaten and the children put to bed before I could open it though.

These are 11 regiments of Spencer Smith cavalry, three are painted as cuirassiers and the rest as Dragoons and other Chevaux-legere, very kindly donated by a US reader, Mr Gary C_.

More tomorrow.

The Electors Arms

2011-09-05T18:38:00.000+10:00

A little place I visit sometimes.

Building by Dapol, barrels by Rendra.

Alzheimer Jaeger

2011-08-30T07:53:00.000+10:00

Laid low though I have been these past few days by a pernicious cold, I have nonetheless completed the Alzheimer Jaeger. Above the NCO. Below, the whole unit.

Rendra came through yesterday with some 45x40mm plastic bases. I have used most of this sample batch up with basing up a couple of my units as a test. I'm pretty happy so far. The officers are on the 20mm circular bases. The CO is as yet unbased, but will probably go on a cavalry base before long. I have left the bases unpainted as they are close enough to the base colour of the figures as to render painting them redundant.

Alzheimer Jaeger

2011-08-25T07:45:00.000+10:00

Last night I got cracking on some of the Jaeger. In the end I decided on a fairly traditional look for them with their red-faced, green coats. I made a small nod at their Alzheimer origins by giving them white small clothes and red neck-stocks. Having done that I could only further compound the impracticality of the uniform by having each man wear his hair powdered. I mean, you just would, wouldn't you?

The hat is a bit of a nod to the European light infantry as practised in central Europe; it's meant to be a leather casque. If you look closely, there is a bit of brass edging, doubtless designed to turn a sabre-blow. I'm sure it has saved many a trooper!

Note also (if you wish) the blanket-roll on top of the knapsack in Alzheim Blue. I did that to help tie them to the line infantry.

There you go. Next is another couple of troopers and an officer. I'm hoping to have a dozen or fourteen figures ready for the weekend.

IR#5 La Rosee

2011-08-23T21:00:00.001+10:00

As promised in my last post, a couple of pictures of my latest figures of IR#5 along with the new gunner who got snuck in at varnishing time.

I'm quite please with how the "white" metal fittings look on these as a contrast to the "yellow" metals of the other regiments.

On the subject of test figures like the gunner, I have started painting my lone plastic SSM Hussar. Dashing chap. UPDATE - pics below.

I am now (apart form about a dozen command figures) out of Spencer Smith plastic infantry and so as I while away the hours before payday and therefore an order from Spencer Smiths for the metal versions, I will start work on those Minot AWI that I'll be using as Jaeger.

Over the next few weeks I will be able to share some rather exciting news that I have had in the past few days about this project. But just for now, I shall remain a tease.

Artillery Uniform Test Shot

2011-08-23T07:49:00.001+10:00

Nothing much today. I'm experimenting with the artillery and painted this fellow in what is a colour test for the rest of the Gunners' uniforms.

The observant among you will note that he is in the traditional Alzheim white small clothes with the red stock whilst his turnbacks are in the armorial pale blue favoured by the Electoral family.

I am ruminating upon the colour the gun carriages ought to be. Baggage wagons, pontoon carts &c would also be this colour. Yellow is out as this is the colour of the Imperial guns. Red contrasts nicely with the pale blue that is going to be the dominant colour of the army. Pale blue would at least go with the theme. Green would clash rather, unless it's a dark green.

Hmmm.

In other news, I've put paint to plastic for IR#5 "La Rosee". These chaps look simply delicious in their pale blue coats with the fuschia-coloured turn-backs. I've only a dozen or so and that will pretty well run me out of plastic line infantry types and I'll be starting to top my units up with metal figures.

However, this does bring me to the point where I'll be starting a light infantry unit out of some Barry Minot plastic AWI American light infantry that I bought of a certain magazine editor/graphic designer chap in a pub some years ago. I've not yet decided whether to paint them on traditional Jaeger colours (Green turned up Red) or to put them into a uniform like say the FreiKorps Lacy (White turned up Yellow).

A nice dilemma.

Converged Grenadiers

2011-08-21T17:33:00.001+10:00

From behind - you'll notice the Leib Grenadier Company has the bag of it's fur cap opver to the right, whie the others have theirs to the left. This is either a singular distinction accorded them as a mark of the status of the regiment or an error on the part of the milliner. You decide.

From the front, a further distinction of the Leib Regiment is their blue trousers. More commonly, the Alzheimer Foot has white small-clothes.

IR#2 Leibregiment

2011-08-19T21:20:00.000+10:00

I just finished blasting the Leibregiment with it's second coat of varnish and thought it was time to put a picture up here at the Duchy.

As you can see, the regiment's uniform is not dissimilar to that of the Bavarian Leibregiment of the Seven Years' War. No mistake there, although it varies in many details, not least the coat colour.

As you will also doubtless notice, the Regiment falls far short of the Grant organisation, being here only 29 figures. I will be rectifying this in due course with metal figures from Spencer Smith unless any more appropriate plastics fall (doubtless to shatter into a million pieces) into my lap.

Normally, I'd have trundled straight on to IR#1, but I've decided to use it's castings, of which there were really only a few, to bring the grenadier companies of Infantry Regiments #3 and #4 to their proper strength of twelve figures.

When they are painted, I'll do a little floor show of all three regiment's companies as a combined Grenadier battalion.

The Beauty of Old Paint

2011-08-15T10:41:00.000+10:00

In recent times I have done a fair amount of work on older ministures.

These are usually items I've bought on eBay and decided for one reason or another to touch up. Most recently these have been the Spencer Smith pastics I've been basing my Alzheim army on, but in the past I had bought some old Tradition/Stadden Napoleonics.

These miniatures had all been painted in enamels, the Spencer Smiths rather thickly and the Staddens rather well.

What I did notice on both was that where they had been painted white, the old varnish overlying the paint had aged in such a way as to produce a rather nice "antique" effect as it yellowed. I liked this very much indeed and although in the case of the Staddens I decided to repaint them because I wanted a very 'clean' look for the collection, the Spencer Smiths I am leaving as was.

This will really only show to any extent with IR#2 "Leib" as I am leaving the gaiters and waistcoats white as they were originally were.

I like the effect. It lets me take the miniature where I want it to go while honouring it's past.

What a sentimentalist, eh?

So then, I've just finished all the blue coats for Leib, painted in the facings and am starting the laborious process of black-lining. More to follow.

The Empire

2011-08-12T08:02:00.000+10:00

The first twenty-one members of Infanterieregiment Nr 4, "Von Prittwitz". Work will begin tonight on Infanterieregiment Nr 2, "Leib".

In my previous post I talked a little about planning my "Duchy of Alzheim" project. The post was largely about the Alzheimer forces. Now it's time to spend a little time on her old enemy, "The Empire".

First, a little geography and history. The Empire occupies a territory vastly greater than Alzheim, stretching over most of the Balkans which have mostly been won back from the Turk in the South-East, north through the lands of a people very much like the Hungarians of our own world, then west to take in a German-speaking people in the eastern part of Deutschtum whose sole pursuits are pastry-making and then north again to take in varying Slavic peoples in central-eastern Europe.

The period of the Thirty Years War saw Imperial (and Bavarian) armies ravage much of Alzheim more or less simply because they were passing through. Similarly, Imperial armies devastated the Duchy (or Electorate) during the War of the Spanish Succession whilst on their way to do much the same to Bavaria.

Now though, the old Emperor is showing signs of failing and his successor is a mere slip of a girl not yet even married. War clouds gather and unscrupulous Princes plot to tear her patrimony from her.

So then, the Empire is obviously a cartoon of Austria-Hungary. I am thinking of theming the army around the forces that raided through Bavaria in (I think?) 1742 and thus would have a core of a pair of German and a pair of Hungarian Regiments with quite numerous units of Croats and Pandurs. Likewise, I'd avoid heavy Cavalry and Artillery in favour of a couple of Regiments each of Dragoons and Hussars and just a couple of batteries of light guns.

I have it in mind that the Imperial Commander could call on a couple more Regiments of Line infantry and a siege train if certain campaign events occour.

Build me an Army worthy of Alzheim!

2011-08-11T08:47:00.000+10:00

I owe a fair bit to Phil Olley in terms of developing my thinking on war-gaming projects. Specifically I think i'm now thinking of the whole shape of the enterprise rather than just pursuing it on the basis of "ooo, shiny!".

In that spirit, I'd just like to take a little time to put down a high level outline of this Spencer Smith project for the Duchy of Alzheim.

As you are doubtless aware, dear reader, this began a few weeks ago with the chance purchase of a large-ish (about 90-odd figures) lot of Spencer Smith figures on eBay. These were easily arranged into four groups that I took as my first four regiments; something that 'lazy me' quite liked because in terms of figure purchases and painting I was already almost halfway there, so to speak. that's not really been the case, as I've been almost completely re-painting the miniatures, but for me it was an important early psychological boost.

Playing mind games with myself is very important when I am considering painting 'x' number of 53-figure regiments for "The Wargame" rules.

Also, having more or less four regiments to start off with has given me some guidance as to a basic building block of two- to-four regiments so that I may set myself milestones as I go on. I think two regiments is a reasonable level at which to set milestones or, as I like to think of them, "reward points". Work hard young man, and you'll receive your reward. In this case, painting a gun or a couple of command figures.

So now to timelines. Experiments over the past couple of weeks have led me to believe that I can push out about 20 painted SSM infantry in a week of easy-going painting - say about 6-7 hours of actual work. This leads me to think I can put out about one and a half to two regiments in a month. I'll stick with one and a half as I am wary of burn-out.

I think then I can set myself a reasonable deadline of Christmas to get a reasonable force together.

For the Alzheim Army, I've put together the following rough order of battle:

Infantry Regiments
IR#1 Garde (3 x 24 figure battalions)
IR#2 Leib
IR#3 von Browne
IR#4 von Prittwitz
IR#5 La Rosee
IR#6 Ehrbach
Garrison Regiments
GR#1
GR#2
GR#3
GR#4
GR#5 (Invalids)

Cavalry
KR#1 Kurfurst
KR#2 von Roth
DR#1 von Reuss
DR#2 von Waldau
HR#1 von Raabe
In addition an artillery brigade of two battalions each of three field and one howitzer battery. Oh and three light infantry units because I like the montagnards/ miquelets, pandurs and jaeger from the SSM range.
So the target for Chrismas becomes four Regiments, a garrison regiment, a unit of dragoons, some guns and a unit of light infantry. Pretty comfortable considering the Garde, Garrison and light infantry are all 24-figure units.
In my next post, I'll talk about the opposition - The Empire.

Just a quickie

2011-08-08T07:50:00.000+10:00

IR#4, "von Prittwitz". These are some samples I painted up last night as a test for how they'd look. Not too bad, I feel.

I have a funny feeling IR#5 (la Rosee) may be the fortunate recipient of Rose-coloured facings.

A Painting Progress Post

2011-08-07T17:39:00.000+10:00

This is one of those "work in progress" posts.

This weekend I finished painting up that part of IR#3 "von Browne". As you can see I had enough figures for one and a half of the four "companies" I'll need for the regiment under the Grant rules. The rest will most likely have to be metals as I've not the plastics to go the whole hog.

Showing off the drummer with his lace. One of the field officers marches alongside him. Note his deadly pin sword.

I have started work on IR #4, "von Prittwitz". Per "von Browne" it too has the light blue coat, but I shall be changing the small-clothes to white (this will be standard on all Alzheim Line Regiments) and the facings to yellow-buff. That ought to look just right with the pale blue of the coat. I'm very pleased with how the coat looks so far; it's a nice solid block of colour that comes out really nicely against the dark lining-in I've been doing.

The painting so far has all been simple block painting with some lining in to seperate and define areas of colour. It's simple to do and looks nice and bright and is not fussy in the least.

Painting Spencer Smiths

2011-08-03T08:01:00.000+10:00

Painting the Spencer Smith infantry has so far been an interesting exercise. I had started intending merely to touch them up, albeit re-painting the dark blue coats in light blue in line with the inspiration provided by IR#2 - see my previous post. That went rather by the board last night as I worked on my first five and in the end, I more or less went for a full re-paint. Curiously, re-painting the miniatures was quite easy, something I attribute to the previous owner having done the hard work in blocking in the areas of the figure I'd need to paint. It was not unlike colouring in.

"Before" shot of a Grenadier of von Browne's Regiment (IR#4).

Re-touched Grenadiers. Note that I changed what had been a conversion with paint of a bearskin to a mitre back to a bearskin again. Just for the heck of it. The skirts of the waistcoat are merely indicated with a lick of black paint. Apart from the dashing light blue coats, I brightened up the facings with some GW Blood Red, overpainted the cartridge belts where the varnish had yellowed them over time and did a great deal of black-lining to try and pop the colours out and to define the rather blurry transitions between objects on the figure.

There you go, the full 360-degree treatment. I painted on a white-laced 'flamme' on the bearskin and added a strap to the water bottle on the left hip.

I'll be basing them on the Litko laser-cut 3mm ply bases, painted plain old goblin green to protect the fragile pastics. When I opened the box, some of the figures had snapped at the ankles and the odd musket had likewise succumbed, so this was an easy decision to make. Superglue made good the breakages, but I'd not trust it to last forever. One thought that occours is to make at least one figure per base a metal and use it as a handle for those moments when gripping the base itself is inconvenient.

Onward and upward.

The Army of Alzheim

2011-08-01T20:41:00.001+10:00

A little more than a week ago I jumped in on an eBay auction and managed to pick up about 90-odd plastic Spencer Smith infantry. They arrived in the post today in pretty good order despite a few breakages due to the age of the material which I have corrected with a bit of superglue.

I have decided that these will form the core of the Alzheim Army, suitably padded out with SSM metals where I can't lay my hands on the plastics.

With no further ado, please let me introduce above the Garde Grenadiers (IR 1). Spendid in canary yellow with red small-clothes and pale blue facings, there are the cream of the army and find their garrison in Alz itself.

The Leib Regiment (IR 2) with their black facings and pale blue coats and breeches are due soon to be issued new colours.

The Grenadier Company of von Brownes' Regiment (Infanterie Regiment 3) brigaded with the replacement Grenadiers for IR 4, von Prittwitz. Both are due to be issued new, pale blue coats per IR 2.

IR 4, von Prittwitz, is, like von Brownes' also needing white gaiters to be issued for parade. The armourers' Rotring Pen will be much in use lining in those elusive uniform features.

Alzheims' one and only gunner tending his guns. He is very likely to be uniformed anew in pale gray with blue distinctions.

UPDATE - The guns are metal SSMs that I've had for some time now.

A Gazeteer of Imaginary Places

2011-07-26T20:47:00.000+10:00

Taken from the Journal of an English Tourist who as he rambled from Spa to Spa across the Germanies chanced to find himself on our own dear Alzheim.

One enters the quaintly-named Duchy or Electorate of Alzheim from Bayern via a hitherto unknown minor range of mountains. I was fortunate indeed to find myself in the delightfully inconsequential spa town of Augusts-bad. This was especially fortunate as mine syphilitics were plaguing me dreadfully. As I took the waters (and the wines and the cheeses and indeed the hams) I learned that this hamlet was the creation of the current ruler Augustus II, by all account a lesser son of greater sires. Still quite a pretty little town.

After sojourning there a day or two past the grim fortress town of Rosenthal by road, crossing the Mur Flusse at it's junction with the Grossehaber Flusse, then south on the old Roman Road all the way to Waldau, a medium-sized market town that sits at the foot of the Great Escarpment. I must admit to being a little surprised at how unlike a savage rampart of cruel cliffs this is, being more in the nature of a series of gradually rising slopes and terraces. Experience is the great undoer of Fancy.

Still, we did not stay there for long, just a couple of evenings; long enough to sample the local delights before setting out along the steeply winding road to Gehrkevale, principal town of the Alzheim uplands.

Gehrkevale is the principal arsenal and factory of Alzheim, and a grim place for that. it's people are quite unlike any of the others of the country. They are small and neuraesthenic, nothing like the hardy mountaineers of the alpine counties or the bluff, hearty peasants of the northern plains. We did not dally long. The beer was sour, the sausages small and the women best left undescribed.

Wishing we had taken the road that follows the course of the escarpment, we descended with all decent rapidity to the Capital of Alz.

This modern city was laid out by the Great Duke (or Elector), the current rulers' great-grand-sire in the Year of our Lord 1642 on the ruins of the old city, so greviously sacked and burned by Bavarian and Imperial troops during the Thirty Years' War. The work of the father was continued by the son and grandson, and now the City has much of the air of Versailles as was the fashion at the time of the Sun King. Nor did these wise rulers neglect the defences of their Capital, being as it is fortified to the last degree possible of the Military Art.

In Alz may be had ever sophisticated Entertainment or Vice and we availed ourselves fully. Doctor Smith took it upon himself to pass beyond apres un excess des femmes. As one does.

I myself was again laid low after stubbing my toe by the sheer variety of my sexual diseases and thus feared to travel east to Grunwald. I feared the doubtless damp marshlands and gloomy, spirit-depressing, forests of the region (and it's mysterious southern counties of the Uckermark) would have had a fatal effect on myself and at least two other members of our party.

Perhaps instead we shall make out way further south to the Princes' little summer place in the south - Sans Souci, he calls it. Perhaps then onto the Italies?

The journal breaks off at this point not to be resumed. We can only wonder at the cause.

The Military Geography of Alzheim

2011-07-25T12:54:00.001+10:00

Alzheim is a medium sized, middle-ranking state in the middle of southern Germany.

It is approximately 400 kilometers along it's east-west axis and about 250 kilometres north to south.

To the west and south curve the mighty Alzgebirgs beyond which lie the realms of the Gallispania and of the Italians respectively. These are intersected by five mountain passes which the military geographer may divide into First, Second and Third Class roads. The first and second class roads are guarded by old fortresses that date back to the first half of the fifteenth century; the First class roads are guarded as at the town of Finke by latterly erected modern fortresses to M. Vauban's system of fortification. At the same time as these fortifications were built, the old forts on the secondary roads were graced with diverse outworks; Ravelins &c.

The old Fortress at Finke.

To the North and East run the gentle loops and meanderings of the Mur Flusse. This river's great flow is fed by tributary rivers arising in the Alzgebirgs, the Themse and Grossehaber. Paralleling their course, but not joining the system is the Isar which runs it's course to the south and east, creating the Waldsee and the marshy, forested country in the hills East of Grunwald. This swamp eventually finds it's way via a network of small lakes into the Neider Iser which gently waters the Uckermark in the South-East of the country.

These rivers are the highways of the country and so are guarded as potential invasion routes by the bluff-built fortress of Prenzlau which guards against the sundry Princes of the Germanies, the small fortress at Rosenthal (which watches the Bavarians) and those of Grunwald and Gunzbad which along with the Grunwald marshes are the Eastern bulwark in case the Empire should ever attempt to replicate the depredations of the Thirty Years' War.

The singular feature of Alzheim is the Great Escarpment which cuts across the South-western portion of the land. This is Alzheim's national redoubt, which, although not seriously fortified since Mediaeval times, has nonetheless been the refuge of the people as recently as the 30 Years' War when Bavarian and Imperial armies ravaged across the land.

By Crom, Post Number 450!

2011-07-19T19:14:00.000+10:00

Reaper Miniatures barbarian-types. I think this one is meant to be evil...

... and this one's meant to be a Hero.

Never would have guessed it, would you?

These are examples of the black undercoat technique in all it's glory, usually with a base, mid and highlight colour. The skin on Mr Muscles up top has about six highlights on it, all very thin, to get the smoothest transition between highlights I could manage. Sepia ink glazes to tie the layering together. Looking at them, I realise how much I owe Marvel Comics and Dark Horse (and Games Workshop) in the visualisation of these figures!

Noodling about on the Net

2011-07-17T14:08:00.001+10:00

As in the title, I was poking about on the internet and stumbled across this:

http://martianchess.blogspot.com/2010/11/royal-armies-of-hyborean-age-1975.html

Which led me to the back of a 1985 issue of Marvel Comics "The Savage Sword of Conan" featuring on the back cover an advertisement for players to join the play by mail campaign "Hyborean War". You could "Join the tens of thousands nationally who are enjoying the vivid interactive games only made possible in the last few years by recent advances in computer technology.

And then there is this:

http://conanvault.ign.com/wiki/index.php/Hyboria_Map

And this:

http://billinghurst.spalding.gen.nz/Webstuff/hobbies/armatihyboria.html

And to think I was foolish enough to plan on working on some of my French cavalry and Anglo-Prussian infantry some time in the near future.

Help! I'm all over the place.

I Explore My Inner Nerd

2011-06-25T22:10:00.003+10:00

Small venture into the Star Trek universe - who knows where it might take me.

http://finalfrontiers.blogspot.com/

Once a Knight...

2011-05-06T07:34:00.004+10:00

I'm taking a little break at the moment from painting hordes of ACW soldiers and putting a little extra time into painting up a few figures for my "Great Siege" collection. what you see below is my basic cavalry figure, a mounted Knight of St John. Visual references are few and far between, so I've gone with what feels like a reasonable representation based on an Osprey plate from (I think) "The Warriors of the Cross" or the "Knights of Christ" or some similar title and the cover of the issue of Practical Wargamer featuring the Siege of Fort St Elmo.

Note that the lance may well be just a little too long, but I think it looks better that way.

Willie Spanish Mounted Arquebusier from the Spanish Conquest range with added 10cm steel lance and a Castaway Arts shield.

Same guy, different view.

I am discovering a renewed interest in painting and will probably spend the next few weeks painting a few comrades for him. And some opponents.

In other "news" - Is it just me, or is the blogosphere irrevocably doomed with no hope of recovery?

Now I have your attention, I just wanted to ask what's the deal with these "Stylish Blogger Awards" people are nominating each other for? Do we realise that these are structured pretty much like chain letters - everyone nominated is invited to nominate a further four blogs for the award. Therefore, to get one's own award, one has to finger another four folks.

Let it go on for long enough and everyone will have one which rather detracts from the cachet, does it not?

Really, how can getting an award under these circumstances be anything other than meaningless.

Post Script, I do have other issues with the blogosphere that I may explore at a later date.

Constructing Fort St Elmo

2011-04-13T07:53:00.002+10:00

I thought I'd put up a couple of WiP shots to let you all know how I'm going about building Fort St Elmo. As you can see, the main structure of the fort is just polystyrene that i salvaged from a construction site. It's 10 cm/4" thick. I've just cut it out with a thin-bladed saw I have and then carefully sliced the "batter" of the walls so they slope. That then gets smoothed off and generally tidied up with a block and 120 grit sandpaper.

The base and fighting platform are both 3mm/ 1/8th" MDF cut to shape with my jig-saw. I got the shapes right by tracing around the top and bottom of the balsa with a marker. Make sure that there is a couple of millimetres' overlap on the top layer to produce the "lip" that you see on many vauban-type fortifications just below the ramparts.

The sentry box is just a piece of balsa rod with a half a foam ball stuck on.

The figure is a 30mm "Willie" who is standing in for the whole Turk army.

Building Fort St Elmo

2011-04-09T13:51:00.003+10:00

Havin some time to spare this weekend, I decided to start building fort St Elmo for a Great Siege game some day. You'll note it's main structure is made from large slabs of polystyrene used in housing insulation that I scavenged from various building-sites!

The figure I am using for scale purposes is a 30mm Willie from the Colonial "Dolly Grey" range.
A general view of the fort showing counter-clockwise from the left; the cavalier; the main fort itself; the original ravelin covering the main gate and; the hastily constructed ravelin of earth and fascines.
The cavalier. I'm intending to build this as a two-tiered gun platform. In it's final state it's going to be somewhat higher than the fort as was it's real-life counterpart.
The landward side of the fort. I have not yet decided whether to just cut a gateway in the curtain behind the ravelin or to put it in the recess behind the orillon of the lower demi-bastion. The former would be easier, the latter more accurate.

The next major piece of work will be to sand down the exterior faces of the fort to give the characteristic "batter" of these kind of works. After that I will need to cut out the interior courtyard of the main fort and line it with some foamcore in which I am going to be cutting numerous arches to simulate the forts casemates.

The whole work is about a metre long (or a little longer depending on how you space out the outworks) by about 60 centimetres wide.

Terrain and Undercoats

2011-04-05T07:32:00.002+10:00

Big terrain as it is made on the exhibition circuit as I know it tends to make bulk use of polystyrene as a keleton with any number of different skins and finishes. One similarity they all seem to have is the use of a black undercoat and then sucessivly lighter coats of base colouration put on with a four-inch brush. Has anyone ever done their terrain on a white undercoat and then used progressively thinner and darker washes to get their base effects? I'm going to repaint some earthworks over the next few days as an experiment.

Fort St. Elmo

2011-04-04T19:55:00.006+10:00

Where better to start than with Fort St Elmo? It seems to me that there have been some misconceptions concerning its' trace as reported by Ernle Bradford in his book on the Siege.

The fort is described as a star fort with three outworks in the shape of a pair of ravelins (one built in some haste of timber and earth) and a cavalier. Now, how are we to interpret this?

Take the image above, an engraving of a fresco of Matteo Perez d'Aleccio. The fort under siege is St. Elmo. Note that it is simply a star fort. There is a structure to the side of the fort closest the peninsula-tip, and another to the left of the fort.

The image below is a modern interpretation of this image and others. I believe that what we have here is a star fort with a ravelin at it's left, another "ravelin" or more properly a "rivelino" (see the great "ravelin" at Sarnzello) oriented at face the tip of the peninsula. I'm not yet persuaded one way or the other that the tower-like structure is in fact a cavalier (or raised battery - the battle accounts don't read that way to me) or whether that might be the structure linking the two named outworks being pierced for artillery and arquebuses to command the ditch. Certainly I think that the tall structure still exists, having been integrated at a later date into the greater structure of the fort. Accounts of the siege do stress that once the Turks took it, they were able to dominate the interior of the fortification, as the Ravelin they captured was taller than the fort.

Discuss!

Snap Out of It

2011-04-01T19:56:00.003+11:00

Time to set some goals here, people.

Time to put a stop to the drift.

Goals, then. Right.

By the end of 2012, I want to have done the following:

*Made real progress in the "1565" project.
*Re-started the "Old School ACW" project.
*Finished all of my outstanding French Cavalry regiments
*Built at least three British, Prussian or Bavarian Infantry regiments and a pair of Cavalry regiments to go with them.

Rough outline of the above as follows:

"1565" - to start with a skirmish-sized force to see how I go painting my assorted Knights of St John/Spanish and some Turks. Working out some appropriate army structures for them. Pausing and seeing if I am really interested in starting to build them. Building some anciliary bits to go with them. I would like to build some Renaissance artillery fortifications just for the fun of it. I am looking for an excuse to construct an earthern "star fort" from polystyrene. I am also itching to build some of the Langdon 1:1200 Renaissance warships. They look terrific. I have some experience building his Napoleonic ships, so I know what I'm in for. Where might this take me? I am pondering a loosely-based-on-reality solo campaign set in the eastern Med in that era. Might it culminate with a "Great Siege"? Who can tell. Certainly not me, but I have greatly enjoyed reading about it. I've also been daydreaming about Landsknechts, perhaps just as a painting/collecting thing, but again, who knows where the renaissance may take me. Maybe I also want some of the old Hinchcliffe Winged Lancers, too.

"Old School ACW" - I feel like a bad parent. So much effort went into the project, and I felt so bad when I ran out of time with only one undocumented game played. At the very least, I need to get a few games in, and at best, I need to follow the project plan I laid out in the blog to it's conclusion. I have at least enough miniatures in stock here to build the project up to it's divisional-sized milestone. Let's do it, eh?

"The Eighteenth Century" - This has been on a care and maintenence basis for longer than I care to think. Not good. I have one complete and six part-completed French Cavalry regiments. Surely I can finish off another three from my existing lead pile alone? Likewise a recent audit has revealed many many infantry who could fight my French Infantry - if only they were painted... My ambition is to get playable forces together to play some of the smaller scenarios from "The Annexation of Chiraz" and "The Raid on St Michiel".

At a rough guess, that's about 340-400 Olley-points over about 20 months. That's less than one toy soldier or horse a day; at my painting speed (900-milliolleys to one Olley per day), that's a pretty acheivable amount.

Part two of this post is titled "The Lonely War Gamer". I'll keep it brief as it is largely born out of a fairly large disappontment.

In recent months I had decided it was all very well to build these damn' huge armies but really, what was the point of it all if they just sat around in their plastic boxes in the car-port. So, I decided to get out there and join a war gaming club. Your actual, honest to god wargaming club. None of my friends here in Melbourne are war gamers, indeed, my nearest and dearest friend I am sure regards it as only a step above dressing up as a lady, although what's wrong with that I'll never know.

My nearest club dabbles in almost anything other than straight historical games, so I thought, OK, go with it and finally got around to painting/touching up the Riders of Rohan army I'd been slowly putting together after reading Mike Siggins review of GW's "War of the Ring". I read the rules, tried to become familiar with them and finally went along.

Well imagine that of all the people there playing the various flavours of Warhammer, only two were doing the Ring thing and they were about 14 or so. Nice kids, but, really, do I really want to be spending my precious spare time doing this? One of the other guys there told me that this was a dead gaming genre pretty much and that GW was only promoting it as much as it was to recoup the massive license fee they'd paid.

I was generally ignored as I wandered about the room, hopefully trying to insert myself into a conversation here and there... Fair enough, they all knew each other and were mates and I was just some guy, but I'm not sure it's how I'd have treated a noob.

So I'm thinking fuck it, I'll be a soloist from now on.

Might be selling some Riders of Rohan before long. Painted to a basic wargames standard. 48 infantry and 34 cavalry. Another 20 infantry and 30 or so cavalry unpainted.

The Great Siege of 1565

2011-03-13T20:54:00.005+11:00

Over the past few months I have indulged myself to no small extent by buying old issues of Practical Wargamer.

No disrespect intended to any gentlemen publishing wargaming journals in these latter days, but I must nail my proverbials to the mast and declare this one of the finest wargaming publications ever.

There. I've said it. It's not without it's faults, but I think these are far and away outweighed by the general excellence of the content. Specifically, I am thinking of the regular columns and in particular that of John Treadaway's Fantasy Facts. Suffice to say, he was not one to hold back and call crap when he saw it. Count me a fan-boy.

Ian Weekly was a very regular contributor, mostly promoting his business which was fair enough, but every now and then he came up with an interesting article.

That could have been better expressed!

One that has really caught my eye was his account of the Siege of Malta in 1565 for which he built a model of Fort St Elmo, seemingly for his own pleasure. What I think I really liked about the project was his use of "Willie" figures from the Spanish Heritage (Conquistadores) range for the Knights of St John and various Islamic figures (to use a pretty broad description!) for the Turks along with some one-offs from John Ray which I think might have been the Turkish gun crews.

Now I don't know why, but this has really gotten the juices flowing for some reason. I mean, actual books have been purchased. Old magazines have been trawled for on eBay and bought. Money has been laid down with Spencer Smiths' for samples of Pizarros' men.

Now, I don't have the services of Mr Ray*, but I think that this might be a fun little side project. I don't recall if I've alluded much to my current situation, but I have really very little spare time these days with baby number two. Painting time is about 20-30 minutes a day as I get ready for work, and most of that is going into my Riders of Rohan**. Heaven knows, I'm abandoning precious sleep time to write this tonight.

The charm is there for me. Elizabethans versus Turks with fairly primitive artillery, early fortifications and a folorn hope. The thought of gaming or role-playing the corsair raids of the knights against Turkish shipping. Turkish raids on Christian towns for the purpose of slaving. There's a lot there for the wargamer. I'm excited at the possibilities of campaigning with the Knights of St John against the Turks, as well. The fighting could take me across the Med to North Africa, or across the Agean to Rhodes.

For figures, Eureka do useful ranges of Turk Corsairs as well as a nice mortar and Spanish and Portugese and Gendarmes who could easily stand in for any of the Christian players in the theatre. Just in case I go beyond a few "Willies"*** to whet my appetite. Navwar do Galleys and galleasses in 1:1200

Do I sound enthusiastic? I think I am. Now's a matter of honing down I think, and finding the central thread that I can follow through this period. Happy days.

*More's the pity!!!
**34 Cavalry painted or touched up from various eBay purchases. 20 infantry complete and another 28 on the stocks ready to begin...
***And of course, now I have a dremel tool, they will present no problems.

The Scrounger

2011-02-25T07:36:00.002+11:00

I was in my facvoured hobby shop recently and the owner and I got to talking about the kind of customers he gets. It turns out he had a label for me, too.

I am a bargain hunter.

He has a table of cut price items at the back of the store which I always make a bee-line for as there is always something interesting to be seen. I always go there before I take in any of the more-regularly-priced items on the shelves.

I'm not particularly upset at ebing viewed in this way, because I am not just a bargain hunter, I'm more of a scrounger.

I have been quietly buying Lord of the Rings miniatures on eBay over the past year. I was interested in their mass battles rule set and wanted to assemble a large Riders of Rohan and an Uruk Hai army to have a go with. Add to the mix that my "local" games club only does GW games, I thought well, why not?

Long story short, I suppose I have assembled a pretty respectable Eored of about 75 mounted and 60 or so dismounted, of whom about half are painted to varying degress of finish. This has cost about a quarter of what walking in through the doors of my local GW barn and emptying my wallet.

Proud to be a bargain-hunting scrounger.

Got to go - I need more Uruks. I hope they're half-painted. Stops me having to assemble, clean and undercoat the buggers.

The Red and the Blue

2011-02-03T21:10:00.006+11:00

More or less on a whim I went and bought some HE Artillery just to see what they were like.
I bought three - the Traditional Charles XII Gun, Light Artillery Gun and Heavy Artillery Gun which you can see here. The Charles XII Gun has the barrel cast in one piece with the carriage and although the detail is a little heavy in places is not too bad. The imaginatively named Light Artillery Gun and Heavy Artillery Gun are very fine. Detail on the carriages is very simple - for example whatever metal work there is i have simply painted on myself. Nonetheless all the pieces are very slim and fine. The barrel of the Heavy Gun in particular is really delightful. All three guns repay careful clean-up as there is some evidence of mould wear especially around the axles and on the muzzle of the Charles XII Gun. this is nothing you can't clean up with a jewellers' file, though.

By comparison, the SSM Field Gun recast from the original plastic weapon is a much more clumsy affair, nonetheless, quite a satisfying little model. I was very pleased how the gun tubes came up over a green base-coat. Once again, the detail on the carriage was scanty and I ended up just painting it on.
While I was feeling whimsical, I bought a load of HE sample infantry on the basis of a couple of blog posts from Mr Preece and Mr Schwartz. These are Swedish Infantry on the march and as you can see, they have a lovely dioramic quality. I am put in mind of vertain scenes that have been put together by talented flats painters like Mr Christian Rogge. Warning, this site contains images of pures wargamers' porn.
What to do with them, though? I have been tempted with my new copy of Anton Hoffman plates on the Bavarian Army of "The Blue King", I must say.

Heckenfeur #3

2011-01-05T06:36:00.002+11:00

... or: "I aten't dead" to quote Granny Weatherwax.

Well, here I be, six weeks into baby Sam and all is going pretty well; no dramas to report. Big sister seems to be happy enough with her "bay" as she calls him. Amy's doing well; breast feeding is proceeding. Sleep is being lost! All normal so to speak.

So, it's half past six in the morning here at the moment, both children are still asleep as is mother, so it's obviously time for a blog posting.

So to business.

Firstly, thanks you all very much for your kind notes and emails after my last posting. They have been too numerous (and I've not really had much computer time to be able) to respond to, but please be assured that all have been read and are very much appreciated here.

Hobby activities are on a heavy, heavy slow-down here in the Duchy of Alzheim. Bauer has gone fishing and HM Augustus Rex is snoozing after consuming much too much trifle over the Christmas holiday.

Naturally, imagineering has gone on apace as ever; the focus of my attention is always rather like a blowfly trapped in a jar and bouncing off the sides if that makes any sense whatsoever. I recently dug out my old copies of Practical Wargamer - I think I may have about two-thirds of the set if it went no further than Volume 12 - and have been reading away. The first thing I turned to was John Treadaways always excellent "Fantasy Facts" column which I hope some of you might remember with admiration for the force of his opinions and very entertaining style. It looks to me like he was quite a fan of GZG's products (in addition to the work of Tom Meier and Julie Guthrie) and I remembered how nearly 20 years ago I really, really wanted some of the Stargrunt figures he wrote about but never bought at the time due to the difficulty and huge expense in those far-off pre-internet days of ordering anything from overseas. Well, a little googling (new verb anyone?) and I found that not just GZG but quite a few other manufacturers from that era are still in business and now I've various little parcels of lead and resin crawling their way through the lousy northern winter to my sunny door-step. lovely. Phil Olley will tell me off for being a hobby scatterbrain, but there's no helping that!

So, pure self-indulgence.

What else? Since Sam's been born my duty has been to give Erin her breakfast first thing in the morning and while she's dawdled over her Rice Bubbles I've done a little plastic modelling. Just some Armourfast kits that I had hoarded - so now i have a half dozen Sherman 2 and 3s with a Matchbox Dingo scout car for Alamein if that ever happens. I still go and re-read the Richard Marsh Alamein article on the Rapid Fire website. We'll see.

My Sudan wanderings continue. Not to the same extent as Gordon, but I have just finished painting a dinky little Conoisseur Screw-Gun and crew and just finished prepping and undercoating a trio of 9-pounders which seem to make up into very nice models. I've also about finished reading Mike Snook's "Go Strong into the Desert" which is a very comprehensive (for the relative brevity of the book) treatment of the early part of the conflict in the Sudan, say, 1881 to 1885. Lovely plates, excellent narrative, really good information on early Mahdist dress that chimes in very well with the early Mahdists produced by Castaway Arts. My respect for Gerry Webb as a designer and researcher went up another couple of notches as a result of reading this book.

I especially enjoyed the too-brief discussion of the logistic options available to Wolseley and how they pretty well sealed Gordon's fate. A good book overall, although I found the author's political commentary a bit off-putting, but then I would, wouldn't I? Recommended.

That's about it for now, Erin is strating to stir and will be wanting her Rice Bubbles shortly and as it's now a quarter past 7, I'd like a coffee myself.

Cheerio.

Samuel David Horne

2010-11-25T21:37:00.003+11:00

It's time to let the cat out of the bag and welcome to the world our newest addition, Sam. Sam was born today at 3.25 in the afternoon after a five-hour labour.

He's about two hours' old in the photo and has had his first meal of colostrum. Yumm-o!

We have had quite a nervous time with his gestation as his mum who lives with type one diabetes had a very bad hypo at about the 14 week stage of the pregnancy. I came home from work in the middle of the day on a panicky hunch to find Amy unconcious on the bed with our little girl Erin quietly sitting next to her.

Well, what with Ambulances, a trip to the Emergency Department and a week in hospital for mummy, we nearly forgot about the potential effect on baby.

Still what with MRIs that they can perform on baby whilst still in the womb, we were sufficiently re-assured and the result was well worth it and well worth the wait.

And his big sister seems hardly jealous at all.

No, I wasn't wearing a Violent Femmes t-shirt during the birth this time, but I'm bloody well wearing it now. I think I'll put the CD on. You know which one.

Things You Find... Redux

2010-11-04T20:47:00.001+11:00

On a hunch tonight after I got home from work I combed through a little-regarded storage area here at home.

Jackpot!

Perhaps it's a sign that I have too much toy-soldiery whan I discover troops that I have not only forgotten, but forgot when I last worked on them. Still, it's a nice surprise.

Starting with the Castaway Arts stuff:

Half a dozen Hadendowah Camels and riders - 90% painted.
A dozen "ansar" Cavalry minus their horses - 40% painted.
Ten "early" Ansar. Just need basing and a few weapons and shields painted.
A handful of Egyptian regular infantry and Bashi-Bazouks, about 80% completed.

Then there's the Conoisseur stuff.
40 Naval brigade, about 65% painted.
A handful of asorted Highlanders, bare metal.

I've taken this and added it all to my painted/painting lists and feel I ought to be able to come up with the following by about January:

Sudanese:

3 units Ansar
1 unit early Ansar
1 unit Jihadiyya rifles
1 unit of cavalry

4 units Hadendowah
1 unit Hadendowah rifles
1 unit of Camelry

Egyptian
4 units of infantry
1 field gun battery

British
4 units of Infantry in Home Service Dress
2 units of Naval Brigade
1 unit Yorks & Lancs Infantry
1 unit of Camel Corps
1 unit of Hussars

So, now that I've stopped hugging myself, what to do with this bounty?

Looking at the British, I am thinking seriously about Wolseley's 1882 campaign against 'Urabi. Lots of appeal there for me, and incentive to build up my Egyptians and my Highlanders, too. I could use my Krupps and build lots of field fortifications as I seem to enjoy doing.

The Egyptians would let me defend Khartoum, any number of desolate garrisons, or let me see if Hicks Pasha might ever have stood a fighting chance.

Another possibility that occours is a campaign based on the Desert Column. The naval Brigade could proxy for some of the camel corps. The British would take a little more building, but the Sudanese are nearly there, I feel. An interesting element would be the British need to limit their casualties as they needed to remain a viable force if they were in the last instance to throw themselves into Khartoum. Likewise they would have to protect their wounded as they accumulated during the campaign. It might be fun to include Fred Burnaby as a special character.

What would you do?

Heckenfeur #2

2010-11-02T19:41:00.003+11:00

The Sudan

*Note that this article is a placeholder until I organise my thoughts some more!*

I am as ever amazed at the resources that generous people make freely available on the web.

Here below is much of the excellent magazine "Savage and Soldier" free online:

http://www.savageandsoldier.com/articles.html

Here Steve Winter (The Colonial Angle) presents his "Fire and the Sword in the Sudan, a campaign based on the Mahadist rising. The rules are an adaptation of those presented in "the Courier" 'many moons ago' for playing Pondiac's rebellion. The material he presents on his website include a thrilling acount of his re-fight of a siege of Berber. Wonderful stuff.

http://home.comcast.net/~theangle/Campaign/FSCampgn.htm

I'm not too sure how far people might be interested in the creative process, but I thought it might be worthwhile uploading a few cartoons of some Nile steamers that everyone ought to have in their collection if they are to embark upon campaigns on those blood red desert sands.

As I have outlined in my Defense of Melbourne Blog, my ship-building methods are pretty simple.

I make a blank for the hull out of expanded polystyrene with a lamination of balsa. The balsa when scribed and stained becomes the main deck whilst the poly is the hull, usually cut to the profile of the deck with my hot wire cutter. A sanding block takes care of any complex curves at the bow or stern. The bularks are of thin card, whilst the deck-houses are of daler board - available in art supply shops.

I continue to read and paint and imagineer.

The things you find....

2010-10-25T17:26:00.004+11:00

Uh-oh. Serious trouble.

I was messing about in the car-port this evening after work (as you do) when I found what I thought was a box of Castaway Arts Indian Army figures. Now, it contained just that, but imagine also my surprise to find:

4 early Ansar;
15 Hadendowah and;
10 late Jiadiyyah riflemen.

Is this synchronicity?

Just one small order and I can add two more TSatF units to my Mahadist collection...

This is how new projects start for me. I already have the bones of a Mahdist army - about 7 TSatF units. Oh, and I also just found about 5-6 Conoisseur Fuzzies, to boot.

This means trouble.

And a new blog label.

"Sudan".

Bits and Bobs

2010-10-24T08:09:00.002+11:00

Getting pretty close top finishing the block-houses at the moment. Just the details to paint in now. Then I need to ge on to making the barbed wire entanglements.
An interesting sub-plot might be how much space these things take up on the table. The block-house is about 80mm in diameter. The earthworks blow the foot-print out to about 300mm. By the time I have added barbed wire, I think the diameter of one blockhouse would be in the region of 370mm or so. Food for thought! Add another and you are taking up quite a substantial portion of your avarage 6' x 4' war-games table.

In other news, and prompted by the perfidious Jeff, I have been reading on the Sudan.
Let me please share with you some OOB and scaling thoughts that i have prepared in an anally-retentive half-hour.

The Desert Column before Abu Klea (13.01.1885).
Guards Camel Regiment - 414 all ranks
Heavy Camel Regiment - 400
Mounted Infantry Camel Regiment - 383
1st/35th (Royal Sussex) - 258
19th Hussars - 135
25th Coy, RE - 27
1/2 Battery RA - 38 (3 x 2.5" Screw Guns)
Naval Brigade - 58 (1 Gardiner Gun)

Ths totals out at 1653 men whaich at a suitably Old School 1:10 is close enough to 165 figure. Now, lets take that scaling and apply unit organisations from The Sword and the Flame and apply them:

The Desert Column before Abu Klea for TSatF
Guards Camel Regiment - 2 units (40 figures)
Heavy Camel Regiment - 2 units (40 figures)
Mounted Infantry Camel Regiment - 2 units (40 figures)
1st/35th (Royal Sussex) - 1 unit (20 figures)
19th Hussars - 1 unit (12 figures)
1/2 Battery RA - 1 x 2.5" Screw Gun - (four figures)
Naval Brigade - 1 Gardiner Gun - (three figures)

Which comes to 159 figures. A pretty fair approximation, I think.

Of course, you'd need heaps of Mahdists. But there are tried and true ways of dealing with that.

What do you think?

Earthworks

2010-10-20T07:48:00.003+11:00

My trusty hot-wire cutter comes through with the goods again.

I've opted to paint the block-houses in GW "Boltgun Metal" washed over with some burned sienna as a light tarnish and to add some definition on the corrugations.

I decided on this approach as there was no information really on whether the blockhouses had been painted or no. Besides, I squinted at some poor quality, black-and-white internet images for long enough to convince myself they were bare metal!

Block-house work in progress

2010-10-19T07:57:00.002+11:00

Just a quickie to show you what's on here.

The idea here is to build a block-house in stand-alone form that I can drop into a terrain piece. The circular part is an industrial-scale toilet-paper roll cut in half with a saw, whlie the gable-ends and ceiling are of that perennial favourite, foam-core board.

The the roof and all the rest of the "corrugated iron cladding are a roll of finely corrugated cardboard I found a few years back in a stationers. It has a flat backing so it takes an even skim of glue well for when I have to laminate it onto a thicker card for stability. It's just been cut as a square and scored to fold for the roof.

The miniatures are Hinchcliffe in the Slade Wallace personal equipment. Very nice figures that I'd never really considered before.

Classic Wargamer's Journal

2010-10-18T08:41:00.002+11:00

The latest issue (#1) of the CWJ is out now.

Take a look at Phil Olley's Classic Wargaming blog for details and take out a subscription while you're at it!

Getting out of the doldrums

2010-10-18T08:10:00.004+11:00

You know how it is, you get into the project doldrums and you need a break. That's about where I'm at with my ACW project, I'd say.

I've long been interested in the Boer War, but not really wanting to commit too deeply.

Thus I'm going to do a little mini-project - a couple of Boer War Block-houses and a pair of TSaTF-sized infantry units. Not too much, just enough to slake that little thirst.

However, there are dangers; now I'm eyeing-off my Sudan collection.

Uh-oh...

Those Schombourg Dragoons (or - the Dragons de Saxe!)

2010-05-16T15:25:00.007+10:00

Well, here they are, the Schombourg Dragoons, 17th in order of precedence after the Seven Years' War. Figures are complete, barring terraining the bases and providing a standard.
Advancing here as they are in column of troops rather than as by lines of Squadrons as is the case below, you'll notice they are are all RSMs with a line cavalryman standing in for a Cornet.
I have included a pair of trumpeters as ordinary troopers as the standard "Grant" organisation makes comparatively little allowance for command figures, a feature of the "Young-Lawford" organisations that I've always greatly enjoyed.
Squadron commanders are keeping a careful eye on the alignment of their troopers.
Bravely charging an abandoned piece...

I'm thinking seriously of painting some of the lovely RSM cossacks in similarly coloured uniforms and brigading them together to make a version of the Legion de Saxe; or a Legion de Horne as the mood takes me together with some fusiliers, a few grenadiers and a gun or two were I to fall into "imagination" mode. Certainly reading my copy of Wargaming in History has piqued my interest in that direction.

I may have mentioned already, but I expect sufficent deliveries in the next week or two to let me finish off La Reine and Royal Pologne in pretty short order. In the meantime I am painting up figures to complete the first squadron of the Royal-Cravattes.

Got any old RSM Cavalry you no longer want or need? Drop me a line at bloggeratorATgmailDOTcom.

Progress Report

2010-05-11T15:40:00.002+10:00

Well, I'm six squadrons into the great 20 squadron cavalry push of 2010.

Very good, Greg, but what does it mean?

Glad you asked - in concrete terms, it means I have finished the Schombourg/Saxe Dragoons (bar the colour), and the first squadrons of La Reine, Royal Pologne, Montcalm and the Turpin Hussars.

I am within spitting distance of completing second squadrons of La Reine and Royal Pologne (just waiting on the next order from DPC) and I ought to be finished with the first squadrons of the Cuirassiers du Roi and the Royal Cravattes by the end of the month.

So there we have it, we ought to be at the 10 squadrons mark by the end of May - 50% of the way to the goal.

Pictures when I get time this weekend.

Cavalry WiPs

2010-04-04T19:47:00.007+10:00

If the infantry be the Queen of the battlefield, then does this make the cavalry King? I had a minor review of the troops this afternoon and found that I have gotten myself together enough to put 74 (!) fully painted horsemen of 8 different regiments on the table.
Four are complete squadrons, the others are odds and sods as you can see - the Cuirassiers du Roi below being a prime example. I took Stokes method of dry-brushing black horses with Navy Blue and ran with it.My most complete regiment at the moment is La Reine. I'll be making it the subject of my next round of purchases.

My Schombourgs will be finished first though, as I have the second squadron lined up ready for painting and eight of their horses already done.
Royal Pologne will not be far behind - I've another half dozen troopers part-painted for them and will only need another half doz. on top of that to finish them off.

Progress Report

2010-03-18T07:13:00.003+11:00

No pictures Jeff, the camera is playing up.

I have spent the past few weeks dilligently painting, basing and re-basing and here's what I have so far:

A squadron of a dozen Schomberg/Saxe Dragoons;
Likewise a squadron of a dozen Hussars;
Ditto, a squadron and-a-half of the La Reine Regiment.

Further, I have half squadrons of Royal-Pologne, Cuirassiers du Roi, Royal-Cravattes, Montcalm and some red-coated, black-turnbacked regiment whose name escapes me just now. Bless their hearts. Oh, I just remembered - Colonel-General.

More figures are on order; more Schomburg/Saxes for a second squadron, another dozen line Cavalry to wrap up the Royal Cravattes and Colonel-General squadrons. More Horses to mount another eight of the Royal-Pologne. Odds and sods of musicians and officers.

I will try to get some pictures taken this weekend. I promise.

Now, to market.

All this building and purchasing comes at a price, both in $$$ and in terms of storage, so I am going to be having a sell down, a paring down of the collection if you like.

I'll be making my first offer here and on a couple of relevant Yahoo Groups; I'll leave it up for a week and then anything left will go to eBay. Fair enough?

My first offering:

17 Pax Britannica/RSM Prussian Fusiliers - note that they are older castings in the softer metal in the Advancing pose. Detail is much crisper than the current offering.

19 Pax Britannica/RSM Austrian German Musketeers - in the Advancing Pose. Note that they are older castings in the softer metal. Detail is much crisper than the current production.

20 RSM Austrian Hungarian Grenadiers - in the Advancing Pose.

Two boxes of Revell Austrian 7YW Dragoons, still in their boxes; the sprues have been cut up, but the horses and riders are still attached to the sprue fragments.

*SOLD* Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. It's a Near-fine copy with an intact dust-jacket and only minor bumping on the cover boards.

I'll take cash or trade for them. Please contact me at bloggetatorATgmailDOTcom

The Guns, the guns the sound of guns

2010-03-04T07:46:00.002+11:00

Taking maladministration and peculation on a massive scale as a given, let us admit that the Artillery of Gallispania and Alzheim have fallen into a sad state of disrepair, disorganisation and a great many other words starting with dis- and then move on, shall we?

I've always liked artilley models and have collected a great many of them from a great many manufacturers. Now, while this has satisfied my child-like appetites for pretty-pretty toys, it's not really let me build a useful collection of guns for the wargames table being a they are, all rather incompatible with each other and my RSM gunners!

I'll be selling them off as far as possible to produce a more unified park based around the RSM range and the odd ring-in for perceived gaps such as in the fortress and siege artillery areas. And I may well indulge myself here and there... no! stop it!

I aleady have a few RSM guns and I like the few Eureks pirate ship guns I've been using as Fortress Artillery (they look good and the price is right) and will keep on going this way, but with limbers, horse teams, munitions wagons to properly support them.

On another note to the Imaginationeers (new word, add it to the dictionary today) who likes the idea of creating their own 18th Century-style Legion? The Legion de Horne for example?

Rationalising the Cavalry collection

2010-03-02T08:25:00.001+11:00

It's not what you think.

What I have in mind is getting my French - er - Gallispan army onto a more "rational" basis. I mean, my stars, this is the Age of Reason, is it not?

I am starting with the Cavalry, a much neglected arm in my collection. Up until now, my cavalry has been two fairly well-developed (ie, laregeish) units of the Line Cavalry; La Reine and another gray-coated no-name unit. The rest has been scraps, really, eight or a dozen Gensdarmes, a similar number of the Bercheny Hussars and so forth.

Now, I've been re-reading my Charles Grant and am wanting to put my Cavalry on that sort of basis - 24 troopers, 3 Officers and a Guidon. I have been having a good old rummage though my assorted lead piles and have found numbers of varying types of cavalry figure I bought at various times but never got too far into painting, so I do have a start on building things up, but more purchases will need to be made.

I'm looking at a structure consisting of two Line and one Light Brigade of Cavalry with the following regiments:

First Brigade:
Gendarmerie
Colonel-General
Cuirassiers du Roi

Second Brigade:
La Reine
Royal-Pologne
Montcalm

Light Brigade:
Saxe Dragoons
Bercheny Hussars
Ratzsky Hussars

Each Brigade will have an appropriate Etat Major.

I have been getting back into the swing of painting having produced in the past two weeks a squadron each of Royal-Pologne and the Saxe Dragoons. Next on the painting table are some of the Bercheny hussars. My painting plan is to paint me each a squadron of each regiment in turn before going on to paint a second.

Next time - reorganising the Artillery.

I think I'm back

2010-02-14T09:08:00.000+11:00

Been a while, hasn't it?

I've got to admit to having had a long, deep and wide hobby funk which I'm still slowly climbing out from under.

It's been a pain; my little hobby which has consumed so much of m time and effort for years was really starting to pall. I couldn't be bothered painting; setting up a game seemed an endless chore; all my old books seemed nothing more than just old books. My lead mountain was becoming a burden rather than a fruitful field of rediscovery. Finally, I really couldn't be bothered taking “The Duchy of Alzheim” anywhere.

I'm thinking this came about due to a number of factors – less time and sleep due to the baby meant that I'd rather take a nap than put another layer of highlighting on another ten soldiers. Perhaps a degree of burnout after the big CanCon demo game last year? I'm not sure. I was also conscious of wanting to do another show on the same scale but couldn't see a way to make it happen with my now greatly diminished spare time. That might have been a factor.

I think another factor has been my complete disorganization which has seem me build bits of armies as I went along rather than properly balanced forces. For example, I have something like 60 Croats and a unit of Hungarian Infantry for my Austrian Army, but no Artillery or Cavalry. I have more “armies” like this. This leads me to a situation where no project ever seems finished and of course discouragement sets in.

Not too sure.

Nonetheless, I think I might be on the road back.

I've read The War Game Companion, Wargaming in History (v1!), Raid on St Michel and am waiting to take delivery of The Annexation of Chiraz with increasing impatience. In the meantime I've been looking at some Teasers from Mr Grant and was tempted indeed.

I've also taken to painting the little pile of Minden French Command I bought a while ago and found myslf enjoying the process to the point where a couple of weeks ago I set myself a target and began to paint one a day. I've now got a dozen painted that I will soon be incorporating into my RSM units. I'm also painting a dozen of the RSM Saxe Dragoons with an aim of getting them up to a Grant-size unit. Longer term, I'll be building my forces toward a scale that will let me take on a Teaser or two.

This leads me in an awkward way to some decisions I've been making about the Duchy of Alzheim. Previosly it was more or less a German Duchy with a French Army! No more. It's just become a German Duchy with a German Army (more or less Prussian, but with additions...). My French Army has become that of Alzeim's western neighbor, Gallispania, while to their South is a quasi-Italy that will allow many oportunities for alliance-making, mountain fighting and so on.

I still have to work this out in more detail. Will the DoA remain an independent entity or will it become a part of some kind of United Free States (hm, in German that's Vereinigte Frei... hang on...)? Will Gallispania be one or two states as implied by the name? It will doubtless have an Opera Bouffe flavour.

More as it comes in.

New bloglet

2009-12-27T18:12:00.002+11:00

Airfix Battle of Britian

A sentimental journey of Spitfires and Hurricanes, Messerschmidts, Heinkels and Stukas...

Clankety-clank - it's a (Steam) Tank!

2009-11-30T19:59:00.007+11:00

A blast from my past - steam tanks inspired by the great Tremorden Rederring website. A heavy mobile casemate with three firing ports for her forward 12-pounder. She tows a Armstrong 40-pounder.
HMLS Oliphaunt wheezes forward, spear torpedo at the ready, a screen of sailors acting as skirmishers. Her semaphore ready to telegraph her next command.
SMDPW (His Majesty's Armoured Steam Wagon) Elfride; a light "raider" vehicle armed with little more than a single Gatling. Speedy at 12 kph.

UPDATE: Excellent TSaTF-based rules for steam inventions of all kinds - recommended.

Idle Googling

2009-11-17T16:17:00.013+11:00

I like this one...

This one's OK...

I think I like this one best, but I'm open to argument...

UPDATE: It gets worse... I've just discovered I own a 20-figure unit of Castaway Arts Sikh Infantry...

Colonial Potterings

2009-11-17T08:03:00.004+11:00

All the "Defence of Melbourne" work I've been doing recently (in conjunction to Bill's "General Pettygree" excellent adventure/blog/comic-strip) has left me feeling in a decidedly "colonial" frame of mind.

Thus inspired I've been at the Spencer Smith website, looking and daydreaming and lordy, lordy what do I see but some nice-looking Bengal Lancers:

Indian Officer parade position
Indian Sergeant parade position
Indian Trooper parade position
Indian Trooper turning in saddle
Indian Trooper lance slung
Indian Trooper charging

And some lads from the 24th:
Officer standing with drawn revolver
Bugler sounding call
Private kneeling reloading
Private kneeling firing
Private standing with rifle at the ready
Private standing firing
Private standing firing leaning forward
Private standing taking ammunition from pouch
Private standing fending off attack with rifle
Sergeant standing giving orders
Private falling wounded
Private lunging forward with bayonet

Samples ordered!

I've been following Bills' blog for a while and find it very enjoyable. I really like the larger units he's using. I'm more familiar with the Sword and the Flame rules, but I do admire what he's doing.

More anon when the samples have arrived.

What's he up to

2009-11-04T16:46:00.001+11:00

Well, it's been ages since I've posted here.

Not all is quiet on the home front, but most of my activity is going on here at the moment:

http://defence-of-melbourne.blogspot.com/2009/11/80-pounder-progress-shot.html

Best regards to all..!

Earthwork - Ravelin

2009-08-12T20:43:00.004+10:00

I couldn't be bothered painting any toy soldiers last week, so I built a Ravelin, telling myself I could use it with Fort Niagara eventually.

It's all polystyrene with balsa for the planking and matches for the uprights.

These projects look a real disaster until you get to the painting stage, I find. You know; a mess of raggedy, sanded-down* polystyrene covered with filler and sand; and then more sand because it looks like it's been clad in sand-paper. Then it's the stippling, the wet-on-wet work, the dry brushing, oops, gone too far, needs a wash of burnt sienna, oops too far in the other direction; another wash then one last dry-brrush and... does it look right, dear? You're the artist.

You should have done it in daylight.

Oh, yeah.

*Do the sanding outside if you value your health and relationship with your partner!

The Affair of the Partridges

2009-07-28T15:14:00.009+10:00

At the start of Turn 2, the French grenadier Company was due to arrive on table. It duly did so.

Iroquoise lurking in the background, adding nothing to the scenario save good looks. She's an old 1:100 brig that I built a few years back but never gort around to waterlining. I will use the off-cuts to represent a destroyed ship.

Roberts Rangers infiltrate the forested strip...

... while the light Company takes a more direct approach.

A roll of the dice ensured the Canadian militia entered the field at the start of Turn 2.

I was snap-happy enought to take another shot of them!

Will the French regulars be able to hold out? The light Infantry spent the whole of Turn 2 extending their Field Works so they's be able to accommodate both themselves and the Grenadiers when they arrived.

A general view. The French regulars are in the background, the British light Company in the fore. Rangers are in the woods at the right, whilst the French Militia are entering mid-table to the left.

The Simple Things

2009-07-26T09:29:00.007+10:00

After last weeks' post on getting Old School with my terrain, I decided to continue down the cork tile path. I bought another pack and broke half the tiles up into large, irregular chunks. Their reverse sides were painted green then stippled all over with yellow ochre tobrighten them up and to provide some visual interest.

The idea was to provide something like a river bank that could be used to disguise the sharp edge of the felt that I am using more and more in combination with our outdoor garden furniture. I like this table a lot because, left strategically uncovered, it provides a nice water effect. Gaming outside is lovely when the weather is right. Come the Summer, I may have to flip the tiles over, replace the felt with some brown paper and take out my Egyptiand and Mahadists!

Captain Chaberts' men defend a breastwork left over from last weeks' terraining activities!

A canoes-eye view through the Merit trees.

Chaberts' men strain in the misty coolth of the dawn for the first movement that may betray their enemies.

The view from the Iroquoise as she glides over the limpid waters.

A more general view that shows what is becoming - quickly - my new terraining philosophy; The Simple Things.

Field Works

2009-07-20T18:10:00.007+10:00

Erin, supervising.

I spent this weekend having a revelation and then (for once) acting upon it.

I realised that there is no way in the world I am going to do my dreamt-of very "high end" display-quality model of Fort Niagara.

No.

I simply will not have the time, materials or money to make that happen.

If that does not happen, then all the little toy soldiers I've been working on for the past year will have gone for nought and I'm a bit sick of that!

Having rid myself of that false conception was really quite liberating and I took myself to the hardware store and bought some cork tile and some lengths of 19mm quarter-round beading. Next stop was the art-supply shop for some cheap green and yellow acrylic paint.

Here's what I came up with:

An entrenched, redoubted camp, somewhere in the Germanies with fleches for advanced piquets.

The march of the siege; the first parallel with a protective pair of redoubts (doubtless manned by Grenadiers) at either end. A sap wends it's serpentine way relentlessly forward.

A fort in the wilderness, to the right is a lake, to the left a river...

The same fort, with the Gate of the Five Nations in the foreground. Some of you will recognise the ravelin and half-bastions from another project.

Babies and the Art of Military Modelling

2009-06-26T22:50:00.003+10:00

Well, life goes on. Me and Erin and an Airfix Gloster Gladiator.

The North Africa project. The Dorchester Armoured Command vehicle is scratch-built on an AEC Matador Chassis. It took me a week of half-hour spots here and there.

Another of the ACV with Matildas preparing to stand off hypothetical attackers. Next post will take us back to the Eighteenth Century.

And now for something completely different

2009-05-24T15:10:00.006+10:00

Just for a change of pace, I thought I'd get off some shots of my slowly-expanding North Africa collection that I've started work on again with a few small eBay purchases. I've had these Matildas for ages and have more in stock, which is lucky as they do not seem to be in production by airfix at the moment, although the Italeri ones seem fine to me.

I'm not really building any historical Order of Battle, just bits that take my fancy. I'm thinking these will go towards 7RTR, eventually which means I'll need at least a total of 7 if I am to fuill tout the Rapid Fire organisation.

These Vickers Lights were a very intelligent purchase on the part of Airfix of a mould that was developed by JB models some years ago. It's currently in production and a really nice little kit that builds very easily.

The faithful old Airfix Universal carrier. Such a useful kit, and it looks splendid in my rather inaccurate Caunter Camoflage. Oughtn't that blue be grey instead?

The Germans arrive. I have had these two Opel Blitzes forever; more than 15 years if you can believe that. A bit like the old Matchbox Pz 2 I have had floating around (and still intact) for donkeys' years.

Italian M13/40 by Italeri; another old m0del I've had for years. Like some others, it is now back in production after a fair old absence and I have taken advantage of the opportunity to stock up on them; terribly useful vehicles for equipping either side!

I picked up an old Gloster Gladiator kit from Airfix last week and was delighted thay had included transfers for "Faith", "Hope" and "Charity", Maltas' legendary defenders against the early Italian assault. Put them with a few Vickers and a pair of Matildas painted in the Malta "stone wall" pattern, and you could do all sorts of things with fallschirmjaeger...

Just a thought.

Of Partridges and Walnuts

2009-05-13T11:14:00.003+10:00

It was not long after Captain Joincare had arrived at his appointed place with his piquet that he found himself met by two partridge hunters, the brothers Gudenus.

The fusilieers were all of them taking their ease, variously smoking upon their clay pipes, or playing cards or at dice or at whatever took their fancy. One of them, called by himself "Jolicoeur", Joincare was pleased to remember, was talented with partridge, walnuts, the broad leaves of trees and the embers of a fire burned low.

For their part, the Brothers Gudenus (Daniel and Louis as they were named) were pleased to accept six sous for a brace. They had been shooting for the pot, but now had coin with which to purchase some lace for their sisters' wedding-dress.

Upon taking their leave of the Captain, Daniel and Louis made their way homeward by trails that they themselves (with the exception of the local Abenakis) only knew.

Imagine their surprize to espy when only two miles from where they had left Captain Joincare a party of Englishmen who were obviously designing some ill.

Daniel, being the elder, instructed his brother to run to the French and tell them what the English were about. He himself would run home and arouse their relations.

It ought to be mentioned at this point that the Gudenus and several of their neighbours were of course (as was widely known by people in the area) Acadians and, on account of the misfortunes suffered by those people, bore the English great ill-feeling and would not forebear to do them like injury in return.

Louis ran with all speed and informed Captain Joincare of the presence of the English soldiers, and thus raised in his mind a dilemma.

The knew the English were in the area in numbers greater than his own, but not how many. He could count on the support of Captain Chabert's Grenadiers, but they were some distance away and he was not sure when exactly they might arrive. In similar like, he was assured the assistance of an unknown number of militia at an unknown time.

His orders promised him support and implied that he must watch the road.

What to do?

In the Woods

2009-05-10T21:30:00.012+10:00

Gonna tek you under me wing boy. You looks to be greener than me sleeve. You'll need to keep yer eyes open to mek yer way here, boy, yessir you will.

Be lucky, you'll mebbe see Frenchies - they knows what they is doing in these woods, boy.

You'll be imaginatin' red men every-where before long. Mark me words, boy.

But sometimes, well, a whole durn war-party can sneak on by ye before you spots 'em. He-he-he! Thet happens an' your pretty scalp'll be decoratin' some long-haouse bye'n'bye.

Lissen to whut Cap'n Roberts tells ye. Watch him an' learn, boy. See how he gits on daoun thet Injun trail. Eh? eh?

Yer Cap'n de Lancey, he might be a-tellin' Roberts that his men would never stoop to skulking in the woods like savages or a Frencher. He'll be doin' it hisself before long.

But you lobsters are mekkin' a hash of things, boy. Ye're all spread out like which ez good, but ye've no order to ye.

Try et agin, like uz, laddie.

Et's not easy, goin' a-rangin', but mebbe th' bloodybacks'll mek good.

Marching Out

2009-05-08T12:28:00.006+10:00

The dawn is quiet, as the poet once wrote. Quiet but for the crack of cannon fire as Bombardier Jolicoeur screams obscenities at the cloth-headed soldats of the troupes de terre who are fumbling clumsily over his eight-pounders.

"Sponge out you thick sons of bitches! Out!" He slaps his palm against his forehead in dire frustration.

Load that Cartridge, Number two! No, not you - you're number Four. Number two! Yes, you!!! Now the wad, and the ball. You'll need another wad to hold it in... oh, start again! Get the worm!"

Meantime, the Languedoc Regiments' piquet company leaves the fort and enters the woods. Every man a picked man, quick nimble and active. They are the Regiments light infantry.

Jolicoeur is happier to scream at the gunnery trainees; better that than spend night after night in the woods with them.

What's this? the Grenadiers, too? What's going on? Must be some operation. Still, it's nothing to do with him.

"Run out!" ah, the mad music of the wheels on the boards of the platforms.

The whole regiment is on the move South, marching in Grand Divisions. Must be a big one.

"Fire, you sons of bitches!"

New York Provincials

2009-05-07T14:06:00.004+10:00

I realised that I've not yet posted any real pictures of my new New York Provincials. So here they are, a full Grand Division. I like them so much I may go on and do more as well as some of the blue-coated privincials from other colonies. The figures are very easy to paint indeed.

The figures are by RSM. The Officer is the Advancing Prussian, the Drummer is a British figure with a minor conversion to his head-wear whilst the rank (and the file) are from the AWI range, American Militia. I think I have said before that they seem to have been incorrectly catalogued, having been commissioned from Steve Hezzlewood to supplement the French and Indian war range as it then was by Hap Jordan's Battalionfeur Games. I take this information from the "Reviewing Stand" pages of The Courier Vol VIII, No. 5.

An intriguing mention is made that more figures were planned to fill gaps in current FIW ranges. Does anyone know whether this is so?

My conversion of the drummer - I've added a fur front to his cap. I have no evidence as to whether this is remotely accurate - I suspect not!

Marechal de Camp

2009-05-05T11:38:00.007+10:00

It's surprising what you can accomplish between feeds at odd hours of the night and day.

This figure is my first post-baby creation. He's the general officer from the RSM French range; I'm sure you all have examples of the figure in your collections.

I have painted him as a Marechal de Camp (or Brigadier) with the idea that he will be my French and Indian War "de Levis", surely one of the more attractive personalities among the French fighting for New France.

I have painted him in the standard version of the French general officers' uniform, straight out of the relevant Osprey.

I will do a command diorama eventually representing Montcalm and an ADC or two.

The new Dauphine of Alzheim

2009-05-01T22:45:00.003+10:00

Yes, sir, that's my baby. Erin Lucy. 20 minutes old and with a cone head.

My beer gut is to the left, tastefully adorned in the red, Violent Femmes t-shirt.

To quote them out of context:

And I waited my whole life for just one...

Day.

Good on you kids; Amy and Erin.