Painted Fortress Elements

Mirenburg's Bastioned Walls. (Baedecker, 1977)

Again, Colonel de Castel-Jaloux dominates the scene, but the view is somewhat refreshed by a nice prospect of the tower of the Kleine Kirche. This slender structure stands in interesting (and perhaps somewhat Phallic) counterpoint to the masculine bulk of the North and North-Eastern bastins that flank the Kings' gate and it's famous, leafy parapet walks.

Completed front of Fortification

This image shows a bastion, a length of curtain wall and a demi-bastion virtually complete but for the sealing of the exposed edges of the foamcore.

The need to be undercoated to stop the pale gray spray-on base-coat from dissolving the polystyrene sub-structure. I admit that I considered this as a means of producing a breached section!

I feel that this image gives something of the same impression of almost inhuman massiveness that the real thing may have had.

That is Carbon de Castel-Jaloux there, greeting one of his under-officers, Captain Bellerose.

More Fortress Pix

I hope this image shows the process which I have gone through to prepare this terrain item. From the middle of the picture we see the bare polystyrene of the gatehouse; in the centre-right is the wall with mock-ashlar masonry, heavy card platform and foamcore parapet; while on the far right is the fully clad wall and demi-bastion with the bricks made from manila folders put through a document shredder!

At the left of the picture is the Kliene Kirche, a HO railway accessory from "Kibri".

Click on this image (or any other of course) for a larger version.

DPC French Infantry

Representing the Bourbonnois reiment, this company (in the "Charge!" organisation) is made with DPC French infantry - marching pose.

New Purchases

Today I finally surrendered to temptation and bought a couple of books from Amazon.

They are "Prussia's Glory" (following a word of praise from Bill P.) and "Instrument of War", both by Prof. Christopher Duffy. The former is an analysis of Rossbach and Leuthen, the latter a masterly in-depth survey of the administration and organsation of the Royal and Imperial Austro-Hungarian Army.

I'm looking forward to these! To go with "Instrument of War" one day I'd love to get my hands on Lee Kennett's 1967 treatment of the French Army as an institution. I read -and photocopied large chunks of it - at university in the late eighties.

While I'm on the subject of books, would anyone care to recommend a fairly modern work on the war of the Austrian Succession? Always been very interested in the conflict, but works on the subject are a bit thin here in Australia.

On the toy soldier front, I'm hoping to take delivery in a few weeks of a bag each of advancing French infantry and charging chevaux-legere from DPC. The Infantry will go towards the Volontaires de St Victor I mentioned earlier along with a few in the stand-and-fire and kneel-and-fire poses to give the less formal look I imagine the light corps of this era had. The cavalry, well, let's say that I have been rather inspired by a certain large cavalry "brigade" that has just had an airing in the USA.

Jim P. reckons DPC are thinking of doing some additional command figures (I'd love some french Officers and NCOs with pole-arms) and in addition, they are finding the odd Steve Hezzlewood mould they never knew they had. One being a seige howitzer. To my eyes this is of course rather opportune.

The sooner these items make the catalogue the better!

It's been brought to my attention this blog is getting recommended as one of the places to go for pix of the DPC 7YW range. I'll have to a) get some better pix up - I recognise that my photography skills weren't worth much in the earlier parts of this Blog and b) hit on DPC for some freebies!

Blasthof layout - nearly complete

Wall detail

I think this shows the basic method I have used for detailing the basic slabs of polystyrene that make up the fortress; foamcore parapet, heavy card "roof" with a slight lip overhanging at the front. The card strips scored with a pen representing the heavy stonework and the thinner manila card chopped up with a shredder for the uniformity of effect making up the smaller "stones".

The mounted officer is that delightful raconteur Carbon de Castel-Jaloux.

I need more ravelins!

Low shot with my one ravelin repositioned to the right. I need more 30mm slabs of polystyrene!

The gatehouse looks more and more ordinary to me too. I might pull it to bits and start anew.

Fortress progress images

I hope these two images get across a general idea of how things are going. The two curtain walls are completed in all but the painting. The right-hand bastion is nearly there but for some card masonry. The left-hand one needs lots of masonry and part of the parapet to be done. The ravelin is done barring some card detail on it's rear face.

Given another week and all the fairly tedious detail work will be done.

The Kleine Kirche got painted when I couldn't take sticking little card rectangles down for another second one evening!

The gun is a "Willie" - the way cannon ought to be to my mind; big.

John Ray suggests using 25mm scale cannon with 30mm scale wheels. This is an idea I'd like to try out for looks.

I'm also starting to think it'd be cool to do little balsa gun platforms, and wooden paths on the insides of the parapets.

Blasthoff terrain bits

As I hope can be seen in this picture, I pretty well have all the terrain elements in place now that I need to do Blasthof with.

I really like this shade of green - it has quite a nicely artificial look to it that should go well with the rest of the terrain. That blurry little cottage in the background is by Dapol and needs it's paint-job completing.

I'll start work on the bridge this weekend and cut the path of the River Blast.

A Few More Thoughts on Fortresses

With the basic shapes already created and with the easy-to-work-with nature of the materials, one could get quite elaborate with your fortress.

Consider this: If you have two demi-bastions, a bastion and two curtain walls, you have the makings of a crown-work. Two bastions and a curtain on their own make an acceptable horn-work, as well. These structures served to enclose detached suburbs, or extend the work deep into the countryside if needed.

Another feature that catches my eye would be to build a 'cavalier' or elevated battery inside a bastion, although I think I might have to re-build my bastions on a rather roomier basis.

Dressing the Polystyrene

I'm at the slow bit now. I've clad the tops of all the polystyrene slabs with heavy card to give a nice flat surface to glue the parapets onto. I'm also going about cladding them in card "stone blocks". This is the really slow bit.

At the moment I'm working at the rate of getting one-and-a-bit slabs clad a day.

Pictures to follow soon.

More Fortress than you could shake a stick at.

The basic structure is now complete but for two more ravelins.

I'm starting to think about doing a glacis. I could do it with a 15-20mm slab of polystyrene, not too wide, carved at a shallow angle. Where the pieces would meet could be done by 'eye' I think. Line the inside with bamboo skewers to make the palisade and that'd be about it.

Fortress

This represents about two hours' work with stencils, white glue and hot wire cutter.

To round the basics out, I want to do another wall and another with a gateway. Additionally, I'll also do another two half-bastions to butt up against the table edges. Then I'll probably need two more ravelins.

For fun I'll do another wall, a ravelin and a bastion that have been breached.

Then there's the bridge I'll have to do to link one of the ravelins to the gate.

They'll all need parapets. I'll probably cut them from foam-core card as simple vertical parapets. The real things were very thick, with gun-ports cut in them, but in this scale I don't think it will matter too much. Besides, foam-core is a little too inarticulate a material to take that kind of detail, sadly.

Note the tree on one of the bastions. They used to grow them there so the roots would bind the earthern fabric of the bastion more closely together. Furthermore, the wood would furnish both fuel and the materials from which gun carriages could be manufactured.

Bastion

I bought a hot wire cutter today and used it to trim up some of my polystyrene hills for Blasthof. It was a novel experience, and one I haven't had since primary school.

Having been pondering fortress construction for a good few years I was amazed to turn out an entire bastion in about 30 minutes with the aid of a couple of templates.

I'll do another tomorrow and a ravelin as well.

My hot wire cutter is my best new friend.

Terrain for Blasthof

Here's a few early thoughts on terrain for the battle of Blasthof Heath.

The ground and the river will be green paper and blue cellophane held down with double-sided sticky-tape.

The plough will be corrugated cardboard covered patchily with sand and PVA and painted brown.

Blasthof Farm will be a Dapol thatched cotage I own.

The Blasthof Berg will simply be two pieces of polystyrence cut with a hot wire cutter an painted the same shade of green as the paper.

The bridge will probably be foamcore and card, painted to simulate stone.

For trees I have a few Merit items. From the same purchase I also have a few fence-lengths and a couple of hedges that will mark the edges of the plough and the farm-yard.

I'll mark the fordable area of the river with brown paper to represent the muddy bank.

Some Organisational notes for Blasthof.

My "standard" regiments consist of 43 figures.

There are four eight-figure "fusilier" companies, and one eight-figure "grenadier" company. There are two ensigns and a mounted colonel.

What's the problem? I hear you cry.

Each company is either six or seven privates with either an officer/NCO or an officer/NCO and a drummer to round the company out to eight figures.

All of my grenadier companies are manned by grenadiers in their distinctive headware.

Even for the 32 figure unit, I am going to pull up short by a half-dozen figures when it comes to organising them*. Time to get painting again!

I'm sure I have some RSM 95 castings floating about somewhere.

*Fortunately they are singly-based, so re-arranging my units won't cause any major headaches.

Blasthof Heath

CHARGE! - The Basic Rules

For those of us who may not have the book:

The Move consists of five phases:

1. Movement

	Normal	Hills	Woods	Marshes	Obstacles
Cavalry	12	6	6	Na	6
Infantry	6	3	3	3	3
Artillery	6	3	Na	Na	3

• N.B. All carriages, pontoons &c move at infantry speed.
• Woods: Guns cannot pass through woods; cavalry can only move through them in single file; infantry can only move at half speed.
• Marshes: These are impassable to cavalry and guns. May be impassable to infantry or passable at half speed only.

.

2. Firing
1. Artillery

i. The gun must be manned by at least 4 soldiers. The target must be visible from the gun and not more than 45° left or right of the direction in which the gun is pointing. The path of the shell or round-shot must not be closer than one inch to any other troops of the same army.

ii. If these conditions are met, measure range to target, then throw dice:

Range to Target&Dice Score to Hit

3’ ****************** 6

2’6” **************** 5

2’ ****************** 4

1’6” **************** 3

1’ ****************** 2

6” ****************** Automatic Hit

iii. If the target is hit, throw dice to decide the ‘standard’ number of casualties. If the range is more than nine inches, the number on the dice is halved to give the standard number; if nine inches or less, the number on the dice is the standard number.

2. Infantry fire

i. Target must be visible to firer, not more than 45° to right or left, and lines of fire must not pass closer than one inch to own side.

ii. Long range (3” to 6”) - throw one dice per 8 infantrymen capable of firing. The number on each dice is halved for the standard number of casualties.

iii. Short range (0 to 3”) - throw one dice per eight infantrymen as above, but the number on each dice is the standard number of casualties.

iv. A dice can be thrown for not less than 4 infantrymen. The number on the dice is then halved, and should be halved again if the fire is at long range.

v. Infantry receiving fire can count their casualties when returning that particular fire, casualties must then be immediately removed.

3. Casualties
1. A fraction of a casualty is disregarded if it is less than half. If the fraction is half or more it counts as a casualty. All firing must be completed and all fractions added together before casualties for fractions can be claimed.
2. Rates: Infantry in the open suffer standard number of casualties. Gunners and cavalry half the standard number.
3. Cover: Number of casualties for troops behind cover is halved.
4. Allocation: Men within range of firing should be decided, and the obvious men made casualties. If there is doubt or disagreement, throw a dice and take appropriate men, counting right hand man as No. 1; If a three is thrown on dice take every third man, until the correct number of casualties has been removed.

i. If a gun crew is the target, a 6 on the dice destroys the gun. Otherwise the man behind the gun is No. 1 and you continue counting clockwise until all casualties have been removed. Guns can only be destroyed by fire from an opposing gun.

ii. Infantry or gunners returning fire next turn can count their casualties as effective for purposes of returning fire only. Such casualties must then be immediately removed.

4. Melees
1. These take two turns. First the attacker moves his troops into contact with those of the defender. Next turn the defender can fire (if he is able to). Then after casualties from the firing have been removed the melee is treated as a series of individual hand-to-hand combats. Opponents throw dice against each other and the one throwing the higher number by more than one ‘pip’ wins, the loser removing his soldier from the board. If the combat is two against one or a cavalryman against an infantryman, the player with the two men or the cavalryman doubles the value of his throw. Odds cannot be greater than two-to-one. If neither side wins the throw, both soldiers survive. If a cavalryman and an infantryman fight a single cavalryman, the player with the cavalryman and an infantryman adds a quarter to the number he throws. If the cavalryman and the infantryman are defeated the cavalryman is removed but the infantryman survives.
2. After each combat the survivor(s) move back 3” if infantry or 6” if cavalry.

5. Morale

If more than half the original number of soldiers in an army have been removed from the board as casualties, that army has been defeated and can fight no more.

Hints...

The Red force has:
A General with an ADC;
12 Dragoons;
An Officer of Dragoons
40 Infantry;
Three Officers of Infantry;
2 Guns;
10 Gunners and;
An Officer of Artillery.

Mystery Map...

Brownie Points to anyone who can guess which battle was once fought out over this map.

HE Miniatures

I just ordered about 10 sample Holger Ericsson cavalry from Peter Johnstone of Spencer Smith miniatures in the UK.

www.spencersmithminiatures.co.uk/

I'm really looking forward to these - especially after I saw Phil Olleys splendid 30-man "Chevaliers de Rouen":

www.warcabinet.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Chevaliers_de_Rouen_1.jpg

I am inspired to do some of these HUGE cavalry units. I may have to re-read "Charge!" again.

Battlegames Magazine

The first issue comes out on 14 March. With names like Charles S Grant, Don Featherstone, Stuart Asquith, Bill Protz, James Purky and Mike Siggins himself writing for Battlegames quality is bound to be high.

Go to the Battlegames site and get yourself a subscription.

www.battlegames.co.uk

A Little Light on the Dark Ages of the Duchy

Some time ago (either in the Hyborean Age or somewhere around AD500) the Duchy of Alzheim entered a Dark Age. ..

In those days there were oceans of light and cities in the skies and wild flying beasts of bronze. There were herds of crimson cattle that roared and were taller than castles. There were shrill, viridian things that haunted bleak rivers.

It was a rich time and a dark time. *

It was a time when hard-riding men drove their steeds over the grassy plateaux of the Marches of Alzheim and strove to defend it's borders and towering fortresses. These were evil days when the Riders of Alzheim contemplated their own overthrow at the hands of an implacable hate.

This was a time when strange beings stirred in the darkest and most ancient of the forests. A time when a nameless evil walked the land by night and summonned all manner of foulness from the lowlands.

Tapestries and illustrated manuscripts to follow...

*A time for profound apologies to Mr Moorcock.

New recruits

This way to the car-park, lads.

Batch painting Saxons... again

Alright... maybe tomorrow (walks off muttering...)

Batch Painting Saxons

I'll be batch painting four Saxon Infantry tonight - Pictures to follow this evening. I'll let you know how I go...

Too Many Officers?

On the Old School Yahoo Group last week there was a discussion of an Old School Author's rules and their seeming over-indulgence in the officer class. This got me thinking.

What on earth would you do with all these fellows?

Here's what I came up with:

* a unit with less than a certain number of officers and NCOs is
obviously unable to adequately supervise the men. Should the Regiment
fall below this figure then it will lose men (deserted, sexually
harassing a barmaid, skiving off for a fag &c) equal to the number of
missing officers per move.

* the gilded staff. Every brigade needs a Brigadier and a couple of
ADCs or messengers. Every Brigadier needs a General to report to. The
general needs a staff and ADCs/messengers. The General needs a
squadron of fancifully-dressed cavalry as a bodyguard. Use the
messengers and ADCs to transmit orders from the general. Units
without fresh orders must conform to the last instruction they were
given...

Failing that, give them to me. I can make a home for them.

A Couple of New Recruits

The pikeman (left foreground) still needs his pike of course.

The mould that produced the Gunner in the green coat was an absolute bugger to cast. I think I had to try about something like eight times, and vent the mould in about four places to get it starting to work satisfactorily! Anyone got any hints or tips they'd like to share?

I think he looks nice now, though...

Can anyone tell me when the Saxon Army abandoned the pike in favour of the bayonet?

A Bit of Fun

I have to say that I've been finding painting up my Prince August semi-round miniatures a lot of fun.

Just the fact that I can go and cast up another few whenever I want is liberating in a way that I never really thought of before. I'm a lot braver in how I paint them - I always was wary of painting the larger-scale miniature. I thought my painting technique might not be up to it, and I could never bring myself to ruin an expensive miniature. With these I feel as though if I want another all I have to do is melt doewn some tyre weights, sinkers and GW miniatures and I can bang out another few of what I want! It's a good feeling. It's hard on the poor old tyre weights, though.

You may have noticed that I am painting them up in uniforms more-or-less modelled on those of the Saxon Army up until about 1739. I found a German-language book on the army of August the Strong that I bought a few years ago and which covers everything I think I could need to paint up a few regiments and some gunners. I feel the Prince August moulds are better off depicting armies from the earlier part of the 18th Century (especially the HE ones) and so therefore the red-coated Saxons.

More DoA Troops c.1720-30

Infanterieregiment du Cailer, Offizier und Mann.

OK, I'd thought of calling them Garnisons-Regiment Mauerscheisser, but that'd just be unpleasant.

Light infantry

British (erm, "Englandian") Light Infantry from the French and Indian War... Just waiting for the right project to employ them...

RSM Light Dragoons

I read about the Battle of Emsdorf in my Blandford on the Seven Years War. I thought wow! this would make a nice little self-contained project. This is as far as it got...

The Grand Illusion

Rather a lantern-jaw, I'm sure you'd agree.

"Historical" Miniature

I was inspired recently to get my hands on some of the Prince August moulds by the work of Steve Cady, fellow member of the OSW group and a masterful painter. Just today I finally have plucked up the courage to paint my first ever semi-round miniature.

I decided he would be from the Duchy of Alzheim in the 1720s or 30s, a relatively little-known period of the Duchys' past when her soldiers were still wearing the Red coat they abandoned in 1740 for the White. This change probably reflected the internal politics of the State at this time and the predominance of the "French" party over that of the "Saxon" at court.

The bold young infantry officer depicted here (from information taken from the portrait showing him at the time of the War of the Poltroonian Succession) is the Graf von Eisenessen* perhaps better known later as the Marquis de Soubre-Whelm from the title awarded him by a young Louis XV for his actions at the breach at the Seige of Protzhydenlohe. As close students of Alzenheimer history will be aware this was the one major action the men of Alzheim took part in, and this was trying enough to wear the heart out of the army. It is said that the Officers' mess bills for Champagne were enough that they took only a minor part in the better known War of the Austrian Succession.

*Not a relation of Trinksblut und Eisenessen as related by Colonel Grant (99th) in his "What a Game We Make of War" - London 1767.

New Link

Take a quick voyage over to the Seas of Fate - a page I'm putting together to hold my fantasy-related materials.

New link - Colonial Capers

Take a look at the "Colonial Capers" link in the links section on the right of this page. It's a shortcut to my Colonial wargames blog. Just starting up, but there are a good few posts (mostly pretty pictures for now, but there is a battle-report) worth taking a look at (I hope!) - see you there!

Upcoming battle report.

Things are quiet here. Too quiet...

Is that a rustling in the woods over there?

Perhaps...

I think we might send the light infantry to take a look.

This weekend coming, I will do a small battle between the light infantry forces of Englandia and the GSH Duchy of Soubre-Whelm. I think some nice pictures will be in order.

Who wants to suggest a scenario? I'm thinking about 20 figures to a side - perhaps 15 Infantry and 4 or 5 Cavalry. Objectives? A missing Vivandiere? A misplaced barel of spirits? Rival groups of foragers?

Let me know.

Another little project?

Maybe. I've just won a small lot of "Merit" model railway accessories on eBay, including a nice little collection of trees.

I note that they are the same trees that Mr CS Grant used in his wargaming setup.

Perhaps I could start doing some "lift-off" balsa buildings?

For Alte Fritz 1740!

Just to show you the Gardes Francaises are not wholly asleep and continue slowly to be added to!

I've some few Surens I'm wanting to use up, and what better regiment of foot to use them up on - the rank and file are RSM while the officers and NCOs will be these fine felows. One of my earliest posts shows another couple of officers whose coats need re-painting in this chap's manner.

Turpin Hussards en Masse

The Turpin Hussars are now getting along nicely - at half strength now, and slowly increasing.

Hussard des Volontaires de St Victor

Just a little test figure for the first of a French (err, the Grand High Supreme Duchy of Soubre-Whelm) Light Corps to counter that of the shifty von Kleist. Looks like he's crossing a frozen lake (un lac glacee? Probably not..!). Now that's a piece of useful wargames terrain!

Quelle un deus ex machina!

A few thoughts on building Hussar Regiments and Light Corps

I'm cleaning up the first few castings of the box of RSM Hussars I received from DPC in the US the other day. They are really nice. The castings are very clean, very crisp, almost flash free and with only a few points on them from casting vent channels.

Their designer, the late Steve Hezzlewood was a giant among sculptors and I wish that other manufactuers would take many leaves from his book. Preferably, they might just take the whole book!

These are the Prussian Hussars in the Mirliton with an additional Austrian one in the fur Busby/Colpak to serve as an officer (according to my references the Turpin Hussars' Officers were so attired). I've a Line Trumpeter in tricorne and the coat with the hanging sleeves as the musician - his uniform is reasonably accurate as to my sources. I've no idea what their standarf-bearers wore and as RSM never did a standard-bearer for the Hussars, I'll be using a Line Cavalry trooper with a flagstaff in place of his sword. I wouldn't do this to one of the Hussar troopers as the conversion would require major surgery.

Having ordered, I've found myself with a figure or three over from my new cavalry establishment (two officers, a guidon, a musician and two squadrons of eight troopers) of twenty figures.

This led me to start flipping through my Ospreys for inspiration.

I discovered a light corps called the "Volontaires de Saint-Victor" with a charming Hussar uniform of red laced white with a buff pelisse and shabraque. As we know, many of the light corps raised by France were composite units incorporating infantry, cavalry, and, in some cases, artillery!

The "Volontaires de Saint-Victor" were no different in this respect, incorporating eight companies of hussars, eight of fusiliers and one of grenadiers. The infantry wore a blue coat and collar lined and turned up in red with white small-clothes, buttons and hat lace.

I thought it might be worth raising a couple of companies of hussars and a couple more of fusiliers. I do wonder though at their role on the tabletop, though. I mean I can see that you might use the infantry as skirmishers, but the cavalry?

I suppose I could brigade them with the Turpin Hussars. If nothing else, I suppose I could use them in a small skirmish battle of foragers versus foragers, or in a scenario involving scouting forces. I guess I see their role as being more operational rather than tactical and am having trouble getting my head around their tactical role.

Duchy of Alzheim indeed! Choices to make.

I forgot that I made an order with DPC for some more RSM miniatures before Christmas.

I got the reminder today when they arrived in the mail.

Now I've enough Hussars to finish off the much-delayed Turpin Regiment!

Huzzah!

Now I just have to decide how far the Wurttembourg Regiment gets bumped in the schedule.

Alte Fritz wants me to get on with the Gardes Francaises, too.

Peacock exposed!

Brigadier the Marquis Creosote Force-Majeur reviews some rather drab grenadiers who fade into the background in the glare of his splendour.

The Duchy of Alzheim: Temptation

The Duchy of Alzheim: Temptation

Temptation

Temptation is a dreadful thing.

A new OSW member has posted the following link to his featured work on the Prince August web site.

http://www.princeaugust.ie/steve_cady/index.html

I still own some of the 24mm Napoleonic moulds I got one Christmas as a child.

I am starting to dream of a 40mm "big battalion" project to work with some rules I've rediscovered.

Most of the moulds are about 10 euro each. They are good for HUNDREDS of uses.

Someone help me, please.

Quaint note

The instructions for that Historex Kit reference the Funckens' "Guerres en Dentelles" as a uniform guide.

And now for something a little different.

Just recently I was fortunate to acquire a superb Historex kit of a French Infantryman of the 1750s. Something of a departure from their more usual Napoleonic fare, the painting instructions are bu Eugene Leliepvre and worth the asking price on their own! They are simply gorgeous and I'm sure they will wind up framed on my "war room" wall.

Take a look at that. Eye candy or what?

A win, I think. I hope!

Abe Books. We all know and love Abe Books. That's where we get our pricey old Blandfords and Pengel and Hurts and copies of Charge!

Some months ago, I found a copy of Charles Grant's "The War Game" going there at the right price and put in my order.

Sadly, unbenownst to me and the poor vendor, an Abe-glitch truncated my address and to him it looked like a PO Box.

Good news, however; the dead letter office did a "return to sender" and my nice vendor is going to try again with the correct address!

Wish me luck.

Battlegames Award for Excellence

I am very pleased and proud to announce that this blog has been awarded the Battlegames Award for Excellence. My thanks go to Henry Hyde of Battlegames. Please take a moment to visit his excellent website - see the links section to get there.

1000 Hits on this Blog

Wow - and thanks to everyone who has come to see what's ticking away here at the Duchy! Happy 2006 to us all!

The Grand Armee

Regiment Bearn

IR 13 - the 'Donner und Blitzen" Boys

von Kleist Horse Grenadiers

The Bourbonnois Regiment

Pictures by request...

The La Reine Cavalry Regiment, First Squadron

New Unit Completed

Regiment Bourbonnois has been completed.

That takes me up to four French infantry regiments.

I'm also grinding slowly away at the Gardes Francaises a couple of figures at a go. For fun I'm going to paint up one of their drummers in the Grand Livery lace. I've also done a minor conversion on the French "NCO" with his hat off available from RSM to turn him into the obligatory "bowing officer of the Gardes Francaises inviting the British to fire first" pose...

Slackness admitted!

I have been slack. It's been ages since I've posted. Mea culpa.

It's Christmas. Real life has been inserting it's boring self and getting in the way of my proper business!

I have finally just finished of Regiment Bourbonnois, and really feel that I have a decent-sized force at last. It's gotten me ready to do Cavalry Reg't Wurttembourg.

My last report has convinced me to go with larger cavalry regiments, so I will be building to 16-18 figure regiments of horse from now on - as well as going back over those I have and beefing them up. Following Wurttembourg, I think I will be adding another Squadron to my Turpin Hussars. This will give me a respectable three regiments of Horse to go with my four of Foot.

I think then it will be time for me to paint some gunners.

The Second Battle of Alzheim

The Fight at the Mill

General-Oberst Schlitz von Apfel-Strudel was a satisfied man. He rode his beautiful gelding, Gerald at the head of the finest Regiment in the Anhalt-Bootcamp service. Behind them marched a disconsolate battalion of impressed wretches from Saxony while, marauding all around, were the mischievous lads of the von Kleist Freikorps. How Major v. Kleist had managed to persuade the pestiferous pandours to turn their coats once again was beyond him. Ha! Bah! It mattered only that they again supported the cause of his dear Anhalt-Bootcamp.

And there went the dragoons, a fine and manly sight to stir the heart of any warrior with their brave pink facings. Heroes all!

He halted this bold force to let the officers have the men take a bite to eat, settle the men down and dress the ranks.

Then a harassed dragoon rode back to him. "Herr General! The Soubre-Whelmers have been re-enforced! It looks to us like they have skirmishers on the hill and a regiment each in the village and then one joining it to the hill."

"Have they Cavalry?"

"Sir, a large body forms beyond the town as we speak"

"Right then boy. Tell your Colonel to take his dragoons against their cavalry. These Saxon lads can go against the village or I'll have their guts for garters! Von Kleist? Where are you?"

With shifty side-glances von Kleist appears, stuffing something into his coat pocket. "Sir?"

"Get your men onto that hill. I want them popping away at the flank of THAT regiment THERE. My Lads, the Donner and Blitzen boys will go straight down the middle and send those Soubre-Whelmers running home to their mummies."

Report of Brigadier Creosote Force-Majeur
Your Majesty, it is my honour to report the course of the engagement between your forces and those of Anhalt-Bootcamp.

As your Majesty was gracious enough to favour me with re-enforcements I made the following dispositions:
Your cavalry regiment "La Reine" I enjoined to take a position outside of the town or Merlot. I emplaced your Majesties' Regiment Bearn within the town itself while your Majesties' other Regiment Royal Lorraine I used to maintain communications between the rear boundary of the town and the eminence of Mont Haut. I took the very great liberty of detaching the grenadier company of Regiment Bearn and begging that they go to the height and so inconvenience any light forces the enemy may have hoped to have mount up and perform mischiefs upon our own troops.

The enemy was bold in his onset. He advanced his entire force in out direction. I contented myself with advancing your majesties Regiment of cavalry toward the Anhalt-Bootcamp dragoons and reinforcing the Grenadiers on Mont Haut with the Grenadier Company of Royal Lorraine as a result of espying the very great number of green-coats the enemy was sending in their direction. Your Majesties' cannon emplaced in the village of Merlot caused the Saxons advancing thereupon a small amount of disruption.

The enemy continued his advance. The weight of skirmishing fir from our men did little damage to the enemy, while they took some damage themselves. Again your guns discommoded the Saxons while regiment Royal Lorraine was itself slightly discomfited by enemy cannon fire at long range. Your Cavalry charged the enemy cavalry who declined to counter-charge. Could it be they had not the mettle for the fight? Sadly, no. They stood their ground, but the issue was inconclusive with both bodies of horse falling back to recover their order.

All the while the Green-coated devils had continued to work their way closer to your Majesties' skirmishers, their steady fire not seeming to discomfit the enemy at all, while equally sadly, they were becoming visibly less ordered.

The Saxons had come close enough to complicate matters for our gunners who switched to cannister, caused them substantial casualties and forced them to rout! This happy event prompted your Majesties Cavalry to spring against at their foes. To their credit they were not unwilling to join the fight. The whole of the battle hung on this moment, but your Majesties forces prevailed and the enemy's forces routed. While the Saxons rallied some distance to the rear, the Dragoons kept on and on. Their standards will decorate your Cathedral on the morrow.

The battle now was all but won. While the von Kleist men did drive our skirmishers in, this was of no consequence. They had shot their bolt.

The last force open to the enemy advanced past the outskirts of Merlot towards the Royal Lorrainers whereupon they took two galling volleys - one from the Regiment Bearn in the village and one from Royal Lorraine - and then a charge from the Lorrainers which tumbled them all into ruinous flight. The day was finished by the Artillery who again broke the Saxons at long range, causing them to precipitately flee the field.

The von Kleist Croats were last seen covering the enemy's retreat.

Your Majesty, my cup runs over! Victory is yours!

Y'r Servant

Creosote
Brigadier in His Majesties Service

The forces that met that misty morning were these:

Anhalt-Bootcamp
C.O. General-Oberst Schlitz von Apfel-Strudel (Already thinking of writing a monograph on "War like the Lightning")
Infantry Regiment 13 "Itzenplitz" (30 Figs and also known as the Donner und Blitzen Boys)
Saxon Regiment (24 saddened infantry)
Von Kleist Croats (24 Figs) - Major von Kleist
Dragoon Regiment 3 (18 Figs)
Nr 1 Section, "A" Battery the Princely Artillery. (1 Gun)

High Grand Supreme Duchy of Soubre-Whelm
C.O. Brigadier Creosote Force-Majeur (Given another go at the behest of one of the Dukes' mistresses - "Lavailable")
Infantry Regiment "Languedoc" (30 Figs)
Infantry Regiment "Royal Lorraine" (30 Figs)
Cavalry Regiment "La Reine" (18 Figs and beautifully mounted, too)
1er Section, "A" Batterie, His Lordship (bless him) the Dukes' Own Artillery. (1 Gun)

Mont Haut counts as difficult terrain for the purpose of this battle with a 50% penalty on formed troops. Open order troops may move as normal. It is impassable to cavalry and artillery. The mill will hold one company of six figures. The town will hold six figures in each of its four buildings and an additional one in the town square.

Order of Battle

Yesterday's piece got me thinking... this Lace Wars project of mine has been going on in one form or another for the best part of 15 years, I would suppose. It has really only started to yield fruit in a substantial way these past 18 months since I became involved with the OSW Yahoo Group - check out the link on this blog.

From just the odd scrap here and there with a vague French and Indian War feeling my armies have grown to encompass the following:

France

Infantry

• Regiment Royal Lorraine
• Regiment Bearn
• Regiment Languedoc

Cavalry

• Regiment La Reine
• Turpin Hussards (1 Sqn only...)

Prussia

Infantry

• Infantry Regiment 13
• von Kleist Infantry

Cavalry

• Dragoon Regiment 3
• von Kleist Dragoons (1 Sqn only...)

Artillery

• von Kleist Artillery (1 Battery only..!)

That's about 200 figures in round numbers and does not count any of the samples I've painted up (like those Highlanders or the Gardes Suisses) or units I've begun and have to get on with (Gardes Francaises, Regiment Bourbonnois, Cavalry Regiment Wurttemburg) or have set aside temporarily (Saxon Leibgrenadier Garde, Kurprinzessin Regiment and von Bruhl's Regiment, as well as the men of the Compagnies Franches de la Marine) or even those I have bought figures for but not even started to think about painting - like my two batteries of French artillery or those two regiments of Austrians who are pegged as Bavarians for some time next year!

I suppose the upshot of all this is a vote of theanks to the guys over at the OSW group without whom I'd never have had the impetus to "think big". Cheers, chaps.

What's on the Boil

Working at something like half steam on a couple of regiments - Bourbonnois and the Gardes Francaises. I'm into the second companies of both and will let myself do some musicians and officers to relax afterwards.

At the same time I'm plugging away at the HMS Catamite, Royal Navy Brig just for something a little different. This is an old (1967?) Pyro kit of an "American Brig of War" that I put up on eBay recently but got no interest in. So, with a shrug of my shoulders I thought I'd waterline it, stick it to a card base and then use it as some back-ground eye-candy scenery. Looking at her guns, I'd say she scales out at about 1:120 or thereabouts - totally wrong for my 28mm RSMs, but I'm not too bothered. Slight problem though - Now the hull is assembled and painted, I can't bear to waterline the kit! In the interests of concious artificiality, she may have to sail the seas on her stand.

Next I'll do some more Highlanders and then the bold cavalry regiment Wurttembourg in their bearskins from some minis I bought a little while back from BP. Lovely stuff, and I'm sure they'll look nice next to their comrades in Regiment La Reine. Maybe some artillery next.

This weekend I'll be playtesting some rulesets written by the chaps at the OSW Yahoo Group, so expect some more chapters in the travails of the Duchy of Alzheim.

Wee Highland Laddies Part 2

You ought to be able to click on this image to get a larger version...

Wee Highland Laddies

In the past couple of weeks I have taken delivery of a second-hand, ex-library copy of Charles Grants "The Battle of Fontenoy". Thank-you Bookfinder.com.

I also have to admit to a slow and growing bias toward structuring my Armies after those that fought this battle.

These factors, along with my own long-standing interest in the French and Indian War has led me to believe that a unit or two of Highlanders are absolutely indispensible to my collection.

I have plucked up the courage to start painting some Highlanders.

Courage? I hear you ask. Why yes, I reply. Highlanders are famously intimidating for more than just their reckless charges with the Claymore.

It's the tartan.

How do you paint it? It's so complicated! I know, I've tried.

My first experiment was with the Royal Stuart Sett (this is a technical term that means "pattern" as far as I am concerned) that looked like someone had been ill on a pizza. Yuk.

My references have pointed me at two regiments for the periods/theatres I'm interested in. My Blanford "Uniforms of the Seven Years War" has men of the 42nd and 78th regiments, both in a dark green tartan with black or very dark green overstriping. Figure 133 is a grenadier in a fur cap that would have not been out of place in the AWI. His sett has a red "overstripe" (ie, a thin, sparse, red stripe over the larger pattern of the sett) in addition to the basic "Government" tartan. Apparrently this was an additional mark of his status as a grenadier. Alan Saphersons' "A Basic Guide to Armies and Uniforms of the Seven Years War" is in complete agreement. My Osprey MAA-285 "King George's Army 1740-93: (1) Infantry" offers on plate A3 an alternative in the form of the short-lived 64th Highlanders who should have had the same sett as the 78th or 42nd, but may also have had a red tartan of the kind you might see on a tin of short-bread. Maa 48, "Wolfe's Army" likewise ascribes the red sett to the 78th, but this is conjectural according to the notes on the plate.

Based on all this I am most definitely doing the 42nd Regiment in their green sett and buff facings. I am also thinking very hard about doing the 78th who could double up as the 64th at Culloden - both seem to have had white facings. Whether I do them in the green or red sett is another thing. I like the red sett as a point of difference from most other Highland units, but feel that the darker tartan stands ou better against the red doublets.

So, on to painting the Tartan.

I prime my figures white and then paint all the flesh areas in their base colour and follow that with a thin was of sepia ink. This includes the knobbly knees.

I give the kilt and plaid a thinnish coating of a nice mid-green. In my case this is Vallejo "Goblin Green". Because it is slightly thinned down, it shades and highlights itself enough without being heavy handed. I then over-paint a grid of dark stripes with a mix of 50:50 black and green with no more than three horizontal stripes and a vertical every 2-3mm.

When dry I mix up a lightish blue (whatever looks good to you) and paint a little square wherever the dark lines intersect on a flat or raised part of the kilt or plaid. Likewise, I mix a 50:50 white and green and apply it to the raised or flat parts of the kilt/plaid - this is also a good opportunity to do a little cutting in on the grid lines - these are never steady or even and can always do with some tidying up.

The hose are very simple. Starting with the white undercoat, paint 4-5 clockwise spirals down the leg, eack reaching abour half the circumference of the limb. Do this first clockwise then anti-clockwise. Paint a circle of red around the top of the hose, a black shoe at the bottom, then cut in with white where coffee has caused your brush to err!

I'll post a pic in a day or so to demonstrate all this palaver.

As for the red sett, give me time to nut it out. I suppse the key here is to give the impression of Tartan while not driving oneself insane.

What I did on my Holiday...

I have been on leave from work this week. My reason for this was to get my back yard finished off.

I also managed to get some painting in. Cavalry Regiment "La Reine" now graces my table, much to my delight. My French army is starting to get a bit decent - three regiments of infantry, a regiment of cavalry and a battery of Artillery (not counting the squadron of Turpin Hussars and a half-regiment of the Compagnies Franches de la Marine...).

I also painted up a company of French infantry as a test for doing the all-white Bourbonnois regiment. I think they look pretty nice, so on I go.

Does anyone know whether the Bourbonnois Regiment's Grenadiers wore bearskins by the later part of the Seven Years' War?

Some thoughts on Cavalry in Melees

These are a first draft on how I think Cavalry melees might run and were prompted by a discussion running on the OSW Yahoo Group:

Against Cavalry:
* Side 'A' - Declares Charge
* Side 'B' - Tests morale to see if they will either flee (1,2 on a d6?), standto receive the charge (3, 4, 5 on a d6) or counter-charge (6 on a d6).
* Side 'A' - Charges home then both sides melee.

The melee itself is difficult.

Should Side 'B' be fleeing, I think Side 'A' should be allowed to overrun into them on the same move and then melee at a very great advantage.

Should Side 'B' stand to receive the charge, I think they should perhaps melee on even terms just because I can't imagine Side 'A' smashing headlong into them and I do feel they would come to a halt in the face of this steely resolve.

In the case of Sides 'A' and 'B' both charging hell-for-leather at each other,I'd throw a d6 for each figure, perhaps removing a casualty on a '6' to represent collisions. I'd also have them "pass through" each other to the maximum extent of their charge moves. As the figures interpenetrate, I'd like to come up with a means of representing them taking a wild cut at each other.Wounds might result, but 'kills' would be rare.

I'd want to make this last case (hell-for leather mutual charging) the least likely outcome, with perhaps the second case being the most likely, followed bythe first in order of probability.

Against Infantry:
* Side 'A' - Declares Charge
* Side 'B' - Tests morale to see if they will either flee (1 on a d6?), stand toreceive the charge (2, 3, 4, 5 on a d6) or counter-charge (6 on a d6).
* Side 'A' - Charges home

In the case of the Infantry standing to receive the charge, I think there will be no melee, just a bunch of cavalry standing in front of the Infantry engaging in a musketry duel, at terrible disadvantage. If the Infantry run away, or aredisordered or are skirmishers in open order, the cavalry should be allowed tocontact them where they will melee against them at very great advantage.

I think the Infantry should be allowed a volley as the cavalry close, however.This however makes me wonder if the Cavalry might not have to test morale to close to hand-to-hand combat.

In the case of the infantry choosing to counter charge, well, my mind boggles abit here because I can't recall any historical examples, so I'm tempted to discount the option altogether. I'd be tempted to fold that possibility in withstanding to receive the charge.

The trick with all this is to see how it might fit into a "Move, Fire, Melee,Morale" turn framework, of course. It's at times like this I start thumbing through my copy of the Sword and the Flame for ideas to emulate!

Painting Horses

I painted 17 horses over the weekend. Here's how:

1. Clean up the castings
2. Prime white. Cheap spray-paint works for me. It MUST be matt to give your nice paints something to grab onto. Nothing is worse than watching your paint "bead" on a surface you are trying to cover.
3. Basecoat the horse. A nice warm brown. Don't apply the colour too thickly. It looks best with the undercoat "lighting" the colour from beneath.
4. Apply a thinned wash of sepia ink to the whole miniature.
5. Allow it to dry for at least a couple of hours.
6. Mix up some orange with your base-coat colour. Go for a 2:1 ratio - in the oranges' favour. Wet-brush it all over the model working from top to bottom. As with the uniforms, the idea is to make it look as though the figure is being lit from above.
7. After that's dried, give the whole model a "damp-brush" of almost pure orange. Don't be afraid to leave patches of pure colour.
8. Apply a second wash of thinned ink. This will pull back your worst excesses with the orange paint.
9. Allow it to dry for at least a couple of hours. Mow the lawn. Watch some telly. Read the newspaper.
10. Get out your black and paint the eyes, manes, tails, hooves and any part of the leg you want to do with white "stockings", as well as any area on the horses' forehead that needs a "blaze". Similarly, every time the brush is running a little dry, dip it in your pot of water and paint fine lines wherever you want to define the edges of harness, muscles &c.
11. Get out your white paint. Paint the "stockings" and "blazes". When your hands are really steady, put a miniscule point of white in each corner of the eyes, leaving most of the area in the original black.

One additional point is that slightly thinned paint that flows evenly is preferable than thickish paint that covers well. I would much rather give an area an extra coat than have my paint blob or cover a detail I was trying to paint. Make your paint about the consistency of milk and you can't go too far wrong.

Grenadiers - Gardes Suisses and Francaises.

Another couple of samples.

Regiment Guyenne

This is a taste of what my newly-finished regiment looks like.

Turpin Hussars

Nothing new here - just a better picture to atone for my lousy digital photograpy.

Progress!

Today should see me just about finishing off a new unit, the regiment Guyenne.

This morning I put the finishing touches on the second last tranche of figures, and I intend to do the last lot tonight.

Flags are by Warflag, correctly-sized, freshly-printed and ready to be mounted on their brass wire flag staffs.

I'm in the golden glow stage at the moment and am really looking forward to just lining them up on my painting-table at home and seeing how they look with their comrades all in formation with them!

For a change of pace, I am going to do a regiment of cavalry. I paint horses fairly quickly, so the work should progress quite well.

Painting

With my French I paint pretty simply.

I take the largest single area of colour (WHITE!) and do the whole figure over in a slightly darker version of it. This involves adding about 5% of a pale brown to my white and just making sure the whole figure is thoroughly covered.

Once dry, I lightly load a brush with pure white and brush roughly down the whole length of the figure working from top to bottom. This has the effect of putting the lightest "colour" on top of the figure while leaving the recessed areas darker.

Now I do all the other bits of colour - facings, flesh, hats, hair, belts, boots, buckles and braces.

Flesh areas get a thin wash of brown ink followed by a highlighting of a paler shade of flesh.

Hair, which has been painted over in black gets touched in with white to represent powdered locks. The lower lip might get a tiny dash of red ink. The occasional moustache might get a couple of dashes of white over the black base to denote a veteran.

All other colours are left unhighlighted.

Lastly, I slightly thin some white to a milky consistency and use it to paint areas like the tops of shoulders to finish the highlighting. This is also a good opportunity to cover up the inevitable mistakes I make when applying all the other colours.

For a figure with a different main colour (say the Gardes Suisses with their red coats), I do a base coat in the main colour, wash that over with my sepia brown ink. Wait for a few hours while that dries and then heavily "wet'brush" it with the main colour again to restore the brightness.

This is how the Gardes Suisses test figures further down this page were painted.

What's on the Workbench 2

I should also mention, that after the recent acquisition of a couple of bags of cavalry, that one thing I am going doing is getting cracking on the Gendarmerie de France.

My other bag will become either the Wurtemburg or Nassau-Saarbruck regiment.

At some stage in the (near) future, I would like to do the Conde regiment.

What's on the Workbench?

To ask the question is to provide the answer - quite a bit!

Work goes well on Regiment Bearn - it ought to be finished by this time next week. I'll follow up with a post on how I have been painting my French regiments.

As you all could see from earlier posts, I have finished off the first squadron of the Turpin Hussar Regiment. I had originally thought that I might do the Royal Nassau Regiment, but it turned out I had better sources for Turpins'.

I have figures on order to make a second squadron. By the time this regiment has been pieced together, it will have been done with 10 Prussian Hussars in Mirliton (the troopers), one French Trumpeter and an Austrian Hussar in Busby (representing the CO). It's a pity the trooper figures aren't a little more animated, but there you go!

I reward myself when I am painting a big batch of figures by letting myself paint a handful of more colourful or just "different" troops. For being good and painting up Regiment Bearn, I am letting myself repaint two RSM marching Lorraine Grenadiers (almost the first figures I ever seriously "tried" to paint) as being from the Gardes Suisses and Gardes Francaises. I will post some images when they are done. I hope that they don't raise the bar too high for the rest of their units. Those test figures always seem to get that little bit of extra-loving-care.

My Saxons are still plodding along - two or three figures at a time. I must extract my finger and make a concerted effort on one of the Regiments. I've discovered that the RSM Austrian Freikorps Lacy figure would make a pretty passable von Rochow Fusilier, so there's another project for my Saxon Army - especially considering that there is a Prussian Infantry Officer without lapels who could lead them.

Beyond this, I am expecting a pretty substantial re-inforcement in the form of more RSMs I was fortunate to acquire in a trade. They'll let me add another two or three French regiments and put me in a position to start thinking about which Bavarian and which Hungarian Regiments I might like to go to work on. I like the idea of allying the Bavarians up with the french, it's like the War of the Spanish Succession all over again. It might be fun to put on a scenario with them recreating the storming of the Schellenburg!

I think that'll keep me until Chrismas. 2006.

Turpin Hussars

I've just finished painting these Hussars from the Turpin Regiment. Figures are RSM. I'll need to buy the Austrian Hussar in the fur Busby to represent an Officer.

The Italian States - 1740 to 1760

I've just joined MagWeb and was very interested to read a number of articles on the armies of the Eighteenth Century Italian States, in particular one on the Papal Army of about 1708/1709.

I posted a query on the various Yahoo Groups dealing with the Eighteenth Century that I'm a member of looking for information on the Papal Army of the 1740s and 1750s - this being more my period - and have had a number of replies, one from a gentleman offering to post me some of the materials he's gathered over the years.

I think doing a brigade from the Papal Army - and maybe one from Genoa or Sicily might make for an interesting diversion. Watch this space; with my correspondents' permission, I'll put some of his information up here.

This Weeks Quiz Question!

Why was the battle at la Belle Famille fought on July 24, 1759?