More on the Croat Terror

I've been knocking a few ideas around in my little head these past few days.

I've become interested in doing a demo game based around the devastation of Bavaria during the War of the Austrian Succession in around 1742.

This probably isn't too suprising considering where my painting and modelling have been taking me these past few weeks, but geez, it'd make a good demonstration game for later in the year.

I was thinking I could put together a scenario based on this where a couple of weak Bavarian battalions with a squadron of Dragoons might try to defend a three villages from a horde of Croats with a large battalion of Hungarians in support along with a squadron of Hussards. The terrain would basically be a long-ish valley with a river running through the midle of it.

The villages could each be assigned a points value depending on their size. Lesser points values could be obtained by sucessfully evacuating their populations. Victory would be based on the number of points accrued by defender or attacker. One of the villages with the highest points value would have to be seperated from the others by a river.

The number of players could be easily varied - the Bavarians could accomodate another by hiving their grenadiers off to form a detachment; their 40-figure battalions could be halved. The Croats could be played be single or multiple companies. The large (60 fig) battalion of Hungarians could be broken down into four 15-figure companies or two 30-figure divisions.

Rules - currently I'm looking at der Alte Fritz's "Kleine Kreig" rule set, as you'll probably realise from the unit sizes.

All food for thought.

Any comments?

Finished Grenadiers

Here they are, all done.

I'
m pleased with how they tirned out. They do have some inaccuracies - the officer should not be wearing a moustache and he ought to be carrying a fusil and wearing a belly-pouch. Overall though, I'm not displeased. The ribbons on the queues turned out OK, but could have been better - I have a long way to go with my Green Stuff technique.

Works in progress

Sorry about the crap photography; the lighting conditions were less than optimal. Still, I think you get the idea. I'll put somthing better up tomorrow. Paints are by Vallejo and Games Workshop. Note that I have used a black undercoat.

I'm finding it makes life a LOT easier.

I'm starting to sound like a convert.

Well, the Croats were painted that way, too.

Grenadier NCO and Officer

Here they are, fresh out of the camera.

A note to me - use a razor-saw rather than clippers next time - you'll need to do less to reconstruct the necks!

Let Me Convert You

Right.

I got a little crazy tonight with the clippers and the greenstuff.

I've created an Officer and an NCO for my Bavarian grenadiers. Leib Regiment, I think.

After devastating the castings with my clippers, I had to re-biuild the necks and the bags for their grenadier caps with the Greenstuff. And the little ribbons on their pigtails. They look OK.

Pictures to follow tomorrow morning when they have dried enough to photograph. I'm fairly happy with the result.

I'd give a lot for a dremel tool to save myself from the tedious, endless filing though!

For my next trick I'm going to paint these guys and then a 60-figure regiment of Hungarians. Digging around tonight; having a general audit of my lead mountain, I've found enough castings to do just that and it's a pretty exciting idea for me. I even found enough castings round to build up the strength of the Leib regiments' fusiliers to a reasonable (40 figs) level.

I also dug out Alte Fritzs' "Croat Terror" rules and they look like enough fun for me to contemplate a little game (demo? convention?) later this year. I'm envisaging a Bavarian battalion versus an indeterminate number of Croats c.1742.

More later.

The Croat Terror!

Those among you with a taste for such things may recognise these Croats as being Carlstadters from the Likaner Regiment. Reference for painting then (and I think also for the original sculpts) is my Blandford "Uniforms of the Seven Years War, 1756-1763" by Mollo and McGregor.

Not so much a new venture, I was combing thru my lead mountain and found these odds and ends. They're not quite finished (they need basing and a few need loose weapons attached), but I was so pleased with them, I had to show off...

Painting Again 2

Painting Again

I reckon it's been about two months since I painted any figures.

It's time to get back on that wagon.

Some few weeks ago Ioannis Mavromichalis (he of www.wargames-etc.com fame) kindly sent me a grab-bag of RSM miniatures including a mounted artilleryman I'd never seen before and these whetted my whistle rather. I now seem to be painting again, and tomorrow I hope that I'll have a couple of images to show off.

And now, to bed.

Thanks Ioannis.

Building the Spanish Farm

I thought I'd take the time to write a short piece on how I built the Spanish Farm.

I started off with the imaes I found on the internet - they are still up on the blog a few entries back. From these I drew a rough cartoon to work out the relationships of the various buildings to each other, their rough proportions and to get an idea of the kind of details I wanted to include.

The next thing I did was to work out the dimensions. My Peninsular collection will never grow to be too large, so I felt that I could make the buildings a bit larger than I otherwise might, thinking that the larger they are, the more useable they becoime in a low-level game.

I took my note from the height of the walling I use, which is about 40mm high. From that, and with no small degree of fudging, the rest of the dimensions were reasonably easy to work out.

For the record:

The larger "dual" building with the peaked roofs are 80mm wide and 190mm long. The wall heights are 100mm and 90mm. the roof peaks are 15mm higher than the wall heights.

The smaller "dual" building is 60mm wide and 160mm long. That part of the roof that slopes from left to right is 80mm high at it's highest point, falling away to 70mm. The other is 90mm high at it's highest point, falling down to 80mm.

The wing is 60mm wide and 120mm long. It is 70mm high at it's highest point, falling away to 60mm at the other side.

The little lean to out the back is 60mm wide and 30mm long. It is 50mm high at it's highest point, falling away to 40mm at it's lowest vertical point.

All the walls were cut from foam core and apetures cut to take windows and doors from model railway accessory kits.

Finishing was done in the same way as the other Spanish buildings I've described in earlier posts. I hope the images add what the text may lack!

Urban Sprawl 5

Well, I'm back from holidays and back on deck here.

Today I came pretty close to knocking off my "Peninsular farmhouse". All that's left to do is a little detail painting.

Sean Bean's Rifles do what they do best - provide a sense of scale!

As ever, click on the image for a larger view.

The winner and new Alzheimer poetaster!

Stand high for grand Duchy,
Fight for King, and ne’er abate!
I am the very model of,
A petty German potentate.

Marching ‘cross yon battlefield,
Exchanging volleys ‘o lead.
Through fire we go, ne’er to yield,
Fighting for Duchy ‘till dead!

'Top our mighty steeds ‘o white,
With saber’s we go slashing.
Foe run when we come to fight.
Round the field we go a-dashing!

Stand high for grand Duchy,
Fight for King, and ne’er abate!
I am the very model of,
A petty German potentate.

Bombing forts with well aimed shot,
Or whiffing foe with bags of grape.
Through whole campaigns we have fought,
Though hard, we always escape.

Confident we always are,
To fight and die for Royal King.
Where fight is thick, we’re ne’er far,
Through trials we come out winning!

Stand high for grand Duchy,
Fight for King, and ne’er abate!
I am the very model of,
A petty German potentate.

Norris, please drop Herr Bauer a note at bloggerator@gmail.com with your address so that your wreath may be sent you post haste!

Urban Sprawl 4

A progress shot of the Spanish Farm. Please forgive the blurry shots - they were taken in haste!

You may not be able to make it out, but the building is modular, breaking down into four parts - the two wings, the larger house to the rear and behind that (unseen here) a small lean-to outhouse structure. Additionally to this are the two walls I built earlier that just happened to fit.

The next step will be to detail the buildings with card "stonework", dors and windows and the plastic card roofing. Following that I will do the texturing with the watered down plastrer and finally the painting.

I'm going away on holiday for the next week and a half, so the Duchy will be going quiet for a little while - unless I can get my hands on an internet connection.

Happy New Year.

Urban Sprawl 3

I've just about finished off my little hovel and additional walling, and am in the mood for something a little different. I have done my usual meticulous research (5 minutes googling at work) and think I might do a farm house.

The images I came away with were quite interesting, especially from this website:

http://www.spanish-inland-properties.com/farm-houses-spain/

It's amazing what prices are being asked for tumble-down ruins with no services whatsoever, but that's another story.

The accompanying picture looks rather interesting, and I think the farm could be built in the form of a number of boxes that could be basically butted up against each other and re-arranged to form a number of configurations. You seem to have a large house to which have been attached a number of newer buildings with the single-plane sloping roofs that then form "wings" and thus a yard which a stone wall has been built around.

Note the terrain. It's not quite the lush, verdant sward depicted in the touching History Terrain book on the Peninsular War!

I am also considering building an "L" shaped house - not as flexible perhaps as the "modular farm" but nice as eye-candy. I'm conceiving of it as being a high status house that might be at home in a town or in the country.

Urban Sprawl 2

I added another wall to the collection last night. Tonight I would like to add another with a simple gateway and to start work on a low-status house. I'll design this one to butt up against another structure or wall, so I'll leave two of it's walls innocent of any features.

It struck me also that I ought to loop-hole some of the walls I create. I might also do one with an embrasure cut in it.

Urban Sprawl

I had a few hours to myself yesterday so I went and built a few lengths of wall and the tower you can see in these pictures. Again, the materials are foam-core board and railway accessory windows. I'm out of windows! You really get through them quickly in these buildings.

I like the walling, I played around with it last night and found it's very flexible. I'll make a few more longish sections, some short ones and a gateway. I like the idea of being able to create a walled garden that I could use in the Duchy.

As ever Sean Bean's Rifles are vigilant in combing through the village and have been joined by Major Astin who is seeing to the placement of one of his precious 9-pounders. Major Astin needs a shot of varnish to finish him off.

Peninsular House

Construction materials - foamcore walls, balsa strip, platic card for the balcony and doors, model railway windows, pantile effect plastic card for the roof. A few matchsticks to construct the roof of the balcony.

A few of Sean Bean's Rifles are included for scale purposes.

Write a song - win a prize!

Here's the deal.

Write me a song to the tune of "I am the very model of a modern Major-General". I'll help with the punchline - "I am the very model of a petty German Potentate". Indeed, you can play with the chorus:

Hurry up there Bauer;
The hour it is getting late;
I am the very model of;
A petty German potentate!

Or words to that effect if you please!

This will be the national anthem of the ancient and noble Duchy of Alzheim.

That's right, the National Anthem!

Madness indeed, you might say, but His Serene Highness has deemed that it is to be so, and it was only with difficulty that he was dissuaded from offering the hand of the fair princess Mathilde to the sensitive soul who sufficiently moves His Majesty.

This competition will be open until a winner is found.

Aside from the laurel of victory and the honour of becoming the Duchy of Alzheims' poet laureate, you will also win a handsome prize! Not as handsome as the Princess Mathilde, but handsome nontheless!

Marvellous, aren't they! 1/72nd Revell Austrian artillerists, freshly and pointlessly won on eBay* by yours truly. Meister Chanticleer Schwartz, you would seem well qualified in many respects to enter this competition; nonetheless, come one, come all!

*thanks to bangorstu, 100% positive feedback - quelle homme!

Am I being anal? You can tell me...

I posted this on the 7YW Yahoo Group today.

Gentlemen,

I wonder if anyone could perhaps clarify for me whether or not the Saxon Infantry wore collared coats during the 7YW?

If I may, let me take you through the reasons for my confusion.

Older visual references (Funcken, Mollo and the Knotel(?) cigarette cards on the Grosser-Generalstab website*) all show the collarless coat. This might be fair enough, but I think that they might all be working from Knotel. I do not know this for sure, but this is my feeling. My Knotel, Knotel and Seig does not confirm this one way or the other.

Newer visual references such as my Pengel and Hurt and my copy of Sapherson show the Saxons in a collared coat. Again, I think Sapherson is relying on Pengel and Hurt for his information which in turn seems derived from an illustration from 1753.

My most recent and up to date reference is Wolfgang Friedrich's "Die Uniformen der Kurfurstliche Sachsischen Armee 1683-1763". It shows collars appearing on the Infantry coats from 1742 onwards, appearing in the plates describing the uniforms for 1756 and 1760.
Is it true that there was generally a collar on the Saxon infantry uniform that did not appear on the uniforms issued to the newly reconstituted corps of infantry after Pirna? Was the collar re-introduced when the uniform changed (ie, bearskins were added) in 1760?

Is Knotel (and those who have used him since as a source) wrong? Or was Knotel right and relying on sources that may not have survived the destruction of Dresden in WW2?

Is it even possible to be so precise at two and a half centuries distance?

Any light that could be shed would be most welcome!

Best regards,

Greg Horne

*possibly the most popular, referenced and readily available visual reference available on the Saxon army on the Internet!

Illustrations from the French 1755 Drill Manual

In no particular order and just for interests' sake.

Sean Bean's Rifles

Over the past few days I have been staying busy painting these Elite Miniatures Riflemen. I love the quirky style of the sculpting which repays a fairly careful paintjob. I painted these fellows in my usual Vallejo acrylics from a white dry-brushed black undercoat. The bases they are on are their temporary "handling bases" (GW plastic ones), and are not their final bases at all. I think that the three figure vignette on the larger base looks quite nice though and may form the basis for a later grouping.

I've nearly finished painting five gunners, too and expect to have them photographed in the next few days.

I'm thinking of writing a "Sharpe" parody and calling it something along the lines of either "Sharpe's Pastiche" or even "Sean Bean's Rifles". I have been using the phrase "whoreson motherless rogue" an awful lot in the back of my head lately..!