Eagle Miniatures - review in brief

UPDATE 13.08.2007 : Added image of an RSM French and an Eagle Prussian Infantryman.


Recently I laid my hands on some samples from Eagle Miniatures. They are a company trading out of the UK with a small-ish number of ranges covering NApoleonics, ACW, Moghuls, 7 Years' War, 100 years' War, and a few Hadendowah in 28mm and in 15mm range covering Napoleonic Russias and the Franco-Prussian War. These ranges are all fairly eclectic and incomplete, the 100 Years' War range amusingly containing a King Arthur, a Knight returned from the wars and a Welsh Spear-man.

I ordered some sample French and Prussian infantry, a personality figure of Frederick the Great and a Prussian Dragoon.



Well, what a mixed bunch they were. Overall the figures are quite nice, really. The cavalry sit their horses well (unlike say, Elite!), the infantry are quite pleasing in their way too, although some more than others.

I would rate the animation of the castings as being a cut or two above Old Glory. What I mean by this is while the figures have some of that OG liveliness, they still maintain a certain stately poise. the sculpting of the figures themselfes is somewhat unrefined, perhaps even a little crude by todays standards. the figures are not "fine" in the manner of Staddens or RSMs, and to me represent a couple of paces down the road that leads to the Foundry stable of figures.

The figures have a few neat touches. I like the way the prussian dragoon had a notch cut out of the front of his shoulder so hos sword-arm (cast pointing out from his body) could be bent forward and secured with super-glue. The marching Prussian infantryman with shouldered musket is a gem, as is the Grenadier in the march attack pose. I was especially impressed by his mitre. Lovely, and I'd love more to create a grenadier batalion.



On the downside, I understand that this is an older range of figure and that there would be some flash from the review of another OSW-er. Fair enough, and this was removed with a sharp blade. Why though was I as a customer who clearly stated that he wanted some samples (the implication being that I wanted to test the waters before I dropped hundreds of dollars on a few 60-figure batallions) would you as a manufacturer supply imperfect castings? The Prussian Dragoon was missing most of his musket, and if you look at the secoind figure from the right in the picture of the Prussian infantry, you'll see the Ensign was missing the top half of his flag-pole!

And please, if you are going to market a personality figure as Fredrick the Great, it'd be nice if he looked like him!

The French infantry were OK, but nothing to set my world on fire. I'm sorry to say that my benchmark for French infantry is the old "Willie" range ang these suffer by comparison looking, simply, crude.

I'll paint these to solidify my view, but for now, I'd create a batalion of Grenadiers and a Dragoon Regoment with these figures, but probably stop there and carry on with my RSMs.

Books

I've been on a bit of a book-buying spree recently.

As a result of my recent interest in logistics, I went and bought Martin van Creveld's "Supplying War". I'll report back as I get through it. A quick scan looks fascinating - thanks to those who put me onto it.

Recent eBay wins have put me in posession of a number of new Blandford uniform books which I always treasure for their lovely plates.

Another gem was the Ian Weekly book on building wargames terrain. A cut above the "Touching History" series, I think!

Furthermore, I've also acquired about 30 White dwarf mags from all stages of their first 140 issues and so I feel I have the best of the series - certainly WD isn't really what it used to be.

Introducing the Regiment de Berry

Here is the first company (plus a few extras) of my new regiment, that of Berry.

Note that I have finally (!) gotten around to making a start on terraining the bases. I'm using a gap-filler, plaster-in-a-tube sort of a preparation - it's easy to use, dilutes with water and requires only a wet sculpting tool or finger to shape it.

I'm using some GW "Scorched Grass" for vegetation; I just pop a dot or two of superglue on the base and dunk it in the pot and it's ready to go. A quick zap with the spray-on varnish and it's (hopefully) there forever. I think that the varied colour of this mix looks rather better than the electric green also available from GW. I definitely think that "less is more" with this material.

I am painting another company currently and hope to have them finished off for the weekend. At the same time I'm also terraining the bases of my large company of Compagnies Franches de la Marine. Furthermore, I'm thinking of converting the fairly useless French NCO figure into something a little more NCO-ish.

You know, looking at the lads as I am just now, I really want to do a 2-3 figure command vignette.

The Cavalry Melee

The weather here is a little unseasonably spring-like and this young man's fancy is turning toward... the Cavalry Melee.

My thoughts currently stand at this point, but I recognise that this is very underdeveloped.

Now, I do seem to remember that this topic was discussed at no small length on the OSW site in times past.

I think what I'm wondering is how in many of even the most terrible cavalry fights, there was often relatively little blood was shed, but a decision of sorts was reached. Ultimately, I'm looking for a mechanism whereby we decide that Side 'A' bottles out and runs even though it has taken very few casualties - and indeed they ought to be hard for cavalry to inflict upon each other, as opposed to what happens to disordered Infantry once the Horsemen get among them.

I suppose it's all about the unit which maintains it's integrity, but how do we portray the loss or maintenence of this?

Another consideration is how to represent cavalry haring off into the ountryside after a charge and what mechanisms might be emplaced to make it possible for cavalry to reform after a charge and to become a potent force again?

I could just go and buy a copy of BAR, I suppose..!

Personalitites

Following a post at the OSW Yahoo Group by BP, I've decided to flesh out some of the characters from the Duchy of Alzheim.

Augustus II Rex - also known as Augustus the Fat. An enormous and impulsive Prince, he is known as the King in Alzheim on account of his being King to a 25-square-mile patch of Italy that he inherited from his second cousins' uncle in 1738. He enjoys eating, cuckoo clocks, lock smithing, international intrigue, eating, playing with the Meistersilber toy soldiers he was given as a boy, cheating at cards, eating and drinking.

He is certainly not gay*, but has little interest in HM the Queen. His own secretary may be forced to secure the sucession - ahem - for him.

It is said that his best friend, Dogge, was excecuted in front of him buy his humourless father. Rumour has it that they were to elope together, but by G_d it's a brave man who'll repeat the rumour.

Bauer - A2Rs amanuensis, dogsbody and general fixer. If Augustus is Prince George from Blackadder the Third, then Bauer is possibly being played by Rowan Atkinson. Were it not for him, well, whoknows the state Alzheim might be in. Perhaps a better state altogether?

von Browne - one of a prolific tribe of Jacobite emigres who settled in Alzheim aftere the Glorious revolution. He's somewhat elderly, but still spry. He is a straight arrow and views Bauer with the deepest suspicion.

*Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Update to "The Fight at Neumarkt"

From the Seven Years' War Project wiki:

Sunday December 4 at 4:00 AM, Frederick marched from Parchwitz straight towards the Austrian camp. The vanguard consisted of ten battalions with 800 volunteers from the whole army at their head, all the foot jägers, all the freikorps, all the hussar regiments (to the exception of Werner Hussar Regiment), the dragoon regiments of Czettritz, Normann and Jung-Krockow, and a battery of 10 heavy 12-pdrs. The army followed in four columns by the right flank. The first column consisted of the cavalry of the right wing of the first and second line. The second column was composed of the infantry of the right wing of the first and second line. Their rearguard was formed of the three battalions of Ostenreich, Plötz and 1/Prinz Ferdinand, which covered the baggage. The third column consisted of the infantry of the left wing of the first and second line. The fourth column was formed of the cavalry of the left wing of the first and second line. Werner Hussars had the rearguard. The heavy artillery were divided into two brigades and moved behind the second and third columns. Frederick himself was in the vanguard, he planned to establish his quarters at Neumarkt (actual Sroda Slaska), a little town about 22 km from Parchwitz.

Early in the afternoon, while Frederick was only a few km from Neumarkt, he learned that there were 1,000 grenzers and hussars in this town, with the Austrian bakery at work there and engineer people marking out an Austrian camp. Therefore, before entering Neumarkt, Frederick sent a regiment to ride quietly round it on both sides and to seize a height he knew of. Once this height had been seized by his troops, Frederick bursted the barrier of Neumarkt with the hussars, volunteers and freikorps of the vanguard, and dashed in upon the 1,000 light troops, flinging them out in extreme hurry. The light troops then found the height occupied and their retreat cut off. Of the 1,000 light troops, 569 were taken prisoners and 120 slain. Better still, the Austrian bakery in Neumarkt delivered 80,000 bread-rations, prince Charles had exposed his bakery too far ahead of his army.

Meanwhile, fearing that Frederick would move on Striegau (actual Strzegom) to cut his line of communication with Bohemia, prince Charles had come across the Weistritz River (more commonly called Schweidnitz Water), leaving all his heavy guns at Breslau, and lay encamped that night in a long line perpendicular to Frederick's march, some 16 km ahead of him. Prince Charles had now learned with surprise how his bakery had been snapped up by the Prussians.

Sources Quoted:

Public domain sources:
Carlyle T., History of Friedrich II of Prussia vol. 18
Donnersmarck, Victor Amadaeus Henckel von, Militaerischer Nachlass, Karl Zabeler, 1858
Relation de la bataille de Leuthen, Vienna, January 1758, pp. 472-477
Relation de la bataille de Lissa, Berlin, January 1758, pp. 477-483
Tempelhoff, Fr., History of the Seven Years' War Vol. I pp. 121-147 & 176-188 & 190-, as translated by Colin Lindsay, Cadell, London, 1793

Other sources:
Cogswell, Neil, Journal of Horace St. Paul 1757: The Advance to Nismes, Seven Years War Association Journal Vol. XI No. 3 and Vol. XII No. 2
Fuller J. F. C., The Decisive Battles of the Western World, Granada Publishing Ltd, 1970, pp. 571-576

Discussion:

Note that after using one of his Hussar Regiments to seize the height behind the town that "Frederick bursted the barrier of Neumarkt with the hussars, volunteers and freikorps of the vanguard". This suggests to me that Fred at Neumarkt had considerably more forces at his disposal than just a couple of regiments of Hussars. Perhaps we ought to include 800 volunteer infantry and a company or two of Foot Jaeger in the Prussian OOB?

It makes their beating up of 1000 Croats and a couple of regiments of Austrian Hussars seem a little less a formidable acheivement, though.

The images at the start of this article are of Hussar regiments 2 and 4

For Jeff - RSM Dismounted Hussar

There you go!

He's not too useful for anything more than being in a command vignette, or so he seems to me. I've another floating around somewhere that i ought to paint just to see how my painting skills have progressed.

I've ordered 10 in Mirlitons from Garrison and am keen to see how they look. Pics to follow the minute they arrive!

The Fight at Neumarkt

I was reading my new old copy of Duffy’s “Frederick the Great: A Military Life” whilst on my lunch-break today and I came across what might be an interesting little action that took place at what was evidently a walled town called Neumarkt.

It took place on 4th December 1757 in the days leading up to Leuthen. Frederick was with some Hussars in front of his Armys’ avant-garde when they received reports from local peasants that the town ahead held an Austrian field bakery as well as stocks of bread and flour.

As I read the action, it seemed to me that some of the hussars went to envelop the town from the rear whilst others dismounted, smashed their way in through the town gates with axes and then, using their carbines, winkled the enemy out.

Apparently two regiments of Austrian Hussars make their escape but 100 Croats were killed and another 500 were made prisoner.

I assume the Austrians had at least two regiments of hussars and a battalion of Croats while the Prussians must have had at least one regiment of their own Hussars.

Minor Update: The Prussians had 2 regiments of Hussars; HR2 (Zeiten Hussars) and HR4 (Puttkamer Hussars).

This brisk-seeming episode might make the basis of an interesting little game, and I wonder if anyone has any more detail on force composition. And what a good opportunity to get the Old Fritz onto the table-top for a minor action!

UPDATE:

Taken from "History of Friedrich II of Prussia" Frederick the GreatChapter IX. - Friedrich Marches for Silesia by Thomas Carlyle

Found online here.

Sunday, December 4th, at four in the morning, Friedrich has marched from Parchwitz, straight towards the Austrian Camp; [Muller, p. 26.] he hears, one can fancy with what pleasure, that the Austrians are advancing towards him, and will not need to be forced in their strong position. His march is in four columns, Friedrich in the vanguard; quarters to be Neumarkt, a little Town about fourteen miles off. Within some miles of Neumarkt, early in the afternoon, he learns that there are a thousand Croats in the place, the Austrian Bakery at work there, and engineer people marking out an Austrian Camp. "On the Height beyond Neumarkt, that will be?" thinks Friedrich; for he knows this ground, having often done reviews here; to Breslau all the way on both hands, not a rood of it but is familiar to him. Which was a singular advantage, say the critics; and a point the Austrian Council of War should have taken more thought of.

Friedrich, before entering Neumarkt, sends a regiment to ride quietly round it on both sides, and to seize that Height he knows of. Height once seized, or ready for seizing, he bursts the barrier of Neumarkt; dashes in upon the thousand Croats; flings out the Croats in extreme hurry, musketry and sabre acting on them; they find their Height beset, their retreat cut off, and that they must vanish. Of the 1,000 Croats, "569 were taken prisoners, and 120 slain," in this unexpected sweeping out of Neumarkt. Better still, in Neumarkt is found the Austrian Bakery, set up and in full work;--delivers you 80,000 bread-rations hot-and-hot, which little expected to go such a road. On the Height, the Austrian stakes and engineer-tools were found sticking in the ground; so hasty had the flight been.

How Prince Karl came to expose his Bakery, his staff of life so far ahead of him? Prince Karl, it is clear, was a little puffed up with high thoughts at this time. The capture of Schweidnitz, the late "Malplaquet" (poorish Anti-Bevern Malplaquet), capture of Breslau, and the low and lost condition of Friedrich's Silesian affairs, had more or less turned everybody's head,--everybody's except Feldmarschall Daun's alone:--and witty mess-tables, we already said, were in the daily habit of mocking at Friedrich's march towards them with aggressive views, and called his insignificant little Army the "Potsdam Guard-Parade." [Cogniazzo, ii. 417-422.] That was the common triumphant humor; naturally shared in by Prince Karl; the ready way to flatter him being to sing in that tune. Nobody otherwise can explain, and nobody in any wise can justify, Prince Karl's ignorance of Friedrich's advance, his almost voluntary losing of his staff-of-life in that manner.

Likewise, from Henty:

At four in the morning on Sunday, December 4th, Frederick marched from Parchwitz; intending to make Neumarkt, a small town some fourteen miles off, his quarters. When within two or three miles ofthis town he learned, to his deep satisfaction, that the Austrians had just established a great bakery there, and that a party of engineers were marking out the site for a camp; also that there were but a thousand Croats in the town. The news was satisfactory, indeed, for two reasons: the first being that the bakery would beof great use for his own troops; the second, that it was clear thatthe Austrians intended to advance across the Schweidnitz Water to give battle. It was evident that they could have had no idea thathe was pressing on so rapidly, or they would never have established their bakery so far in advance, and protected by so small a force.

He lost no time in taking advantage of their carelessness, but sent a regiment of cavalry to seize the hills on both sides of the town; then marched rapidly forward, burst in the gates, and hurled the Croats in utter confusion from Neumarkt, while the cavalry dashed down and cut off their retreat. One hundred and twenty of them were killed, and five hundred and seventy taken prisoners. In the town the Austrian bakery was found to be in full work, and eighty thousand bread rations, still hot, were ready for delivery.

This initial success, and the unexpected treat of hot bread, raised the spirits of the troops greatly, and was looked upon as a happy augury.

More on Logistics

In the Austrian service, soldiers generally carried up to four days’ supply on them. Baking companies supported the army with ovens that were built up with brick over iron hoops that could be assembled and broken down with relative ease and were thus relatively mobile. This stands in fairly stark contrast with the permanent structures erected by the French.

More generally on food, the Austrian soldier was allowed 1 pound of meat (which he had to purchase for himself from regimental butchers - albeit at a reasonable cost) and 1.75 pounds of bread per day. In February of 1760, the Austrian troops in Saxony would work their way through 300 oxen per week, and the army as a whole would consume 700 in the same period.

Some notes on supply and Transport in the Bohemian, Silesian and Saxon areas.

The Prussians had certain logistic advantages:

*Easy river transport down the Oder and the Elbe Rivers.
*Strongly defended forward fortress depots at Cosel, Breig, Schweidnitz, Neisse and Glatz that could be replenished either directly from water transport or via short overland haulage.

The Austrians laboured under corresponding disadvantages:

*They had no secure magazines near the theatre of operations. Both Prague and Olmutz ware deep within Bohemia and cannot count at “forward” depots on the Prussian model. Dresden was more conveniently located, but was not always in Austrian hands!

The Austrian response was the creation of filial or ‘flying’ magazines of no fixed location which were established and re-established throughout the war in various locations in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Saxony as was convenient.

Leitmeritz and Lobositz in Northern Bohemia, were convenient to the headwaters of the Elbe as depots, although they themselves had to be laboriously stocked via overland routes running the four wheeled horse carts used by the Austrians. These carts could each carry a load a little short of a ton. The Danube was useful from bringing supplies out of Hungary, but was prone to icing in the winter months.

Source: primarily Duffy's last book on the Austrian Army.

Painted Eureka Saxons

I'll get some better photos up in the next day or two. More painted figs to follow as I complete them.

The blue-faced troops are from either the Prince Xavier or von Frankenburg Regiment, whilst the Fusilier is from the von Rochow Fusiliers. This last unit was created when the artillery protection troops went into the line in the 1730s, hence the colour of their coats and facings being the same as those of the gunners.

UPDATE: Ahh, that's a bit better.

A Wargamers' Progress

It was about 1985.

I was of about school-leaving/university beginning age.

Since about 1982, I’d been a fan of Military Modelling Magazine and was buying it regularly. I’d even gotten my toes a little wet by buying (with an IRC) by mail order my first order of RSM Miniatures (Mounted General, Mounted Officer, four fusiliers marching, two “Lorraine Grenadiers” Marching, an Officer a Highland piper and a woodlands Indian) at ruinous expense.

I had discovered my local Mind Games store in town. Mind Games sells to this day all sorts of SF, Fantasy and Historical games, mags, RPSs, chess-sets, Cleudo box sets, you name it. They were also the only stockist for White Dwarf Magazine and GW/Citadels’ products.

By the time White Dwarf had hit the mid 130 issues, I was thinking, wow, could things be any better? There were the earlier amazing issues – ohh – say, 30 to 100 with Dr Who, Judge Dredd, Paranoia, Call of Cthulhu, and too many other brilliant things to mention. Even by 135 or so we were getting neat stuff like Mad Max – err – GorkaMorka, but what really got me going was the Brettonnians.

Beautiful models and great for the 100 Years’ War, too! I’ve still got stacks of them either part or fully painted. I’m sure I painted more men at arms than Knights as I could never get the hang of painting all that heraldry.

Weren't the figures terrific though? The foot knights, the archers (one giving the "two-fingered" salute), the arbalastiers, the gunners and their groovy guns, the cool and (importantly) easy to paint men at arms. I want more and constantly haynt eBay, looking, looking...

At about this time too I also came across “The Courier” a wonderful American magazine which happened to be running a nice little series of articles on the French and Indian War that year. Having read the “Action at La Belle Famille” article and pored over the grainy black-and-white photography, I was lost.

Logistics - The French Army

I’ve started doing some research on the logistics of the Eighteenth Century.

I thought I’d share what seemed to me to be some of the more thought-provoking things I’d come across.

Just for a start, it’s all about bread. The horses could be fed from whatever fodder could be scrounged, munitions were probably one of the least bulky and troublesome things that could be transported, but without bread your army starts to starve.

An army of 100,000 men consume, in the French service at least, 200,000 pounds of flour per day.

The bread ration was issued every four days. Bread was nominally edible for nine days after it had been baked, although I imagine it’d be good only for toasting, and that after the mouldy bits had been cut out.

Again in the French service, the practice of the day was that field ovens were constructed no more than three days march from the grain stores and only two days’ march from the Army. Consider what this means for the French Army; the bread was baked in brick ovens. It was reckoned that 40 ovens were needed to bake the bread for 100,000 men. At times houses had to be demolished to provide the necessary raw materials. Construction of said ovens took as long as two weeks.

For these reasons it must have taken little to upset ones’ plan of campaign! Imagine your army leapfrogging in carefully planned steps from one laboriously constructed set of field ovens to the next, they themselves built laboriously at least two weeks beforehand and no more than three days from your magazines. You yourself, on receipt of your two-day-old bread knew you could march for no more than seven days before your bread became inedible and that your troops at the outset would have to hump the lot on their backs.

The upshot of all this is that ultimately, the French Army of the day could be no more than about five days from their magazines. An unexpected retrograde movement could send the Army along paths unprepared from a logistical point of view and this lack of supply could lead to every evil attendant upon maurauding, breakdown of discipline and desertion.

Almost entirely culled from Lee Kennetts' book "The French Armies in the Seven Years' War" - rarish and not too easy to obtain, but highly recommended.

Review of Eureka 100 Club Saxons

Ordinarily I'd pop this one on "Rants Raves and Reviews", but this is just a sneak peek for now.

I ordered a fairly huge number of Eurekas' 100 Club Saxons.

Basically I ordered Musketeers, Grenadiers and some Fusiliers with which to make up the von Rochow Fusiliers. I ordered some other bits and pieces, more on which later. I left off ordering the Leibgrenadier Garde figures because I couldn't afford them and also because my RSMs were filling that role quite nicely. I may order some later.

Initial impressions are good. Excellent sculpting as ever, fine finish to the miniatures, no mis-casts, some difficult castings were pulled off with characteristic aplomb. I ordered way too many of everything as usual and find myself with enough lead to build four and a half battalions of Musketeers, a battalion of Fusilieers and one of Grenadiers. Each troop type comes with Officers, NCOs and Drummers appropriate for their arm. The Musketeers and Fusilieers include standard-bearers; the grenadiers do not as they were the converged companies of several different regiments and as such did not bear colours. Great faces on the figures too, who seem to be marching along with every evidence of zesty panache.

One small quibble here is that half the command figures are marching along in poses similar to the private soldiers, while the other half are at the halt, standing at attention as though accompanied by an as yet non-existent firing line. This kind of makes fully half the command figures I was supplied with look pretty odd. What are they doing? Directing traffic?

The best thing about this range is it's completeness. There are extras over and beyond the normal 100 Club ofering; Eureka have really pulled out all the stops here it seems to me. There is a mounted General, there are mounted regimental Officers; afoot there is a pioneer, complete with axe and leathern apron. Did I mention the oboist and hautbois? They are there. There are gunners for the battalion guns, albeit in somewhat static poses.

Did I mention the battalion guns? It seems to me that Eureka are offering the light artillery left over from their old "Countess Sandra" 7YW Amazons as battalion guns. They fit the bill well enought it seems to me. Nicely cast little weapons they are too.

Now I come to the problem that I perceive with the range. I have to make a rather large confession here: I assisted the commisioning party with some of the uniform research. As I understood it, the range was to be of Saxons of the Seven Years War. The army that was reconstituted after the Saxon army was impressed by the Prussians after Pirna in 1756. To that end I provided my materials which convinced me that the Saxon Army of the time wore collars on their coats.

I can see my girlfriend rolling her eyes at this point, but bear with me, I'm anally retentive on these things.

The Eureka castings do not have collars on their little coats. Nor are there lapels visible on their waistcoats. To me this does not read as the Saxon Army of the 7YW, but rather of the 1742-45 period of the War of the Austrian Succession. My Stephen Manley booklet and my book on the Saxon Army by Wolfgang Friedrich suggests to me that the Saxons of the time were adopting a collarless, unlapelled coat. My Sapherson, Pengel&Hurt and (again) Wolfgang Friedrich lead me to believe that a collared coat was worn in the Seven Years' War.

I ought to note that Richard Knotel disagrees and is with Eureka on this one! Who am I to argue? I do think that there ought to have been made some attempt to reconcile the different indications provided by the sources.

It does I suppose highlight a problem that Eureka have with these 100 Club projects. They have to rely on the research of the people proposing the projects. They've been caught short before with their AWI Marbleheaders, I seem to remember, which is a pity.*

I'm not sure what the solution is, perhaps Eureka need to do some independent research on the projects their commisioning parties put forward, perhaps.

All this being said, I recommend these figures most heartily, especially if you are - as I am - rather more interested in the War of the Austrian Succession than the duller Seven Years' War!

If you do take them as being of the WAS, then please do remember that the Fusilieer castings will serve as Grenadiers in the earliest part of the conflict.

Hohenfreidburg, Soor/Sohr and Kesselsdorf await!

*They were missing pikemen and African-American soldiers, I believe. "Caught short" is a bit harsh. Rather say they've been let down in the past by the standard of research by some of those comissioning some of their 100 Club projects.

Imagineering

Hey, I’ve been uncommonly quiet over the past week and a bit.

I’m sort of in between orders from RSM – having run out of Dragoon castings to paint - so I’m painting a few other bits and pieces.

Speaking of that latest RSM order (which went out on June the 15th), it looks like a very cavalry-oriented time is coming on for me. I’ll discuss them in a little detail:

3 x S1-105 English Trooper Charging (I like to use these as my squadron-officers these will be for the Bavarian Dragoons)
12 x S2-109 French Light Dragoon (I’ve finally caved in and admitted to myself that I desperately want a squadron of Schomburg Dragoons)
4 x S5-022 Prussian Gunner in Waistcoat (I’ll be painting these as some Infantry regiment or other to assist a couple of gunners manning a battalion gun – a bit of an experiment, we’ll see how it goes)
6 x S5-101 Prussian Hussar in Mirliton (I decided I wanted to paint that snazzy-looking Prussian Hussar Reg’t who were all dressed in black)
11 x S6-104 Austrian Hussar in Busby (re-inforcements for the Croats, and the first of two squadrons)
8 x S6-105 Austrian Dragoon Trooper (to become the residue of the second Squadron of my Bavarian Dragoons)
26 x LH-005 Galloping Horse - Legs Spread (I’ll be painting a lot of horsies!)


I have alluded to this a bit in my previous post where I seem to have a lot of French odds and ends on the table. I’m working up toward a commitment I made to Bill P to get some troops painted for a 1:10 Fort Ticonderoga game that he and some other fellows are putting together for 2008, being as it is the 250th anniversary of the battle.

This project will let me paint up a whole pile of castings that were just gathering dust and give my French and Indian war collection a bit of a kick on – which it has been needing for ages now. I’m quite excited by this one, and I’m thinking I really ought to get the new troops blooded before they climb into a big cardboard box and fly to the US!

I’ve really been looking closely at my RSM French castings. I think they could easily stand in for some Spanish and Italian regiments of the Italian phase of the War of the Austrian Succession. Just thinking and imagineering as I flip through the pages of my Stephen Manley booklets…

New Recruits. Breakers of the peace beware!

Alzheim troops experiment with the newfangled three-deep firing line while the Grenadier Company of the Languedoc Regiment practices it's bayonet drill.

Some of the men appear to be training in their waistcoats only!

For shame! Whatever next? Gunners shedding their coats in the Service of their Pieces?

Dragoon Horse

I'll make another and pop him (her?) on the same base for my horse holder to - er - hold while his mates are off playing.

I'm getting just a little better at manipulating the greenstuff. I hope!

Introducing Friedrich August 2

Kurfurstin Dragoons - progress report

It's been a while since I'd gotten my new Dragoon regiment out and "played" with it.

Here they are then as they stand at the moment; the dismounted "B" Squadron is skirmishing on the outskirts of Strudelburg whilst the mounted "A" Squadron surges past them to drive back the enemy Croats (out of the picture) who've been attempting to worm their way into the village.

At least, that's what's going on in my imagination.

Kurfurstin Dragoons Drummer

Finished him off last night while watching a really bad horror film - "Descent". Six women go caving and fall foul one by one (naturally) to a bunch of devolved troglodytes. One accidentally injures another and in her turn is vengefully wounded and left to die.

Nice ethics, I have to say. Another play on the torture agenda that "24" is so keen to push?

Certainly it gave me the motivation to concentrate on painting.

Strange to say, I have no information on Bavarian Cavalry musicians, so I just painted him in the same uniform as his fellows.

Teaser

Here's a little teaser for you. I got bored tonight watching TV, so I chopped up a Dragoon at last and turned him into a drummer for my Kurfurstin Dragoon regiment.

He has since been undercoated.

Almost completed those French

It's been a slow painting week so far. I'm nearly finished with these French troops who could as well be from the Compagnies Franches de la Marine or from the Languedoc Regiment. I like the idea of them being the picquests and Grenadiers of the Languedocs quite a bit. Time will tell.

Just to throw out a query, who thinks that any French regiment in north America had it's Grenadiers in Bearskins? I know of one re-enactment group that does this, and that there is a description of British troops plucking the "plumes" from the hats of French Grenadiers after Quebec, but it seems that this is too early in the Seven Years' War for many of the French infantry to be wearing this king of head-gear.

Opinions?

Painting White 2

This afternoon, I've gotten the white painting completed, and I've just finished off the facings. Next will be the remaining belts and the muskets.

I am resisting so many of my regular painting habits at the moment..!

I hate to do this to you all, but they look much better in the flesh!

Painting White

I'm gearing up to run a small side-project over the next 12 months that ought to see me painting about 72 french infantry. It's for a demonstration game in the US - basically I'll be sending my troops to stand in for me! So, keeping in mind that they'll be representing me, I thought I'd try to give them a better-than-normal paint-job. My goal is to more accurately portray the gris-blanc coats the French wore and to do more justice to the surface detail sculpted into the clothing of my favoured RSM miniatures.

This image gives a pretty fair indication of what I've acheived to far and how the figures look at "life-size". Click on the image for a much larger (and less flattering?) picture.

The effect was acheived by first undercoating in white from a spray-can, washing over in thinned black ink to provide all the shading and then highlighting. My first highlight shade is an off-white done with Vallejo "Buff" and white in a roughly 1:3 ratio applied from the top of the figure down as a heavy "damp-brush with a large brush. The next highlight is the remains of the first shade still adhering damply to my palette with an additional squirt of white mixed into that. This is then more lightly damp-brushed down the figure again from top to bottom. The final step will be to take a little white, slightly thinned, and applied to the most prominent "tops" of details.

The overall effect I hope will be to produce a figure that will appear to be lit from the top. The dry/damp brushing picks up the surface detail quite nicely. I'm fairly confident the final highlight will tidy things up and make the final effect look less dry-brushed, as too will the more conventionally layered painting effects that I hope to obtain painting the smaller areas of facings, belting, faces and so on.

I am tossing up matt or at least satin varnishing these. With the gloss varnish I normally use, you do seem to lose subtle detail.

I ought to be able to get the first eight finished today - along with some Strudelburg bits as well - and get another picture up tonight.

Painting and Converting

Well, last night I finished off the last couple of figures to complete my dismounted dragoons. I’m painting an extra one to be a horse-holder. Once that’s done, I’m going to make sadlery for a pair of horses in more static poses from Green Stuff and mate them up on the one base to represent the rider less mounts of the company.

On a related thought, I’ve been looking at the Austrian grenadiers with a mind to turning them into dismounted Horse Grenadiers (yes, I know I was only going to have the one dismounted troop, but my mind wandered…) and I think with a bit more Green Stuff I could sculpt false boot-tops. The protruding gaiter-top could be painted white and passed off as a boot-stocking. I’ll have a fiddle and see how it goes.

Speaking of converting things, I really MUST have a go at producing a mounted drummer for the dragoons. Is there a nice online picture "somewhere" that might give me an idea how such an instrument might "sit"?

Painting. I have become a firm convert to the black undercoat method. My painting seems to go so much easier when I do it this way. This is especially true when I am painting with blue – my Bavarian Grenadiers have been a breeze to paint so far. Three to go. Red is more of a problem, but I find that by the time I have finished putting the highlights on, the patchiness of the base-coat has become rather a non-issue.

Again on painting; does anyone here paint for hours at a time? I’ve tried and failed miserably. I’ve gotten enthused at the idea of having a day off work where I sit down for eight hours and get huge amounts of work done on a huge number of figures. I always wind up getting bored and going out to buy a book or something.

For me the most productive painting time is the 30 minutes I take while I’m getting ready to go to work in the morning. I just put 2-3 colours on 2-3 figures and things seem to move along quite nicely.

What’s your experience?

Kurfurstin Dragoons

Dismounted Dragoons from the Kurfurstin Regiment stand to in a picket line with the Horse Grenadier Troop in close support behind them.

What I've been up to recently.

Just so you don’t think I’ve become a complete Roman, I thought I might let you know I’m still here slopping paint any old how onto miniatures.

So far this month I’ve finished painting 9 grenadiers and an NCO for the Bavarian Leib Regiment, 5 dismounted Bavarian dragoons, a Grenzer, five infantry to round out a French regiment whose name escapes me at the moment and a single Garde Francaise – I suppose he’s the first figure in rounding this regiment out.

I’m constructing another house for Strudelberg with another still in it’s box. I’ve another half dozen or so infantry in various stages of completion who I hope to finish this weekend.

I’ll spend the rest of the month on the Saxon LeibGrenadiers, and throw in the odd Roman as I go on for variety!

I’ll try to get some photos up soon.

I promise.
Really.

OT - Carry on Up the Tiber

I decided to create a new blog in order to keep a journal of all my doings Roman and Wargames-related.

I do have a tidy mind, sometimes.

If you want to take a look, just click here.

I've put the first post up today.

Your comments and feedback are most welcome.

"New" Reviews

I've neen updating my "Rants and Raves" blog today.

You may be familiar with a couple of them if you've been reading "Battle Games".

I finished another building for Strudelburg on Friday night, and bought a couple more on Saturday. I ought to be able to put a big tick in the "completed" box for this element of the Strudelburg project soon.

Purchased a couple more cans of spray-paint to finish the buildings - they just don't paint themselves, you know! Also bought a couple of fine brushes; all my others were worn out from slapping paint onto the Leib Grenadier Garde and were useless for doing any black-lining. A most distressing situation which had stopped me painting for most of the week!

Leib Grenadier Garde - fluff

Those of you who've been reading this blog for a long while will know that one upon a time, I started to build the Saxon Leib Grenadier Garde.

I've been home sick the past couple of days and being bored, was rummaging about in the moderately-large piles of RSM miniatures I have had stockpiled here. Well, what should I unearth but a pile of RSM Prussian Grenadiers. Enough to do the LGG at a strength of about 60 figures. Nothing loath I began.

I spent all day Friday cleaning, priming and basing the figures. Odd moments I've had spare today have gone toward painting the yellow bits on a few of the figures.

I just had to have a parade. So here we have the battalion of the Saxon Leib Grenadier Garde marching past in column of companies.

UPDATE: Progress pic added. I've painted all the yellow parts on the figures and am well on the way to painting their red coats. Next I think will come the black-lining followed by some tidy-ups.

UPDATE 2: It's a public holiday here in Australia (ANZAC Day) and I have managed to wangle things so I am home alone and can spend the whole day painting.

*sigh*

Here's hoping I get the coats painted and lots of black-lining done.

I'll add a progress picture tonight.

Horsies

Here's a picture of the Kurfurstin Regiment as she stands at the moment - Stokes; this one's for you!

No more pictures of this regiment until it's a lot more complete. This week I'll be working on a conversion to a trooper to turn him into a drummer for this regiment.

The other troopers are undercoated and ready to go as are the other eight dismounted troopers. I've some horses in more sedate poses standing by to represent the ... er... discarded mounts.

Strudelberg

Here is a picture of Strudelberg as she stands today. Another couple of buildings ought

to round things out a bit.

Dismounted Dragoons

Well, this weekend I didn't get around to a solo game, but I did manage some painting and photography.

First up we have fromt and rear views of the RSM didmounted dragoon. The one on the left is the Austrian (or in my case the Bavarian!) figure - that on the right is a Prussian who I'll be painting as a Bavarian anyway as he is what I have handy!

Alzheim History

I'm amazed at the moment by the number of mythical countries that have sprung up on line in recent times. It is beginning to seem to me that you need an atlas more than a search engine to navigate their variegated terrains.

Alzheim is one such mythical country.

It's funny though that the Duchy never was conciously conceived as being a blog with a country name and a map and carefully worked out uniforms. I really admire the people who have the disciplined forethought to plan their countries, create gorgeous maps and design beautiful uniforms. It's not something that my scatterbrained thinking has ever really lent itself to, more sadly for me, I sometimes think!

Before this blog there came a name.

Once upon a time I was a member of the SocDaisy Yahoo Group and for some reason names of mythical countries came up as a topic. I (cleverly I thought) stuck up my hand and mentioned Alzheim. Why not? It sounded appropriately German, contained a clever pun that brought to mind a land forgotten by History. Genius!

It was lovingly launched into the mysterious places of the Interweb and promptly vanished without a trace.

Hey ho, I forgot about it, sort of. I still liked the name.

There things pretty wel were left until a friend introduced me. He's a follower of the Lubavitcher rebbe. He's got a blog (AussieEcho) about all things Lubavitch which he showed me.

This got me thinking that this would be a great way of getting my hobby-based materials together in the one place and to try and find a way of imposing some order upon the chaotic mess that I'd created for my self over the years. This came together at about the same time as I had started participating in the OldSchoolWargaming Yahoo Group. The OSW people have had a great deal to do in terms of feedback early on that really made me want to keep regularly at the blog.

At this point the Duchy was still a collection of tidings from my note-book or workbench. I'd not really decided on any detailed characteristics for it - for example, the name of the place is German, but most of it's early doings were those of French-looking troops with French-sounding commanders! I'm sure there are still many contradictions there.

The Duchy took on a more German tone with the introduction of the noble Elector Augustus, his ignoble, Blackadderish manservant Bauer and the dear, doughty, brave and stupid General von Browne who in my mind bears some resemblance to the Graf von Grunt.

Still no maps, though, although for a while though I did toy with the idea of using a map I found online of Alfred the Great's Wessex. I still toy with the idea. I really should do something about that one day.

As it stands though, I'd still characterise the Duchy of Alzheim as a hold-all for my projects in process, random thoughts and occasional pretty pictures. I think it will yet continue to ramble on and hopefully take new und unlooked for turns and sprout unexpected excrecences.

Most of all, I'd like it to be a place where we can meet and talk about our own varied projects and experiences.

Friday Forum #1

Please post your comments on any topic you please.

I'll be checking them as frequently as out time-zones allow to enable something like a free-flowing conversation.

Change to Duchy of Alzheim Style and Content

I’ve been thinking a little about my style of blogging in the past few days.

I think it could be characterized as a lot of little posts on progress on this or that project with pictures of my latest half-dozen painted toy soldiers.

I’m thinking I might revise this approach in coming weeks and concentrate on more meaty (but obviously less frequent) posts on what’s going on, rules ideas, battle reports and so forth.

I’m also thinking of running a “Friday Forum” with an open topic where we may post to our heart’s content using the Comments feature . I’ll them convert the comments into a post and respond as necessary.

I hope that these changes will make the Duchy a more interesting place to visit.

A box of tin from America has arrived! Hurrah!

Oh for joy! at last my RSM order has battled its’ way through shoals of Easter mail to land on my doorstep.

So excited was I at this advent that I plucked out, cleaned and primed the dozen galloping horses that will be the mounts for the Kurfurstin Dragoon regiment. Keeping in mind that I have now painted four of this regiment, scrounged up an officer and trumpeter, as well as this additional dozen I am on my way to having about a squadron and a half of troopers – a very satisfactory stare of affairs I think. I like the fact that this sort of regiment size (say 36-38 figures) will give my horse regiments some sort of battlefield parity with my Infantry. Thus they won’t be withering away too quickly under the impact of a battalion volley.

I ought to have the horses painted to completion by tonight, I hope and then be ready to make a start on the troopers.

I am contemplating doing a skirmish line of a squadrons’ worth of dismounted Dragoons. I was going to use some of the RSM dismounted dragoons, but they are not quite to my taste and I am wondering whether to use some Austrian infantry and Grenadiers in the advancing pose and do some small amount of modification to their leg-ware to indicate boots rather than gaiters. I will be putting a few horses on two bases to represent the horses they dismounted troops leave behind – I’ll probably have to sculpt saddlery onto them.

Equal cause for excitement was the discovery of some sample Ottoman Turks who I thought might make good “early Croats”. I think that, after examining them closely, that they will make fine wild men from the fringes. I’m thinking here especially of plate ‘A’ in the Osprey on Austria’s Frontier Troops (1740-1796) and some early images of some few Serbian troops of the earliest part of the era.

Dragoon Regiment Kurfurstin

Also called Kaiserin fom October 1744 until October 1745 and Piosasque thereafter, I've based this dragoon regiment on the 1740 version of the uniform mentioned in Stephen Manleys excellent uniform guide to the War of the Austrian Succession. Significantly though, he neglects to tell us what colour the small-clothes were. I opted for buff as the "best guess".

This regiment was organised into three squadrons each of four troops. One troop (represented here) was designated as Grenadiers. In my organisation, I am using three figures to represent a troop and thus a dozen for a squadron. When they are fighting dismounted (an option I'm going to allow myself), two figures from each squadron must remain behind as horse-holders.

I'm piecing the regiment together from odds and ends while I await my last RSM order. The horse closest the camera is from Eureka.

Painting for pleasure.

Here's a few things I've been pottering with while

I've been awaiting my latest RSM order.

I've decided to renovate my French regiments, taking them up to a three-company, 15-figures-per company structure with a couple of ensigns and a mounted Colonel to round them out. it's proving pretty painless; as you can see I've just about finished the Berry Regiment. Next on the list is Royal Languedoc with the first three round-outs painted up.

Second is a cheap plastic building from what I think is a Chinese company called "Lee" which I've decided to build into part of Strudelberg. It's actually the second Strudelberg building - the first is a little church with a conical top on the steeple that features earlier in this blog when I was building my Vauban Fortress.

Finally is the converted Austrian/Bavarian Grenadier Officer I've been threatening to do for ages. I'm not entirely sure about how he's cradling hus musket, but we'll see how he looks when he's painted.

Until my next order arrives, I'll probably be painting more Frenchmen and refining my gris-blanc skills. I do have a few other odds and sods saved up for painting just to spoil myself with - mostly aavalry singletons. More later as I get on.

Ducal Doings

Thanks for being patient. And Ducal doings aren't what you think. That's between Friedrich Augustus and Bauer.

I've been fairly busy this past week with work and overtime and haven't really had the time to post much here.

I have been doing a little work on the Strudelberg project. I finished the first Bavarian house a couple of days ago. I have painted up a couple more Croats of the Szluin Regiment, so have had to perform a little hat-surgery upon them.

Speaking of surgery, I have been slicing around an Austrian infantry officer with the aim of turning him into a Bavarian grenadier officer, complete with fusil and belly-pouch - I think the French used to call the equivalent item in their army a "gargoussier". I have an NCO lined up for similar surgery, although I think he will keep his pole-arm. This officer figure, once he has had his "Spanish Reed" cut away would also make a dandy ensign with a little arm-bending.

Anyway, that's enough for now. I'll post a few pictures tomorrow for the sake of a little eye-candy.

Doodling Along

In between writing another Battlegames review for Eureka (or is that the other way around?) I've been quietly adding to my Croats - I'm up to 26 now (including a standard-bearer) with another couple to be added in the next day or so - these will be Sluiz and so will need the "hat-swap" surgery to do them, so they take a little longer than the regulars.

After that, I'll be out of Croat castings and will be waiting on my next shipment of a dozen from DPC, so I think I'll round out next week painting some more Hungarians to build up Regiment Haller.

This weekend I'll be raiding the model railway shop for some "Bavarian-looking" buildings. Painting them ought to be a nice break from painting miniatures.

Croat Horde

Captain Kalnocky leads his reinforced company into action across the top of my spray-paint spattered recycling bin. To him it is a field of Mars. To his Carlstadters from the Likaner Regiment it's just another fight.

I just finished painting Captain Kalnocky this evening, promptly dropped him on a concrete path, curses, re-touched and varnished him then got him together with all the lads if the first company and a few of the second for a group photo.

They refused to pose with the fisrt recruits to the Szluin Regiment of the Karlstadt Generalcy. They look too much like Germans to them.

More on the Defense of Strudelberg Croats

I just sent off an order to DPC for another dozen Croats which ought to finish off the second company and help the third get well on its' way. I also will be welcoming a dozen galloping Austrian Dragoon castings to recruit into my Bavarian forces. Additionally, I ordered a few Ottoman Turks who I think look promising as "early Croats" - I'm fairly excited about these and really hope they'll live up to my expectations.

Next, I'm hoping to convert a couple of the dragoons into drummers using the seperate drums it's possible to buy from Castaway Arts. How did these guys steer their horsies, anyway? Did they tie their reins to the stirrups or something? Anyway, expect me to beplaying with knives, files, greenstuff and brass wire soonish...

I'll get a picture of the completed company up tonight or tomorrow morning.

On another note, me and the missus have finally (after saving for about three years) booked a European Holiday. Mmmm. Six weeks, and only two of it tied into a tour (OK, Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Prague, Budapest, Vienna - it's like the Austro-Hungarian Empire Tour...) so I'm free-ish for four weeks.

Who's got suggestions on places to be and things to do from a geeky perspective?

Croats for Strudelberg

Just quitely noodling away here on the idea of the Defense of Strudelberg and I'm thinking about the composition of my Croat forces.

I like the idea of creating a company of "early" Croats using some of the figures from the RSM Ottoman range - I've spotted a couple of chaps in tall hats and baggy pants wearing shirts and loose waistcoats who might suit. I even like the guy with the horsetail standard who I could swap with a more "Austrian" standard-bearer.

It might even be possible to get some of these blokes into flugelmutzen (perhaps casting my own) to create something approximating von Trencks' infamous freikorps.

In the meantime, I'm nearly done on my first Croat company and have made some progress on companies two and three. My next order to DPC will get these latter companies close to completion, buy me some Austrian Dragoons (who will go nicely with some old von Kleist Cavalry as horse-grenadiers, I think) and some samples for my Balkan wild men.

The Defense of Strudelburg - Croats

Here are a couple of new Croats/Grenz.

I've done them to represent the Szluin Regiment of the Karlstadt Generalcy. You'll note that they are the two RSM Croats with their felt tshakoes chopped off and replaced with tricornes. I did this on the basis of a throwaway line in "Instrument of War"* referring to those troops having at one stage tricornes. Whether they retained them for long is another matter...

You'll note the man on the right has a bandage on his head. This is the legacy of me being too eager with cutting his old hat off, then being too generous with the Green Stuff as I tried to patch the gap!

Overall though, I think they look pretty cool; I really like the overall effect of the colour scheme.

The RSM Croats are very easy to paint, too. Try them for yourself some time. I'll soon be painting up an Austrian Officer with a Hungarian infantry head swap on him to "exoticise" him enough to serve with the Croats.

It strikes me that you could almost mistake them for early (mid1740s?) Hungarians, especially if you replaced the sabre with a plastic card sabretache. Just a thought.

*Duffy

A few thoughts on "The Croat Terror" (or "The Defense of Strudelberg")

Some little while go I posted on what is evolving into a demonstration game - "The defense of Strudelberg".

To refresh your memories: It is about 1742. Austro-Hungarian forces are ravaging Bavaria. A small Bavarian force of Infantry and Cavalry are trying to hold up a strong force of enemy line and light infantry supported by a strong force of hussars and some light artillery. My initial idea was to fight down the length of a table with towns representing victory points scattered on either side of the river. TheBavarians would be forced to choose what to defend and this choice would be complicated by a river running down the centre of the table. The Austro-Hungarian player would be able to choose where to strike, and would have a small but significant advantage in numbers.

To all this, Murdock said:
The only concern I would have for your planned 'long running' battle along the banks of the river is the speed of most infantry cannot match that of the cavalry. Wheras the artillery is what is generally needed to 'batter-down' hardened town locales.Your overall concept I think would be better organized as a 'campaign' to be faught over a number of 'imaginary' weeks. With each defensive stand, chosen by the Bavarians (probably based on the 'value' of the locations) becoming the basis for a tabletop engagement.This way the Croat forces would be able to either 'blitz' trying to rush past with their superior cavalry...or surge forwards in a unified formation.

Me: Murdock, I take your point and am revising the scale of the game down to an "evacuate the civilians" game. Further, I am taking on board your recommendation on artillery and will be equipping the Austro-Hungarian side with a pair of battalion guns. Play-testing may also result in the Bavarians obtaining one also.

I would still like to play out the campaign at a later date, though!


And then Grimsby Mariner said:
We ran a very similar idea for a demo game some years back at Triples & Partizan. the game was based on a large Indian raid down the Ohio valley in the French indian Wars. Twelve warbands of indians (some 120 figures) racing down the valley against 30 regulars and 40 civilians (including women and children) with a relief force sailing up the river in boats. The terrain had two steep wooded valley sides with a fort close to the river and homesteads scattered across the valley floor. we found the whole thing great fun and added twists with each play adding in some French regulars to support the Indian or local militia for the English - we even had Indians in canoes!).the trick we found was play testing it several times before the demo to make sure it worked and was not too unblanced.I imagine your Croat terror game being similar.

Me: It's interesting that you should say that. I'm fairly sure that Jim Purky's "Croat Terror" rules (the title of which I'm pinching to head this series of posts) had it's own genesis in a set of FIW rules called "Iroquois Terror" that had a premise not unlike the series of games you describe.

In light of Murdock's comments above, I'm inclining toward this sort of a scenario at the moment. Hungarian regulars replace the French, Croats replace the Indians, a walled or fortress town replaces the fort - hm, at last! a use for my Vauban fortress - as eye candy at least.

Now i just need a number of 18th Century civilians to look out for. I have some from RAFM's old "Flint and Feather" range. Can anyone suggest some more?

New progress pics of the Haller Regiment

I finally finished off the second company last night - plus a few extras.

I'll start adding command when my last order from DPC comes through.

Bits and Pieces

Just so you know i've not dropped of the face of the earth.

Well, work on the 2nd company of the Haller regiment is coming along quite well; I think they'll be finished off in the next couple of days. I'll hold a parade whaen that happens.

I'm still waiting on my latest RSM order, so the part of the project that's the incentive (ie, the pretty bits) is still a twinkle in my eye. I'm contenting myself with a drummer and another mounted officer for my Bavarians.

Yesterday I took delivery via Amazon UK a copy of Stephen Manley's The War or the Austrian Succession; A Wargamers' Guide - Part IX. This comb-bound A4 paperback (reviewed in BAttle Games V1 Nr5) covers the Uniforms of Denmark, Bavaria, Pfalz, Hannover, Saxony and the varios Hessian states. Let me just say that I was humming with delight as I perused this little gem with it's densely-packed and well-laid out information. It's a great help for my Bavarians in my growing "Croat terror" game that I am slowly assembling. I will be buying more of these. Especially the Austrain book.

Anyway, I must carry on; the dishes won't wash themselves and I would like to put in an hours' painting before Amy gets home from karate.

Here's an idea

I woke up in the middle of the night last night thinking about how I might create a pioneer figure for my Bavarian infantry.

RSM do a couple of figures in their waistcoats with empty hands as part of their artillery sets. I'm thinking, perhaps a grenadier head-swap, a greenstuff apron, a scratchbuilt axe, a loose musket on a sling and a painstakingly built-up coat and I might be there.

The bare head could be transferred to an Officer or NCO who might then be persuaded to hold his hat in his hand.

I'll let you know how I go with that.

I'd like to go further too with my Grenadier officers and actually arm one with a fuisil and a belly-pouch (did the French call them "gargoussiers"?). The Austrian Officer advancing with his "spanish reed" in hand looks a promising subject.

What's on

Every now and then I must really annoy Rich and Dave from DPC by putting in orders like this:

5 x S6-001 - Austrian Officer with Baton
5 x S6-002 - Austrian Officer Advancing
5 x S6-003 - Austrian NCO with Halberd
2 x S6-004 - Austrian Musketeer Drummer
13 x S6-005 - Austrian Grenadier Marching
10 x S6-007 - Austrian Musketeer Marching
8 x S6-012 - Austrian Grenz Loading
8 x S6-013 - Austrian Grenz Stand & Fire

Still they are good about it and they humour me, which I like.

That being said, that's my Hungarian regimental officers taken care of, as well as my Bavarian Grenadiers and a company of Grenz.

Speaking of Grenz, I reckon that with some judicious chopping, you could turn a Grenz Officer casting into an "enthusiastic" ensign. That upraised sword cries out to me to be replaced with a flagstaff.

Flags here: http://royalfig.free.fr/DrapAut.htm These are amazingly beautiful flags by Frederic Aubert, surely one of the most helpful people in this hobby. I stand in awe.

I've finished undercoating the next company of the Haller regiment and am painting all the blue bits. Next comes highlighting them, then the gray base-coats of the coats followed by the white highlighting.

I've a busy weekend on!

1st Company, Haller Regiment

Voila!

The Grenadier drummer will eventually be drafted to the Grenadier company. Just as soon as there is one...

New Recruits

Yhis weekend i started batch painting the first fusilier company of the Haller regiment.

As you can probably see it's an Hungarian unit. Figures are the huge stash of RSMs I found I had.

These two are a pair of test shots I did last week; they are painted very much according to the plate in my Blandford book on the uniforms of the 7YW.

I've another dozen fusilieers and a couple of drummers (one a Bavarian) in process. I've painted the coats, facings, leggings, cross belt and have made a start on the faces.

I ought to have them finished by the end of the week. Each company will have an Officer, Drummer and NCO in attendance. Four companies plus a mounted Colonel should see the regiment come in at 61 figures.

If only all my regiments were of such a size!


This next gentleman is from the RSM aid package of "odds and ends" that lovely Ioannis Mavromichalis sent me, and I painted him over the weekend to stop myself from going mad as I splashed the white paint around. He has now joined the von Kleist Freikorps.

Eureka Toy Soldiers - Free!!!

...and they're gone!

Next available lot are Eureka's Warrior Frogs.

Take a look here:

http://eurekamin.com.au/news.php?newsid=EEyuFulkAEOKftJokR

Again, a pretty fair sampling across the latest releases in the range.

bloggerator@gmail.com

I'll be posting a bit later today to let you know what's been going on here.

Eureka Toy Soldiers - Free!!!

I've some review samples from Eureka Miniatures "Toy Soldiers" range. They are a complete sampling of the range, so there's quite a few items there.

http://eurekamin.com.au/news.php?newsid=EEyuFuZAZkMNLaWktT

For the cost of postage and packaging I'd like to get them to a good home.

First email gets them. Please contact me at: bloggerator@gmail.com