Bits and Bobs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What do you think?

Earthworks

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

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

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

Block-house work in progress

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

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

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

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

Classic Wargamer's Journal

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

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

Getting out of the doldrums

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

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

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

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

Uh-oh...

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

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

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

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

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

Progress Report

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

Very good, Greg, but what does it mean?

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

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

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

Pictures when I get time this weekend.

Cavalry WiPs

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


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

Progress Report

No pictures Jeff, the camera is playing up.

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

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

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

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

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

Now, to market.

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

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

My first offering:

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

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

• 20 RSM Austrian Hungarian Grenadiers - in the Advancing Pose.

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

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

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

The Guns, the guns the sound of guns

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

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

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

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

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

Rationalising the Cavalry collection

It's not what you think.

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

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

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

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

First Brigade:
Gendarmerie
Colonel-General
Cuirassiers du Roi

Second Brigade:
La Reine
Royal-Pologne
Montcalm

Light Brigade:
Saxe Dragoons
Bercheny Hussars
Ratzsky Hussars

Each Brigade will have an appropriate Etat Major.

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

Next time - reorganising the Artillery.

I think I'm back

Been a while, hasn't it?

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

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

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

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

Not too sure.

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

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

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

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

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

More as it comes in.

New bloglet

Airfix Battle of Britian

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

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

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

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

Idle Googling

I like this one...

This one's OK...

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

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

Colonial Potterings

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

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

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

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

Samples ordered!

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

More anon when the samples have arrived.

What's he up to

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

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

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

Best regards to all..!

Earthwork - Ravelin

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

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

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

You should have done it in daylight.

Oh, yeah.

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

The Affair of the Partridges

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

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

Roberts Rangers infiltrate the forested strip...

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

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

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

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

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

The Simple Things

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

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

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

A canoes-eye view through the Merit trees.

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

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

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

Field Works

Erin, supervising.

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

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

No.

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

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

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

Here's what I came up with:

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

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



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

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

Babies and the Art of Military Modelling

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

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

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