Blog – Page 24 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

A rest is as good as a change!

I’ve had a very relaxing week away on the beautiful island of Skiathos in Greece. Time to catch a few rays and take a break from the usual routine and recharge my batteries. As well as taking a break for work I also stayed away from my hobby. So no packing up soldiers to paint for me – I even resisted taking my usual historical fact and fiction reads. Instead, I made do with a Lee Childs thriller ‘Gone Tomorrow’ and the latest page turner, ‘Girl on a train’ by Paula Hawkins. Both exceptionally good reads. I did backslide a tad, in that having burnt through those two paperbacks I found that I had ‘Woe to live on’ by Daniel Woodrell on my Kindle. I came across it by accident and didn’t realise that I had it or even what it was until I started the introduction. It’s a terrific read and a tale of the American Civil War, in particular the war in Missouri and the conflicts between the Jayhawkers and Bushwackers, culminating in the raid on Lawrence in Kansas. The Film ‘Ride with the Devil’ is based on the book and I can recommend both if you are at all interested in the American Civil war period.

I hadn’t done any research on the Island of Skiathos itself. Being in Greece and close to the mainland , you would assume that there would be plenty of history to see, so to speak, but apart from a couple of Monastery’s the Island doesn’t seem to have much in the way of antiquity to see. So, I hadn’t planned on any Historical research or visits to historical sites. In fact, the only excursion that we had planned was a boat trip to the neighbouring islands of Scopelos and Allonissos. The purpose of which was to do a bit of Dolphin spotting, sample the local food and of course visit some of the locations that the film ‘Mama Mia’ was filmed at – more of interest to my wife than myself.

Pirates weapons on show at the museum at Allonissos

As it turned out, on one of the islands, Allonissos, there was quite a good little museum to visit. Billed as a ‘pirates’ museum, it actually had quite a nice exhibition of both pirates weapons as well as other weapons from the Greek war of independence, WW1 and more recently, WW2.

Yet more weapons!

This little museum turned out to be a bit of a treasure trove of interesting exhibits and had I had more time, I would have spent much longer investigating the exhibits and taking notes for future research. As it was, we had agreed to meet back with the ladies and so time was at a premium. It also didn’t help that the museum had a superb balcony bar with the best views of the harbour! So I spent more time nursing a cold glass of beer looking out over the bay, enjoying the cool breeze than I did on any serious research…

The view over the Harbour from the Museum balcony bar.

All in all, the museum is well worth the 4 euros entrance fee and is a nice diversion on a very relaxing holiday. Back in the UK for the weekend I found that I was ready to pick up my paint brush again and for the last couple of days I have cracked on and finished my next regiment of Portuguese infantry. It has now been confirmed that they will be appearing in Wargames Illustrated Magazine so if you would like to know how I have painted them ( and indeed why I have chosen certain options when doing so) you will have to purchase the magazine. The regiment is the 11th Penamacor from the Central Division and according to my references, would have been brigaded with the 23rd Ameida Regiment ( which is the featured in the WG article)

11th Penamacor Regiment

I’ve taken a liberty with the unit size as really the regiment would have consisted of two battalions, the first Battalion having the main colour, the second Battalion having the secondary colour, in this case the red flag. So it would be more accurate to have a regiment of 48 figures in two separate battalions of 24, each with their own command and just one colour.

Command Group 11th regiment

I may yet revert to this configuration. It will be easy enough to do as I have put each ensign on a different base, so it would just be a case of painting the extra figures and finding some extra officer figures or musicians to make up the command group. I say easy, it does mean painting another 24 figures in the identical facings and I am sorely tempted to paint the next regiment with the yellow facings just to be different. For now though I am having a break from Napoleonics and next up on the work bench are some Footsore Irish Slingers for my new Saga band!

Irish Slingers from Footsore

British Napoleonic Spare Wheel Wagon

This is a conversion that I actually finished some time ago and whilst I had all the step by step pictures I didn’t get around to writing up the article. A wheel wagon isn’t going to make much of a difference to your army’s firepower but I have been fascinated by the logistics involved in getting a Napoleonic army to battle and a subject like this makes an interesting talking point. I saw the plans in Franklins superb book on British Artillery and thought that it would make a nice project. The only picture I have is from the actual book itself and I hope that showing it here will not offend.

If you dont have this book in your collection I thoroughly recommend it. It is of course available from Amazon and many good military booksellers!

So onto the conversion itself. I used the British gun carriage from the Trent Miniatures range, pack number BA01, the British Light 6pdr and long 3pdr. You will have the barrels left over but these will no doubt come in useful for a future project! You will also need a pack of British wheels from the same range pack number EQ07. There are 8 wheels in the pack, so again, you will have some spares. Both packs are £4.99 each and are available post free from my shop at the moment, so for under a tenner you will have a nice new wagon and lots of spare parts! The wheel wagon itself consists of the carriage and 5 wheels in total:

The main components laid out ready for assembly

You will also need a few scraps of 1/8 inch square balsa, some evergreen plastic rod and some thin evergreen plastic strip. You will use so little of these items that rather than purchase these, a delve into your scrap box may find some bits that can serve instead. If my lack of exact dimensions for these parts is a bit frustrating, it is more to make the point that even Franklin says that the wheel fixings ‘are conjectural’ so feel free modify as you wish.

I used a small piece of balsa and a short length of rod to make the central axle that would hold the two side mounted wheels. A similar piece of balsa and rod was used to make the front axle for the

other spare wheel. Both axle holders were detailed with some thin plasticard strip. The strip is only about 0.25mm thick so is easy to bend and mould around the components. I used super glue for all the construction. It was the easiest way of gluing the various components into place but mind you dont stick your fingers together as I did!

It is then just a question of adding the wheels themselves and the wheel wagon is complete. The next picture shows the main wheels on and the spare ones ready to slide into position. I have also fixed the two equipment boxes that are supplied with the gun carriage into position. As you can see, I have also primed the wagon ready for painting.

At this stage it is easier to paint the wagon before affixing the wheels. I used the British Artillery grey paint from the Foundry range. I then added white to the colour and dry brushed the whole piece to get the highlights and show the texture of the wood. When dry, I picked the metal work out in matt black and used steel to add chips & highlights, particularly on the wheel rims. I also stippled various shades of brown lightly onto the wheels to represent a bit of mud & dirt. The picture below shows the wagon as it would have been attached to a standard artillery Limber. I think that four horses might be more appropriate than six though!

Wheel wagon and Limber

As you can see in the final pictures, I added some wheel caps from small discs of plasticard to fill in the gaps on the ends of the wheels. These are easily made by punching them straight out of a plastic sheet using a button hole punch ‘borrowed’ from the wifes sewing kit! That is it, done. Another wagon to add to my growing collection.

Wheel carriage rear view

Wheel Carriage side view

Austrian Artillery Fusilier Battalion

This week’s blog is courtesy of a long standing friend of Arcane Scenery, ‘Jonas Jones’.

Jonas, is constantly coming up with new ideas for the Trent Miniatures range using his vast knowledge of the French Revolutionary Wars. Many of the conversions that he creates just involve a simple ‘head swap’ or the addition of a weapon or piece of equipment. In this case, no converting is necessary, just a change of colour scheme.

Austrian Artillery Fusiliers Firing

The Austrian Artillery Fusilier Battalion ,1798 – 1801 was formed specifically to support the artillery batteries of the Austrian Army. The uniform and equipment was much the same as other infantry units except that rather than white uniforms, they were brown. The photographs will give you an idea of the colours to use and for wargamers that have an Austrian Army, painting in brown will be a nice change from the Austrian ‘white-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see’!

Austrian Artillery Fusiliers Firing – rear view

A battalion of troops dedicated to supporting Artillery give an interesting opportunity for some tweaks to the Black Powder rules. Perhaps giving Artillery accompanied by these troops the possibility of being supported in combat ( the current rules specify that Artillery cannot be supported in combat) and some degree of supporting fire when the Artillery is threatened would give a slightly different flavour to the Austrian army list.

Austrian Artillery Fusiliers in march column

Jonas has let me know that if you would like to paint your own Austrian Artillery Fusilier Battalion, you simply need to use the Trent Miniatures packs AH98/01, 02, 03 and 04. The figures above were actually painted by Dave Woodward – Jonas is too busy coming up with the next conversion idea to paint!

Changing the subject slightly…. I recently took the above picture to show a friend the extent of my Caribbean collection and surprised my self with how it has grown. There are over 100 figures in the army now, including a joint Royal Marine & Royal Navy landing force, 3 units of Black troops, a unit of 60th rifles and a substantial force of Maroons and slaves. I really must sort out some rules and get these troops on the table!

Round Base, Square hole.

Back in April 2015, I wrote a blog article entitled ‘It’s All About The Base’ where I explained why I thought that the base was the most important part of finishing a figure. It’s still a view that I hold and judging by some of the frequent questions and queries on forums and Facebook it is an important subject for most wargamers. The problem is that we all seem to have our favourite way of basing our models, influenced no doubt by the rule set that we are using.

Maroon skirmishers

I’ve recently been working on some Maroons from the Caribbean wars and next up on the work bench are a batch of Dark Age Irish Slingers for Saga. Both sets of troops are designed to be used in a skirmish game and so I have based them on 25mm round bases. The problem is, I don’t like them – the bases that is. I cant explain why, but I prefer square bases. I particularly like 20mm square as a base size and in the past I have been more than happy to use these. Even for my Napoleonic troops. The problem of moving regiments on the table is simply solved by using movement trays. There are some difficulties with movement trays in that they hold your units in a rigid formation, which can make it tricky when negotiating terrain. It also makes formation changes awkward. My British do tend to stay in firing line but if forced into square it’s a nuisance having to take them out of the tray to form square. However, movement trays generally make deploying, moving and even storing your army easier.

Irish Slingers undercoated and based for painting

Just recently I have started to use 40mm square bases for 4 figures. This is ideal for Napoleonics as they rank up nicely, you don’t have to use movement trays, giving you a bit more flexibility but it does mean that you have to think about how you put your regiments together. It’s no good mixing flank companies in with centre companies and you need to think where the ensigns & officers are going to go onto the bases. My Napoleonic Battalions are built as 24’s. This is ideal for Black Powder and even better, I can split them into two 12’s for club battles, giving me two battalions for the price of one.

four to a base

I am currently thinking about how to design a movement tray that will allow me to incorporate a disorder marker, casualty marker as well as a name plate for the unit. If I perfect it, I’ll add it to the blog. Even better, I’ll sell it in my shop….

movement trays make movement easier

And so back to the round bases. I think that I will have to get used to them if I am going to play Skirmish games but I do have a solution for making them look easier on the eye when they are back in the cabinet. Yes, movement trays are the answer, this time with 25mm round cut outs. It helps with my OCD tendencies to see the troops all lined up smartly, even if on the games table they spread out a bit! So once they have finished their battle they can go back into the tray for storage and then back to the display cabinet in smart order!

Irish Slingers will form line!

The New Partizan Venue and other ramblings…

We attended the our second show of the year. Partizan, at the George Stephenson Hall at the Newark show ground. Although some customers remarked that they missed the lovely architecture of the old venue at Kelham Hall, I think that on balance the new venue has much to commend it. For a start, it is easy to get to, the parking is free and the Venue itself is spacious and well lit. Even better, there is a good café on site where you can sit and have a coffee and a bite to eat whilst chatting to your mates. Architecture aside, I thought that the new venue wins hands down compared to the cramped and badly lit Kelham Hall.

Arcane scenery at Partizan

The new date was also well chosen. In the past Partizan has fallen on a Bank Holiday meaning that it tended to clash with other family activities and the rest of the country being on the road! So from my point of view, Partizan was a great success and I am already looking forward to the ‘Other Partizan’ to be held on 21st August. The organisers, Richard and Laurence, have had to move the date because of other commitments at the Venue but I feel that this will be to the shows advantage, as it will avoid the late bank holiday and the ‘Back to School’ season.

The really good news for Partizan (and of course Richard and Laurence) was that the show had increased numbers visiting. With nearly a 50% increase on numbers, the only downside on the day was the queue time to get in. That will be sorted for the next show, so if you are free I recommend that you put the date in your diary now.

The Grand Melee starts!

When it came to the Bank Holiday itself, I was back in Newark, this time at the Castle, watching another re-enactment event. This time it was commemorating King John and his last visit to Newark. Of course this was just an excuse for the Medieval Re-enactors to camp out at the Castle and do their stuff! I enjoy attending these sort of events and the guys doing the re-enacting usually know their subject and your can learn a lot from watching & talking to them. The ‘Grand Melee’ held at the end of the afternoon wasn’t exactly up to Game of Thrones standards. For a start, every one kept their clothes on! However, it was all good fun and free, so no complaints from me!

If you are wondering what I have been up to with regards to painting model soldiers, then I am happy to report that I have been quite busy. I have been painting Napoleonic Portuguese Line Infantry and I have almost finished 2 complete regiments, some 48 figures! However, I hope that the step by step painting instructions along with the research that I completed will form the basis for an article in Wargames Illustrated so I cannot yet publish this on my blog. However, here is a picture of the Grenadiers…

Portuguese Grenadiers

To see more, you will have to wait for the magazine! I’m sure that Dan’s photography will be better than mine!

The Campaign has started!

At long last we have started our Black Powder Campaign. The idea is that the campaign will provide an ongoing narrative to our regular Thursday night Club battles and encourage us to try out new scenarios and of course build our armies. This week there were three battles happening and to give you an idea of how the campaign works, I’ll describe the battle that my General, Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond was involved in.

The first part of the campaign was to randomly choose one trait for each of our Commanders. Fortunately, all of my brigadiers were ‘normal’ with the exception of my Light Cavalry commander, Rowland Hill, who came up with Timid for his aggression Trait meaning that he will have a -1 when issuing a charge order. My opponent, Wayne, or rather his General, Michel Loup, the infamous French commander also had just one Brigadier with a unique trait. One of his Brigadiers, Colonel Cantona, had the High Decisive Trait giving him the option of a re roll for failed commands but failed re rolls will result in a blunder!

We were using our own points system, which although imperfect, is quick and easy to use and allows us to put similar sized forces on the table. If you would like to know more, I’ve covered this in a previous blog here:

http://arcanesceneryandmodels.co.uk/black-powder-for-club-nights/

Tonight we were gaming with about 40 points a side.

We then chose our scenario by rolling a D6. Again, we use a simple list that I have previously posted here:

http://arcanesceneryandmodels.co.uk/scenarios-for-black-powder/

Tonight’s battle would follow the ‘Off Table Deployment’ rules.

With the scene set it was on with the battle. The British started well, deploying onto the table successfully in two turns and they quickly formed into a defensive line ready for the French. Except the French failed to arrive. On the first turn, none of the French brigades deployed and it was not until turn three that the French Army was actually on the Table.

The French Army finish a leisurely meal before deciding wether to give battle!

The French Army finish a leisurely meal before deciding whether to give battle!

With the French arriving so late on the battlefield, they were unable to use their superior mobility to out manoeuvre the British but found they had to commit to a full frontal assault. To make matters more difficult, whilst they were superior in Cavalry strength and Artillery, they lacked infantry support should things go wrong. Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond had anchored his right flank against a wood, preventing any break though here by the French. He deployed all of his Cavalry on the left flank, opposing the main bulk of the French cavalry. Although out numbered, Sir Sydney was confident that the British Heavy cavalry would be up to the task of holding the French.

French Cavalry threaten the British left flank.

General Loup ordered his Cavalry forward but due to a misunderstanding ( failed order…) the French Light Cavalry found themselves leading the charge whilst the heavies sat back and watched. The British response was immediate and the Scots Greys charged into action, mauling the French Lights and pushing them back, masking their own artillery.

On the right, a French Hussar unit was holding the entire British flank in position but unfortunately, despite Colonel Cantona’s decisive orders, he was unable to get his brigade into position to take advantage of the situation. So rapidly did he give orders, that eventually, some of the French blundered and moved in the opposite direction! Sir Sydney, as cool as ever, held his position, wearing the French down with artillery fire awaiting the inevitable French charge.

Once again, the French Cavalry surged forwards and once again, they were met by the counter charge of the Scots Greys. The French Heavy’s had the worst of it and even though they were led in a personal charge by none other than General Loup himself, they were pushed back, the General barely surviving the combat.

General Loup leads the French into battle only to be repulsed by the Greys!

The British, encouraged by the success of the Cavalry began to edge forward into musket range and the French line started to take casualties. Goaded by the impertinence of the British and still still battle crazed from the abortive cavalry charge, General Loup ordered his infantry brigade to charge the British line. When a clear head is required, Colonel Cantona is the wrong man to have as your advisor. He too, ordered his Brigade to charge and the French Infantry smashed into the British. After some initial success, the French now paid the price for their lack of infantry. The British line held and the subsequent counter attacks allowed them to outflank the French Brigades, counter charging to great effect.

Pressure relieved as the British charge home to the flank

General Sydney Ruff-Diamond looked on with pride as the French were repulsed in disarray. General Loup had gambled that he could break the British line and allow his Cavalry to mop up but he had under estimated the British resolve. There was nothing left but to surrender the field.

Sir Sydney gratiously accepts the French surrender.

Sir Sydney graciously accepts the French surrender.

A great start to the Campaign, with certain Commanders already making a name for themselves and in Cantona’s case, living up to the name that he had been given! Both army commanders will gain an experience point for their Army that in time will allow them to improve that traits of their commanders. The British also gained a French flag, a victory marker that will, if sufficient are accumulated, allow Sir Sydney to upgrade one of his units.

I hope that more battles will follow!

Maroons of the Caribbean

The last couple of blog posts might lead you to believe that my painting output had slowed somewhat. In fact I have been steadily working through a number of projects, one of which has been to expand my Caribbean contingent. I mentioned that I am reading the book ‘Death before Glory’ a history of the British soldier in the West Indies 1793 – 1815. The number of nations and protagonists involved in this theatre of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars could keep me busy painting for years to come, not to mention the vast amount of material for wargaming scenarios with regard to both the terrain and the people involved. It certainly is an eye opener with regard to our own history and that of other nations.

My Maroon band stealthily make their way through the forest!

One group involved in the struggle were the Maroons. I use the word ‘group’ very loosely. In reality they were a number of disparate communities made up of runaway or freed slaves that had formed their own free communities in the wild interiors of the various Caribbean islands. In fact, there were and still are, Maroon Communities throughout the Caribbean, some parts of South and Central America and even in the USA. They were formidable warriors and expert at using the terrain to their advantage. The Maroons of Jamaica fought against the British and held the might of the British Army at bay for sometime.

Jean Kina leads his band to attack!

As well as fighting against the British, they also fought alongside them on Saint Domingue ( Now Haiti). One leader, Jean Kina, led a substantial force of freed or runaway black slaves that fought for the British and was involved in number of engagements with the French. So it was clear to me that I needed to add a unit of Maroons to my collection and of course the obvious choice was the figures from the Trent Miniatures range. I have still to finish the bases of my figures. I intend to add more plants and give them more cover to hide behind! But for now the unit is ready for use. I have been blathering on about using the Muskets and Tomahawk’s rules to game in this region and whilst it is still on the agenda ( as it has for the last couple of years) the new Sharp Practice rules look as they may be much easier to adapt. I also think that they may give more flavour to the troops and Characters involved – who knows, I may be able to use a bit of Voodoo. Napoleonic Zombies…now there is a thought!

Voodoo Chile..you wouldn’t want to mess with this guy!

I would very much recommend that if you are interested in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars that you research the conflict in the Caribbean. There is a wealth of material and scope for skirmish games, the history is fascinating and the characters involved may be more familiar than you expect. There is nowhere near enough time or space in a blog post to give you an idea just how much was going on out there. There were very few big set piece battles as was seen in Europe but my goodness, there were some fearsome sieges, amphibious assaults, guerrilla fighting and ambushes. The fighting seemed to be non stop across the Islands as first one side held ascendancy and then the other , with both succumbing to a terrible toll due to Yellow Fever and Malaria.

For now though, I have my Maroon Unit, next on the painting table, for this army, Cuban hunting dogs…

What are you reading then?

There’s no doubt about it, a good film (or even a not so good TV series in the case of Sharpe) can inspire me to get on with my hobby and paint a unit or game another period. That said though, it is my reading that really fires up my imagination. I’m not talking about the research reading that I do, the sort of stuff that you need to do when painting the next batch of troops to check the facing colours and all that malarkey! I’m talking about the sitting quiet with a cup of tea or coffee and losing yourself in a book sort of read. I find that it is fiction that really does the trick for me. Don’t get me wrong, a well researched history book will grab my attention. For example, I am currently working my way through ‘Death before Glory’ an account of the wars in the Caribbean in the Napoleonic era. It is a fascinating read, full of battles, skirmishes and eye witness accounts of the events that helped establish the British Empire in this area.

As a result I am even more enthusiastic about putting together a Caribbean force and over the last couple of weeks I have finished yet another 14 Maroons to fight in a campaign that may never happen! But, notice that I said that am ‘working my way through’. It is taking me a bit of effort to focus and digest all that is going on. No such problems with the book that I picked up recently! It’s Bernard Cornwell’s ‘Warriors of the Storm’. I doubt that Bernard will ever win the Man Booker prize for Literature but if ever there was a prize for writing damn good yarns, Mr Cornwell would get my vote! The Times review on the back of the book was cut down to ‘Blood, divided loyalties and thundering battles’. And that pretty much summed up the book but what a great read. I was through it in a few days and actually slowed down as I didn’t want it to end.

Now if you are remotely interested in Dark Age war gaming in general and Saga in particular, I would say that the ‘Last Kingdom’ series is required reading. I guarantee that you will be shouting ‘Shield wall’ in your mind every time you face adversity!

In the ‘Warriors of the Storm’ there are appearances by Saxons, Vikings, Danes and best of all, the wild warriors of the Irish. I have just got to get on with my Irish warband. Never mind Brian Boru, my leader will have to be Finnan! You can be sure that Bernard Cornwell will have done his research well enough to provide plenty of inspiration for your Saga warbands. Many of the battles are based on real encounters and they are well described, both in terms of the setting and the events themselves. There are some great descriptions of the arms and armour used, the war banners and other equipment. Even better, at the back of each novel is a brief historical note setting the scene for each novel. Of course there are plenty of other books out there that will inspire and I suspect that we all have a few favourites on our shelf. My next read, although I will finish Death before Glory first, is Conn Iggulden’s Wars of the Roses ‘Bloodline’. It’s time I painted a few more troops for my WOTR retinue…

So if you are feeling a bit jaded and need a bit of a boost, treat yourself to a good book. Actually, no, treat yourself to a good read!

Bolsover Castle

The forecast for a rainy Bank Holiday should have been my cue to spend a day or two painting and modelling but you can get a bit stale cooped up inside. Instead, I decided that we would have a day out visiting a nearby castle over at Bolsover. I have driven past it many a time but had never actually visited the place. It is situated ‘over the border’ in Derbyshire and is about an hours run from our home in Bingham. If the weather wasn’t too encouraging, the fact that there was an English Civil War re enactment taking place over the bank holiday was incentive enough to overcome any inertia and so off we went.

Bolsover Castle

Bolsover Castle is now run by the English Heritage and perhaps this is reason I haven’t visited before. I have usually had National Trust membership and so have avoided paying entry to ‘the other sides’ locations. The Castle itself was originally built in the 12th Century but fell into disuse and disrepair until it was rebuilt by William Cavendish between 1612 and 1617. The Cavendish family extended the house over the next few decades and in 1660 added a riding range to the building. William Cavendish was an enthusiastic horseman and a very early practitioner and expert in Manége, or as we now know it, Dressage. He was a supporter of the Royalist cause during the Civil war and as the Marquis of Newcastle, commanded the Newcastle White Coats.

The White Coats of Newcastles Regiment take up position.

Following the defeat of the Royalists at Marston Moor, the North was lost as the Parliamentarians capitalised on their victory. Bolsover Castle was taken without resistance. Cavendish, despondent at the defeat, went into exile on the Continent. Despite the lack of a real siege taking place at Bolsover, the Castle formed a superb back drop to the re-enactment that was to take place on the day of our visit. I always thoroughly enjoy such events. The enthusiasm of the participants makes up for any lack of acting ability! Of course, the costumes and expertise of the re-enactors are a very valuable source for wargamers. So, as you can imagine, I spent much of the day watching the various events and wandering around the reenactors encampments! I will really have to go back to the Castle to have another good look around. The time that I did spend exploring the various buildings was very well spent and there is plenty to see.

View from the Castle terrace

The ‘Little Castle, Bolsover

However, the highlights for me were the extra events taking place. The appearance of a very well drilled ‘squadron’ of Hasslerigges Lobsters, certainly being very impressive.

Hasselrigges Lobsters!

Cornet stands for inspection

As well as the battle re-enactments there was an informative lecture on the Cavendish Family by Historian John Taylor and a very enjoyable ‘music of the Stuarts’ performed by Hautbois.

Hautbois

Back to the main event, the siege itself. Although fictional , it was well done, with a humerous but informative commentary. The real joy for me is to see how the various parts of the army functioned and of course to fire up my imagination! The next sequence of pictures tells the story better than I can.

The New Model Army arrives to lay siege!

The Defenders sally forth!

Get Stuck In!

Muskateers open fire.

The cavalry attack!

All in all, a most enjoyable day. Although the weather wasn’t at it’s best, there was little of the rain that was forecast. That may have accounted for the lack of crowds, which of course meant that it was very easy to see everything that I wanted to. I would very much recommend Bolsover Castle as a place to visit, if you can choose a day when there is an event running, even better! The link to the official web page is here:

www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/bolsover-castle/events

Snow Bears!

I am not easily distracted when focused on a project. In fact, I pretty much stick to what I have started, regardless of all the shiny new toys that I see every day. However, a casual enquiry at the recent Salute show set my mind working and before I could stop myself, the workbench was cleared and I was off on a complete tangent. The enquiry was, ‘Do you sell Polar Bears?’ I answered that we didn’t but that we did have some nice cave bears that could be painted white. Which made me wonder why we hadn’t done this before.

So as soon as I had a free weekend, I had a go at painting the three DeeZee bears as ‘Snow Bears’. We can’t describe them as polar bears as their heads are a bit on the large size, although the bear attacking looks almost sleek enough. The painting process was surprisingly quick. Once any mould lines had been removed, I primed the bears with a Model Mates Light grey primer.

DeeZee Cave bears primed and ready for painting.

I had already decided to put them onto one base so that they could be display models for future shows. I decided to try a slightly different painting technique for each bear. For the Bear attacking, the one on the right, I first used a Vallejo beige to dry brush the undersides and shadows on the bear. This would give that slight yellowish tinge that you often see on Polar bears. I then used Vallejo Ivory, followed by Silver grey, followed by off white and finally Vallejo white in successive dry brush coats to build up the high lights. For the prowling Cave bear, the one on the left, I simply lightly sprayed him in white over the grey undercoat!

The first two cave bears painted as snow bears.

The details were quite straight forward. I painted the eyes, nose, mouth, ears, claws and paw pads in Vallejo Black. The tongue was painted Beige red and shaded with a brown wash. I added some dark greys around the snout and finally the teeth were tidied up with Vallejo white.

Three Bears!

When it came to the third bear, the rearing bear, I followed the same process used for the attacking bear but shortened down. I still used the Vallejo Beige as a shade colour but went straight to the white dry brush to save time. The base ground work was done initially with milliput ( to stop the base from warping) and then covered in polyfilla to get the snow effect. I also added some Arcane scenery ‘Snow and Ice’ rocks to the base to add a bit of detail.

Base work done.

The final touch was to add some Noch Snow effects to the base and that was my little project complete. A bit of a change from my usual Napoleonic addiction but good fun. I think that if you are looking for a Snow Bear for your games – Frost Grave springs to mind – then the DeeZee bears will look great!

The finished Snow Bears

Another view of the completed Base

Campaign General Completed!

In an ideal world it would be nice to refight the battles of the Napoleonic era with all the correct forces on a wargames table that accurately reflected the terrain and conditions on the battlefield. However, the majority of my gaming takes the form of club gaming with my wargaming buddies at the White Hart pub. We turn up with fairly evenly matched armies every Thursday night and battle across a gaming cloth with a bit of scenery on it and to be honest, I’m quite happy with this state of affairs. It means that I am wargaming at least once a week and enjoying the company of like minded people.

However, there’s been talk of organising a campaign. To be fair, I’ve been edging towards producing a set of campaign rules that would allow us to link our battles together in an informal way to provide a narrative to the battles that we fight. Well, things are very slowly moving in the right direction and I have a few ideas as to how we can achieve this without it becoming a major chore as some campaigns can be. I will get to publishing some of these ideas but the first requirement is for each army to have a named commander.

Private James Riddle shows his defiance to the French!

I did have a commander for my army but it wasn’t an inspiring model and I wanted something that would perhaps reflect my personality on the wargames table. So an idea came to mind when I saw a model of a British Infantry man giving the ‘victory sign’ – I’m not even sure which manufacturer produces the model – it was actually given to me. All I needed was a officer to go with the soldier and I would have my command base. When I saw the Front rank model of Rowland -Hill, I thought that he was just the sort of commander that I was looking for. The model is a superb sculpt and doesn’t immediately look like some of the other big personalities of the time. So I chose Sir Rowland -Hill as the commander. Of course, as far as the campaign goes, he will be known as Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond!

Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond

I thought that the base needed another model to balance it off, so what could be better than a British Bulldog! Fortunately, I have a great looking Bulldog in my very own DeeZee range, so there was no problem in acquiring this model!

Oh Yes! Its Churchill!

So with each model painted it was then a simple matter to assemble them all together on a 60mm MDF base. I followed my usual basing techniques although I have added a little something special. The rocks and detail on the base are actually some earth straight from the Battlefield at Waterloo, so I don’t want any complaints about accuracy here! I also added a few tufts and flowers and hey presto! My new army commander, Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond and his faithful companions, Private James Riddle and dog Churchill are ready to take to the field!

Sir Sydney Ruff- Diamond watches on as Private James Riddles rebukes the French!

There will be some battle reports to follow, so keep a check on my blog to see how Sir Sydney and his companions fair on the field of battle at the White Hart!

Sir Sydney makes his debut.

It’s been two weeks since my last blog. My modelling schedule has been somewhat disrupted by the long Easter break, which coincided with two very important family birthdays and the clock going forwards, which has prompted me to do a bit more out in the garden. Despite this, I have made some progress with my painting and the 32nd Cornwall Regiment is all but ready to take to the field. The command group has been completed with the exception of the flags, which I need to order, and the basing is complete apart from adding a few tufts.

Command group for the 32nd Regiment

I did take a few short cuts with the painting and decided to opt for the usual block coat, quick shade, re- highlight method that I used on the troops. I’ve used a richer red for the officers coats but otherwise, everything else followed my usual colour scheme and painting routine. So the unit is now ready for the table and you can see them parading before ‘Little Bingham’, ready to march off to the wargames table!

First Battalion 32nd Regiment ‘Cornwall’ ready for duty!

You might notice there appears to be a new commander in the background. He is none other than Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond, my new army commander. Sir Sydney distinguished himself on the field of Waterloo, leading the charge to the Gin cart and ensuring that his brigade had full rations throughout and after the battle. Of course his namesake and Grandson was also a hero in the later campaigns in Afghanistan and India. There will be more to come on Sir Sydney’s illustrious career in future blog articles but for now he is still a work in progress.

Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond

As befits the Commander of my army, I am trying to paint him without taking shortcuts and using quick shade, so painting has been a slower than usual. The model just needs a bit more work on the horse and some of the highlights need looking at. I may have been too harsh with the grey on his boots. It would help if I had a better picture so I may give him the lightbox treatment just to help pick out the areas that need a bit of work.

Sir Sydney will be the commander of my Campaign army and when based will be the inspirational focal point for my troops. So it’s important that he reflects the true character of both my army and my approach to the hobby…Watch this space!

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A rest is as good as a change!

British Napoleonic Spare Wheel Wagon

Austrian Artillery Fusilier Battalion

Round Base, Square hole.

The New Partizan Venue and other ramblings…

The Campaign has started!

Maroons of the Caribbean

What are you reading then?

Bolsover Castle

Snow Bears!

Campaign General Completed!

Sir Sydney makes his debut.

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