Western Germany Tour - Part 1

Having just returned from our 10 day trip from Germany, I thought I should start blogging again. So where better to start, than to tell you about the trip itself. I was careful to go for a "balanced" holiday which allowed for four days of site seeing on the Rhine, before heading northwards for stays in Bad Wildungen, Kassel, Hamelin and Fulda, ideal stops for taking in the various battlefields.
The Rhine stay included a day trip to Koblenz, a fabulous city with its fortress dominating the river junction of the Rhine and Mosel. The fort is very Vaubanish, but built much later and very much worth a visit for the view alone, although nothing much military on show.
Never mind, I discovered that the "Scientific Collection of defence Engineering Specimens", one of the best collection of tanks/vehicles etc in Europe was in Koblenz, although remotely located, and still a live military base. Never mind, it was worth the treck, as there is a superb military bookshop next door, with a collection which covers all periods and which has been open for decades.
Disaster, the owners have taken 4 days holiday (highly unusual for them), starting the day we arrived!
Worse was to come, as the museum required us to show our passports as many of the weapons or still active. Our passports were 2 hours away at out hotel !  I have included their brochure for readers who may be in the area. Well worth the trip if you can find it.

Next was a one night stay in the pretty holiday spa town of Bad Wildungen, home of the Museum Schloss Friedrichstein, which contains the Hessian military museum collection.
We decided to assault the castle by foot, following a footpath to the summit. An hour later in 26 degrees of sun we finally reached the top, but well worth the effort. This is a real hidden gem, an old style museum which focuses on uniforms, equipment and paintings, not technology and kids stuff !
The two lady staff members were extremely nice and helpful. I think they were amazed at somebody showing genuine interest in their collection !

                                             THE HESSIAN MILITARY MUSEUM COLLECTION

Gott im Himmel !!!   Bang your dead !!!!
I don't think this six gun model carriage, dated 1760 ever saw production, and if it did, I don't know what the recoil would have done to the horses and carriage, but it would make a mighty fine addition to any wargame collection !

Not sure of the uniform of the chap in white Strange brass plate and the white plume ?

               Excellent contemporary map of the period showing positions at the battle of Wilhelmstahl

                                                             The Prince (A well known portrait)

                                             Not sure about this character, but great uniform

Strange tunic this, as the Hessians only had one Hussar regiment, Kronoscaf shows an image of Rittmeister von Riedessel with a blue tunic and pelisse, rather than the red tunic in the picture, also with a black rather than light brown cap. This tunic may have belonged to a high ranking officer

             Wonderful grenadier caps, the quality of workmanship has to be seen to be appreciated.

Nothing in the shop to purchase, but an afternoon very well spent and a museum that may be hard to find, but should be a must visit if you are in the area.
Bad Wildungen, is close to Corbach, so that would be our first stop the next day on our route to Kassel. A well earned local beer and some excellent local substance finished our day .....
Tomorrow Corbach.

Auvergne Infanterie Vignette

As a break from painting Auvergne infantry figures, I converted and painted up a vignette today, which will be a command stand for the completed regiment.
Love the facings of this unit, a real classic colour.

In the footsteps of Charles Grant

A week today we travel to Germany for 10 days, part of which will be to visit some of the western theatre that Charles G has documented, including those in his latest book, Volume 7 of Refighting History.
Today is a glorious morning in the north of Scotland, (yes we do get them), so I decided to look out some of the maps which Charles has kindly loaned to me to plan our route.
We are spending 3 nights in Kassel, which is centrally located for the trip, and an ideal base for visiting the battles of Warburg, Corbach and Wilhelmsthal. To add to that will be a visit to the Hessian military museum, which is a short trip from Kassel.
A night at Hamelin will allow us to visit Hastenbeck, and possibly we can squeeze in Vellinghausen.
Before all of that, four days relaxation on the Rhine visiting castles and sampling local hospitality.
Ten days without painting soldiers, can I cope ?

A three day stay in Kassel was started with a visit to Sanderhausen today.
Difficult to find, but well worth the effort and it greatly helps in understanding the battle.

More masters from the Crann Tara 40mm stable

Yesterday I made a new mould using some computer generated 40mm Austrians sent from Graham C of Crann Tara. The plastic/resin masters are extremely fragile and tend to break in a standard vulcanised rubber mould, so I bought some silicone moulds, which can harden at a lower temperature, are much softer on masters, and shrink less.... Unfortunately the same result, with many of the masters breaking in the mould or distorting. However the Austrian grenadiers and some other figures came out ok. The rest I will patch up with milliput and cast the masters in metal.
The results are stunning. The pictures do not do the figures justice. They are lovely to paint, full of detail, but easy to work with the brush.

These chaps are painted as IR27 Baden-Durlach who saw action in many of the major actions of the Seven Years War and War of Austrian Succession. The light blue facings makes a nice contract with the predominantly darker blue or red facings of the majority of Austrian regiments.
Creating a full regiment will be one of my winter projects.

The Guarde Suisse Regiment takes to the field

The Guarde Suisse represents my 9th completed French regiment in 40mm. It has taken some time to complete as it is a 52 figure regiment, 12 bases of 4 musketeers, a command base, mounted colonel and sergeant. This configuration represents a 4 btn regiment.Very pleased with the look of this regiment, very Barry Lyndon"ish"in the photos, and it will compliment the Guardes Francais which I painted some time ago.
Next up is the Auvergne regiment, another 12 base unit, but for me it is a must have. I just love the colour of those  mauve/purple facings.