On the workbench today

A bit of a variety going on to keep up my interest level.
On the left, the have just based the first two stands for my Grenadiers de France regiment. This will be a big 12 base regiment of 52 figures including command. Should take me well into November to get this finished as there is a fair level of detail on the uniforms. Behind them is a mounted figure for the Royal Cravattes. This will be the colour bearer with the officer to the right.. The colour has been painted by Mark Allen, and the detail is incredible. I will post the finished figure.
On the right, I am converting two sailors who will become crew members of my recently acquired ships. I will paint the bases brown, as my normal green finish will not look right on board ship.
Finally, I have been working on a generic dismounted French officer with horse. He has still to be appointed to a regiment. A nice, quick vignette to produce.

Regiment Diesbach takes to the field

This weekend I managed to finish Swiss regiment Diesbach, one of the nicest uniforms and set of colours in the French army in my view. I have painted this as a seven base unit to represent a 2 btn regiment. The red tunics were enjoyable to paint and I am pleased with the result.

                                                             Regiment Diesbach

        The figure second from the left, front row is painted by Dave Jarvis, the rest by me. If to                      struggle to tell the difference, then my job is done !  Wonderful flags by Mark Allen.

          Found a stray dog in my metal box so I decided to give the NCO and unofficial mascot

A French ADC for Broglie

This weekend, as a break while completing Regiment Diesbach, I converted an ADC to add to my recently made Broglie command unit. The horse is a modified  S & S civil war piece, the figure a modified Dragoon officer. I wanted to get a sense of urgency and "moment in time" effect, hence the hat flying back from the head of the ADC, and the coat tails flapping.  I enjoy converting one -off figures as a break from regimental duty. Much of the inspiration comes from other forums, and research. This particular fellow is based on the uniform of the ADC in the Osprey, Louis XV's Army Vol 4. Ref F1.  I made the figure lean to one side on the horse, to give the impression he is just delivering or receiving an order. I am pleased with this effort, my photograph has not really done it justice, but a recent upgrade of my phone from an Iphone 5 to Iphone 8, with improved camera may help my efforts !

The ADC in action

We are going to need a bigger table ! Here comes the navy !

I have been mulling over this purchase for some time, but yesterday, I took the plunge, visited my local antique shop, used my negotiating skills developed watching Combat Dealers and countless daytime antique shows, to bag my best purchase in a long time. Each ship is around 30 inches in length and with detail to die for.  Even Mrs H approved the quality of the purchaser, although the fleet has orders to sail from the house to the games room !

                                                                 The Soleil Royal.
       Slightly early for 18th century campaigns, but it looks the part. Ideal for my French flagship

                                                                Le Protecteur
                                         Launched in 1760, ideal for 7YW actions
               I may convert this to a British ship to give The Soleil Royal an opponent. A change of flags                will hopefully suffice.

                         The deck of the Protecteur. 40mm figure on left, 28mm figure on right

                   The deck of the Soliel Royal. 40mm figure on right, 28mm figure on left


      Both 28mm and 40mm figures look great on the vessels, and I intend to use for both.
   I need to acquire some naval crews now, not fighting figures, but sailors working the ship. I will probably convert some S& S 40mm civilians, but I hope to acquire off the shelf 28mm 18th century sailors, if readers can give me  some suggestions.
The ships are too nice to cut way the base of the hull, but I will take them off their stands.
My table has a permanent cloth on the surface, so my plan is to create some 4x2ft base boards, or maybe 3x2ft, create an ocean effect, and have a slot/hole cut in the base board which will allow me to sink in the hulls to the correct depth.  The ships will be set in one permanent position but I hope to create a fleet of smaller flat bottom boats which can move around the baseboards.

Another exciting project to get stuck into, and one that I hope will eventually develop into a display set which I can show. ... Back to my French infantry for now

The Wall

Not Pink Floyd, but my attempt to start making an 18th century town wall in 40mm.
Plywood is difficult to come by in the north of Scotland, so I headed to my local wood store, and bought some wood and edging. DIY has never been my thing, so assembled with some nails, covered and sculpted the brick shaps in polyfilla, then painted, washed and dry brushed.
It has turned out a bit chunky, so I may get some plywood, or go down the 3D printing route. I am talking to GC about the prospect of a Vauban fort, so watch this space !

Still thinking about purchasing one of these beauties to go with a Vauban fort. The boats are 3ft long by 2ft tall, and by my reckoning would work with 40mm figures. Now that would make some display game. Tomorrow I will make my decision. The only thing that holds me back is the bottom of the hull. It needs to be cut flat, which kills any resale value (excuse the Pun), or I cut a hole in a baseboard to sink the hull to water level.... What a dilema  but equally, what  display game.

A visit to Fort George and Inverness Museum

Today I took Mrs H to Inverness station, she is off for the weekend with her sisters to see Andrea Bocelli in Glasgow. Having the weekend to myself, I decided to make Saturday a military day, and firstly visited Inverness museum, which has some nice Jacobite exhibits, and which I have not visited for 25 years !

This coat was supposedly worn by Bonnie Prince Charlie during the 1745 uprising. Whether factual or not, it is a beautiful piece of work, and I hope to incorporate something similar to a figure conversion in the future.

                               
                            A nice highland targe and some exquisite pistols circa 1730-80

                                 Next stop was Fort George a few miles along the coast. 
Completed after the Jacobite rebellion it must be the finest example of Vauban style architecture in the UK, and probably the biggest example of its kind. It was too strong to ever be attacked and the rebellion was over by the time it was finished. There was a fear of French invasion in the 1860's when new artillery was mounted on the walls, but it was largely used as a military barracks, and was HQ of the Seaforth Highlanders for many years.  Not the most welcome of postings it must have been a daunting posting for new recruits. I believe the government had considered exiling Napoleon to Fort George at one time !  It also has the museum of the Highlanders, (Queens Own H, Camerons, Seaforths, Lovat Scouts and Liverpool Scottish). This is one of the finest museums in the UK and a must visit. Much credit must go to CG and his colleagues for this project.
As the regiments were only founded in the late 18th century, there is not much of interest for 7YW buffs, but a treasure trove for later periods.


This image is in the regimental chapel at Fort George. I really like the casualty and padre (wearing a broadsword !). I hope to make a vignette based on these two figures in the near future. You can actually see the stain glass windows reflecting in the photo.

The nearest gun is 18th century, the others probably from 1860 when the French invasion scare was at its height. The fortifications are complete and extremely daunting to any prospective attacker.

                                                                    Impressive howitzer

                            I was fascinated by this painting which shows a French attack in the Netherlands.
There is so much going on in the artwork and I could spend hours looking at it. What a fantastic show stopper of a disply game this would make.... If only I can acquire a 40mm Vauban fort !

Broglie & The Auvergne reg.

Some of you may have already seen these images as I posted them on the 40mm forum and The Seven Years war forum.
I needed a new French command vignette, and inspired by my recent German trip, I decided to do Broglie with some staff. I like to give each command base a unique flag, as per AMG, in this case, I googled the Broglie family crest and used it. All figures are S&S converts.

 I also managed to complete my Reg Auvergne this week. Those facings are such an attractive colour, it is a must have unit. They had 4 btns in the SYW, so I have created a big unit of 12 bases, with an officer, colonel command base, nco and btn gun. A total of 55 figures including the casualty.

Glad to get this unit completed, bringing my French infantry regimental strength up to 11 units.
On to Reg. Diesbach now, looking forward to painting some red tunics being a Swiss regiment.
As they were a 2 btn regiment I will paint up 7 bases of 4 figures to represent them. MA has already painted the colours whcih look fabulous

West Germany trip - Part 6 Hastenbeck

The final battlefield of our trip was Hastenbeck. Mrs H had a desire to visit Hameln, home of the Pied Piper, and fortunately the battlefield lies a couple of miles from the city. Hameln is a nice town, but slightly overated in my view, and one night spent, was enough to take in the sites.
The afternoon was spent on the battlefield and next morning, after an excellent breakfast, we headed for Fulda, our last stop before Frankfurt airport.

 The memorial at Hastenbeck. This took quite a bit of finding. The Germans do not advertise their battlefields and signage is none existant.

 The memorial is on the left of the picture, Hastenbeck village can be seen below. Broglie attacked with 18 btns here, and the small allied force was soon driven back from the village as French gunfire set it alight.

                        The woods beyond Hastenbeck where the allied line was positioned.

 A view of Hasenbeck from the allied position. The French attacked from the horizon.

                                                    Allied position and Obensberg hill

                                           Far right of the hill and the French outflankig movemen

Two views of the Obensberg hill from the opposite side close to Voremberg and the French attack.

Hastenbeck was another great site to visit, and matched Warburg for me. Very easy to reach, largely undeveloped, and great to view it was another highlight of the trip.
Cumberland was in an extremely strong position, the thick woods and Hasten river behind him, would have made it extremely difficult to outflank him and I left the battle thinking why did he abandon such a strong position.

My final day was spent in the city of Fulda, largely inspired by the famous "Fulda" campaign featured in the AMG book. Fulda, is an extremely attractive city, with a beautiful cathedral, lovely architecture, but nothing of a military nature that I could find.

My last shot shows an interesting memorial to Germans killed in the Franco Prussian war. There must have been 30 names listed, the village which is on the way to Fulda, just outside Hameln, was tiny, and the impact of the war on the locals must have been horrendous.

All in all a wonderful trip, and one which we will make an annual event. My thanks to Charles G for providing many of the maps and much of the background information which helped make the holiday  so enjoyable.

West Germany trip Part 5 - Warburg

After Wilhelmsthal, we headed on a short journey to spend the afternoon in Warburg. The weather was very warm, so we stopped in the town to get some lunch and view the buildings. Warburg is walled with many interesting features and well worth a stop. The battlefield lies about two miles beyond the town.

                                 The walled town of Warburg and attractive gate. (This is a must build for the wargames table for me)

 Two pictures, taken  from the cafe where we lunched, give a good impression of how the old town must have looked.

                           Views show the line of allied advance with Menne in the background

              The Ossendorf tower in the background. The repositioned French line and much of the action would have been in the ploughed field.

                                Close ups of the information board next to the small memorial

 The Ossendorf tower. This can be reached by a short walk up the hill. The walk gives a fantastic view of the whole battlefield below.

                     Ossendorf village below, to the right was the left of the French line. The allies outflanked the French by marching via Ossendorf, and climbing the hill beyond.

 The hill in the middle marks the left of the French line, which then turned to the left in response to the allies. The French were positioned on a long rise, which stretched to Warburg which is further to the right of the picture.

                                                The Desenberg, Warburg to the right

                  The memorial which is situated on the path to the Ossendorf tower.
Warburg was my favourite battlefield to date. An interesting town, glorious weather and a battlefield which is still completely preserved and where every aspect of it can be seen from the Ossendorf hill.
A great day all in all.