Battle of Solferino

Today marks the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Solferino-and if I had thought about it earlier I could have painted up some of my 1859 figures especially for the occassion.

The battle resulted in the victory of the Allied Armies of France and Sardinia over the Austrian Army: it was the last major battle in world history where all the involved armies were under the personal command of their monarchs. Over 200,000 soldiers fought in the battle, the largest since the Battle of Liepzig in 1813.

This event is probably most famous for its aftermath. Jean-Henri Dunant, appalled at the suffering of the wounded left on the battlefield began a campaign which resulted in the establishment of the International Red Cross. The rest, as they say, is history

Holstein Farmhouse

My first attempt at a Holstein farmhouse is now complete. It is intended to represent a typical period farmhouse in the North German - Holstein style.

Generally the farmhouse would comprise of one large brick built building. On one side (just visible on the model) is a large barn door. This would lead into a farm storage area with stalls for livestock on either side. The other half of the building would consist of the living quarters. The high roof held a loft area for grain and hay storage. The better off families would have chimneys, the remainder had to make do with a simple hole in the roof. One or two sides of the building would be whitewashed, the other sides were in bare red brick. Thanks to Jorgen once again for all of this information and the image of the real thing.


The models main structure consists of a foamboard "box" with the doors and windows cut out. The beams, doors etc are simply thin balsa wood. I decided to go totally rustic and gave the buildings an unneccessary coat of render between the beams etc. There are many ways to make the thatched roof-my method is quite simple-and messy! Mix DIY filler with the cheap kids "runny" PVA glue instead of water, slap it on and score with a toothpick. When dry give the whole building a coat of chocolate brown emulsion paint and then paint up as normal.

I will produce a few more (smaller) buildings later, but next up I am going for the stone walling common in the Holstein area. That windmill looks pretty cool too!

Waiting For The Plaster To Dry...

...and then I can start decorating the "new place". A (rather dark) work in progress shot of the first of the Schleswig-Holstein architecture. The plaster "thatch" is still drying but once completely hardened off* I will get painting.

Duncan at Helion kindly sent preview shots of the next batch of 1866 figures-the Prussian & Austrian command vignettes. Absolutely marvellous! (Helion wargames has developed like no other figure range I can think of-it is more like an historical catalogue in miniature). Needless to say I am saving my pocket money at the moment!

*"Hardened Off"-wasn't he the Boer captain in the film Zulu?

Schleswig Holstein Jaeger Skirmish Line

The Jaegers are now complete. I am partcularly pleased with the green uniform result, shade 71A, B & C (French Chasseur) from the Foundry Paints range. The impressive shako with horse hair plume is most commonly associated with FPW Prussian Jaegers, however at this time they actually wore a picklehaube. The Jaegers adopted this impressive head piece after the First War. I have given the bugler a reddish coloured plume. There is a surviving example at the Isted Museum with a red plume and although it is not certain if it was actually worn in the field I think it looks nice!

The master figures go off to the moulder on Monday after I have tweaked some minor details. Andrew is now working on matching Danish Lights in the 1848 uniform with cap and kepi. After that I think it is time to introduce another infantry pose before tackling the first of the artillery.

A quick thanks to Jorgen, Stuart and Rob for their invaluable help with my research for these figures and more, it is very nice in this day and age to see people freely share their hard earned research-thanks gentlemen!

Next up will be some SH War specific scenery starting with my first building and "knicks".