In The Next Few Months We Are Mainly.....

Salute is over and now I am looking at my next big project-finally getting in a game using the models I started having made in late 2008!



I have "booked" Barry for some time in June or July for a First Schleswig Holstein War battle
using the Rank and File rules, so now I have to get a serious number of figures and buildings and terrain on the table (when I started 19th Century wargaming I could find a war, convert a ton of Airfix soldiers, write the rules and have a game in a week...and have enough time for my homework and paper round!).

I want a minimum of 6 battalions a side, knicks, buildings etc. and artillery. As you can see I now have some finished artillery-I should have the masters from Andrew in a week and then I just need to get them cast. Simples! *

* The phrase "Simples!"-I do not think I can explain this to anyone outside the UK-it involves a TV advert for car insurance, a meerkat with a Russian accent called Count Orlof.....actually I will give up at this point!

The Day After Salute

Salute 2010 has now come and gone and from my perspective I have the following observations:

There are a lot of people out there who are not willing to stop me talking!

We managed to drum up a fair number of new members for the Continental Wars Society between us all.

Jack Scruby figures are far more appealing in the flesh than people gave them credit for (if they had heard of them at all!).

That a lot of people believe the Helion Austrian hussars in particular are fantastic looking figures!

It was a lot of fun, it was great to see those people who simply popped over to say hello. I only had time for a quick tour of the other attractions and the only pictures I took were from our stand-but I am sure there will be plenty of others who can post better ones than me.

So above is my contribution to the display, Franco Prussian War, Austro Prussian War and Schleswig War figures.

Below, four shots of the Battle of Miloslaw 1848 (Polish rebels being soundly quashed by the might of Prussia). Nice and shiny figures!

I will be posting again next week with an update on my plans for the rest of 2010.

Salute 2010

I apologise for the complete lack of posts-the last week has not been good. Today Harvey, our oldest Border Collie, died after an all-too-short-life following a very unexpected illness. He was a fantastic dog and will be missed by us all. I suppose that is the price we have to pay for the company a pet brings.


I will start posting again after Salute 2010 this Saturday-if you are attending and do get the time I am still going and will be on the Continental Wars Society stand-please feel free to pop over and say hello.

Guns!

The top picture is a detail from the painting of the Battle of Mysunde. The bottom picture is a detail from Andrew's latest sculpts that I received tonight. I will upload all the images, including the guns this weekend on the main site.

The first three Danish gunners and the first Schleswig Holstein gunner carrying ball.

Danish Light Infantry

I am continuing to finish off some more of my figures for the proposed June/July game, so I have added another couple of bases to my Danish Light Infantry, based as skirmishers for Rank & File rules.

The Danish had developed a strong light infantry ethos following the Napoleonic Wars. When not under Prussian command, naturally enough, the Schleswig Holsteiners also made extensive use of light infantry screens. These tactics were seen much later in the Franco Prussian War for example, a strong reserve constantly feeding the skirmish screen. Question is-how to recreate this without being too dogmatic in a set of rules. I will play a few games first and then when I have the feel of Rank & File will make adjustments from there.

My next unit to complete is the first battalion of Danes in the 1848 pattern uniform, started but never finished in November last year.

Andrew has completed the artillery piece and the two barrels and is busy working on the two firing gun crews-I will add pictures to the Waterloo to Mons Miniatures "Workbench" section as soon as I have images available. I really want to get some pre-production models for Salute but I think it will be too tight a deadline.

Nostalgia On A Stick

I have recently been chatting a lot with my wargaming chums about the things that got us into wargaming.

I would list them as follows:

Waterloo to Mons-by Michael Glover...cracking book. Obviously!
Airfix Soldiers-the best battles ever fought on a carpet!
Films- Waterloo, The Longest Day, The Charge of the Light Brigade, How the West Was Won, Young Winston, Callan: The Movie (did not see the series until much older), Breaker Morant, Zulu, Ben Hur, The Good The Bad And The Ugly and A Bridge Too Far.
Other Books-All those Wargames books I had on semi-permanent loan from Southend on Sea Library, Sven Hassell books, Blandfords Uniforms of the Battle of Waterloo and War Picture Library!

Great days-Great box art!