The Fleischhacker .

These are my newly finished Prussian Hussar Regt. Nr6 von Wechmar nicknamed the 'Capuchins' or as I will be referring to them from now on, the marvellous - 'Fleishhackers' or the butchers because brown was the colour of the guild of butchers . 

I enjoyed painting them , it's rather a different colour scheme - even though I had to buy a new yellow from Games Workshop , the young man serving on (I'm getting to the age when I can use that phrase) asked - "what are you painting at the moment ? " and looked a bit nonplussed when I replied "40mm home cast Hussars".

Refighting The '45' .

'A' called round for a game and the first thing to do was remove Hodge from the battlefield - cats aren't allowed in the gaming room - not after the dead mouse incident .

Having got enough figures painted to play the sample game in the back of the book I thought it was time to try them out . I've been playing around with some small solo games and so was ready for a live opponent .

Here is the battle set up with the British nearest the camera and the Jacobites on the left .

The Government line with Lee's Regiment of Foote in the foreground . 

The Camerons are on the right of the Highland army .

'A' searches the rules for loopholes . The rules in the 'Paperboys' book are cleverly designed to reproduce  the field battles of the '45' in a quick and simple way, we played two games in the evening swapping sides for the second . I don't think they will handle the smaller skirmishes and raids as well and for these I will be using 'Black Powder' . It was nice to get the new figures into action and this has spurred me on to get some more painted up.

Suffering For One's Art.

So I started to convert a Hussar into a trumpeter , cutting the bugle from one figure and removing the sword from the Hussar . I then had to drill into the stump of his arm add a piece of wire , them drill into the bugle/ hand - at this point I managed to jab myself forcibly with the mini hand drill in the thumb end !! , for such a small hole there was an impressive amount of blood ! (and swearing) . However I pressed on and with the aid of a plaster (for me) and some super glue and 'green stuff' I've got the job done . Now to undercoat them and get them painted - appearing soon I hope .

40mm Hussars .

As a change from 20mm plastic Jacobites I've been painting up my next regiment for my SYW-ish project . They are the Prussian Hussar Regiment Wechmar .

They were nicknamed 'Capuchins' or the 'Fleishhakers'  as brown was the colour of the guild of butchers.

I've got a half of them done and thought I would get them varnished .

I think I will have to invest in another tin of varnish as this one has died .

I have also cast up a couple of figures for an officer and trumpeter - I will have to cut off the trumpet from the musician figure and fit it onto the Hussar as there isn't a Hussar trumpeter . I will post better photos when I get them finished.

Wargaming When The World Was In Black And White .(now with some mysteries solved)

These three photos were found on Facebook , I don't remember seeing them before . Is this a Morschauser game in progress using squares ? 

Thanks to Neil Patterson who pointed out that this is Gerard de Gre and its from a Wargaming Newsletter

Can't make out which figures or period here (Horse and Musket)

Napoleonic 20 mm ? , that church was a cardboard model railway building . I once built one and used  it many years ago .

Thanks to Steve-the- Wargamer I have tracked the gentleman in the above photo down , he is to be found at 

http://napoleonicwargaming.blogspot.com/

and apart from a little greying of the hair (haven't we all) remains almost unchanged in appearance and enthusiasm .

Colonel Gardiner's Regt. of Dragoons.

The next unit I've finished are a squadron of Gardiner's Dragoons , they are converted Zvezda Russian Dragoons - well all I had to do was CAREFULLY trim off their moustaches and I think the rest of the uniform is close enough . They are portrayed being a bit more belligerent than they were in the actual rebellion , they fled at Prestonpans , partly due to their horses being so badly trained that they bolted at the first gunfire and the commanding officer being wounded at a crucial moment . Their performance was not brilliant at Falkirk either.

Perhaps somewhat controversially I have 'docked' the horses tails , this was common practise in British cavalry and never portrayed on model horses for some reason (looks odd ?) - I think this practise had died out by the 19th century (?) I'm also doing dismounted versions of these figures.

Lt. General Guise's Regiment of Foote .

Been busy finishing off a number of units which have been held up somewhat by real life (Spring cleaning etc.) and the first up is Guise's Regt. of Foote (6th) . They only had 2 companies at Prestonpans , the rest being scattered across the Highland forts , but I decided to do them at full strength .

The figures are of course by 'Red Box' and are rather nice - they were troublesome to paint however - lots of straps and I struggle painting yellow properly . 

I also did another Government commander - Colonel Peregrine Lascelles who commanded the infantry at Prestonpans , he is a converted Great Northern War Russian Dragoon officer. 

Necessity, The Mother Of Invention .

Last year I replaced my old hen house with this plastic one , this has worked very well the only problem being where to put their food containers . I did try putting them in the hut but they kept knocking them over , I erected a lean-to to put the food under to protect it from the rain but it was difficult to get into . We are going on holiday soon and our neighbour feeds the hens for us when we are away and I thought I will have to come up with a solution to allow this long suffering lady to feed them .

After much thought I hit upon the idea of using a flagstone as the base and bricks set on it on three sides and  a wooden roof made from the side of the old hut . I set the bricks out without mortaring them to try it out and it has worked well , so today being fine and the dog absent with my wife (he tries to help) I started to brick it up permanently with mortar .

The finished edifice with the food containers in place , the movable brick in front of them is to stop the birds knocking the seed everywhere and can be removed for cleaning . 

The finished feeding station (as I'm now grandly calling it !) with the roof placed on top . I've sited it away from the prevailing wind to protect it from the rain . Rather pleased with this job and hopefully so will my neighbour when she comes to feed them - the hens seem indifferent ! .

A Blast From The Past ! . (a forgotten posting)

I have had this article on the computer since before Christmas and had rather forgotten about it -

 I came across my old copy of DBA wedged  between some Osprey books on my bookcase and I sat there wallowing in nostalgia - I bought them when they first came out in 1990 (that's 29 years ago !!!) and our group  played them constantly for years  and I amassed lots of 15mm DBA armies of various eras, we never bothered with the various new editions which I think didn't improve the game , then as things happen I moved on and ended selling off all my armies .

Then I came across a copy of The Sumerians by Leonard Wooley for 50p at a charity shop - 

I also saw and won very cheaply several boxes of plastic 1/72nd figures - so I was back into DBA .

I painted up two Sumerian DBA armies using these figures and re-read the rules , which there are not a lot of , but rather badly written - they read like a insurance document .

The war carts were a nightmare to assemble needing lots of pins to hold things in place . I used the 25mm scale basing system which needs a 4' x 4' table .

Spearmen and shield/pavise bearers , what I like about the Sumerians  that there is hardly anything known about their methods of warfare , we know they used ass drawn chariots and close order spear armed infantry and that's about it .

These are some of the very few contemporary illustrations of Sumerian warriors .

The opposing General flanked but skirmishers and Guti tribesmen . Behind them is the armies camp a homemade Ziggerat .

The other flank of the army , the great thing about DBA armies is that you only need twelve bases/elements per army and Sumerians are very simple figures to paint up .

Their first battle, skirmishers ( called 'Nim' - flies ) engage Guti highland tribesmen holding a patch of woodland . I'd quite forgotten how quick and simple DBA was to play , in my opinion  they probably portray ancient warfare as well as any other sets of rules and a lot easier to learn and remember . I'm going to paint up some more of the figures so I can field the other variants of the army .

Feel Like A Change .

Having painted nothing but 1/72nd plastic of late I feel I need a change , I bought these ten Prince August Hussars off EBay last year and they have been sat in a box - so it is time to get them undercoated and painted . I'm not sure which regiment or even nation they will be , but I think the Allies are short of Light Cavalry .