A bit of painting (and perhaps a new side-project)

 

When I was clearing the shed out I came across a box with some 40mm Prince August homecasts,  I don't remember castings or undercoating them . They are Swedish for the Great Northern War , so I'm going to paint them up and see where they take me ! . 

PS 

Had a bit of a think and wondering about initially using 'Pikeman's Lament' rules with these figures , as they use units of about twelve figures for foot and six for mounted , with about 5-6 units per side and as I have all the moulds I need it would be a do-able project - we will see !?

The Battle of Blasthof Bridge (or a 'Blast' from the past}

    I set out the troops as close as possible to the book and tried to follow their manoeuvres as near as I could .

The rules are very simple and it was nice not to have to keep consulting them constantly , unlike some modern rules.

The Artillery proved quite effective and it was important to get it into action as soon as possible.

The Electoral Foot cross the River Blast upstream from the bridge . 

The Imperial Foot start taking casualties from the enemy guns 

The game after about 4 moves , both sides have deployed their Artillery which are starting to cause casualties.

The Imperial Artillery take casualties - so bad that the Office has to help to man the gun.

There where several Cavalry clashes and the action swung back and forth with the Imperial Cuirassiers getting the worst of it .

The remnants of the Imperial Cavalry retire across the bridge . I had decided to play the game for 12 moves and by then the Imperial Forces had  lost most of their Cavalry and about a quarter of their Infantry and although the Electoral Force had not captured both ends of the bridge they had the least casualties so I gave the victory to them ! .An interesting game, I would perhaps increase the move distances and the musket ranges because of my larger table , but a very enjoyable game and a real 'blast from the past' 

 

 

 

Blasthof Bridge a Homage Battle.

 

Having just obtained my hardbacked copy of 'Charge' I thought it would be a good idea to reproduce the iconic battle of Blasthof Heath from the book . Here we have the battlefield , the objective is to seize and hold the Blasthof Bridge.

The troops are deployed as in the book (or near enough) The Imperial Army nearest the Camera and the Electoral Army at the top of the photo.

The Count De Fru-Fru is taking the part of Count von Kornberg .

General 'Jung Fritz' Swartenberg commands the Electoral Army instead of Soubise .

The Electoral Army deployed.

The Imperial Army , the figures are home casts from my 40mm SYWish collection and I will be using the Elementry rules as in the book. To be continued ....

The lost photos of the 'Gallant Captain Parker'

Whilst having a clean up of my stored photos I came across the following sequence of photos , which I think must date back over 10 years or more , I can't remember them appearing on my blog so I think they deserve saving and publishing .

I do vaguely remember converting the Grenadier Officer figure using a home cast Prince August 40mm mould , which obviously involved a head swap and an added musket.

And there is even an atmospheric 'period' print of the completed figure. It's a while since these figures graced the tabletop , so maybe it's time to get them out again .....

 

The Volontaires Estranger (finally).

 

About twelve months ago I started casting and painting a new unit for my SYW-ish collection .The Volontaires Estranger and I have finally finished painting them 

The figures are of course 40mm Prince August , a mixture of moulds to get a unit of 12 soldiers , an Officer, Trumpeter and a NCO .

I also found a semi-flat camp fire in my bits box which will do as a objective marker .

Ssh ! don't tell the Mrs !

Been meaning to cast up some command figures for my 40mm SYW-ish project and taking advantage of the absence of my wife and dog I brought my melting pot into the kitchen and started casting . The rather battered old saucepan is half full of sand to so catch any metal spillage when pouring into the mould.

The fruits of the casting , an Officer, Trumpeter and a figure for a NCO . I even managed to get a figure from the antiquated metal mould of a 54mm semi flat figure (ACW ?) which will be converted into a General for my Army 'Pantalon Rouge' . Rather pleased with my afternoons work and all tidied away before the Memsahib returned .

 

If you go down in the woods today - in 40mm

 

Been busy getting these figures done before we go on holiday. I enjoyed getting back into painting 40mm and as the figures are very old Holgar Erikson Prince August moulds they have minimal details so I just did a 'toy soldier' paint job and a good gloss varnish.

I found a spare Prussian advancing casting and painted him as an Officer to command the unit .I hope to get these into action on my return from holiday.

A return to 40mm .

 

It's ages since I painted any figures for my Homecast 40mm Prince August SYW-ish collection . These have been sat on my bookcase for years and to make them usable I needed some more to make up a viable unit. 

So I rooted around in my box of moulds and one wet afternoon I cast these up to go with them . I've got them based and undercoated and hopefully will get a start on them next week .

To celebrate the rare appearence of the sun I took the painted ones out onto 'The Great Patio' (which needs weeding) for a photograph. 

What's going on ! ?

 

I started these 40mm Prince August French SYW-ish figures about six month ago .: Starting painting my 40mm SYW-ish . (tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.com) and they got put into a cupboard and somewhat forgotten . Having a clear out looking for something else I came across them and decided I must get them finished . They are the Volonttaires Estranger a unit of French Light Infantry. 

In the same tray I found this 54mm Blacksmith figure and anvil - for the life in me I can't remember where he came from !? - eBay ? , think he might be a hollowcast Britains as the anvil has Britains stamped on it , hmm do I repaint him ? - will have to think about that.

Starting painting my 40mm SYW-ish .

 

Started painting up my 40mm homecast French SYW , it's been a while since I painted any of these figures and I don't think I've got the shading right on these figures , hopefully the next batch will be better. These will be varnished when I get them all done.

Here's the rest undercoated ready , sadly the undercoat shows up the casting inperfections - hopefully a coat of paint and a couple of coats of gloss varnish should hide all the mold lines.

Fruits of the castng pot .

 

Having 'fettled' my mold I brought my casting pot indoors (it being cold outside in the shed) and started warming up my metal in the kitchen - my wife passed me by and said "you won't burn the house down will you !?" * 

After a few false starts , I started getting some good castings - the Godess of Homecasting smiled on me and I have enough figures for a small unit now. 

*you'll be pleased to know I didn't .

A return to folly (sic)

So I have decided to add another unit of infantry to my 40mm Homecast SYW-ish collection . It's been ages since I cast any figures up so this will be a nice change of pace . I've been cleaning up some of the castings and adding a couple of vents to one of the molds which wasn't casting properly . 

It will be a company of the Volontaires Estranger, a unit of French Light Infantry with rather acttractive green facings . The molds are a selection by Prince August. I hope to get the other castings done in the coming week.

 

Gaming in stereo .

So I'm playing through the four scenarios from the Command and Colors Russian Napoleonic box and I got the yearning to have a miniature game as well , so having half the table to use I set up a AGW SYW-ish game on the other half..

The fourth scenario - the French are attempting to storm the Raevski Redoubts, after three games  things are in the balance - so all to play for.

A  action with Allied Frei-Korps and Hussars versus  Uhlans and Swiss Infantry for the French, a small battle , but it should prove interesting . 

 

Clearing up the painting tray .

I've had these awaiting varnishing for a week or two as I ran out of yacht varnish , but with the easing of 'lock down' I've got a fresh one . They are the second unit for my Freikorps Von Kleist's 'Green Croats' with a mounted officer to command the two units . They are of course Prince August SYW molds which I've cast up myself . 

I also got these 3 Irregular 40mm figures done, they will be joining the ranks of the 'Black Hand' or the Hellenyk Republic irregulars - again 40mm Irregular figures .

The final figure is this Irregular Deutsch Homage 40mm , haven't got a back story for her yet - Mary Poppins ? - Agatha Christie ? . These will be appearing on my tabletop soon . Having got these finished I can continue painting up my 28mm SPQR figures .

The Green Croats .

Finally got my SYW-ish Croats done , seemed to have taken forever to finish them - dabbling in to many other painting projects that's my problem . The figures are from the new Prince August 40mm SYW  Austrian Hungarian moulds I bought off  Ebay  . I have painted them in the uniform of the Freikorps Von Kleist 'Green Croats' as I don't have any Austrian troops in my collection . I'm in the process of casting up another dozen figures to add a second company to this unit .

An early birthday present to myself .

I saw this book on sale and thought that it would be an ideal own birthday present . I've not bought the whole series but this one features small actions and skirmishes and I thought it would be just the thing for my 40mm SYWish collection and the AGW rules .

Not cheap but a beautiful book , I'm looking forward to trying some of the scenarios out .

AGM SYW-ish game (part3)

The game is coming to a close and the French manage to activate the Regt. D Roi who charge and overrun the Allied battery and capturing the guns .

The next card turned was the sixth Joker so ending the game . 

The stricken field , nearest the camera the French have taken the hill and captured the battery . In the centre the Allies hold the church and village and in the distance they are preparing to counterattack the Swiss . I think I must give the game to the French , the capture of the Allied guns sealed the day for them .  Both sides lost heavily with the French Regt Bearn and the Nassau Saarbruck heavy cavalry taking the most casualties . On the Allied side the 20th Foote and the Prussian Hussars took the most hits as well as the artillery being lost .Using the Colonels as 'brigadiers' under the rules worked well as regiments could move together . Towards the end of the game both sides ran out of cards held in hand which stopped them reacting to situations (the Prussian Hussars not being able to counter charge) . I enjoyed playing it , now to tidy up and think of what next to do .