The Finest Military Game Ever Invented!?

 

The phrase "you'll have someone's eye out with that"! comes to mind. I'm not sure I would want to chip the paint off my figures.  Found and copied from Facebook- Britains Toy Soldiers. 

Half way there !

 

Just noticed I've past the half way mark of my 'walk 1000 miles in 24' , I've past the 500 miles much earlier this year !? I'm not sure how as the weather this Spring has been lacl lustre in the UK - let's hope the second half goes as well. 

Lord Byron (Bygon) - an update .

 

Got a bit further with my Lord Byron Bygon figure adding a curved sword and dagger with a waist sash . When the milliput sets I can undercoat the figure and start painting it. 

I have also found another painting of Byron Bygon which will be handy as a painting guide .

Lord Byron /Bygon in a greater stature.

 

You may have noticed on my 'what I'm reading now ' a biography of  Lord Byron,  a fascinating chap , one of the first "media personalities " (along with Nelson  ?) , now I have a model of him in 40mm who graces my tabletop now and again aiding the struggle for the Hellenyk Republic,  and I thought how about  in 54mm  ? .

I searched about and found this figure of a Montenegron infantryman on the Irregular Miniatures site . I ordered it with another head (Ian kindly sent me another alternative head as well) , here we see it just prior the decapitation of the original head. 

Having cut the old head off I carefully drilled a hole into the neck and glued in the new one 

This is the reference picture I'm using of Lord Byron in Albanian dress. 

I've added a turban (?) to his head which will need a bit more work to it when the Milliput has set (knowing when to stop fiddling with the modelling putty is the secret I think) and I will be giving him a sword as well . There will be an update soon I hope. 

 

 

 

 

Comfy slippers Wargaming .

Been feeling a bit under the weather this last week , my wife has Covid and is off work as she is a home carer and although I haven't tested positive I've been feeling lousy , so no painting or modeling . However once I was feeling a bit better I decided to set up a small game using my 54mm collection and AGW rules .

The force selection was mainly what I could grab from the first box I came across . Here the 'Blue' Army Commander Von Zeppelin oversees the artillery .

I diced for the positions of the troops , the main of 'Blue' Armies Infantry are Bavarians with a Hussar (in red) and a Dragoon unit on the flank.

The 'Red' Army left flank has the two units of Household cavalry armed with lances - which have not seen action yet on the tabletop . (must repaint the Officers bases to match the troopers lighter ones)

The centre is held by the Artillery and a unit of Rifles.

On the other flank the famed Highland Brigade under Colonel Campbell . I hope to get this game started tomorrow and will report back soon .

 

Figures in search of a game .

Whilst on a recent holiday we where passing Bridlington and knowing it was the home to Mighty Lancer Games I persuaded my dear wife to have a qiuck shopping trip - while I popped in to peruse this shop !  Normally I like to take photos of the interior and the stocks of figures - however my phone chose this point in time to run out of battery ...........

Being a weak willed wargamer I had to buy something and my eyes setteled on these boxes of goodies , now I had no need of them and no idea how I was going to use them - but I like glueing the Perry plastic figures together so I bought them !

Fast forward several weeks and I came across 'Eagles of Empire' wargaming rules for the Franco-Prussian War - very simple, all unit stats are on cards and I probably had enough figures in my two boxes to start playing ! 

Units are of three bases - number of figures on a base doesn't matter 

My second unit , you can get a lot of variants with the bits on the sprues .

My first two units plus a command base which allows them to manoeuver together . I was going to take the photos outdoors but the British summer has arrived and it's raing ! . I'm busy glueing up the French figures now , so more photos to follow soon .

 

Gunner William Edington R.H.A. (a relative)

 Many years ago me and my sister started doing our family history and this being pre-internet it involved traveling to various Records Offices and scrolling through endless micro-films etc . Most of our relatives where rather ordanary folk and mainly farm labourers in the North of England .

However we came across this one chap who was my mothers Grt Grt  Grand father who lived in Berwickshire at Greenlaw and appeared on various census as a retired Army Pensioner ! . We where intrigued and dug deeper and were luck enough to to be able to track him down and his military career . (sadly no photo of the actual chap - but this illustrates his uniform in 1815)

This is a copy of the census reports my sister typed up showing him and his family .

We were also luck enough to be able to find his service record - not a good picture but it was scanned on a rather dodgy photo copier . He joined the RHA in June 1805 aged 23 and served for 13 years BUT got 15 years pension ! - very odd ! , then we discovered that soldiers who served in the Waterloo Campaign were given an extra 2 years of pension as a thank you . He is described as 5'9" tall , Blue eyes, and brown hair.. His conduct had been good and was discharged due to a reduction in the Army . He returned home and became a groom at the local Mansion at Greenlaw 

He is recorded on the Waterloo Medal Roll serving in Lt. Col. Gardiners Troop 

Waterloo was the first time every soldier recieved a medal and with it the extra years pension .

He was also probably in the Penninsular War in Spain and Portugal as Gardiners Troop served there as well .

We were also luck enough to find a excert from the Diary of Lt Willia Bates Ingoldsby who served in 'E' troop Gardiners Battery during the Waterloo Campaign (click on photo to enlarge)

As battles go 'E' Troop had a quite uneventful day, attached to Vivian's Cavalry Brigade they didn't see much action till the French retired and then they supported the Cavalry in pursuit of the fleeing enemy . Earlier in the battle they did send a gun forward to shell the enemy but the horse teams became bogged down and their lighter guns couldn't effectively reach the French and one of the limbers blew up when hit by a French cannon ball - so they retired rather ignominiously to their original position with the loss of a Sergeant killed. The above map is from the diary and records the later manouvers of 'E' Troop. Sorry for the rather dodgy photos as the originals date before the digital era but if you click on them they do enlarge . It's nice to have a relitive of note after enless labourers and farm hands