An all Hellenistic affair

The weekend past saw The Old Berks (Steve Gill, Andy Moran, John Kersey, and myself) gather for a game of WAB. We pitted my Rise of Macedon army against Andy's Greeks and fought out a hugely enjoyable and tense encounter, interspersed with banter, refreshments, and a bit of show n tell of our individual projects and lots of chatter about the hobby in general as well as some plans for future games and campaigns.

I have to report that myself (Philip of Macedon) and Steve (a young Alexander the Great) changed the course of history by losing badly to the Greeks under Andy and John's expert command. The Sacred Band, in particular, fought with considerable pride.

Most important... it was fun.

Here are just a few snaps of an enjoyable afternoon...

Thanks to those visitors who have commented on recent posts regarding the WVS project. There will be more photos of that in the next few days...

More infantry?

The final (?) Vaubarian infantry battalion: IR6 Augenthaler.

(The use of Bayern Munich footballers' names from 1982 continues!).

Really quite pleased with these chaps.

To break up the monotony, I discoloured a couple of the coats, and instead of having all the gaiters white, a few have grey/ brown just to break things up.

The drummer is in reverse colours.

All figures are Front Rank. 

Flags are hand painted on aluminium foil.

Regimental blue flag has a Golden Hart emblem, which also appears near the flagstaff, upper, on the white colour which is dominated by the Vaubarian coat of arms in a wreath as is the standard format for these infantry regiments.

It feels like a bit of a milestone to have finished the six Vaubarian infantry battalions... not a huge undertaking by any means, but a significant point at which to take stock (and wonder whether I should expand the army with another brigade - 3 further battalions - at some point).

Thanks for looking in.

Cheers.

 

Marching Band

I have been meaning, for some time, to create a marching band for my 1704 project, The Wars of the Vaubarian Succession (WVS).

So what better way to spend the weekend, than to settle down whilst all the pomp and ceremony of HM The Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations were on telly, and indulge at the paint desk for a few hours.

The result...

I thought the Trooping the Colour event on Saturday was particularly splendid this year. 

Aly M has already posted some fine 'stills' from this parade on his blog. Pop over there if you need some inspiration on marching men in uniforms.

It still irks me that the drill manual decided to accommodate the SA80 when that weapon was introduced, whereas for decades we'd been using the SLR as the standard drill weapon. The latter is much more in keeping with the "General Salute, Present Arms" order, somehow, and the longer weapon makes for a much nicer appearance when shouldered and on the march, in my opinion. They should have kept it, purely for ceremonial. After all, the red tunics and bearskins are hardly battlefield kit are they. So why have the SA80 on the parade ground?

Answers on a postcard...

Regiment von Klimt

 An interruption to the posts about my plans for the future to show the latest unit I completed at the weekend.

This is for the WVS project (c1704), Astrovian IR5 von Klimt.

Many of the Astrovian units are in plain white with a single colour for facings/ cuffs/ breeches etc.

This time, I decided to mix it up a bit. Following the previous regiment (Wittgenstein) I stuck with the grey coats, but this time combining a blue waistcoat with green breeches, stockings and cuffs. It makes for a nice combination I think.

Flags are hand-painted on aluminium foil.

Pils-Holstein Plans

As I mentioned in my previous post, this part of the collection (the mid-18th century) is a major project, and I have a very detailed order of battle for the protagonists listed out.

Above: the Pils-Holstein brigade - Regts Leibgarde, Kronprinz Grenadiers, and Oldenburg.

Below: a recent battle in full flow.

In terms of adding more infantry I am planning:

• 1 more fictitious Pils-Holstein battalion
• 4 more battalions of Prussian infantry
• 5 more battalions of French infantry
• 1 more battalion of Astrovian (Hungarian) infantry

Flags are done and already in stock (thanks to Mark Allen's work a few years ago - I stockpiled them in advance).

Most of the figures are also in stock.

Whilst I do have a list of 'must have' horse regiments, I have a looser approach to adding more cavalry, but I will over time be able to keep pace with the infantry additions I hope.

Artillery requires some attention too... somehow it's always this arm of service which seems to get left behind in the planning. Apologies to any gunners who are reading this!

The plan is to put this on as a display game once it's all finished, probably in around 5 years time (once I've completed the other projects first - namely Wars of Vaubarian Succession, TYW, and Successors).

Thanks to the many people I met up with at Partizan who said how much they were enjoying the recent posts about my plans for my various projects. Much appreciated.

On that note, Partizan was a terrific show. I took a few snaps, but nothing that you won't have seen elsewhere online. There are lots of blog reports and videos and Facebook posts circulating should you wish to see more. All told it was a good day out, and I spent much of it chatting to old friends and chewing the hobby fat. 

Finally, thanks to those who have been commenting and showing appreciation of my recent posts. 

More to come...

The Pils Holstein Project

Continuing my overview of the Warcabinet collection, and plans for the various projects...

In many ways, the Pils Holstein project, set in the mid 18C, is the centre-piece of the collection.

It occupies far more shelf space than any other project, and I have a significant pile of lead awaiting the paintbrush over the coming years.

Although, I haven't done much on it of late, I do have plans to expand it significantly. I even have a number of flags painted by Mark Allen which will be awarded to the units I have in my intended orbat as they are completed.

The figures are my own, not commercially available, and give the collection some uniqueness. The mix of imaginary and real countries adds to the flavour too, I feel.

I will go into the expansion plans in a future post, but meantime here are a few pics, taken in Aug 2017 at Partizan, which is the last time the collection was shown in full...

Talking of Partizan, hope to see a few folk at Newark this coming weekend...

What is 'Finished'?

Thanks to those who've been commenting on my past couple of posts about the various projects I am working on - The Grand Warcabinet "Tractor Plan".

Just thought I would follow up on the subject of the TYW and look at what I want to do to get this project "finished".

For the Swedes:

I do have some cavalry conversions that Brian Rigelsford made for me so want to paint those. I could do with a couple more regiments of Swedish cavalry in total.

I also have a rather nice Rigelsford command vignette of Gustavus Adolphus that will look great at the head of the army.

And one more unit of infantry for this army would be good too... possibly a Scots unit in Swedish service.

For the Imperialists:

A couple more cuirassier regiments would give more 'heft' to the army, and maybe another large infantry tercio.

The artillery for both sides needs some attention, and I have most of the figures I need to do this.

There are loads of special vignettes that Brian made that are lovely groupings of figures. These really add to the flavour of the display and will bring it to life.

All told, it probably amounts to around 300-350 'painting points' to do.

Then it will be "Finished"... I think!!!

At the moment, my plan is to tackle this over the two years once the 1704 Wars of the Vaubarian Succession project is complete.

Of course, every wargamer knows that "finished" is a will o' the wisp...