July 2008 Painting (Part 1)

My July 2008 painting wasn't what I hoped it would be. I did paint a small group of 9 civilians for background color in my SYW imagi-nation world. A company of 15 jagers joined the Carpanian army. A small battalion of 30 pandurs joined the Courland army. This makes 54 "Olly" painting points. But I don't have pictures taken yet.

About half of my hobby time was taken up with adding terrain effects to my mounted officers and artillery. I added terrain effects (building up bases and adding flock) to 5 mounted officers (2 Carpanian and 3 Courland), 25 Carpanian gunners and 7 guns, and 11 Courland gunners and 6 guns. Again, pictures will be posted later.

I also rebased the Warsteiner Freikorps onto individual figure bases so that they can be used in conjunction with the jagers as opponents in "der kleiner krieg" against the pandurs.

I think that for the future, I will post a brief description and a picture as I get a unit finished, rather than waiting until the end of the month. We'll see how that goes.

My SYW imagi-nation armies continue to slowly grow as I prepare for attendance at the "big battalions" SYW game at MilleniumCon in Austin, Texas in November. As of the end of July:

Carpania (an ally of Germania [Prussia]) has two 48-figure infantry battalions, one 12-figure grenadier company, one 12-figure freikorps company, one 15-figure jager company, two position guns with crews, and five battalion guns with crews.

Courland (an ally of the Imperium [Austria]) has one 48-figure grenadier battalion, one 48-figure infantry battalion, one 30-figure pandur battalion, one 12-figure dragoon squadron, two 8-figure cossack squadrons, two position guns with crews, and four battalion guns without crews (yet).

August will be devoted to painting Carpanian and Courland cavalry and putting terrain effects on the infantry unit bases.

Busy, busy, busy!

SYW Figure Comparison

A recent post on the Miniatures Page asking about figures to use as Spanish troops in the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War has led me to post these figure comparisons to highlight a figure range that doesn't appear well known. Vince Clyant ran the London War Room in Petal, Miss. He sculpted a range of Spanish troops that are very usable for these two wars. I hope that the pictures below will broaden their exposure. I guess that I should add here that I have no financial interest in Vince's business, just trying to help get the figures a wider audience. [NOTE: The London Warroom is, as of Spring 2009, out of business. But the Spanish figure line was bought by the Dayton Painting Consortium, maker of RSM-95 figures.  They have the line on their web site.]

From left to right, these figures are: Eureka Saxon, Front Rank Prussian, TLWR Spaniard, RSM British, Sash & Saber Prussian, and Crusade Prussian. As you can see, their heights and overall designs are compatible on the war game table. I don't think that I would necessarily use them in the same unit, but that is not necessary as every one of these ranges has all the appropriate command figures required. All but the Front Rank are just black washed bare metal. The Front Rank figure has been primed with gray Gesso and then washed with black paint.


A closer look at the Eureka, Front Rank, and London War Room figures.

A closer look at the RSM, Sash & Saber, and Crusade figures.

So if you are looking for Spanish figures for WAS or SYW armies or as opponents for pirates in the New World in the 18th Century, if believe that you can't go far wrong right now with the London War Room Spaniards. Vince has line infantry, grenadiers, command figures, and mounted and dismounted dragoons that are usable in in the European and various Colonial troops that are more specific for the Americas.

Ringing in the New Year

As the new year was celebrated in the Markgraviate of Carpania with a magnificent fireworks display

the Markgrave's army settled into their winter quarters. Some work was done on equipping another battalion of Carpanian infantry but had to be put aside when the Erbprinz required some soldiers for his upcoming campaign against the barbarian Saxons by the forces of Charlemagne. So efforts were turned to raising and equipping pseudo-Franks and Saxons for this Dark Ages campaign.

The addition of community blogs for Old School Wargaming in the ancient/medieval/renaissance and musket and pike eras:

the Great Hall of the Kingdoms of Antiquity -- http://kingdomsofantiquity.blogspot.com/ and

the Age of Reform and Chaos -- http://ageofreform.blogspot.com/

have led me down other paths. While my SYW "big battalions" project will continue, I will also be adding freshly raised forces to my 25/28mm High Medieval (1300s-1400s) and Renaissance armies. This will be especially useful as the theme year for our wargaming group ( www.angelfire.com/games3/jacksongamer/ ) will be "Before the Socket Bayonet." We have many ancients, medieval, and Renaissance games scheduled, both on land and on sea.

I hope to do better in the coming year in keeping this blog current.

Happy and Prosperous New Year to All!!!