The Big Push has started

Now the soldiers of the assorted states of the Holy Roman Empire have been recruited, along with their neighbours from the United Provinces, the task of organising them into regiments, clothing and equipping them has begun.

First step was to undercoat them. This was completed by Saturday. Step two was to turn all these faceless warriors into, warriors that had faces. So flesh was dabbed on them. All 1400. This was completed on Saturday whilst listening to the build up, and first half of Grimsby's FA Cup match. I missed the second half to go for a swim, and I'm flaming glad I did. The best that can be said is 'we can concentrate on the League now'.

I digress. Now step three was to break the metaphorical elephant down into more manageable pieces. I always do batch painting (hence steps 1 and 2) but doing 1100+ infantry, colour by colour, is a bit daunting. I have therefore broken them down to what some games call 'factions'. As I'd been thinking of Minden for a long time, I decided to crack on with the Hessens and Brunswickers. Next task was to identify the uniform colours, for which I leant on Kronoskaf. Sufficient figures were pulled out of the stocks to make up 7 units of musketeers, 2 of grenadiers, 1 hussars (combining Hessen and Brunswick regiments) and 1 of dragoons. I already have a unit of Hessian Horse finished from a month or so ago. I'll do a unit of Jäger later. 1 regiment of infantry (1/2 a game unit) is going to be dressed in late war style, in fusilier mitres because I have some in the spares box, and for a bit of variety.

Hessian Horse (regiments Prinz Wilhelm and Pruschenk), before the bases were finished.

The infantry are all blue-coated (I've gone dark for the Hessens and mid-blue for the Brunswickers, just for variety and ease of identification), the dragoons are sky blue (like the Prussians). Rather boring in itself, but amongst the usual red cuffs and turn backs, there is yellow, white and even orange to lift the gloom. The hussars are also blue, but they just look more splendid, at least in the pictures:

Brunswick Roth Hussars 

Hessen-Kassel Hussars

Having organised all that, I finally got the various shades of blue paint out and set to work. The German auxiliaries all have coats now. They're now waiting for the commissariat of His Britannic Majesty to provide the rest of the clothing and weaponry. Can I finish painting by the weekend?

Whilst I've been doing all this, apart from football, I've been listening to the Empire podcast with William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. Specifically the series on the East India Company, and the Great Game. Having gone through all the early days of the EIC and its rise to power over much of India, I've been through the First Afghan War and now on to the Crimean War. The guest on the latter is Orlando Figes author of (what I thought) was an excellent introductory tome on the CW. Very, very entertaining and informative. All spookily current too.

Update

I have finished painting the Brunswick line infantry contingent, including the flags. Plus on the rest I've done all the white breeches, swords, musket barrels/bayonets, drums, mitre fronts and metal on the flags, pontoons etc. I also had to go back and do some of the coat backs and faces that I'd missed. Just over 3 hours work. Effectively I'm only 2 packs down of the 30 that I bought. Gulp! 

It's the cross belts and the hat lace that takes the time. But tis' these things that make them look like 18th century soldiers, so it's worth it.

Oh, and if you came here looking for the Big Push, the band, here is something for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSeCuR51rek 

A bientôt mes amis!

Tall Order and a Hospital Pass

Wednesday saw the arrival of my order from H&R, which I hope to complete by year end. With some odds and ends which I had already, the total amounts to 30-odd units plus general staff figures. Total individual figures comes to 1475 (1481 if you count the 6 guns). When finished, the WAS/SYW collection will be over 8000 figures and just about complete.

The breakdown by contingent looks like this.

	Dutch	Hessian	Brunswick	Schaumberg-Lippe	Reichsarmee	Hanoverian	Mixed	All
Gren mitre	1	1	0.75	0	0.5	1	0	4.25
Gren bearskin	0	0	0	0	0.5	0	0	0.5
Jägers	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Musketeers	5	5	2	0.25	4	0.5	0	16.75
Inf total	6	7	2.75	0.25	5	1.5	0	22.5
Horse	2	1	0	0	1	0	0	4
Dragoons	2	1	0	0	1	0	0	4
Hussar mirleton	0	0	0.5	0	0	0.5	0	1
Cav total	4	2	0.5	0	2	0.5	0	9
Staff	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Artillery	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Total bdes/packs	10	9	3.25	0.25	7	2	2	33.5

Each brigade is 1 game unit of 2 bases. I'll actually have figures for more units than this, since the H&R infantry packs include enough figures for 1 1/4 units. Extras might go to the Reichsarmee which looks a bit light in numbers. And in truth, the Schaumberg-Lippe boys will get mixed in with the Brunswickers, as  they only fielded 1 battalion, plus 1 small squadron of exotically uniformed 'carabiniers' and 50 jägers. The guns will probably be shared out (Dutch/Reichsarmee/Other Germans).

All but 4 units of cav have been prepped and spray undercoated. These 4 cav have been prepped but not yet sprayed. That, and dabbing flesh on faces can be done whilst listening to Grimsby struggle at home in the Cup to semi-professional Wealdstone.

I really ought to get some games in, so those 9 weeks before New Year will soon disappear. Maybe get the Germans done first and finally do Minden.

****

At lunchtime on Friday I caught up with David-in-Suffolk (a true gent) when we attended the very instructive talk at the National Army Museum on 'How the ACW Changed the British Army'. This was a talk by Michael Somerville, author of another book by Helion: https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/bull-run-to-boer-war-how-the-american-civil-war-changed-the-british-army.php

The author started by discussing the 'traditional' view that the British (and other powers) took scant regard to the ACW and paid the price in WWI. Needless to say this view was exploded. Many examples were given of how warfare changed during the ACW and how the British Army did in fact evolve to deal with modern developments. In fact, some of the changes began before the ACW. Reflecting later in the day, I wondered how much of these changes had also been prompted by continental European wars, and Britain's imperial conflicts. To be fair, the author did touch on the latter. One other theme that came across was how much more professional the British Army officer class was than is usually portrayed. This 'myth-busting' wasn't much of a surprise given Peter Brown's, Don Hagist's and Robbie MacNiven's work on the similarly dismissed Georgian army.

By the way, some of these talks can be listened to on-line, so if you are too far away from London, you might still be able to enjoy them. 4 AM might be too early for those in the Pacific NW though! What's On at NAM

David and I had a good chinwag over sandwiches in the museum's caff afterwards, and we both noted how helpful other bloggers have been in our hobby pursuits. Leftfield observation: we also noted how the museum cafe seems to be a magnet for people looking after very young children. David suggested that it was a meeting place for nannies taking care of children from the local (wealthy) Chelsea area.

Walking along Royal Hospital Road afterwards I passed a young woman and her young ward talking to a Chelsea Pensioner outside the Royal Hospital (London's equivalent to Les Invalides, but still used for its original purpose). As I passed I overheard the boy say that he had made a 'tricorn'! I felt like stopping and saying "GOOD LAD" but felt I shouldn't betray my eavesdropping. I couldn't help but think 'how many kids that age (7ish?) knew what a tricorn is?'.

Just in Time

Sorry logistics dudes. This isn’t about JIT, as such. Though it does concern the closing out of one process just as supplies arrive for the next.

I finished the bases on the Celts and the Carthaginian host are sitting on their magnetised bases and are boxed up. Except for the elephants.

So they got painted early this evening, and have had their bases textured with Chinchilla dust and covered in burnt umber paint. All that remains is to do the 3-shade dry brush stage and sprinkling of fake grass. And re-boxing! Yes, I underestimated the space they will occupy. They take up a tad more than 2 Ferrero Rocher boxes but 3 looks too much. So I might swap out the Anglo-Hanoverians from their big box.

Colonel Hathi and friends

The completion of painting has worked out perfectly as I had a message today to say that the big SYW order from Heroics & Ros has been despatched. Weather for the next 7 days is forecast to be dry. So I expect to be prepping the new arrivals and undercoating them.

For the latter stages of preparing the SYW re-enforcements I need some more burnt umber paint as well as the flock that I mentioned yesterday. Out comes the order pad again.

Post Script:

Here is a better shot of the Nellies, without the black board and with the bases finished. That's meant to be the sign of Tanit on the cloths but I haven't done the base of the triangle. Oops.

For scale, the bases are 30mm square. It's just occurred to me that I could have put some foot figures on the bases too. Maybe skirmishers.

Barca preparing for el classico

All units painted and based, except for the elephants. And the bases for the Celts need finishing off. The flock just about lasted. I'm hoping that enough shakes off when this lot is dry to cover the Celts.

Slingers, javelinmen, Celtic swordsmen, Numidian cav and citizen cav on the flanks. In the centre: Spanish swordsmen, citizen spearmen, Liby-Phoenician spearmen, and heavy cav.

Més que un exèrcit - or Hannibal's Army Are on Their Way

Barca's lads are taking shape. I've painted 6 units (5 based, but not 'textured') with 4 to go. The unpainted units include 5 elephants, Spanish cavalry, Numidian cavalry and Celtic swordsmen. I'm going to enjoy painting the plaid trousers!

Colour choices are more slapdash than usual because I have very limited knowledge of the period. So if everything looks like something out of a sword and sandal epic, I make no apologies.

The heavies: Libyan Spearmen and Liby-Phoenecian Phalangites. What I like about these models is I can use them as hoplites.

Spanish Scutari & cavalry with spears. The Scutari came with the heavier looking guys at the front (also swordsmen) so I figured they would be in the front, with the guys with small round shields (targes?) behind in looser formation ready to nip in to stick it to any unwary Romans.

A better view of the cavalry

Last but not least Balearic Trance Slingers. They're not all grey-haired old boys, they're meant to have some sort of fur caps (in my imagination).

After all the excesses of the SYW acquisitions, 10 units seems trifling.

Complaint to the Maréchal général des logis

The supplementary supplies mentioned in the last post have begun to arrive. First the magnetic bases on Tuesday, then the polypropylene boxes yesterday, and today the MDF bases, scatter material and sticky labels.

The Maréchal général des logis needs a kick up the derrière  because look how he sent them. Bear in mind the plastic boxes and the labels were on the same order to the Range. What a waste of wagon space.

The tiny little flat white thing are the labels.

You have to go out of your way to do something this stupid. It's actually harder to do this than do the common sense thing. Why put that much effort into getting it wrong?

************

More happily some progress has been made on painting the Carthaginians and re-boxing the SYW figures. Just waiting on news on the arrival of the reinforcements.

Supplementary Supplies and Clearing the Decks

Right, having placed a big order for more SYW/AWS figures*, I did a check on the ancillary supplies that I would need. This resulted in several more purchases:

• Black spray paint for undercoating, picked up with yellow and orange acrylics from Warhammer locally.
• MDF bases - I had just about enough for the figures on order but not enough for the Carthaginians that I hadn't got around to yet.
• Some 'Summer grass' scatter material.
• Magnetic squares for the underneath of bases to hold the figures in place in their boxes.
• Polypropylene storage boxes, internal dimensions 310x335x25mm.
• White sticky labels for the boxes (I'm forever picking the wrong boxes out and desperately need some name tags).
• An incidental with the MDF bases from Pendraken, a couple of buildings which might suit my Ancients.

* Of course I realised afterwards that I had overlooked the Palatines and Würtembergers that fought with the French in Westphalia, though the Reichstruppen would probably do for these.

I finally got round to preparing the Carthaginians. All are now based for painting, undercoated and 'fleshed'. Hence the need for the black spray paint.  The flesh is probably too pale (OK for the Celts but not the North Africans) so I'll claim I'm going for the look of the Italian made sword & sandal epics (Steve Reeves appeared in a ton of these). Incidentally, sticking the crew on the elephants was a right pain in the neck, with superglue all over my finger tips.

With Hannibal's lads on all of my lolly sticks and several MDF bases ready to paint, I realised I needed to crack on with them to make room for the new SYW recruits. I finished a couple of bases of Liby-Phoenecian heavy infantry already, but have 90+% of the army still to do. I'm using the old Osprey book I bought a few months ago as my guide. Having decided not to dig too deeply into this as very much a secondary period for me, I didn't want to invest heavily in books or spend too much time on 'research'. 

The boxes came from an idea from Richard in a comment on my previous post. He suggested some boxes similar to the ones I ordered, only A4 size and slightly deeper. I'll see how I get on with the square ones. If these work out I might undertake a full-scale re-boxing, just to keep everything neat.

If this wasn't enough, on the back burner, I've been toying with the idea of an Ottoman army (the Twilight rules cater for 'Eastern Horse' etc), but seeing the aforesaid pachyderms reminded my of Steve's Indian armies of the SYW period. Hmmm!