Sers'/Diericke Fusiliers

 So I finally finished this battalion, like most of my units, its been in the making for months. I don't remember when I started on it, it might have been last year...

My Prussian force is now a whopping 3 battalions and a few squadrons of cavalry. 

But overall my SYW project is now 318 infantry and 96 cavalry. This means my SYW is closing in on my GNW project in scale, and might soon become my main project in 28mm, it's only 8 infantry behind my GNW project, but about half of the cavalry, but more than twice the artillery. 

My infantry, Fredrick only has his brother's regiment, a fusilier regiment and a grenadier battalion to beat the Austrians with. 

I'll now try and finish some other half-finished units, like my Austrian cuirassier unit. And two French cavalry units. I have enough unpainted infantry to get up to 408. And enough unpainted cavalry to get up to almost 200. It's all Minden/fife&drum and Crann Tara.

 My plan was to do some stand-in cavalry in hats while I'm waiting for Van Dyck to do cavalry. But knowing me, I would never repaint a unit I had already done just to get different hats. So instead the English/Scottish/Irish cavalry will have to wait. Instead, the Prussians got stuck with hats. First up is Margraf Phillip Horse/Cruiassiers. Figures are Pendraken LOA figures.

I have a table! 

It's been over 7 years since the last table shoot. 

Sadly it rained(when it wasn't supposed to) So I had to pack down everything, And so the photos weren't the way I wanted them. I also had to edit out a rather fugly pink tent the wife had put up in the garden to paint some garden furniture. 

 This is put up with one side being Anglo-Hanoverian and Prussian vs French and Austrian.

French behind a stone fence, looking down the Anglo-Allied cavalry.

 The table is sparse with vegetation, I need to get more of my trees up and running. But even so, just having a few hills made it hard to depoly the troops 

 The Austrian defending the top of a hill, with French cavalry in reserve. I found 3 french squadrons didn't have their bases finished. So I had to photoshop the bases.

 Austrian Croats, don't what they do best, holding woods.

 The Prussians

 The Anglo-Hanoverians.

 The camera was not helpful and so several pictures were totally out of focus, so the Austrian cavalry didn't even get one picture. But they are there. 

Reactivation of Möckern.

I've had a fascination with the battle of Leipzig for many years. just the scale of the whole thing, but particularly the battle around Möckern, really the battle within the battle that sealed Napoleon's fate, Prussia risen from the ashes fight a hard battle against some of the best troops Napoleon had available in 1813.

 I've tried to do the battle several times, in 6mm I had like 1500 figures painted, but the project died and the figures are now gone. I did start a 28mm project, I finished a few units. But I lost steam and the few units I have finished are packed away. I have since started an 1805-1807 project which is the only period I prefer more than Leipzig. And together with other large scale projects, I just didn't have room or time to try and paint 20 battalions for this project.

BUT in comes SP, I can do a couple of forces inspired by the OOB at Möckern. I also happened to have enough unpainted Calpe figures to do a few SP units. First up are some skirmishes from East Prussia Jaeger regiment. I used various greens from AK Vietnam uniform set. It gives a good mat colour, that gives the impression sun/rain washed uniform. The grey, black and red are from the Andrea colour sets.

 I did want to use another background, I hoped to find a picture of an old german village that might look like Möckern, but I didn't find one, and the printer is out of toner anyway.

I have enough Calpe figures for an 8 figure unit of Prussian musketeers, and an 8 figure unit of French infantry.

Schenckendorff Grenadiers

So this is a bit of a compromised unit, first I used Fife and Drum hessian grenadiers, but the battalion is made up from fusilier regiments, so I just had to paint over the lapels and pretend they aren't there.

But other stuff came along too, having painted half the battalion, I realised I had a brain fart when I ordered it. and I was missing 2 figures to make the unit as I wanted it to. So that made me give up on the whole battalion for several months, planing on ordering the extra figures the next time I order from Minden or Crann Tara. But then I thought of a cheat, I took the mounted commander and used him as a mounted officer for the battalion. I actually like the look of a mounted commander in a battalion, but I would have preferred the battalion to be at least 30 strong, it looks a bit too small and squished when you have a mounted commander in a 24 man unit. But when one is desperate.

Then came the third compromise, I had bought some new paint, red, black and blue. I had used the red and black on some SYW highlanders(hope to post some pictures of that unit soon) I had also used some of the new blue on the bonnets of the highlanders. But I wanted to use the blue on some larger parts. So I used 4 of the 6 new blues on the coats of half the battalion, now it's a great blue, I love it. But it doesn't match the old blue very well.


Anyway here is the compromised grenadier battalion Schenckendorff.

 After doing half the unit, I realised I was missing two men holding the musket upright. 

So the colonel had to take personal command.

 Like my previous British battalion, I tried to do platoon fire. 

Just to screw things up extra, the new blue was used on alternate bases. so I can't even claim the differences in the blue is based different supply. As half of Prinz Heinrich von Preußen Fusiliers and half of Münchow Fusiliers have the new blue.

In brain farts when ordering, I ordered too few Minden fusiliers. so I'm missing 4 fusiliers to be able to finish that battalion. And the shipping from the states is such that I can't just order s few figures. So that unit will have to wait. So my pitful Prussian army will be only 2 battalions for quite a few weeks or months more. 

But it's not like I'm lacking SYW stuff to paint. 

I have 1.5 french battalions to paint, 1 french gun, last 6 of those highlanders, 2 Austrian battalions, 2 Austrian squadrons. I think at least 3 or 4 Prussian cuirassier squadrons, at least 2 Prussian dragoon squadrons, and 6  or more Prussian Hussar squadrons. 

Back to my old stomping grounds.

Well, April 10th was the last time I posted something from my usual neck of the woods(horse and musket) Since then I've done Italian wars, Medieval, a computer game and most uncharacteristically Vietnam. 

Now I'm back, I'm gonna try and do 3 units of Prussians, first up is Markgraf Friedrich von Brandenburg, these are the new and super-secret double probation charging Cuirassiers from Crann Tara, you need to contact Graham to get these, and by need I mean NEED, you must buy these! 

My one problem with Crann Tara/Minden is static poses, especially the cavalry. But these fixes this. 

I've used a long time on these, as I just can't do the complex stuff on the saddlecloth. So I get a little depressed and put them away, I did 6 quite fast, then I gave up and did 3 and now the last 3.
The figures have lovely animation.

 I did them all in black, even if I'm sceptical about the realities of getting some 12 000 black big horses, and then several thousand more within a few weeks of campaigning. But I did them all black anyway, 

 I pitty the Austrians.

 The flag is Maverick models cloth flag.

Prinz von Preußen

Well, I finished my first Prussian battalion, I got like 64-72 Prussian cavalry to paint, so I thought maybe I should get going with the infantry.
There is some inconsistency in the painting, half were painted over 6 months ago the other half now. so the newly painted ones are lighter in both the blue coats and the rose.

The Russian winter is blowing in over Europe, so far it isn't very cold here only about -10C but the wind is very biting and almost ran away with my figures when I was out taking the pictures.

 So bad lighting, as usual, this time of year. 

 Flags are Maverick cloth flags. 

I'm now kinda conflicted about what to paint next, I want to paint both my HYW and my SYW projects. We'll see what I do tomorrow. I did start on 6 HYW figures, but stopped halfway through and did the last 6 of these instead. 

As promised

So the first battalion for my 1806 Prussians is done.

It's regiment Nr 33 Alvensleben(which for me sound like a pretend German word, one you just make up to make something sound German, like adding "sky" to end of words to make it sound Russian) But it's a common name aristocratic family name.

I don't know much about the regiment, it was part of  GL Friedrich-Wilhelm-Karl Schmettau division at Auerstadt, But I don't know how much it took part in the battle, nor which French division(s) it faced.

The regiment is faced white, so lots of white on these. White and blue can be quite striking, maybe not as colorful as the orange or rose faced regiments(don't worry they are coming) But still very striking.

The figures are from Three Armies, a relatively new company concentrating on the early part of the Napoleonic Wars(a sorely overlooked period of the Napoleonic period) Micheal Percy also makes later period French and British, making other missing things like British in greatcoats.

He now has early french line infantry, 1806 Prussian infantry, and 1808 Spanish infantry. With early Austrians and Russians in the works.

I like these figures, they are quite different from my usual stuff, there are very few folds in the uniform, making it hard for me to shade and highlight. I simply don't have the technique to paint these well yet. But I'll practice. The second thing I need to work on is the faces still haven't "got" them yet.

I also need to find a better beige triad, I could not get those trousers the way I wanted them!

Anyway, I really like these, and I have placed a second order. Which will let me finish the brigade Alvensleben was part of.

Out walking in the sun!

 I do kinda feel the officer sick a little out, he is really learning while the others are just marching, the officer looks like he is marching into a hail of shot and shell while the others are on a Sunday walk. 

The red musket straps really help bring out some color. 

Azov regiment

Well well well, 3 Napoleonic posts in half a month!

By accident, I found 24 painted 1805 Russians, I threw the brave Russians in a glass of Acetone and ripped off their faces. I had already painted 6 of them that I found named in a clutter box.
So I painted up the remaining 18.

The regiment is Azov with lovely pale yellow and turquoise facings.

I got enough figures on the way to finish the 2 remaining battalions in the regiment as well as a 4th battalion to form the start of a 2nd regiment. 

 A colorful battalion, the Flags are Brest inspection, but I have Azov specific flags on the way, so these are just temporary if the battalion wasn't colorful enough the Azov flags are pink!

 The figures are Brigade games and they are very nice with realistic proportions.

Flags are as usual Maverick models.


PS. I also got some sample figures from a new company called Three Armies. He is making French and Prussians for 1806, While also working on Austrians and Russians from the same period. He is even making some fantastic looking 1808 Spanish.

I did paint up my sample Prussians

Markgraf Friedrich von Brandenburg Cuirassiers

Two posts in one month? You lucky bastards you!

Have you ever had one of those units that everything goes wrong with?

Well, this is one of those. it started with the reigns on the horses. Didn't like the way they ended up. Then you have all the little details that the Prussian cuirassiers have. I feel I have to try and paint them, yet my skill is far below what I need to be able to paint these details......
The end result is an untidy messy looking thing. I got half way through and did the next 4 horses. By this time my inspiration was gone, I probably used two weeks on painting those last 4 riders.... And they, and because I had problems concentrating on them, they became even messier and untidy...

Well, they are done, but since this regiment will get 4 squadrons I still have 8 more of them to paint, plus 8 more cuirassiers from another regiment.... I don't think it will go any better. Luckily an order from Minden is at the post office(they gone fucked up and yesterday when my wife picked up the package(and paid lots of VAT on them) She got the wrong package, and so instead of Minden miniatures I got some basing material.... But I'll go there today and fix it and pick it up this will let me complete two half done battalions(one Austrian and one Prussian) those I AM quite happy with(especially the Austrian one)


Anyway here are some pictures.

Review Great Northern War Comendium

So where to start?

Lets start with what you get for £115 pluss shipping.

You get to Volumes each about 300 pages long. They are both filled with lots of illustrations, maps, pictures of uniforms, drums, cannons, muskets and swords. All of which are great help for wargamers. A very good picture of a Swedish grenade pouch helped alot!

Besides all the viusual goodies. You have various articles places more or less in chronolgical order.
In between the articles dealing with what happend, You have articles dealing with armies, uniforms and the players in the game.

The books has around 20 comtributers, ranging from amateurs like us that has delved into the subject. to acedemics with lots of letters infront of their name,

There won't be much pictures in the reivew sinply because in theory they might end up random places online and people use them for references with out paying!

I'm dividing up the review into the diffrent types articles that is in the compendium

Part 1: Army/uniform info.

All major armies in the war gets their own article, Naturaly Sweden gets a big one, And Denmark, Russia and Saxony are all there. As well as smaller players like Polen-Lithuania, Cossacks ect.

The articles are some 5-10 pages long for the "formal" armies there is atleast 2 pages of uniform plates one for infantry and one for cav/dragoons/artillery. For army with less formal uniforms like Cossacks and polish hussars and light cav, There aren't plates as such but lots of texts and other illustrations. As well as photos from museums showing for instance Hussar armor.
They also deal with organistation, and recruitment for the countries and armies. This does not only give you lots of info but also really lets you compare armies. There is a striking diffrence between how the armies of Sweden was made and trained and equiped vs say Saxony. More then you would think since they where both modern European armies.

Allready I have gotten quite a bit of good info from these Army/unifom pages. I learned that Provincial regiments in sweden, did not have all their grandiers in a single company like most countries did, but spread them out! This was great info to get!
Also the very fleshed out Swedish article have lots of photes of drums, grandiers equipment ect. There is a great photo that shows a grandiers grenade pouch. This was very helpfull when painting grenadiers.

I should note that even with all the info you can't get it all in the volumes. Like in the Swedish article they do point out the Karpus was used at times by some swedish regiments. But if you want to know which regiment used the karpus in which battle. You still need to go to Tacticus.nu (if you see that page as a reliable source) The man that runs Tactics.nu is also a contributar to the compendium.

Part of the Swedish army article. The Swedish article is very good and filled out!

Not suprising as they are the stars of the show!

Part 2: Campaigns/battles

So there is alot of info here, Some of these articles are purely a campaign/battle desicription, while others like the one dealing with the Polish-Lithuanian civil war, has a broader scope to.

Some of the campgains/battle articles about eastern europe are very intersting, a period i personaly knew little about, Ofcourse others will know much more about this then what is coverd in the volumes.

This is where i feel the books lacks the most, tho it's purley my subjective opinion!
General a campaing/battle articale is less then 10 pages. The part leading up to the battles are generally very good, They are clear, gives you a great view of what lead to the battles.
How ever quite a few of the battle descritions are very short(almost all are 2-4 pages long) And they are often very dry. I can best describe them as wikipedia style. Very clear and good in info. But also dry. There is nothing that pulls you into the action most of the time. It's simply this happend, then this and it's over.

This might be because I'm used to reading books of 350-450 pages dealing with just one campaign/battle mostly Napoleonic period. In these books there is alot more personal stories descriptions. They help to paint a vivid living pictures of things.

Now I get you can't spend 30 pages pr battle in a compedium. I get that. But even a single page more pr. battle would help if that mean it helped paint a vivid picture. They might have choosen to to keep it this way for space? It might be the authors they don't normaly write that way? Not sure.

I'll give you two examples. One will be the most disapointing battle description and one will be the best. And the diffrences aren't that big.

The worst is Narva. It was short and very A-B-C. It made is sound like the Swdes just walked up and the won. Yet they did loose about 1800 dead and wounded. Granted thats not a lot for a battle that size. But still I did not get drawn into the battle. I'm painting Björneborg regiment now and I knew it took part in the battle. I was hopeing to know what that regiment did in that battle. But no. None the wiser.

The best so far has easly been Fraustadt, I dont't think its actually that much longre. But it paints a much more vivid picture. About how the Saxons fired to soon and the Swedes run up place their muskets on the chevaux de frises and fire point blank into the Saxons. (yes I'm a warmogorer) It little things like that that help. It also mentions regimental names more. who fought who ect. I want to know which Saxons or Swedish regiment that did what ect. As I said I don't think the battle description is any longer. Just much more enganging.

Poltova is ofcourse a biggy, it gets two articles with slightly diffrent angles on it. It's quite good stuff. but still Fraustadt is my favorite.

Don't get me wrong. the campgain and battle info you get no mater what battle you read in these volumes  are the best you are going to get. Nothing online comes close!
Also all articals have a list of other sources to read. So those sources might very well have more detailed info on battles.

Each Campain/battle article starts with a great piece art!

Part 3: Miscellaneous articles

So these are the type of articles like Siege warfare during the great northen war, or how chaplins worked in the Swedish army.
They provide a good insight into the period, fleshing out the parts that don't get mentioned in to much detail other places. The one on siege warfare is quite straight forward, most that will read this book allready have a good grasp on how this worked in this period. But still it has lots of illusrations and pictures of siege cannon, mortars ect. And ofcourse like all wars there are slight variantions from GNW or say NYW or WSS. So there is always something to learn. It also explanes in breif how many of the the sieges in the war played out. And how most of them in one or more ways where diffrent from the "classic Vauban" siege.  Another one is about the plauge that hit Sweden.
There are many more, about what ifs ect.
The articles are well writen and lovely to read.



Part 4: Biographies 

Many of the big names of this period gets a bio, So far all of them have been very good. Peter The Great bio is not so much a bio of him, more what he did during the GNW not much about his early life ect. I'm glad to see that Tordenskiold got his own bio, me being a Norwegian patriot! I also very much enjoyed the bio of Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld. And I now what to paint his Swedish volunteer regiment that fought against the french!
Another one is Poul Vandelbo Løvenørn(Poul Vendelboe de Lovenorn in he book) A Danish soldier, minister and diplomat. He had the honor of overseeing three Swedish surrenders. I also want to do his regiment now!


Part 5: Finaly thoughts/is it worth it.

So I have added 3 points here to judge if it's worth it. Because I want this review to help people decide if they want to buy it.

1: Is it worth it for me?
Yes it is. I do not regret getting it, It has been great inspiration infact because of reading this I've decided to change my GNW project focus from Sweden vs Russia. To Sweden vs Saxony.  Partly becasue of many of the articles about the Saxon war are very well writen. Also it will let me do a brigde or so of Russian in suport. There was even a battle where the Saxon had Polish hussars on their team(so finnaly an excuse to paint this iconic soldiers) And as mentioned I want to paint sevral regiments what where the regiments of some of the people that have bios. Not only inspiration but great info on uniforms and organistation.

2. Is it worth it for you!
I think I can say yes! Infact I would not only recomend it for those very intrested in GNW but all that are intrested in late 17th cenutry/18th century warfare. Yes it does have a high price but some of the info you get get here, you can't get any other place in english. Just one example is Poul Vandelbo Løvenørn. This man does not have an english wiki page, so unless you can read Norwgian/Danish/Swedish or Polish you are out of luck. It's perfectly possible you can find some info on him in english some strange dark place of the internet. Or a book writen in english. So even those with just a hint of intrest in ther period should get it, if they have the money.

3. Did the compendiums forfill the auther/editor goal?
From reading the introduction, Reading just how monumental the task of making this project happen. And the goal of the project. To bring the most comprehensive english source of the GNW  I would say they deffinalty succeded. Yes some wikipedia aritcles might be longer. There might be more words on Peter the great in wikipedia then in this compendium. But I would say 80% of what is in this book is not avalable for free online. Atleast not in english. And a decent part of it is not even avalable in english even if you pay for it. And honestly I can read swedish, but I do find it tiresome. Hell I find reading danish tiresome and that basicly bad norwegian. And so I will probebly not read swedish books on the GNW, Reading sevral 100 pages in swedish not enjoyable for me.
And i can just forget to read German, Polish or Russian. So even for me that is capable of reading Danish and Swedish this is a great thing!

This is a book that is a must for any GNW wargamer or 18th century wargamer. The book even mention miniatures at the end, as well as list of museums that deal with this period. All in all stop reading and buy these two volumes.

End of Year Report/Next Years plans.

So this year has been one of the best painting years in a long time. While the volume might be slighly lower. It was still a great year.

I found a nice spot in the yard to take picutres, that really help to make my figures look good in pictures.  I've actually finished almosy all units I've started on.

A few of the units also looked quite good, I've painted the lovely Calpe miniatures, I'm not sure how he does it, but somehow I never paint as well as when I paint calpe. I can never get my perry and others to look that good. Even sevral years ago when I was a much lesser painter, my calpe did look alot better then my other figures. Sure now when I paint perry they have far surpase my older Calpe.
But new painted calpe looks much better then new painted perry. Now some of that might be because the calpe I'm painting now are mostly dark blue and gray. And I have great colors for dark blue and gray. So the right colors help alot.

I also finished a unit of Ashigaru and have ALOT of perry sengoku figures bought this year. And I'll get back to them.

I also did more figures for my unspecified ancient project, two units of Carthagenians and one unit of hastati.  My part 2 of ancient project is now about 80 figure strong, Plus the over 250 ones I have from way back. It means my ancient project(s) are the biggest 28mm I've done except for Napoleoincs.

But the highpoint must be the last part of the year. Where i painted 4 "units" in just a few weeks, that is a higher volume then I've painted in years and years. I don't know if it was the periods, the figures them self, or the new basing style. Probebly a mix of them all.
I did try and paint some Front Rank Napoleonic british after I used up my Warfare Swedes and "Dutch"  These are the new reenforcment packs from FR so very very nice. But they where marching poses. I did find them boring. And I couldn't finish a single batch of 6 figures.

I feel that painting goes faster, yet figures look better. Painting 4-6 figures steem to go faster. Might be that GNW/NYW figures are somewhat simpler then say Napoleonics, But it feels more like I've just found the grove.

So whats Next for 2016?

Well I'm in the prossess of rebasing my Minden prussians and austrians. This is a project form early 2014. I did small units of 16 infantry and 6 cavalry. I'm now rebasing and I want to expand the unit to atleast 24 infantry and 12 cav. So I need more minden figures. I'm also using the new basing system 4.5 on these.

The new basing system drasticly diffrent from my old style/philosphy. When I had my gaming table, I was very obsessed with getting as many figures as possible on my 4x7 table. The idea was if the bases and unit widths are small more units and figures could fit the table with out it beeing to full.

Now my table is gone for the forseable future. I might in a few years get it up again, and mabye even get room for a 5x9 or 6x8 table. But even if I don't have room for sutch a big table. I'm, really only a wargamer in theory, I'm really only a miniature painter that makes units and dreams about having big armies. So if my unit takes 25cm frontage insead of 18. Then who cares.

I do have some minden stuff still, I've painted a few commanders. And a small battalion gun with crew.

 One of the new things A battalion gun. The "straw" in the breaches and vest is probebly to dark.

 This is how far I've gotten in the rebasing: III Guards and one base of Sers Fusiliers

 They are now based in the Next Genration basing (TNB)

I still kinda would have liked them even closer based, very shoulder to shoulder, but it would make it impossbile to do the bases.

 Franz Leopold von Nádasdy

Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz

I also got a lovely gift from my Fiance.

This has allready been sent to Barry as an order for Swedish cav and infantry. 

I wanted to continue my GNW and NYW projects, but Did not know where to find the money. 

in January I'll buy some minden, and so I did not know when I would get the money for my swedes given we got a wedding comming up in six months time. We need food for the wedding, clothes and ofcoruse the rings.

But now I'll get to do 18 more Cav and 23 more Inf.
I hope to have the time and money to finish the first half my my swedes(3 battalions and 9 aquadrons) Before summer.

Also planed but now idea when.

Continuation of my NYW, I still got 1 more dutch battalion, 3 Danish and 3 English battlions.

A brigade of Dutch dragoons and one danish and one english brigade of cav. Then ofcourse the French.

I also want to do Scanian war project. Also with Warfare figures. It will give me a chance to be patriotic and paint some Norwegians for once.

So I hope you enjoyed this blog post or atleast the Miniature pictures.