Gran Colombian Artillery.

After a build time extended by both distractions and a certain amount of ennui I have finally finished an artillery piece for the South American Wars of Liberation project. Despite really struggling to finish this I am fairly happy with the result.

This is the last Hurrah from South America for the foreseeable future, to be frank I've just run out of enthusiasm for the project for the time being. I was making reasonable progress until the turn of the year  but the output has just got slower & slower and it has reached a point where I'd rather divert my attentions elsewhere for a bit.
I don't foresee any large scale new projects, more a case of filling in a few gaps in neglected projects and generally running down the unpainted lead drawer to sensible levels again. There are some very nice A&A Parthians lurking in there somewhere which deserve a lick of paint, but they will have to fight it out with the ECW Clubmen who are beginning to look more mutinous with every viewing.

Pimp Your Roundhead. A Very Bling Earl of Essex.

Unusually for me I took a Saturday off work today and in between drinking Guinness & listening to the test match on Radio 4 I wasted the rest of my time painting Warlord Games take on Old Robin.

He's destined to be used as generic commander in Pike & Shotte so I decided to make him as splendid as possible so he stands out as such. The blued and gilded armour is in the earlier Greenwich style but it seemed feasible for the Devereaux family to be in possession of a suit given their earlier services to the crown.
P.S. Do you think he looks like Beefy Botham? Shredded Wheat anyone.

Sunday Pike & Shotte Game.

After Herculean efforts getting things ready the first outing of Warlord Games newest offering at Shropshire's smallest wargames club finally came to pass.
For this latest event Mr. Ireland and I were joined by Mr. Will Johnson & Mr. Steve Morgan who as the proud author of the rules had kindly offered to teach we other three how they worked, which as it transpired rather well.

The set-up was as follows:

A view from either end of the 11'x4' modular table we used and yes I will have to paint that blue styrofoam a suitably neutral colour.

This was populated with around 350-400 miniatures per side representing various European armies of the Thirty Years War period:

Here we have the army of Generals Morganstierna & von Scheldona in more detail, the pictures below show the four brigades from left to right across the table.

Steve and I had opted to play a defensive role so the onus was very much on Paul & Will to play an aggressive strategy which they did with great gusto. On the left wing Will and Steve fought a battle of attrition which narrowly went in Steve's favour despite Will being able to call on the services of some cavalry reinforcements which very nearly tipped the balance in his favour.
The pattern was repeated in the left centre with Steve only prevailing in the last round of combat due to some ridiculously lucky dice rolls. In fact Steve's dice rolling was a source of some wonderment throughout the day.

On the right wing Paul and I fought a prolonged and what was for Paul a frustrating cavalry combat. The narrowness of the terrain and the actions of a particularly stubborn dragoon regiment serving to stymy his aggressive intent.
The right centre saw Pauls infantry brigade attacking into a storm of musketry & cannon fire which ultimately saw them off. Some late reinforcements made things interesting for a while but by then my pike blocks were well and truly on the offensive and with the intervention of Steve's currassier reserve effectively put the mockers on a late reverse of fortune.

Steve & Will Battle it out on the left wing.

Events come to a head as Will's cavalry brigade is  effectively put out of action and Steve's foot fight on despite heavy casualties.

The denoument on the left wing, Wills infantry brigade have been put to flight and his  replacement horse reduced to a shadow.

  

On the right wing Paul & I fight a series of indecisive  combats.

The upshot of the right wing stalemate. My strong infantry brigade  sees off Paul's first attack, then goes on the offensive to divide his wing with the assistance of Steve's Curassiers.

Finally a wall to wall panorama from the victorious battle line, this time from right to left:

All in all the four of us had a fantastic day, there were sufficient moments of drama to keep us all engaged right to the bitter end and in all honesty things could have turned out very different if the dice had rolled less kindly for Steve & I. In the end it was the fragmentation of Will & Paul's Army that caused them to declare but it is fair to say they withdrew with honour intact.

Hope you enjoy this quick report, all errors and inconsistencies are my own and as such subject to revision by the other participants.

Regards to you all HGA.

Gran Colombian/Venezuelan Santandar Regiment.

In between knocking up a couple of terrain boards for the upcoming Pike & shotte game I finally got round to finishing the Fusileros & Command for the Patriot Santandar Regiment. Here they are in their fancy red duds.

Sadly they won't be receiving flank companies anytime soon as I've run out of Victrix Austrians to convert them from, as it is the command are Victrix French. The Victrix figures, as previously noted are top drawer but whereas every other sprue in the French box contains officers there are only two dedicated command sprues in the Austrian box. No doubt there are sound economic/ production reasons for this but it does seem a bit tight-arsed to me. Anyhow financial considerations preclude purchase of a further box so onward with more Peruvians next courtesy of the generous Victrix French boxes.

Pike & Shotte Horse.

Here are the contingent of cavalry I'm taking along to next weeks game. They are mostly Redoubt or Foundry miniatures, some of the latter being exceedingly venerable ( circa. 1989).

There are also a couple of small artillery pieces present just for the sake of form; I wouldn't say I'm prejudiced against big guns in this period but I'm yet to be convinced that large numbers of them were present on the batttlefields of the mid 17th century or if they were of their effectiveness.

Pike & Shotte 30 Years War Game.

In preparation for Shropshire's smallest wargaming societies upcoming game I thought it only proper to introduce a few of the participants.
Starting with the Handgrenadealien foote contigent:

These regiments normally form part of my ECW Royalist army and the original intention was to badge engineer them, i.e. change the standards into one of the continental contingents of the TYW. But when it came down to it I simply couldn't rob them of the identities some of them have had for 20 + years so instead they will be designated as a fictional Hiberno Cambrian Brigade in one of the Armies of the period. They have been drawn up in a Swedish style brigade which I hope will be valid under the Pike & Shotte rules.
In addition to the foote I will be contributing sixty odd harquebusiers in five regiments. This also reflects the late ECW Royalist bias of the army.
At this juncture it is only seemly that the other participants in the game receive a mention:
Mr. Paul Ireland, the second member of Shropshire's smallest wargames club who will be fielding seven regiments of Swedish/ Protestant German foot & an equivalent number of horse, many of whom are cuirassiers.
Mr. Will Johnson, a guest from my regular boardgaming group and a wargamer of some pedigree.
Mr. Steve Morgan, who will be bringing an undisclosed number of figures but who as the designer of the Pike & Shotte rules will hopefully be bringing a whole lot more to the table.
We are hoping to use a 10' or 12' by 4' table for the game but this is down to how yours truly copes with producing the goods between now and next weekend; wish me luck.

Peruvian Fusileros.

The recent heavy rains in this part of the world exposed a couple of leaks in the roof at HGA Towers so much of today has involved repairing the decrepit lead flashing that was the cause of the fault. I have however completed a base of Peruvian infantry for the Liberators project.

These were built using the redoubtable Victrix French Infantry boxed set, the jackets being lightly converted by carving off the lapels- a fairly straightforward job with a sharp scalpel*.
The finished product as ever is somewhat speculative, although William Millers biography does note the use of "French" shakos. The Osprey book on the subject mentions turkish blue uniforms for the  Peruvian infantry, according to a quick google search turkish blue seems to have been a cheap blue/ grey colour with some red and purple mixed in for good measure. Fortunately another quick search on haberdashery websites rendered up some colour swatches which were of more practical assistance.

* A quick note here on plastics. Despite Victrix and Perry figures both being produced by the same contractor there seems to be some difference in the material. It is noticeable that the plastic used in the Victrix French & Austrian sets carves far easier than the plastic in either of the Perry Hussar boxed sets, the darker grey material used in the latter has a tendency to cut up rough unless an absolutely pristine scalpel blade is used. Has anyone an explanation for this characteristic?

Off now to enjoy some afternoon sunshine before the deluge commences again tomorrow:)

And About Bloody Time too. Husares de Junin Fin

The titular remonstrance was often spoken by my Father during my feckless youth & it seems apt to re-visit it here given that this unit has taken me 6 weeks plus to finish. In my defence your Honours other distractions have taken up some of this time, but even so.

Here they are though complete with Colonel William Miller & his fictional moustache.

Hopefully I will retain the enthusiasm to see the rest of the Peruvian Legion through, but the offer of a Thirty Years War game on the horizon might jeopardize things somewhat.