Early Successor Elephants.

The re-basing project commenced earlier this week has ground to a halt as the commissariat division of the Handgrenadealien empire has failed to keep up with demand for the tufts required to complete this project.
In mitigation my basing usually only has to keep up with my painting, which at the best of times can generously be called steady; hence a week of finishing bases has placed un-expected demands on my supply of scenic materials.
As a consequence I have had to find another project to occupy Saturday evening, this being a pair of Ebob pachyderms & riders that I started some time ago & failed to finish:

 
This pair are a fairly major scratchbuild consisting of Ebob Indian elephants with green stuff saddlecloths crewed by riders constructed from A&A miniatures Prodromoi legs, A&A and Crusader torso's & heads from either of the afore-mentioned ranges or sculpted using green stuff.
These were originally built for use in a re-fight of Gabiene which never materialised & so have lurked unseen in the back of the Hellenistic esoterica drawer for a few years, but now they are complete it would be churlish not to put them to good use and they could fit in with a lingering itch to bring the battle of Corupedium to the tabletop.
Need a bit of time to reflect on this plan over a few gin based cocktails but it feels like a go-er.

Macedonian Base Modernization.

This project has come as a bit of a surprise; I was trying to find a painting project to get stuck into last night & not having anything readily to hand decided to give my completed miniatures an overhaul, sticking spears back on, repairing any chipped paint- you get the picture.
Anyway, long story short looking through the Hellenistic collection it became apparent that some of my older units were in serious need of some detail work on their bases. A fair proportion of them were completed in the pre-tuft days of the last century and don't match up well to the more recent additions.

The before & after pictures below illustrate the discrepancy:

Foundry Miniatures Greek Mercenary & Eastern Phalangites, old basing style.

Different Foundry Eastern Phalangites, Mk. II basing.

 This could keep me out of mischief for a bit, at least until I get round to ordering more fresh lead next week.

Hungarian Infantry 'Erzherzog'.

Another tidying up of loose ends well underway as I begin to wind down the SYW project. This time a few more Hungarian Fusiliers from Crusader Miniatures.

Once their six colleagues are painted I will have reduced the Austrian lead mountain to zero, though its place will no doubt be taken by other purchases before too long.
Hopefully the SYW will feature in an actual wargame over the festive season, but this will be subject to negotiation with Mr. Ireland who may want to break out his AWI collection for winter manoeuvres. All being well we could manage both ( & maybe an Ancients game as well) but a lot will depend on individual family commitments intervening.

More Freikorps Le Noble.

Still pushing on quietly with the SYW project, I'm determined to persevere with this and get to a stage where we can actually put a game together. That point isn't actually too far away, if I can get this Freikorp unit finished & then paint up some Artillery for both sides I'm there. It would be nice to expand the cavalry arms of both armies but there are too many other projects that I would also like to spend time on; number one on the list are more excellent Orinoco Miniatures South American Wars of Liberation stuff. I've not spent much time on this project in 2013 & I want to tie up some loose ends before the year turns.

Anyway, back to the moment here are a few more sweepings from Europe's gutters:

Freikorps Le Noble.

This is the first painting I've managed since getting back from holiday, a combination of work & a rotten cold having conspired against much in the way of artistic output.

I really have got to stop collecting Prussian exotica & get down to painting some more commonplace units like dragoons & line infantry or I could just go with the flow & field a Prussian army consisting mainly of Freikorp with the few line infantry units I have as a stiffener. It would certainly be a change from the stereotypical dark blue automata that seem to be the norm.

Handgrenadealien goes AWOL & a short pictorial description of Portuguese military architecture

It seems that way at any rate, this is my first opportunity to blog in nearly a month. The first part of the hiatus was spent struggling with a heavy workload to enable me to spend, latterly,  a rather happier week on holiday in Portugal.
The main idea was of course to take things easy, catch a bit of surf & generally over indulge the excellent Portuguese wines & cuisine but I did still manage to check out a bit of military history whilst over there.

First up: Forta de Almedena

Looking across the gateway to opposite bastion

Masonry apron of the same to protect projecting cannon barrel.

Curtain wall from bastion to cliff top.

Remains of vaulted powder magazine. Note thick walls & thin roof   to channel accidental detonations upward.

Doorway to Bastion.

Cannon loophole in bastion. Note, directly in line with the same opposite.

Bastion & apron from main gateway.

Interior wall of bastion with steps to roof.

Reverse shot from bastion to bastion.

Ditto.

View of ground in front of fort.

Frontal view of fort.

I've been trying the history of this site but there is very little in either Portuguese or English. What I have been able to turn up suggests that plans for its construction were put forward in 1587 to defend the coast against pirates ( there is a very eroded gun platform on the seaward side of this fort), but a local guidebook states that the construction was suggested as a result of Sir Frances Drakes occupation of the town of Sagres in the same year. One might be led to believe the Iberians considered them one & the same thing!
However, whichever case might be true the construction of the walls & bastions makes it fairly obvious that the fort was only intended to protect its integral coastal battery from attack by light forces. That said the terrain over which any attack would come would make it difficult to haul up any artillery heavy enough to make an impression, so a formidable work despite its apparent shortcomings.
You could if you wished view this site from the air on google earth; start from Lagos, Portugal & work westward along the coast- the site is labelled. I was hoping that a Texan aviator who was on site might have taken some aerial shots for me, but he convinced me he had enough on his hands keeping his paraglider safely in the air and to be frank, given the 200' drop to the sea I could see his point.

More Portuguese stonework & some SYW Prussians next time.

Freikorps von Kleist.

Another slow week on the painting front I'm afraid which is probably to be expected after another 80 hour week, but here just to fill in for real progress are a couple of pictures of von Kleists Freikorps taken in the late evening sun:

a little bit of work to do yet, namely finishing the hussars off & sourcing artillery but at this rate should be done by Christmas.