Wednesday 24 December 2014

Merry Christmas ( and its all Carlo's fault - him an his pyjamas)

First and foremost can I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope Santa brings you lots of nice things tomorrow and that you all have a great festive holiday.

I haven't posted as much as I wanted but that is primarily due to my other blog and the Crann Tara Miniatures being released at a far faster rate :)

However I aim to redress that next year and post more game reports next year.

I have been blown off course slightly by Carlo over on the 'With Pyjama's through the desert' blog.

He has spent time pulling together Peter Gilders Sudan rules and published them - 'The Sands of The Sudan'.
I couldn't resist buying a copy as I recall the original campaign series by Peter in Wargames World all those years ago!!!

I have always wanted to play Sudan and these fit the bill - my only restraint due to time, cost and space was I didn't go for 28mm so 15mm it is and in the last couple of weeks I've painted a horde (small one ) of Ansar etc and in two session a 60 figure British Battalion - its waiting for the bases to be finished. This means I can get this diversion under way in the very near future.

Just a few quick picks of the 'enemy' - still on the green board for the moment - sorry!!



All the figures are by Peter Pig - I have some Blue Moon to try - slightly taller but they should look ok.
See you next year.

Saturday 13 December 2014

Cabin Sort out and Ancients on display

Since moving in to the home some 2 and half years ago I have never really got to grips with the storage in cabin and garage what was on display in the cabin were generally buildings because they were quicker and easier to unpack.
After starting the rationalisation of my collections and sorting things out I've started moving buildings into crates and figures onto shelves :) First up the Ancients almost 4,000 painted and still growing.
 Below are some of my Greeks and Persian/Seleucid figures.
 Phalanx for the memories!! Part of the ten I have painted up for my Successors/Seleucid army for my Magnesia project.
 Greeks - Lots of them and all to be re-based
 Imperial Romans - still need more cavalry and some more lights but effectively finished.
 Romans and Germans
 Close up to show my Favorite Successor General Antigonus
Merry Christmas too you all, next to move in will be the Lord of the Rings collection and the 18th Century chaps :)

Tuesday 25 November 2014

Savoia Infantry

Whilst there's a more detailed update on the Crann Tara blog I felt I needed to show the new figure sculpted on the Crann Tara dolly by John D and Painted by him.
I think he's done a cracking job and I think the figure is  fairly generic 18th Century line infantry.






Wednesday 5 November 2014

The Camerons are ready.

Been a lonng time but I have eventually painted and based a whole unit of my Jacobite foot which of course will represent Scotia.
These are Camerons and now I have the taste there's more on the table.



Reinforcements for Albion!

Finished painting and basing a piece to add to the Albion army.
It is the Amusette sold by Westfalia Forge for their Saxon Napoleonic Army,
the crew are some of my own sculpts using the Richard Ansell dollies, too crude for retail but ideal for assault teams etc.
I am going to add some more figure types and hopefully the sculpting will get better.



Monday 13 October 2014

Fontenoy the Refight

A couple of weeks a go I was extremely fortunate to be invited to Charles Grants for the weekend to take part in his scenario on the Battle of Fontenoy - focussing on the action between Fontenoy and the Redoubt D'Eu.

I was to be the Duke and John Dougan played Marshall Saxe, Charles was Umpire, advisor and all round genial host.

I had read accounts of the battle and the refights Charles and various other individuals had played, a tough nut to crack for the Allies but I cam up with a plan that didn't appear to have been tried before.!!
Early pics show the wood of Barry in the foreground - occupied by the Arquebusiers de Grassin, (Willie figures on their last outing)
 In this pic you can see my Highlanders about to enter the wood supported by another regiment to their left, the Arquebusiers gave ground stubbornly and over the course of the battle suffered the war of attrition.
 The French Line that I could see, the redoubt in the foreground and Fontenoy in the distance between the two the Royal Ecosse and the Grenadiers de France
My plane for what it was worth was to advance the infantry attacking the two strong points in doing so the infantry would open like swinging doors and allow the cavalry to come through and engage the enemy infantry and cutting off the French reinforcements from supporting the strong points.

Like many plans this one worked in parts, the assault on Fontenoy was bloody and stalled and repulsed, the gun I had provided to support the attack failed to damage any of the buildings over the whole course of the battle although it did manage to put out of action one French gun but only after all my infantry had been repulsed.

The attack through the wood worked well, the Highlanders drove out the Arquebusiers and eventually forced them to fall below 50% and thus retire from the field. Thus allowing the Highlanders to leave the wood and prepare for the assault on the redoubt.

I had advanced two guns to support the attack on the redoubt and these served the allies well, together with infantry support they eventually silenced the two guns in the redoubt and caused the regiment garrisoning it to retire from the strong point, at the same time my cavalry had come through the center and attacked the regiment supporting the redoubt.
My cavalry attack on the Royal Ecosse and the Grenadiers was not the success it should have been, the cavalry attacking the Royal Ecosse were met by a vicious volley and the survivors made contact - though not riding many down. Two more squadrons supported and broke the Ecosse, the pursuit was ineffectual and the spent cavalry fell back to reform and rest.

The Grenadiers doggedly refused to break until three rounds of melee had been fought and even on the break and pursuit my cavalry insisted on using rubber swords!!!.

Both Johns units were still over 50% and managed to rally.






These pictures show highlights of the battle, the final one being the allied high water mark!!
French reinforcements were arriving and the Allied infantry were spent.

In deed a tough nut to crack, John quite rightly played a sit back and see, reacting to the Allies, he didn't get sucked into the centre by using his cavalry to counter attack so well played.

A game I would relish another go at.

A big thanks to Charles and his wife Liz for being such charming hosts and this game will certainly go down in my most remembered gaming moments.

Friday 3 October 2014

The Firing Line

Thought it was about time I posted a couple of pics at my progress on painting my chaps.
Two regiments of the front rank of Culloden are complete, the Royal Scots and the 34th foot.



There will be six regiments of foot in the first line and all will be this pose. Figures are mounted on 45mm x 50mm bases which will be my new standard size base moving forward. For the Albion forces replacement command bases are being prepared.

Sunday 21 September 2014

First Personalities off to caster

The first of the Personalities have been sculpted by Richard and are currently at Griffin Moulds for the metal masters to be made.

All for the Government army

First up is the Duke of Cumberland CinC at Culloden but also suitable for Fontenoy and Dettingen

Albermarle  commander of the first line of Government troops
 Henry Hawley commander of the Cavalry at Culloden and fought at Dettingen
Suitable for all British/Hanoverian armies. I'm looking forward to getting some of these painted.

Sunday 31 August 2014

Sneak peek at new releases.

Over on the Crann Tara blog  http://cranntaraminiatures.blogspot.co.uk/
 is the full set of pictures for my next set of releases, Personalties (Cumberland and a couple of his Generals) are not shown.
To whet the appetite here's a couple of pics of the dismounted British Dragoons.


Richard just keeps on getting better

Saturday 30 August 2014

Some Pieces I've Been working on

Whilst it has been all hands to the pumps getting ready for the forthcoming shows and sorting through the Fife and Drum stock I have still managed to find time to paint and try some sculpting!!!!

These first two show a couple of vignettes I'm working on, the larger of the two shows a couple of Minden Hussars painted as Hessians during the '45 rebellion (courtesy Osprey) with a Crann Tara foot Officer and a Foundry? female and a warbases dog.

The smaller vignette is a RSM foot Officer, the mounted figure I sculpted using one of Richard's dollies, as with all my current early sculpts the shoulders are too wide but I like the figure.

 A command base for my Albion troops showing off some flags Iain at Flags of War kindly did for me. The figures are all from my Crann Tara range.
 Another vignette, a Minden Officer with hands behind back, a Crann Tara drummer and foot officer.
Again the two mounted figures are my sculpts - on Minden Horses again wide shoulder syndrome!
In the background you can just see a couple of Russian foot I had a go at making!!!
Still its progress and I have started painting some more Albion infantry.

Wednesday 6 August 2014

Pictures of new figures

On my Crann Tara blog I have informed people of some major changes taking place with my business, all for the good I hope.
In the meantime here are some pics of the new releases coming shortly, some conversions I need opinion on and a taster of some new figures going to appear in the future.


British Line regulation dress at ready

 Irish/French Command marching
 Irish/French Command standing
 Irish/French Infantry standing easy and marching
 British Grenadier at ready
British infantry campaign dress (2) (tricorn turned down)



British Infantry conversions - are these good enough to sell?
Future range - different sculptor same dollies. An ad hoc release of various types of troops from the 1740's the Fusiliers de Morliere will be first once the command is done.