GNW Swedish Cavalry Regiment Nylands

Hi All


Having repaired the flags for these guys I thought I might share the finished article with you.


These are Ebor Swedish Cavalry for Great Northern War, you might have seen some concerns I had from an earlier post but I have to say that the finished article is great and I am so pleased with these I have just ordered another unit.

It was a particularly tight fit getting these to fit onto the base, whilst that was the idea I did wonder a couple of times if it was going to work. The plan was to have them literally boot to boot, Swedish tactics called for the officer to take the middle with troopers locking their knees behind his so they really were stirrup to stirrup when they went in, forming a shallow wedge. I wanted to replicate my image of how this might look with my units.

 The below shot gives you a view of the shallow wedge pretty much as I had envisaged it originally.

 The Ebor Swedish troopers come with separate heads which allows you to create a lot of diversity in the unit. Although I have only used the heads that come with them you can also get bandaged heads and Korpus which will come in very handy.


For the next unit I have asked Nick at Ebor to send Korpus wearing heads for the troopers (Officers are cast on tricorne) and I may add in a bandaged head, thinking the Karelska Cavalry in grey faced blue.


What else in on the go I hear you say.


Well here a re few shots of forthcoming Saxons and Swedish artillery. I am particularly please with the Ebor officer and drummer for the Saxons. This next Saxon unit will have a number of floppy hats mixed in with the tricornes.

Last is a First Carlist war Rocket crew, these have been converted by friend Chris for whom I am painting them. The rocket launcher and mule are still on the bench.

 Next up will I think be Swedish foot.

Workbench update with a Saxo-Polish feel

Hi


I have finished quite a few figures over the last week so I thought I might share the progress while the glue drys on the repaired flags for the Swedish horse.


My fascination with the Polish Cavalry has been undimmed and I have managed to finish painting the Pancerni unit I had started.


These are all figures from The Assault Group which I picked up from Ebay. They are really nice and I particularly like the officer.

 

I also managed to finish a couple of officers to use as Polish Generals. I based the colours for the first one loosely on Angus Kostam's painting of King John Sobieski at Vienna. I wanted to use a colour scheme I felt was authentic for a high ranking Polish Hetman so hopefully this captures that.

Again this is an Assault Group Figure and probably my favourite of the lot, he has a lot of character particularly in the face.

 The next officer is from the TAG Cossack command Pack but I think looks well as a senior officer.

 

 Lastly more evidence I am still painting Swedes. These are two more of the Swedish Guard Cavalry Livregemente till Hast. So I now have 6 troopers. Currently however Warfare who manufacture this figure only make one Swedish Trooper which was a test model from a couple of years ago. It has a choice of arms and 4 different horses but still its the same figure. I do like how dynamic it is and I am reliably informed that the Swedish cavalry packs for Warfare are coming next month, so I having painted 6 of the same trooper I can buy 12 more, 6 troopers and 6 command, to mix with them and have two units of the Guard Cavalry in this very nice pale blue uniform.


For now however they will sit in the box waiting for their comrades to be released.

So these guys have now all been parked in the basing box for the basing department to get around to. With 6 finished units of Polish horse I wont be painting any more for a while, concentrating on Swedish and Saxon foot.

I have started my third battalion of Saxon Guard as above, three of these are the old Foundry range which still paints up very nice, the other is from Wargames Factory, the rest of this unit are with my friend Steve who is kindly doing the base coats for me. Finishing this will give me a Guards Brigade for the Saxons at which point I will need to get them a Gun  and crew painted. I am also on with the next unit of Swedish Foot which is the Kronoberg regiment.


So plenty of painted figures to be posted when the basing is finished, the Araldite Glue is nearly dry on the Nylands Cavalry so watch this space.


Thanks for reading.

GNW Swedish Artillery

The basing department is back and starting to make inroads into the back log. Expect to see Swedish Cavalry, Polish Pancerni, Polish Generals, Swedish Foot and Generals and Saxons over the coming weeks.


But for now first of the blocks is the second Swedish artillery piece.


I wanted this to look a bit different to the last one so added the Gabion which I think gives another dimension to the base.

 

 The figures are from the excellent Ebor range and I really did enjoy painting these. They are Paul Hicks sculpts which I always find a delight, maybe his style of sculpting just suits my style of painting? They are also a very simple unit to paint. The Gabion is a plastic Renedra one.

You can find Ebor Miniatures here http://www.eborminiatures.com/ I think the Swedes are all listed now but Nick the owner does now have Russians for those of you who have been waiting.


Hopefully this is the shape of things to come, the Nylands Cavalry also from Ebor are based and I am again very pleased with them, I just need to glue the flag back on before taking some pictures and putting a post up, I shall be deducting this from the basing departments pay (not really)


I also have  affair bit of progress on other units so I may have another workbench update too.


Thanks for reading.

Workbench

OK Basing department home on Sunday so I expect to have a based unit or two shortly, meanwhile I have got a bit completed I thought I might share.


First of all the TAG Polish Cossacks, lovely figures, much bigger horses than Foundry so definitely wont mix in units. The TAG stuff does paint up very easily.

 I have also just about finished the Warlord Winged Hussars. Very dynamic these gents  and lovely sculpts.

 I did struggle to get these to fit on the bases but got there in the end. More on that when they get their own post after they are based up

#

Swedish foot from the Kronoberg regiment. Just to prove that my main army for Great Northern War ,the Swedes, is still high on the agenda. I have a couple more in progress and once this unit is done that will give me two brigades of foot.

 On the painting table is the Pancerni command stand, two Polish generals and a Saxon Guard command group all in the early stages but this puts me about 2 thirds of the way through the Pancerni which in turn will take me to 6 units of Polish Cavalry once finished. Wow where did that come from?

 Lastly this is the standard I intend to use for my Pancerni, I put it up as I found out too late that the one for my Winged Hussars wasn't 100% correct so here's your chance, if this ones wrong please let me know!

That's it for now, I have vbeen very active on here last week or two, hoping I can keep that up over the coming weeks assuming I have something to share. Until then have a great weekend.

First Carlist War Huesca part two

In my last post we left the Intrepid General Iribarren leading his division against the Carlist army during their Siesta in the Town Huesca.


The left Column under the General himself had become bogged down fighting the strongly entrenched Navarese Brigade on the San Jorge Hill amongst the walled church yard. The centre Column under Van Halen (real name)  had advanced with only slight resistance around the edge of the Churchyard and the right column under Conrad was forming up to take on the Carlist Cavalry whilst their own Cavalry moved up in support.


This is where things began to get interesting.

 The left column charges the Churchyard again.

 And are thrown back again, with the Provincial Militia breaking.

The other half of the Navarese debauch from the church yard to provide flanking fire against the centre column.


At this point Van Halen decides that he must dispose of the Navarese before continuing to attack the town.

The Cavalry for both sides becomes embroiled in a fierce melee in the centre right until eventually just two squadrons of Carlist lancers remain from a total of 12 for both sides.


The Legion line out to face this threat and then refuse their flank.

 At the other side the centre is destroyed by the Navarese and some well aimed artillery fire, just as the left finally takes the churchyard



 

 Things go from bad to worse as in quick succession 3 brigades of Carlists are rallied in the town and start to march to the sound of guns.

 

Meanwhile the Navarese start to join the general advance from outside the churchyard.



 

 Whats left of the Carlist Cavalry takes post on the flank of the legion whilst the whole Carlist army advances on the only untouched element of the Isabelino's.

 

 

 At this point Brigadier Conrad decides that discretion is the better part of valour and with an unbelievable orders throw marches his Legion three moves in the opposite direction and the Isabelino's concede the game.


A great game, but I would need to consider the balance if I did it again as the task was too much for the Isabelino's. The original Scenario calls for 9 battalions to attack 18. However a great game had by all and the worth of the amendments proved.


The two main areas we looked at were moving before firing with penalties if you do both and then a brigade break test at 50% rather than just breaking automatically.


These both worked really well indeed and enhanced the game so will now be part of how we play this going forward.


I will do some shots of the Winged Hussars and Polish Cossacks from the painting bench next and then hopefully the basing department will have started to catch up and have some completed units to share.


Cheers!

Carlist Wars AAR Huesca

Hi All


We played the battle of Huesca today over at Chez Chris Flowers in glorious sunshine (albeit that the sun was outside and we were in) managed to get mildly sunburned eating lunch outside.


Anyway we played the amendments to Blackpowder, firing before moving and Brigade break tests rather than just melting away. The amends I am pleased to say gave a great game.


The battle we chose was Huesca, the scenario from Kingscarbines book "All Honour is Lost" currently being re-printed and an excellent buy if you are interested in the period.

Huesca is an interesting battle. A single Division of Isabelino troops including the French Foreign Legion attacked the whole Carlist army whilst it was unprepared and spread out across the Town of Huesca with only a strong brigade of Navarese entrenched in a churchyard slow them down. The Carlist Cavalry arrives move two and the Isabelino Cavalry move 3. The Isabelino foot piecemeal on the role of a dice.

The map gives you an idea of initial layout. Three brigades of Isabelino foot attack in separate columns over open ground.

Here is out interpretation of the battle with me in the middle of the table looking more than a little bit gormless.

In the foreground is the churchyard with its Naverese garrison of four battalions and a field gun. to the left the town of Huesca and to the right Steve tried to figure out which troops are his from the three brigades of Isabelino foot in front of him.

A shot of the churchyard with its stoic garrison



The three brigades of Isabelino foot with the Legion in the foreground as they prepare to advance.

The central Brigade under the wonderfully names General Van Halen advances slowly as the left brigade assaults the Churchyard.



 

 A closer view of the left brigade just before it is thrown back in disorder from the Navarese earthworks.

 Steve ponders how to take the Churchyard, sorry Steve I don't see how the clipboard will help.

 A better view of the chapel and the four battalions of Navarese.

 The left Isabelino brigade falls back to lick its wounds casualty markers and disorder markers all round thank you.

Isabelino generals ponder their next move.

At last the Legion on the right get going only to find they are blocked by 6 squadrons of Carlist Cavalry which have finally woken up and advances out of the town to try and slow down the advance of the liberals.

 The Carlist Cavalry hold the Isabelino right column up and are able to badly damage a unit of the Centre Brigade as well., as two battalions of Navarese debauch from the churchyard to prevent the Isabelino centre flanking them, at this point with things in the balance the die roles to get the Carlists in the town moving finally start to pay off and the first brigade marches out of town to conform the forces of Liberalism..

So with things in the balance I am going to leave you on the cliff edge and follow up with a further post soon, mainly because Chris hasa number more photos to get over to me so I can finish the second half of the battle with some thoughts on the rule amends.

I hope this whets your appetite, come back later in the week for the second instalment.



Painting table

OK so nothing based yet (Basing department home Monday and lots for her to do) and the AAR will have to wait until the game is complete on Sunday and the photos are in from the other guys.

So I thought I might do a really quick post around what I am working on at present and how I keep myself motivated. The above shot is my work table at present. You can see I have 9 figures and 3 horses on there. That's a lot for me, I like to keep volumes low so I don't over face myself and can feel like I am making progress.

A couple of years ago I managed to strain my stomach by painting too much (repetitive strain?) What this now means is that I need to keep painting spells short and make the most of the time I have. That's one of the reasons my daughter does my basing. That and she is actually pretty good at it.

When I have a figure painted it goes in my painted box until I can see that I have a unit near completion, in the below you will see the Cossacks in the box nearly allow me to finish a unit, at this point I will typically be pretty motivated to get cracked on and finish the unit.

 

 Its important I keep my focus with a project, I am a bit of a butterfly and run from one project to another (evidence the 40 or so Sikh Wars figures on the layer underneath the Great Northern War stuff) so reading lots about the conflict, checking uniforms on line, checking other bloggers progress ( Truls still has far more cavalry than I) and importantly sharing how I am doing via the blog and facebook Black Powder site with people like you, all keep me focused and motivated on turning the figures out.

 The above snapshot shows the progress made on a new unit of Swedes and some of the Polish cavalry, whilst below is the Winged Hussar Standard finished today which I am really pleased with.

So that's about it, its all Physchology really, tricking myself into getting the figures painted without losing interest. Not everyones way I know, I have friends who like to factory turn them out, 60 figures at a time one colour for all then the next. That just doesn't work for me.

So I have now prepared the game for Sunday, using Nuno's book "All honour is lost" for the scenario.

Camera at the ready. Watch this space for the write up.