The League of Augsburg
Now here's a thing..
I have been delighted by the number of mails and comments I have received regarding my burgeoning interest in 1/2400 - 17th century ships. As always during a surge of enthusiasm for a period or new strand of wargaming interest, I scoured the internet to find alternative options to the Tumbling Dice models of which I have now painted 150+.
Finding such, is not easy. Of the rare options uncovered,...
Easter Parade Final Day and your thoughts on artillery.....
Today is a bit of a consolidation with a commander vignette thrown in. I have other squadrons of Ottoman cavalry on the stocks right now and some riders finished but they are not based yet.
I have been discussing with designers what Ottoman artillery we need. On the short list so far are
a light gun, a field gun, a battering gun and a super heavy gun together with a mortar.
I am considering a...
Easter Parade Day 3
This third squadron of sipahis was built to sit behind the first squadron I posted about two days ago. It has more models with the lance in the upright position.
The 75mm wide by 80mm deep bases I use for cavalry allow for the sense of movement to be built into the unit. Two things moved me away from the older style bases I use at the beginning of collecting in this period.
The first is the movement...
Easter Parade Day 2
I have always preferred to base irregular cavalry, particularly horse archers, on hexagonal bases. I started doing this way back around 1996 or 1997 when collecting large numbers of Huns. An American visitor to Claymore around about the turn of the century made me an offer I couldn't refuse and all of my Huns literally, went west.
Since then I have reprised the basing style for irregular infantry,...
Easter Parade Day 1
The enforced home stay has been fantastic news for my projects and here is day 1 of a four day run of Ottoman cavalry in their full tabletop glory.
I knew I was going to be pleased with these even before arranging...
Chinese take- out? VOC v Pirates 1666
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| South China Seas action |
In my continuing Covid-induced privateer laboratory I decided to blood some ships I had painted a few months back just because I had them. A few packs of Chinese pirate junks which I had intended to use specifically to run out against European vessels exploiting the riches of the South China Sea.
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| VOC Trading station somewhere in modern day Indonesia |
By now you know the form -...
Ottoman cavalry update
I have been slowly but surely painting Ottoman cavalry in between other projects and am just about to base the first units.
I had to get at least one of each figure done in the six packs for the shop and seeing them all together demonstrates how nice this range has turned out.
Recent reading and referenceto source material has reassured me that these figures will be usable for the north African...
Second run of the privateer play test
I considered the first run of this game not a fluke but perhaps a little fortunate for the privateer ship.
So, giving it another go with pretty much everything the same except, the opponents this time were the Dutch West India Company Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie or GWC. The ship profiles were exactly the same with Jupiter replacing Elizabeth, Schiedam substituting for Swan and Egmondfor...
Guest post: Gareth Lane's Scots-Dutch Brigade
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| George Ramsay's Regiment |
The Scots-Dutch Brigade had a long and active service but is probably best remembered for its great defeat at the hands of Viscount Dundee's Highland army at Killiecrankie in 1689.
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| Hugh Mackay of Scourie's Regiment |
That it was composed of and largely officered by experienced Scots officers is something occasionally yet deliberately overlooked by those intent on some Scots v...
Naval campaign part 2 preview
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| A nice day out at Ardnamurchan.... maybe not for some of these ships |
With a little help from my friends.....
Dave and Colin came over last week to keep the campaign going. We played three cracking games with me going to pick up the fourth and fifth when I get a chance.
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| Make ready your guns! Tocht challenges Rochefoucauld at Duinkirk 1672 |
Scenario number 1 entitled 'King Louis's ships'takes place off...
Painting a 1/2400 scale ship model for the Anglo Dutch War period (1650-1700)
Quite a few people have been asking for a how to guide for painting, rigging and basing the 1/2400 scale Dutch Wars ships. So, here we are..
I have chosen a 4th rate model which costs £2.40.
The contents of a pack are laid out above. The 2mm thick, 20 x 40mm pill base does not come with the model I buy these from Warbasesin packs of 20. The price I don't recall but, it is less than £2 for that...
It's Saturday, I'll build a castle
I have several new scenarios coming up for the 17th century naval campaign. I needed something that resembled a Scottish castle. I thought - just a tower. Then, what about a tower on a rocky outcrop? Then that morphed into... maybe I could expand it to look like the stronghold of a clan chief with outbuildings etc.. yeah...
Now, how was I going to do that. Well, two cups of coffee, various rummages...