The League of Augsburg
I bet you thought I'd abandoned this..
On the contrary my friends, or should that be Integendeel, mijn vrienden! It takes focus to get a substantial project finished and I had run out of gas with changing short term priorities after completing three of the four corners of this table during the late summer.
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| Aerial view of layout to get a feel for how it might build. I completed various buildings before attempting the gorundwork. |
The most...
Weather beaten? Part 1 intro : Tangier... but not as we know it Jim!
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| A representation of Tangier harbour in 1666. The shape is roughly that of the modern port as seen on various pictures |
I have gazumped that project with an extension of my Dutch Wars naval adventure. As I always do, I try and stretch any project...
The Chatham Board - the tide is coming in
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| Looking north(down river) and from the west bank. |
Things are progressing. I have concentrated on the western bank of the river and focused on flora and dwellings.
The perspective on the landscape is better with trees and buildings in place. The wooded areas and hedges are glued down with slow setting Bostik.
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| Some 2mm troops on this base - Dutch Marines face off local militia |
The village is place on...
One Saturday at mine... Building 1/2400 terrain
I have been researching how to bring this important campaign to the table top for a while now. That activity has paid off. I originally planned to build the entire river in 1/2400 which would have been a mammoth task however, I have now identified five important stretches:
1.The Mouth/Sheerness
2. Musselbank
3. Gillingham Reach and St Mary's Creek
4. The Chatham Dockyard stretch
5. Chatham to Rochester...
1.The Mouth/Sheerness
2. Musselbank
3. Gillingham Reach and St Mary's Creek
4. The Chatham Dockyard stretch
5. Chatham to Rochester...
Nice day
In truth, I wasn't really looking forward to Claymore this year. Not because I don't like the show, I have been a loyal participant for more than 25 years but circumstances were conspiring against me somewhat. Too much day job work, too much travel, getting the new book out, other projects - a 0600 start, knowing I was again flying solo at the show... bed was the most attractive prospect on...
Garrison Point Fort in 1/2400 completion
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| The finished piece is about 100mm square. |
I finally got a chance to build Sheerness today. It's not often you get to type that! Took about 90 minutes to finish the first major piece of terrain for the 1/2400 part of the Tocht naar Chatham (Medway Raid 1667) project.
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| Here is how it all started. |
I used some of the simpler country style buildings from Brigade Models lovely range to to this. These...
Building Garrison Point Fort in 1/2400 scale
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| Rough mock-up shot of Garrison Point Fort in 1667. Van Ghent's squadron attempting to sail past. |
My ideas for the Medway Campaign 1667 involve it being conducted by map, in 1/2400 scale and finally, in 28mm for small land and naval actions.I thought I would begin building the small scale terrain with the first significant defensive work encountered by the Dutch.
On the north western tip of the Isle...
One to One wargaming - table top reality
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| A real life soldier! Musketeer Sean of a Jacobite regiment in Ireland circa 1689. Copyright B Hilton. |
Figure gaming usually falls into some broad categories in terms of scale. Firstly there is the model scale and secondly, the model to man ratio.
Typically 40mm, 28/25mm, 20mm, 15mm, 10mm, 6mm are the most common categories for the former. Of course there are several intermediate scales and some...
Story of a show game 4 - Forces : The Imperialists
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| This was a hoot! 1693 and riding roughshod over the French but it's 20 years on.. can the Turk be vanquished too? |
I very much enjoyed the German Grand National 1693 game which we ran at Tactica and elsewhere in the first half of 2018. The competition between four German ally states against a common enemy was colourful and fun and even spawned an X rated version which I think was called the W hores?...
Story of a show game 2 - The scenario
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| The Panzer Division will watch from the sidelines whilst the infantry slug it out |
The scenario for CRISIS 2018 is called Brahms & Liszt. It is set in 1713 on the south-eastern frontier or, north-western if you are Turkish! This is twenty years after our previous show effort of 2018 at TACTICA which also involved Imperial forces racing to over run the French in the German Grand National 1693.
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| Prussia... |
Story of a show-game 1 - the trade off
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| LoA North American Chapter - Clarence did ALL the work for this one at Historicon 2016 |
Being a Team of two, you have to make decisions which are inevitably a compromise. I have captained some productive groups since starting on the Event Trail around 1992. Sometimes we were two, occasionally three, many times and for several years, I flew solo.
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| Don't be 'leg-ist' please! |
I don't envy larger groups...
On the mat - some shots of the toys
I quickly threw together some old bits and pieces from the various collections to test out the mat. I am very pleased with the way it has come out. I think it is fine here in our little Lace Wars corner to have a little heavy metal on show (I do still have a fair bit of it!).
So, the shots...
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| Swedish cavalry foraging in the Ukraine |
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| German Cavalry foraging.. in the Ukraine! |
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| My favourite Tnk - Pz III |
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| Sep... |