Great northern war - danish troops

 A Project that has been in very slow progress for years has been

to play small skirmishes within the Great northern war.

The politics and the history during this period 17-1800 has always

been a very interessting to me.

Probably because I was born and raised in this part of Scandinavia

and many old houses and landmarks still remains and make the history

come alive.

I already have carolingian infantry, cavalry and artillery in the

1:72-scale(20mm) and these figures from Zvezda are indeed very good

looking figures/models and they have inspiredme to proceed making

something worthy fot placing at the gaming-table.

Danish troops can be bought in tin but I choose to make a conversion

using plastic-soldiers from Strelets.

I choose french miniatures from the range War of the Spanish Succession.

The period is late 1700-th Century and will be very nice painted in the

danish colours. Big hats, and long coats and also wigs is in my opinion

danish details during the GNW-period.

The figures are nicely sculpted and I chose different boxes to make a 

diversity. I will mount the figures 1,2 and 3 on each base.  

I also have good litterature to paint the figures as close as possible

to the period eventhough it is a conversion.

Next report about this topic will show both the painted figures and

my inspirational source(books and pictures).

Napoleon at war - figures part 2

Now the time has come to present my main force of french

napoleonics including artillery and cavalry.

It is a nice mix of Esci and Airfix and most of the collection

are still in their boxes.

In the miniature wargame Napoleon at war the figures will be

placed like this on each base:

Infantry:  4 or 2

Cavalry: 3 or 1

Artillery: 4

The nations in the second buy are:

French, British, Scottish, Preussian, Austrian and Russian and

one extra box with Americans (Washingtons army).

The French:

Airfix French grenadiers of the imperial guard Set 01749

Esci French grenadiers of the imperial guard Set 214

Esci French grenadiers of the imperial guard (plastic bag) Set 214

Esci French line infantry (plastic bag) Set 227

Esci French Cuirassiers Set 235

Airfix French Cavalry Set 01736

Esci French cavalry polish lancers Set 218

Esci French Artillery Set 234

Russians

Esci Russian grenadiers Set 236

Esci Russian infantry and artillery (Crimean war) Set 221

The English/Scottish:

Airfix Highland infantry Set 01735

Esci Scots grey - cavalry Set 217

Esci British light dragoons Set 230

Esci Cardigans 11th hussars (Crimean war) Set 220

Esci British artillery Set 233

Esci British and french artillery Set 219

Airfix British artillery Set 01746

Preussians:

Esci Preussian infantry (plastic bag) Set 226

Austrians:

Esci Austrian infantry (plastic bag) Set 226

A big haul indeed but the collection is now almost complete.

To summarize:

The french: 200+100 infantry, 12+11+12 cavalry, 4+2 sets of artillery 

The british 44 infantry, 12+12+12 cavalry, 4+2+2 sets of artillery 

The extras (Crimean war and Washington army) will somehow be

converted to be used together with the main fractions.

To compare Esci British light dragoons Set 230 and

Esci Cardigans 11th hussars (Crimean war) Set 220 their uniforms

and weapons looks almost identical.

A lot to base and paint but also very fun and a treat for the

eye!!!

Napoleon at war - figures part 1

To play the game Napoleon at war you need figures

and "figures en masse" to use a french expression. :)

Infantry, cavalry and artillery will flood the gaming table

when I am finished. I thought about building a collection

with figures made of metal but after an offer I couldn´t

resist I chose plastic-figures in the 1/72 scale(20mm).

The disadvantage with these figures are that they are 

often made of a soft plastic but my friend Philip in the UK

has shown me how to strenghten the sables, rifles etc

using a undercoat paint that is mixed with pva.

The pva together with white or black is a very thin wash and

once the figure is fully painted they also get a spray with

a matte varnish. I will report about this technique in a 

future report.

The figures on the pictures are french, english, scottish,

preussian and austrian.

On the pictures I have :

Italeri French hussars set 6008

Hät english British light infantry Set 8036
Airfix Waterloo British infantry Set 01745
Airfix Waterloo Highland infantry Set 01735
Esci British infantry Set 215
Esci British light dragoons Set 230
Revell British infantry Set 02571

Revell Preussian infantry Set 02580
Italeri Preussian infantry Set 6067
Italeri Preussian curirassiers Set 6007
Waterloo 1815 Preussian hussars Set 021
Esci Preussian and Austrian infantry Set 226
Zvezda  Preussian grenadiers of Fredrick II "the great" Set 8071

Revell Austrian infantry Set 02574

(Strelets Crimean Russian hussars set 034)

Some of the miniatures are taken from other conflicts
but when buying second hand I also got some extras and
I plan to paint them in the "Napoleonics"-colours also.
Maybe not 100% accurate but more practical. :)

Next report will be about my second buy of miniatures
containing cavalry, infantry and MORE infantry. :)

Old planes-nostalgia

 As a young boy I went for a visit at my mothers office and this

affected my interest for models and the hobby in general.

This was when I was 7-8 years old back in the 1980-ies.

My mother worked at weekly magazine writing about dishes

and cooking. Two persons at the office that were both working with 

the layout and the graphics had lined up both model airplanes and

tanks and that catched my eye for ever. The first person Bertil

also offered me to take over all his old models in various

condition but I didn´t care if they were handed in pieces because

I was overwhelmed. To mention a few of the models I got for a 

present was a german Panther Ausf D with moving tracks in 1/16-scale

and a british Hawker hurricane in the 1/32-scale together with a

lot of tanks in 1/48 scale but also small planes in 1/72-scale.

Very nice gifts indeed but I am sad to say that nothing of these

has lived on to present days. I also wish that Bertil could read

this report and see how much his presents meant to me and also

affected my hobby-interest but he passed away several years ago.

The next person that really have influenced me is Tor that is

one of the most enthusiastic person I know and he is also a walking

library in swedish aero-history. The first time I met Tor he had

lined upp two planes from World war 1 at his office and I know that

one of these was a german tri-plane and the other a english biplane.

Which model I can´t tell because I don´t remember and I have asked

Tor about this but his memory was short in this case.

A couple of weeks ago I found 3 very nice modelplanes to be mounted

on holders to get the feeling on flying.

Just looking on these old model-kits made me remember myself as a

young boy full of enthusiasm and joy and I couldn´t resist buying

these for a very reasonable price of 4 Euros each.

One french Nieuport 17, one english Sopwith triplane and finally

one german Fokker D VII.The kits looks o.k and when scaning on the

internet I have seen some very nice builds.

I am really looking forward building these kits and place them on 

one of the shelf in my office and maybe I will also influence anybody 

outhere young or old.

Next report will show the planes assembled and painted. 

Finds and figures

Due to my renovation of my new house I
have not been so active but here is a new
report.Last month me and the Mrs. went
to the little swedish town of Ullared to buy
a lot of things needed to the new home.
I bought some plastic containers to use
moving my vehicles from home and to the
gaming club.They were both cheap and 
robust and fit perfectly to one of my
bags. :)

I found some nice boats of plastic that I
will convert to my pirate-skirmish.
I will use the frame and glue on some details
and paint them with shading and "dirt"
to give the boats a more varnished and
antique look. Hoppefully the finished
result will look more like these boats:

http://miniatyrmannen.blogspot.se/2015/04/boats-from-games-of-war.html

My sweet wife also gave me a nice present
and it was the famous game of Civilization 5.
I love the earlier versions especially the
first one eventhough the graphics were a
little bit rough. :)

I also got a gift from a friend containing
some futuristic soldiers and a russian
sniper to SoTR.I will use them
for my Apocalyptic zombie-game as a
heavy military-squad.

Finally I have bought some flying dragons
to my ongoing project: Hugg och slag.
I think these figures will give the game
a extra dimension because I will use the
as "fantasy-bombers". Using fire and the
possibility that they can move fast and
afflict a lot of damage is thrilling.The stats
will be made so that these creatures are
vulnerable and must be handle with care
playing the game.The figures will be
used in the scale of 1:72.

A simple road

To play games with miniatures you
need roads and I have found out how to
make these quick and simple.
The core of the road is made of MDF but
you could use almost anything that is
square and flat. I will also paint the edges
in a similar grey(not shown on the pictures).
The good thing is that you can easily build
a surface that looks like cobblestone.
To attach the printed cobblestone I have
used PVC-glue and on top of this I have
mounted sticky plastic-sheets to protect
the surface and the print.

När du spelar spel med miniatyrer
behöver du vägar och jag har hittat ett
smidigt sätt att lösa detta. 
Kärnan i denna modell är byggd av MDF
men du kan använda nästan vilken typ av
platta som helst.Jag kommer även att måla
kanterna i en passande grå färg(ej gjort på
bilderna).En bra sak med denna teknik är att
du med lätthet kan göra en väg med kuller-
sten.För att fästa utskriften med kullersten
har jag använt trälim och ovanpå detta har
jag klistrat självhäftande plast för att göra
ytan mindre känslig för slitage.