Great Northern War Swedish High Command.....and a Sunday Walk

 I worked on these three Ebor Mounted Senior Commanders over he last couple of days and mounted them (no pun intended) on a round mdf base - which is actually a drink coaster - I bought a pack of six from a local craft retailer for about $8.

Not much more to say really - I do not think the figure with the telescope is impressive enough to represent King Charles XII of Sweden, so I will have to source a figure for him. Reiver make one but I am not overly fussed on their sculpting style, so I might try and find another generic senior commander for the WSS period that I can re purpose.

I took a view looking down as I am particularly happy with how the base came out 

Now then, where are those pesky Russkies at...?

They are over their, My Lord General!

Cant see 'em.......

To the left of the trees....

Look, just breasting the hill...

Oh for Gods sake, give someone else the telescope, you blind old duffer!

Today, my wife and I took a trip over to the Hunua Ranges again to re-acquaint ourselves with a walk we first did a couple of years ago. This was an 8km loop track taking in another of the Auckland water supply lakes and the Cossey Dam.

Now, I know most wargamers love some maps to set the scene and provide some insight - so here they are!

This shows the location of the walk in relation to the city of Auckland and our home to the SE at Pukekohe (Hill) ... I don't know where the "hill" has suddenly come from, must be a Google thing!

A map showing the layout of the Hunua Ranges Regional Park - our walk last week took us to the Wairoa Reservoir and dam in the bottom right of the left hand rectangle above.

And this is the walk we did today - 80% of it uphill, which made it more of a challenge than a pleasure - we probably won't return for another couple of years!

These very permanent looking entrance stations have sprung up all over the N Island in the last couple of years - they are an attempt to stop a disease called Kauri Die Back that is killing off many of the iconic Kauri trees. You have to scrub the soles of your shoes then stand on a device that sprays disinfectant onto them (and sometimes your ankles and shins too!)

A great view of the Hunua Falls reflected in the stream it feeds

A smaller water fall a few minutes into the walk

View of the wild terrain through which we walked for a couple of hours

Looking at the Cossey reservoir from the dam, at about the halfway point

View back down to the dam after we slogged up another few hundred feet - I think the highest elevation was above 400m - over 1300 feet.

A view of the city of Auckland a way off in the distance - maybe 40-50km. In the centre left, the Auckland Sky Tower (tallest in the Southern Hemisphere) is just discernable - if you are looking on a full sized PC screen!

Final view of the Hunua Falls - amazingly, its not unknown for young men to jump off the top of the falls into the pool below - needless to say, there have been deaths and its now illegal!

I am off back to the painting desk to continue work on the second GNW regiment - the Viborg Regiment - why, because I liked the flag, thats why!