Monday 30 August 2021

Great Northern War - Riksänkedrottningens (Queen Dowager's) Livregemente till häst COMPLETED!

After a lot of wasted time, progress on completing the last Ebor cavalry regiment has been relatively rapid, and here they are:


The last two stands of Ebor cavalry to roll off the production line...


From above....


The left hand element from two different angles...



...and the right hand element ditto.



The full regiment in all its glory.


Next up I think I will be working on a few more of the Perry DAK figures I previewed a couple of weeks ago, while I await the (hopefully imminent) arrival of an order from Brigade Games.

Saturday 28 August 2021

Great Northern War - Riksänkedrottningens (Queen Dowager's) Livregemente till häst

Finally managed to get the first six figures of the Queen Dowagers Mounted Lifeguard painted. There is nothing very distinctive about the uniform, apart from silver rather than gold for the lace, including on their tricorns. I found the flag after a bit of searching on line and printed it off in colour then touched it up a bit with some paint.

The second two bases should be completed tomorrow so look out for another post in a day or two.











The following information comes from "The Uniforms of The Swedish Army in the Great Northern War" by  Lars-Eric Höglund.

Riksänkedrottningens (Queen Dowager's) Livregemente till häst (800 men).   

Descended from the Dragonregementet of 1661 of the former Danish provinces and the Bohus-Jämtlands kavalleriskvadron. Indelt in Halland and Bohuslän 1685-89.
 
In 1710 the regiment to part in the Scanian Campaign  was shipped to Pomerania in 1712. Participated in Stenbocks Campaign and was captured at Tönningen in 1713. It was subsequently reraised and took part in the 1718 Norwegian Campaign. 

Uniform 1702 and 1708: hat with silver lace. Blue cloak with blue lining. Blue coat with brass buttons, blue lining and cuffs, black and white neckcloth, leather vest and breeches, blue nightcap, "bröstlapp", elkskin gauntlets. Major parts of the uniform were disapproved by the Muster Chief, Lieutenant General Nieroth, at the General Muster of 1708: Cloaks and coats deviated in color and quality from the official samples; breeches and gauntlets were improperly sown; the Fyrmännings troopers, who were divided among the companies, had horses which were too small, unserviceable firearms etc. Saddles swords, hats and cartridge boxes which dated from 1689 "somewhat usable!" 

Nieroth's observations fill seven folio sheets, everything from boots which were too expensive to gauntlets which were too stiff, and are a biting but interesting read. 1715: Old hats from 1701 with narrow gold lace. Blue coat, kyller (buff coat), leather breeches and gauntlets which were condemned in 1708 are now considered serviceable. Trumpeters had no special livery, but good blue cloth coats. The Other Ranks had new blue cloaks with blue lining and a brass clasp, a "bröstlapp" of chamois, blue and yellow stockings, together with a par of linen stockings. Schabraque and pistol covers were blue, like 1702. Standards, kettledrum and trumpets which were lost at Tönningen had not yet been replaced. 

Monday 23 August 2021

Distractions, distractions.....

 So, I have just managed to refocus and get 75% of the way through the first six of my last twelve GNW cavalry figures, and then THIS happens! Two small packs arrive from the UK - one containing Statuesque female heads, the other containing 28 Copplestone Bolshevik infantry, the majority destined for a sex change!


As we are on the topic of distractions, here are the first four of my recently acquired Perry Afrika Korps figures, painted up in an approximation of the earlier version of the tropical uniform, complete with cork "Colonial" helmets...


The group of four


Officer in tropical headwear


Rifleman ditto


Kneeling officer or senior NCO


RT operator 


Another comparison shot alongside one of the German themed Pulp Miniatures figures.

Swedes next time. on my honour!

Thursday 19 August 2021

Some More Pulp Fiction

 Oh Dear...... instead of knuckling down and getting the last twelve GNW cavalry painted, I have allowed myself to be diverted by the instant gratification of painting a few more Pulp Era figures! And to make things worse, I now have a PLAN....involving MORE Pulp figures, in contingents of ten or twelve figures, and representing six or eight nations - UK, US, Germany, Russia, France, Japan and China - and possibly a couple more as well! To this end, I have purchased two boxes of Perry plastic WW2 figures - Afrika Korps and Eighth Army (other nations will follow but probably in metal - it should not be too costly as I only need a handful of each nation....)

The idea is to have skirmish games for four to six players, each on some kind of mission, and colliding with each other on the table top - it may all come to nothing, it just seems like a cool idea at the moment - I think Neil at Toy Soldiers and Dining Room Battles is to blame, with his recent posts about his fictional Great Game gone Hot Russo/British War of 1900 ish - and a related Grab the Mad Guru scenario.....


This is the whole group of recently painted Bob Murch figures


First of the latest three completed - an American aviatrix


Not sure on this one - could be French...or a second American


The third has been painted up as a second Nazi explorer - given her girth, I am thinking of making her a relation of Reichmarshall Goering - his cousin perhaps!


The three new characters together


The German characters


British Characters


Russian characters (painted a few weeks ago for the RCW collection)


The new arrivals - about a dozen Perry Afrika Korps undercoated - most are wearing the old style cork helmets, as they are intended for pre war use


Size comparison - I think they will work fine together


A few examples of the inspiration for this kind of gaming....







Lets hope I manage to complete this idea as I think it would provide a lot of fun and entertainment! (I will get those Swedes back in the painting queue soon though...honest!)

Monday 16 August 2021

Change of Pace - Some Pulp Characters

 As a bit of a break (a change is as good as a rest, they say!) over the last couple of days I have done some work on a few individual figures I had in my modest lead pile (yes, I do now have one - it must be akin to middle aged spread!)

Two of the figures were recently acquired from Hasslefree Miniatures, the others I have had for a couple of months and are Bob Murch Pulp Figures by way of Caliver. In an attempt to justify (if only to myself) the purchasing and painting of these figures, I have downloaded Bobs Pulp Era rules and also watched an Indiana Jones film on Netflix (although not the Last Crusade, which inspired one of the following figures) Seized by this new plan, I have just put in an order for Perry plastic 28mm Desert Rats and Afrika Korps, in the belief I can base them individually and come up with some kind of Pulp 30's adventure scenario to justify my painting the following......



This character was the inspiration for my first figure, below


Nasty Nazi Elsa Schneider, on the trail of who knows what to aid Hitlers dastardly plans...


Next up a couple of plucky British "Gels", whose aim is to stymy Elsa's evil schemes


An Upper Class Lady Archaeologist...



.... and a determined looking RAF "type"


The sculpting on all three of these Pulp figures is outstanding and makes them very easy to paint well, in my opinion.

The next two are both from Hasslefree and are the same figure - Winter Katerina I think she is called - I have done a blonde and a black haired version and have a vague notion I can involve then in RCW scenarios somehow - but mainly I just wanted to see how well I could paint up her coat!





Side by side from the rear


Tonight I have under coated the first six of the last GNW Cavalry regiment, so probably the next post will feature those figures, in a few days time.