First WIP pictures!

As predicted progress on this project is rather slow. I wish it would be otherwise... Experience gained over the recent years has taught me that you'd best start new projects after finishing the ones on the workbench. Still some small odds and ends will clutter your desk and so it is with mine. Currently I am finishing a wargames unit of Napoleonic Highlanders from Art-Miniaturen  http://www.wargaming.de/assets/s2dmain.html?http://www.wargaming.de/index.html but I have also prepared the first figures to be painted for my Salamanca Project. These are some 50 troopers of the 60th Rifles. About 4 to 5 companies of this regiment were seconded to the 3rd Division to enhance it's skirmish line. The chaps will be paired up and put in front of the firing line together with some cacadores (when or rather if I get mini's for those) and the light companies of Wallace's brigade.
The first picture shows how I prepped the larger part of the 50 men: on thin wire without their bases as I will be pinning them to the modular landscape tiles eventually.

An attempt to a close up ;-)

The figures are of course Revells excellent set of 95th Rifles http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=318 I really dislike the last set of the same regiment done by Italeri http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1061 due to the fact they are far too large but also because some of the poses which are downright silly and the dis-proportion of some of the rifles compared to the soldiers handling them. Gladly I have an adequate supply of Revell's chaps :-)

Cheers Sander

Doing the numbers...

Hoi,

As a prelude to any of the painting and building on the diorama, I was thinking of sharing the numbers of the project with you all. So here is a table showing what units I will have to complete for the thing to be finished.

Division:	Brigade:	Unit:	Org. Strength:		Strength:		Details:
British & Allies
3rd Division	Pakenham		5.875		1127		-
1802	Wallace	45th	442		89		Blue-green4
		74th	443		89		White3
		88th	663		132		Yellow18
		3 cy 5/60th	254		50		Rifle/ red
1876	J. Campell	2xbtn 5th	1210		242		Green (yellowish)
		83rd	319		65		Pale Yellow
		94th	347		70		Blue-green
2197	Powers	9th Line btn	732		145		Port.
		21st Line btn	732		145		Port.
		12th Caçad.	732		100		Port.
482	D’Urban	1st Port. Drag	482		48		S. o.f.t. P.W
		11th Port. Drag	meegeteld met 1e drag.		48
	Arentschildt	14th L.Drag.			48		Well. L.C. B
		1st Hus. KGL			48		S. o.f.t. P.W
Total:					192
	Bull	RHA 1 batt.			6 pcs
	Douglass	RFA 1 batt.			6 pcs
French:
7th Division	Thomières	1st line 3btns	1.763		350		1e bat. In line 2 & 3 marching
4.543		62nd line 2btns	1.123		225		Marching
		101st line 3btns	1.449		280		Marching
		Artillery	208		40		10pcs
					895
Light Cavalry	Curto	3rd Hussars 2sqdns		248	50
1.879		22nd chas. 2sqdns		253	50
		26th chas. 2sqdns		278	50		Nap.Chas. E1[1]
		28th chas. 1 sqdn		94	20
Total:					170
Grandtotal (excl. Arty)							2384

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[1] Not actively engaged.

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4 MAA Wellington’s Infantry 1: Plate A

Cheers Sander

Custom Gaming table!

Hoi All!

Today's update brings you some pictures of my custom-made gaming table. It features shelves to store rulebooks and drawers for dice and other accessories and two cupboards for my terrain. I got the idea from this blog:                 http://lordashramshouseofwar.blogspot.com/ 


An uncle of mine is a pensioned furniture-maker (antiquary) and made this entirely by hand according to my wishes. The tabletop measures 151 x 151 cm on the inside in order to receive my 150 x 150 Salamanca diorama when finished. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

Cheers Sander

New blog online!

Hello people!

As you can see I have launched a new blog. Why is this? You might ask, well for a long time I have been working at the beginnings of my "Big Project". Everybody has a Big Project and so do I. When first starting with 1:72 figures, I intended to display part of the Battle of Waterloo in plastic. Over the years it became apparent to me that I was not alone in this and since I wanted to do something that was not being done by others already, I went on a search for a different battle to display.

My extensive reading and love for all things Wellingtonian soon brought me upon the battle of Salamanca in 1812. This was arguably one of the Iron Duke's greatest victories and after reading Rory Muirs excellent book Salamanca !812 I just knew I had to "do" this battle for my project.
http://www.amazon.com/Salamanca-1812-Dr-Rory-Muir/dp/0300087195/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287490031&sr=1-1

At this point I got stuck as to what part of the battle and in what scale (well 1:72 obviously but I mean in which figure ratio) was I going to build it?
My Dad came to the rescue and together we calculated that it would suite me best to do the attack of the Fighting 3rd Division, led by Pakenham, in a ratio of 1:5. Pretty fast it became our joint project, my Dad has been helping on and off ever since; thanks heaps Dad ;-)
Over the next years  we did a lot of fine-tuning and some figures were obtained as well, no actual building or painting has taken place though. Last year has seen several developments that put things in motion.

First is the fact that HäT, my all-time favourite company, has been producing Peninsular Brits, new 1805-1812 French light and regular infantry and has Britisch Cavalry in the pipeline.

Second is that a good friend has offered to help me build the base-plates (landscape) of the battle, a discipline in which I am rather bad.

Last but not least  is the fact that an uncle of mine has just finished my custom made gaming/ diorama table. The table has been fine-tuned to received the 9 modules of 50x50cms each which will eventually form the landscape. The modules can be put on show in the table or put away safely in cassettes after which I can use the table for gaming.Pictures will follow soon.

Well this is it for now, I will try to update this blog as well as the regular one, but progress on this one will be far more irregular I fear.

Even so keep watching this space ;-)

Cheers Sander