Update anyone?

Hoi,

Work on the diorama is slow, well fairly non existent at this moment. I still have a large amount of 60th Rifles primed and awaiting a paint-job on my desk, but somehow I cannot bring myself to start painting them. Perhaps having the diorama-tiles in here will help motivate me, but they are not due till somewhere halfway June.

I have been reading quite a lot on the Peninsular War lately and this keeps me tuned and not too much distracted with the other projects I've got going.

On my night stand are these two books:

Oman's "History of the Peninsular War Volume 5"


http://www.amazon.com/History-Peninsular-War-Valencia-Salamanca/dp/1853676349/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305974358&sr=1-4

and

"Albuera, Wellington's 4th Peninsular Campaign" by Peter Edwards.


http://www.amazon.com/Albuera-Wellingtons-Fourth-Peninsular-Campaign/dp/1861269463/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305974400&sr=1-7

The first one I hoped would reveal some more details concerning the Battle of Los Araphiles or Salamanca, which it does, but not particularly useful for the actual work on the table. Oman is a brilliant read however so I enjoy this book immensely anyway.
The latter isn't just about the battle of Albuera, which was fought by Beresford and not Nosey after all, but also tells about the first siege of Badajoz. Very interesting details are given of the discussion which started after some accusations were directed towards Beresford for the way in which he (mis-)handled both Albuera and the first stages of the siege, before Wellington took back overall control.

At this time I am suffering from a dilemma: HäT has announced they will be re-doing French pre-1812 and post 1812  infantry. This is good news in itself, specially if they decide to produce them in their recent MAC-format, but it means I will have to choose between using the present set of pre-1812 French of which I already own several and so can start painting mini's at this very moment, or wait till I get the new ones who will be undeniably in better sculpted style and details and thus fit better with the other stuff on the diorama.
  So what to do, what to do?

When I have more thoughts or opinions on this issue, the Peninsular War or Salamanca to share, I'll post them here but for now this is all folks...

Cheers Sander

diorama base here we come!

Hello!

Since updates on this blog don't pop up too often I'd like to bring you a bombshell each time they do! So here are some pictures of the modular plates the diorama will consist of.

First up a birds' view of the lot:

Next a side shot with some 1:72 figures for scale reference

Then a picture with the plates and the travelling casettes to the right:

And last a picture of the modules in their casettes.

All the work has been done by Hans of waterama fame http://www.historyinminiature.nl/ who has done them exactly after my "instructions" the final details I'll have to do myself and then the great "placing of figures will start!"

Hans you're the best!

Cheers Sander

3rd Hussars

As I predicted progress on the Big Project is tiresomely slow. Other smaller projects crop up continuously and keep me from proceeding.

I did manage these testers of the French 3rd Hussars which came into action with some regiments of Chasseurs a Cheval against the Portuguese and German cavalry accompanying Pakenham's attack.The figures used are of course Italeri's French Hussars and Revells Chasseurs de Garde.

I´d say keep an eye on this spot in the future, but I cannot garantee an update soon so...

Cheers Sander

Some chaps finished!

Hoi There,

Finally I have managed to finish the first section of the 60th Rifles for the diorama. These chaps all have blue-grey trousers, the next batch will have brown ones. I tried to paint some patches on them to give them a campaign-dress look.

To the left are all the finished chaps.

Right you can see a close-up including the sarge.










I hope to post some more news soon!

Cheers Sander

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