They have arrived!

Huzzah!

As I posted earlier today, on the 196th birthday of the Battle of Waterloo, the diorama modules for my Salamanca Project have arrived at my home.

Hans Slaager of Waterloo and Cambrai fame delivered them this morning and together we unpacked them into my purpose build table. Without further ado I hereby present you some pictures of the occasion:

Hans showing the modules in their excellent cassettes.

Of course I had the honour to put in place the first plate in the table...

...and the final one!

Enjoying Hans' handiwork together.

If you have never seen any of Hans' work up close and personal you cannot begin to perceive how excellent and with just how much eye for detail he makes his masterpieces. This isn't only true for his landscapes but also for the cassettes they come in. It all fits like a glove.

At first we were a little afraid the modules wouldn't fit in the table, but as we put them in place we discovered we actually have about 2 cm's to spare, which is no problem since it makes retrieving the modules from the table easier by far.

I'll make some detail shots later on, and leave this with just one more really big THANK YOU to Hans.

Cheers Sander

***Newsflash!***

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Breaking news this afternoon: on the historic day of 18th June 2011 the long expected Diorama Modules will arrive here at home-base!

Huzzah!


Cheers Sander

Blogger trouble!

Hoi,

I am having some trouble with placing comments on other peoples blogs but now on my own as well so sorry if you're not getting a reaction you'd hoped for!

Quick reaction to the chaps who commented on my last post:

@Matt: thanks mate, that's sound advice and I will wait for them.

@ Peter: your blog is brilliant, nice stuff. Sadly the diorama will not be finished next year or even the year after that, because of the 1:1 project that will be ready in september and from then on will probably request all of my free time. Besides for someone without a car or driver's license it's nigh on impossible to get anywhere with a big diorama...

Cheers Sander

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