More Reconquista Heavy Foot

As alluded to in a prior posting showing one, twelve-figure stand of mercenary or Spanish heavy foot (Reconquista Heavy Foot), off the painting desk pops a second unit of the same.  The follow-up unit is twelve figures strong and again, all Black Tree Design.  The project now fields  five such mercenary foot units.

Inventory remains to field several more of these Spanish foot warriors.  First, though, I may push a unit or two of heavy cavalry into the painting queue.  In the last BTD order, I included knights on barded horses to make at least two heavy cavalry units.  Like these mercenary foot, the heavy cavalry will be able to appear within either faction.

Besides, when facing Jake's mass of heavy cavalry, I will most certainly require a few of my own as a counter.  I can't rely on the Moorish camelry to dissuade his knights every time. 

Reconquista Heavy Foot

After a week away from the painting desk due to travel, I had some time at the end of the work week to return to the brushes and pots of paint.  First unit to muster off the painting desk is a twelve figure stand of Black Tree Design armored infantry for the Reconquista project.

These twelve warriors comprise one Impetvs stand and will be used as either Spanish or Mercenary heavy infantry.  They will likely see action on both sides of the gaming table.  BTD figures from the Warriors of Island and 2nd Crusade range are very nicely sculpted.  Covered nearly head to toe in mail, these chaps can be ready for battle quite quickly.  In fact, a second unit of twelve is on the painting table in a repeat performance.  After a long week away, it is gratifying to be able to push out a unit to get back into the swing of production.     

American Fleet at Santiago de Cuba, 1898

Following the Spanish fleet display, up next is the American fleet present at the Battle of Santiago Harbor.

Like the Spanish ships, the American fleet is all from the old Houston Ship line of 1/1000 or 1/1100 metal models.

USS Brooklyn

USS Brooklyn

Gloucester and Ericsson

USS Iowa

USS Iowa

USS Indiana

USS Indiana

USS New York

USS New York

USS Oregon

USS Oregon

USS Texas

USS Texas

I should work on rebasing the fleet since I have added a few additional ships that require basing.

Spanish Fleet at Santiago de Cuba, 1898

After dredging up the Battle of Santiago BatRep from the archives, why not dredge up my Spanish ship collection from the bottom of the bay and give them a photo shoot?

The Spanish ships are all from old Houston Ship line of 1/1000 or 1/1100 metal models.  Most of these I completed years (really decades) ago.

Cristobal Colon

Cristobal Colon

Infanta Maria Teresa

Infanta Maria Teresa

Admirante Oquendo

Admirante Oquendo

Vizcaya

Vizcaya

Destroyers Furor and Terror

The paint brush has not been raised in anger for a week while I have been in the other Washington (D.C.) attending a conference.  Hopefully, I can remedy that when I return.

1799 Suvorov in Italy - The French

The 1799 Project is definitely a Work-In-Progress with not so much emphasis on "Work."  Nevertheless, with the Russians getting their parade in an earlier post, I figured it only fitting to allow the French contingents a similar exhibition.  Thus far, 15 foot battalions have been fielded.  Unlike the Russians and their Austrian allies, the French army exerts an egalitarian approach to uniforming their infantry.  That is, no distinguishing facing colors for each regiment.  Luckily, during this period, the flags for each regiment (and even battalions within regiments) were often distinct.

Included in the 15 battalions are two battalions of light infantry in the early side-plumed shako.  1799 was likely too early to see these on the field but I had the figures so why not?

Figures are all AB Miniatures.

Moorish Cavalry for the Reconquista

Work continues on bolstering the cavalry arm of the Moorish factions in the Reconquista project.  After the first Impetvs game in October, the Moors have not faced a live adversary.  The collection has been out on the gaming table a couple of times since then but only for solitaire maneuvers.  My spring is shaping up to allow few opportunities for gaming so this four figure unit of medium cavalry will go into barracks with its comrades until then.

These four horsemen are BTD figures and will look familiar to those following the blog.  Familiar not as a result of recycling pictures of existing units but because this stand is the fifth such unit mustered.  Work progressed on these horsemen in between my other painting project: full size painting and redecorating of the formal dining and new library.

While most of the BTD Post-Christmas order is in hand, a number of horses are still straggling.  Once stragglers arrive, I plan to field several more such cavalry units.  Oh, possibly one or two more camelry to add to the roster too.

Cacciatori del Alpi

Jake stopped by the house on Tuesday for a couple hour hobby discussion and to pick up his portion of end-of-year BTD order.  Of course, topics included scheduling upcoming games and current and future projects.  It was Christmas when we last got together for a game and we had catching up to do even though many of our hobby activities are documented in our blogs (see Jake's excellent blog).

Discussion quickly turned to Jake's Renaissance Italian Wars project in 28mm.  He has been busily churning out units for his project and I have been sorely tempted on many an occasion to contribute.  Well, after the pep talk on Tuesday, I prepared a list of Wargames Foundry Landsknecht.  On Friday I pushed the send button and I should have enough figures to field one Landsknecht square and two units of heavy Gendarme cavalry from the Impetvs lists.  Getting them into the painting queue might pose another problem.

Speaking of the painting queue, I finished the second battalion of Cacciatori del Alpi for the Sardinians in my 15mm Risorgimento project.  These Cacciatori were part of Garabaldi's Redshirts.  As their sister battalion before, the figures are Battle Honors Zouaves.  The sculpts are not the best and the figures are a little fragile but they will do.   

Next off the painting desk will likely be one Impetvs stand of medium Moorish cavalry with spear.

American Militia in the AWI

These American militia are an odd lot.  While my portion of the AWI Saratoga project began as a commitment to fielding the Germans, I picked up a number of British figures to fill out the OB.  In fact, I picked up a lot of British from Perry Miniatures and Wargames Foundry.  Some of these British figures I received when our British commander threw in the towel on the group project.  In part of the figure swap, I found these figures already primered.  How they got into the British lead pile, I don't know.  Nevertheless, I figured they could be pressed into service the next time we muster our 28mm AWI collections for battle.

I believe the figures to be Perry but I suppose they could be Foundry as well.  My bet is on Perry.  What I have is a four stand unit of 16 figures in various states of loading and preparing to fire.  I threw in a couple of regulars to the motley bunch.

Very nice models and gives me the itch to push AWI lead on the gaming table.

State of the Painting Desk

Being away for work all of last week, no activity at the painting desk occurred.  With some time this weekend, I returned to the Works-In-Progress that were left lingering on the desk and started a few more.  A number of units are currently on the desk in various states of completion.  Some are nearing the final stages while others are wearing only a coat of primer.  Below is a photo of the paint desk.

Paint Desk, March 9

In the foreground and closest to completion are 16 28mm Perry AWI militia.  This unit only requires flocking and a final spray of Dullcote to muster off the table.  In the center are four 28mm Moorish cavalry and 12 15mm Cacciatori del Alpi.  The Cacciatori comprise the second battalion to be fielded as Garibaldi Redshirts for the 1859 project.  Also on the desk are 24 28mm medieval heavy infantry for the Reconquista project.  These BTD figures will form two Impetvs stands of heavy infantry.  Finally, on the right are 24 28mm FIW French infantry and Coureur des Bois that I will be fielding as two militia units for the FIW project.  Will I tackle all 24 FIW figures at once or only paint enough for one, 12 figure unit?  I will answer that question after I get the other items cleared away.

Quite a lot of activity on the painting desk this week and hopefully many of these will be mustering off the paint table soon.

Montcalm & Wolfe Campaign Begins

A few weeks' ago, I began laying down some thoughts on conducting a wargames' campaign (Thoughts on Selecting a Wargame Campaign). Keeping the operational/strategic aspects of the campaign simple was key in selection.  A second key criterion was that the scope of the campaign should remain small.  Finally, I needed to have a majority of the troops required already in hand and battle-ready.

After some time spent in contemplation, my choice for this trial will be the French & Indian War.  To govern the operational activities, the DTP effort, Montcalm & Wolfe will be utilized.  Luckily, there is an excellent VASSAL module available and in many ways provides a much more handsome tool than the original game.  Oh, the module is free as well!

The campaign begins in May 1755 with monthly game turns.  All units begin deployed in set positions with the exception of three French regular regiments.  These variable regiments are placed, one each, in Fort Duquesne, Fort Niagara, and  Isle aux Noix.  With these deployments, Fort Duquesne can be defended from a possible stab north from Braddock, the upper reaches of Lake Champlain can be protected, and allows a possible strike against the British garrison at Fort Oswego at the start of the campaign.  Only the larger engagements will be transferred to the game table for resolution with miniatures.  Hopefully, this exercise will generate a few interesting encounters to play out on the table. 

Situation May 1755

Looking over the OBs for both sides, the number of militia units may outstrip what I have painted.  While I have a number of colonial units that can be pressed into service for the British, only a handful of militia units for the French are service-ready.

To remedy that shortfall, I placed a small order to 1st Corps.  Now, I have not purchased from 1st Corps in several years but I do field several of their British and French units in the FIW collection.  The 1st Corps figures come in at the larger end of model size compared against Old Glory and Dixon.  Painted and deployed on the table, most of these size differences vanish.  

What I ordered were two dozen figures from the Coureur de Bois and French in Campaign Dress SKUs.  The order arrived within two weeks and are primered and ready for the brush.   Painted, these will provide the foundation for two more French militia units wearing a mix of dress.

French militia from 1st Corps

1799 Suvorov in Italy - The Russians

While thinking about dual purposing my Prussian SYW jaegers as Russian jaegers for my 1799 project, I was reminded that the Russian infantry have yet to receive flags.  I need to remedy that!  Thus far, the project musters twelve infantry battalions comprised of two combined grenadier battalions, four grenadier battalions, and six musketeer battalions.  All battalions received flags except for the combined grenadier battalions.  All figures are AB Miniatures.

Russian infantry arrayed on parade

Russian infantry arrayed on parade

Russian infantry arrayed on parade

Combined Grenadier battalions

Fanagoria Grenadier Regiment

Kursk Musketeer Regiment

Moscow Grenadier Regiment 

Smolensk Musketeer Regiment

Yaroslavl Musketeer Regiment

One of the difficulties was matching the Russian regiment given in Duffy's Eagles over the Alps with Mark Conrad's excellent and most useful translation of Viskovatov (link).  Also, with respect to flags, regiments listed differed either from Duffy or Conrad.

After a bit of checking and cross-checking, I came up with the following mapping;

• Yaroslavl Musketeer RGT = Durosav Musketeer RGT
• Kursk Musketeer RGT = Koursk Musketeer RGT
• Smolensk Musketeer RGT = Scheikovsky Musketeer RGT
• Moscow Grenadier RGT = Grenadier RGT Rosenberg
• Fanagoria Grenadier RGT = Fanagoria Grenadier RGT
• Miloradovitch Musketeer RGT = Aspheron Musketeer RGT
• Tyrtov Musketeer RGT = Tula Musketeer RGT
• Forster Musketeer RGT = Ferster (Tambov) Musketeer RGT
• Jung-Baden Musketeer RGT = Butyrsk Musketeer RGT
• Baranovsky Musketeer RGT = Nizovsk (Nizov) Musketeer RGT

Of course, I may have some incorrect but that will do for now.  Note that "hat" companies for Russian grenadier regiments actually wore the short mitre (think Prussian SYW fusilier) with the flank company wearing the tall mitre worn by grenadiers.  Elites in a grenadier battalion were not termed "grenadiers!"