More SYW Russian Cossacks

RSM Russain Cossacks for my SYW Russian army.
Click on all pictures to enlarge.

I have been on a good painting frenzy of late and I finished a second set of 12 Russian Cossacks. As with the others, these are RSM figures mounted on Minden light cavalry horses. The combination looks very lifelike and visually appealing.

I find that the RSM and Minden figures are very compatible and so I use both figure ranges in my SYW armies.

A closer view of the new Cossacks, wearing short hats.

The picture below gives one a sense of how the whole Cossack unit will look. The grassed set of 12 wear the tall fur hat and the ungrassed set of 12 wear the short hat.

Two squadrons of RSM Russian Cossacks mounted on Minden Horses. The lefthand unit will be grassed
later today after the ground spackle has dried.

Next in the Queue

I have another dozen Russian dragoons to paint to build the regiment up to 24 figures. I am giving them a coat of grey primer today so that I can start painting them tomorrow. After that, I will either turn to the Horvat Hussars (using the Minden Austrian hussars) or the 3rd Cuirassier Regiment (using Minden Austrian cuirassiers).

Because 18th Century armies and uniforms are very similar in look and style, it is relatively easy to recruit figures from one country's troops for use in another country's troops, in the event that the needed figures are not yet a part of the Minden Miniatures figure range. I find that the French infantry with turnbacks work for Russian Musketeers, RSM Russian Grenadiers are used in my army, Hanoverian Horse, Austrian Hussars and Austrian Cuirassiers suitably fill in for their Russian counterparts.

Minden already makes the Russian artillery crewmen and some of the more common Russian artillery pieces, so this combat arm is fairly well handled within the range.

My SYW Russian Army, so Far

With the completion of the Cossacks, I now have enough Russian cavalry to fight a small battle - 24 Horse Grenadiers, 24 Cossacks and 12 Dragoons (up to 24 by the end of this week). I could also use some of my Austrian cavalry to augment the Russians, if needed.

The infantry contingent has 3 musketeer battalions and one grenadier battalion for a total of four battalions. In a pinch, I could use my green coated Hesse Seewald battalions as Russians (in fact, I had this in mind when I started painting my own Hesse Seewald regiments).

The artillery contingent has four cannon: a Shuvulov Secret Howitzer, a 12 pound Howitzer, a 12 pound smoothbore and a 6 pound smoothbore. I still need to paint limber teams for my cannon. I am thinking that I will delegate the 6 pounders to the infantry to use as regimental guns, which the Russians often did. I have been reading that the Shuvulov Howitzers took longer to reload, so in my rules they will only be able to fire every other turn.

I have some new Russian infantry wearing their Summer kit at Griffin Moulds awaiting the production of master moulds. If the figures pass my muster, then I will put them into production moulds and add them to the Minden range. I sculpted the figures using Richard Ansell's dollies, so there should be similarity with the rest of the Minden figures that Richard sculpted. My own effort is passable, but nothing up to the standard of Richard. So if my sculpts do not look good to my eye, then I won't put them in the range. So we shall see.

First Anniversay of my Retirement

Today, October 31st, is the one year anniversary of my retirement from work and my new career as a gentleman of leisure. As one of my longtime friends said, "Jim, you were made for retirement." I can't dispute that.

Retirement has given me more time to devote to the figure business and to painting figures, so that part of it is great. I have also played a number of solo wargames which I do to generate pictures for this blog or test out scenarios and rules changes. My solo game year to date include:

Reichenbach
Fontenoy
Cowpens
Cheraw (AWI campaign game)
Winnsboro (AWI campaign game)
Fisher's Crossing (AWI campaign game)
McDowell's Camp (AWI campaign game)

I like the solo games because they give me the opportunity to do what little army men were made for - playing wargames.

I also did a little bit of traveling this year, going to the UK in June and Fort Donelson, Tennessee in October. I also did the Christopher Duffy tour of SYW battlefields last October, but that took place before I officially retired. I would like to visit some more ACW battlefields in the USA this next year and a return trip to the UK for another wargame mini convention is definitely in the works.

Year Two of Retirement should be just as busy and so I'm looking forward to seeing how the year unfolds.

Russian Horse Grenadiers WIP

Kargopol Horse Grenadiers Work In Progress (now clickable)

I am making good progress on the first dozen Russian horse grenadiers that I started at the beginning of this week. The riders are nearly finished, save for some minor shading of the flesh and um, oh, ah something called eyes - but who needs those. 

Last evening I painted the horses: black undercoat, followed by Burnt Umber and highlighted with Ruddy Brown ( it has an orangish tint to it), both of which are Reaper paints. I then painted all of the leather work on the horses black and expect to finish them off this evening. The work in progress picture shown above depicts the figures before I started working on the horses. I should be able to update the pictures tonight.

I have decided that the next dozen horse grenadiers will have their swords attached to their right hand. It is a tedious task, but the figures probably look better with the swords. 

With a three day holiday weekend coming up there is a decent chance that I can finish the whole 24-figure regiment by Memorial Day Monday.

Toy Soldier Stories

By the way, I really had fun writing yesterday's post about Toy Soldiers and I especially liked the comments and feedback from you, the readers. Please feel free to share any of your own stories and experiences about Toy Soldiers on that thread. Most of it was written as a stream of consciousness piece that I typed while on the commuter train to work yesterday. The story sort of wrote itself.

I will be sure to post some more threads about Toy Soldiers in the near future as I explore the world of Airfix HO WW2 figures, Rocco Mini Tanks, Texaco Tankers, and ( sad to say) gasoline.

The New Puttkamer Hussars (H4)

HR4 Puttkamer Hussar Regiment (click twice to enlarge)

Close up view of one of the squadrons

CLICK ON ALL FIGURES TO ENLARGE THE VIEW

I have recently completed the rebasing and increase in size of my old Puttkamer Hussars regiment for the SYW Prussian army. The figures were 20 RSM Prussian hussars painted by Bill Biles around 1990 and based on cardboard, painted green and dipped into a bowl of green flock. That was state of the art in 1990, but not so these days. So I thought that I would rebase the unit and add in four new Minden command figures to bring it up to 24 figures (two squadrons of 12 figures).

Read the captions on the pictures for the rest of the story of the rebasing process.

The unit before the rebasing project begins.

Prying the the figures off the cardboard bases, circa 1990, with an Exacto blade. Be careful!

We need to add four more command figures to bring the unit up to 24 figures. This illustrates how well the RSM and the Minden Miniatures fit together.

A closeup view of an officer (left) and trumpeter (right) using Minden figures. This is my first ever attempt at painting a skewbald horse.

The figures have been glued to new 2-inch square wooden bases. They are now ready for terraining.

Here is the finished product: two squadrons of 12 figures each.

It is amazing how much better the regiment is now that it has been rebased with spackel terraining, static grass and some tufts.

As a result, I was able to quickly add a new unit of cavalry to my Prussian army, needing only to paint four command figures using Minden figures. I did not use a 2-tone paint scheme on the hussars' breeches and dolman. Only the white pelisse has 2-tone painting to bring out the white better. I wanted the new figures to blend in with the old painting style.

So the Puttkamer Hussars are now ready to get into action and make life miserable for the Austrians.

Meinicke Dragoons (DR3) Receive Their Colours From Fritz

The colour party of the DR3 Meinicke Dragoons accept their new colours from the King of Prussia. Click or double click all pictures to enlarge the view.

I completed the second squadron of the DR3 Dragoons (Meinicke) in Prussian service, over the weekend and present them here for your review.

So I set them up in my photo booth for their first pictures and decided to create a vignette in which King Frederick II of Prussia presents the regiment with their colours for the very first time. I like this idea so much that I think that I will do it every time I add a new regiment of infantry and cavalry to the Prussian and Austrian armies. The information will then be recorded in my roster book for the army and include such information as:

Date of service
Brand of figures (usually Minden of course)
Inhaber
Combat record

A close up view of Frederick presenting the new colours to the Meinicke Dragoons.

The full regiment awaits your review. Click pix to enlarge the view.

And now here are some pictures of the first and second squadrons of the DR3 Dragoons:

First Squadron with King's Colour

Second Squadron with Regimental Colour

All figures are from Minden Miniatures and the colours are from GMB Designs, as usual for me.

Future Project: Rebasing the White Hussars

Here is a teaser of a little project that I am currently working on. I have a 20-figure regiment of White Hussars (RSM figures) and I need to build them up to 24-figures for my current game organization. I did not have any RSM figures on hand to fill out the unit, so I drafted two each of the Minden hussar officers and trumpeters to add to the unit. The sizes of the figures are comparable, so this should work. I intend to mix the Minden figures into stands with one RSM figure and one Minden figures, although this is not shown in the picture below.

My SYW Russian Brigade

RSM Russian Grenadiers in the front and Minden Musketeers in the back row.

Here are a couple of pictures of my small but growing SYW Russian army. The grenadier battalion represents the 1st Grenadier Regiment in the Seven Years War and uses RSM figures plus some Minden French command figures painted as Russians.

The musketeer battalion are all Minden French without lapels but with turnbacks, painted as Russians.

RSM grenadiers in the front, Minden musketeers in the back.

RSM Russian Grenadiers for the SYW

Well, I had a bag of 36 RSM Russian grenadiers just laying around (for quite a few years) and all this talk about Russians for the GNW and the SYW put a bee in my bonnet to paint them. So paint them I did over the weekend. The RSM figures paint up very easily as they are not loaded down with too much equipment. I was churning them out at a rate of 6-8 figures per day. I don't plan on painting the eyes or adding a black highlight color to the figures, although I did use two tone colors for the green coat and red waistcoat and breeches. The grenadier mitre plate is a mix of Vallejo Old Gold and a small amount of Copper paint.

The flags were downloaded from Kronoskaf and two halves of each flag were pushed together using Microsoft Word. The regiment shown in the pictures today are the 1st Standing Grenadier Regiment in the Russian army.

RSM Russians with Minden French Officers (painted as Russians). Flags downloaded from Kronoskaf.

If you double click any of the pictures to enlarge the view, you might detect one soldier wearing white summer gaiters as opposed to the Winter black gaitors that the rest of the regiment is wearing. This is the one solitary RSM Russian that I painted circa 1990, so I added him to the regiment, without an updated paint job, in honor of his hanging around for so long.

I now have two battalions in my SYW Russian Army.

On the Work Bench

On the painting table, I am working on the Kremzow Grenadier Battalion (17/22) in the Prussian army. I completed the IR17 Manteufel Grenadiers portion of the battalion, now I have 15 of the IR22 Prinz Moritz grenadiers to paint and this unit will be ready to join the ranks of my Prussian army for my Kolin game at the Seven Years War Association Convention in March 2016.

Crann Tara "Savoy" infantry figures, which will be painted as SYW Russian musketeers, backed by Prussian Dragoons.

I have to paint one more regiment of Prussian dragoons to more or less complete my Kolin Prussian army. I'm leading towards the DR3 von Meinicke Dragoons (the ones with the Rose-Pink) facings and shabraques). You can see the dragoons in the picture above.

You can also see some of the Army of Savoy figures that are produced by Crann Tara Miniatures and are compatible with all of the Richard Ansell sculpted figures such as Minden, Fife & Drum and Crann Tara. Since they have no lapels and big cuffs on their coats, I think that they will stand in nicely as Russian SYW musketeers.

Recruiting New Followers
I had 497 "followers" for quite a few weeks, but five of them deserted, despite the best efforts of my NCOs to keep the regiment in line. They must have been Saxons, methinks.

Do come back lads, all will be forgiven.

In any event, I am putting out the recruiting call for at least 8 of my regular readers to become a "Follower" so that we can boost the total to a nice even and symetrical 500 readers.

SYW Russian & British Figure Sale

RSM Miniatures - British Brigade

RSM Miniatures - 8th Regiment of Horse

British Brigade of RSM SYW Figures  These Figures Have Been Sold.

I am reluctantly putting up this RSM SYW British project for sale. The infantry brigade consists of 90 foot divided into three regiments: 8th (Kings) Regt; 12th (Napier's) Regt.; and the 42nd (Royal Black Watch) Regiment. It also includes 12 heavy cavalry - 8th Horse. I will also throw in two 6-pdr artillery pieces each with four crew (to be painted). Total cost for the whole kit and kaboodle is $1,120.00 That works out to $10 per figure. Shipping extra.

The figures are individually based on 3/4" square (about 20mm square) metal bases and the units would be perfect for an Old School SYW army. In fact, this is what I designed it for. I also have a partially painted fourth infantry regiment of hat men in blue facings. We can negotiate what to do with these if you elect to buy the brigade. I can also terrain the figure bases at no extra charge, or you can stay with the Old School motif and leave the bases painted dark green.

I have the correct GMB Designs flags that I will include at no extra charge.

This was the start of my own personal Old School project using some of my favorite figures of all time: RSM Miniatures. 

Minden Hanoverian Regiment 4B - 30 figures

Minden Miniatures Hanoverian Regiment

Also for sale is a single battalion of nice looking regiment of Minden Hanoverian infantry - 30 figures plus two Flag Dude flags for a total price of $300.00 plus shipping. These were painted by my nephew, Alex Akers, who is a Golden Demon winner. He really did a nice job on this unit. The bases are 60mm by 40mm deep and are nicely terrained with static grass and ground turf.

Foundry SYW Russian Brigades (up to 7 brigades available)

Russian brigade of two regiments, divided into two battalions per regiment; plus mounted officer stand, battalion gun with 2 crew and field gun with 4 crew. All Foundry figures painted by Der Alte Fritz.

Close up view of the same brigade.

Russian brigade dressed in summer kit ; red sleeved waistcoats, green coats were collected prior to the battle and stored at the wagon park with all of the baggage.

Each Russian infantry brigade is priced at $740.00 plus shipping and includes four battalions of 20 figures, a command stand of mounted officers, one battalion gun with 2 crewmen, and one larger field artillery piece with 4 crewmen. Available in limited quantities in either green coats or summer red sleeved waist coats. They are all Foundry figures sculpted largely by Mark Copplestone. Discounts are available if you buy two or more brigades at the same time.

If you have an interest in any of these items from my collection, then drop me a personal e-mail at 

"altefritz1740 (at) (yahoo) (dot) (com) to make arrangements for purchase and shipping.

Proceeds from the sale are being reinvested into the Fife & Drum Miniatures range of AWI figures.

Oh, and click on the pictures to enlarge the view.

Von Loudon Frei Regiment

Von Loudon Frei Regiment using RSM figures.

I have been very busy the past couple of weeks, although the number of recent posts would seem to indicate otherwise. It's just that I have not had the time to take pictures and post blog entries. Recent work includes painting some Austrian dragoons with Minden figures, some of the new Fife & Drum figures that just arrived from the caster, and some Austrians (shown above) that are destined for one of the imagination duchies.

My customer wanted to add a colorful regiment to his sea of white coated Austrians, and so the Von Loudon Frei Korps or Green Loudon regiment seemed like an obvious choice. I used RSM figures and GMB Austrian flags for the unit. I also added a 6-pounder battalion gun to use with the regiment. I am not sure that the Green Loudons would have had battalion guns, but what the heck, why not?


Artillery piece with limber and crew, limbered position.


Artillery deployed in battery. Note that the gun model is not glued to the stand so that it can be shown with the limber, when it is limbered, and with the crew, when it unlimbers.

I figured that if the Green Loudon regiment had battalion guns, then they would use Austrian cannon, painted in ochre yellow Austrian colors, but would be manned by men from the regiment. Thus the gun crew are wearing the green with red facings livery of the regiment.


The client also asked me to make some more command stands for some of his existing units (Minden figures - the two right hand stands) plus some extra stands for a Hungarian and an Austrian regiment that I had previously painted for him. The other figures on the left are RSM figures.

Fife and Drum Continentals & British Guards
I have posted pictures of some of the new AWI figures that recently arrived and are available for sale. Head on over to my Fife & Drum blog for a look.

link

I also have some nifty looking pictures of my Austrian artillery that I will post in another day or two.

RSM Austrians

Los Rios Regiment - new battalion headed to the Duchy of Beerstein. Note the new background from Peco, for model railroad layouts. The dreaded blue towel is no gone forever.

I have some quick pictures to post this evening for the benefit of the Duke of Beerstein, who recently augmented his army with several new battalions from the collection of Der Alte Fritz. The unit shown above is the Los Rios Regiment wearing its uniform from the War of Austrian Succession period. However, even though it was supposed to switch to the new 1755 uniform, in all likelihood it retained the WAS uniform until the middle of the SYW. This was a newly painted battalion, whereas the McGuire regiment was an older unit that I simply rebased.

This was an interesting uniform, with a green waistcoat and buff breeches rather than the usual white waistcoat and breeches. It rather stands out from all of the other Austrian units, I think.

I rather enjoyed painting this unit, composed of RSM figures plus some Minden drummers and standard bearers. If you click on the pictures, you can see how the RSM and Minden figures are a perfect match for each other. I don't care for the RSM "drummer boy" or "cadet standard bearer" figures, so I simply replace them with the comparable Minden figures.

McGuire Regiment, showing the Minden standard bearers (with GMB Designs flags)

I rebased an existing unit of the McGuire regiment to the Duke's specifications. I had to put the figures into the freezer for about an hour so that I could pry the figures off of the plastic bases that I was using. The Duke uses 2" square bases for his rules (Might & Reason, perhaps?) and these are mounted on Litko bases - a very fine product, by the way.

Tomorrow night I will post some pictures of the field bakery that Ed Phillips made for Randy F. Here is a preview:


Field bakery built from scratch by Ed Phillips for the collection of Randy Frye. Ed used the Minden pioneer figures for the construction crew as well as the baker, shown in the background shoveling a dough ball into the oven. The oven in the foreground is under construction - a very clever piece of modelling.

RSM Austrian Units For Sale

Austrian Command Stand Featuring Marshal von Daun (center), a Front Rank figure and he is flanked by two Crusader figures, mounted and dismounted, as aides.

ALL SOLD!
(don't worry, I have more items to sell in the future)

I was saving some of my RSM cavalry to use in my convention game that I was going to run at the SYWA meeting. They fit in nicely with the Minden figures so they would have saved me some time in building my Austrian cavalry force. Now that the convention is over, I can free these units for release to a new Inhaber or Erzherzog somewhere in Central Germany.

I am offering four RSM Austrian cavalry regiments (20 figures each) and two RSM Austrian infantry regiments (30 figures each). If anyone offers to buy the whole lot, I will add in the Marshal von Daun command stand for free. The cavalry contingent consists of two cuirassier regiments (Alt Modena in blue, and O'Donnell in red) and two dragoon regiments (Sachsen Gotha in red coats with light blue facings and Hesse Darmstadt in red coats with green facings).


The whole cavalry brigade. Click to enlarge. Cuirassiers were painted by Der Alte Fritz and the Dragoons were painted by Bill Biles.

The infantry consists of the Macguire regiment with red facings and the Wied regiment with green facings.

The cavalry regiments of 20 figures each are priced at $10.00 per figure or $200 per regiment. The infantry figures are priced at $6.00 per figure or $180.00 for each regiment. The total brigade would be$1,160.00 but I would offer the whole shebang for $1,000.00 plus the free Marshall Daun command stand.

Now for some pictures:


Alt Modena Cuirassiers - the only regiment that had blue facings.


The O'Donnell cuirassiers, in red facings.



The Wied-Runkel Austrian infantry regiment in light green facings.



A closer view of the command stand and the grenadier stand. Note how the musketeer pose has been converted into a standard bearer.


The MacGuire Austrian infantry regiment. I have six more figures that were not based at the time I took this picture - so there are 30 musketeers. No grenadiers, but if I can find some castings, I could paint them for you.

Take a close look at any of the pictures by clicking on the picture to enlarge the view. The proceeds of this sale are going to be reinvested in my Fife & Drum range of AWI figures.

If you have an interest in purchasing any or all of these figures, then send me an e-mail at:

altefritz1740 (at) yahoo (dot) com

and we can make the necessary arrangements to transfer these fine figures to your army.

Austrian Dragoons - RSM Figures

Four squadrons of RSM Austrian dragoons based for BAR rules. The red coated Sachsen Gotha Dragoons (left) and the green coated De Ligne Dragoons (right) make for an imposing sight. Painted by Der Alte Fritz. (click or double click all pictures to enlarge the view)

I recently completed a commission to paint some RSM Austrian Dragoons for the Seven Years War and you can see the finished results in the pictures that I have posted today. The client asked me to paint two squadrons of the red-coated Sachsen Gotha Dragoons and two squadrons of the green-coated De Ligne Dragoons. The figures are individually based on a 1" by 2" metal base (coated with primer to prevent rust) and divided into squadrons of 12 figures for the Batailles de l'Ancien Regime ("BAR") rules developed by Bill Protz.

I am particularly fond of the green coated De Ligne Dragoons, who are notable for their performance at the battle of Kolin in 1757. The Prussian van guard attack was breaking through Krechor village and threatening to envelope the Austrian right flank. Marshall Leopold Daun looked for some reserve to help stem the tide and the only available troops were the De Ligne Dragoons.

"Why those lads have no moustaches" exclaimed Daun, "can they fight?" (indicating their relative youth and inexperience in warfare)

"They may not have moustaches", replied their inhaber, "but they will certainly take a bite out of the Prussians."

Daun concurred that they must attack, and the De Ligne Dragoons launched a furious attack the broke the Prussian advance and helped win the battle for the Austrians.

A closer view of the De Ligne Dragoons.


The Sachsen Gotha Dragoons

I will have some openings in my painting schedule for new commissions after the SYWA Convention on March 25 and 26. If you are interested in SYW era figures like these, the price for commissioned painting is $10.00 per mounted figure and $6.00 per foot or cannon. Prices do not include the cost of the metal figures or postage and insurance.

If you have any inquiries, then drop me an e-mail at: altefritz1740@yahoo.com and I will get in touch with you shortly.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of my complete Minden Austrian Grenadier battalions (30 figures each).

RSM Austrians Dragoons

Austrian dragoon regiments Kolowrat (blue), Savoyen (red) and a converged regiment of horse grenadiers. Figures are all RSM figures, formerly from my own collection, originally painted by Bill Biles. I added four more dragoons to the two dragoon regiments to increase the regiment to 24 figures. Click the picture to enlarge the view.

I recently finished rebasing two regiments of RSM Austrian Dragoons for one of my clients and so these units will be passing on to a new inhaber. Hopefully they will serve their new colonel as well as they did for me. The blue coated dragoons are the Kolowrat Dragoons and the red coated dragoons are the Savoyen Dragoons. The third unit is a converged group of horse grenadiers from five different regiments.

The client asked me to increase the size of the dragoon regiments from 20 figures to 24 figures (see if you can spot the newly painted additions in each regiment) and to rebase the figures from two per stand to a more tightly packed in three per stand. Finally, I rebased and reterrained everything using fine railroad ballast and static grass. The end result is quite pleasing to the eye, if I do say so myself.

I noticed that we are closing in on 250,000 visitors to this blog. So we ought to hit this milestone within a couple of days, even fewer if I post more pictures of Richard Ansell's exquisite AWI greens. The traffic has more than doubled on the days that I post pictures of the new figures, which is quite a testament to the work that Richard did on these figures.

We will be fighting our annual Light Troop SYW Game next weekend in DeKalb at Schloss Frye. Every year, we have a game in December that is comprised of only light infantry and light cavalry so as to get more of a skirmish level game with lots of room for maneuvering. I will have to take some pictures of Lady de Winter's band of Regulators, Garde du Corps and Bosniak lancers, all comprising her notorious Black Legion of Doom -- and post them on this blog before the game on Saturday December 4, 2010.

I also have a few more Ansell sculpts to show this week. So stay tuned for more eye candy.

What's On Fritz's Painting Table?

Minden SYW Austrian grenadiers stand front and center on Fritz's painting table, flanked by some RSM Bavarians (since completed) and a few other bits and pieces. My trusty old copy of Mollo's book on SYW uniforms can be seen in the background.

I have a battalion of Minden Austrian grenadiers that have been sitting on my painting table for over a month now, just crying to be completed. As you can see in the picture, above, I was able to finish one stand of six grenadiers before getting side tracked by my Summer Sale and various other priorities.

I have been helping other duchies and principalities build out their armed forces over the past month or so and it has been fun to crank out a few units for other wargamers and even more fun when I get to see the figures that I painted showing up on their blogs. Kind of cool, isn't it?

So just when I had all of the recent painting commissions completed and shipped, I was thinking about getting back to my Austrian grenadiers. But then Fate intervened with a ton of things to do at work, which drained me so much at the end of the day that my painting slowed down to a mere trickle. (On the other hand, some times of late the work has been so heavy that only the thought of going home and sitting down at the painting table is the only thing that helps me get through the work day).


My basement work station - this is where I clean and prime my figures and do all of my terraining of bases. The other station (first picture) where I paint is upstairs in the dining room. Here you can see some RSM Prussian Dragoons that eventually went to a client in the Cincinnati area.


Then those perfidious Gallians decided to stage another invasion of Northern Germany - won't they ever learn? So I am currently rushing reinforcements to the Marquis of Granby, commanding officer of His Britannic Majesty's Army in Western Germany, headquartered at Minden.

The 1st Dragoon Guards needed an extra squadron of Suren figures, so those got moved up in the painting que. I completed the first six figures the other evening and was working on some officers and mounted drummers to complete the squadron - there will be three squadrons of 12 figures in this regiment, all Suren figures.

After that, I have two more squadrons of the 3rd Dragoon Guards primed and ready to paint. In fact, I have already started on the first squadron, using the RSM British cavalry at the charge pose, and what a grand looking figure it is. The unit will have 24 figures and sport flags supplied by Rick O'Brien, a.k.a. "The Flag Dude". I'm looking forward to seeing these new colors as Rick turns out a great looking product. That should give me some incentive to finish up the 3rd Dragoon Guards by the end of the month, October 30th, when we convene in Brown Deer, Wisconsin to repel the Gallians from Minden, once again.

Then come November, I hope to be able to release some news about a top secret project that I am working on. I think that most of my blog followers will be as excited about the project as I am, once the news is released. So stay tuned for more information.