French Artillery in the SYW

Minden French Artillery Crew (MF-006) manning a 12-pounder (AE-10) from the Fife & Drum range of artillery equipment (click pix to enlarge).

This is one of my favorite pictures, depicting the Minden Miniatures set of French Artillery Crew (stock # MF-006) loading a Fife & Drum French 12-pounder (stock# AE-10). If  you click on the picture to see it at full size, please note the size of the cannon relative to the men. The French Valliere System 12-pounder was a rather large and impressive piece of equipment.

French Valliere System cannon (L-R): Swedish 4-pdr, long 4-pdr, 8-pdr and 12-pdr.

French crew, 12-pounder and heavy limber.

As much as I like the Prussians, I think that the French have one of the best looking artillery uniforms of the Seven Years War era: the long loose coat with red facings and the red waistcoat and breeches makes for a visually pleasing appearance. Whenever I look at this picture, I almost get the urge to start painting a French army so that I can use these figures on the table top. Maybe in the near-term I can simply paint a battery of two 12-pounders, a pair of limbers, and some ammo wagons; as well as a crew  of 4 men in coats and another 2 to 4 pioneer figures in waistcoats (no coats) to serve as the laborers who have to drag the gun back into position after each firing. Add in a couple of limbers (AE-25) and a pair of limber horse (AE-8) and you have everything that you need to equip and paint a splendid French heavy artillery battery.

In 2014, I hope to be able to add the Valliere 16-pounder and the 8-inch howitzer to the artillery range. Let the fun begin!

AWI Vignette

Minden workers and Spirit of 76 vignettes. Click to enlarge.

As the song says, "Baby It's Cold Outside"! This morning's temperature was -15F so I had Mrs Fritz drive me to the train station so that I wouldn't have to leave my car outside all day and find the battery frozen when I would return from the city this evening. Most schools in the area are closed today, which seems very sensible to me, but our office is open and....

At any rate, I spent a part of the evening watching Downton Abbey with the Mrs, in front of a crackling fire in the fireplace, afterwhich, I retreated to the Man Cave to work on an AWI commission for a friend. No pictures yet, unfortunately, so instead, I posted a picture of a couple of vignettes along with a battery of Continental artillery. The fellows hauling the boxes are from the Minden range and seem to fit right in with a section of artillery. The Spirit of 76 vignette is from the Fife & Drum range, of course. I expect to be working on a 4-pd artillery section of Continentals this evening. 

Update: I have reposted the picture so that you can click and enlarge it for enhanced viewing.

Keep warm everyone !

Winter Arrives at Hesse Seewald

Winter has hit the Duchy  of Hesse Seewald with a vengeance, having dumped 18 inches of snow over the past several days, with 4-6 more inches supposed to hit us over night. This will be followed by an Arctic blast of cold air that will see subzero temperature arriving Sunday evening and staying with us for 48  -- that's two full days with high temperatures below zero. We will hit minus 18F on Monday morning and the high temperature for the day will be a balmy minus 10F.

I'm afraid that we are doomed.

So what is one to do to help make the Winter Blues go away? Why head to the basement and start painting Minden and Fife & Drum figures, of course. I find that the Winter months are some of my most productive ones when it comes to churning out the painted figures. At one time, I could knock out 120 28/30mm figures in a month, but now I have cut that figure in half to about 60 figures painted per month. That still represents two full 30-figure infantry or cavalry regiments in my Minden 1:20 ratio SYW armies.

Winter is a good time to plan out the projects and painting schedule for the coming year. The last two years were necessarily focused on painting American Revolution figures so that I could have two armies for my convention games. Nothing promotes a figure range more than seeing them painted and on the tabletop. Now that the Minden range is a part of Fife & Drum, I will want to beef up my Austrian and Prussian armies so that I can run convention games at the Seven Years War Association convention in March and at Historicon in July.

To that end, I need to add two more battalions of Austrian infantry and a dragoon regiment to complete my core Austrian army for the convention circuit. I would also like to add a hussar regiment to my Austrian forces.

My Prussian army is in fairly good shape with respect to the core force of 12 infantry battalions and 4 cavalry regiments. I would like to add a second cuirassier regiment as well as the Garde du Corps regiment. I have enough infantry, so perhaps a Garrison regiment or a Frei Battalion would be useful additions.

Once the first of the AWI dragoons go into production, I will probably switch over to painting a lot of these as several Kickstarter backers opted for the painted dragoons reward level. I am now waiting on our caster to make the production molds and spin the lead so that we have inventory to ship to our backers. Hopefully, we can start shipping by the end of this month or in early February . It all depends on the casters backlog of projects and my place in the queue.

The Clean Up Nears Completion

The "after" view of the game room, post clean up.

I had a good head start last evening on the New Year's Great Clean Up Project and nearly finished it off today, after three hours of work. As you can see from the picture, there has been a great improvement in the overall appearance of the Man Cave de Guerre. The main accomplishment was moving all of the Minden inventory into the Closet O' Lead as well as moving my packing and shipping table and supplies into the COD.

The "Before" view of the game room. The table on the left was where I was packing all of my figure orders.

Now all of my Minden and Fife & Drum business is out of sight and the war game room can return to its intended purpose.  With the game table spruced up, it is easier for me to set up some spur of the moment games or set out the troops for the annual grand review on Frederick the Great's birthday on January 24th.

The Closet O' Lead now includes my shipping table and packing supplies. All of the Minden inventory is on the shelves on the left.

I think that it is important to start 2014 with a clean slate and a game room in tip top Bristol shape. I want to do more gaming and less painting in 2014. The painting that I do will be narrowly focused on the SYW and the AWI periods as I fill in some of the missing pieces to these armies and also build up the support team of wagons, pontoon trains and field bakeries, etc. 

Let us  think about all of the exciting new possibilities that the year holds:

AWI dragoons will hopefully start production this month or in early February . The second batch of 16 dragoons should be ready within a couple more months.

AWI Hessians will start knocking on my door by mid-year.

Some new additions will grace the Minden range.

I will continue adding to my Austrian and Prussian forces so that I can start my personal project of gaming all of Frederick's battles in both the WAS  and the SYW.

And much, much more.

Happy New Year everyone.

New Years Eve Clean Up

As you can see from the picture, I have allowed the Clutter to take over my game room like kudzu. So in the waning days of 2013 I have decided that I should commence a major clean up and de cluttering of both the game room and the Closet O' Lead.

I am clearing out shelf space in the Closet O' Lead so that I can store all of the Minden inventory there, rather than on the floor underneath the game tables. This means that a lot of boxes full of junk and stuff need to find a new home, so be on the lookout for some lead sales over the next couple of weeks. These will be priced at clearance prices for unpainted lead and I will post some lots on this blog.

One of the items to be sold are a lot of 15mm SYW painted and unpainted Essex and Old Glory British and French infantry. If you have an interest in several hundred figures in 15mm, then send me an email and I can give you the details.

A Fine Scratch-built Coach

I have been following the progress of this 18th Century coach model, built by Richard Watts, on various Internet forums and it appears that the model is finally finished.

http://barbariansbearsandbeavers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/18th-century-coach.html

Click on the above link to Richard's blog for more information.

I am beyond impressed by the modeling skill that Richard possesses and I am a little bit envious too.

The wheels come from various figure manufacturers and I believe that the horses are from Od Glory. The driver is converted from a Front Rank Figurines figure. The coach chassis and cab are scratch built from dowel rod and balsa wood. 

Minden Pioneeers

This is one of my favorite pictures, taken in 2013. It depicts some Minden Pioneers painted as Prussian Pioneers marching in their waistcoats. Berlin Zinnfiguren powder wagon and Herb Gundt made building.

The versatility of this set of pioneers makes them a must have in any Minden SYW collection of figures. They come with open hands and a sprue of work tools. So you can use them as laborers with shovels, axes and picks, or get creative and use them as something else.

Charles S. Grant uses the figures as pontooniers and bargemen on his river barges, while I have used them as artillery laborers, attaching twisted strands of wire to depict the drag ropes, etc. Ed Phillips uses them as bakers in his filed bakery models. The uses of these figures are only limited by one's imagination.