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.

Bears 28 Packers 33; Triple Face Palm.

On the last play of the game, it is 4th down and 8 yards to go for a first down. The Packers decide to go for it because there is less than a minute left in the game. It is all or nothing now. Aaron Rogers rolls out of the pocket to avoid the pass rush. He rolls to the left and spies a totally wide open Randall Cobb and throws a 48 yard bomb to Cobb for the game winning touch down.

Where was the safety? He was 40 yards up field instead of back near the goal line to defend against the long bomb. It is a no brainier keeping one defender back near the goal line during the final seconds of the game. Doh!

Frederick the Great's Coach

I found these images of Frederick's coach on the Berlin Zinnfiguren store. These are 30mm flats. I get lots of good ideas for future SYW era additions to the Minden Miniatures range by looking at some of the German flats that are currently in production.

Von Knyphausen & Francis Marion - Painted Figures

Von Knyphausen (Left) with a Minden Prussian officer on foot; and Francis Marion (Right). Click pix to enlarge.

I finally found some time over the holiday to finish painting the von Knyphausen and Francis Marion personality figures from Fife & Drum Miniatures. The Francis Marion figure obviously needs to have its base finished off -- the spackel compound dipped in fine grit needs to dry overnight and then I can ink the base and start applying the static grass and tufts.

I added one of the Prussian senior general staff on foot figures from the Minden range to create a mini diorama on the Von Knyphausen stand. The foot figure is holding a map and showing it to the mounted figure. He would make for a fine SYW Prussian general, with removal of the small epaulette on the left shoulder to convert him into a Prussian general.

In other Minden-related news, I have boosted the Bayreuth Dragoons from 32 figures to 50 figures over the past several weeks. I might stop at 50 figures, but eventually I could increase the regiment to 60 figures, which at a 1:20 ratio, would represent 1,200 cavalry in 10 squadrons.