Oh my it's 2020 already!

Happy new year! Well it is 2020 already;  a lot of stuff has occurred since my last post in July 2019.
Life became quite hectic, but it was not all bad, in that period I was able to visit a load of historical landmarks and museums with my baby son whilst on parental leave and was also able to deliver some awesome works whilst on exercise with the Army.

Here is a recap of some of the projects and places visited in that period:

Finished painted the 25mm scale La Belle Alliance inn by Hovels for Waterloo.

About seventy percent complete in painting the plastic Table Top terrain (now Warlord) medieval buildings.

Finished painting Warlord/Italeri plastic ruins.

Visited the Imperial War museum and dropped in to Dark Sphere shop near Waterloo and bought the Warlord/Italeri Mediterranean church kit. Its a whopper! Sadly the kit seems a bit incorrect as it was missing coping stones to the room. Thank fully I had some Wills Scenics coping stones. 

Finished painting yet another Regiment of Prussian Landwher. These are the old plastic Warlord models for a bit of variety, bought second hand off ebay and repainted. Painted between 27th of  December  2019 and the 2nd of January 2020. Still need basing.

Found the Colors of the St Pancras Battalion of the London Regiment in a Church near Euston Station.

Attended SELWG, loads of great demo games and walked out laden with yet more lead and resin for the ever expanding and not decreasing lead mountain.

Visited Chatham Historic Naval Dockyard. This is HMS Gannet. The site and collection is absolutely massive. A revisit in needed soon. 

Explored Rochester Castle. Very well preserved and able to access all levels of the building. 

Visited Richborough Roman fort on a sweltering day. Was able to pick up from the English Heritage shop a number of Osprey publications on the Roman Army.... a future project in the making!

Revisited the Western Heights fortifications at Dover. Years ago I had taken my soldiers to this site to teach them principals of defense. Drop redoubt is stunning in its scale. Sadly I still havent gained access to the Grand shaft as this is limited on its opening times.

Upnor Castle was a good visit, with a very well maintained powder room and a plethora of cannons on the site. This was the site of the famous Dutch raid on the English fleet on the Medway.

A must visit was the Royal Engineers museum at Chatham. This is my new parent cap badge as of 2018 so was good to visit and soak up the history of the Corps of Royal Engineers. A wide range of exhibits and artifacts in the museum with Engineer armour in the museum grounds. The over spill collection is at the Chatham Historic Naval Dockyard.

More Napoleonic Prussian Landwher...

Another regiment of Prussian Landwher rolls off the production line. This time instead of using a paint triad to paint with, these were speed painted using a base coat of grey, wash using Army Painter Strong Tone and highlights with yet more Vellejo London Grey.

The unit is mostly plastic Warlord Games Landwher with metal command and casualties. Thw inspiration for the colour scheme was a print by Knotel showing an East Prussian Landwher infantryman in grey coats with red facings and blue feldmutz.

I also note that today in history the Dutch fleet destroyed the English fleet in the Medway in 1667 under Admiral Michiel de Rutyer. I recently had the pleasure of viewing paintings of the event at the National Maritime Musuem at Greenwich, a stones throw away from where I live. The battle was decisive in Englands Naval reforms that led to the industrialisation of ship building which in part led to the Royal Navys supremacy in the following century as well as construction of defences on the Thames and the Medway to prevent a repeat event. More to follow in a different blog post on Thames fortifications.

Armies on Parade - Napoleonic Prussians

Taking advantage of a rare sunny gap between the rain I took the opportunity of parading my Prussian Army in the garden under the sun. This has been an on and off project for the past two years. It was inspired at the 2011 Historicon with the release of the Perry plastic Prussian Infantry.

The army is based off the Waterloo campaign under FM Blucher. It is a mix of Perry, Warlord and Foundry miniatures. Still work in progress, more Landwher to paint then reservists and Cavalry. Looking for suitable flags/colours as Flagdude I believe is stopping up shop so and recommendations on suppliers would be useful.

Getting all the toys out was an opportunity to see where the gaps are. One more Landwher unit is on the work bench based off a Knotel print of East Prussians. An order has gone into messrs Perry for some more artillery and some command for the Jager stands. Fathers day gave a rare chance to do all the basing for the whole Army so thank you to the Domestic Chief of Staff (DCOS) for allowing it.

Perry Miniatures, Prussian high command

Perry Miniatures Russians as the Russian Legion followed by a battalion of Foundry Prussian infantry

Two battalions of Perry plastic Prussian infantry and a battalion of metal Foundry infantry.

Two types of Warlord plastic Landwher, the newer type is the front battalion.

Perry plastic Jagers from the Prussian infantry sprue. A shortfall of the sprue is no Jager command.

More Prussian command from Perry and the Landwher from Warlord.

Perry cannon on the left and Foundry on the right.

Napoleonic Westphalian Landwher

Tonights offering is a unit of Westphalian Landwher in Prussian service. The models are the newer pattern plastic Landwher by Warlord Games. These are a joy to assemble and paint. I liked them that much that I have three more Regiments worth as a result if Warlords sprue sale. I have to say that these more closely match up to the Perry plastic Prussian infantry wity respect to style as the previous plastic Landwher were a bit gawky.