Sunday, 13 July 2025

A parade - Sinistria

Another Soldier King "army" completed; although it represents the entire strength of the Duchy, it's more of a contingent of 9 units.

The Duchy of Sinistria is a small province on the borders of Hrvatska and the Electoral states of the Empire; as it has no Electoral city, I see it as nominally part of the greater Imperial states but independent and non-aligned. Originally, I had planned for an army half the size, but realised it's precarious position meant it was at risk on invasion and conquest; coupled with a revised mechanism for recruitment, a doubling of the force was necessary.

By the time I got to devising a uniform scheme for Sinistria, I was running out of ideas. A chance discovery in the Blandford "Uniforms of the Soldiers of Fortune" of a Dragoon in black uniform - a member of the short-lived Freikorps von Favrat was enough - the name of the duchy with it's hint of "sinister" seemed to confirm the choice of black as a uniform colour.



The rest followed easily; the family names of personalities tend to follow colours or colour related words in German; hence the Landgraf became Augustus Maximillian Schwartz with his army of the "Black Brigades". The heraldry was a mix of black, red and yellow which determined the flag colours; the heraldic symbol was originally a head - griffon perhaps? This morphed into a Griffon or Dragon. The Landgraf's rolled up character was that of an honour conscious, arrogant and corpulent individual. Out came the Fimo and a suitable "Grotesque" was sculpted - in fact he came out quite well, my "eye" being definitely "in" as it were due to multiple sculpts around this time. 

Instead of a Freikorps, it was expanded into Dragoon regiments, musketeers, hussars and Pandours and artillery were added using Russian uniforms as inspiration. The Grenadiers all had head swaps (and Greenstuff additions) from the AWI plastic range added by Peter Johnstone - smaller than the original SSM but with Prussian style mitres. The Hussars were conversions to mirlitons - some old figures acquired in a host of plastics with odd bits of red and black enamel and individual names / ID on their bases - true veterans of some childhood battles! With a black undercoat, painting was relatively quick.

Due to his "corpulence" the names of units were derived from meat and fish dishes....there are not enough place names in the Duchy!

Landgraf Augustus Maximilian Schwartz von Sinistria


Son - Furst or Markgraf von Sinistria


Von Lorch and Von Monzel


The Leber and Truthahn Gragoons


Kopfel Hussars


Schnitzel and Wurst Regiments


Katenspeck and Schinken Regiments


Kabeljau Pandours


Artillery


The army on parade


And in their storage box



I am often asked "when will we see them in a battle?" Sadly, I still have more painting to do as well as buildings to construct (Schreiber and other East European card buildings). Add to which, I have nowhere currently to play. While the completion of Sinistria is a milestone in the Soldier King project - only Dupanen remains of the states - I also need to complete some "rebels" who will also double as civilian militia and bot Estavia and the Electoral states need expanding, Estavia having another brigade of infantry some cavalry and grenze to paint.

Perhaps a project for retirement?

Monday, 30 June 2025

Where did that month go? Scorchio and Sinistria...

Alarmingly I noted a couple of weeks ago that my last post was at the start of the month...

However, I've been struggling  to post anything, as Chez Moi it has not been that interesting....

In between work and an unseasonable heat wave in the UK,  I had done little more than finish off preparing the last two proper "armies" for  the Soldier King project; while in itself that's something of a milestone, sadly I'm still some way from finishing the project.

I have been converting some figures for "rebels" (a random event in the game) who will also do as civilian militia. Finalising the recruitment system, it does mean some armies are not yet at maximum size, notably the Electoral states and Estavia. The latter needs another brigade of infantry and an additional cavalry unit, the former is undecided.

Braving the heat (to paraphrase the Fast Show -"Scorchio!) and  the perils of paint drying on the palette or brush before reaching the figures, I have managed some painting. I didn't bring out my home made wet palette - I find it dilutes the paint which is problematic for block painting on a black undercoat in a toy soldier style.

The first unit of Sinistria has mustered out, infantry with retained Grenadiers (head conversions). The army is heavily based of Freikorps von Favrat - a short lived Prussian FK - gunners and LI will mimic Russian units - add in the concept of the Black Brunswickers in the Napoleonic wars and you have the "Black Brigades" of Sinistria....


I'm hoping for a "quick win" on this army, as with a black undercoat, coats, hats and gaiters are already done...

Hopefully, more soon....

Sunday, 1 June 2025

Progress report and new temptations

Progress on the Soldier King project continues - the small armies of Sinistria and Dupanen have been cleaned up, prepared and in the case of Sinistria (bar one foot regt - due to a miscalculation) undercoated in black. Dupanen suffered delays as during preparation I broke bits off two hussars and standard bearer and a grenadier - brittle plastic - always a hazard with these old figures.
Fortunately I have the uniforms and flags mapped out to some extent so unlike Waldow, I should be able to get on with them relatively quickly. Both are small armies of 8 units + gun and staff.

After that, I have some rebels / militia to convert and finish (some are already done), Estavian and Imperial additions which should fill the existing boxes. Anything after that would be as a result of campaigns - before anyone asks - it's planned but I currently lack anywhere to actually play games....

As a further distraction / temptation, I have discovered a new range of figures for the French Wars of Religion - Hugenots v Catholics, Reiter, Landesknecht in Plunderhosen, Millers, battle of Dreux and all that...
I have been vaguely interested since seeing an article in an early edition of Battle for Wargamers magazine and a little while ago was musing over the early Wargames Foundry wars of Religion range and Essex Miniatures Spanish in the way that wargamers do....

The new range are from Pete Smith, well known for his marvellous flags:

 https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=256946546227&rt=nc&_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l161211&_ssn=petes_flags

They are apparently nearer to 18mm than 15mm, at present only infantry are available but when I contacted Pete he sent me some pictures of greens for the cavalry sent to the mould maker - artillery and more cavalry, Millers, Spanish etc to follow. At present on eBay, Pete is setting up a dedicated webstore and sells via another platform.
Pictures from eBay and Pete Smith.

French, Landesknecht and Royal Swiss foot - shot, pike and command, see eBay for pack contents and prices.


 











Pete tells me he is trying to resist doing Irish! He already has a Flodden Scots range in 28mm.

I'm trying to resist but I have a feeling some of these may make their way into the lead pile....

Saturday, 24 May 2025

Partizan 2025

Last Sunday was Partizan at the Newark Showground. I managed a flying visit arriving just after 12 and leaving around 3.30. It was very busy and towards the end the main hall got quite warm. This year they had a marquee at the entrance with a few traders and games and a section where people could rent a table to sell their unwanted items.

When I did realise what the marquee was for, I have to say the sellers were few and far between with nothing of interest, it was however nice and cool!

I only picked up stuff from about 3 traders and tried to photograph as many games as I could. By the time I'd got to the end of the "demonstration zone" I was flagging; a combination of struggling to get near tables or through narrow gaps between tables with lots of people about. Although I ended up with over 60 photos, many were only sections of the table. I have thus limited to what I think are the most photogenic = there are plenty of blogs and videos out there.

Operation Battleaxe Gordon's Gophers




League of Augsburg "Dutch Courage" - Dutch raid on French Caribbean island




Chesterfield Old Boys WW2 Eastern Front



Westbury Wargamers Reconquista



Yarkshire Gamer Germantown AWI


6MM Wagram


League Gentlemen Anti-Alchemists Wake Island 192? Pulp US v Japan




Bill Gaskin SYW





Billhooks


Paperboys ACW


Bodkins WotR



Rome v Persia




ACW nice building and backdrop



TtS Simon Millar Marlburian


Shout out to James Morris who not only spoke to me but found me a spot to take pics - Midgard Mount Badon Arthur v Saxons




French v Dutch Louis XIV period (nice notice board)




Boondock Sayntes Aiwal Anglo -Sikh War





Nice Mexican Western terrain



Perry Twins - Spain - Peninsula Nappy game (difficult to get close enough to take pics)



French Revolution - Fleurus? Nice Hexon terrain - lots to make those hills!


Some impressive 3D printed ancients - Blitzkrieg Miniatures - the ones in the foreground were 60mm!



Purchases were limited - assorted Italian / British and French from EWM and some Blue Moon 15mm Mexican Revolution from Old Glory. I also picked up a copy of Strength & Honour.

Socialising was limited to a chat with the talented Andy MacMaster (Another Slight Diversion blog https://blog.belisarius.org.uk/) and an eventual rendezvous with David Barnes (Ragged Soldier blog https://russetcoatcpt.blogspot.com/2025/05/partizan-show-gang-was-all-there.html) accompanied by his friend Dave (St Cyr on Wheels blog https://stcyronwheels.blogspot.com/). Edit - I had forgotten I'd spoken to Martin Rapier (The Games we play blog https://tgamesweplay.blogspot.com/) it probably shows how frazzled I was!

I had almost given up looking for David but managed to spot him just before I gave up and left - being a bit worn and hot by then - I was able to pass on a book he expressed an interest in.

All in all a good day but I wonder if Partizan is outgrowing the current hall - a bigger marquee would not be a bad idea!

A parade - Sinistria

Another Soldier King "army" completed; although it represents the entire strength of the Duchy, it's more of a contingent of 9...