So what I have I been up to...

Well, as per last post, I have attempted to remain focussed on the Solder King Imagi-Nations project. It has been difficult as I find myself drawn towards other projects (F&IW, AIW, WW2 desert) but have knuckled down to the painting of the next state - Waldow.

In the game, Waldow is divided into a "lower" and "upper" province. I decided to amalgamate them into a single Grand Duchy. It is not an electoral state, but is a ripe target in the game should you wish to increase army sizes. It is bordered by Arcadia and Bravance, with Banst to the north and Estavia to the west.

The new calculation of army sizes has increased the planned forces to a war footing of 18 units, a respectable force just slightly weaker than the main kingdoms with 24 units. I suspect it will need them. It is ruled by a Grand Duke with no wife, heirs or other family which could create a succession crisis. The Grand Duke Xenophon Amadeus has some strange ideas and despite his misanthropy is rumoured to have decreed in his will, that on his death Waldow should become a republic! The scandal!

Waldow has had some colour ideas for a long time; very much influenced by Sweden and the German units which served France, the heraldry and uniform colours are based around light blue and yellow, with white and occasional dark blue. The flags have been more taxing; partly due to not being able to settle on a heraldic device. The original idea of using some GW Brettonian transfers, left a lion passant as the device but this seemed too close to Arcadia's lion rampant. As the idea of using transfers was largely abandoned, I could in theory opt for anything. Obtaining some Veni Vedi Vici decals gave an option of a swan, which has appealed as different. I'm concentrating on the figures at present, the flags can wait.

Here are the first infantry; in actual fact I have almost finished two more units the same; others will have variations in waistcoat and breeches - some all yellow, some all blue. Forgive any errors from the enlarged photos - it's only after a zoomed in photos you notice such minor errors!

And just for Jonathan, as I know he likes my scribbled sketch ideas for uniforms, here's a succession of thoughts and experimental manuscripts from the Ducal archive, the last including potential flag patterns / ideas.

Soldier King project update

After much lethargy, distractions and a lack of focus, I have attempted to get my wargaming mojo back by concentrating on part-completed projects. One of which, is of course the Soldier King project using plastic Spencer Smiths.

The completion of the army of  Banst seems to have sapped a lot of the enthusiasm for the project; not sure why, but I couldn't seem to get the army finished. Plans for work over Christmas were scuppered by illness and work has been draining and sapping any energy at the weekends.

A visit to Hammerhead and an improvement in the weather has helped, as well as a refocus on work-life balance. Without going into details, developments at work have left me with a different perspective and I think I will be able to afford to retire at 65 after all; only another three years after April!

As such, I have returned to the SK project. There are three armies left to do for the non-Electoral states of Waldow (upper and lower amalgamated), Sinistria and Dupanen. In addition, I have started converting figures suitable for Rebels or Civilian militia. My original plans were disrupted by a couple of factors; the Kingdoms of the game each have armies of 24 units plus artillery and commanders. The game gives each 12 "income" points. The very first idea was to have 12 units, one for each income point. Part way through, after completing Bravance and Hrvatska, I realised the armies were too small, so doubled them.

Unfortunately, when I added Estavia and the Electoral and non-Electoral states, I did so in a rather haphazard way; The Electoral and non-Electoral states had army lists drawn up from the income points. Banst (as always) proved more difficult. To get the level of army I wanted, I increased the number of units which meant it was unbalanced compared to other Electoral states but in line with the kingdoms.....

I went down several rabbit holes trying to balance it all out, getting very confused with how many boxes I had to store the potentially increased armies as well as becoming disillusioned with the amount of increased painting and cleaning up this would entail....

I'm sure this all contributed to my flagging enthusiasm. A sudden lightbulb moment helped; if I took one income point as the cost to raise a unit and half a point to maintain it, I could reconcile the army sizes to the income in the game and scale back to amount of new units that would need painting...

One way to look at it was if all income was used, the states was on a "war footing". I also thought that the "Rebel" figures could also become a militia to boost some states armies. Looking at the map also produced some thoughts; the non-Electoral states are in the front line for any invasion by the four kingdoms, especially Waldow; the Empire may have to fight on more than one front and the various Electoral states may be pressed to form a single Electoral army without losing territory...

I have therefore decided to expand Estavia and create some "Imperial militia" that can be used to bolster the Electoral states in addition to any civilian militia they call out. The non-Electoral states will have to be on a war footing......

Sadly, the pictures that follow are not that exciting, but I have managed to clean-up a lot of Spencer Smith plastics (a job that entails carving away the flash that surrounds the figures) wash in detergent, glue standards and varnish (I coat the figures in a layer of acrylic varnish before undercoating and painting) the extension to Waldow. Just awaiting suitable weather for the black spray undercoat.

I have also just cleaned the excess plastic from the army of Sinistria; since the picture was taken I carved down the blanket roll on the blue figures - these will be light infantry modelled on the Russian copies of Austrian Grenzer. I also discovered that one of the replacement Grenadier heads had disappeared - there followed much cursing and swearing followed by a fruitless search and acceptance I would need another donor figure, which was dug out of the lead and plastic mountain in the garage....

I took this as a sign to put it all away in bags and back in the box.....

On a related note, my friend Eric Turner in the USA has been working on Imaginary Napoleonic forces from old school 25mm figures donated to him - see his blog: 

https://brownspreadandyellowfruit.blogspot.com/

Eric was lacking artillery crew and generals so I dug out some old Hinchliffe destined for the melting pot; I also asked if he would like some "Grotesques" to act as generals....after some discussion Eric asked if he could have something "heroic" and something "reluctant" so some work with Sculpey produced:

Crude and ugly they may be but also 100% unique!

Army of Banst - a parade

Eventually got around to taking some pictures of the finished army. My apologies for the greenish tinge - I suspect a combination of the uniforms, base board and backdrop (a model railway one or part of one used as packing in a recent order) did something to the camera filter....

Anyway, his excellency the Elector of Banst - Eric Helmut Graufuchs (channelling Augustus the Strong of Saxony):

 

His intriguing son-in -law...

 General of the army Von Reuthen

Legion commanders

I & II Legion Dragoons

I & II Legion Hussars

I & II Legion Lancers

I Legion Hastati, Princeps and Triari regiments

II Legion Hastati, Princeps and Triari Regiments

I & II Legion Velites

Amusettes

Flying Artillery

Army from above

The enemy's view

Army Tetris or "will they fit in the box?"

This week I have mostly been......painting Spencer Smiths

As I thought I'd been neglecting my existing projects, I decided to tackle the half-finished army of Banst...

It was a bit of a change to swap to normal acrylics on a black undercoat after all the flats using Contrast paint on white...

To be honest, I'm not sure how the Contrast paints would have coped with the heat (I use a palette); as it was I had to extemporise a wet palette to cope with the paint drying too rapidly.

Quite aside from the challenges mentioned, I have to say I found it a slog to finish off the army; not sure why, but it didn't come easy. It was only when I completed the last of the infantry that I felt I was going to get them finished....

Still need to varnish, make flags and base with labels. Those jobs can be done after work next week and will hopefully keep up motivation. Still feels like there's a fair bit to do on the project.

Here is the army in their box, painted and on temporary card bases for painting:

The |Elector (top left) looks on with his son-in-law (middle) and Von Reuthen - more Fimo "Grotesques":

Infantry:

Cavalry:

Artillery:

The Elector, Erich Helmut Graufuchs, Kurfurst von Banst is an interesting character; when creating his personality, he turned out to be: War Dominant (equivalent to highest military skill), scandalous past, clumsy, elegant and a martinet.

Creating a matrix for how states view each other, it turned out he was either neutral or hostile to everyone else! In many cases, this was reciprocated! These seems to be a back story involving two Hrvatskan twin sisters, married to the rulers of Dupanen and Sinistria which may explain the scandal in the past and current hostility!

I see the army as one using innovations along the lines of Marscall du Saxe and his Legion with Neoclassical helmets....

His son-in -law is Gunter Elster Wealth high as main motivator, a well practised intriguer and unfit.

Herbert Kiefer Graf von Reuthen is Wealth (moderate), huntsman, friends in high places, elegant and a martinet...

Clearly discipline is strict in the Banst army...

A proper parade to follow when finished.

Plodding along and bodgering about

 The lack of posts is partly down to "real life" (e.g. Work!), but also an apathetic malaise that  has drained what little enthusiasm I could muster. The "greyest" August may have had something to do with it, and when the Sun finally appeared it was too hot!

I had intended to do some painting but when it came to it just couldn't summon any enthusiasm. Instead, I ended up doing some cleaning up of figures and some modelling.

Spencer Smiths awaiting a black undercoat. This is the "Electoral Army"; the Soldier King version of the Reichsarmee. It is made up of the Electoral states, less Banst.

Banst has an elector who in the "imagineering" process came out as a military innovator modelled on Saxe's ideas, who seems to dislike everyone, but is happy to hire out himself and his army as mercenaries. He is not a fan of the Estavian Empire, so will be done separately. The fact that his entire army will require conversion is purely coincidental (classical style helmets necessitating LI headswaps or carving Napoleonic dragoon and  lancer helmets).

The army will comprise the states of Cleve, Naervaron, Bern and Cotlas and dressed mostly in blue (Cleve in grey with blue facings). This and the Imperial ( "White") army represent a departure from the game as these are unrepresented. Eventually, all the states including Waldow, Sinistria and Dupanen will be represented.

I also did an Imperial artillery battery and some more Fimo personalities.

After this, I turned to Arab - Israeli modelling, this time Egyptians.

Some "bodged" AT artillery tractors and a truck from scrap parts (the tissue tilt cover is still being worked on).

Next up some ZSU 57-2 AA SPG utilising former East German turrets (there are many makers, Espewe, MAB, VEB, Permot and Plasticart who did plastic and diecast GDR 1:87 vehicles) which came in a box of bits from Germany IIRC, mated to Roco T-54 /55 hulls. I actually modified the tracks by removing one wheel and repositioning another to resemble the real vehicle. Aside from that the guns drooped alarmingly so needed some corrective work.

I also realised that I either didn't have enough (or am unable to locate the models I do have) T-34/85s for both Egypt and Syria. Now the Roco model is a very crude representation, but as the rest of the army is made up of crude Roco T-54s, Roskopf / Eko BTR-152s  and BTR-50s which are all underscale to differing degrees (Roskopf around 1/90 and early Rocos were anything from 1:89 to 1:100) it seems fitting to stick with the Roco T-34.

Most of my 1:87 has been acquired very cheaply; alas prices have increased significantly with the demise of Herpa (the last owners) and there were no cheap T-34s around. There were some nice Zylmex diecasts in the USA which were cheap enough, but postage and duties made them prohibitive. The running gear would also need replacement. I could have gone for 3D printed versions, but in the end "bodged" the three you can see towards the rear using spare T-44 turrets merged with T34/76 turrets to get something close to Roco, a version of which in in grey and green, resurrected from available bits. They didn't turn out too bad IMHO. The challenge with the earlier Roco is to produce something from a bit of a sow's ear, but if you manage it, it's very satisfying!

An update on things and sidetracked by Spain

 As we approach the end of April, I thought I'd better post something to prove the blog is still going.

While I'd hoped to make progress painting the Estavian Imperial army, sadly nothing happened. The effort of completing Arcadia left me disinclined and somewhat discouraged (lots of little things went wrong for reasons that are unclear).

Then I got sidetracked (more on that later).

Things have resumed with cleaning up and converting two of the Electoral army contingents, Naervaron and Cleve (swapping Grenadier heads and shaving off copious amounts of flash). They are done, varnished and awaiting undercoating, so nothing picturesque. In addition, I also (on a whim) made some more Fimo personalities with the last of my plastic horses.

Turned out OK, but I wish I'd baked them longer as they turned out brittle; the problem is I've had some be left in too long and they almost melted!

As it is, I ploughed on and got them done with a PVA coat ready for the black undercoat. I had only a vague idea of what I would do; a realisation that Arcadia have an heir that probably needs a figure was the start, but the bug was on me and I ended up with 8 figures (including my 2nd female riding side saddle.

They fill some gaps - Banst, Sinistria and Cleve all have heirs or brothers and three are destined for the Imperial service and fit right in. Another example of the organic way the project has grown while having fun and indulging myself.

Diversions

It started with buying more books on the Spanish Civil War (SCW). Then on a whim I bought these:

https://wargaming4grownups.blogspot.com/p/for-whom-dice-rolls-description.html

Many (many) years ago I bought Peter Pig starter sets for both sides at one of the few Cornish war games shows (as did two other people). They languished. I had wanted to do the SCW since seeing the series in Military Modelling. It was only when I bought a copy of Command Decision that I thought about using the SCW figures with the guide in the Command Post Quarterly for the SCW.

I painted some forces and played a number of games, adding figures and vehicles to the unpainted pile. As happens, things moved on and they have not seen much use. However, the urge to restart grows now prompted by the rules above.

They will need adapting; my figures are two to a base representing a platoon, so will have to think about movement trays or similar. What I like, is that as per Command Decision, training and morale are separate, so it's possible to have untrained fanatics and well trained but nervous troops. The use of cards is interesting; especially since I managed to obtain some unique Nationalist and Italian sets in addition to the standard Spanish decks.

I feel I should take some pictures.....

Another impromptu parade

 Another quick parade after completing the Arcadian army for Soldier King.

Massed Guard Cavalry

Guard foot

Grenadiers 

Line Infantry

Artillery

Light troops

Staff

Fun with Flags!

With apologies to Sheldon Cooper of the Big Bang Theory......

It is how my wife refers to my Imagi-Nation vexillological sessions.....

In this case it is Arcadia, the last of the Soldier King nations from the game; I have added others from the non-owned provinces in the game. I have a soft spot for Arcadia, probably deriving from playing them in the game.

I envisaged them as a sort of Prussian - Wurtembourg - Danish hybrid. The heraldic symbol is a black lion on gold / yellow. From the start I had clear ideas about them in my head. Maximum guard heavy cavalry and veteran foot clothed in yellow (from Neil Cogswell - "Oheim's supreme moment" the Wurtemburgers were clothed in yellow for a brief impractical period - 1752 - I checked - it's in Knotel if nowhere else).

The flags were harder; I had the idea of black and white to stop them being too gaudy and sketched something from IIRC Dutch flags around the central emblem.

Top row shows the Naval and Foreign regiments, Dragoons. Next 3 rows are line regiments with Guard infantry and cavalry towards the bottom with the second Dragoon unit.

And Victory snatched from the jaws of defeat......

When I informed my wife of my inability to find the paint I needed, and the consequent halting of progress yesterday, she said "if you order some you will probably find what you already have..."

Needless to say, she was right! I had left the figures and bases out and before tidying them away, I had a final search. It was only when I moved the box where most of my paint I'm using and painting stuff (brushes, palette) that I discovered my part open pot had fallen behind the box. Hurrah!

Here follows an impromptu parade of Argozia's finest, with the glue still drying on their bases......