Soldier King additions

As mentioned previously, I have been working on an extra heavy cavalry brigade stand for the kingdoms of Bravance, Hrvatska and Argozia to bring them up to parity with Arcadia.

Friday saw the Argozian Lieb Cuirassier muster out. These had various planned uniforms - green faced pink, then light grey faced green. A chance viewing of a book on Spanish dragoons provided a final uniform which was combined with a Prussian cuirassier unit - yellow buff faced green.

Saturday saw flags done for each unit, using some old computer generated experiments - forgetting of course that the red ink tended to bleed through white pints.....

Today has seen the bases cut out, magnetised and painted green with household emulsion test pot  paint. Labels have been printed and I'm just waiting for the paint to dry fully.

I'd forgotten when removing from the temporary bases, the paint on the base peels and needs touching up....grr!

Anyway, with the glue still drying, here's the completed units:

For Bravance, the Emigre Cuirassiers (to join the two emigre foot)

Hrvatska gains the Royal Carabiniers

While Argozia is reinforced by the Liebgarde Cuirassiers

Not sure what's next in the painting queue as there are 20mm Indians and 30mm flats undercoated. Or I may clean up some more SK stuff.

Painting progress and winter doldrums

Lack of blog activity is mainly due to the Black Dog caused by grey winter skies, increasing work frustration and not being able to afford to retire as well as recurring aches and pains....

The last few weekends have slipped by without a lot of progress, only managing to clean up and undercoat some more Spencer Smith cavalry for the Soldier King project. As I indicated, completing Dupanen was something of a milestone on the road of progress. Sadly, it's not the end of the work or painting.

Originally, I had intended to use the GDW game Soldier King as is to create armies. The game works on recruitment points. Each province has a value and so to do some cities. To get the value of the province, you must own all the cities. The four kingdoms each have two provinces with a combined value of 12 points.

My initial army recruitment and painting followed this, so each army would have 12 units. The game pieces which relate to the recruitment are infantry, heavy cavalry and light cavalry. Martin SC attempted a conversion to Volley & Bayonet whereby each playing piece became a "column", roughly a brigade of 4 units plus attached artillery. The problem became that the armies were huge, leading to titanic battles.

I realised my armies were too small but Martin's solution too huge - the thought of endless painting was simply not viable. My solution was to double the 12 unit armies to 24 with 4 artillery pieces which seemed about right and much more manageable. Thus, Bravance and Hrvatska had 12 additional units added and Argozia and Arcadia 24 units from the start. Other states (when this idea was incorporated) had been planned on the original 1 recruitment point = 1 unit. This necessitated a lot of tweaking, which I was never entirely satisfied with.

I also realised that light units whether foot or horse were half the size of infantry or cavalry so attempted to work on a half value for them. Again this was not quite right, so in the end I crunched the numbers to get something workable.

The current system is that it requires 1 resource point from the game to recruit a brigade of heavy cavalry or regiment of infantry and 1/2 a resource point to maintain them. Light troops are 1/2 a resource point to raise and 1/4 to maintain, so need to be raised / maintained in pairs. I had thought about keeping the cost as they were specialists, but this seemed to work better. 

I decided that the four kingdoms and some other states are on a war footing from the start - so all 12 resource points are being used to maintain existing units. The only way to increase is by gaining extra resource points, ether via war or diplomacy.....

It means the Estavian Empire and Electoral states are below full war footing - this I justify as due to neglect and ramshackle institutions. There are plans to paint reinforcements for both, but this will still not bring them to a full war footing. States nearer to the kingdoms, being under greater threat, are at full war footing....

The result for the kingdoms was some quick recalculations and a realisation that Arcadia was in effect stronger than the others...

Hence, Bravance, Hrvatska and Argozia will each receive an extra cavalry brigade. This has meant some ad-hoc uniform planning and extra painting. Flags exist only in my head, much like the uniforms.

This weekend saw new units for Bravance and Hrvatska muster out.

Bravance Emigre Cuirassiers

Hrvatska - working title Royal Carabiniers

A parade and back story...

Let me tell you a tale about things that never happened in a land that never existed except in the imaginations of its creator* and chronicler.....

*Frank Chadwick

Sitting comfortably?  Then I'll begin....

The Earl sat on his horse, his face as red as the hands of the men who marched before him. Nearby, Kapitan Pfau, the quartermaster also with red face; the Earl's face was red with anger, the Kapitan's with embarrassment.

The Earl sighed inwardly to himself through his fury; how had it come to pass that he now sat and watched a parade that was a source of shame and anger? He cast his mind back.....(picture dissolves in one of those wibby wobbly ways that denotes going back in time...)

It was his uncle/brother-in-law* who had started it all - they were discussing the future and Uncle Augustus had told him "I tell you Gottleib, I've had it from Father Taufers that all the Kingdoms are mobilising! You need to expand your army or those Bravancian bastards will gobble you up like those cakes you so like!". The Earl winced at this, as a staunch member of the Bravancian faction it was one of the few areas he and uncle disagreed upon, uncle being firmly in the Hrvatskan camp.

* The Landgraf of Sinistria - his sister was the Earl's mother and they are married to twin sisters from an Hrvatskan dynasty - relations are complicated in my Solder King!

So, armed with this knowledge, he had decided to expand his tiny army to the maximum establishment. Money was tight. He wanted his men to wear the Ducal colours of red and white, but sadly there was only enough cloth for the Guards and drummers. He instructed the new quartermaster to procure red cloth, but to be wary of paying too much.....

Kapitan Pfau, flushed with embarrassment, cast his mind back - what had gone wrong? There he was, a draper, desperate to escape the clutches of the old widow at Langsammer Kamm, always wittering on about her cat......join the army he thought.....of course once they found out about his previous profession he had been promoted and told to find cloth for the whole army! And they had found him, those Traber brothers, with their offer of "genuine Hrvatskan army red cloth" - he should have known the price was too good to be true! Of course it had been rejected by the Hrvatskans as it was not colour fast.....

And so, the first parade of the new army, a sudden shower and the red uniforms began to run and fade, dying the white small clothes and leaving the men with red hands. Only the Guards had escaped to some extent, their uniforms being old stock, with facings made from the new cloth....

As the Earl sat and ruminated, he was disturbed by a sudden commotion as his daughter Countess Ursula galloped up on her white horse. "Oh father! How clever of you!" she trilled. "Clever...?" the Earl stuttered - "I'm not sure I understand my dear" "Oh father....there's no need to play games: I know you've done it for my birthday!" she replied. "But my dear, your birthday is weeks away!" he managed before in a flurry of squeals she was past him firing back "but you must let me name them! Perhaps after your favourite cakes!" And then she was gone, heading conspicuously towards a group of young cavalry officers....

The Earl sighed again; well at least he had made his daughter happy, although he dreaded what she would call his regiments.... just then an old grizzled Grenadier marched past "Never fear your highness! he said "we shall dye them red in the blood of your enemies!. For the first time that day, the Earl smiled.

Kapitan Pfau silently let out a sigh of relief, having watched the exchanges. It seemed that he may be off the hook, unless of course Countess Ursula found out he was somehow behind it...he blanched and gulped nervously fully aware of the rumours and her reputation. Perhaps being a draper was not so bad after all he thought....

Of course all this may be true or not......

Those of a certain age, armed with a German dictionary, may be able to see references to certain British comedies - any co-incidence is purely intentional....😐

And now the parade...

The Earl

Countess Ursula

The Battenburg Cuirassiers

The Frangipani Hussars

The commanders Von Esse and Von Belovar

The Dampfnudel Guards

Sachertorte and Bratapfel Regiments

Schwartzwald-Kirsch and Kugelhopf Regiments

Tollatsch Light Infantry

Artillery

The army of Dupanen arrayed

A Dupanen eagle's view

Teasers...

As Blogger wouldn't let me upload photos from the tablet, I have had to wait until the laptop was out and take photos on the phone.

There seemed some interest in the latest Soldier King army so this is a filler as I have not finished them yet, but nearly there,

For Jonathan really who likes my terrible sketches I use to get colour combinations.

Some "works in progress" the figures varnished awaiting flags and basing.

Then the flags - only finished this morning

And just for Jonathan and Donnie, a special bonus of my notebooks for the project, I jot down ideas, scribbled flags, uniforms, names  and set out plans for the armies - you can see it evolves and changes over time as the ideas are refined or rejected. Some things arrive fully formed - the flag design for example but others can take a while to crystallise. I have three for this project plus various A4 pads and some old notebooks that I'm using to transfer the final details to.

Should have a proper parade by next weekend.

Milestones, memories and silliness

Today was a milestone of sorts; I finished painting the army of Dupanen which is the last of the Soldier King armies.

There were times in the last 30 years where I despaired of ever reaching this point. That is not to say the project is complete or the campaign ready to start. Increasing the size of armies and finally settling on a recruitment basis, has meant some armies still need more units, notably Estavia and the Electoral forces.

I also have the rebels/ militia to finish as well as card houses and other terrain. More significantly, I have no table on which to play. So still some work to do, but it feels once Dupanen are varnished, flagged, based and labelled, I will have reached a significant point. I also occasionally contemplate whether LI and LC should only count as half a unit and so mean increasing the finished armies by a unit or two here and there.....

Anyway, painting the army of Dupanen has brought back a few memories. Inventing uniforms for 12 armies means eventually you start to run out of ideas and colour combinations. It's only natural to look for inspiration in either historic or Imagi-Nation armies. When I started there was little such inspiration. Then of course the "old school" fad emerged, just as the internet flourished. Everyone had a blog for their imaginary duchy with uniforms of lime green and purple or similar, which now litter the blogosphere like forgotten civilisations, few producing even a single toy soldier.

There were exceptions - Henry Hyde whose article in MW or WI was a spur to my own project was publishing more of his own armies; sadly I always found them a bit too derivative and lacking imagination - a bit too Grant like and IMHO a bit too over- detailed for my taste - each to their own.

A some stage I discovered the Society of Daisy - deriving from a wargamer with an C18th army whose king was followed about by his pet cow, Daisy. Dedicated to fun and a counter point to "serious" wargames, one of the leading lights was Otto Schmidt.

Otto was a larger than life individual. His view on wargames was that they should include ladles of Marks Brother slapstick type humour. For all that, he was extremely well read and a devotee of the C18th. He had many armies which he would roll out at US conventions. His main and favourite army, was that of Princess Trixie - imagine if you will the young Maria Theresa reimagined as a Californian Valley Girl of the C20th, with an army including Operatic companies, circus elephants and conventional C18th troops dressed in pink.....

I confess, I found it all a bit OTT and dare I say silly.......

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D3ANufwUPFm8&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwix0sXhstiPAxWeQUEAHb2QDn8QFnoECAsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0hbN2GyeFleig4VjF0Qxyp

Sadly Otto died in 2019 long before I got far with my project. However, as I planned the armies, I hit something of a brick wall with Dupanen. Eventually, it was a coming together of various strands. I had bought a set of GW decals with various heraldic devices with the idea of using them for flags. The range was limited and Dupanen ended up with a unicorn. Being next to Hrvatska suggested the availability of red dye. The the idea of the Earl being sold some which wasn't colour fast......

Unicorns and washed out red uniforms........pink! Like Otto's girl toy army! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - a suitable tribute to Otto. Oddly, when looking back at the family trees diced up years ago, I noted the Earl had an adult daughter. Creating some Fimo female "Grotesques" I cast about for suitable characters, dicing up personalities for the main female players. One has become the Earl's daughter, a lady of some character!

In advance of the main parade, once the army is properly finished, I wanted to show a teaser of my drawings and the painted figures, but sadly Blogger won't let me upload from the tablet - it wants me to sign in even though I already am!

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?

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....

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....