Assemblage of troops.

Infantry Regiments #1 Sleibnitz and #2 von Wöhl, led by the Leibgarde Grenadiers, on their first maneuvers of the New Year, with the Blaueberge in the background.

The Bishop of Guggenheim's Regiment of Horse on maneuvers.

Here are a couple of pictures of the growing might of the Grand Duchy of Hetzenberg. Half of the First Infantry Brigade is now complete, along with half of the Guard Cavalry Brigade in the shape of the Bishop's Horse. The Leibgarde Brigade is represented by the Grenadier regiment.

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The Guard Infantry Brigade will be completed with the addition of the two Leib Fusilier regiments, a jäger battalion and an artillery battery.

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The First Brigade will be completed by Infantry regiments #3 Bräbenachel and #4 von Kranke, a jäger battalion and an artillery battery.

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Sharp-eyed observers will notice the guidon of the Bishop's Horse is larger than would normally be carried by cavalry, but I prefer the larger design as it's more visible.

Hirst Arts.

I've placed an order for three of the Gothic range of molds from this company, as I think they'll suit scenery-building for 18th Century wargames very well. I'm impressed by the thought and skill which has gone into them and I'm looking forward to using them. Looking at the dungeon designs, I wish I'd been able to obtain them back in my D&D playing days.

The Bishop of Guggenheim's Regiment of Horse - 3

This fine regiment is painted and based, and merely awaits the final layer of gunk (technical term) and flocking. Once it's done I'll take photos of their parade. I've also made the road surface for the tower base. Pictures at eleven...

Militia matters.

Many thanks to those who took time and trouble to respond to my previous posting. My sense of Hetzenberg is that it's an area which has seen a moderate degree of strife through invasion and minor border violations, and so would have a formal militia to respond to these. Those units raised in the frontier regions would possess at least some competence, perhaps even to the extent of fielding specialist skirmishers, but this competence would diminish the further one travels into the safe interior of the country.

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The militia is composed of those normally exempt from regular military service and those too old/too young to serve with the colors. It meets for drill and maneuvers two or three times a year, and the general pattern of a green uniform to the Saxon design is set by the Grossartiger Armeerat - but there are many variations within the pattern to be found in the various militia units. The inspiration (and historical precedence) for this lies in the French Garde Nationale during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. Although the Garde's approved uniform design followed that of the regular army, all kinds of exotic and wonderful creations appeared.

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The uniform shown above is for the City & District of Guggenheim, a prosperous community well able to provide its militia with uniforms. Parochial and guild pride has led to liberties being taken with the uniform colors though, with different parishes and guilds fielding companies in distinct variations. In the case of the company on the right, some enterprising fellow has even contrived to obtain breeches in the Prussian blue favored by IR 1 Sleibnitz of the regular army. The common theme to them all is the weskit, cuffs, turnbacks and cockade in the Guggenheim colors.

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There is no set pattern for militia standards, although the Hetzenberg Cross of St. Ungulant always appears somewhere in the design. Much as in the American Civil War days, such standards are created and presented at special parades by various groups of patriotic citizens to their local militia company.

How do you solve a problem like militia?

I've been thinking ahead to the time when my campaign gets under way. Militia will feature in the natural order of things when countries invade or are invaded. In some of the minor neutral states and cities they may be all the armed force available. In any case the militia of the militant nations will form garrisons, or local area defense. So, how do other gamers treat ImagiNation militia? Do they feature in physical form on your table, and if so, how do you deploy them? Are they skirmishers, using local knowledge to harass the emeny invaders, or do they form up in ranks? Do you favor some kind of uniformity, or is a battlefield a "come as you are" affair for them? Enquiring minds would like to know!

1,500 Visits.

Nothing much happening today, although I plan to work some more on the Bishop's Horse command element sometime. The troopers are mounted on chestnuts but the commander, guidon and trumpeter will be riding grays. I began with a black undercoat, then a good coat of white, followed by a white wash. Grays have markings on their hind quarters that I replicate using a fine-pointed hard pencil. Just draw the markings on (they resemble small circles in 28mm scale) and put a thin wash of white then a thin wash of light gray over all.

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It's with some surprise and a lot of pleasure that I see this blog has passed through the 1,500 visitors mark since it opened on 15th September, 2007! Many thanks to my visitors - and here's to a happy year for us all!

The Tower Project - 4 - In color.

The upper storey - turret, cupola and dome.

The side of the tower.

The Leibgarde Grenadiers march past.

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Here's the tower with the first major areas of color blocked-in. Wisdom has it that all model buildings should begin with darker colors near the base, working upwards and lightening each shade along the way. I've done the same here. All pigments used are acrylics; some areas are made of card (such as the doorway and portico) and these were treated to paint with a little PVA mixed in. The door is painted in the Hetzenberg national colors in the chevron style favored in some German countries. Two brass door rings will be added when it comes time to paint finer details.

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The dome was probably the hardest area to get right in terms of shade. I don't know about anyone else but I find verdigris a very hard color to replicate. In this instance I began with an undercoat using Vallejo light gray (70990) over the whole dome and the area atop the cupola. Over this went a coat of grass green (Miniature Paints 15), then a coat of Humbrol green (5037) with a little of the light gray mixed in. While this was still wet I dabbed on more gray using a piece of foam, and once this was dry I finished with a wash of black, dabbing off some of the wash to leave lighter areas to reflect the variable effects of weathering. It's not a bad attempt I don't think?

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So, this project is essentially finished. All that needs to be done is for the windows to be added to the gallery and the cupola, some minor relief in light shades here and there and a black wash over the tiles.