Painting update

Following my battlefield trip I haven't been able to settle in to any particular project. Instead I've been finishing off some odds 'n' sods. First up is some Rogue trader era space orks with a couple of gretchin. I've tried to keep them in the style of the rest of the army.

I was pleased to get a hold of the 2 squad leaders as that gives me 2 complete sets of the Space Ork Raiders boxed set. I just need them again along with the Thrugg bullneck figure and that's 3 complete sets.

Next up was some GNW Russian Dragoons. These were 3 additional squadrons for the Permski regiment, bringing them up to full strength of 6 squadrons. The figures are all from Warrior miniatures.

This is brings me close to the end of stage 1 for the Russians. Just a light artillery battery to do. I then need to decide if I want to expand them to refight battles like Poltava. That would be a lot of work and not sure I can justify it.

Lastly at the club a couple of the guys picked up the WW2 fighter aircraft game Blood Red skies. Already played a couple of games and really enjoyed them, so decided to pick up some Yak1s. I did commit that war gaming sin of fielding them unpainted as they had just arrived in the post. So last night I did a quick paint job on them. Serviceable for the table top.

I might picked up the game itself just for the Spitfires and 109s.

Battlefields trip part 2

The second visitor centre I visited was at Alesia. The scene of Julius Caesar and his seige of Vercingetorix. I did take a couple of pictures of the hill at Alesia where the hill fort would have been located. It is massive and gives you an idea of the efforts the Romans made to beseige it.

Inside there were some great exhibits from replica weapons to even using miniatures to depict the Siege (I picked out Minifigs, Essex and donnington). Outside the had built a replica of the Roman seige lines, with lots, stakes etc. Not bad for 8 Euros.

I'll probably do another post(s) of the battlefields once I sort the pictures out.

Battlefields trip - part I

Over the weekend I was fortunate to enough to get the chance to tour some battlefields in Europe with Mick. We took in the battlefields of Ramillies, Oudenarde, Malplaquet, Blenhiem, Schellenburg at Donauworth, Gravelotte, Mars-la-Tour, Froschwiller and Alesia.

Walking across these battlefields gives a greater perspective of the events. Something that you don't get just from studying the maps. There are the sunken road at Oudenarde that Overkirk used to flank the French position or the dead ground before Lutzingen and Froschwiller. Many of the photos I took will to the non wargamer just look like a bunch of trees or fields. But to me they were the chance to stand on the ground where troops would have actually been deployed.  I also got a greater perspective of the size of these battles. Standing at Schewnenbach and just picking out the Church spire of Blenhiem in the distance.

I also had the opportunity to visit a couple of visitor centres. The first in Gravelotte, covering the Franco Prussian War. It had some excellent displays of the uniforms as well as weapons including a mitrilliause. I also managed to pick up a decent book n the war.

In part 2 I will cover the Visitor centre at Alesia which had a replica of the Roman defences.