Visit to Culloden

Yesterday I had the good fortune to cross another battlefield off my list to visit. Culloden, on 16 April 1746 was where the final Jacobite Rising came to a brutal head in one of the most harrowing battles in British history. It pitched 'Bonnie' Prince Charlie against the Duke of Cumberland.

The visitor centre has some great artefacts of the battle and also tells the story from both perspectives. Unfortunately they do not allow cameras within the centre so couldn't get any pictures. So all I have are of my walk around the battlefield.

Leanach Cottage, used as a field hospital by the Government forces

View from the Government starting postiton towards the Jacobites

Red flag marking the Government lines

Marker for the 'English' dead

A marker stone showing the position of Munroe in the Government line

Close up of a burial marker

Burial marker, loads of headstones to the clans in the area

View from the Jacobite line back towards the Government lines

The Right flank of the Jacobite position

The stone enclosure that the Jacobites failed to occupy

Marker stone for Cobhams dragoons and Government  highlanders

Roof top view towards the Government lines

Blue marker flags in the distance for the Jacobite lines

The centre is well worth a visit, they are trying to keep the battlefield looking like it would have done on the day. Just walking around you can see how boggy the ground is in places. Would have been a nightmare trying to charge over this ground.

I can add this to my list of battlefields visited including Otterburn, Flodden, Blenhiem, Ramilles, Donauworth, Oudenarde, Malplaquet, Gravelotte, Mars le Tour, Froschwiller and Alesia.

More Achaens

As my bases arrived from Minibits I finally got these guys based up. 3 more units of Achaen light spearmen / javelins.

These will bring me up to 6 units of these. Think I'm getting close to having enough troops to get a game in. Just need to decide on some rules. I can then look to getting the Myrmidons and Lukka done.

The Markov horse

I thought it was time to add a cavalry unit to my 'White' forces. As I had already done some infantry for the Markov officer battalion, I thought it only appropriate to add their attached cavalry. These were Kuban cossacks, dressed in their own particular style. As their uniform details are rather sketchy it gave me a little bit of freedom, keeping with the dark grey coats with a couple in a light grey. I did add the black shoulder boards to tie them into the infantry. The figures are all from Copplestone Castings. I must say the excessive flash on the figures took a while to clean up, kind of initially put me off completing them. Pleased I completed them though. 

All that I left for this collection is 2 HMG teams, 1 for the Whites and 1 for the Reds. I need to get them put together and done as I'm planning a large club game with the collection in the next couple of weeks.

Achaen archers and some Heroes

As I continue to make progress on this project I decided to add some missile troops to the Achaens in the form of two units of archers. The observant ones will notice a missing figure on one of the bases. He sadly became a casualty of war, snapping at the ankles as I removed him from the painting stick.

For heroes I completed another 2 figures from the hero pack from Museum miniatures, I believe these are to represent Achilles and Diomedes. I also completed the model of Aeneas, adding a spare bannerman to his base. I will actually use the model as Sarpedon to lead the Lukka contingent when I get them painted.

I do have another 3 units of Achaens nearing completion but I've unfortunately ran out of bases. While I await my order I may work on either some cavalry for my White Russians or a new Blood bowl team.

Another batch of Achaens

These are the last of the figures I managed to get painted at the weekend. They were just waiting for their bases to be complete. It is another unit of heavy spearmen and 2 units of slingers for the Achaens. Like the rest of the collection these are all from Museum miniatures.

Once again I kept with the black and white colour scheme for the shields. Visually quite striking and helps differentiate the Achaens from the Trojans. Hopefully I get a few more units painted this weekend.

More Achaens and a bit of a review

Well I seemed to have had a productive few days on the painting front with a number of new units for the Achaens. First up is 3 units of light spearmen / javelinmen. Nice and easy to paint up as lots of flesh. I also added 2 Heroes from the range Odysseus and Greater Aias or Ajax. These 2 are very nice sculpts and were a joy to paint up.

I also managed to get another unit of heavy spearmen done along with a few more slingers, but those guys are still needing their bases completed. Should hopefully be done by tomorrow. It was also a chance to have a look at the completed figures done for both sides. I must be about 60-70% of my way through the current lead pile for this project.

I have also had some new thoughts about basing the heroes, especially someone like Priam, so have picked up a few extra packs to add some command figures to his base. The spare officers can then be used as additional minor heroes. There are plenty of them in the Iliad to be slain by the major champions.