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.

Pictures

Just some pictures of the various models I've been painting over the Christmas period. First up is an old GW Nightmare dragon, really enjoyed doing this.



Next up 2 old Grenadier barbarians, originally sculpted by Mark Copplestone (I think!)Picked these up from EM4 miniatures


Lastly some old GW Chaos Beastmen, ungors, gors, minotaurs and Chaos hounds. These are from various beastmen ranges that GW produced, some are from the days before GW changed all their beastmen to look part goat. The herd stone in the background is made from polystyrene stuck to an old CD. Textured with a few broken bits and pieces added for decor.