2017 a review

First off I just want to thank everyone who follows this blog. Your comments are appreciated so thanks again and I hope 2018 is a good year for you all.

So onto the review. On the painting front this has been a very productive year. At about the end of July I had high hopes of painting well over 1000 figures but found my painting time much reduce when the family increased with a new dog. Still 990 figures painted is a good total, broken down as follows

12 x 15mm artillery
528 x 15mm infantry
315 x 15mm mounted
1 x 28mm artillery
125 x 28mm infantry
9 x 28mm mounted

So what did I actually paint? The bulk of the year has been spent on the Great Northern War. I added some extra troops to the Swedes and completed both a Danish and Polish army.

For other periods I painted up some figures for Rogue Stars as well as some Dwarves for my old warhammer army. I then moved on to some 28mm Napoleonic, putting together an Austrian force for Sharp Practice.

On the gaming front there have been a couple of notable games. The main one being a re fight of Klissow. Definitely one crossed off the bucket list. There were also the final 2 battles of a campaign against Mick for the WSS which brought it to a close and victory to me. Finally there were a couple of games of warhammer 3rd edition, very nostalgic and gave me a real buzz.

Finally this year I seem to have settled on a set of rules for the Napoleonic wars, General d'armee. I really like  these rules and I'm looking forward to getting some more games in next year.

Looking ahead for next year I have a planned GNW campaign against Mick, Still a couple of units to finish off. I am also looking to put together a Russian force for the GNW. I see this as more long term,  I'll just keep adding a few units every now and then and see what I end up with. I also quite fancy a change from horse and musket back to ancients with some 15mm Romans for Caesar's conquest of Gaul. No doubt I will get side tracked by something else.

Have a great New Year everyone.

GNW Danes and Poles

With the upcoming campaign against Mick next year I am trying to finish off the last few figures that I need. First off is the Danish dragoon regiment Sjaellandske-Fynske. This was a national dragoon regiment raised in 1701 before converting to a Cuirassier regiment in 1714. This does mean that the Danes are now complete.

The figures for this unit are all from Roundway. The flag is a simple hand painted design.

Next up is 2 battalions of generic Polish infantry.  The figures for these are Essex.

With these done that just leaves a Russian Dragoon regiment, 2 Russian batteries and 2 regiments of Cossacks to complete. Should be done in time.

WSS / GNW Danes XIII

I know that back in May I stated that my GNW Danish army was complete, well it seems it's not. As I was organising my armies for a GNW campaign against Mick next year I realised I needed a couple of extra Dragoon regiments.

So here is the first of the new additions, three squadrons of the Jydske National dragoon regiment. This regiment was later converted to a Cuirassier regiment in 1710 before being disbanded in 1721.

The figures are all from the Roundway range. As I couldn't source a flag for this regiment I went for a simple white field with gold trim and a Danish cross in the top left. Now on to the Sjaellandske National Dragoons and then the army is finished.

GNW Poles XIV

Finally the last of my Polish horse are completed. These have taken much longer than normal as I've been working long hours and didn't feel much like painting.

These are my third regiment of dragoons. Again I have mixed figures from Essex and Legio Herico. Adds a bit of variety to the unit.

Polish dragoons

Polish dragoons

For a slight change from the previous 2 regiments I went for buff coats with green turn backs.

Looking forward I need to make a decision. I do have a couple of horse regiment's to add to both the Swedes and Danes as well as a couple of Polish infantry battalions. This will give me more than enough figures to field the following armies; Saxons, Swedes, Danes and Poles. I also have the Russian Auxiliary Corps, some Cossacks and Turkish Janissary's. However I do not have a Russian army, pretty remiss as they are one of the main protagonists. I do not want to commit to re fighting a battle like Poltava as that is a lot of Russians to buy and paint. Ideally I would like enough for club games like 20 - 25 infantry battalions and some supporting dragoons and artillery. Well I've got Christmas to mull this over.

GNW Swedes VI

Yet another addition to my slowly expanding Swedish forces. Again this is another regiment raised in the Baltic states, Nieroth. Once again uniform details are very sketchy so I went with the grey coats again. This time I did the turn backs in blue for a little variety. The advantage of having the 3 regiments in grey coats with just simple Colonel colours means they can morph into any Tremanning regiment I might need for a scenario.

Nieroth infantry regiment

Nieroth infantry regiment in line

I've now started some work on the last 2 Swedish horse regiments and some Polish Dragoons.

Sharp Practice Austrians IV

I've now finished my last group of fusiliers to complete the core of my Austrian force. This brings me up to 6 groups of fusiliers and 2 groups of skirmishers. I've also got a fair number of officer figures completed as they are vital in the game. I also picked up some bases for my skirmishers from Warbases.

Completed Fusiliers

Completed Force

Skirmishers to the front

Officer look on

So far in our practice games it has become apparent we need more extras such as animals, carts etc. So I've dug out some old models from Gripping beast to be rebased,  probably more suitable to the dark ages but they will do. I've also been picking up some livestock from the Warbases range to fill out the gaps such as geese and chickens. Well better get back to basing them.

GNW Swedes V

A quick return to one of my earlier GNW armies, the Swedes. I still have a few troops to finish off this army. So here are the latest additions. They are 2 further infantry battalions. This time I've picked 2 from the Baltic states, Mengden and Buddenbrock. Both regiments were raised in 1704 and disbanded in 1710, probably as a result of Charles' difficulties in the Ukraine.

Trying to source uniforms for these battalions is problematic. I could have gone for the traditional blue coats and buff facings but wanted something a little different. I've chosen to equip them in the grey coats that many Tremanning regiments wore. This way they stand out from the rest of my Swedish foot.

IR Buddenbrock 

IR Buddenbrock 

IR Mengden

IR Mengden 

The figures for both of these battalions are from Roundway. I do have another battalion to complete bit I'm short of bases. I'll then need to start on the remaining 2 regiments of horse.