TYW Imperial Dragoons

Featured here are two units of Imperial dragoons. I decided to base them in skirmish order because they are classed as such in the rules but mainly so I could do something with the basing. I quite like the finished result.  The figures are from Warlord Games and it got me wondering. In their Pike and Shotte rules, dragoons are not permitted to fire from horseback, so why are half the figures in the set firing? No big deal really but momentarily puzzling.

The end of the journey. TYW armies completed (except for a few odds and ends)

 Above, the Swedes and Saxons, below the Imperial forces.

Above, Imperial grand battery. Below Imperial Cuirassiers and Harquesbusiers.

Above Saxon and Swedish Foot. Below Swedish Yellow and Blue brigades. 

 

Imperial cuirassiers, including wallenstein's Lifeguard - not sure about a flag for these.

Above, Imperial commanded musketeers occupying the cemetary. Below, the King's Lifeguard Company - brigaded with the Yellow 'Court' regiment.

Well, as the title suggests, I've just about (95%) completed my Swedish and Imperial forces for my TYW project, so here are some photos of both armies arrayed for battle. Not that they will be able to get at each other over my new scratch-built river. I pinched the idea off another blog and am very pleased with the end result. Clearly I've  gone OTT again but not a bad result for the last 9-10 months. I have promised myself I won't start anything new until the summer, but that won't stop me from adding to existing projects and getting stuff finished.......

Battle for Warsaw (in Polish)

I picked this DVD off Amazon recently. It tells the story of the Russo-Polish war in 1919-20, in particular the campaign leading up to the defence of Warsaw. It's in Polish but has English sub-titles and instructions and is rather good. It has lots of quite realistic i.e. gory, action, cavalry charges, aeroplanes bombing Marshal Budeny's 1st Cavalry Army, fatalistic White Cossacks, bullying Commissars, Bolsheviks with bad teeth (or no teeth), FT17 tanks, silly armoured cars, and mass bayonet charges into the face of machine guns (by both sides but the Poles have an heroic priest to urge them on, cross in hand, till he gets killed). The main female lead is quite hot too! I enjoyed it and it got me thinking about adding to my Russian Civil War armies with a Polish contingent. We shall see.

More Swedes

After quite a spell of not being very productive I have suddenly finished several more Swedish units. Pictured above a four bases of commanded shot (mainly TAG with a few 1st Corps and Empress thrown in) and a full brigade/regiment/whatever of Swedish foot TAG and 1st Corps). The flags are on their way stuck in the post somewhere but I plan to do this unit as a native Swedish regiment rather than a German one. I really do need to stop and take stock of exactly what I have produced over the last nine months, for example I now have six 'Swedish' brigades and two of Saxons, 5 squadrons of Saxon/Hessian horse, 9 squadrons of Swedish/Finnish horse, plus commanded shot and about eight light guns. Enough for anyone I am sure..........?

Swedish TYW Horse

Hard on the heels of the Finns and Croats are two squadrons of Swedish Horse. These took me ages to finish as I really hate painting horses and I was not very happy with the 'look' of the units until after I had applied a coat of shading fluid. I think they look good. One trick I've learnt about my horse painting phoebia is to undercoat and paint them on the sprues and then assemble them. Minimal touching up required. Obviously only works for plastics! I've stuck Wallenstein's Lifeguard together and undercoated them along with some more Finns and a couple of stands of dismounted dragoons. Thankfully more tufts are on the way, as are more mdf bases from East Riding Miniatures.

More Croats and some Finns

I'm making good progress finishing off the remnants of my TYW armies. This weekend I completed another six Croats and six Finnish horse, plus a couple of generals. In my preChristmas tidy up I seem to have mislaid some of my flags as I can't find my Maverick Croat banners anywhere so I've had to use the ones in the Warlord figure sets. They will do for the moment. I have no idea at all what banners, if any, Finnish horse carried so I will improvise. On the painting table at the moment are six more Finns, 12 Swedish Horse and some cuirassiers. I really need to get the mounted elements for my dragoons done but there's no rush I guess. I had hoped to have a game over the festive break but the weather and other commitments got in the way, so I have no idea when I'll get these troops on the table other than in a solo game, although John said he'd come up next week weather permitting. I am looking forward to it.

Thirty Years War Croats and more Dragoons

My first unit of Croats is now complete. I am reasonably pleased with the end result although the photos as always show up a couple of bits of sloppy paintwork that has now been remedied. I do like the Army painter dip (although I brush it on) and the shiney look. Lovely TAG figures.

I also finished a third base of dismounted Imperial dragoons (Warlord Games, horse holders by TAG).