Half Year Count

Hobby productivity for the first half of the year is possibly the lowest since I began keeping records, but that is not unexpected. Afterall I declared a deliberate painting slow down and an intention to only complete existing projects, with the caveat that I may add the occasional unit to existing armies...but no new armies.

And I have stuck to that plan. I have only worked on three projects:

• The Napoleonic Austrian heavy cavalry - completed
• The Franco-Prussian French and Prussian commanders,  and Bavarian infantry - in progress
• Scratch built buildings - in progress (and ongoing)

The percentage breakdown is pretty simple: 77% scratch building, 16% Franco-Prussian War and 7% Austrian Napoleonic. 

The figure count is 103 foot figures, 13 mounted figures and 15 buildings.

Where there is a substantial change is in the number of games played with a count of 22 so far this year...equal to the total for all 12 months last year. The count might have been higher because ten of these were solo games that took advantage of my retirement in January. However, when her indoors lost her job in April access to the garage more restricted so the solo gaming has gone in hold for a while.

And the rest of the year? Well there will be a LOT more scratch building. The FPW Bavarian collection will have another nine battalions added, plus some cavalry, artillery and generals. The FPW French will have some more cavalry added when the Perrys get around to making them. There may be some more Ottomans to round out that collection. There are also a few ACW items coming along.

The Railway Station

The last planned item in the winter Russian set is a railway station.

Research for this model was restricted to a series of internet searches under titles "Russian rural railway stations", "Russian rural railway stations 1940s" and "Russian rural railway stations 19th century". This turned up several thousand images, many of which were repeats, that had a common theme: they were all substantial and well maintained buildings, often with odd tower like features and were more often than not pained green. At first I thought the towers night have been signal boxes, but many did not have windows so that shot that idea down.

I worked through quite a few design sketches and settled on a structure that is 180mm wide, 80mm deep and 90mm high, with a structure that sits atop the building, in the centre, that rises another 50mm to the overall height of 130mm. The building would have a weatherboard cladding and a corrugated iron roof...to use up a sheet of plasticard that had been lying around since I made the buildings for  WWI in East Africa.

The weatherboards and doors were made using 4mm strips of 0.6mm balsa wood. Since balsa is soft and prone to damage, when it was finished I painted it with a thinned down coat of PVA, allowing it to soak into the wood. Then I painted two full strength coats of PVA to further harden the surface and to strengthen the bond between weatherboard layers.

The roof structure was more complex than I had originally planned thanks to the raised central section and as a result I chose not to make this with a removable roof.

Finally a stone base with steps on the street side entrance and on the ends of the platform were added. The whole model was painted and added some signage (I wasn't game to try writing a station name in Cyrillic so I'll leave that to its owner). 

I have to admit when I first painted it, it didn't come out the way I wanted...something just didn't look right. I had done the window frames with an off white because I didn't want them to be too stark against the green, but it looked off. A highlight of a whiter tone gave the lift to where I wanted them to be.

Next it was based...

...and then it snowed.

So that concludes the scheduled work on the winter buildings for now, although a few ruins structures may be done at some point.

Some more FPW Bavarians are set to join the lead / plastic pile in the next week or so and they will probably take centre stage for a while.

Scratchbuilt Winter Buildings Number Four and Five

Having been delayed three weeks by the arrival of a stock of epoxy putty, I have finally been able to complete the work on the thatched roofs and completed the basing on Winter Buildings Four and Five.

Building Four: the house...

...with its alternate roof option from Building One.

Building Five: the barn...

...with its alternate roof option from Building Two.

Still to come with this batch of buildings is a railway station which is a more complex build, but progressing well and should be completed over the weekend.

Action in the Vendée

Today's game was set in the Vendée in 1793, where the locals have rebelled against the Republican Government. To bring the rebels back into line, three demi-brigades have been sent with specific instructions to hunt down the leaders, in particular François de Charette.

In the quiet countryside the locals were going about their usual business, working in the fields, the woodlots and the dairy.

But in the town the more radical Republicans were dealing with their opponents in a brutal manner.

One of the Republican demi-brigades was already in the town, while others will approach on converging roads. The Vendéeans, however, could ambush them from any house, wood or hedge and then vanish again when they moved out of line of sight.

The first ambush!

The republicans react

Another ambush

The Republicans bring up the guns

The "Infernal Columns" - the Republican infantry - pour down the roads and through the peaceful fields

The Republicans are sweeping the fields

The cavalry made a brief appearance, before being shot to pieces...

The Republicans filled the lanes

And the guns came forward into the front lines...

Yet another ambush!

More Republicans!

Finally the Republicans wore down the Vendéeans resolve. Two of their units had been scattered and two of their leaders were captured and sent to the guillotine. Two units remained, but they were in a poor way. The rebels, along with Charette, dispersed into the countryside to fight another day.

The Republicans could claim some success, but the failure to capture Charette allowed the revolt yo continue.