Travelling Again

It has been twelve months to the day since we last travelled overseas (when we had a couple of weeks in Tasmania). For us, as great travellers, that is a long gap - we usually manage two or three overseas trips a year. That might sound extravagant, but when you live in the bottom quarter of the globe surrounded by vast tracts of the Pacific Ocean and if you want to experience anything different from your own culture you literally have to travel overseas. For us that has traditionally meant a visit to Australia or one of the Pacific Islands, but this time we have gone further afield to Houston, Texas. 

Why Houston? Well a couple of reasons. First, her indoors had an event she wanted to attend in the city. Second, neither of us had been stateside since 2015 and we had never been to Texas. So after fourteen flying hours we landed at George Bush International Airport.

Day One (Monday) was not what we had planned.  We went to a tour office to book a tour to NASA, intending to go on the Wednesday, but the guy said I have one going in half an hour, "wanna go?" Why not. It was a great visit despite the fact that it rained and we got pretty wet going to and from the Saturn 5 and the B747/space shuttle displays.

Tuesday saw us on the city tour that was included with our NASA tour. It was a good way to get a quick overview of the city. 

Many of the city buildings are decorated with huge murals, that I have montaged here.

The afternoon was taken up by a visit to the Houston Aquarium that, apart from the usual aquatic creatures, featured this magnificent specimen, one of a pair of the housed there.

On the way back to our apartment we found a bar with a happy hour and just had to stop in!

Jet lag caught up with us on Wednesday and we had a late start. Since it was Veteran's Day we figured we would just take easy. We took a fairly leisurely stroll down to the theatre district where things had seemed lively the day before. We were surprised to see dozens of school busses, but thought nothing more about it. Walking toward the town hall we saw a few people with flags and placards, and a lot of police. We wondered if there was some sort of protest going on...but no, the Veteran's Day parade was about to start. Now the school busses made sense as thousands of school kids came marching by, along with every other Veteran's group in Houston. It was fun!

Saturday featured an encounter with the city light rail system that eventually got us too and from the museum district.

Tomorrow we head home - hopefully without any disruption from yesterday's groundings.

Bavarian Gun Sets.

With the Bavarian cavalry for the Franco-Prussian War in the queue, I have a need for some artillery to support them.

These two batteries are horse artillery. One will be for support of the cavalry and one will form part of the corps reserve. Two more line batteries for the corps artillery will follow. To make them horse gunners I have simply added sabres. Horse gunners would not usually have the greatcoat rolled over the shoulder, that would be rolled on the back of the saddle, but removing those greatcoats was impossible, so they stay.

Once again these are Bavaria Miniatures figures. Sadly the guns that come with the sets are not up to the standard of the figures. Two guns are available: one is a short, stumpy, short in the trail sort of thing that if it was two-thirds the size might have passed for a mountain gun and the second is monstrous and if printed at a reduced scale might pass for a Krupp gun. Thankfully there were a number of unused Foundry Krupp guns lurking in the big box of bits that could be called into service...the wheels were a little on the small size, but thankfully again I was able to find eight wheels in the big box of bits from another project that had a diameter 3mm larger that went a long way to correcting visual difference.

Next in the queue are some particularly nice Bavarian cuirassiers.

Line Zouaves

Having completed eleven battalions of the French Imperial Guard, I have moved on to some line zouaves. This is the first of three battalions, and it could be any one of the three regiments in service at the start of the war - the regimental distinctions were a coloured patch which is covered by the pack straps on these figures.

All three regiments were assigned to MacMahon's 1st Army Corps - one each in the 1st, 3rd and 4th Divisions - and all three were in the thick of the fighting at Froeschwiller, suffering frightful losses. The 1st Regiment, that fought the Bavarians in the woods on the French left, suffered the least taking 567 casualties from 2,100 engaged (27%). The 2nd Regiment, that fought in the centre suffered losses of 1,135 from 1,900 engaged (60%), but the 3rd Regiment that put up a desperate fight in the Niederwald on the French right that cost it a staggering 1,585 casualties from 2,000 present that morning (79%).

While their's is a relatively simple uniform they are quite fiddly figures to work on with many little different bits to paint. For those used to seeing zouaves in red pants, these are wearing their summer whites and getting good depth of gone into those bloomers is one of the things that makes these chaps fiddly.

Special care with the basing of these boys is required because their resin rifles and bayonets are very thin and easily broken - I broke two while assembling them (thankfully the breaks were clean and easily re-glued). To protect these fragile points I have used a deeper base (50mm deep instead of my usual 40mm) and positioned the figures so that those less likely to damage protect those more prone to it.

Next in the queue are some Bavarians.

Franco-Prussian War French Imperial Guard - The Infantry of the Guard COMPLETE!

On Monday I completed the last two units of infantry in my Imperial Guard - although I may yet do one more unit to represent the Chasseurs of the Guard.

The first of those two final battalions is the Third Battalion, First Grenadier Regiment.

The second unit is the Third Battalion, Second Voltigeur Regiment.

In all there are 200 foot and four mounted figures - all completed in just over a month.

And the completion of such a force deserves a parade, right? So here goes...

Franco-Prussian War French Imperial Guard - The Guard Command

To command my Imperial Guard I have completed the French Imperial Guard Command and ADCs set.

This set comprises of three senior generals, Marshals Bazaine and Leboeuf, General Bourbaki (who commanded the Guard in 1870), a mounted and two dismounted ADCs.

The senior generals (l to r) Leboeuf, Bazaine and Bourbaki

The ADCs (below to show the detail on the back of the jackets)

The 'raw' figures have been grouped and based as follows:

Bazaine and Leboeuf have been based as single figures so that they can be used as brigadiers - a bit of a demotion I know from Marshal of France to General de Brigade (given that Bazaine was condemned to death - later commuted to 20 years imprisonment - for his part in the disaster of 1870, a demotion would probably have been a blessing), but hopefully the demotion will be temporary until I sort out another group of ADCs.

The two dismounted ADCs will make a nice pair to command the Guard Artillery (when it comes).

Finally Bourbaki and the mounted ADC make a nice pairing for the overall Guard command.

Charles Denis Sauter Bourbaki was an officer of some experience. Of Greek ancestry he was born at Pau in 1816.  He graduated from  Saint-Cyr in 1834 and his first posting was as a second lieutenant with the 59th Infantry Regiment in Africa where he took part in the first expedition to Constantine. Transfers and promotions saw him move between the Zouave regiment, the 24th Infantry Regiment and back to the Zouaves in 1842 as captain. Appointed head of the Arab Bureau in 1844 and then ADC to King Louis-Philippe. In 1846 he commanded the Constantine Tirailleur battalion and in 1850 was named lieutenant colonel of the Zouave regiment, becoming its colonel in 1851. 

In the Crimean War, he fought at the Battle of the Alma in command of the brigade that captured the Telegraph Hill. He served with distinction at the Battle of Inkermann, and was subsequently wounded during the final assault on Sevastopol in September 1855.

Made general de division in 1857 he led a division in the Italian campaign, fighting at Magenta and Solferino.  Returning to France, he commanded at Besançon, Grenoble, and Metz, before becoming the ADC to the Emperor. In 1870 he was given command of the Imperial Guard that he led at Rezonville, St. Privat, and Metz.

As the siege of Metz was starting an odd situation occurred for Bourbaki. A French businessman with no political background or connections, appeared at Metz stating that either Bourbaki or Marshal Canrobert must go to Hastings to sign a peace treaty on the authority of the Empress, even though the Empress had no such authority. Bourbaki at once went to England, with the approval (and possibly connivance)  of the Prussians, only to find it was a trick. He returned to France, but was refused re-entrance into Metz.

Under the Republican Government he was given command of the Army of the East he ran a disastrous campaign after which he attempted, and failed, to commit suicide before retreating across the Swiss border at Pontarlier, where the Army was interred. After the war he was given command of the 6th Corps, and then the 14th Corps until 1879. He died in Bayonne in 1897.