What a Difference a Couple of days (and 2100 Kilometers) makes

On Friday morning we sat down for breakfast in Fiji and the forecast was:

And the view from the breakfast table was:

Then on Sunday afternoon we had this eerie view across the Auckland sky from our back yard as the ash and smoke from the Australian bush fires (2200 km to the west) trapped in the jetstream covered northern New Zealand.

All the street lights came on and the smoke and ash filtered out most of the blue light, creating this sepia look. I can think of only three ways to describe this:

• Like someone had put yellow cellophane over the sky
• Like being in the middle of a solar eclipse
• Like viewing some of the scenes from the Steven Sonderbergh films “Erin Brockovich” or “Traffic”

But we are fortunate, it was just one afternoon and evening for us whereas those living in the affected areas in Australia are living in a nightmare.

AWI British Project Complete

Just before New Year I completed these three British AWI mounted officers that brings this phase of the AWI project to a close.

Since we have such a small number of British AWI troops within our group and such a large number of American forces, I may choose to expand this force at some point, but for now I am happy with it as is.

Now French AWI.. that’s another proposition!

Happy New Year!

So 2020, or MMXX as the Romans would say, has arrived. We saw it in as we did last year at a resort in Fiji and we certainly saw it in in style!

As usual I like to use the turn of the year to review my hobby achievements for the year. Every year I tell myself that this will be a quieter year. In fact to quote myself about the figure count for 2019 it will“…DEFINITELY will not be as high a count as the year just gone.” And I was right. The count of painting points was 12,240 compared to 13,060 for 2018 – a drop of just over 7% - but it was still my second biggest year ever. As always the painting points are calculated: foot figures 5 pts, mounted figures 10 pts, gun or equipment 10 pts and each hour of work on a scratch built items 10 pts.

There were thirteen projects tackled during the year of which only four were anticipated at the start of the year, namely the Carlist War expansion, the Spanish Napoleonic, the Crimean War Heavy Brigade and the British in the Peninsular War.

Unanticipated projects have been the French Revolutionary army, a few odds and ends for the French 1813 Napoleonics, the Russian Napoleonic limbers, a sizable expansion of the Crimean War British, a small force of British for the American Revolution, a small addition to the War of 1812 American army, the Bavarian Army for 1813-14, a small German WWII force for Bolt Action and the refurbishment of an ACW collection. I also added a few scratch built items and five Napoleonic wagons.

The statistics are:

Although the number of posts  for the year were down  the goal of 24 games was exceeded by one. The breakdown of the games is:

And what does 2020 hold in store? Well I am not really sure yet. I have a few ACW figures still in the plastic pile. The French Revolutionary armies are also on hand and their Austrian and Russian opponents are on the cards, but they will not be big armies - frequent readers can stop laughing now. I did succumb to the Foundry Christmas special and have four battalions and a battery of Crimean Turks on their way. I can also see myself doing a few battalions of the new Perry 1807-1812 infantry (ha ha...a few..more like 15). Some French for the American Revolution is attractive idea too, but beyond that there is next to nothing, unless some smart manufacturer comes up with something shiny to attract the inner magpie.

One project I do want to get on with is sorting the garage for a gaming area, complete with terrain tiles - and there will be something to show on these very soon.

For now I am not thinking of things wargaming. Instead I am going to have a leisurely breakfast then sit back back on my sun lounger and enjoy the 30 C degree temperatures while I finish reading the Robert Massie biography of Catherine the Great, interrupted by the occasional dip in the pool to cool off..

Bavarian Project Complete

With this unit of Chevauxleger, the 6th Regiment, my Bavarian army is completed - at least until I decide to add another division.

There will be a parade at some point soon.

Also based up today is the AWI gun set that I mentioned in yesterday’s post.

More Transport

The items presented here complete the transport theme started a few posts ago.

A commandeered Russian wagon in French service drawn by donkey and with two stragglers hitching a ride

A British Peninsular caisson

A Prussian two horse ammunition wagon.

The fourth transport item is aa AWI limber and gun for an artillery set whose crew are being uniformed at this very moment.

Bavarian Artillery Complete

I didn’t have a lot of artillery to paint for the Bavarian collection, just three gun sets and their associated limbers. One set and its limber was presented here some weeks ago, and here is the rest of  the artillery.

First up is a 12lb field gun.

Instead of a limber for this set I chose to do a caisson.

The second set is a 6lb light artillery set...

...and instead of a limber there is the superb wurst wagon model.

To round out this post are three mounted officers that will be be the brigadiers for the army.

This collection is nearly complete, only six chevauxleger troopers to go.

Bavarian Chevauxleger

Just as the year is drawing to a close, so too is my Napoleonic Bavarian Army.

The infantry is complete, the generals are all painted (although three remain unbased), the guns sets, along with their limbers, caissons and wurst wagons are painted and partly based. It is only the cavalry that remains unfinished...until now that is.

The first regiment of two that will adorn the battlefield under my command is the 3rd Chevauxleger rides on parade below.

The second regiment, the 5th Chevauxleger is on the painting table now.