A Big Week

Just three weeks back from our big trip away and we are away again. A bit closer to home this time, in Queenstown again for a big week of celebrations - the social engagements I mentioned in my last post.

We flew down to Queenstown on Saturday where we stayed for two nights before moving to the Gibbston Valley Lodge (where we spent some time last winter) for three nights. After arrival in the bright winter sun we headed across the Crown Range to Wanaka, where an inversion layer made for a gloomy view across the lake with the temperature hovering between 3 and 4 degrees C.

Some shopping, lunch and a bit of foraging for basing stones on the lake shore followed before we headed back to Queenstown to check into the hotel. A dinner with a view of the sun setting on the Remarkables closed out the day.

We were woken at 3:38 on Sunday by the short sharp jolt and rattle of a weak earthquake centred some 100km north of us - nothing serious at 4.2 on the scale, but quite shallow. While we live in the "Shakey Isles" it's the first time I have experienced a quake.

A walk in the cold fresh air (at -3C) in the Queenstown Gardens started Sunday that turned out to be a lazy one just wandering around the town.

The Lakeshore on Sunday evening

Monday was our 25th Wedding Anniversary. We started again with a walk though the gardens before leaving Queenstown and heading to Cromwell for lunch. After lunch we headed to Gibbston Valley, via a couple of vineyards, where we were to spend three nights at the Gibbston Valley Lodge. It is quite different to when we were here last year, when it was much colder after a heavy snowfall. This year is much milder with some light frost. While there are a reasonable number of people at the lodge, we were the only diners that night, with a custom designed menu. That personal service made for a unique anniversary dinner.

Pre-dinner drinks in the Lodge lounge - the view from my seat.

Tuesday was  busy day with a visit to Arrowtown for lunch, some shopping in Queenstown, an afternoon of reading in our villa and dinner in Queenstown (only a 25 minute drive from the lodge).

Today is my 65th Birthday. I am now officially a pensioner although I will not be retiring just yet...20 September next year is that target...a mere 457 days away. We have woken to a foggy start but we have nothing specific planned other than lunch in Cromwell again, a wine tasting at the lodge followed by dinner. 

We will be heading home tomorrow and back to work on Monday.

Third Battalion, 77e Régiment d'Infanterie

The second battalion in my FPW French army is actually the Third Battalion, 77e Régiment d'Infanterie. I have decided that the third battalion in each regiment will be in the firing line poses (although my view on this may change as the project progresses and entire regiments may be in firing poses, as I have done with the Prussians), but for now this is Commandant Lemonfagner's Third Battalion, 77e Régiment d'Infanterie. 

It is identified as the third battalion by white and red fanion carried by the senior NCO.

Work on the First Battalion is underway, but is it's completion will face a little interruption, due to some social engagements.

Second Battalion, 77e Régiment d'Infanterie

With my plan to build the French 2nd Corps for Franco-Prussian War army, I have started with the 77e Régiment de Ligne that formed a part of the Second Brigade, First Division. 

One of of the key organisational differences between the French and German armies in 1870 was the battalion structure. The German battalions counted 1000 men in the ranks, in four companies, whereas the French counted 720 men in six companies (although as a result of the chaotic nature of the French mobilisation meant that very few regiments took the field with their full complement). So to meet that difference I have organised my  French battalions into units of three stands, whereas my German units are four. In the units made up of marching/advancing figures they will have six figures to the stand while those made up of the firing line figures will have five to the stand (simply because six firing line figures just look too cramped on the stand). This gives a more or less correct ratio between the opposing battalion strengths and means that one French stand is the equivalent of two companies, where as one German stand is one company.

The 77e Régiment was formed in 1791, but had a heritage that extended back to 1671 because it was formed from elements of regiments from the Ancien Regime, specifically from Régiment La Marck (a German regiment in French service) and the Chasseurs Royaux de Dauphine. Designated the 77e Demi-Brigade in 1799 it served in Egypt and earned honours at Friedland in 1807.

Engaged in Algeria in the 1830s it later fought in the Baltic, at Bomarsund, during the Crimean War. It fought at Spicheren, Rezonville and Gravelotte in 1870, surrendering at Metz in October with the rest of the Army of the Rhine.

In 1914 it was renumbered the 277e Régiment earning honours at Verdun, L'Aisne and Le Matz. Redesigned the 65e Régiment in 1923, it resumed the title of 77e in 1939. After the Fall of France in 1940 it was disbanded.

This unit is the Second battalion of the regiment. It is the second battalion because it carries the regimental eagle and standard, which is why I painted it first. The First and Third battalions carried a fanion instead of a standard. At the outbreak hostilities it was commanded by Commandant Rembert.

The regimental commander was Colonel Victor Louis Francois Février, a native of Grenoble who, at the age of 47 had built up an impressive service record. Entering the École Militaire in 1841 he left as sous-lieutenant in the 19th Regiment two years later. A lieutenant in 1848 he made captain in 1851 and passed to the 1st Zouaves the following year going to the Crimea with that regiment. He was severely injured when his horse was killed under him at the Alma and was awarded the Ordre du Medjidié and the Crimean Medal for services there. Named Chef de Batallion in the 30th Line in 1856, he transferred to the Guard Zouaves three years later, leading a battalion in Italy and distinguishing himself at Solferino. After that war his battalion served the winter at Nice as honour guard to the Empress. Promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the 32nd Line in 1863 he did a stint as the military attaché to Denmark. Here he developed  a close friendship with King Frederick VIII that enabled him to act as an observer in the Schelgwig-Hostein War the following year. Returning to France in 1866 he transferred to the 3rd Zouaves, the regiment that was the model for the new French rifle tactics that were adopted later that year. In 1868 he was appointed colonel of the 77th.

He led the regiment skilfully in the hottest fighting at Spicheren from the opening shots to the nighttime withdrawal, suffering  285 casualties from the 1,590 that entered the fight.

After the war Février advanced to command the 25th Division in 1881, 15th Corps in the following year and 6th Corps in 1888. He was an unsuccessful Conservative candidate in the 1894 presidential election. He died on Christmas Day 1908.

Gunfighter's Ball

Today's game was a gunfight game using  Gunfighter's Ball rules. The figures, buildings and game set up were all the work of our friend Rick.

In the game the Earp brothers and Doc Holiday, assisted by a couple of other lawmen, took on the Clantons, while a strange man called Mysterious Dave and his hired gunman approached from the other of town with ill intent.

I don't remember all the details, but I do know that:

• Doc Holiday died
• Wyatt Earp killed Mysterious Dave and his hired gunman 
• Most of the Clantons were killed or seriously wounded.

And the photos...in no particular order (comments where applicable).

The stagecoach in which Mysterious Dave and his man were travelling

The quiet town of Dry Gulch

The doctor thinks he can help

One of Keith's female gunfighters - based on Sharon Stone character from "The Quick and the Dead"

Morgan (left) and Wyatt Earp

Ridin' into town at the gallop!

The Lead (plastic) Pile Restored

The week started with some more ruins. These I did in a sandstone hue (inspired by Keith's description of his family home). 

But now the rest of the ruins will go on the back burner, because yesterday a nice big box of goodies arrived from Nottingham (an impressive delivery by DHL - Nottingham to my Auckland doorstep in four days). 

Contained therein were 378 foot and 16 mounted figures.

 

To put some context around this it will provide 18 battalions of Franco-Prussian French line infantry, two battalions of Chasseurs, a couple of French generals and a regiment of Napoleonic Austrian hussars that I forgot to order last time.

I can hear the cries across the internet "Oh my God 20 battalions of French FPW! Are you insane?"  No not insane, obsessive maybe, but not insane - and do I need to remind you that insanity is only a state of mind? And at any rate twenty battalions is only half the story...literally...because I am planning on 39 battalions. 

To understand why on earth I would want 39 battalions of French infantry I have to take you waaaaaay back to 1973. That was my first year of high school and I actually did quite well academically, scoring first place in the class for science and art for which I earned prizes in the form of book vouchers. One of the books I bought with those vouchers was Donald Featherstone's "Wargames Campaigns". That book was responsible for three closely related things: 

• It expanded my obsession with wargames
• It introduced me to the Franco-Prussian War
• Thanks to my new found obsession with wargames, led to a decline in my academic endeavours and never again did I reach the heady heights of first in the class for any subject (although I did do rather well in history in my last year - helped largely by the fact that a big part of the syllabus for that year was taken up with Europe 1815-1914 where my interest in the Franco-Prussian War led to me writing some bloody good essays on German Unification if I must say so myself).

Now Wargames Campaigns had three chapters on the Franco-Prussian War and I was so enthused that I built small forces using the Airfix WWI French and German sets, but there was no cavalry or artillery that was suitable so the collection went nowhere. It would not be until Wargames Foundry brought out their FPW range in the mid-1980s that I collected seriously (and hugely too with a force of more than 2,500 figures that I eventually had to sell to pay some debts). I also developed an intense interest in the Battle of Spicheren after reading Featherstone's rather simplified description of it, an interest that has seen me write a book on the subject that one day (maybe next year when I retire ) I will publish. And it is as a result of that study that I am building 39 French battalions because I want to build the whole of the French 2nd Corps that fought at Spicheren, just like I built the whole of the Prussian VII Corps that provided most of the German troops in that battle.

Anyway, within a hour of that big box of goodies arriving I had assembled the first six figures and then painted in the evening. By early next week the first battalion should be ready for display. 

The contents of that big box of goodies should keep me busy until August.

My Life in Ruins

I am continuing to plug away at the sets of ruins for a friend. 

I have done these in darker hues - deep browns and greys - that can be further darkened with washes and black drybrushing. This gives them that more Gothic look. It reminds me of one of my early trips to Toulouse visiting  the Cathedral St Etienne, a wonderful Gothic cathedral, that was blackened from centuries of exposure to the elements, then going back a few years later after it had been cleaned and seeing the stark difference of the white stonework.

The piece below us a 3D printed item in three parts with a total height of 300mm and measuring 140mm x 140mm on the base.

And a bit more scatter terrain...

While these pieces don't present a particular challenge they do provide a distraction from the post holiday funk while I wait for fresh painting stock to arrive which, if all goes well, will be Monday.

Painting for a friend...

With the lead pile flattened and the chances of it being restocked for at least another three weeks being low, I have begun painting some Gothic fantasy ruins for a friend. 

The first pieces I have done as white stone structures. Subsequent sets will be in brown and grey finishes, to give them a darker Gothic look. 

And then there are some scatter pieces.