Fighting On All (probably too many?) Fronts..

I've had a little more time for hobby stuff this week, and nibbled away at a few different tasks - though I suspect I am trying to progress, or think about, at least one too many projects! 

Unsurprisingly the vintage Minifigs Seven Years' War/AWI  'great rebasing' continues; Regiment of the Week this week is the French Infantrie Bourbonnais.  They started on slightly scruffy plain cardboard bases, and with no standard: 

  (the regiment was ID'd simply enough - 'Bourbonnais' written underneath the command base).

Looking at the figures, another slight wrinkle is that in common with some other 'French' figures in this collection,  they are actually from the Minifigs Austrian Seven Years War range :

Musketeer figure: code ASW 5  

We'll call that 'wargamer's license'..  They had the usual soaking in water to remove the old base, then new MDF bases - and a flag, simply done with plain paper and acrylic paints, on a plastic broom-bristle flagpole - it's all good...  

..or so I thought.  On proudly showing them off, I've been told 'that flag is upside down!'. Hmmm.. I had found the colours on Kronoskaf Seven Years War, of course, and here they are : 

Copyright: Kronoskaf 

 

Now I was assuming that the pole would be to  the left of the picture, was I wrong? hmm.. Of course, you can search the World Wide Web for 'Regiment Bourbonnais', and get this  (from  a website called Expedition Particuliere ) 

 which looks to agree with me... and then again, also this (from the regiment itself - or at least, a re-enactment group recreating it!) which begs to differ.. 

 

Now I will admit, the latter pattern seems to be more common on t'internet, so maybe I need to re-do that flag.. Comments welcome - is Kronoskaf wrong, or did I interpret it wrongly?   After the mystery of the Volontaires Etrangers last week, I had thought this next unit was straightforward - yet again it  goes to show the interest and challenges involved in recruiting our miniature armies!

*** UPDATE : I looked around in the boxes containing the vintage Minifigs collection - and I found this : 

 This looks to be the original flag that my Bourbonnais chaps carried, which must have snapped off the  ensign figure at some point, and sadly also broke into two pieces. As you can see, it does not agree with the Kronoskaf version which I used for my source. And so, I think I need to honour the original intention of the person who painted the unit, and I will change my flag to match this.  Many thanks to all who have left comments about this ( Neil invoked the great god Funcken, and Jon found he had  sources on his bookshelf  which disagreed with each other - interesting!), I'm glad it stirred up some interest, all part of the fun! 

I had found that recently the Minifigs rebasing project had elbowed everything else aside, so I am determined to get back to other projects which may be feeling neglected.  I have picked up the 1859 Risorgimento in 6mm project, and have  some works in progress  - first off, four bases (two units) of Jagers and one battery of artillery for the Austrians, to join their 2nd Division. They just need some flags, and colour applied to the bases:

 

and then the little matter of an entire Brigade, of 6 battalions of Line Infantry, to complete a Piedmontese division. Here are the six battalions, one (24 figures) per coffee-stirrer stick, awaiting priming :

 

Actually there are seven battalions to do, as the previous brigade is missing one. Even in 6mm scale, I admit that the prospect of painting 168 figures is fairly daunting!  Let 'little and often' be my motto, I think. 

Now for a recent purchase, which I am pleased with: 

  A nice big 6ft x 4ft Battle Mat from Geek Villain, their 'Sicily' mat, which I hope will be useful for my 'D-Day Dodgers' WW2 Italian Campaign project.  Here's the mat (still folded in half, so 3x2 ), please excuse the fold lines, it's been quite tightly wrapped in a parcel!  I thnk it looks pretty decent, and it is good-quality cloth.  Service was good and delivery prompt. too. 

 

I thought this would  be ideal for Ancients in the Mediterranean region too. I've been reading my copy of Art De Le Guerre rules, and had a look to see if my DBA Macedonian and Achaemenid Persian armies could be used for ADLG.   I looked at the ADLG chapter on army lists to pick out the ('MVP'?) minimum-sized armies suggested for the rules, and found that I do pretty much have sufficient troops. First here is  Alexander's 'pocket army', parading on the new mat: 

The force consists of a couple of units of the famous Macedonian pike phalanx, two units of Companion cavalry  ( actually one of them was painted at Thessalians, but never mind that ), one unit of 'Hypaspists' in the style  of Peltasts, and a couple of units of psiloi (treated as all javelin men). The bases are not quite a match for the suggested ADLG sizes, but are at least all the correct width at 60mm.  The pikes could do with another base (4 figures ) each unit, but that should be simple enough to add. I'm thinking I should also be adding a bit of variety to the bases too, to match the cloth. 

 ..and then, their Persian enemies: 

 

These have (to the right) three units of Medium Cavalry and one of Heavy Cavalry, a couple of units of Light Cavalry skirmishers (left), and an interesting 'mixed' unit of Heavy 'Guard' Infantry - For these I used Kardakes spearmen as the front rank, and mail-clad archers as the rear rank. From the army list, there really should be another unit of Heavy Cavalry of the Guard, but for now this looks a fairly formidable force.

Once I've got through the rules, these two little armies will clash in a trial battle, which I will report here, of course! More about those rules later, but I am fairly happy with them, on a first reading..

 

That just about wraps up my recent progress; I will probably have less hobby time in the next week, but hope to resume normal service after that.  Meanwhile I will keep reading and being inspired by all the other excellent blogs  on 'my blog list' here. Until the next time keep well, everyone.