Sculpt & Cast - First Metal from new moulds....

 First metal, castings from a first run of my new moulds.

pleased with the results - especially the drummer. 

I also tried out the Prince August cannon and limber moulds I purchased. I can get the cannon barrels to cast nicely - need to perhaps add a few extra air vents and warm the moulds up a bit - then I may get the wheels to come out.

Mould making started...

The latest set of the moulds for the 18C foot figures progressing well. 

The most laborious part bedding the masters in plasticene is done..

I'm using part of the game table for mould making, the first half of two of the moulds has been poured..

Hopefully I'll be finished all four by Saturday, then I can get some trial castings done.

A Troll Hunt.....

 Reports of a troll eating local livestock near Villensdorf, located near the edge of the Sackwald forest, reached the offices of the Department for Supernatural Affairs run by Ernst von Tiddenheim (the hereditary witchfinder general).  Von Tiddenheim put a team together comprising himself and his wife Eleanor, Samantha the white witch, Sargeant Manfred Harfenist (from the Kings Jagers) and Brother Osbert from the monastery of Alt-Wittenberg..... they travelled by coach .....

---oXo---

 On a clear moonlit night, the squire of Villensdorf leads some of the local men into the rocky countryside to locate and kill a troll that has been taking their livestock....

Ernst Von Tiddenheim and his group of 'monster hunters' arrived in Villensdorf, they were supposed to be met by the local squire... but he had not waited for them.... they would have to search for the troll without any local guides...

The troll has emerged from his lair and is out for a night of hunting...

The group led by the local squire moved up over a rocky outcrop ...

they reached level ground, still nothing in sight... however the troll had heard them and was moving their way...

von Tiddenheim's group moved carefully through the rocks....

The troll sees the squires men, they see him and fire at him, wounding him...

Enraged, the troll charges at them swinging his club, knocking down one man

Tiddenheim's group moved to towards the sound of the shots fired. On arrival they opened fire to little affect, an attack spell from Samantha forced the troll back. The troll climbed up on a large rock and roared at his attackers...

The troll attacks the squire and his men again, avoiding the sting of a spell from Samantha's wand..

Everybody gets out of the way as the troll swings his mighty club...

The troll charges down a narrow defile downing one of the squires men, the rest are wrong-footed,  they'll have to try and catch up with the troll ...

The troll rounds the rocks and turns to face von Tiddenheim's party...

Brother Osbert tries to get round behind him as the rest move up to higher ground and open fire....

The troll turns and goes for Brother Osbert who dodges him and the troll continues on to swing his club at a couple of the squire's men...

Brother Osbert fires his blunderbus, the blessed projectiles and musket fire from the squire's men finally kill the troll......

a good nights hunting....

---oXo---

1)  Another nice enjoyable small game using my Simple Combat rules with relevant parts of Devilry Afoot for the troll's stats and actions.

2)  Of the squires men there 3 dead, 1 badly wounded and two with light wounds (they should have waited for von Tiddenheim & co).

3) von Tiddenheim & co, ok apart from a few bumps and scratches ... ready to deal with the next supernatural threat.

Going mouldy.....

The finished generic 40mm SYW sculpts of various figures, finished off in June, have been allocated to moulds.   There artillery crew, infantry command, march attack infantry, a jager and hussar in kolpack.

Currently working through doing final checks on the masters, before they are bedded in with plasticene prior to mixing the mould compound.

Civilian miscellany ....

A selection of figures painted, mostly from Black Hussar Miniatures....

A woodcutter, something for the artillery (Eureka figures) plus some more chaps for my bread oven setup...

and some more for the streets of Wittenberg.............

Pontoon Bridges....

All the reworked Pontoon stuff is finished; extra wagons, more pontoons, improved deck sections and an an improved selection of pontooniers in action poses. 

The uniform for the pontooniers is like those of the SYW Hanoverian army; I liked the light blue coat colours - just right for working on the water.

---oXo---

The first and second pontoon companies..... formed up ready to embark on a little bridge building competition.

2nd company on the march

1st company reach the river first....

and soon have the river bank access ramp up....

the 2nd company has just reached the river ...

The 1st company have pontoons in place and started work on the deck....

The 2nd company, working hard, have just about caught up....

problems for the 1st company, they've got a pontoon stuck by the far bank....

2nd company are finishing the far side river bank access ramp

the 2nd company have got ahead, all pontoons in place and the deck is being completed; the 1st company are finishing the positioning of their pontoons.

as the 1st company start work to complete the deck...

the 2nd company have finished and receive the officer's congratulations for their efforts..

The 2nd company win the pontoon bridge building exercise; they'll be a couple of barrels of beer for them tonight to celebrate !

Saxe-Jarlsberg army completed....

The Saxe-Jarlsberg army is now complete; I've kept the uniforms and units as close as possible to the those of the Brunswick army during the seven years war. There are some deviations..

• The Leib-Grenadier Guard I've done like Erbprinz from Charge!
• The Volontaires Auxiliaires, I've done a unit of uhlans and a unit of grenadiers in tricornes.

The regular cavalry...

The generals...

The artillery ....

The light troops; jager corps at the front....

Volontaires Auxiliaires at the back...

Joining the game mat pieces.....

My game table is 7ft6in x 3ft.  The fleece game mat that I bought a couple of months ago for my game table was a 7' x 5'; too short for my table lengthways and too long for the across the table. 

I trimmed 6" off it length ways to give me a 1ft gap; then cut ~1ft8in off it the other way to give a mat 6ft6in by 3ft3in ; then I used part of the offcuts to fill the gap.  There is an overlap, which has visible edge due to the thickness of the fleece mat.

That visible overlap......

I wanted to join the two pieces of mat together, so after consideration opted for to use gaffer tape.

The edges of the two pieces of the mat were cut as straight as I could; the tape was applied to the underside of one piece and the slowly and carefully the second piece was then put into position. A bit of fluffing to the surface and the gap is not that visible.  The two pieces have slight differences in colouration but the 'joined mat' looks way better .....

Once some scenic bits is on the mat and a game is in progress it won't be that noticable.

Saxe-Jarlsberg: Last infantry regiment finished...

The last unit in the Saxe-Jarlsberg army complete. Brunswick IR Imhoff joins the army; along with all of the converged grenadier battalion.