Pelardon: Monrovians cross the border ...

Early in the morning a fast rider approaches the main gate of Fausignac...

he brings news to the Duke - the Monrovians have crossed the border and are heading for the capital. After much discussion with his advisors the Duke decides to remain and prepare the defences, his daughter is to ride north to Zomverre to ask for aid.  Later in the afternoon the Duke's daughter is on her way with an escort of the Duke's lifeguard taking a cross country route (while her baggage goes via the roads)....

After his daughter's departure the Duke meets with his general to decide if the army is able to march to fight against the invaders .....

-- to be continued .....

All quiet in the Dukedom of Pelardon ...

The Duke of Palardon is out for a ride with his daughter ....

The Duke pauses to look at the defences around the capital city of Fausignac...

However someone else is also taking a keen interest in the defences - a group of Monrovian officers with a small dragoon escort are skulking in the woods ....

They scan the city defences making notes...

---oXo---

It would appear that Monrovia has designs on the Dukedom of Pelardon, the key objective would be the capital - the information collected will be used for their plan of campaign - they may have to lay siege to the capital.

Where is Pelardon ? Well its just south of Zomverre; on the south western border of Monrovia ( with the Kingdom of Wittenberg to the east of Monrovia).

The Monrovians must plan carefully, the Duke of Pellardon is the cousin of the Duke of Zomverre - Zomverre may come to there aid .......we shall see ....

siegeworks(5) - all done

Nice to get all the planned siegeworks sections I need completed; I went for a simple paint finish overall rather than use any scatter/flock; firstly the gun batteries/emplacements...

I made 6 x 3inch, 14 x 6in and 6 x corner sections, some sample sections layed out below

Two 'sap forwards', left and right to show movement forward ....

My favourite, the mine entrance from the front it looks like...

But from the back you can see what they are up too !

now then onto the siege of a fortress - planning to set this in a sequence of posts wherein the Monrovian army ventures back out into the field.

Wittenberg: Amusettes for the King's Jagers

To relieve the tedium of constructing all those siegework sections I've a few small painting projects running in parallel, the first of which I finished today - some amusettes for the King's Jagers - I used the Perry AWI ones - nice models and I enjoyed painting them.

 

siegeworks(4) - progress update

I've started painting some of the sections, mostly the gun emplacements ...

all the other siegework sections have had their 'front slopes' added and the gabion effect paper stuck to the back - these are now ready for some lite terraining with plastic wood then painting and finishing off.

siegeworks(3) - section assembly started ...and ...

had a bash yesterday and cut and glued all the upright parts of the sections to their bases

to relieve the tedium of cutting and sticking sections together I had a break and made up a small piece to depict a mine entrance (suitable figs to be added)

back to the cutting, gluing etc....

siegeworks(2) - trial section and layout

Creating siegeworks/fieldworks is always difficult - you can overdo it and make superb little dioramic sections but then placing the figures on/behind can be tricky - I decided on a simple representational scheme of a bank of earth only made up using card, MDF and some foam rubber floor tile I had spare.

For the rear of the section I decided to make up a 'gabion' paper sheet, which I could stick on the back; initial test looks good...

Also to represent the active end of a sap, I'll have a small section with a couple of gabions and a protective mantle with a figure digging/working - trial version below (mantle is modified from a Perry amusette one) ...

I cut all the sections bases I thought I might need and layed them out on the table approaching the glacis, seems to be OK may need a couple of extra oddment pieces for corners etc

Now to cut the materials up to make the sections.

siegeworks(1) - getting started

Started work on the gun batteries, I already had one so a new one is being added - I bought some resin and metal gabions and had some remnants from an Italeri field set which I used for wooden boarding for the guns.  These will be terrained up and painted etc ....

For the first line of siegeworks I'm going to use the fieldworks I made some time ago for my 40mm figs, these will serve as the line of circumvalliation - with a little camp at the back

I'm currently scribbing on bits of paper and measuring the available space; sketching ideas out on how many sections of saps and fieldworks are needed etc. Also to ensure that when built I can re-use for other purposes if required.

Some ladies and gentlemen for the palace

Some more ladies and gents for the palace (in foreground of picture below) - this finishes off all the 'civilian' figs I had left (maybe some more later, I'll see what takes my fancy..)

[Figs: 5 from from JacDaw (pack LWC02), plus a converted spare Old Gory officer]

A new look ?

I've been playing with blogger templates; I'm trying out some looks on my other gaming blogs - so at some stage the Wittenberg blog may get re-done too (?)

Fortress Heidelheim...

After the damage to the fortress walls of the city of  Heidelheim in Upper Belgravia four years ago, caused by an explosion in a powder magazine (see here), a subsequent survey revealed more damage than just one section of the wall - adjoining bastions had also been structurally compromised. The survey also revealed other shortcomings in the defences. The King authorised a re-build, which was supervised by the commander of engineers Von Nabuav.

The King has travelled to Heidelheim to inspect the completed works...

The King and his escort is spotted approaching the city

 The main gate is alerted...

 The King pauses to view the new glacis, ditch and improved fortress walls ....

before entering the city the King witnesses the firing of the new heavier fortress guns ...

Fortress fever (4) - covering the glacis

A quick post - I'd been scratching my head for a couple of days thinking of how to cover the glacis - didn't want to use up lots of scatter and make a mess. I remembered I still had some offcuts of the material I used to cover my gaming table so I decided to use that.

Work in progress -

green material fixed using heavy duty double sided carpet tape; tape put on top of glacis, in the middle and on the underside of the front of the baseboard....basically cut the material to size, stick down the material at the top of the glacis, stretch and stick down the top side then pull tight and stick down on the under side - all done

Fortress fever (3) - new ravelin for the main gate

The fevered activity tarting up my fortress sections has slowed down - that's the problem with having to go back to work :)

Anyway with reduced time per day to have working on the new ravelin for the main gate I'm still making some progress, a shot of the main cardboard framework (on an MDF base)

and the first off addition of the top and stone paper sheet glued on

have to add the gate details etc, then get on with finishing off the baseboards....

Fortress fever (2) - adding the glacis

Having upgraded my fortress sections, I cut two base boards out of 3mm MDF, one for the main gate and the other for the fortress side....

I marked out the ditch, covered way 'step' in pencil then trialled the setup with some foam board and cardboard...

then happy with the look of it, I had a lots of fun cutting up and fixing the elements of the glacis to the base boards.

next bit to do is the defence works by the front gate..