Wednesday 30 March 2016

40mm: Jagers try out their new guns ...

While Captain Scharfe is away in on special duties in the Sackwald, his battalion stationed in the Hoflandt have received some new equipment to give them extra firepower

An amusette for potential siege works ...


and a light gun ....

[New items: completed amusette and light gun conversions shown in previous post]

Saturday 26 March 2016

Get the Cardinal to Safety ....

Captain Scharfe of the Kings Jagers had thought he would be off back to the Hoflandt to re-join his battalion; but just as he was about to leave he was given a new task. Cardinal Meinser (a member of the Wittenberg Royal Society) had got lost in the Sackwald forest whilst out studying butterflies and insects.  Scharfe went into the forest with a detachment of jagers and with help from his old friend the Woodsman he located the Cardinal after a couple of days. Now all that was left to do was to get the Cardinal and his small entourage to the safety of Runtsdorf where there was a dragoon outpost .....

--oXo--

The Woodsman, Scharfe and his men along with the Cardinal, his assistant and jester leave the gloomy woods of the Sackwald and onto the road towards Runtsdorf....
 Lurking in the woods are brigands (led by the Hook) waiting to pounce on the unwary on the road to Runtsdorf...
 Scharfe and his party pass through a small hamlet, which is deserted; they are now on their guard...
The brigand Black Jack (still working with the Hook) leads his men out of the forest and one of his men opens fire on Scharfe's party ....
Scharfe and jagers respond forming up and firing off quickly taking down one of the brigands
The Woodsman leads the Cardinal along a side path which he knows with support from a couple of jagers; while Scharfe and the rest keep up a brisk fire, but jagers are getting hit.....
While the Cardinal is led to safety, Scharfe and his men continue the fight including the Jester who thinks he can help by taunting the opposition and jingling his bells .....
In Runtsdorf the sound of musket fire in the woods is about to be investigated, some of the dragoons have mounted up .....
The Cardinal's party emerge out of the woodland and in sight of the road....
The brigands close in, Scharfe and a couple of his men manage to hold them off (the jester has been shot...)
The dragoons arrive and are directed at the brigands moving up the road ....
Scharfe turns to see the dragoons charge down the road ...
 The dragoons lay into the brigands scattering them into the forest and cutting many of them down ...
The Cardinal and his assistant in the company of the Woodsman and a jager reach safety at the outskirts of Runtsdorf ....

--oXo--

Another successful mission for Scharfe; although wounded in the fight with the brigands he will be ready to travel in a couple of days. The Cardinal laments the loss of his jester, good jesters are hard to find. The brigand leaders Hook and Black Jack escaped form the fray with some of their men and have to decided to move to another area .....

Wednesday 23 March 2016

40mm: Jagers to get some extra firepower (figure conversions ...)

This post shows the conversions I have done for the last of my 'special' items planned for my 40mm Wittenberg Army. The jagers will receive some extra firepower,
  • an amusette like the ones from Perry 28mm AWI range
  • a piece of light artillery being pulled along and also being fired
The amusette was the easiest to do, so the figures have been done by converting the kneeling poses from the S&S AWI jagers pack- and a spare large musket from a 60mm figure which was suitable.
Chap firing 'long musket' and his assistant...
 
with a mantlet made from card, hibachi skewer and plastic wheels ...

I made up a light gun, with parts from the spares bits box and some wire.  I converted two figures for crew when deployed and a chap to pull the gun along with his hands drilled out so the gun can be slotted in and removed.

Being pulled along ...
Ready to fire ....
better get these painted !.....

Saturday 12 March 2016

Scenics: Table Risers and Harbour Quay sections ...

I've have just finished doing some major work on my table riser sections to make them more useable; plus making some harbour quay sections.

Table Riser Sections

I made a set of 1 inch thick risers with coastal sections a few years ago when I was building my pirate collection - these however didn't have standard sizes that matched the hill sections I made later [ bad planning there :) ]. So a lot of cutting, sawing, gluing has been done to reduce sections to compatible widths and depths (in multiples of 6inches); additionally I cut the coastal beach sections off so they were separate.

Blue cloth on the table and a trial layout of coast with my harbour section (coastal beach sections unfinished)
Now with table riser sections sizes that work with my hill sections I can use them together to make inset rivers
For the coastal sections I folded over the fabric I use for the covering and filled in the gaps with some foamboard to represent 'low' sandy cliffs. After painting and touch-in they came up nicely
 some idea of the scale of the beach and 'low' cliff (28mm figs)
Where did we leave the picnic basket ?

---oXo---
Harbour sections

I acquired a load of PlayMobil castle sections off Ebay last year, having put aside the parts I wanted I was left with loads of spare joiner sections which looked useful so I put them in a box for use laterOnce I finished the riser sections I decided to use them to make some harbour quay sections. After a bit of fiddling I found a combination of that made a up the basis of a quay section.
After making all the sections, I covered the tops and ends as needed with thin cardboard; after that I made a couple of wooden jetties from plastic and cardboard and hibachi skewers
the underside of the jetties before painting ...
To finish off the quay sections I covered the sides with  stone effect paper and the tops with Metcalfe 00/HO cobble sheet. A trial layout with some buildings ....