A new fountain for the palace gardens ...

 While tidying up, I found a fountain I'd painted some time ago; I thought it would be best to put it on the palace shelf diorama to replace the old one.

Walled Farm Set ...(few changes made..)

 Made some minor changes to the set as it came ...  

changed double door on the stable block to be single door plus window

filled in the holes in the roof..

'skinned' the wall sections with thin card to match them up with some others wall sections I have

a chimney for the farmhouse ...

Changes made have been painted up...

Walled Farm Set ...

A Walled Farm Set from EM4 Miniatures arrived today; unpacked and had an initial look and quick setup using a couple of 40mm figures.. large barn at the back with other buildings with the walls/gatehouse.

Stables block, but could be a couple of house...

Farmhouse and part of back of barn...

(Jim Purky has some super pictures of the same set with 28mm figures on his Alte Fritz blog... http://altefritz.blogspot.com/2023/02/new-terrain-goodies-and-all-that.html. )

Overall a lovely buildings set, a good size; they will be good on their own and give me more options for a town setup. All roofs lift off and the doors open/close. A couple of minor things that aren't to my liking: holes in some of the roofs, no chimney on the farmhouse, a bit too much brick showing. All things I can improve.

Next Begovian War campaign planning moves forward ...

 I've finished the campaign area map for the next next Wittenberg V Begovia campaign...

Backstory context done...

"The Begovians have made a move against the breakaway province of Upper Rutenia; their attack has stalled after the battle to take Panzankz, but are making regular raids into the territory. Upper Rutenia as an ally of Wittenberg has asked for assistance. General Waldebeck is preparing plans cross the border to attack the Begovians in the area of Lower Rutenia and is awaiting the King's approval of his plans before making his move ..."

The two commanders General Waldebeck for Wittenberg and Osram Pasha for Begovia will soon be leading their troops into action...

that is once I've worked out the game campaign scenarios...

Adding shelves to display cases ...

 I have two display cabinets like this one..

I will have some more 28mm 18C stuff to go on display, so I worked out how to add an extra shelf; some careful measuring to mark out where the new holes for the shelf supports had to go...

holes drilled carefully (for me 😀 ) and a piece of pine strip wood of the right width cut to size (with a straight edge as well !); hooray an extra shelf ...

I did the same job on the second cabinet. Already being populated ...

Right lads lets make this our shelf !

Fresh from my success on the two cabinets, I had took out the shelves from my third cabinet and shuffled up all the shelf supports - to get extra room for another shelf

piece of timber cut (oops a wiggly edge this time 😩  ).... shelf fitted

colour mismatch though, I may have a suitable colour woodstain in the garage. I can live with the mismatch though.

Hurrah  ! three new shelves to fill up with 18C 28mm figures, I may get some of the Wittenberg border forces out of a box; I have some Blue Moon highwaymen  and desperadoes on the paint desk, so now they'll have a home when they are finished.

Coaches ....

 Sorted out some horses for the coach (some of my home-casts) and a new coachman (from Colonel Bills)

Painted up ...waiting outside the palace for some passengers....

While on coaches, I got out the Kings coach; its an old Dinky coronation coach - the old plastic horses definitely needed replacing so I used some more of my home-cast horses for a new set.

Wagon finished ...

 All painted and ready to join the rest of the wagon train ...

40mm Wagon (WIP)....

Running gear assembled and two horses based...

Marking out the cardboard body parts (base, two sides, two ends & two strengtheners)...

Cardboard body assembled and trial fitted to chassis...

Canvas covers made using masking tape... (with coating of PVA glue to stiffen)

drivers seat added, driver conversion started (Sash & Saber head, on one of the figures from the kit)..

The other two horses done, driver finished ....     (behind is previous conversion from same kit)

Replacing my old coach...

I've been looking at coaches for 28mm games, all I have is this converted western stagecoach. 

I decided I need to replace it; I have ordered the Westphalia Forder 18C coach from Crantarra Miniatures.

Recently an old model kit was kindly sent to me...

it is nominally 1/48 scale; the horses are more useful to go with my 40mm figures, the coach body is better with 28mm figures and the driver plus passengers are about 35mm+ foot to top of head.

Last time I got one of these kits given to me it was incomplete, I used the wheels and horses to make a wagon. So I sorted the pieces out to use for the wagon

I tried out the kit coach body with a spare set of wheels, a much better match to the 28mm figures than my existing coach.

So the wheels were fixed on and a roof added, with a trunk stored on the back its starts to look the part

drivers seat, steps and shaft added... ready to paint...

I could do with a new driver and some nice draught horses to go with.  Next job is make up the 40mm cart.

Obtained some extra armed monks (a mix of Perry and Westwind), to add to the two I already had. The Brotherhood of Duhn can now appear in greater numbers ...

They Projects - Roundup of the Last Year and looking forward ....

A round up of my gaming projects, achievements for last year and plans for the coming year ...

The Kingdom Of Wittenberg

Last Year:

Finished off the Monrovia V Fenwick campaign 'Into the Bylandt', with a river raid..

Got the 40mm Begovian army read for the next campaign; had a short piece on the Begovians published in Wargames Illustrated 415 July 2022 issue Quick Fire section.

My favourite solo game played - the sedan chair race ...

Plans for this year: 

Develop the Brotherhood of Duhn and other pulp style games set in the 18th century. Figure out some scenarios and get the next instalment of the Begovian War onto the table.

Samurai - Sengoku Period (40mm)

Last Year: 

I've  played a couple of games; including a 'Seven Samurai' defend the village scenario. I wrote this up and it was Published in Miniature Wargames Sept 2022 issue.

Also part way through is the building of two small armies, all the figures have been cast and I'm about a quarter of the way through painting them all.

Plans for this year: 

Finish painting all the figures for the two Samurai armies. Hopefully by the middle of the year the armies will be ready and I can play some suitable games.

WW2: Somewhere in France & Somewhere in England

Last Year: 

In England a sequence of games extracting some German spies, a chance for a submarine pickup

For France added new scenics ( houses, vineyards etc.) A small selection of 28mm Germans and Resistance collected for small scale games.  A nice selection of games with French resistance actions played .... boom !

a closer look at one of the German big guns ....

Plans for this year: More of the same, the theme of the Guns of Nouvions will undoubtably continue.

Carry On Chaps

Last Year: 

Forces accumulated for a sort of early 1920's East Africa conflict; pulp games played on the 'Rule of Six' theme, with new villain Dr Weevil making an appearance.

A small set of pulp games about the pyramidion of Senusret ..

was written up and has been published in Wargamers Annual 2023.

Plans for this year: 

More in a similar vain - hopefully some action in East Africa with the Sultanate of Nambuzo and of course more thwarting of the evil plans of the Rule of Six - I'm aiming to do a Bond style evil villains lair game (a nice modelling challenge).

For Ye Kinge (40mm)

Last Year: 

played through a mini-campaign with WIttenberg gaining the Hoflandt. A few games involved with a nice selection of scenarios, I'll being do a campaign PDF.  From the big battle...

Plans for this year: 

I'll dip into the Polish-Swedish War 1626-29 and maybe the period of the the Deluge for some scenarios and play them through - can't have winged hussars resting in boxes ...

The Nothelm Chronicle

Last Year: Played a small sequence of games - Olaf Sigurdsen's raid.   The saxons attack the vikings camp ....

Plans for this year: Again a few suitable games with a suitable linked theme; maybe following the survivors from Sigurdsen's raid.

Medieval Knights (40mm)

Last Year: Initial set of figures completed for two retinues.  First game played, the two retinues clashed over control over a manorial estate ...

Plans for this year: No plans to make additions to the collection. I'll use the existing figures to play a couple of games - perhaps Robin Hood themed and maybe some about questing knights.