ALT-HERBERSDORF CAVALRY

Here is the latest unit to crawl off the workbench. Regiment Alt-Hebersdorf. I have used Pappenheim's cornet on this regiment as I think I read somewhere he was Herbersdorf's son-in-law and may have commanded them at Wimpfen.

The riders are Tumbling Dice and the horses Revell. Bases to be finished later. Right back to the painting table.....

COMMENTING PROBLEMS

Firstly welcome to 3 new followers, Der Feldmarshall, Don M, and Paul of Pauls Bods.

I am having problems commenting on a couple of sites and maybe someone can help me. On Paul's blog

http://paulsbods.blogspot.com/ Blogger is refusing to let me comment and also on others with a similar commenting format.

I am not to au fait with these computer engines, so can someone tell me if I am doing something wrong please?

CORDOBA'S CUIRASSIERS

To give myself a change from painting 1/32 figures, I decided to return to my 1/72 Thirty Years War project, building the armies listed in Guthrie, to refight The Batttle of Wimpfen. I have been wondering how to base the figures, and in the end plumped for Gush's WRG Renaissance, which always provide a really fun game.

Here are the most recently finished figures, Imperial Spanish Cuirassiers

I usually finish the bases en masse at the end of painting, and am still wondering how to do it (a dark brown flock with dead winter static grass would be suitably gloomy for this terrible conflict)

The horses are Tumbling Dice, and the riders Revell with the odd Mars officer.

ARTILLERY

I have been looking at other blogs, and it seems to be impossible to double click pictures to magnify them now. Is this just my problem or are other people experiencing this? Highly frustrating when you want to peer at painted figures.

Here is the artillery I have finished recently

Gunners are A Call to Arms, and the piece is Ensign Miniatures

JUST POPPING OUT FOR A PINT OF MILK DEAR....

On Thursday, I nipped out to one of my favourite places, about 45minutes drive from Atticus Towers. I have been reading quite a bit of Late Roman and Arthurian matter recently so I had a hankering to gaze into Dumnonia and see Ynys Witrin (or Glastonbury Tor if you prefer) .

I have been going to Ebbor Gorge since I was a child, and it never seems to lose it's beauty, although it is getting more and more popular, and like most designated nature reserves you do get people going there to empty their dog and chuck litter about. Happily Ebbor seems to still be relatively untouched and as I arrived at 7.45am I was delighted to see I would enjoy the walk on my own.

The woods on the approach to the Gorge

Looking back down the Gorge path

Possibly my favourite view. I can sit here for hours. Glastonbury Tor is visible in the left distance.

From the same place but looking down into the Gorge

I always bring breakfast (the film canister contains coffee)

Poignantly, someone had left these lilies right at the edge of the cliff.

Anyhow, after spending a good hour gazing at the view, I had to return to reality and get back to do the weekly shop, but I felt better for my time out.

A GRAND DAY OUT

My oldest son, Robin (Thing 3) was 9 today and specifically requested we went to Raglan Castle, so Mrs. Atticus bundled the cake and other sundry provisions into the car and off we headed across the old Severn bridge.  We got to the castle in just over an hour and had a jolly time (or at least the children did, we spent most of it with our hearts in our mouths trying to stop Things 2 and 3 plummetting out of an arrowslit or similar). We repaired to the outer bailey for sustenance, where there were less steep drops.

Thing 3 (Young George) heading towards the moat

The Raspberry and Chocolate cake has attracted a pair of dragons from the castle well

As we were on the other side of the Severn , we decided to head down to Caerleon and take a look at the Roman remains there as Robin is starting the Romans as a project at school (having done the Anglo-Saxons and the Egyptians, who needs chronology?).

The amphitheatre is very impressive, but for me not the highlight of the trip. I don't profess to detect psychic auras or similar, but very few places give me the abdabs like this one (it was the same when I visited about 12 years ago). I really find the idea of gladiatoral combat and the Roman games completely sickening.

Anyhow the lads had no such qualms and charged in with a will. I took a few shots for the school work

Next we had a look at the barracks, where Robin gleefully demostrated the site of the latrines

Then on to the museum, which was really good, and free to get in on a Sunday!

As usual the dummies on display were in classic 1st century Roman kit (provided by the omnipotent Ermine Street Guard)

It would be nice to see some second or third century reproductions for a change (or even better 4th or 5th!)

Anyhow time for a quick look in the bohemian Arthurian yard at the South Gate of Caerleon

Merlin and Arthur (Thing 2)

 and back in time to assemble the Harry Potter lego that Robin got for his birthday. What fun.

NO KING BUT JESUS

Had a slightly disappointing trip to Colours at Newbury today, although the drive up the A4 was very pleasant first thing this morning. The show was quite busy but I just didn't see anything  to really grab me, perhaps I am just getting long in the tooth, and of course doing mainly 1/72 plastics and 54mm narrows the choice of merchandise considerably. I did pick up a couple of nice resin dark age houses for my Romano-British and some Coat d'arms paints. On the way back I dropped into Mildenhall to have a look at the Late Roman earthworks that once surrounded the town/depot of Cunetio.

Here are some photos of my first Parliamentarian foot regiment I finished a while back

The rank and file are A Call to Arms (the musketeers have Maros Models heads) , the officer is Ensign Miniatures, the Ensign is Irregular and the fifer a secondhand bod.

COLOURS AT NEWBURY

I will be attending Colours at Newbury on Saturday (the first time I have been able to go since it was at the Hexagon in Reading). If anyone would like to meet up and say "how de do" let me know. Just spent some time working on some 1/72 TYW cuirassiers for my Imperial army, and am now deliberating how to do the bases (sand and paint or flock or a mixture). I have just bought some static grass flock which is a dead grey brown, as I want to make the bases suitably depressing for that horrific yet fascinating war.

NOW FOR WRATH, NOW FOR RUIN AND A RED NIGHTFALL

Without a doubt my favourite characters in The Lord of the Rings are The Riders of Rohan, and I suspect they may have been Tolkien's too, after all they are Anglo-Saxons on horseback, having the same language and culture. I had a few misgivings with Peter Jackson's films but the Riders were absolutely spot on.

I painted these guys a year or two before the films were released

Theoden (Donnington and Essex)

Eomer, Elfhelm, Grimbold and (dismounted) Eowyn (Donnington miniatures)

The Eorlingas (mainly Essex Miniatures)

I started painting the horses a mix of colours, as Tolkien doesn't actually say Riders only use white horses, only that they sent their black steeds to Mordor as a tithe, and a line that states that the front of Eomers eored  "...roared like a breaker foaming to the shore..." but then had second thoughts and did the rest of the steeds white. The banner is of course The White Horse of Uffington which Tolkien would have known well and at the time of his writing the book I believe the general understanding was that the horse was of Saxon origin (we now know it to be Bronze age, but either way it is perfect art).

Again, there is no definite description of the shield device, as far as I remember, only a reference to some shields shining like the sun so I have done a mix of sunbursts and white horses.

Here they are appearing on the battlefield about to sweep into the orcs and carry all before them (What a great moment in the film, a real spine tingler)

and finally Theoden meets his end, but is avenged by his niece and a hobbit

(winged beast by Asgard, Witch King by Citadel, dead Snowmane and Theoden by Donnington)



I have enjoyed getting these old figures out again after several years and perusing the Rohirrim has put me in the mood to continue with my 1/72 early West Saxon army and their British opponents (almost finished the Saxons and just starting the Brits).

ALLIES OF MORDOR

Lets take a closer look at those humans allied with the Dark Lord

First, the Variags of Khand, which I always assumed to be a play on Varangians, so I used Varangian Guard figure from Minifigs, but made them suitably dour

Next are the Easterlings of Rhun, bearded and bearing great axes (Essex)



The Far Harad (Donnington Miniatures)

The Mumakil,(more like real elephants, but just BIG). These are plastic toys with extended milliput tusks and homemade howdahs with Donnington crew. I made the mistake of undercoating these with black enamels as I usually do, and the paint reacted with the rubbery plastic they are made of. The result being they are tacky to touch even after 9 years.

and finally The Haradrim (Donnington mongols). I like these figures as they remind me of some of the characters in Ian Miller's painting of the battle



Finally, welcome to Paul, who has 2 very nice blogs himself which are worth looking at, including some inspirational Imagi-nation armies http://paulywaulyswargamesblog.blogspot.com/