CANALETTO

Not much going on here at present, but I have posted a bit on my Fantasy blog. My 18c cage bars were rattled today when I decided to dap into a Bath museum to see the exhibition on Canaletto which has been there a while and finishes this week. There was some lovely detail in the paintings which gave food for thought for Imagi-nation scenarios, and some lovely little vignettes, such as servants beating carpets outside their masters house, and drunken rakes peeing up against the walls of Horse Guards. Well worth a look if you are in Bath over the next few days.

A NEW REGIMENT FINISHED

Just finished and photographed a new 54mm regiment for my Imagi-nation Trompenburg. More pics here.

Next in line are some Jaeger (AIP British infantry) limbering up on the painting table and awaiting a delivery of sabres from Helmet Soldiers.

FLAT PACK BUILDINGS

I've been meaning to have a go at this project for a while, needing 54mm buildings and terrain, but without the hassle of constructing them or the massive amount of storage space they would take up. I thought I would start off with a tavern which I can use for 17th and 18th century games.

Uncle Toby shows the way to the bar of the Cockwell Inn.

...and directs vittals to be sent to the troops.

A side on view.

The building was  cut from 3mm MDF with a jigsaw. For future buildings I will add more detail (such as a chimney, which I forgot on this inn....doh), but overall I was quite pleased with the result.

A WHIGGAMORE IN THE GARDEN

Easter is upon us and I was granted a day off from work (will be back at the cliff face/compost heap on Saturday and Monday) so I drove Mrs. Atticus and the 3 sprogs up to stay with her brother in Bedfordshire. On the way back I called in at Stowe Landscape Gardens, somewhere I have been meaning to visit for a long long time. The gardens were started by Sir Richard Temple Viscount Cobham on his return from The War of the Spanish Succession, an he didn't do things by half. The entire landscape is a political statement designed to support his radical Whig ideals (as a pose to those of the then Whig Prime minister Robert Walpole) and to show his loyalty to the Hanoverian Monarchs.

The approach to the gardens from Buckingham is in itself breathtaking (I left the camera with Mrs. Atticus so have had to pinch these pictures from the web). The Corinthian arch in the distance marks the start of the formal gardens. The white lines on the road have been removed which improves the effect.

From about the third rise in the road you can see through the arch to the house beyond, which is a bijou little place

and that's just the back door.

There are too many structures and follies to show them all, but I was particularly delighted by the Temple of Saxon Deities, designed to show that our English roots are wholesome and Germanic and thus it is only right we have a German King on the throne. Since this picture was taken the Yew trees have grown up a lot more, and will soon enclose the grove to form what was then called a 'cabinet'

The grotto was also very exciting (if you like that sort of thing) and had a more airy quality than that at Stourhead gardens.

I am usually quick to moan about the National Trust (having worked for them in the past) but they have done a wonderful job in restoring this so far. Originally the tufa stone would have been embedded with glass, quartz, coral and shells making it glimmer in the reflected light or by candlelight.  Next to the pool is an engraved slab

Goddess of the silver wave,
To thy thick embower'd cave,
To arched walks, and twilight groves,
And shadows brown, which Sylvan loves
When the sun begins to fling
His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring.

All through these 18th century gardens is a theme of Neo-Paganism which nobody seemed to bat an eyelid at at the time. Painswick Gardens in Gloucestershire are really an enormous temple to Pan.

The Temple of British Worthies is probably the most iconic monument in the gardens

and finally more Germanic chest beating in the form of the Gothic Temple. Gothic at the time meaning pertaining to the Goths who gave those corrupt and decaying Romans the old heave ho (much like the Hanoverians to the Stuarts)

The Gothic temple is the brick structure designed by Sanderson Miller (the chap in my avatar pic). In the foreground is the Palladian bridge (the Renaissance architect Palladio being considered the most perfect during the eighteenth century) and Lord Cobham's Pillar in the distance, erected by his grieving wife.

All in all my boat was completely floated. I still prefer Stourhead Gardens, but either would make a great place to hold a mini Imagi-nation campaign











"GRUB UP MEIN LIEBLINGS"

Fraulein Migginz brings the hungry troops the Trompenberg national dish Pelzpastete to the troops after a hard days practice drilling

Figure from Forty-Third.

I had an interesting trip to Croome Court in Worcestershire today pursuing my interests in eighteenth century landscape gardens. Croome was the first landscape Lancelot Brown undertook as a freelance designer, for the sixth Earl of Coventry.

Here is the Rotunda, situated on the hill behind the house

ARBORICULTURAL FUN

I was looking at my 54mm figures despondently on yesterday, wondering how on earth I was ever going to get enough terrain made to have a decent layout/game, when I remembered this picture I had seen on the Irregular Miniatures website

using some very simple slot together houses and basic walls. Also on Mannie Gentile's wonderful blog
http://toysoldiersforever.blogspot.com/

he shows how to make some fantastic flat pack trees. Well, as I am drifting towards the toy soldier approach rather than the wargaming one, I rather like the idea of flatpack scenery, and it's just the sort of thing my Dad would have made for fun (not that he was a soldier collector). I have just spent a pleasant hour in the garage cutting out nice shapes of trees and bushes, and fully intend to do more tomorrow and then have a bash at some houses and a church

Some shrubs, oak trees, limes and poplars.



For stability I will drill holes in the base of the trees, and make some circular stands with dowel inserts to hold them up.

AT LAST..FINISHED THEM

Just applied the final coat of floor polish to the standard bearer of my first Trompenbergian Regiment

The Regiment musters outside the gates of Schloss Gonchiestein

(made by my late father 40 years ago!)





IMAGI-NATION CIVILIANS ARRIVE BY POST CHAISE

Well it's been a hectic month with various everyday issues getting in the way of serious playing on my part. Rummaging around in the Attic eaves for stuff to sell on eBay and then actually listing it is time consuming, then we had Mrs. Atticus celebrating her birthday yesterday and school problems (hopefully sorted) etc.

Anyhow, I am making headway with the first battalion of Trompenburgers, with only the command figures to do (note to self- always paint the command figures first as I least like doing them), but I haven't had any time to plan out my Imagi-nations which of course is what makes them so interesting.

Happily I did some moonlighting gardening last week and the proceeds went towards these figures from Fourty-third Ltd.

http://www.forty-third.co.uk/

who make some lovely (but not inexpensive) figures.

A couple of eighteenth century gentlemen and a lady too. The soldiers are always interesting in these imagi-nations, but for me it's the civilian figures and their settings which are best, and I am continually entertained by Tidders over on his blog Kingdom of Wittenberg, by the intrigues of the court.

FIRST OF THE TROMPENBERGERS

Varnished this chap this morning with Klear floor polish from Lakeland. I  really enjoyed painting him in a toy soldier style and will definitely stick to this sort of finish. I want to try and get that even smoother glossier finish that traditional toy soldiers have, but that might mean using yacht varnish...will this yellow with age?

I was pleased how he came out, and will crack on with the rest of the regiment. A white undercoat made the colours quite bright too.

NEW YEAR AND NEW FACE

A Happy New Year to you. Happily this morning dawned without a pounding head as we were very sensible and turned in early last night (to be awakened at midnight by barrage of fireworks). After a walk in the woods we went over to a friends house in Monkton Combe, a village just down the road from us and had tea and buns. Matthew there is a keen target archer and I was most interested to see his bow, an edifice of wheels, pulleys and sights, unfortunately I had forgotten the camera, or I would post a pic of it.

I have decided to use a new avatar/image thingy this year, an eighteenth century gentleman called Sanderson Miller who was responsible for designing a number of follies and eyecatchers for wealthy friends (including Sham Castle on Bathampton Down near us). Those of you who know the Battlefield of Edgehill will also know the Castle Inn built where Charles Stuart (that man of blood) raised his standard before the battle, this was built by Miller as a folly on his own estate in the mid eighteenth century.

Hopefully this year I will make a start on my Imagi-nation campaign, War for Arcadia in which the Duke of Trompenburg and the Prince-Bishop of Arnheim battle it out for the best landscape garden. I have made a start on the 54mm Trompenburgers by preparing them for painting

The figures are the new HAT Prussians with Armies in Plastic Command bods. One thing I did notice with all these figures is that even after washing in detergent they would not take the usual coat of PVA I tried to give them, the glue pooling in blobs all over the figure. This was particularly bad on the AIP figures, so I will have to undercoat them in enamel and give them an extra coat of floor varnish after painting. I plan to do them in a real toy soldier style, with pink cheeks and rosebud lips and extra glossy varnish.

With luck I will also have a go at doing the same campaign in 1/72 using Zvezda GNW figures which I prefer as they are more suitable for 1730's when the Arcadian movement in England really began to take off.

Also on the painting table is a regiment of Roundhead cavalry in progress