Hanoverian Grenadiers are here at last.

Well after a bit of a delay (The mouldmaker/caster has been snowed under with work) the Grenadiers arrived today. Comprising an officer, nco, drummer and grenadier, this completes the Hanoverian line infantry.

The next master mould will be for the long overdue French and British heavy cavalry, Hanoverian heavy cavalry and the first of the Dragoons, being the Prussians of course.

However, these are not being worked on immediately, as I missed Richards strict deadline for having info to him about what I wanted making next, so he is sculpting Alban Miniatures stuff at this moment I believe (curses) and I have to go back in the queue. I will post again when I have an update on these, but please bear with me and be patient.

Partizan II Sunday Sept 6th

If anyone is going to this show in Newark and wants to order any figures, please let me know in good time to prepare the order, as I will be in attendance for most of the day and can hand deliver, saving postage costs.

First Hanoverians here now

Just the Musketeers and the Colonel. The Grenadiers will follow in the next couple of weeks.

Acknowledgements and an update

Among my buyers and readers of this blog, there are some really generous and kind hearted people out there, who I feel should be recognised for their contributions to this project.

Everybody who buys the figures are committed and enthusiastic SYW gamers and collectors, but a few go the extra mile and actually send me research material, some of which I didn't even know existed and other stuff which I was aware of, but didn't think I could acquire, due to either rarity or high cost.

I would like to acknowledge Ioannis at Leuthen Journal for all the uniform plates and information he has sent me on all the armies we are currently making, as his help has been invaluable with the stuff we have made to date. He continues to be a supporter and enthusiastic contributor. Thanks again Yanni.

Next up I would like to thank Harald Howe of Germany for all his help regarding Prussians and Austrians. Harald has paid for a CD of the Menzel plates on the Prussian Army to be sent to me and also one on the Hanoverian Army. These contemporary plates are fantastic source material, which help to make this range of figures as accurate as any other out there and probably more accurate than most.

It was also Harald who spotted the mistake with the Austrian Gunners having gaiters instead of boots when I showed the greens here and Richard was then able to rectify this before we had them cast, saving a lot of money. So a heartfelt thanks to you Harald.

Torstein Snorrason from Denmark wrote to me, not to buy figures, but remarkably, to offer both Richard and myself an english language copy EACH, of the Niemeyer/Ortenburg book on the Hanoverian Army of the SYW.

I was overwhelmed by this generous offer out of the blue and I forwarded the e-mail to Richard, who was every bit as astounded as me. Neither of us had access to this source of material and it is invaluable.

Torstein said that he was impressed with the project and had the books, which he would like to give us as a gift, to help the project along.

Needless to say, I accepted the offer gladly on behalf of Richard and myself and offered Torstein some cast figures when they were ready, but he declined and insisted that he didn't game the period at present, but just wanted us to have the books. They arrived in the post today and are pristine copies. Absolutely gorgeous! Thank you again Torstein.

I am quite lost for words regarding this sort of generosity and the general feeling of comradeship that exists within the circle of people I have come to know through this project since we first started it.

In stark contrast to the downright rudeness, ignorance and hostility that has been directed towards Richard and myself recently, on another forum, by a would be "expert", the feeling of friendship that exists between ourselves and those who have bought into this project is refreshing and extremely uplifting. Long may it continue and a heartfelt thanks to all of you out there who support what we are doing here.


For those who do not have access to the sometimes rare reference books on the uniforms of this period, both Harald and Torstein offer links to online sources of information. Firstly Harald links directly to the Niemeyer/Ortenburg plates:-

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/category:Gmundener_Prachtwerk_1761

And Torstein says, "If you want inspiration and correct pictures, I would suggest you look at some of the online catalogues for 30mm German Flats of the period." He says the uniforms are as accurate as anything anywhere and the detail just needs to be copied. He suggests :-

http://www.zinnfiguren-gruenwald.de/pages/rug_katalogepag.html

Back to the figures then . . . The master casts will probably be going back to the mouldmaker for production mould making, sometime next week, as cash is a little tight again at present and the situation is not being helped by both my wife and son having a birthday this month (one week apart), so I'm sure you can guess where my funds are being diverted to.

I wish they played with toy soldiers like the rest of us . . . .. sigh.

New Stuff

Richard and I were discussing the range one day and he pointed out that we were favouring the Prussian and Austrian perspective of the war and that we were a bit light on the western theatre. He then suggested that maybe we needed the Hanoverians too, so that we didn't have an all-British vs French line up. I wanted to press on with the British and French cavalry, but persuasive bugger that he is, he got his way . . .. so we have now added Hanoverians to the range.

We don't have much info on the Artillery and cavalry uniforms, so for now, we have done the Line Infantry and Grenadiers, with a spiffing Colonel to lead them. If anyone can help with uniform details of the above, any images would be very helpful if we are to produce the missing elements. My contact e-mail is at the side of the page.

Anyway, here is what we have so far, but these are only master castings as yet and we have not got any production moulds made, as these only arrived at my doorstep this morning. As usual, feedback and critique welcome, although it's too late to change them now if some expert finds any major faults at this stage :-) As usual, click on pics for a bigger view.

Musketeer Officer



Musketeer Ensign

Musketeer NCO

Musketeer Drummer

Musketeer

Grenadier Officer (with Fusil)

Grenadier NCO (with Fusil)

Grenadier Drummer

Grenadier

Colonel

Sit Rep

Firstly, I would like to thank all those of you who have left get-well comments on the blog and those who have e-mailed their best wishes. It is truly appreciated and my wife, who came out of hospital yesterday, was amazed at how many people who did not even know her, were wishing her well. I told her wargamers are like that :-) Thanks again everyone.

Well, as I said, she came home yesterday, with the surgery being successful and everything going according to plan so far. She is currently sunning herself in the back garden, while I snatch a few minutes to write this. My, this domestication lark is bloody difficult isn't it? An hour nearly to change a double bed duvet cover? I thought it would be a 2 minute job dammit, but it's not easy at all. I'm learning a lot these last couple of days, just exactly what my good lady does every day and I'm more than a little embarrassed at how little I seem to have contributed in the past. I think I need to reform . . . .

Anyway, back to the toys. The Jägers are here and available, but if you place an order, please be a little patient with me if things don't turn around as fast as they usually do, for obvious reasons.

Richard has finished sculpting the "secret" project and the masters will be here tomorrow, if all goes as planned, but I think I will have them cast before I show them to you, so I can black wash them, like the last ones. Greens don't always show things up nicely.

Thanks again for all your good wishes.

Latest News

Stewart at Griffin Moulds informs me that the Jägers will be with me on Monday, but please don't rush to order, as I have a bit going on from Monday, as my wife is going into hospital for surgery. Hopefully, if all goes well, she will be coming out again on Tuesday, which is our 30th wedding anniversary. What a way to spend it eh?

Anyway, she will require 6 weeks complete rest following the op and I will be stepping in as mum, dad, housekeeper, nurse, taxi-driver and whatever other role comes up during that time, so my turnaround of orders is going to be hit quite drastically I fear for a few weeks.

Feel free to place orders as usual, but please be patient waiting for them to be processed, as I am obviously going to be quite busy and distracted, as my wife is much more important to me than the toys and her care is going to be my highest priority.

Thanks for your understanding.

Frank