Greek WAB army

As predicted by the title of this blog, my attention span over the past year has been just about everywhere, but the announcement of Militia Brabantia's tournament - which took place last weekend - spurred me on to focus on a single goal: completing a Greek WAB army. With the help of Christy (my girlfriend, painted one phalanx and the cavalry, as well as based them) I actually managed it, bar a third phalanx which I had to borrow. To my great surprise I did pretty well in the tournament with one loss on points, one surrender and two victories by surrender. And I won the 'best painted ancients army'-award! Yay!
The completed army is below (click for bigger pics!).

Captain's career

Out of curiosity I sent an email to the Dutch department of Defense to ask what they had in their archives about my ancestor. I got a letter back within a week with copies of their archives. It wasn't much, but it contains enough information to reconstruct his career. I suppose that if I want to learn more I'll have to track down the archives of the Rotterdam Admiralty (the Dutch navy consisted of five separate admiralties, a consequence of the federalist structure of the Republic) some day. Don't know what I'll find there though, as they are apparently badly damaged due to a fire in the 19th century.

Anyways, the career of Gerardus Oorthuys (Sept 10 1741- August 23rd 1812):
1758-1760: cadet in the regiment of his father (who had been killed during the siege of Bergen op Zoom, 1748)
1760: Midshipman
1763: Promoted to lieutenant extra ordinaris, commanding the snauw Zephyr on an expedition to suppress the slave revolt at Berbice (Guyana). When his division left for Holland, he stayed behind to help defuse a revolt that was about to break out at Demarara. Returns to Holland via Lissabon 1764.
1765: Granted leave with retention of rank, went on several voyages to the East Indies with the Dutch East India company.
1777: Promoted to lieutenant (dated 1768)
1779-1781: XO, later commanding Den Briel (36)during which the battle at Cape St.Marie took place (pt1, pt2).
1782: (contradictory information) Commanding either the Wassenaer (64) [apparently incorrectly reported Goes (54)].
1783: Promoted to captain
1783-1786: sailing to the East Indies in the squadron of J.P.Braam to restore order in Malacca Straits. Combat at Malacca, Riouw and Selangore.
1793: In command of a squadron of 14 Dutch and English gunboats at Willemstad, escorting 22 transports carrying troops to attack the invading revolutionary French army.
1794: Transferred to Brakel (56), division commander escorting a convoy to the East Indies. When the fleet entered Plymouth, they were embargoed and later captured by the English (having been discharged as 'unrevolutionary' by the new Batavian Republic, and a supporter of the House of Orange, he probably was not too sad about that situation). Some reports from Oorthuys of William V, then in England, remain in the Royal Archives.
1796: Released and returned to Holland.

Family legend says he hated the French, but he was, oddly enough, awarded a Legion d'Honneur for unknown reasons. Perhaps the French government of the Netherlands was attempting to enlist the old sailor for service against England?
The defense department also notes that "Oorthuys never cursed, a rarity among naval officers at the time"(!)

Arty on groundwork

Completed last Tuesday. The furrow under the cannon hides (on the photo) a spent cannonball.

Continental artillery completed

Wow, I finished something again. Better take care this does not become a habit. Here are my continental artillerymen and their 6 pounder gun. The latter seems to have been cast with slightly misaligned mould, which left pretty much irrepairable marks on the carriage and especially the wheels. I think they don't show too badly, but it did mean hand-painting the carriage instead of dry-brushing and/or washing which is what I'd originally hoped to be able to do. A proper base with some groundwork will be applied later.
Do I get a nice award now for Mustering my Minis, Andy?

Captain Oorthuys in color

I keep finding new images of or related to my great-(*3 or so) grandfather. Sometimes the image is identified as such, but not always. Here's an example: I was recently wasting some time browsing the Vinkhuijzen collection at the New York Public Library. Vinkhuijzen was a Dutch doctor (so how did the collection get to NY?) who loved uniforms and collected images wherever he could find them in a great variety of quality. Sometimes he colored or even emended them himself.
So what are we to make of the image above? It is identified as a Dutch naval captain, 1782. Am I crazy to think the body looks like a spitting image of the portrait in my earlier post? He legs are clearly drawn later by someone not overly blessed with artistic talent, nor is the coloring very wonderful. I have only got one other reference to Dutch naval uniforms of the era (a photo of portrait of Oorthuys' collegue Melvill van Carnbee), which is broadly similar. There are definitely differences in detail though.
Oh well, the quest continues! (even though I haven't made any headway on modelling the ships as was the original idea)

Continental artillery - WIP

Now working on some Perry AWI Continental artillerymen for Andy's 'Muster the Minis'. (click to enlarge). These are really nice and paint up very well if you pay due attention to them.

Muster the Minis: artillery

Andy over at ferrouslands has started a new round of 'Muster the Minis'. The idea is that everyone joins him in building a (group of) minis with the same time. This time it's artillery and as I just happen to have started a pack of Perry Continental Artillery, I'll be joining him in that!