Ferret's attention span

Greek WAB army

2010-03-09T03:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-06-20T04:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-20T04:32:00.001-07:00

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

Continental artillery completed

2009-06-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-14T01:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-12T23:42:00.000-07:00

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!

First WABlood!

2009-05-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

(excuse the terrible pun...) Richard Evers invited me to come try out WAB at the regular haunt of Militia Brabantia. Richard owns a stack of armies, so I didn't have to worry about bringing my own, but having just finished my first slingers and skirmishers, of course I wanted to 'bloody' them.
Richard had selected one of the interminable battles between Carthage and the Sicilian/Greek cities of the late 5th century as his source of inspiration: the battle of Acragas (406BC), in which the outnumbered Syracusan army defeated the Carthaginians. Richard translated the (very vague) source material into two 2,000 point WAB armies, with a numerically superior Carthaginian army (in the photo above) under his command, while I would attempt to lead the Greeks. The Carthaginians deployed in line across from the Greeks, whose army was divided into two parts by a rock formation (impassable terrain) just outside their deployment area. On the left of the Greek flank was the town of Acragas without walls (and therefore passable).
I deployed my army in two lines: peltasts on the left flank, slingers and javelinmen behind the rocks, Cretan archers and more peltasts. In the second line on the left flank light cavalry, then two hoplite formations (left-hand one with the army general), two more hoplite formations to the right of the rocks and heavy cavalry on the right flank. With hindsight I should have deployed my right-hand hoplite units further right, cause they ended up getting stuck behind the (very effective) javelinmen and Cretans.
I won the dice roll and let Richard take the first turn, who moved forward with his masses of infantry (including a Gallic mercenary warband) and cavalry. In my turn, I only moved my left flank forward far enough to put it squarely between the town and the rocks, while the right flank stayed back, though the javelinmen moved from behind the rocks to their right to line up with the Cretans. Missile fire from the slingers and Cretans immediately took its toll. Richard feared my solid hoplite formations and seemed happy to let the skirmishers duke it out, while his cavalry moved on both flanks to try and get behind my formations. On the right, his heavy cavalry and mine got into a fight where they slowly ground eachother down, alternately losing combat, but due to some lucky dice, neither side broke for four or five turns. On the left, his light cavalry went into skirmisher formation and slid through the town, while my light cavalry slept. By the time I turned them, he'd slipped past.
This is when, for me, the interesting event of the battle occurred on the left flank. My slingers had broken - as seen above, Richard's cavalry got alongside my snoring equestrian unit and he threatened to attack me with two units of skirmishers, the warband and two units of levy infantry. Hoping to lure the Gauls onto my strongest hoplite unit (containing the general, on the left) and worried that it'd be attacked by cavalry in the rear and several units in front, I charged his warband with my peltasts (top left), who of course broke and ran behind the hoplites. The Gauls pursued, but did not catch them and ended up right in front of my hoplites. Richard could now do nothing but charge the phalanx to its front. He lost the ensuing combat, broke and was overrun and destroyed by the pursuant hoplites.
(above: after the destruction of the Gauls, the hoplites have run forward and crashed into the Carthaginian slingers). The situation on the left now turned topsy-turvy. Richard's cavalry was about to crash into the flank of my other phalanx, which was saved by the peltasts who rallied just in time to stand in the way of his cavalry, while I decided to turn my unit forward and help my general clean up. (below: Carthaginian infantry and cavalry in the Greek deployment area, with my phalanx and cavalry closing on the Carthaginian one)
On the right flank, the heavy cavalry squadrons were still grinding eachother down and after some more skirmishing, one hoplite unit had finally come to grips with a Carthaginian levy spear unit.
The latter stood up to severe punishment for two turns, until my phalanx ran away, off the board in two turns: the reason, my heavy cavalry finally broke and ran, taking that phalanx and the right-hand peltast unit with it. With a single phalanx and Cretans - about to be charged by heavy infantry - left on my right, we decided the battle was over. An inexperienced general turned history upside down...
Despite my loss, it was totally awesome and I will definitely play again. Thanks for the great afternoon Richard!

Units completed!

2009-05-10T06:09:00.000-07:00

I see it's been quite a while since my last update. I guess it's due to the way I paint my models: slowly and many units at once. That way, none get finished very fast. However, I was invited to come do battle with Militia Brabantia yesterday (report to follow), which is always great motivation to finish some stuff! So, here are my very first WAB units, 10 javelinmen and 10 slingers with two random leader-types. Obviously, the bases (GF9 skirmisher ovals) need more work, but the figures are done and I'm pretty happy with them if I say so myself. The figures are mostly Foundry, with some Artizan Spartans mixed in.

Comparison and work in progress

2009-03-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

On the Militia Brabantia list, someone asked for alternative Phalanx figures. So here are, from left to right, an A&A , a Crusader and a Foundry phalangist (click to enlarge). To make this posting a bit more interesting, here are some photos of my Greek/Mercenary WAB peltasts (javelins + spear) and officers in progress. I don't paint units at once, instead, I like to paint figures in batches to increase the random look of especially the light infantry and skirmisher units. I'll probably try to go for more uniformity in the phalanxes. Probably...

Project 2: Gladiators finished!

2009-03-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

Yay! I've actually managed to finish a modelling project. The gladiators are done and though I think they may need a more dead-matt coat, I'm not displeased and I think they'll serve their purpose well tomorrow. Btw, I know GW spray varnishes have a bad reputation, but I noticed today that their gloss 'Ard coat really is hard. One of the gladiators took a 4 meter nose-dive (don't ask...) onto stone and all he had were two little scratches. I'm sure it would've been worse had the paint not been protected.

Project 5: Captain's log, pt.2

2009-03-17T04:53:00.000-07:00

The log for May 30th, 1781 (part 1):

Wednesday the 30th durin the night watch wind SW and SSE unsteady breeze and strong gusts of wind and thick rains. Saw the English frigates to the ENE, behind us. During the day watch, the wind the wind was SE changing to SW, 7 Bft, thick with rain, can see the Castor with the looking glass coming towards us. They hailed us, but we could not understand him, had to heave to so as to avoid collision. Around two on the hourglass the frigates gave us a broadside which we returned. We were heavily engaged, but between 5 and 9 on the hourglass I saw that our commander had struck his flag and hove away together with the English frigate [the Flora, 44 guns - 36 + 8 carronades - Capt.Peere Williams] and stopped firing, which made me presume that the captain was either injured or dead as I could not see any damage on either of the ships and to the naked eye seemed to have their full rigging. I kept my position and encouraged my crew more and more so as to keep them from knowing about it [the surrender of Castor] and we kept up a heavy fire with guns, blunderbusses and were even so close that we could throw some grenades on the Englishman from our main mast and a hail of balls on both sides. The frigate that was fighting Castor at the beginning of the fight passed us by on our starboard and gave them 8 to 10 shot of 12lbs, most of which hit home en fired handguns into him as well, but they increased range again and sailed forward [apparently Castor and Brielle had attempted to get Flora between them]. We could not follow because most of our rigging and sails had been shot to splinters, our rudder was unresponsive and we had several dead and severely injured. We also got many cannonball through our masts, topmasts and into the ship, all of 12lbs and 18lbs and much grapeshot from the frigate with which we were engaged. She came about us from ahead and aft, but did not fire strongly anymore, and we blasted him and caused great damage to his rigging and people, at which time I was hit in my left hand, but it was not important. Another bullet hit me over my head and through the edge of my English hat without hurting me. But seeing an English flag waving from the Castor, I encouraged my people which continually gave our enemy heavy broadsides with a will and at 7 'o clock we shot the frigate's main and mizzen masts overboard. After which, she gave a few more shots, but shortly after she struck and hailed us, waving his hat in surrender and around 8 we floated apart because all our rigging was in pieces and our sloops were holed through, so we could not put those out to take possession of our prize. Our main and fore mast were about to fall overboard because cordage, rigging, standing rigging and topmasts were all in pieces, pierced with balls everywhere. Our prize too drifted off, was rudderless, with his foremast and sails very helpless and the wind had gradually lessened. It had rained continually during the fight, so that muskets on both sides got wet and and finally would not fire anymore. We repaired our rigging as much as possible and hove to to the South by East, because I did not think it safe to stay close to our prize, while there were two frigates with full rigging nearby, which had not fought longer than 2 or 3 on the hourglass. We had been hit close and under our guns and at four on the hourglass during the morning our main mast fell overboard because of the heavy sea with everything attached to it. A man hacked it all loose to get rid of it all and it was no time to claim anything, nor to come close to a fresh enemy which had recovered by now, but he did not come nearer.
We sustained 120 casualties during the combat. We threw arms, legs, heads and corpses shot in half overboard to get such a miserable display out of sight, and had many severely injured. We were in heavy combat for 6 (units on the) hourglass without break. All my officers, midshipmen, sailors and soldiers have all been equally courageous. On inspection, we found that our bow anchor with the two sea anchors were shot away and around the outboard and some 12lbs guns had gone from one board to the other [shot loose?] and had many shots between wind and water, but our ship was still watertight. The weather cleared during the afternoon and a SW slight breeze. Considering our course and time of day, our dead reckoning was 1/3 mile W and 181/2 miles, having Cadiz ENE at 181/2 miles, 35°38'N. In the late afternoon our fore sail, which was severely holed with shot, blew away. We put a new one in place and braced the fore mast and fore spars as much as possible. The top of the fore mast had been almost shot off above the second coil and the fore spar had been shot of below the crosstree. We knotted and split everything with cordage to keep it in place. Was reported that * of the injured had died.
Wind W by NW, topgallant breeze, cut the fore topgallant spar loose, which had been shot in half and was swinging to and fro violently. At 6 'o clock we could no longer see the other frigates and turned before the wind and coursed for NNE. Many handguns were missing and damaged, two blunderbusses and some guns had gone overboard with the main mast as well as 50 hammocks of the crew, most others in pieces and useless. During the first watch the wind was W..W to NW, topgallant breeze, clearing sky, nice weather, heading N with wind NE by N, high seas, rolling heavily.
Discovered that we had shot alltogether 1200 shot with the 12, 6 and 4lbs guns.

This battle was the only time during the 4th Anglo-Dutch wars that an Englisman struck to a Dutch man of war. That is very likely the only reason that Oorthuys and Mevill van Carnbee were received as heroes at home. They received honorary sabres, epaulettes, commemorative coins were struck, etchings produced and poems created. In short: the entire arsenal of propaganda means was brought to bear. It didn't help much. The undecided battle at Dogger Bank was the only significant encounter of the war which too ended with the treaty of Paris.

Project 5: Captain's log, pt.1

2009-03-17T03:12:00.000-07:00

[Background info] When the American War of Independence broke out, the Dutch Republic found itself indecisive. There was great popular sympathy for the nascent USA, but government circles and more importantly the 'Stadtholder' William V were staunch supporters of Britain. Having fought three vicious naval wars in the mid 17th century, the Dutch and Brits had been good friends and allies since the personal union under the King and Stadtholder William III.
The Republic - a federal state very dependent on the goodwill of the constituent provinces - at the time was a second rate military power, having neither the money nor the inclination to keep both a large army and navy. As a result, neither of the two services was particularly strong. Armed support, had the Republic wanted to provide it, was out of the question. Nor did the Dutch join the suppression of the revolt as requested by Britain.
However, it was still a important trading state and financial powerhouse, which strongly believed in free trade above all. Having reputedly sold weapons to Spain during its own war of independence from exactly that country, it cannot have been a surprise that the Dutch figured they'd trade with both Britain and the United States, particularly through the colony of St.Eustace in the Caribbean. Essential supplies for the revolt flowed through the island to the US to the great annoyance of Britain.
In 1780, Russia, Sweden and Denmark started a leage of Armed Neutrality which the Dutch Republic was interested in joining. To preempt this, Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic - the Fourth Angl0-Dutch war - capturing many merchant ships in a short matter of time.

The entire Dutch fleet - divided in five admiralties, a remnant of the federalist constitution - only consisted of a few dozen ships. Consequently, the Dutch presence in the Mediterranean in 1781 consisted only of two warships: Castor, capt. Melvill van Carnbee a 36-gun frigate and the frigate Briel, capt. Oorthuys, 36 guns. The ships belonged to the Admiralty of the Meuse (the Rotterdam admiralty). As the older in rank, Melvill therefore was in command of this small squadron.

In late May the squadron received orders to leave the Mediterranean and rendez-vous with a convoy of East Indiamen on their return voyage and escort them home to the Netherlands. On May 29th, the frigates sighted two British counterparts near Gibraltar, so I'll let the log take over (translated from the 18th Dutch which is not always very easy to understand!):

(Preface): Journal kept by me on board the frigate of War Briel, crewed by 230 heads among them 51 soldiers and mounting 36 guns: 26 pieces of 12lbs, 2 of 6lbs and 8 of 4lbs and one of 1/2lbs (probably a swivel gun). Kept by me Geerardus Oorthuys, sailing as first officer on above vessel under command of the honorable gentleman captain I. van Gennep and at his death at Rotterdam put in command by his royal highness the Lord's Prince of Orange on December 18th and confirmed in my command by their high mightinesses [the Rotterdam admiralty] on December 27th.

Tuesday May 29th 1781: During the night watch the wind was NE-by-N, topgallant breeze [~ beaufort 3], during the day the wind turned NE to S, fresh topgallant breeze, heading WSW. Spotted two frigates to the NNW from our position, streaming English ensigns and signals for Gibraltar. As far as could be seen, one had 14 guns on his gun deck apart from the quarterdeck. Seeing our commander [Melvill] do so, we raised our ensign and made ready to engage, fastened our topgallants and reefed our main sails. At that time the reported frigates lessened sail and lowered their ensigns and seemed to drift [or drifted to leeway]. When we saw the commander increase sail, we did so too and set our course for the Straits [of Gibraltar] and raised Europa point [the southernmost point of the cape] at 8 'o clock. Two miles away to the NNE, we see some frigates and ships at Gibraltar, but could not distinguish them through the hazy air. In the afternoon the wind (NE) increased to a strong topgallant breeze [4 Bft] and later topsail breeze [5 Bft], heading west. The above frigates turned with us and faster as well and at 9.30 they came alongside although still out of range. However, we noted our commander give a broadside to the one in front, so we gave one to the one alongside us which was closer. They hove away to avoid combat, to my mind because the breeze was getting to strong. We loaded all our guns with sharp again and blew off the other broadside [presumably on the side facing away from the English frigate], because those had been loaded for a long time and we wanted to be ship-shape and in good order if we got engaged with our enemy. We see the above frigates sail away and cut in front of commander and make sail for us, staying outside of gun range however around noon. Passed cape Trafalgar to the NE-by-E 3 miles out according to our dead reckoning of 35°40'N). Wind ESE, small gale (7 Bft), heading NW by W, WSW during the first watch, a rainy sky in the SW, sometimes rain and thunderflashes; very changeable weather. Saw the frigates following us, but staying out of range. Remained at quarters for engagement with the enemy, who seemed to avoid such, presumably because of the unsteady weather, rainy sky, high seas and thick rain with strong flashes of thunder.

Project 4: skirmishers finished

2009-03-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

I painted these guys at the same time as the gladiators below. I figured that the best way to test my new flesh technique was to test it on models with lots of skin. :-)
These are five foundry and one Artizan 'Spartan' slinger (the long-haired beardy guy). I'm pretty pleased with how they came out, better than my attempt last year, I think.

Fanboy J

2009-03-09T02:25:00.000-07:00

I think it was December 1989, I'd just turned 14 and with one year and a bit of secondary school English under my belt, I discovered Military Modelling magazine in our village bookstore (they don't carry it anymore, but it is still the most easily found model magazine in NL). It had all the usual goodies, but what caught my eye was an article about two Victorian highlanders made and painted by Bill Horan. Man, that was inspiration and a goal to attain!
Five years later, I was a freshman history student at the University of Nijmegen and we took a three day trip to London. Just off the 'chunnel', we stopped over in Canterbury. As all modellers, I have a knack for finding the nearest model shop and lo, I found just such a store with Bill Horan's new book, The Military Modelling Masterclass, sitting in the window. 10 Minutes later much of my weekend budget was gone, but I've read and browsed through it dozens of times. It's a testament to its production qualities that it hasn't gone to bits yet!
So, long story short, I'm not the type to be a 'fan' of anyone very much, with one exception, the above mentioned Bill Horan. When the Antwerp Model Soldier Society announced that he was going to attend their International Painting Competition, I just had to go. Besides, high quality figure painting contests are rare in the Netherlands (in fact, they may well be non-existant), so it'd be a good occasion to see some really well painted figures in real life. And that's what it proved to be. Christy and I drove to Antwerp Saturday, feasted on the models on display, including a case full of Horan's work (but why in a glass case back on the wall!?) and managed to not buy more models (she's much more disciplined than I am in that respect). I did get myself a copy of The Complete Bill Horan and got it signed by the master, yay! (I also got compliments on my American accent. What a disappointment that must be for Messrs. Van Maanen and Eijsink and Mrs. Van den Born who taught me 'proper English' all that time ago).
Below some of the figures on display. The top one is by Horan.

Project 2: gladiators

2009-03-06T11:37:00.000-08:00

This week I've been working a bit more on my gladiators for project 2. I've been unhappy about my flesh colors and technique, but I think I've found a satisfying way to do it now. I've tested it on these guys and some skirmishers with, errr, large flesh areas! I base paint the flesh in (all Vallejo) brown sand, then apply a , in GW-speak, glaze of burnt cadmium red (ie a drop or two of paint + more drops of glaze medium). That seems to work better for me than a wash consisting of paint & water. Once that has dried, I apply a generous first highlight out of a 50:50 mix of brown sand and basic skintone. That too is thinned by the glaze medium. The final highlight consists of the same colors, but just has more basic skintone in it. I try to paint both highlights quickly, and a little sketchily, which gives an effect that I like and, not unimportant, is quite fast! So here they are in their unfinished state. Obviously Foundry gladiators of a not entirely super-historically-accurate, but nice kind.

Eye candy galore!

2009-03-05T01:35:00.000-08:00

Periscopio Publications just sent me a copy of their new Advanced Figure Modelling 'strongly recommended by Pegaso Models'. As a model book, it's not really fit for the review section of Ancient Warfare, but as a modeller, I definitely perked up when this book came out of the shipping box.

The book is beautifully published in full color and crammed to the brim with photos spread over its 180 pages (cover included). It contains some 30 models and diorama's, all 54mm and up, and a number of uniform, reference illustrations. The inclusion of the latter is a little puzzling and they seem random, until you realize they are actually the illustrations from the first books from Periscopio's new Great Battles series. They're ancient subjects mostly, so that's a pretty good deal, I'd say!
The model articles are evenly divided between the color-scheme-type articles and more extensive stories about research and conversion. Personally, I prefer the latter kind, especially when they're written by the likes of Mike Blank and Jaume Ortiz. There are some useful tips in here! It's just a pity that in some of the most extensive cases of scratch-building and conversions, we only get to see the final result. I'd have loved to see the in-process photos where you can see exactly how it was done.
Little niggles about language slips aside - I can't blame them for Graecisms when I'm all too familiar with my own Dutchlish - the combination of the excellent photography and the reference illustrations makes for a very nice new Ancient figure modeller book. €40 is not cheap, but if you were going to get the Great Battles series Ancients book for the illustrations, this is a good deal!

Project inventory

2009-03-03T05:44:00.000-08:00

I'd thought it'd be appropriate to make a list of my current projects, to show the extent of my short modelling attention span. Note, these are only recent projects...;-)

A 3rd AD century Roman legionary (54mm). I made a good start and was actually quite happy with its progress when I got the flu right in deadline week. It took a few weeks to get my modelling bug back and by then other projects had announced themselves. However, I've set myself a goal (always useful). On March 22nd, the Stichting Romeinenfestival will organise a meeting for all ancients fans to show what they do with their interest. Wargamers, modellers, reenactors and researchers may present themselves. I'm aiming to finish this figure for that meet. Should be doable!
For the same meeting, I'm painting up a squad of Foundry Gladiators. Wargaming is not very big in NL and a small gladiator participation game might be a good way to introduce people to historical wargaming. The rules were published in Blogurizine (pdf in French), so I'll have to make a translation as well, which should be easy as the rules are quite short and simple.
A 15mm Late Roman Republican army for FoG.
A 28mm Greek or Macedonian army. Can't decide which yet, so I'm just playing around with some generic skirmishers. For both this and the previous project, I'll have to find a way to paint fairly speedily and to satisfy my idiotically high standards (Up to last year, I'd been a 54mm and up painter for about two decades).
That concludes the ancient projects I think. A new project just got started having read the glowing review of Trafalgar in Battlegames, to which I subscribed in December. I have no plans to set up a reconstruction of that particular battle, rather I'm planning to start naval wargaming on a very small scale. I'd like to redo the battle of May 30th of 1781 between the English frigates Crescent and Flora and the Dutch Castor and Brielle. My great-great-great-great-grandfather commanded the Brielle and managed to force the captain of Crescent to strike. As the Fourth Angl0-Dutch war was going very much against the Dutch, that minute victory was elevated to the highest levels. The advantage is that, probably because of that, information is quite easy to find. In fact, I have a copy of the captain's log so perhaps it'll be possible to test the actual tactics with these new rules.
Then there is a Space Marines Tactical Squad. Not sure that will ever end up being painted. If it gets a gaming purpose, it probably will be.

Well, there it is, the list of projects gathered in a little over two months (older ones: Perry and Foundry Napoleonics because they're so pretty, a 1:35 Stug III in dilapidated state...). Hopefully I'll be able to strike some off the list in a few weeks. But new ones will probably present themselves too.