Goodbye 2015 and a happy new year !

Just a short post to close 2016. The time between the years is on the one hand wonderful because it holds a lot of precious family time but on the other hand there's not much time for painting or blogging. Anyway I wasn't lazy and made my start into the painting challenge with a couple Star Wars figures we needed for our yesterday game of Imperial Assault. Rather quick and simple figures but nice playing pieces and a good start into the challenge anyway. Pictures are taken and soon they'll find there way onto the challenge blog first: Three probe droids, four Imperial Guardsmen and the dark lord of the Sith himself.

By the way lately our older daughter discovered a certain interest in Star Wars. Unfortunately she's still too young to see the films but with a pictures book about the whole saga and a couple of smart questions she developed nearly the whole story. Currently she's sorting my old Lego bricks to create some spaceships fitting to the few kits she already has. Yours truly is really proud to say that she's able to build the smaller kits on her own being five years and some months old. The age recommendation on the boxes says at keast 6+. Good girl!

However this combined with having watched episode VII recently dragged me into the Star Wars and Lego theme again and lead to a rather uncommon modelling project last week:

It's awesome what kits they're producing nowadays and no comparison to the bulky Lego things from my youth! Somehow I'm afraid that this X-Wing will not stay alone for too long. At least e won't in case that Viktoria's enthusiasm lasts. Maybe after Easter we'll have a look at the cartoon series Rebels. It's rated 6+ and that might be an appropriate start. Probably better than the real movies or Clone Wars which are recommended for twelve years and older...

But enough about that now. Let my wish you and your families a happy new year! Enjoy this very last evening of 2015 and have a wonderful, healthy and blessed year 2016!

'Secret Santa' and 'Santa Clause'

Three days of Christmas and one day of recreation have passe and finally I get around to reviewing the wonderful time. It started with Christmas Eve which we spent with my parents. A wonderful evening with a rather early church service because of our young girls, a nice dinner with roulades and shining eyes because of some nice presents. More on that later...

The following two days belonged to our families. We spent Christmas Day at my in-laws and Boxing Day with my family. Although I really love to have my sister, aunt and parents around it was a relief to return home on Saturday evening. Yesterday was a very welcome chance to relax a bit. In addition to the Christmas stress one of our girls passed her cold to me and thus I wasn't too much in a good mood.

Anyway back to Christmas Eve. In Germany it's traditionally this very evening when the presents are handed over. Thus I was lucky enough to unwrap no less than three hobby related presents. First from matchlessly generous Mrs Monty. My dear wife made me a present of a new airbrush gun. It's the wonderful Harder & Steenbeck Pro Evolution Silverline. It has a solvent-resistant body and gaskets and bears a fine 0.15mm nozzle and comes with an additional 0.40mm nozzle. A very short first test with it was excellent. Only that I have to practise my humble airbrushing skills now...

Merry Christmas!

To all my friends out there a peaceful, blessed and joyful Christmas to you and your families! 

Enjoy those most festive days of the year.

Back from Münster

Actually we're at day 3 of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge but this year an event to remember delayed my personal start. My most beloved wife an me spent three days in the wonderful town of Münster and enjoyed the festive ado there.

Münster's city centre on Friday evening

Münster (not to be confused with Munster) itself is a 300,000 residents' city in northern North Rhine-Westphalia and the cultural centre of Westphalia. Nowadays Münster is well known for it's university, its cycle-friendly traffic policy and the wonderful old city centre. Meanwhile I learned that Münster's centre was nearly completely destroyed by British and American bombers during WW2 but afterwards it was re-build in a manner that kept it's traditional shape and 'feeling'.

Seal of the Wilhelm-University (source: Wikipedia)

Christmas mail - Old-fashined ?

Meanwhile I'm in my very late thirties and for some time I've been realising how much our society is changing due to the incredible technological changes of the last decades. During my youth we felt satisfied with our own telephone connection and a single family colour TV. We had three television programmes and watching films, sports or game shows with the family was a real event on Saturday evening. It was usual to cultivate written correspondence and recurring school projects liaised pen friendships. Now times have changed and our technical capabilities to gather and share reached a nearly uncontrollable extend. Although I use the merits of modern EDP day by day privately as well as profesionally sometimes I get an uneasy feeling with that. Despite all its advantages this stunning progress changes our manners and our ways to deal with each other. Conversation via internet, short messages and such means is geared to speed rather than to empathy.

Maybe it's this special season of the year that makes me ponder about such things. Therefore I cannot praise the efforts of Chris and Ian along with his Cath enough to set up the 'Secret Santa' and 'Santa Clause' campaigns. For me it's a wonderful occasion where our virtual community and our real world come together. Maybe that's what makes the wargaming community so special for me.

Christmas mail from Monty's Manor

Besides the gifts for my counterparts I decided to spread some Christmas cards. During the last twelve months I became acquainted to a couple of hobby fellows beyond the usual wargaming chitchat. Thus I decided to use the old-fashioned way of pen and paper to send them a short 'hello' and some sort of 'thank you' or 'carry on'.

Sounds old-fashioned and outdated, doesn't it?
But from time to time yours truly feels really well with being an old fogey.

Enjoy Christmas season!  *** formal 'Merry Christmas' will follow of course. ***
It doesn't harm to slow down a bit or maybe turn the tune louder for 'God rest ye merry gentlemen' or 'Good King Wenceslas'.

 

 

'Secret Santa' is early this year.

It has been silent on my blog for the last week. Not because yours truly was lazy but because my work had to be kept top secret. *** Please whistle James Bond theme now or listen here *** As some of you fine fellows as well yors truly was reckless or generous enough to enter the 'Santa Clause' venture again. Thus the four tin soldiers I stipulated took my whole attention lately. Meanwhile they are finished and I'm hoping that my 'Santa Clause' counterpart will appreciate them. I'll follow his blog with greatest curiosity now.

On Saturday I received a parcel which rose my spirits: 'Secret Santa' is early this year. His gift arrived unscathed and gives a mildly rattling sound like small metal parts hitting thin plastic blister caverage. Hopefully he or she didn't enclose any bone china. In that case the sound should be very worrying.

The gift itself.

Anyway let me send you a big Thank you very much ! in advance. Of course I handed the unopened parcel to unbribable Mrs Monty who will take care for it until Christmas Eve. Luckily in Germany handing out the presents at Christmas is slightly earlier than in most anglo-american countries...

Imperial Assault: Card Boxes

Last week I put some work into my project for 'Santa Clause'. I found a really nice pack of four figures hopefully according to my counterpart's taste. During the last days I started painting them because they should be finished during the following week end be sent to the United Kingdom the week after. No problem for them to arrive before Christmas.

Besides that I worked on Imperial Assault. The games contains oodles of cards, tokens, board tiles and such stuff and it was time to get them sorted. Thus I made some cardboard boxes for the game:

But those boxes weren't the work of myself alone. Luckily some other geeks seem to have kept struggling with disarray in the Imperial Assault box and one of them prepared a set of templates for the prone tinkerer. He's calling himself 'Sir Willi' and is providing a great number of boxes for Imperial Assault, X-Wing, Armada and other games, most of them at least in German, English and French. Have a look at his blog to get an idea of his work. The templates are free and ready to print at home.

To make the boxes I used 240g cardboard. It proved to be thin enough to work properly with our inkjet printer but thick enough to ensure the needed stiffness for the boxes. Then I cut the templates with a sharp knife and a steel rules and glued them together with usual all-purpose adhesive. Really no big deal but afterwards I had some clean and tidy boxes to sort the different cards in.

Only the active cards of our current campaign are in a zip bag to have them ready for our next session. Altogether a simple and convincing solution in my opinion. Agreeing to this was our little one Anna who helped me to sort all the board tiles and the tokens. But especially the AT-ST caught her attention. Good girl!

That's it for now, Please don't forget to have a look at the Google+ community dedicated to 'Paint Table Saturday'.

Enjoy your weekend !

Imperial Assault: Imperial Officers

During the last week I proceeded slightly with painting the miniatures of the Imperial Assault board game. After those Stormtroopers I took their officers to get some colour onto:

The figure are pretty straightforward. The details on the faces are nice for playing pieces but slightly behind high quality metal miniatures as we know them from Perry, Front Rank, Empress or other wargaming manufacturers. The figures clothes have no noteworthy details as you would expect from those rather simple uniforms.

Thus I painted them in a kind of quick and dirty undertaking during a really short time. As playing pieces they'll do well anyway I asume.

That's it for now, Please don't forget to have a look at the Google+ community dedicated to 'Paint Table Saturday'.

A happy first Sunday in advent !

'Wargame, News and Terrain' is celebrating 500 followers !

'Wargame, News and Terrain' is celebrating that he reached 500 followers lately. Probably your already one of those but in case that your one of the few who don't know the blog: It is a collection of mostly news around our hobby. Mostly previews and announcements. The blog is absolutely up-to-date and a priceless scource of information.

Have a look at it!

Here

Currently they are running a raffle to celebrate their audience. Keep your chance to enter.

Playtesting 'Black Ops' - Vietnam review

A while ago I recognised that Osprey was preparing the publication of a modern / near-future ruleset for smalest scale operations. It promised to cover especially stealth operations with a very limited number of models up to section strength. Namely this was the announcement of Black Ops by wargaming veteran Guy Bowers. Now is modern combat a topic striking a chord in me. Due to my personal experience in service and due to the various reports of contemporary occasions I considered it very interesting to bring such of game onto the table. Now a perfect time came to take a break from the age of muskets and plunge into this new project.

Luckily my friend Holger shared this interest and thus we decided to give Black Ops a chance. Since the few modern Brits I've painted so far are lacking any opponents we decided to take a slightly vintage setting: Vietnam. Holger has a decent collection of American, Vietcong and NVA forces, so it was easy to create to forces of 82 points each. Later we noticed that this was rather too much for a first game but we oriented ourselves by an American infantry section and thus thing went larger then we thought.

Our battlefield. Playing area bounded by the row of trees on the left hand side and the bottom of the hill.

FOR SALE: Imperial Assault (English) +++ AS NEW +++

By coincidence yours truly got hold of a second box of the Imperial Assault basic game. One in English and one in German. Thus I'd like to offer the English version for sale. Here are some pictures:

The complete bundle. All parts of the game are included in the original packaging.

Honi soit qui mal y pense - First five modern Royal Fusiliers finished.

Finally after a rathing disturbing weekend I want to come back to the more pleasant side of life: Our mutual hobby.

During the last months I've been preparing the modern theatre of war. There are a couple of manufacturers producing modern ranges and especially the ranges by Empress, Hasslefree and Spectre arose my attention. Thus after a first testpiece in August (article here) I used the last week to paint the first batch of modern British:

The miniatures are from Empress' Miniatures Modern Combar range and depict a couple of modern British soldiers with slightly different equipment. Namely most of them are carrying the standard British L85 assault rifle while one of them has an attached grenade launcher and one has an L129A1 designated marksman rifle. Additionally the boys are carrying a selection of backpacks: Either a tactical combat rucksack or a camelbak or no backpack at all. Altogether an interesting selection of stuff.

Paint Table Saturday delayed in the light of current events.

Actually it's Saturday... Paint Table Saturday. Last week I was even diligent enough to have more than one piece finished but in the light of the current events in Paris I'm not in the mood for getting back to business as usual.

From time to time it seems that the world stops turning. I experienced that on September 11th 2001, then on July 07th 2005 and recently this very morning when I read the terrible news about the terror attacks in Paris last night. My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the victims who fell a victim to those vicious attacks.

As for the finished minis... I think I'll bring an update tomorrow or on Monday.

Lest we forget

This week there are remembrance days in whole Europe, the Commonwealth and the United State. The beginning was yesterday Commonwealth Remembrance day, today is Veteran's Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day in Belgium and France and next Sunday will be Volkstrauertag in Germany. No matter which actual day it is, for us all a chance to think of those who gave their lives to create the freedom we're all make use of day by day:

 

We are blessed that our generation doesn't have to undergo the cataclysmic horrors of the wars that devastated our continent a hundred years and again seventy years ago. We grew up in a time of understanding and cohesion. We experience this every day when we exchange email, blog entries or Facebook posts with kindred spirits cross-border. In my view this is a result of the combined efforts of the so-called 'free world' and thus let me take a moment to mention all those who gave their lives to afford us this luxury.

Lest we forget !

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."

Ronald Reagan

Monty on tour: Crisis 2015 (2) - Gorgeous tables and charming encounters

Missed part 1 of my review?

Look here.

 

Of course our table wasn't the only one in Antwerp. This year the show was again larger than the year before and there were countless clubs bringing excellent table for nearly each and every period and kind of warfare. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures of all the tables and unfortunately not all the pictures I took turned out well but here's a small selection that might give you an idea how many efforts our hobby fellow put into their boards:

30-years-war in 20mm from the Hamburg Tactica club

Alde Garde with 28mm 9-years-war

20mm Operation Market Garden

A view to one of the landing zones.

Monty on tour: Crisis 2015 (1) - Our Plancenoit game

What a weekend! What a show!

Last weekend Crisis 2015 in Antwerp took place and the organisers from the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp performed an excellent job once more. The show itself was organised as perfect as ever and it seems that it has grown once again. The selection of traders and clubs who gave themselves the honour of occuring there was even better than the years before. Although some traders avoided the journey to Antwerp their places where taken by interesting newcomers without loss of quality.

Once again yours truly had the chance to be part of the show again since our club was presenting the Plancenoit game we've been preparing for more than a year under guidance of my chaps Bernhard and Holger. Alltogether we had a L-shaped table of about 5m x 4m on which we created the small village where French and Prussians clashed in June 1815.

The table in all its finery. Please ignore the folder on the field on the right.

We employed more than two dozens of buildings and roughly 1,500 figures to recreate this epic afternoon. Everaything is in 28mm scale and most figures are from the ranges of Perry Miniatures, Calpe and Front Rank.

The centre of the battlefield: The church of Plancenoit.

The buildings were a mixture from different manufacturers or buildings. Some are from Grand Manner's and Hovels's excellent ranges and some from a WW2 range with pre-painted buildings. Unfortunately I don't remember the company that made them. Some buildings came from a Canadian modeller who is specialised on 28mm wargaming buildings, others were made from MDF kits and two were built from the scratch by our club's most talented architect Michael. Yours truly was lucky enough to contribute two ruins from Stronghold Terrain and a converted estate by Grand Manner.

A wonderful vignette by our fellow Michael.

Crisis coming! Estate finished... Finally!

Two days until Crisis 2015... Huzzah!

Yours truly is keen on this show. A trip with some good friends, good Belgian beer and the most important wargames show on the European continent. I'm really looking forward to see some chaps from the UK who are coming over. Mostly traders but some other hobby fellows as well.

As I mentioned a couple of time before our club is preparing a 28mm game featuring the battle of Plancenoit meaning the Prussian advance towards Waterloo in June 1815. Since neither Prussians nor French are my cup of Napoleonic tea I agreed to prepare a couple of buildings for the table. Now I finished the largest one... Finally:

The model itself is by Grand Manner. A wonderful piece from Dave Bodleys gifted hands but rather too modern since it came from his WW2 range. Thus I removed some parts of the estate as mentioned earlier here.

Last weekend I painted roofs and sealed my humble work with two coats of varnish. Afterall I'm really satisfied with the result. It was an excellent chance to improve my building skills and thus I'm planning to make more terrain during winter time.

In case that you'll be in Antwerp please let me know or just come by our table. We'll be near the main entrance just behind Magister Militum and Caliver Books.

Santa's Little Helper (2) - Ideas for 'Secret Santa' venture

My apologise for the absence of my usually regular weekend update. I'm still working on the Plancenoit houses and since Crisis will take place at the next weekend I'm in a rush now. Thus I didn't manage to take photos and post them here. I'll catch up on that later.

But besides the upcoming show there's another thing occupying my mind. As last year I'm participating in the 'Santa Clause' campaing as well as in the 'Secret Santa' venture run bei Ian and his dear wife Cath. The latter asked us participants to post some kind of whish list to help our generous donor. Thus here's what yours truly might be in need of:

Saturday News: Roofing done.

Last week I finished what I started the week before namely the roofing of my multi-temporal estate. Since the original roofs looked too modern to me and suffered some damage somehow some new roofs were needed. For this purpose I cut a couple of triangles from foam board. In addition I cut suitable rectangles from thick cardboard. Those parts combined I had some rather gables as base for the roofs.

Then the trickiest and most time consuming work came up: Tilling the roofs. Luckily Martin and Diane from Warbases are producing sheets of pre-cut cardboard roof tiles. Those were an incredible help. No idea how long it had taken to cut all those shingles myself...

Momentarily the last row of shingles is missing because I want to fit in the new chimneys I made from Depron foam. Actually that was much easier than I thought.

Thus I'm finally seeing the finish line with this project and I'm looking forward to get it done soon.

Until then please don't forget to have a look at the Google+ community dedicated to 'Paint Table Saturday'.

Last chance to enter 'Secret Santa' !

Simultaneously to Chris's 'Santa Clause' venture Ian from 'The Blog with no Name' fame is organising 'Secret Santa' again. An equally wonderful campaign between bloggers but with some different rules. Actually the present is slightly more pricy with £15 but delivered unpainted. Anyway have a look at Ian's invitation to get an idea if you're interested: Here.

Yours truly is boundlessly happy to take part in the venture again. I'm really looking forward to roam the Crisis wargaming show looking for a nice gift for my Christmas target!

It seems our virtual wargaming community is really special. People giving presents to each other although just knowing the virtual Alter Ego of their counterparts is everything but ordinary. I'm really glad that I've found my way into this bloggosphere and I'm looking forward to many joyful years though!

If you want to join the bunch don't hesitate to go to Ians last call: Here.

Next week I'll deliver some idea for my very own counterpart in the same manner as for the 'Secret Santa' venture. You'll spot some overlaps I presume.   ;-)

Santa's Little Helper (1) - Ideas for 'Santa Clause' venture

The festive season is coming nearer and therefore two tireless bloggers are organising yearly ventures. Ian from 'The blog with no name' is running the 'Secret Santa' campaing while Chris from 'Wargamer's Odds and Ends' is maintaining 'Santa Clause'. Chris closed the enrollment in early-October and all the paires are matched. Now each participant has the task to get one or more figures for up to £5 for his (or her) counterpart, paint them and post them until Christmas.

Luckily I found a nice set of Warlord Games miniatures which will hopefully appeal to my target fellow. I'll get them at Crisis in Antwerp and afterwards have around five weeks to paint them before they'll make their way to the UK. Should be no problem...

Anyway our host asked me to put some kind of wish list onto my blog to give my benefactor some hints. But let me place first that I'll appreciate any piece of work showing that the creator put his efforts into it. One of the dearest pieces in my collection is a small vignette which I luckily won in a friend's raffle a while ago. Although I don't have a single figure matching it I always appreciate to have a look at it and the wonderful greeting card that came with it when I pass by my glass cabinets.

Thus 'Santa' shouldn't agonise too much about finding the perfect addition to my collection. Just find something you'd like to paint and present!

But anyway as asked some recommendations:

28mm Modern Warfare:

Sometime this winter I'll focus on this interesting topic. Until now I have some mordern British by Empress and a two or three Hasslefree modern troopers. In case that 'Santa' share my interest in the modern Afghan theatre of war maybe one or two suitable insurgents or militia fighters would be nice. Of course any other matching range would do as well.

By the way for skirmish gaming miniatures I prefer 5 Cent coins as bases. They are 1.7mm thick and have a diameter of 21mm. More or less the same size as British pennies.

My first painted modern trooper (link)

28mm Napoleonics:

A constant topic on my workbench. Last year Santa's present was a top hit for that. A wonderful RHA howitzer which is excellently painted and perfectly useful for me. No need to compete against that but in case that 'Santa' has a partiality for Napoleonics there are a couple of gaps in my collection. Somehow under the radar I'm working on a French brigade. Actually the 1st or 2nd Brigade from D'Erlon's Corps at Waterloo. Until now it doesn't have a command base and I haven't planned one yet.

In case that 'Santa' chooses this task a 60mm circular base would be perfect. But please without colours. They will be carried by the regiments.

28mm WW2:

Another project that's keeping my attention constantly. Currently I'm woking on some British Paras and Desert Rats as regular readers of my humble blog know. But as soon as both platoons are finished I'll probably turn to British Expedition Force or Homeguard. Maybe 'Santa' wants to give either of them a start. Warlord Games and Wargames Foundry are providing a wonderful range of Home Guard / Dad's army figures. Perhaps 'Santa' would enjoy to paint one or two of them.

One of Wargames Fonudry's charcterful Home Guard set sculpted by Alan and Michael Perry

28mm War of the Roses:

Somehow I fell into this project after the Perry twins seduced me with their excellent plastic boxes. Besides that my efforts are rather limited so maybe 'Santa' wants to take that line and add something to my slowly growing collection. Either some civilians or a command base might be his choice then. For the latter I have no real favourite but my archers are bearing the colours of York. Thus one of the Yorkish leaders would be most suitable. Maybe accompanied by a standard bearer to simplify recognition on the battlefield. Although my other WotR figures are based on 21mm coins a larger vignette would be finde as well.

My Yorkish bowmen (link).

And besides that?

Anything 'Santa' appreciates. Actually scenic elements like carts, animals or civilians are most useful for any table but mostly badly underrepresented. So ther'd be a lot of room in all my projects for such elements. Beginning with the Dark Ages, over WotR, AWI, Napoleonics and right to WW1 and WW2 I'd apreciate any kind of useful bits and pieces.

Well then... I hope give's a good bunch of ideas for 'Santa'. As you see I mentioned some pieces that could be based on multi-figure packs beyond £5. Consistent with the rules I don't expect 'Santa' to acquire those but perhaps he or she has some spare figure that do the job.

By the way Ian hasn't closed the list for 'Secret Santa' yet. So if you want to jump on the train don't hesitate to go to his blog: Here.

So let me finish with a matter that is close to my heart:

Anything is appreciated 'Santa' choses to put his efforts and time into.

Still building(s)

As the weeks before I'm still working on the buildings we'll need for our Plancenoit game at Crisis. At present I put the wonderful Stronghold Terrain ruins aside and pottered at another estate. One of my friends from the club gave it to me to modify it for the Napoleonic wars. Actually it was part of Grand Manner's excellent range but I think it's out of production currently. Since it was too modern I had to alter it here and there:

The coloured areas were parts we discussed whether they were appropriate for 1815 or not. Finally I decided to do the following major conversions:

• remove gutters (not on the picture)
• remove remaining parts of the broken fencing (green)
• remove the roller shutter front (green)
• make new roofs
• the plate may stay (blue)
• the decorative-moulding as well (red)

Now I don't want to bother you with too many details. There were a couple of other alteration on the gable end of the estate but I'll cover the whole project in a couple of posts as soon as it's finished. But this is the result I achieved during the last days:

Next will be the new roofs that I'll construct with cardboard and Warbases lasercut roof tiles. Afterwards some finishing touchs to make the scene more vivid. A wonderful inspiration was Pat's last piece of art that he presented on his blog 'Wargaming with Silver Whistle' (here). Don't miss this wonderful estate!

Besides that please don't forget to have a look at the Google+ community dedicated to 'Paint Table Saturday'.

Imperial Assault: Painted Stormtroopers

Actually I reserved the following Stormtroopers for my habitual weekend post as part of the 'Paint Table Saturday' venture. But somehow things never turn out the way I expect. Once again our weekend was busy with meeting family and friends and I didn't find the time to get myself to the computer and set a an appropriate article. To crown it all the signs of age exacted their toll and evenings I was too tired to turn my attention to the bloggosphere. Obviously I'm getting too old for three days of gatherings, beer and sports but I wasn't able to resist Rugby, Hockey and American Football...

Anyway with no further ado here's the humble work yours truly performed on some of the miniatures from the Imperial Assault board game:

As you see I started with the easiest figures in the box: Stormtroopers.

Those were my start of choice because I wanted to see quick results and I didn't want to withdraw my attention too much from our ongoing Plancenoit project. With the game come nine Stormtroopers representing three squads. To differentiate them I painted the edges of the bases in blue, red and green.

Besides the coloured edge I held the bases as simply as possible. Since the game works with a couple of different board styles like desert, woodland or space ship interior I was afraid that textured bases might look disturbing when hitting inappropriate underground. Thus I simply painted them dark grey with some slight dry-brushing with lighter grey tones.

Painting the Stormtroopers themselves was pretty simply as well. After a neat coat of white primer I used a dark grey colour on the joints, blasters and other more or less black parts. Then a coat of thinned Armypainter Quickshade: Dark Tone and some white highlighting.

As a result the Stormtroopers aren't as clean and bright as seen in the films but I prever them a little dirty because it brings out the details on playing distance. However those chaps are probably far from my best pieces but as simply rank and file troops they'll do well I presume. Next will be either the drones or the Imperial officers. But first back to Plancenoit. My progress there is small but constant and I'll be able to present another intermediate state later this week.

Bavarian Army Museum - Napoleon and the Bavarians

After this weekend some kind of autumn cold grapped our family and all of us were rather weary we're all getting better now and so I found the time to sort the pictures from my visit at the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt. Currently they're running a special exhibition about Napoleon and the Bavarians there and so my buddy Rick and I took the trip to Ingolstadt.

The museum itself is wonderfully located in Ingolstadt's old city centre and is occupying the New Castle there. Usually there's is a permanent exhibition about the history of the Bavarian Army running but currently it had to make way for the above mentioned Napoleonic exhibition. It is more politically and socially oriented then I expected in an ARMY museum but nevertheless an excellent trip and a lot of extremely interesting pieces to examine. Unfortunately the lighting was pretty dark. Probably best for the old pieces and rather comfortable for the visitors but honestly doom for taking pictures. Therefore most of my photos turned out blurry or darkish. But anyway some are more or less presentable.

Of course the exhibition started with the Korsikan guy all the trouble was about two centuries ago:

Napoleon in his coronation robes

Napoleon in Egypt