Tactica Review (1) - The Battle of Aboukir

Once again this blog fell silent for a couple of weeks. Again my apologies for but my reason was just since I had to concentrate all my hobby time on finishing my share of our game for Tactica wargaming show namely one unit of redcoats, a rowing boat with 38 figures and a British gunboat. From time to time I didn't believe that I'd make it but delayed holiday, sleep deficiency and negligence of household duties do miracles sometimes. In this context I cannot praise Mrs Monty's patience enough!

Anyway somehow everything was done and finished by Thursday evening and so I set sail to Hamburg on Friday morning with a bag full of miniatures. As I mentioned a couple of times we prepared a game to recreate the Battle of Aboukir which took place on 8th March 1801. From the morning fog there were British landing crafts emerging that told of the advancing landing force under command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie. He brought 17,000 troops to breeze out the French but those are ready to fight their last stand as hard as possible. Once again after Nelson's famous naval victory and after a failed Ottoman landing operation in 1799 the fate of the Orient is decided at Aboukir.

The initial setup with the French on the beach and the British advancing by sea.

28th for Aboukir: First sestet done

This time it's really late that I throw my hat into the ring during our painting challenge but actually I've been hoping to be able to present my interpretation of the 28th Regiment of Foot at Aboukir as a whole. However currently I'm somehow smack in the middle and the deadline for the mandatory first post is coming closer. Thus I have to bring some fellows of the unfinished unit before your critical eyes:

So these are the first five men for the centre companies of the 28th Regiment of Foot during their mission in Egypt in 1801. The figure are actually pieces from the Napoleonic plastics the Perry twin are producing but I severely converted them with parts from several other boxes and some greenstuff. This was of course work from before the challenge but in case that you're interested in it have a look at this post here.

However I decided to go for a rather late version of the uniform worn at Aboukir. For that reason the soldiers are wearing those whitish overalls over their breeches and gaiters. On the one hand I found a picture of this kind of dress in the Osprey book about Napoleon's campaign in Egypt and on the other hand I wanted some figures reusable for the later Peninsular campaign. For that I'll create an alternative command group but have the remaining 21 figures versatile.

Anyway we'll need those chaps for our presentation game at Tactica show in February so I have my hands full with painting them. In addition I'm planning to have a version of the unit on board of a landing craft. A bunch of work for a slow painter like me...

Anyway I hope you like those first impressions. Unfortunately I too those pictures before finishing the bases and didn't find to take new ones during the last days. But upon my word I covered them with sand and painted and highlighted them with three shades of sandy colours.

Thanks to 'Santa Clause' and 'Secret Santa'

It was the third year in a row that I participates in the 'Secret Santa' and 'Santa Clause' ventures and once again I received a couple of nice gifts myself. Many thanks to Chris Stoesen as well as to Ian and Cath Willey for organising it again!

From the first Santa I received a nice scratch built barn mainly for my AWI games but more or less suitable for any period from the 18th century. It's an excellent choice because I'm a poor terrain builder equally uninspired and lazy.

The gift from the other project was a box of 15mm figures for Team Yankee. It's a German anti-aircraft infantry unit with 'Fliegerfaust' ground-to-air missile launchers. Together with those generous gifts from Mrs Monty (another Fliegerfaust unit and a Jaguar tank hunter platoon) a splendid addition to my Bunderwehr force.

MANY, MANY THANKS TO BOTH GENEROUS DONORS !

A happy new year!

A happy new year! To you and your dears health, luck and all the very best for 2017!

Reviewing 2016

2016 is coming to an end and a lot of people will say it wasn't a good year since so much mischief happened on earth. But nevertheless I'm lucky enough to be able to focus on hobby issues and see the wargaming world in a nutshell. So let me ponder about the last twelve months on Monty's Caravan and review some of my hobby highlights 2016.

To begin with I have to admit that I didn't produce too many articles this year. My apologies for that but somehow real life and family issues consumed more of my leisure time this year and I didn't find enough time to bring my humble ideas to words. Thus my productivity dropped to an average of slightly more than one post per week after more then 1.5 last year and even more in 2014...

Anyway I'm glad that you're interest didn't cease. To my surprise at least the same number of visitors dropped by in 2016 maybe even more. Many thanks for your kind and encouraging support! Frankly I'm really pleased how the virtual wargaming community keeps developing and I'm glad to be part of it! Especially when I see that mostly American, Russian, German and British fellows seem to visit my humble blog. What a splendid international bunch of enthusiasts we are...

Besides those numbers what did 2016 bring on the workbench?