Blitzkrieg Commander IV Templates

A new purchase arrived today from Pendraken. They have started producing templates for Blitzkrieg Commander IV and I have acquired most but not all (I did not need suppression and deployed markers). So what have I purchased?

This is the 30cm Air Support Bomber template and the 20cm Artillery Concentration template. 

The 20cm Artillery Barrage template.  

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On the Workbench: Prince Maurice's Horse & Lifeguards

More cavalry finished for the ECW Battle of Glastonbury:

These are Prince Maurice's Lifeguards in front with his Horse regiment behind. Probably not historically accurate but I have his lifeguards all in the Continental Pot with near identical horses. I felt his lifeguard should stand out from the rest with a more uniform appearance.

I have been trying out different camera techniques here (thanks Peter Little). I am finally discovering more of what my camera can do having owned it for several years! One of the issues I had with many photos was keeping the whole unit in focus. I have tried here Peter's suggestion of F8 in depth of field with the optimum shutter speed for the lighting conditions. More experimentation is needed. All the photos I took came out a little dark and I needed to lighten this one before posting. With any luck I will be able to eliminate the annoying glare some suffered from, particularly with light desert bases. 

On the Workbench: ECW Cavalry

Another unit has been completed for the Battle of Glastonbury. This is the Royalist, Earl of Caernarvon's Horse:

The regiment was split into 2 squadrons for the battle. Rather than one large regiment I painted the second squadron as the Earl of Northampton's Greencoats. They are virtually indistinguishable from Caernarvon's Horse but gives me another unit for future battles.

Another development involves a decision to increase my knowledge of photography! So far I have been only using basic settings on my camera and hoping they turn out ok. It will never be a hobby in its own right for me, I am just simply not enthused about cameras! However, I am conscious that some photos have not turned out as I would have liked. Daylight bulbs have been installed in my room which has greatly helped but I am finding certain colours create glare (especially desert bases) and others become garish (light blue on my Matildas and Hopton's bluecoats). So, fingers crossed, you should see more consistent photos in the future.

For camera buffs, mine is a Nikon D3100 SLR with no add-ons. Apart from that is a newly purchased Remote Shutter Release to speed up the process. Even though the camera is mounted on a tripod, pressing the shutter button can still create a slight wobble resulting in out of focus shots. I resort to using the shutter timer release, which although only a 10 seconds delay, can be time consuming if a number of photos need to be taken.

For the time being, now that I am on a roll, my ECW project will continue (with of course the 2mm Napoleonics and tree upgrades on the side). 

Nap Campaign: Map Moves 25th March - nightfall 27th March 1808

Starting with an overview of the entire campaign area over the 3 days:

Nightfall 25th March

Nightfall 26th March

Nightfall 27th March

I will now zoom in on the 3 theatres: North West, North East and South West.

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On the Workbench: River upgrades completed + ECW Cavalry

A busy time since my return from distant shores has limited my wargaming activity. I did however, manage to complete a project:

The large pond/small lake on the left marked the completion of improving the appearance of my river sections. They are resin purchased from Baccus. The latest river sections are flexible latex so I am guessing the resin versions are no longer available. Next up will be the streams/runoffs using acetate (see separate 'On the Workbench' posting for details).

Some progress has been made on figures. A large ECW Royalist cavalry regiment destined primarily to be the Earl of Caenarvon's greencoats. It was split into 2 squadrons for the Battle of Glastonbury and I have therefore decided to paint the 2nd squadron as the Earl of Northampton's greencoats which, apart from the cornet, will be virtually indistinguishable. 

In the background another small brigade of 2mm Napoleonic French line takes shape.

One the Workbench: 6mm WW2 for Op Nostalgia

This will be my final blog post before I go on hols from 22nd July to 9th August. I will be back to the Stone Age with no internet! I will therefore not be able to respond to any queries or comments until my return.

Today saw the last units completed before my break. This completes all the figures I need for my invasion of Rhodes game in the Op Nostalgia WW2 campaign. I do have some terrain to complete, particularly airfields.

This will be the German CO base which in this case is the Rommel set from H&R. This consists of Rommel, 1 officer and 2 motor cycles. The other 3 figures are various command figures from their new Africa Korps range. You can see here the difference between the old figures (Rommel etc) and the new. Size increased and definite improvement in quality. 

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On the Workbench: ECW Royalist Redcoats

Further progress is being made on my ECW project with the completion of a redcoat regiment for the Royalists.

This is another large regiment with several more planned of this size. Figures are 6mm Baccus.

On the Workbench: Africa Korps, Brits and US.

In addition to trees, I completed various WW2 units primarily for the Op Nostalgia campaign -

This almost completes the Africa Korps units for the invasion of Rhodes. All 1/300 Heroics & Ros. While the figures are excellent some of their vehicles and ARV's can be a little hit-or-miss. More of this later.

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On the Workbench: Trees

The size of the Battle of Grissburg in my room was such that it was rather cramped at my painting table. That, combined with allocating time playing the battle, meant that painting and modelling has been restricted over the past month. I did though manage to complete a couple more 2mm Napoleonic bases and some 6mm for my WW2 campaign. 

On the terrain front, aside from continuing to update my river sections, I felt something had to be done with my collection of trees. These are all the cheap variety from China which had been hastily based to get them on the table. Some are reasonable enough but others are pretty dire. The motivation to do something to improve them began with my pine trees which had been used on the Grissburg board. I avoided including them in my early photos as I had already decided to do something with them. They were caught in the distance in one shot -

I apologise for the out of focus shot but you get the picture. They have also featured on previous 'On the Workbench' posts.

They are rather spindly affairs and once on the wargames board it was obvious that they would have to be replaced or modified in some way. A look around ebay and various online model shops revealed very nice but very expensive pine trees primarily for model railways.

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Nap Campaign: Battle of Grissburg Conclusion

Napoleon makes a decision to consolidate what has been captured rather than launch a pursuit. His forces are in need of a rest and some units may need to be reorganised after significant losses.

Blucher, reeling from the loss of his capital and his humiliating escape now has to ponder what he intends to do with what is left of his army. He lost almost half is force, either killed or captured, in the defence of Grissburg. The 5th and 14th Brigades have virtually ceased to exist. He also lost one of his best Brigade Generals and 7 regimental commanders. More units from the 2nd Corps will be mobilised the next day and Ziethen is en-route with the 1st Corps. His first task will be to regroup his dispersed forces and reorganise his battered Brigades.

Although a great victory, it was not entirely the knock-out blow the French had hoped for. The performance of the 3rd Corps was lamentable! The Prussian artillery deployed in the redoubts made it difficult for them but nevertheless they should have dealt with the inexperienced Prussians relatively easily. The 8th and 10th Divisions attacking the northern perimeter between the 2 redoubts broke through several times only to be summarily repulsed through determined Prussian counter-attacks.

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