Cabinette Wars

Vintage Building Kits

A short post on two buildings I quickly painted up for possible use in some games this coming weekend. They are both, I believe, fairly old kits and so fit in with the old-school vibe of some of my armies.

And, from the other side.

The two craters in the foreground were made from surplus Milliput and had been sat on the painting desk getting ignored for some time, so, got included in this painting batch.

To give an idea of scale, here's the church again with some 20mm Hinton Hunt marching past.

The church has come out a bit duller than intended. I deliberately didn't paint it white, as white buildings always glare under flash photography, but I may have overdone it. I got the church ready-made off eBay and don't know who manufactured this kit and suspect it may be a kit bash made up from several different models.

The church is just resting on the base, which I detached before painting, as I'm intending to build an enclosure for it within which defending troops can be placed.

And finally, the windmill again, this time with a 25mm Hinchliffe ECW command group (actually I believe the preacher is an Essex Miniatures).

Although the windmill, by Dapol, is intended for smaller figures it still works with these (IMO). The windmill itself also works; the sails turn and so does the upper wooden building which rotates on top of the lower brick structure.

¡Coraceros Españoles!

Fresh off the painting table, and ready for their photo-shoot, the Spanish Cuirassiers. An unusual unit but, as they primarily served in Catalonia, ideal for my army intended for the fighting in eastern Spain.

The regiment was formed to make use of captured French cuirassier equipment supplemented with red uniforms provided by the British. There was only enough French equipment for half the regiment[1], exactly what the remainder wore, especially with respect to headwear is less well documented. So, while I used French cuirassier figures for the first squadron ...

... I used Bavarian figures, kindly provided by David of 'Miniature Minions', for the remainder ...

... as their helmets are similar to those worn by Spanish dragoons like the rather smart trooper below.

The trumpeter figure was converted from another Bavarian trooper while the officer started life as an Empress Dragoon ...

... and was inspired by a wonderful contemporary(?) illustration of an officer from the regiment that I found online.

Usually in my cavalry units, the trumpeters accompany the officer in the front rank, but as neither wore cuirasses, I felt that would reduce the impact of the regiment, in both senses of the word.

After their studio session the unit had to dash off to report to the army ...

... where they paraded past my Spanish cavalry general who was delighted to no longer be a general with only one regiment of dragoons under his command.

The parade ended with the regiment swearing to faithfully serve His Most Catholic Majesty, King Ferdinand the Seventh, and drive the hated French from the land.

They will only have to wait 'til next weekend for a chance to prove their mettle; and break the curse of the newly-painted unit.

Notes:

[1.] The regiment had two squadrons each of three companies.

The WHC - An Anniversary Post

The anniversary of my blog that is, not the Wargames Holiday Centre.

[Pre-Cabinette Archives c.1980s]

It's a year since I started my blog so, as a sort of commemoration, I thought I'd post the photos of my visit to the Wargame Holiday Centre back in the 80s when it was still up near Scarborough and being run by Peter Gilder. The photos have already featured on the Peter Gilder tribute site but I rather fancied putting them up on my blog as well.

Back then it was all film, no digital, so I've had to scan in the printed photos that I still have. The quality isn't great, but it's in line with what we were used to seeing in the magazines of the time. But nonetheless, classic units like these Saxon Cuirassiers still look pretty good to me.

I went with a couple of friends to do a 'Leipzig Weekend'; well, if you're going to go big, that's surely the one to do. The table was probably the same dimensions as that featured in Peter's magazine articles[1] called 'Let's Fight Leipzig' which included the map shown below (north is at the top).

The first of my photos was taken looking east along the upper / northern edge of the table.

And then one looking east along the bottom / southern edge of the table.

This final one showing some of the players (luckily old-fashioned cameras didn't do selfies), is taken from the middle, looking north-east towards the deployment area of the Army of Silesia.

Comparing this with the map, shows that Peter was either using different 3-foot square terrain boards or had assembled them differently from the map. Also, the gap in the western edge was the same width all the way, but there was a spare terrain board that could be used to fill it if required - leaving the French players surrounded in the middle.

IIRC I was in charge of Marmont's VI Corps and Latour-Maubourg's I Cavalry Corps. Unfortunately, I was assigned the north-east corner to defend. This meant was that I was advancing out of a corner and into a terrible cross-fire.

My cavalry corps, suffered terribly, as units were destroyed or driven back through those following up behind, which prevented them from advancing while being interpenetrated. And so was born the amazing 'disappearing cavalry corps'!

Into the Jaws of Death ...

Into the Mouth of Hell ...

... rode the six ~~hundred~~!

Clearly someone had blundered, or had I just been set up? Never mind, aside from being disappointed by my cavalry's poor showing I remember it as a closely fought action. In fact, I recall it being a fairly bloody draw.

And, as I can recall not much more at this remove, I'll just post some more photos without comment.