Dendermonde Citadel

 

 Spent some time today design the citadel for Dendermonde - or at least the small part of it that appears on the table.  This is the edge of the citadel and one of its bastions.  There will also be the corner of the main tower at the back of this piece.

Just playing with the first version of the outer walls and then need to design and cut the inner walls.

There will be a flooded ditch around the edge of the citadel with a small bank marking one side.

I have also managed some painting over the weekend and finished off another British Marlburian unit.

They need the bayonets straightening when I base them...

I am currently painting some French Grenadiers and doing some repainting of the large number of Marlburian French I bought to make the first couple of units using those figures.

Box Labels

 I was at a loose end early evening so decided to try and learn how to make some labels in Publisher - its something I have been meaning to do to tart up the labels on my boxes of painted figures.

An hour or so later and I have some done...

The designs are inspired by Mark at ScaleCreep Miniatures in the USA who has done a similar thing with his storage boxes.

Makes it easier to spot the correct box and groups the collections together by colour...

Completing the city walls

Spent some time today finishing off the city walls and adding a gatehouse.  It will have extras added to it, but this is the basic form.

I have decided not to use the hex terrain for the city section - I am using it for the siege lines and just extended the area but I have now decided to use normal MDF boards.  They have been primed with a base colour (on both sides to prevent warping).  The city area will have cobblestone streets between the houses.

The MDF along the back will be a road running along the walls and bastions

I am also thinking about raising the city, etc up on polystyrene to make a proper sunken ditch - quick experiment shown here:

More House Building..

 Still working on the Dutch style houses.

This is the prototype for the 1/3 relief houses that will sit on the back of the city board giving the illusion of more houses, etc behind.  Still need to make a couple of tweaks - they will be in strips of 3 mainly. I have left the fronts separate so I can mix and match.

These are the 4 style of house front I've drawn up so far - will probably add a couple extra and also want to do a couple of shops and perhaps a couple with slightly different window arrangements.

Onto shutters next as my 1mm card has arrived.

Travel Battle try out

 Second outing for the 54mm Napoleonics in a week!

This time using the Travel Battle rules from the Perries playing against Anthony.

I set up an approximation of the Travel Battle boards using a 4" gridded mat which gave us 12 squares by 18.  The travel battle board is 20 x 10, so we ignored the back square on each side.

As you can have 2 infantry units in a square in the open, I settled on using a single base fo the infantry (though, in the game, neither of us doubled up any units) - I think I had forgotten this rule by the time it might have been useful.

The rules are simple but do present you with the type of decisions you would face in a Napoleonic battle - cavalry get an advantage against Infantry in the open, Infantry in Square or built up areas get an advantage, etc.

The game was frustrating initially as I rolled a series on 1s and lost a number of units.  But eventually the tide turned.  I wiped out the British Cavalry Brigade and then my decision to include both my Guard units in the same brigade (whereas Anthony had split his between brigades) paid off with a frontal attack on the British in a built up area and I finally destroyed a second British brigade for victory.

It is a fun game and I'd certainly play them again, perhaps in a scenario rather than pick up game.

Dutch/Belgian Style House

Finished cutting the first protoype house for the city of Dendermonde.

Still need to make some changed to how the walls connect to make it easier to put them together.  Next stage is to find some 1mm card and cut some shutters to go round the windows. And add a chimney.

It is deliberately downscaled against the 25mm figure so it has a smaller footprint.

54mm Quatre Bras

 

Played a scenario vaguely based on Quatre Bras at the Guildford Club on Monday night with my 54mm collection (well, a small part of it!) and the Frog and Toad rules - which are an enhancement of Neil Thomas Napleonic Wargaming to add some simple command and control.

Nick took the French and made the mistake of sending his lightcavalry round a wood without support and putting his horse artillery on the other wing.  The Prussians formed square and shot the cavalry to pieces after they bounced off the squares.  In the centre my shooting finally improved and his attacking infantry were thinned out and the french attack faltered.

Fun game and we both enjoyed it.

 

 

New Year - some sorting out.

 

I decided that if I really am going to crack on with the Dendermonde scenery I need to have it setup so I can tinker when I feel like it.

This is the city half of the board setup on a 4' x 6' at the end of the games room.  I decided in the end to go with 6' wide and not compromise the size of the city walls.

I still have space for a 6'x 4' table for games when I need it.

I spent some time yesterday cutting 11 more hex board to complete the base board and I can start to spray the city boards grey and the ditch boards brown (they will eventually be textured) to give a better feel of how the areas split up.

I spent some time drawing up plans for the glacis and laying big bits of paper to get a feel for size and shape - a couple more revisions should have the base areas of the Glacis worked out.

I have also planned where the citadel and the ditch surrounding it will go and settled on a 75mm x 95mm footprint for the basic houses.  I will also be adding a set of 1/4 depth houses along the back of the board to give the illusion of more housing, etc.

I printed out some Gabions I had downloaded and resized them to 75% to get what seems to be about the right size.  These will be combined with laser cut trench sides and either plaster or DAS to create siege lines.

Finally I started sorting through the Minifigs French and British Grenadiers that I picked up on Facebook before Christmas for less then £1 each.  I'll be adding French Grenadiers and some extra officers to bring the units up to 24 strength.  The painter has picked units with all the same facing colours, so it will be easy to mix them, and I'll probably repaint some stockings, etc to distinguish the units.

Still lots to get on with....