Koleda Festivities in Blagovia

 

 

 Another year has past in Blagovia, and all is well. Even though it's cold and rainy in the Imperial Duchy, Christmas is the air, and the final preparations for the day are being done. The shops are still open, and the markets are busy as folks buy the last things for their Christmas feast. The soldiers are in their barracks, and those lucky enough to have been given leave are now home with their loved ones.  Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, the shop keepers will close early and people will retire to their homes, have a light meal, perhaps even a nap, and then go to midnight mass. The single young men and women, along with the children, will take part in Koleda activities: dressing up in funny costumes, singing, dancing, playing instruments, and going from door to door in hope of receiving sweets or a small coin. Then at midnight they will go to the town square, or just outside the village, and light a massive bonfire and welcome Christmas with music and dancing.  

It's been some time since I've posted here. Live has proceeded and many changes have taken place in the last two years. Births and deaths, changes of all types. Wargaming has come to halt, although I have been looking various rule sets, and thinking of my next battles.

Blagovia, unlike the "real world," has largely stayed peaceful and unchanged. Leutonia has been focusing its attention on tiny Nabburg to the north and has essentially ignored its southern neighbour. His Grace has been, surprisingly, prudent and has not interfered with his northern neighbours' quarrel. Fortunately full scale warfare has not yet broken out and with the exception of a some musket shots fired, now and then, on the border, it has largely been a war of words.

The winter cold has firmly settled over land this Christmas Eve and the air is filled with snowflakes and the perfume of wood fires. The coffee houses and taverns are filled with men trying to keep warm, and discussing the latest news. These will soon empty and families will start gathering and making their way to churches for the midnight mass. Tomorrow will be a day of feasting and good cheer.

 

 

Merry Christmas from the Imperial Duchy of Blagovia. 

 

 

 

Happy New Year

 

It's been a long and tiresome year. With the ever-present Covid threat dominating our lives, things this year have been interesting to say the least. Working in a sector that has been declared "essential" by local authorities I was not subjected to the mandatory lockdown as so many other were. Although the lack of cars on the road made the daily commute wonderful, to say the least, the other elements of the daily grind became tiresome quickly. Long line ups for groceries, coupled the shortages due to irrational hoarding in March and April quickly wore on one's nerves. However the panic quickly resolved itself and things started to settle down into the "new normal." Although not directly affected by Covid, I was indirectly. I took a major fall at work, which resulted in several months of extensive physiotherapy. Fortunately, I made a full recovery and was able to avoid the surgery that seemed so likely in the Spring. As the summer progressed and a light appeared to be at the end of the tunnel, things went south quickly

–again. A resurgence of the virus starting closing things down again, and I suffered another injury in the fall; this time to my left shoulder. A visit to the specialist is scheduled for January, and again, surgery seems very likely.  I for one cannot wait for this year to end! At least I am not scheduled to return to work in the short term.

 

No units got painted this year. With "real life" being front and centre I just didn't have any desire pick up a brush until just recently –a week before Christmas in fact. So the Imperial Duchy has enjoyed a relatively peaceful year as a result of my inattention. On the hobby front I'm focused on building some 1/35 armour. Hopefully, I will visit the Duchy early in the New Year, and see what his Grace has been up to.

 

I hope everyone has a great year in 2021, and that the worst is behind us. 

 

Happy New Year

 

Happy Easter

In this time of uncertainty and pandemics, His Grace would like to wish you all a safe and happy Easter.

Things have ground to halt in Blagovia as the Duchy is, like everywhere else, in a state of lock down. The Blagovian Grenadiers have been ordered to patrol the streets of Starigrad, and anyone who is caught breaking the curfew, or traveling in town without the proper papers, will, by the order of His Grace, be summarily shot. The Blagovian Hussars are keeping an eye on the border with Luetonia, and a Battalion of the Battenbergers has been sent to the border of the Banat of Tôtûn-Bey. 
Let us all hope that this will soon pass.

Happy New Year

The New Year approaches, and there is a sense of excitement in the air. The rumours of an imminent invasion of Nabburg by Luetonia are rampant. Even Blagovia has heard that something is afoot, and the coffee shops of Starigrad are rife with speculation and conspiracy theories, to borrow a contemporary term. However, the one thing no one has been able to answer is how Luetonia will invade, seeing as they do not share a border with Nabburg...

I would like wish everyone a Happy New Year, and I hope that 2020 is  a grand year for all visitors to Blagovia.

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning in Blagovia

 As winter settles in it's time for feasts, a gathering of families, and reflection. Although it has been quiet on the blog front, things have been busy in Blagovia, Nabburg, Luetonia, and all the other Imagi-Nations in that part of Central Europe where Duke Borislav, and King Schmenge call home.  Rumours of war, and intrigues are ripe, and it looks as the upcoming year may be one of conflict. More on that later... For now, His Grace wishes all of you, and yours, a wonderful holiday, and a Merry Christmas!

Rememberance Day

As Roger Waters brilliantly wrote in "Free Four"

The memories of a man in his old age
Are the deeds of a man in his prime.

This wonderful poster from the Royal Canadian Legion sums this up perfectly.

Lest We Forget.

Reinforcements have arrived!

A quick update tonight. I received my order from Baccus today, -24 Prussian Musketeers, 12 Jaegers, and 8 cannons and crew. With these, new troops I now have enough miniatures to complete all of my Imagi-Nation armies in 6mm. I have begun gluing the miniatures to painting sticks, in preparation for priming and final painting. My terrain board has been prepped, and is ready for painting and flocking; hopefully this will be done by Friday. Not much longer now and I will be able to start fighting some battles!

Status Update

After a slight delay, due to some construction and repairs at Festung Borislav, my 6mm project is progressing at full steam. Having finished basing another 8 units -5 battalions of infantry, a regiment of dragoons, and two batteries of artillery, I decided to tackle some terrain. A first for me as I have never bothered to build any in the past, being content to use books, boxes, and whatever else was at hand to represent the required features. I first built a series of rural houses out of blue insulation and card stock, enough to make a village, and a couple of single farmsteads. They look quite nice if I say so myself, and I am certainly happy with them. However, I think I will probably switch to 3mm printed card buildings going forward, as they provide a better "strategic scale" aesthetic in relation the 6mm troops, and have exquisitely printed features that make the tabletop setup really "pop." I next made a good sized hill with Styrofoam, and some modular river and road pieces using pieces of linoleum tile, and card stock, respectively. Once these are painted I will turn my attention to a bridge or two, and then the actual game board. I think that I will just do a single 2'x2' board for now, and add further boards as needed. The beauty of 6mm is that 2'x2' is plenty of room to have a relatively large battle on, with enough room to manoeuvre.

All in all I am quite excited with how this project is coming along, and I hope to have my first game with all of the newly painted troops and built terrain in the next week or so. I hope to get around to posting some photos in the next few days, but if truth be told I am not happy with most of the pictures I take, as I only have my cell phone camera which often leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to clarity at such a small scale.

Progress Report

The 6mm project is proceeding full steam ahead. As of this evening I have finished 4 regiments of infantry, each consisting of 3 battalions, and a regiment of Hussars. Amazing how quickly these paint up. I have 3 more infantry regiments, and another hussar regiment primed and waiting in the paint queue, and when these are done, I'll focus on artillery and limbers, dragoons and cuirassiers. That will leave me with about 3 battalions of grenadiers, and another regiment of infantry to prime and paint. Not bad at all. I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I will post some pictures once I have gotten the finished units properly based. 

6mm?

Lately I have been doing some cleaning up at Festung Borislav, and today I discovered a bunch Bacchus 6mm Russian SYW troops. My idea, when I initially purchased them, had been to build up an army of Russians, but the lack of local opponents caused that idea to fall by the wayside some years ago. Also, my disinterest in painting and creating an actual historical pushed them even further back on to the shelf of shame.
However, looking at the unpainted horde this morning gave me a wonderful idea. There are more than enough troops, including cavalry and artillery to make two, or three, wonderfully sized Imagi-Nation armies. I think I might prime some up and see what I can do with them. It sure would make playing a quick large-sized battle a lot easier...

75 years ago today..

Today marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day. I have noticed that, as usual, the foreign press seems to have forgotten that there were three armies that invaded France. 
In memory of that long ago day..

 

 

 

 

The Wargaming Compendium

I received my copy of Henry Hyde's The Wargaming Compendium yesterday.  An excellent surprise in my mailbox after a long cold wet and rainy day outdoors. I am looking forward to reading it, as it looks like it's chocked full of excellent photographs, and wonderful descriptions.

Although the blog has been silent of late, my painting output has been prolific, compared to my usually glacial painting speed. I have three projects on the go currently, and I am proceeding well in all three cases. I completed my  Schaumburg-Lippe artillerists  and Jagers, (of which the latter I have to repaint as I incorrectly painted their turn-backs yellow) and I now have finished painting the faces, trousers and waistcoats of the musketeers and fusiliers. I have also got one battalion, 18 miniatures, of Hanoverians done who will serve as mercenaries for one of my Imagi-Nation forces, probably Luetonia. The final project is a regiment of WSS era musketeers painted as Luetonians from the War of the Luetonian Succession -yes they had one of those too... After seeing Phil Ollies excellent Vaubarian Infantry Regt 3 - Breitner on his blog I was inspired to paint up some of my own WSS era units. More of which I'll talk about in a future post. If you are interested in seeing Phil's work click on the link to the right.

All in all I am happy at my production. It looks like I will be spending some time on basing in the near future, as my finished queue is starting to fill up

Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg

Well I have been painting quite a bit recently, but not Blagovian troops. After much prevarication I have taken  the plunge, and decided to paint some historical SYW troops -the army of Schaumburg-Lippe. Using the wonderful kronoskaf site as my guide (Schaumburg-Lippe_Army) painting has been proceeding apace lately.  The beauty of Schaumberg-Lippe for me is that it's small enough that I will be able to quickly complete it. For some reason I have currently lost my interest in painting Imagi-Nation troops, but I am sure once the Shaumburg-Lippe units are done, my attention will be re-focused towards Blagovia, Nabburg, et al.

I have, thus far, completed the Jäger Company, and three gun crews. I must admit that I am having a wonderful time assembling and painting this army. Once I base the gunners, and complete some final touches, I will start into the line infantry. Unfortunately, I will have to wait for some suitable Bückeburg Carabiniers to complete the army, but that's fine by me. Hopefully Jim at Fife and Drum will have some next year. Until then I will have to use my forces sans cavalry.

 

Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg Jägers

The basing is complete not, but I may have to retouch them, if I use these chaps, as the turnbacks should be dark green. In any event, I am sure that I can a home for them with Blagovia.

 Just a few buttons to paint, and I can base them. I have two small cannons painted and ready, and I will assemble and paint the 12 pounders once I figure out what I want to do with the bases.
 

Happy New Year

Well another year is almost gone. Where has the time gone? A productive year on the paint bench, considering the insane work schedule I've had. I managed to get more troops painted this year, than I have in the last five years! This was largely due to the wonderful Fife and Drums minis forum run by Der Alte Fritz. The caliber of work there is second to none, and truly inspired to get back on the paint bench, dust off the lead pile, and even buy new miniatures. Unfortunately, I have not been as diligent in posting pictures of my work as I should be. Maybe a New Years resolution? I also did not manage to get in the much hoped for game over the holidays.


Any way, on behalf of His Grace and myself I would like to wish you all a happy, healthy and productive New Year!

A wonderful Russian New Years card commemorating 1753

Christmas Eve

This will probably be the last post before Christmas.  Looks like we might  have a white Christmas after all. It started to lightly snow last night, and has kept up through the morning. The ground is covered with a nice dusting of wet snow, and it looks like it's not going to stop any time soon. A couple of loose ends to tie up, and I can pull the cork on the first bottle of Christmas wine in preparation for the Christmas Eve feast. I will leave you with my favourite Christmas carol, sung by the wonderful Annie Lennox.

Seasons Greetings to all!

Merry Christmas

All the preparations have been done, the last minute items have been gotten, the gifts have been wrapped, and now we wait. It's a strange December in Blagovia this year. The temperature has been cold but not a trace of snow on the ground. Looks like it's going to be a brown Christmas, although the lawns are quite green if truth be told.

I haven't managed to get any work done on the painting bench, but maybe this evening I'll be able to sneak away for a few hours.

Merry Christmas to all, and best wishes for the new year. His Grace Duke Borislav wishes all the best for everyone!

P.S.

 In keeping with the season, a holiday card from Blagovia illustrating what winters are usually like in the Imperial Duchy.

First Snow

It's a wonderful sunny and snowy day in the Imperial Duchy of Blagovia! The temperature is sitting at -2C, with a windchill of -7, and not a cloud in the sky. We unexpectedly got about 3 or 4 centimetres of fluffy, light snow last night, which made for a delightfully easily job of shoveling the driveway this morning. I was able to get the last of the Christmas lights up yesterday (-17C with the wind), and now the tree is all that's left. Christmas preparations are  proceeding well thus far.

Things have aslo been proceeding surprisingly well on the painting bench. I have completed and based a battalion of Jagers (RSM95 Austrians) for my Pichelsteiner forces, and a battalion of Nabburg Jagers (RSM95 Hanoverians) which are not based yet. In addition to these units, I have completed about 60 percent of my Nabburg Fusilier Battalion (Eureka Saxons), and about the same for my Pichelstein Musketeers (RSM95 Hungarian Infantry). All in all, I am quite happy with my painting progress. I think that I will be ready to set up for a battle over the Christmas holiday, or very early in the New Year.
In the meanwhile, lovely shot of a winter forest in Nabburg.

More later...

Remembrance Day, 100 years later

Canadian Soldier

Today is Remembrance Day, a day that marks the end of  WW1, also known as the Great War, and commemorates the sacrifice of those British and Commonwealth troops that served in this conflict. Coincidentally,  today also happens to mark the 100^th anniversary of the cessation of hostilities. The participants are all gone now, consigned to the pages of history texts, and yet it would seem that we are desperately in need of their conviction and courage these days. The familiar evils of tyranny, and suppression, are still very much alive and well these days. In fact some might say that they are thriving! Although we cannot say that the First World War was fought to end these patterns of behaviour, many of the participants surely felt that they were doing just this. After the guns fell silent at 11:00am  on November 11, 1918,  the Western world, so horrified at the slaughter of the previous four years, felt that this was a war so horrible that no other wars could be considered if one remembered the horror of the trenches. Sadly, how wrong they were.

Today I will spend the day with family and then, later, sitting in front of the fire, have a drink to the memory of those that served, and to those that I served with. I may even meet up with some of the lads and talk about the old days, but probably not. Lest We Forget…..

In Flanders Fields

By Lt Col John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

    That mark our place; and in the sky

    The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

        In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

    The torch; be yours to hold it high.

    If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

        In Flanders fields.

Pichelsteiner Jager

As I stated in my previous post I have been concentrating on painting my Pichelsteiner forces. I have mostly finished their single Jager Battalion, only rifles hair and mustaches to do. I really like the colurs that I have gone with -a dark green coat, with leaf green vest, trousers, lapels and turnbacks. I have given them brown gaiters, and a black grey cap, with a yellow feather. The officers and NCO's have the same uniform as the ranks, but with  exception of a gold and silver edging, respectively, on the front plate of their cap. The Pichelsteiner Jager's use the Austrian style Jager uniform.

Simultaneous with my Jagers, I have also been painting the Pichelsteiner musketeers. They have only a single regiment of native infantry, the rest of their forces being either mercenaries, or "Leutonian volunteers." Pichelsteiner Musketeers are dressed in the style of Hungarian Infantry, but have Leaf Green coats with buff trousers and vests. Mercenary formations typically wear the uniforms of their home nation, but trimmed with Leaf Green, and Leutonian troops fighting under the Pichelsteiner flag retain their own uniforms and regimental banners, although many wear leaf green ribbons or arm  bands in recognition of their service to the house of vonPichelstein.

Once I finish these units I think I will turn my attention to some cavalry, forces which I have completely neglected thus far.

I did the following in paint, with the blank templates being acquired from my usual source the Not By Appointment blog. I will get some of the finished units up here as I base them.

Pichelsteiner Jager

 

 

 

Pichelsteiner Musketeer