TTSFN modular wargames table

Total Terrain System For Now.

Building a modular wargames table. 

We are having a rest break at the moment as we have had back to back visitors at the B and B for the last two weeks. I decided to finally get myself sorted out and add some more terrain tiles to my collection, these are specifically built for Normandy and Mayenne Bocage for 20mm and 28mm games, but more suited for 20mm. I have a table just over 5 meters in length and 1.8m wide to complete over the next month or two. So to begin with I am doing four 1200mm x 600mm tiles of ww2 specific + a number of 600 x 600 ww2 specific before I move onto adding a few pieces for medieval and ancients specific table.

All of the tiles were made on mdf board with timber edging, polystyrene centre and hills, then paper plaster mix to smooth out the hills. I will be adding magnets and door strips to make the joints more seamless. On top of the table tile grout was used as the road base, which I will paint and add roadside bits. The bocage edge is permanent on these four tables but the hedges and fences will be removable. My 20mm and 28mm buildings were laid out to achieve maximum flexibility.

Hopefully all going well be playing on them this weekend

Cheers
Matt

28mm Royal Catholic Army Chouan skirmishers

While I wait for the Revolutionary Armies Vendee range to release I dived into my figure stash and pulled some Perry AWI skirmishing southern militia figures, sculpted feathers and cockades and the odd Vendee heart badge. Then painted them in two batchs, and based them. I have completed the first 12 with a further 12 on the table at the moment. These will act as a stand alone skirmish line  for British Grenadier rules until I complete mine.

The Mayenne (old Maine) Department of Pays de la Loire was the hotbed of the Chouan revolt against the Revolutionary government. We have 63 skirmishes and battles within a hour of the Maison. After the defeat of the Vendee the Chouan kept up the fight against the revolutionary government and then Napoleon tying down several divisions in western France.

We conduct tours of a number of the battlefield sites and visit the museums and a private collection as part of our "walk the battlefield in the morning and wargame it in the afternoon"© our French tour and wargame holiday packages.

28mm Royal Catholic Armee Vendee rebellion

Another current project is to increase the size of my Royal Catholic Armee for the French Revolution.  My current Vendee/Chouan collection is quite small, mostly because of the lack of suitable figures, I have all of the Foundry sculpts but they are quite limited and small true 25mm compared to current 28mm miniatures. I have been helping the guys at Revolutionary Armies range to complete a better and wider range of miniatures for the Vendee war. Excited to say that the initial sculpts are completed and at Griffin moulds being mastered at the moment a total of 72 individual miniatures, armed with muskets, swords, assorted pikes and farm implements will be produced for the Revolutionary mob and the Royal Catholic Army.

The 28mm Revolutionary Armies range is now available from the Skytrex and includes a wide and complete range of armies from early Revolution through to 1806.

Firing line 

28mm Breton Armorican Domnonée skirmishers II

Breton Skirmishers II

Off the table this week some more 28mm Foootsore miniatures for my Armorican Domnonée Breton army. These figures represent the wild forest valleys and mountains around Saint James and Mortain in South western Normandy. The language today is still very different in this area of ​​France. They held onto their old religious beliefs the longest and resisted the Christian church until well into the 7th century according to Abbot Angot. They raided along the Frankish border of Maine (Mayenne, Orne and Sartre) troubling the Marcher Lords of Maine, perhaps even the famous Roland (chanson Roland fame) Lord of Maine and the Breton border marches.

"walk the battlefield in the morning, wargame in the afternoon"™

Cheers

Matt

Gaulois Aulerci Diablintes Noble Cavalry 28mm Victrix

Off the table this week more additions to the Aulerci Diablintes, this time Noble heavy cavalry, I have four more bases to complete to finish the cavalry. The Victrix cavalry are quite nice with lots of movement, my only complaint are the ears of the horse which are facing sideways, not forward or back. I used LBM transfers for the shields which are a little difficult but worth the effort. The checked fabric worked out quite well, a lot more to go, based for Impetus, I do need to add some tufts when they arrive.

Enjoy the pics

Cheers
Matt

28mm Armorican/Breton skirmishers

Breton Skirmishers

I recently purchased a collection of dark age figures and a number were Footsore miniatures Welsh and Irish, while the remainder were gripping beast plastics.

Recently I have read some interesting articles about some of the early kings after the departure of the Romans, the spread of Christianity, the arrival of the Alans, then the Franks, the coming of the Viking invaders, then the Normans.

I had planned to build a Breton army so with a little thought I could build something to represent Breton Dark age army from the 5th century through to the 10th by swapping out a few units it could fight Alan's, Late Romans, Franks, Vikings and Normans. We have six major battlefield sites within a hours drive from late Roman through to the Norman conquest, and a further 11 battlefields within two hours. I plan to develop some tours and wargame events around these sites.

First off the desk some Domnomée skirmishers. The kingdom of Domnonée seemed to have major ties with Britain, even sharing the same king at one time settled by Dumonians in the 5th century. These figures represent the marshland people around current Mont Saint Michel to Dol de Bretagne.  11 bases to complete of heavy infantry and two bases of skirmishers, and possibly four heavy cav and five light cavalry will give me a good start. I have two more bases almost complete and two heavy infantry should be completed this weekend.

cheers

Matt

28mm Aulerci Diablintes tribesmen II

Also off the table this week finallly after my tufts arrived some more Victrix Gauls, I have another 5 units of naked medium Infantry to complete this month, before I start the slog of tartan heavy foot, 90 odd figures to complete the army. Happy how these guys came out

Cheers
Matt

28mm French Revolution mob

Hot off the desk today some French Revolution miniatures from Revolutionary wars miniatures. A pleasure and really easy paintjob with good detail. I am looking forward to receiving more to add to my rabble mob!

Cheers

Matt

French Napoleonic 9th Cuirassiers

Another unit off the table this week, shelf queens again being completed, the third squadron of the 9th Cuirassiers for my 1805-09 French Napoleonic army. I really enjoy painting Elite miniatures, maybe because they are quite charismatic and have ver you good poses. The new Elite horses will fit out the next regiment of French dragoons. They will line up behind my Russians, and Baden cavalry I think.

Cheers
Matt

Slings and stones! Funditores

Off the desk some Greek slingers that have been shelf queens for some time, decided to complete them and get them into the display cabinet before I started my Russian Napoleonics that have been glaring at me. 28mm Foundry figures, one face was miscast so I done the best I could without trying to rebuild it.
These guys are quite universal and will fit in any ancient army, Greek, Roman or Carthaginian

Cheers
Matt

WIP Ardenne Abbey Normandy

I have commenced a big project, the Ardenne Abbey and its surrounding buildings, after visiting during DDay week with our Canadian guests. The Abbey and grounds are quite huge, around 400m square, with two entrances, surrounded by a 12ft stone wall, extensive gardens surround the main church, and trench positions or the mortar sections still exist at the rear of the Abbey church. It was the defended by the 12SS who used it as a observation post and HQ almost to the end of June. The 12SS executed 20 Canadian POWs and buried them in the garden, most were not found until after the war.
I plan to make the buildings removable, but leave the gardens etc so I can use the board for a chateau and outbuildings also.

Cheers

Matt

DDay event at Sainte Mère Église and Carentan 2019

We visited Carentan and Sainte Mère Église for DDay this year with our Canadian guests, along with several thousand other international visitors. As we live directly south of  Caen, we thought we would approach from the St Lo direction to enter, it was a very good choice as we reached camp Arizona easily parking within 300m of the event.
The para drop occurred at 11:30 first with a fly past of the C-47, who then circled and lined up for the drop, it was a great spectacle to see and bought back memories of my service with the 2 troop, 2/3 Royal Australian  Engineers attached to 3rd Royal Australian Infantry paratroop regiment.
We then visited camp Arizona, a US camp which predominantly was made up of trucks and jeeps, some great civilian vehicles also.
We then had lunch and back in the car travelled the back roads to Sainte Mère Église, again scoring a car park within 100m of the famous church. The place was alive and bustling with current servicemen, re enactors and visiting tourists. After walking around the square and taking a few photographs we headed off to camp Geronimo. A fantastic collection of American vehicles including some rare beasts, as an ex engineer I was most interested in the bridging equipment. It was fantastic to see a lot of passionate young French renactors, plus a few oldies.
On Friday  off to Pegasus and Gold beach for our British part of the tour, we are skipping the actual 6th because of all the official road blockages and politicians making speeches.

Cheers
Matt

28mm Gaulois army Aulerci Diablintes tribesmen I & Noble Cavalry

28mm Gallic Project

We have the fourth largest Gaulois Oppidium (fortified walled city) in France just a few kilometres from our Maison in Mayenne. Archeologists excavated a large amount of the city when the new motorway skirted the edge of it. Much of its twin ramparts still remain, the outer and the inner wall still have sections over 100m in length and some of the remains are between 3-5 meters in height. The city was once the capital of the Aulerci Diablintes

Also close by 10 kilometres away we also have the new Roman capital city of Jublians, which became the capital of the Diablintes Post 60AD. 

My Gaulois will focus on the Aulerci Diablintes tribe along with the Aulerci Cénomani and Aulerci Brannovices tribes to make up the warbands. The Aulerci tribes were pacified by Publius Licinius Crassus (Caesars Gallic wars) during his Amorican western Gallic campaign. In 56BC they joined the Veneti Confederation against Caesar, but were defeated again by Publius Licinius Crassus. In 53BC  like thier neighbours they sent men to support Vercingétorix during his uprising, they failed to arrive in time to relieve the besieged Gallic army. They rebelled again in 31 BC, 21AD, and finally in 56AD like most of the west France. 

            

I purchased three bags of Victrix naked Gauls, three bags of foot, plus two cavalry bags, I have a few unpainted and part painted Warlord, old glory and crusader command and a few warriors. 

The army will be based for impetus so I need about twenty four bases of infantry (10-12 figures per base), plus some skirmishers and a six bases of Cavalry, so about four hundred figures to paint to face Caesars Legions. So a lot to be done in the next six months

First off the desk are naked Gauls complete

Wish me all the best

Cheers

Matt

Saxon / Polish Infantry GNW

Continued completion of my unfinished Polish army, I gave had these in the lead pile for a very long time, so I popped them on the desk this week, easily completed in two days. I am unsure if I will keep them as originally they were purchased for a imagination army and they are a little late for my Polish hussar army, so off to market I think.

Foundry miniatures they were a breeze to paint.

Cheers

Matt

Saxe-Ducal Hussars 1809-12

Another rebase and touch up unit. First painted around 1995 for a Napoleonic campaign, I required some Gendarmes to patrol the interior lines, so looking through the Confederation troops I found the Saxon Ducal Hussars. Happy with how these 28mm Old Glory figures have tarted up, I added a fanion from a later formation of Saxe Weimar formation. Next unit upgrade more Cuirassiers !

Saxon Ducal Hussars

The saxe-ducal hussars were a police/gendarme formation numbering between 30- 80 men total. Below is information from several sources, all these are from the Napoleon series.

GOETZ (F.) -- Uebersicht der sämmtlichen Abbildungen des Grossherzoglich. Sächsischen Militärs in dem Zeitraum von 1775 bis 1825. (Overview of all Illustrations of the Grand Duchy. Saxon Military in the Period from 1775 until 1825.) -- Weimar, s. d. -- Album, in-folio enlarged, containing 17 pages of text and 20 plates (F. Goetz del.), dedicated to His Highness the Grand-Duke of Saxe-Weimer-Eisenach.. N° 4. Husaren, von 1775 bis 1806. (Hussar, from 1775 to 1806.) N° 9. Husaren, von 1806 bis 1808 (Auerstaedt). (Hussar, from 1806 to 1808.) N° 19. Husaren, 1808-1825. (Hussar, 1808-1825.)
LIENHART and HUMBERT. -- Les Uniformes de l'Armée française depuis 1690 jusqu'à nos jours. 1806-1812. Hussar of Saxe-Weimar; hussar in pelisse.
KNÖTEL (Richard). -- Uniformenkunde. IV. 54.-- 1806-1808. Hussar of Saxe-Weimar. SAINT-HILAIRE (Marco de). -- Histoire de la campagne de Russie en 1812. (History of the Campaign of Russia in 1812.) -- Paris, Eugène and Victor Penaud, 1846. 2 vol. in-8° with 10 color plates of uniforms, by de Moraine. 1814. Hussar of Saxe-Weimar.

Dark Blue Dolman, Red Pelisse black fur, red and yellow barrel sash, white Lace, white buttons white breeches / grey overalls black hussar boots white tassel and lace black belts Sabretache black white sheepskin saddle furniture with blue trim black hungarian harness brass fittings, my trumpeter I see entirely fictional.

Cheers
Matt

Lithuanian Commonwealth Winged Lancer

Off the painting desk this week some Lithuanian winged lancers from the Foundry range. They have been in thevpainting pile for at least 5 years. They are part of the winged Hussar army I have built for Impetus Barouque, the command is missing and not yet purchased, next Foundry order I will sort that out I think. They were a pleasure to paint, I elected to depict this unit with part bleached horses, which is a really nice effect.

Cheers

Matt